DRIFA

* * *

The Announcer hopped out of his little booth and fell all the way down and landed right right by Abs. There was no strain visible in his countenance.

Wait… we have to fight him too.

I pursed my lips.

Well… maybe I shouldn’t way ‘we’, I didn’t do anything.

I rolled my eyes.

I for one have been quite happy to not fight. I couldn’t do much in a fight anyway.

I had been more worried at first when the cage wasn’t there, I didn’t want to get hit by ‘Pineapple’. But, with the cage came worry for Ismund, well, the whole fight really.

He did do a lot better than I thought to be fair. That was a really bad situation for him.

I was even more worried now though. I wasn’t sure what happened to Ismund when the thing fell back to the ground again and made that wave, but he was sitting helplessly in the corner of the arena not reacting to what was going on around him as much as he should’ve. Not even when the big toad thing flew in the air from Abs’ uppercut and then died on the other side of the room. You’d think he’d be happy about that.

Is it the parasite?

At least it looked like Abs was having a great time earlier. He’s always like that, but he was really just enjoying punching stuff and triggering the announcer with whatever. At least I’m assuming that’s what he was doing, I couldn’t hear anything, but I could see the announcer’s mouth opening wide like he was screaming, and he was glaring at, presumably, Abs, who’s shoulders were bouncing up and down from laughing.

While Abs had been doing that, I was squeezing the arm-rests of my seat with my teeth shut like a vice. My head also felt a little light from worry, along with pain in my arm.

That all was a few minutes ago though.

The cage was lifting off of the arena via some button the announcer was pressing on his microphone and Abs was meeting him in the centre of it.

I wonder what Ismund thinks of all this technology. It’s not too much compared to my timeline, but it’s way more than they have now.

I looked down at the second battle that was starting. The announcer seemed to be summoning the pile of now levitating rotten tomato’s from the back while shouting at Abs. Abs was just having a drink from his flask. I didn’t know what he was doing, but based off of what he did just a few moments ago, I wouldn’t doubt his ability to fight. He’d just beaten the frog with one punch.

Do I really want to get that close to the fight? There’s what seems like a burning something from the other monster. I, I don’t want to get hit by that and I could get hit by something I don’t know that I can shrug off a stray shot either.

I looked down at Ismund anxiously.

"Agh!” I dragged a hand down my face, “I don’t know anymore. He’d be fine if I left him there, right? He has been so far… and he hasn’t been punched again or anything yet. He’s pretty tough and has that bar from the cage. He was also able to dodge a lot of what Pineapple did…”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

I sniffed and wiped the bit of ice from my eye, “Who am I kidding… If I don’t want to be down there because I don’t think it’s safe then…”

Neither should he. I mean normally it’s fine with Ismund fighting and stuff,

“But he’s not even really fighting anymore, just kind of… sitting there holding the rope,”

I’ll just do it quickly or something… If it gets too hard I can always just run away.

My face burned at the thought, but I didn’t change my mind.

I hurried down the steps with my feet scuffing the ground clumsily and kicking a few cups further down until I was next to Ismund and the strong acid smell that was permeating the place.

I reached up as high as I could and grabbed Ismund’s ankle. He slammed it into the post holding the ropes nearby. My hand snapped opened and Stung. My bones hurt from banging into the metal and my skin hurt from being pinched between both objects. I could feel every heart beat going through it now as it throbbed.

“Ah!” I yelped.

Maybe he is fine in here after all.

“What are you doing?”

He looked down at me. The light was just above him, bright and my neck hurt from straining up. I didn’t get a good look at his expression or if he was saying anything by reading his lips.

“Are you going to leave?” I shouted. All the tomato’s hitting Abs like a machine gun or… in front of Abs, I wasn’t too sure what was happening, along with whatever else they were doing was probably loud.

His head moved between the fight and me, or near me, a few times.

He’s allowed to leave now that the toad is dead, right?

> [Affirmative. That battle is finished.]

“You’re allowed to leave now!”

He stopped moving for a few seconds and seemed to think for a bit.

After a while longer, his head turned back toward me, he crouched down and pushed himself off of the block the fight was held on.

Now that the light wasn’t glaring all around him I could see how much of a pickle he was in, at least I thought so.

From what I could see, red flaky skin and what looked like burns were all over his body, neck, and a large chunk of his face. His eyes were red and his pupil was covered in sort of film, distorted. He seemed to have trouble blinking: all the acid around his eyes had frozen strangely. Acid had frozen on him everywhere really: rest of his face, hair, bits of his clothes, arms.

Can I fix this?

Something I had only learned how to do recently was tracking where the Systems energy went to get an idea of what it was trying to do. In the dungeon it sped up the healing process a bit. So, from that I could tell, two of his teeth were cracked, with what seemed to be a fractured jaw.

… I have to fix it. No way he’s seeing anything clearly.

I grabbed his hand. There was acid frozen to it, but it wasn’t as bad from when it was liquid from what I could tell.

How is he not screaming or something? Well, I guess he probably wouldn’t want to talk with his jaw… still.

I pulled Ismund up a few steps as he tried to brush the acid-ice off of himself. He wanted to stop a few times but I kept trying to get him to go further.

He must not realize how close we are to the fight still.

We didn’t get much farther, only a few more steps, until he decided to just not move at all. Instead, he wrenched his hand back from mine with a frown and pulled his backpack off of me. As soon as he got it back his swords appeared in his hands again and he turned so he was facing the light above the arena.

Don’t do that! That’s a stupid idea.

“What do I do.” I mumbled to myself. Ismund was already jaunting back over.

I don’t see any other option.

I sprinted after him.

He’s technically able to fight in his condition, but I don’t think that matters if he can’t see.

While he was trying to get a ‘look’ at what was around him I grabbed his backpack and tried to pull him back. It didn’t work. His weight shifted back, nothing else.

How am I supposed to get him to stop?

Splat.

A tomato hit me in the face making me lose grip and fall down and hit my head on the ground. It fell off in the process but it was rotten.

> [Random disease/addiction/deficit gained… processing.]

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> [… food poisoning!]

I felt nauseated. I tried to push myself up but the world spun and I gagged.

Whyy...

“Ismund, don’t go into the fight again.” I wasn’t looking up anymore.

A huge vibration went through the stage, the lights shook from their cables, and I fell down from my propped up elbow hitting my chin on the ground.

I groaned.

I don’t want to lose the sausages I just made.

A large shadow dropped over me.

What happened?

I looked up slightly. Abs was standing up straight with his hands on his hips… and I think laughing at Ismund or something. I wasn’t sure, I couldn’t see much.

> [Trial Room Cleared!]