It seemed that Pride did not need to speak to Jonas, for the young slave awoke with a startle back in the real world, and not in the one of blood and shadow as he usually did after a near-death experience.
Jonas looked miserable, and the dried blood that covered him did nothing to help the image. Although his skin had begun to heal, it seemed that not enough time had passed for him to fully recover from his fight. As the memory of his loss flooded his mind, emotions of frustration and yearning took hold of his heart.
He had lost again, and although he had vowed to continue fighting until he won, Jonas couldn't help but feel embarrassed that he lost twice in a row. There was a passionate fire burning in his stomach as he thought of losing, and he knew then that he never wanted to feel it again. Perhaps, that was his Sin speaking. Jonas' mind seemed to roar to life, and as it did, all the pain he had avoided in his sleep finally caught up with him.
“You’re awake,” said Simon.
“Quiet, please,” Jonas said with a dry throat, he had a skull-splitting migraine that made it seem like Simon was shouting in his ear, "How long was I out?"
"An hour or so," Johnson replied, "I'm pretty sure you stopped breathing at one point. Your skull looked fucked up, I'm surprised you're awake right now," after a few moments to collect himself, Jonas began passing out the cold lunch he had missed. He chugged down two mugs of beer, and only then did he feel like he could focus properly.
"Easy there," Simon gave a light chuckle, "Save some for the rest of us."
"Sorry about that," Jonas cracked his neck, "How's my face?"
“Ugly,” said Johnson, “I’m only joking, it's swollen to shit but will probably heal just fine."
“Thanks, Johnson,” said Jonas as he filled their cups with beer, "I'm glad to hear I'll still have this pretty face for when your sister dies and comes to Hell."
"You leave my little sister out of this," Johnson pointed a crusty finger, "She'll live a nice long life, up until the ripe age of ninety."
"Here, here," Jonas clinked glasses, "To old age."
"To old age," they returned his cheer.
“Are you finally ready to give up on beating Ralph?” Johnson asked.
“Hell no,” said Jonas, “I almost had him that time. It took a few tries but I finally understood how I'm going to hurt him. In fact, I'm confident I can do it," and this statement caused Simon and Johnson to roll their eyes in disbelief.
"I'm serious," Jonas felt his chest protest in pain as he laughed, coughed blood, and had to take a few steadying breaths. A few new teeth were growing in, his nose had recently reset itself, and his jaw felt like it too had been previously dislocated. He wanted to cry out in pain, but he remembered his two lessons: embrace the pain and focus on the blood.
As the three of them spoke, Jonas took his hand and dragged it across the sharp edge of his iron cage, it split his skin and blood began to squirt out.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Don't worry," Jonas lifted his bleeding hand and began to stare at it. He found it quite enjoyable to watch the way the crimson blood pooled at the top of his skin and dripped down to the floor of the cage. There was no pain on his face, and his expression was quite calm as he stared at the blood. The smell of iron assaulted his nose, and he felt a strange instinct to lick it.
Simon and Johnson watched in horror as the eighteen-year-old youth brought his bleeding hand to his mouth and began to lick the wound.
"What the fuck are you doing?" but Jonas didn't reply as the blood flicked off his tongue and into his mouth. There was a strange ecstasy on his expression, and the two slaves felt that Jonas looked high.
"I was still hungry," Jonas chuckled as he wiped his mouth. His gums were salivating at the taste, and he had half a mind to cut himself and drink some more. However, he noticed that the wounds on his body had begun to heal themselves more quickly, "Oh," he scrunched his eyebrows as he felt some of the bones in his body readjust.
"Goddamn vampire," Johnson scowled, "I know rat isn't very tasty, but you don't need to resort to cannibalizing yourself."
"It's my Original Sin," Jonas showed a bloody smile, "It has something to do with blood. I can feel my connection with it grow. Don't be shocked if you see me do something like that again," both his friends looked weary.
The rest of the day went quite smoothly, and as Jonas prepared to fall asleep, he couldn't help but think it strange that Brow had yet to visit and berate him for nearly dying twice to Wolf's cronies. He must have been busy preparing for the fight, or perhaps he was getting Jonas' bedding ready. Whatever the case, Jonas was happy that he didn't need to listen to any whining.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Eventually, Jonas found himself healed, rested, and with a full stomach as the night had passed and the next day's sparring began.
“Not bad,” said Ahmed, “It was a bitch convincing Wolf to let you live, but I told him that I’d slaughter every single one of his men until he was completely alone.”
“That worked?” Jonas asked in disbelief.
“It did,” said Ahmed, “Wolf can’t beat me, nor can he protect every single one of his pack. Although he might want you dead for business reasons, it isn’t worth losing all of his men and his reputation to boot," it made sense to Jonas that Wolf might not be willing to completely go to war with another top-five over some dummy slave his boss wanted dead.
“Thanks,” said Jonas, “I’m glad I can trust you to have my back."
“Of course, I want to see you succeed, but I’m not going to let you pussy-foot your way around. You need to learn things the hard way if you want to succeed in Hell.”
