Chapter Four: Deadpool

“It’s time for the deadpool.” The man spoke as the corridor door slowly openly behind him.

What greeted the group was a bright flashing light that shone so brightly for a mere second before revealing a massive area before them.

Immediately the group was overwhelmed by the roaring waves of the audience up above the area as they walked through past the door way and into the area.

Amidst the thundering waves of mashed up screams and cries there were also other doors all around the arena each marked with a different letter in large bold print on the door the one behind E107’s group was the letter E. each door that was also opening revealing similar dirty filthy figures of young boys who were in no better condition compared to themselves of Building E.

Slowly from each block they all walked into the open space within the smaller cage that they’re in that is attached to the larger cage in the center of it all with the door closing behind them with a loud bang.

Each group upon seeing the groups next to them lets out snarls and growls while baring their teethes at each other if there wasn’t a bar cage around them they might have jumped on each other the second they had eye contact, surprisingly the group of Building E which also would have performed the same actions like the rest was calm. They didn’t bare their teethes at the nearby cages nor they did they even bother looking at them not that this deterred the other groups from doing so but they didn’t care they stayed huddled together in their little tight pack around a tiny little figure at the center of their formation.

Looking up to the raging audience above them E107 could make out the many familiar faces of the grownups that took all of his brothers away from him. Before he didn’t pay them any heed before but now looking upon their faces E107’s insides burned like the sun that always burned on his skin when he was outside.

Unknown to even E107 himself his hands curled up into fist so tightly against his own flesh that it drew blood. His body burned from the inside out, it was hot but it didn’t feel like the burning sensation of the sun cooking his insides alive, it felt like it came from within. The feeling was slowly but surely was coursing through his veins not that he knows what veins were, but the feeling sensation felt similar to that of burning oil like the time when he had his hands dunked into a boiling pot of oil by the faces up above him.

“Hey it’s ok Seven relax just relax everything is going to be alright.”

What broke E107 out of his rage was a warm soft yet tender pair of hands that landed on his shoulders and the calming sweet voice coming from behind him he knew this voice anywhere.

“Ah your hands are bleeding here let take a look at that.”

E57 but when E107 looked back towards the soothing voice it was not E57 face he saw it was another face one overlapping E57 a face that he knew very well one that he yearned for.

“Mom?” E107 unknowingly said the word in his trance like state as his eyes refocused it now the face was slowly fading away revealing the true face beneath it the one that he was look at.

Before he had never noticed before but E57’s features was not like any of the other boys his face though despite all the dirt stains covering his face, was much paler than the rest more skinner and more slimmer if that was the word to describe E57’s looks. Unknown to him E107’s feature were also of the similar stature if not the same though he himself does not know this, he couldn’t have known.

“Mom? Where did that come from all of a sudden E107 and why are you looking at me like that is there something on my face?” E57 said clearly stupefied by what E207 said out of nowhere while he was bandaging E107 hands.

“But that’s a good name for you E57 ‘Mom’ I mean it fits you just fine right.”

“Shut it E89 don’t you start that too.” E57 barked at the boy who came up behind them.

“Yeah E57 is a ‘Mom’ there no one else who can be the ‘Mom’ here only you.”

“Yeah-yeah that makes sense eh ‘Mom’.”

“Yeah ‘Mom’.”

One by one the boys started calling E57 by that name much to E57’s dismay but said nothing; nothing he could say now would change anything so he turned his attention to tending to e107’s hands.

Bang-! Suddenly there was a thunder crack that rang in the air causing many of the boys to cease what they were doing and duck down covering their heads, they were all too familiar with this sound the sound of a old kinetic force gun powdered gun shot.

“Alright now shut up you apes now listen up I’m only going to say this once!” A man waving a firearm that made the sound high up while separated from the rest of the audience in his own little space that stood out shouted looking down at the young boys below

“The first round starts now see that barrel of full of sticks~? Those are ballots and there are 40 ballots inside each contains a number, you will all chose how many of you animals will go and draw one ballot then once we have the numbers we will begin now get to it you rats I don’t have all night!”

Bang! Another gunshot resound in the air this time however with the cries of a young boy who was shot neatly right between his eyes, he fell limping to the floor

One by one several boys from each group walked up to the barrel with the sticks and each one drew one stick out of the barrel as they passed by it walking back to their receptive groups.

There were several small cries here and there as the fate of the young boys was decided by the number lot that they drew but from Building E much to a certain man’s displeasure the one who brought them here only one among the group from Building E had walked out to draw a number that one was E101.

He tried screaming at them telling them to go draw a number but none of his cries could be heard lost in the sea of loud noise that echoed off the room despite its size.

