Koji's body flailed through an invisible tunnel. He bravely kept his eyes open even though Koji knew he would die soon from either a lack of oxygen in outer space or when he crash lands on a planet or a star. Koji was going boldly where no man has gone before, and he wished to behold every wonder of space before his ultimate demise.

To his astonishment, Koji landed softly on his feet. Koji slowly surveyed his new environment and his eyes widened in surprise. The vortex took Koji to what appears to be an open-air arena. He stood in a large ring on a raised platform approximately 100 feet in diameter. He noticed other people inside the circle, too; all were males, and Koji counted sixteen persons in all including himself.

Surrounding the newcomers were stern-looking Asians dressed in armor and carrying spears. Behind those guards stood women of great beauty who wore intricately adorned dresses which accentuated their hourglass figures. However, these women also possessed the bodies of snakes from the hips down!

"Lamias!" someone cried out in fear.

The majority of these lamias also possessed Asiatic features with shiny black hair, dark eyes, and yellow skin. A few lamias, though, had hair which was green, yellow, purple, gray, red, or other colors to accompany their white, black, or brown skin. The snakeskin on their bodies was similarly colored.

One of the lamias used her serpentine body to rise above the rest. She wore a red dress which revealed an ample bosom, narrow waist, and wide hips; she was Jessica Rabbit in the flesh! A multi-jeweled tiara rested on her head. She was Asian-looking with long black hair and rainbow-colored highlights and smooth, beautiful light-yellow skin. Her eyes sparkled, and her full-lipped smile melted the hearts of men. But her snakeskin consisted of the seven colors of the rainbow!

When this beautiful woman parted her lips to speak, the newcomers hung onto every word. "Welcome to the Northern Kingdom of Nephosia in the land of the Four Winds, outlanders. My name is Daethix Colarte Nephosia, the third born princess to King Aphraphus and Queen Herecia Lyceris Nephosia. Fate has brought you to us. Now, you must fight each other. The strongest among you shall be bonded with my sisters and become their husbands and Bonders. In my name, begin!" Daethix raised her hands, and the audience cheered loudly.

The men inside the ring looked blankly at each other, unsure of what to do.

Koji pushed them aside and approached the princess. The guards leveled their spears at his heart and prepared to strike if he stepped out of the ring! The young man ignored the weapons and stared directly at Princess Daethix. "You can't make us fight and marry snakes! Send us back!" he demanded haughtily, giving her no face at all!

"You rascal!"

"Learn your place!"

"You must die!"

The guards shouted angrily at him. But none entered the circle.

Daethix's reptilian eyes stared at Koji; then the lamia looked him up and down. She felt a dangerous aura emanating from his body. A cold smile crossed her face. "You look like a strong fighter. Let's change the rules. Whoever kills this man shall be the winner!" she declared abruptly and pointed at the insolent fool. "Those who refuse to fight will die!"

The boys and men standing in the ring turned their collective eyes to Koji. "It's nothing personal, son," a man with a long, shaggy beard said and threw a punch at his face!

"No, indeed," Koji smiled coldly as he suddenly moved! Following the principles of Yin-Yang, Koji redirected the punch to another attacker and then jammed two fingers into the bearded man's throat! The attack punctured his larynx, leaving him helpless and unable to breathe! Koji ended his misery with a sharp twist of his neck. CRACK!

Koji immediately turned his attention to the second attacker, a lanky looking teenager sporting a red mark on his cheek from the redirected punch. The frightened boy tried to back away, but Koji refused to let him go. Instead, Koji punched the boy in the solar plexus and collapsed his diaphragm. His heel to the throat ended the boy's life.

Koji turned to face the remaining combatants in the arena. He purposely ignored the wall of spears pointed at his back. His head rolled from side to side. He saw naked fear in the eyes of the other would-be attackers. "So, who's next? I haven't got all day," Koji said and smirked; with his hands, he waved for them to come forward and attack.