“I think I almost managed to fuel my attacks with Sin,” said Jonas, “In my mind, I wanted to knock Ralph over with that dropkick, and I felt like I did. I only knocked him off balance, but that was only because I haven’t practiced my drop kicks enough to know how to perfectly do it.”
“Do you remember when you were standing still while ducking and weaving the punches thrown by Ralph?” Ahmed asked and Jonas nodded his head, “That arrogance that filled you, the fact that you knew Ralph couldn’t touch a hair on your head, do you remember that feeling?
"Yeah, a little bit, why?”
“That was an example of filling your attacks with pride, or at least, in this case, dodging with pride.”
“What?” Jonas asked skeptically, but the realization dawned on him and he understood what Ahmed was saying, “So, because I was confident that Ralph couldn’t hit me, that made it more likely that he'd miss because each dodge was filled with Sin?” Jonas confirmed.
“Exactly,” said Ahmed, “You weren’t worried at all about being hit by Ralph once you got in your rhythm, you were just worried about not being able to do enough damage yourself.”
“Not having enough power behind my attacks has been a problem for a while now,” said Jonas.
“Once you have confidence in your attacks, you’ll be able to do it every time. You need that spark of faith just once and you’ll be able to do it, I know it.”
“How do you know?” Jonas asked.
“Because I have faith in you,” Ahmed was calm as he said this, and Jonas couldn’t help but feel his heart go warm as he appreciated Ahmed more and more by the day, “I’ve seen you attack with confidence; you’ve done it to me, and you’ve even broken my bones, dislocated my shoulder.”
“I only have two more chances to beat him,” said Jonas, “Today, and tomorrow. Since tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, I’ll beat him today,” and Ahmed noticed the crosses on Jonas' hands began to glow splendidly.
“Good,” said Ahmed, “A man must put both feet forward, to march against all obstacles.”
Time ticked away and eventually, Jonas and Ahmed made their way to the gym, where the various fighters were half-heartedly working out, hoping that Jonas would once again call for a rematch. Their wish was immediately granted, and as they saw Jonas, and Ahmed storm toward the wolves. They immediately followed like a pack of wild hyenas hoping to pick up some scraps.
“Back again?” asked Wolf, “You look good, Jonas.”
“Of course,” said Jonas, “I want another rematch with the inbred fuckface,” and he locked eyes with Ralph, “Is that okay with you?” Ralph looked to be filled with rage, like a man who had given his all to destroy a fly, only to find that it had revived the next day as it buzzed happily in his ears.
“Goddamn it, even if Ahmed gets involved you’re going to die today,” and he pulled off his shirt and charged.
Jonas also made a move as he charged forward, leaped into the air, and brought his fist crashing down onto Ralph's huge chin. Ralph’s head was blasted to the side, but before he could recover, Jonas jumped and brought his elbow crashing down on Ralph's head, and just as Ralph swung a massive counter-attack, instead of dodging, Jonas tried to block the oncoming punch with his left arm, and to everyone’s surprise, he wasn’t blown off the spot.
“Soft ass pussy,” Jonas laughed as he began punching every piece of flesh he could get his hands on, and he didn’t even bother dodging or weaving Ralph’s awkward attacks as they struck him all over his body.
He took a nasty blow to the skull that felt like he had been cleaved with an ax, but he was so obsessed with winning the battle, that he no longer cared whether or not he was hurt, and he was completely numb to the pain.
Three times Jonas struck Ralph in the jaw, and Ralph returned the favor and managed to hit Jonas right on the nose, shattering it and causing blood to spray like a faucet had been turned on. The blood began to leak down into Jonas' mouth, and it gave him a strange bloodthirsty feeling. His body was growing hot, his Sin Scars were glowing like red lights, and his mind was ultra-focused as the taste of pain and blood filled his senses.
The spectating fighters were in disbelief as the fight was such a far cry from the one they had previously witnessed, they weren’t even sure that Jonas was the same person. How did someone go from dodging every attack for the entire duel, to going shot for shot with a giant twice his size? Although it couldn’t be explained by science, it could be explained with Sin.
‘I’m going to win!’ Jonas felt this truth in every fiber of his being as he ignored the attacks given by his opponent and focused on punching and kicking him as hard as he possibly could, fueling each attack with all the Pride he could muster. There was this intense confidence that he would win the fight, and not only would he win, but he would also do it by outpowering a man who couldn’t be outpowered, like David and Goliath.
Although at first glance it appeared that Jonas was worse for wear, as his nose was bleeding and his face was cut, bruised, and swollen, Ralph wasn’t fairing much better, and he had been hit so many times in the chin that his brain was swooshing inside his skull like a child shaking around a fishbowl.
Jonas became excited as he saw the finish line. Ralph's massive fist crashed into his cheek and he felt it shatter, but he used the momentum to turn on the spot and roundhouse kick Ralph in the jaw. The big man wobbled but there was still consciousness in his eyes and an internal rage was forcing him upright.
Jonas didn’t hesitate, he ran past Ralph, toward the nearest wall, and he somehow ran up the wall, kicked off of it, backflipped, and with a sickening crunch, his knee crashed down on top of Ralph's head.