The ballot in E101’s hand was the number ‘One’ fined printed on the top portion of a long flat stick nearly half his height, no word was spoken before E107 could go up to him another boy grabbed him and pulled him back holding onto him as another joined him in the effort.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

E101 turned his head towards E57 who came up to him.

“Look after him for me.”

E101 simply said while giving Seven a quick glance before focusing his eyes back on E57.

“One you don’t have to do this let me do it he still needs you.”

E57 desperately begged E101 while reaching for his ballot but E101 kept it out of his reached as he turned his back towards E57 and walked towards the entrance to the arena pushing aside other who walked up to stop him while saying.

“Don’t worry about me I’ll be fine besides it is you that he needs most eh ‘mom’.”

“Oh knock it off not you too this is not the time to joke as a matter of fact I didn’t think you of all of us could joke.”

“Trust me.” Turning back towards the gate with his head held high his face resolute no fear in his eyes is right hand tightly gripped on the wooden ballot, E107 eyes looked towards E101’s departing back fixated on that back’s shadow walking towards the blaring light.

E101 walked straight towards the cage arena without even going to the weapon racks still holding onto the ballot which cause a massive commotion to surfaces among the audience at the top some with shocked expression, while others with an assumed look.

E107 and the rest soon all had the look of peer horror on their faces looking at each other as if hoping that one of them had answer as to why E101 took this path of action but of course no one did.

E101 walked into the cage at the same time as his opponents did from each corner of the cage each group carrying an array of mistreated crude cold weapons of sorts, before the door closed behind him sealing him in with the rest of his competitors inside the ring.

The rest inside of the ring all looked at E101 with a mix of different emotions in their eyes some looked towards him with disbelief, some locked onto him with a dangerous predatory glint in their eyes like seeing a juicy meat snack in front of them, others however looked weary of him.

“What the hell~, hey did that idiot just walked in here without a weapon just with that stick?”

“Look at that guy trying to be some hot shot let’s kill him first.” “Yeah let’s do it.”

“Hey about that one what do you think?” “Just wait for a bit let’s see how things go.”

“Oh ah ok.”

Mummers can be heard from the groups around E101 but he did not care he continued on walking past those before him till he was alone, alone by himself at the center of the arena cage with every other group of young boys around him in a 360 degree angle.

But that fact neither the looks on their faces seem to even faze E101 once he reached the center he stabbed the ballot into the ground in front of him and waited. He just stood at his spot unmoving like a statue with his arms crossed across his chest waiting, paying absolutely no heed to the armed mob surrounding him.

He didn’t even so much as glance at any one of them but just stood where he was as if unaware of the situation around him or simply chose to ignore it as he closed his eyes.

“Alright we’re all ready begin~!” Bang! The man with the gun who took the role as a referee shot his gun over head at the instant when the all hell was unleashed.

The massive horde all lunged at E101 from all angles from an outsider’s point of view it look like absolute certain death for E101.

“One~!” a familiar voice resounded behind E101 at that voice E101’s eyes snapped open with blinding speed E101 wrenched the wooden ballot from the ground and pounced on the closest boy to his left holding it in a reverse handgrip but the base tip pointed out forward in front of him.

Ramming the wood into a little boy much younger than him through his throat the young boy choked and was puking blood staring into E101’s eyes E101 ignored him snapping the wooden ballot off leaving half still buried in the boy’s throat as he fell to the ground while taking the hammer in the boy’s small hands.

As the child hit the ground hands at his throat choking on his last few breaths E101 parried an incoming blow of a hatchet with the hammer he just acquired before ramming the left over wooden ballot into the newcomers throat pushing him aside taking the hatchet for himself.

What was originally thought to be a brutal murder spectacle of a single individual soul by the many, soon turned into a bloody one side massacre with the one against the many much to the surprise of the surrounding audience whether from above and below. With both weapons at hand E101 didn’t stop he parried a spear thrust aimed for his head with the hatchet then responded in kind with a hammer blow to the face caving the oppositions face it weighing the hammer into the flesh unable to pull out so he took the spear and threw the hatchet into the chest of another.

With a series of quick thrusts and yanks he plunged the spear head into the guts of another foe leaving the weapon in the gut he yanked the machete from his foe’s hand and plunged the blade into the guts of another who attempted to lunged at him from behind and repeated the action again five more times.

Upon the fifth body E101 yanked a long sword and a heavy mace from the body the size and weight of the two weapons looked awkward and felt funny to E101 due to the difference in size and weight to the two objects in his hands as he swayed slightly due to them. But, using the momentum of his swaying state he swatted away another foe who attempted to swing a sledgehammer at him but sadly not with enough force to kill him although he fixed his mistake by quickly stabbing his opponent in the heart with the long sword.

