immediately, angel flew 15 feet off the ground and readied his bow. "this stupid bastard didn't even bring a weapon. How foolish." he thought, and he fired the arrow.
Eric caught the arrow with his bear hand and crushed it. The sight struck fear in Angel. He tried to draw his bow again, and Eric quickly sprinted toward him. Angel was confused. "I'm 15 feet off the ground, and how does he think-" his thoughts were cut off by the sight of Eric leaping 11 feet off the ground.
He tried to fly up, but Eric grabbed his leg and threw him to the ground. Before angel could get his bearings, his head was crushed by Eric's foot. Eric felt the blood, bone, and brain matter spatter against his leg and smiled deeply. The feeling of taking a life filled him with ecstasy. The audience was shocked. The fight was supposed to illustrate superhuman superiority and did the exact opposite.
The fight was over in less than a minute. Eric turned toward the exit and left in silence.
The people who hurled insults at him initially felt a shiver down their spine.
At that moment, they all had a single thought. "mortal is not a word that can be ascribed to this man."
The announcer recovered from his stupor and called the fight. "the winner, in a mere 30 seconds, is primarch."
The silence is broken by a human in the crowd, cheering. Following this, numerous other humans in the crowd begin cheering as loud as they can.
Eric walks out of the arena. And into the room prepared for the rookie fighters. He entered the common area and saw other fighters sparring against their trainers. They looked shocked to see him.
"he must have surrendered. Angel is a nice dude, and he probably spared him."
Eric spoke with a quiet intensity. "angel is dead. I killed him."
the competitor laughs. "this guy is pretty funny. It's good to know you'll still have work as a comedian after this."
Suddenly the tv in the common room turns on. It shows the fight from beginning to end. The competitors are stunned. "h-how is that even possible?"
Eric laughs. "all superhumans are the same. They talk big, but at the end of the day, they lack discipline." the man who spoke up before is shaking with rage.
He desperately wants to kill Eric where he stands, but he knows he will be disqualified if he does.
"count your days, kid; it won't be too hard; after all, they are numbered." the man walks away.
D and Nathan walk in. D hugs Eric. "you did excellent, kid, but now isn't the time to slack off. This is only the beginning."
Eric and d begin sparring. The other superhumans in the common room are shocked to see the speed at which they are fighting. They are even more shocked, however, when they see eric tear d's head clean from his shoulders.
As d stands back up, two of the superhumans faint. Eric's hands d his head back.
"wow, kid, you've gotten quite skilled at killing me. How about I kick things up a notch?" d runs toward Eric again
. "he isn't moving any faster. What is he thinking?"
Eric easily takes d's to head off again. this time, however, d doesn't stop moving. D's decapitated head starts laughing as his headless body kicks eric square in the jaw. Eric looks up, shocked, and D's body picks up his severed head and reattaches it.
"kid, do you know why they call me d?"
Eric shakes his head.
"It references my old superhero name. Dead man walking. They called me that because even after my head was destroyed, my arms blown off, and my torso incinerated, I still never stopped walking toward them."
Eric felt the energy in the room change. When he first fought D, it felt like he was fighting a monster that could kill him in a moment. as Eric grew stronger, that feeling lessened. Now the feeling was different. For the first time, he grasped the true nature of d, an immortal, undying warrior that could never be defeated.
Eric quickly stood up and rushed toward d.
"I need to disable his limbs."
d swung his fist. Eric narrowly dodges the strike, grabs d's arm, rips d's arm off, and throws it across the room.
"This should reduce his threat level." d leaps back and changes his stance.
Eric rushes in but is swiftly countered by a kick. Eric looks up and sees that d's entire fighting style has changed. d laughs.
"I've invented several different fighting styles for when I lose different combinations of limbs."
Eric stands up and collects himself. He rushed in again, this time focusing on defense. as he fought with d, he noticed that his style had changed to incorporate his legs more. Eventually, Eric got used to the style and managed to get ahold of d's arm, and he tore the arm from its socket and threw it away.
Eric immediately jumped back. Again d's stance changed; his upper body became more flexible, and his movements more agile. Eric recognized how d was moving from the martial arts he studied.
"it's a mixture of Savate, Muay Thai, Taekyon, and Taekwondo."
Eric rushed in, hoping to disable a leg before d's arm regenerated. After a few strikes, Eric learns the style and grabs the leg. Just as he is about to destroy the leg, he is punched in the back of the head.
He turns, confused, and sees a shocking sight. The arms he had severed from d's body moved by themselves.
d laughs. "I can control my severed limbs for up to 3 minutes."
d's arms grow back as he lunges at Eric. The added threat of the two arms made the fight much harder.
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After a few exchanges, Eric is about to get the hang of the rhythm when d speaks.
"let's kick this up a notch."
the arms suddenly begin growing entire bodies in mere moments. Standing before Eric is the most challenging opponent he has ever fought, multiplied by 3.
The three fighters strike at Eric, but he bearly manages to dodge. as the fight goes on, Eric slowly gets better at dodging the attacks of the three combatants. After a while of fighting, eventually, 2 of the fighters collapsed.
d claps. "you did good, kid."
Eric sits down. "your ability is really powerful."
d sits next to Eric. "yeah, but there are limits. For example, my clones can only last 3 minutes before they die, and my clones can't make clones. Only my main body can."
Eric grabs a drink and passes one to d. "I gotta say the longer I know you, the more surprised I am that you aren't the superhuman king."
d laughs and replies. "if I wanted to, I could conquer the world in a day."
His tone was jovial, but Eric felt that he wasn't joking.
“What do we do about the corpses?”
D shrugs. “Call a janitor, I guess?”