However, no one moved toward him. The would-be gladiators saw how quickly this skinny Asian boy took out two people in mere seconds!

Finally, someone reacted. "What the fuck are you, you lunatic?" someone yelled.

This defiant retort broke the spell of fear and others started yelling at him. "Why are you so selfish? There were 16 of us. Is your shitty life worth more than our 15 lives?"

"You didn't have to kill them!"

Koji yawned and stretched his arms. "Are you finished with your yapping?"

"NO!"

Koji lost his patience with these cowards. That vicious princess made it clear that every person inside the arena was his enemy. And if they didn't fight, then the princess will order the guards to attack. Thus, Koji seized the initiative and ran into a cluster of the reluctant gladiators.

With a silent apology to his sifu, who prioritized martial arts for defense, Koji devoted himself to taking down his opponents with his Dim-Mak techniques. Many portions of the human body could turn into weapons if wielded properly; they included the wrists, the elbows, the knees, the knuckles, and the heels. But Koji's favorite was the "bone knife," which consisted of a fist with the knuckle of the middle finger extended out to pierce cartilage and soft tissue.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Koji quickly sidestepped their punches and kicks to offer counterattacks with excruciating results. His bone knife slammed through the nose and eye socket to pierce the brains of his victims. He also cut the carotid arteries of several people in the neck. Once Koji entered his groove, he performed one-hit instant-kills!

The audience gasped in horror as the body count rapidly piled up on the platform. How could such a handsome but weak looking boy turn out to be such a vicious killer? He was like a butcher cutting off the heads of chickens in the yard!

Soon, only three fighters remained standing in addition to Koji. They chose to stay out of the fight to learn more about his fighting style and technique. None of them encountered anything like it before! The three approached him cautiously and surrounded him.

"Those guys didn't give me much of a warmup. I hope you'll offer a better challenge," Koji remarked casually. He realized they were expert fighters who tried to learn his moves. Unfortunately for them, Koji was careful to reveal only a small portion of his real fighting skills.

Seeing that the opponents had ignored his taunts, Koji took the fight to them! Using a light first step, he accelerated toward the least powerful opponent in his estimation: a tall, sturdy-looking Caucasian man with the build of Michael B. Jordan.

The man recognized the inherent insult and snarled. He pounded his fists together like a boxer standing in the ring; he launched a quick, jab-jab-punch combo.

Koji fearlessly pressed forward. He sidestepped the jabs and redirected the body blow with his right palm. Now standing directly behind the boxer, Koji pierced the man's lower spine with his bone knife, causing the man's legs to wobble. A hard twist of the helpless opponent's neck ended his life.

Suddenly, Koji felt air movement behind him and dove to the side! He continued rolling on the ground as his attacker pursued and relentlessly stomped his feet at Koji's afterimages. However, dead bodies littered the fighting circle, and Koji soon rolled into one. He abruptly kicked out with his legs and snapped his opponent's knee!

The opponent, a mixed martial artist, immediately screamed in pain.

Koji lunged forward and plunged his bone knife through the nose and into the fighter's brain to end the man's suffering.

Finally, the only people standing in the ring was Koji, and a man who held a Wing Chun fighting stance with his left hand held out and a right palm protecting the chest; the knees were bent, and the feet held the pigeon toe stance.

Seeing that the martial artist had waited for a one-on-one match, Koji approached him with slow, steady strides to the middle of the ring. When the two were a few feet apart, Koji courteously held out his palm-over-fist and bowed. "My name is Koji Adalwin Becker," Koji introduced himself.

The opponent reciprocated. "Zhao Shung Yi." When Zhao Shung raised his head, the man was surprised to see Koji adopting the same fighting stance! "You know Wing Chun?" he asked with mild irritation in his voice.

"I admired Bruce Lee as a kid, and I studied Wing Chun for several years," Koji answered with a smile, "before I switched to Dim-Mak."