Then quickly rotating on his toe he swung the heavy mace despite the short rotation with barely enough momentum or force in it, it was still fast enough with the force of a cannonball as it hit home in a blur shattering the head of another of his foe into multiple flesh bits.

Letting go of the heavy mace he kicked up the dropped spear whose original wielder now lay headless on the ground grabbing onto its haft in the air.

Then hurling the oversized spear two time his own size overhead it lanced over head driving into the skull of a young boy shooting out through the other side leaving nothing more than a split of meat and brain matter of what remained of the boy’s head.

Another foe came at him wielding a massive axe that was swung with both hands but E101 parried the weapon guiding it away from him using the momentum of its swing and weight to his advantage. Then he proceeded to toss his sword into the air near his oppositions face causing him to rear his head back in fear of being stroke by the sword as it flew up.

With his hand on the handle of the axe E101 yanked it away twirling around on his toe.

The sword all the while was slowly falling back down towards E101 as he bisected his opposition from the waist; the massive axe flew free from his grasp and into the air slamming its dull edge into another poor soul’s skull that was in its path.

Once the blade’s hilt was back in his hand by letting gravity do the work for him it went spinning, falling, killing again relentless in an arcane battledance. The sword rose and fell twisted and parried, thrust and hacked. Blood rained over him in flickering sprays dyeing him over in the crimson color of red and gore.

Swords, spears, clubs, and axes all danced around him he weaved aside from every blow he didn’t block. Bladed replies lashed back, killing the wielders of those weapons. E101 didn’t break stride. He was always moving always killing with every strike always bringing down one foe when his weapon swam in the air.

The abused sword however chipped it broke at the center but that didn’t stop or hinder his dance he simply plunged the broken blade into the heart of another one of his attackers who was the closet to him while pulling the spear he held in his hands, once his hand had a firm grip on its haft he was killing again till the spear broke in half after felling five foes.

He drove his broken spear into the guts of a boy pinned underneath his foot ignoring the pitiful screams as the boy laid pined to the ground by the spear unable to move and immediately yanked the two machete blades from the boy’s hand, once he had a firm grip around the handle it was turning and whirling in the air again spraying red and gore on to the ground below and still he didn’t stop.

E101 felt light, he never felt this sensation before in fact he didn’t feel like he was even moving his own body time but some other force but clearly he was in control that was fact and seemed to have slowed all around him at least in his eyes but in the eyes of his audience it was he who was moving too fast not he knows nor would he care. Something was pumping in his veins throughout his body and into his head he didn’t know what it was but it felt good he craved more of it.

Soon it was only E101 and another, in the boy’s hand was a spear like weapon but the head was like that of a sword bigger than a regular spearhead, E101 and the boy started at each other E101 dull soulless eyes bored into the boy causing him to tremble slightly. Seeing such emotionless eyes along with an aura of death surrounding E101 to the boy it didn’t seem like a boy of the same age or species it felt more like looking into the very being of death itself never mind the amount of blood and gore that stained him it was the clear sensation of emptiness within that frighten the boy more but regardless there really was not point in feeling fear this was where he was going to die he accepted that fact and so he lunged forward with his weapon held high in an over head swing.

Though he knew it was pointless he wasn’t going out without a fight but his vision was soon filled with E101 emotionless bloodied face as E101 grabbed the shaft of the weapon while elbowing the boy in the face. As the boy staggered backwards E101 knocked him into the air with great force using the weapons shaft before twirling it around his arm before planting it onto the ground underneath the boy.

The boy screamed in the air before he plunged deep into the head of the pole arm with the blade head protruding out of his back his blood flowing down the haft of the weapon like a river stream and onto E101 already bloodied arm though none of the blood on his body was his own.

E101 lifted the weapon without any effort as if the boy’s corpse wasn’t atop the weapon before casually flinging it away like a how one would throw away a trash bag. E101 gave the weapon a slight glance he felt pretty fond of this weapon giving himself a mental nod in his head in approval.

Unknown to E101 the weapon in his hand was known as a Podao or pudao an ancient edged infantry weapon used in the days when mankind waged war on horse and cold weapons. The blade of the weapon is shaped like a broadsword, but the weapon has a longer handle, around one and a half to two meters forcing E101 to wield the weapon with both hands effectively.

E101 waved the weapon around in his hand twirling it between his fingers flinging off what blood was on the weapon before casting aside impaling the weapon deep into the ground next to him.

He then looked over his right shoulder not particularly looking at anyone as he said in a low cold voice.

“So who’s next?”

What answered him in the few seconds was not the usual thundering roar of loud cheering from the audience at the top but absolute silence.