That was how D and eric made enemies of all the custodians.
d stood up. "you ready for round two?" Eric nodded.
d pulls out a knife and cuts all of his fingers off. They quickly grow into full-sized clones of him.
"try to keep up, kid." the clones all attack at once.
The next two weeks were almost nonstop fighting; the only breaks taken were to eat. The food available tasted strange; the difference was negligible for most, but erics senses were incredibly fine-tuned. Every time Eric overcame the clones, more were added. Every time Eric got too tired d gave him his blood.
After Eric defeated 46 clones, d laughed. "there's one week until your next fight, and my part is over."
Nathan walks in. "your opponent is ember, and his power is low-level fire manipulation and production. His fire only reaches around 900c, and you will only be able to handle up to five minutes in the fire at most."
Eric smirks. "plenty of time." the next week is spent between resting and going over battle strategies. Eric gets up in the night to grab some food. The other superhuman competitors avoided him due to his offputting personality, with one notable exception.
A short blond-haired boy approached him.
"I saw your fight earlier. Impressive."
Eric blushed. "thanks, man."
the blond-haired boy looked around the same age as Eric. he stood at the height of 5 foot 1 and was rather upbeat.
"I never really liked that angel guy. he was always bragging. Anyways it was good to meet you. I've gotta go."
Eric blushed. "I hope to see you in the finals."
the short boy turned to look at Eric.
"I hope, for your sake, you don't," he said with no hint of arrogance or threat. it was an honest desire. Eric tried to turn and confront him, but by the time he looked, the boy was long gone.
The day of the fight finally arrives, and Eric walks into the pre-fight chamber, still thinking of the boy he met. He hears the crowd, and they sound even angrier than before. Eric had grown quite the dedicated fanbase of haters. Many didn't believe that he had defeated angel fairly. The officials that ran the Colosseum quickly confirmed that the victory had been legitimate.
Still, people were angry at his taunt at the superhumans. The announcer spoke. "on the right, we have Ember, the smoldering super." a short orange-haired man stepped into the ring. Immediately the superhumans in the crowd began cheering for him.
The announcer began to speak again. "On the left, we have Primarch, the powerless powerhouse." Eric steps forward and smiles at the crowd kindly. "3,2,1 GO!" ember throws a pillar of fire towards Eric, expecting him to dodge. To his surprise, Eric walks forward into the fire. He felt his skin begin to melt. But the pain was negligible compared to the acid baths. He runs toward ember through the fire. Ember tries to increase his output, but two hands grab his head.
“Wait, please stop-” eric crushes the man's skull like a grape. Eric felt the blood bone and brain bath him and tried to smile before he realized that his face had mostly melted. Eric simply turned and left in silence.
The view the crowd saw chilled them to their core, and it was a man with no skin on his face and no eyelids staring into the very depths of their soul. The announcer swallowed his fear and spoke.
"the winner is Primarch." the announcer didn't yell because there was no need; the entire arena was silent.
Eric left the arena to meet d.
"kid, with how reckless you are, people would think that you have regeneration powers."
d heals Eric as they walk to the rest area.
"Well, if it is stupid, but it works, then it ain't stupid."
d chuckles.
d, Eric, and Nathan meet up in the rest area.
"for the love of god, learn some fuckin self-preservation!" Nathan says.
Eric smiles, embarrassed. "sorry, it just seemed like the quickest way to win."
Nathan sighs. "true, but you can't fight your next fight like that. Your next opponent is devil. His powers are low-level super durability and mid-level super-strength. You win by exhausting him. he may have improved durability, but he is no match for you in a contest of endurance. Remember that he has a serious grudge for what you did to his partner, angel."
"they were tag team fighters?" Eric asks.
"Yeah, they were some of the best in the underground circuit," Nathan replies.
Eric chuckles. "good. I want him to come at me with everything he has so I can look him in the eyes when he knows that despite all his power and rage, he still failed.”
Eric's laugh grows a little louder before he notices the concerned look on Nathan's face.
"Sorry. I got a little excited."
Nathan sighs. "we should get you checked into therapy."
Eric chuckles. "I'm a professional murderer; it would be more alarming if I weren’t a little messed up."
Nathan nods. "a fair point."
Over the next week, Nathan drills Eric on what to do. "the eyes and the throat are the most vulnerable places. They won't hold up to a solid hit from you, even with super durability." between lectures, eric spars with d, focusing mainly on endurance. The food continued to stick out to Eric.
"It is not poisoned, nor does it seem to weaken me. In fact, over the past few days, I've felt even stronger than usual. What is in this food?" Eric questioned.
He concluded that some steroid must have been placed in the food to make the fighters more powerful. "well, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
"you can't even let him graze you. Remember what happened last time someone with super-strength hit you? This guy is significantly stronger." Nathan reminds him.
Eric nods. "Don't worry, teacher. I won't be careless." Eric headed down to the preparation area.
The superhumans in the stands were optimistic about the fight. After all, erics previous opponents, despite being superhumans, still had human durability; Devil was different. He had a body strong as steel. This would surely be the end of the road for Eric. The humans had come to a similar conclusion but had very different reactions. Some were sad, others were happy a human had got as far as Eric did, and a few held out a small sliver of hope that Eric would win, though the odds seemed unlikely.
Eric, on the other hand, was completely confident in his victory. After all, he had fought a super of similar power before his training and nearly pulled out a victory, and this time he was dozens of times more powerful and hundreds of times more skilled.
Upon entering the arena, Eric was bombarded by Devil's overwhelming bloodlust.
The announcer spoke, "on this side, we have Primarch, the powerless powerhouse." Eric smiled at the crowd kindly.
. "And On this side, we have Devil, the close-range conquerer."