The man's eyes turned incredulous. "Then why don't you fight me with Dim-Mak? Don't look down on me," he warned.

Koji shook his head innocently. "Brother Zhao, I'm not looking down on you. Wing Chun focuses on close combat. I wish to test my skills against yours fairly," he explained.

Zhao Shung shook his head. "Let's get this started," he replied.

The two combatants drew closer and closer until their extended palms were next to each other. In a heartbeat, they started executing the Sticky Hands technique to test the other's guard!

The left hand mirrored the right as they attacked and defended simultaneously. The wrists kept turning and twisting like pretzels. Palms turned into fists and released.

The audience in the seats stood on their feet. "Kill him! Kill him!" they chanted!

Five seconds! Ten seconds! Fifteen! Twenty! Time flowed quickly as the two fighters continued to utilize Sticky Hands. Neither side dared to be too aggressive. Instead, the passage of time will test each fighter's concentration and endurance to determine a winner.

By the time a minute had gone by, the audience had started raining boos! They couldn't understand why the Wing Chun fighter was so cowardly, and some bystanders began chanting, "Coward-coward-coward!"

When Zhao Shung realized he was the target of those chants, the man became humiliated and suddenly lost his focus!

Koji immediately took advantage of the opening and launched a One-Inch Punch with all his might to his opponent's solar plexus!

The attack knocked the man off his feet, and he fell to the ground with his limbs splayed out. Zhao Shung tried to get up, but his body received too much damage from the vicious blow! He coughed while waiting for Koji to come and end his life.

"Kill him! Kill him!" the crowd chanted. Many watchers exchanged money to pay out the bets.

Koji turned his back on the fallen fighter. He declined to kill Zhao Shung for two reasons. First, Zhao was the only person in the fighting ring who gave some face to Koji by introducing himself and offering his name. Second, Zhao was a fellow Wing Chun practitioner and, therefore, a brother in Koji's eyes.

Princess Daethix slithered to the edge of the ring. "Kill him," she commanded.

The victor of the deathmatch stared directly into the lamia's angry eyes and said in a loud and clear voice, "No."

"You refuse?" she blinked her eyes at him.

"I refuse," the human confirmed.

A cold smile appeared on her beautiful face. "Very well. I shall punish you myself." Princess Daethix glared at the guards blocking her path. "Step aside!"

The frightened spearmen immediate parted for her and created an opening to enter the ring.

Koji slowly backpedaled as the lamia slithered forward and approached him. He scrutinized the creature and estimated that the snake portion of her body was approximately twelve feet long. Adult female green anaconda snakes averaged fifteen feet long; thus, Koji pretended she was an anaconda.

The Dim-Mak school focused on attacking weak spots. Since Koji wasn't familiar with the weak points of a snake, he decided to attack the human portion instead. Inevitably, the meridians and pressure points remained the same for a lamia! He smiled ruefully at the thought.

"Are you beginning to regret your impudence, human?" Daethix haughtily asked when she caught the faint smile on his face.

"No, I wished I had a knife to skin you after I kill you," he remarked casually. "I could turn your snakeskin into a nice pair of shoes," Koji mused aloud and chuckled lightly.

The lamia's tail end twitched. Her eyes suddenly glowed. "I won't be so easy to kill, you little brat!" Her hands flew out.

A wave of Qi hit Koji and stopped him in his tracks; he couldn't move! He looked around and saw nothing holding him. "Are you a witch?" he accused her.

Daethix laughed. "No, I'm simply exerting my overwhelming Will against you. Playtime is over, little boy!" she cooed and clapped her hands.

Something lifted Koji until he was fifty feet in the air.

Daethix's eyes continued to glow as she made a left fist and turned her wrist so that her thumb faced the ground.

Koji's body turned upside down.

The princess jerked her forearm downward.

Koji plunged, head first, into the ground. BAM! The overwhelming pain knocked him out!