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The Flame Fountain vs The Slithering Sentinel

Rico squatted over him and dissolved his Ice sword. He smiled and touched Remi’s tail. “I bet it will take some training to heal from this”, he said and pulled out the dagger. “You almost won me, Remi. We are friends. We don’t have to do this”

“What are you doing, Rico? This is not allowed”, Remi said, looking around at the surprised faces of the Gamblers and the Larger Figures.

“Yes… but they only control us so much because we let them”, Rico said and stood up. He held out his hand to Remi. “Come on. Take my hand”

Remi said and raised his hand, grabbing Rico’s. Rico pulled him up on his feet and he looked around at the faces again. They definitely weren’t giving them what they wanted to see. “You are making a mistake, Rico”, Remi said again, making his huge lizard tail dangle behind Rico.

“I’m not going to kill you, Remi. If the friendship we built totally means nothing to you, then you can go ahead and kill me”

Remi’s tail dropped back. His eyes fell on a bald hefty man, seated with the Larger Figures, whispering into the ears of one of the soldiers. He moved his eyes away, as he shifted back to his ordinary form.

The door to the Arena opened and some soldiers walked out, dramatically, standing by the sides of the Arena. One of the soldiers gestured to them to come over and they walked slowly to the soldiers. They were surrounded so soldiers walked in before the and soldiers walked in after them.

“That’s enough. You can stop there”, a thick voice said, as someone approached them.

“This is not good, Rico. You should have killed me”, Remi whispered and Rico held his hand in his.

A bald hefty man, the one Remi had seen, showed up and stopped in front of them. “So today’s goal is to ruin my business?”

The two of them stared at his shoes, looking away from his face. He stepped closer to them, folding his arms behind his back. He continued, “What was that for, uh? Have you ever watched anyone pull that off?....... I said Have you ever watched anyone pull that off!!?”

Rico looked up. “No…. We haven’t”

“Good”, the man said, calmly. “Since you’ve decided to try it, we are going to make it the last time you ever try anything at all….. shoot them”

The soldiers shot the both of them in the back of their heads and they dropped to the ground

“So how does it work?”, he heard Jin’s voice saying. “I think he can come in but he can’t go back out”

“I don’t think that is possible”, another voice replied. “We made it so it’s impenetrable”

“Ok then. How do I get through?”, Jin asked, in whispers.

Kang stood there, a bit far from where he could be seen but he seemed to be able to hear them clearly even though they whispered. “There is a marked metal for that. I can probably tell you how to get one”, the second person replied. She didn’t look like a fighter. In fact, there were no female fighters among them.

“Okay. Thank you, Dea. I should probably get back now”, Jin said and took a step back.

“Yes, I should go too”, she replied and pulled him closer, putting her lips on his. “One more thing. Don’t take the passage, when the time comes”

“Uh, ok”, Jin smiled.

“I’ll tell you where to go through when the time comes”, she said and walked through a door.

Jin turned, walking towards where Kang was hiding. Kang ran back, quickly and quietly, and headed back to the room.

…….

“Kang”, Jin called, as he entered the room. “My match is about to start. Get ready to watch me kick some ass… Kang?!”

Kang raised his head and opened his eyes, slowly, pretending to still feel sleepy. “Hey… Good morning”

“I’m fighting, today. Come on, get up”

“Oh! Damn! I forgot”, Kang said and sprung up. He actually forgot about the fight. There had been a spin, the previous day, and Jin was picked as one of the fighters. “Who’s the other guy again?”

“Snape? Just like me, he is rarely picked for fights”, Jin said, doing pushups on the floor. “He is just as strong”

“So you’re probably scared of him? Are you?”

“Uh… no, not really”, Jin replied, grunting. “I’ll beat him anyway”

“So you’ll kill him?”

“I will have to. Everyone has to kill someone”, Jin said. “Remi and Rico refused to kill. They both got killed. Now, they’ve been replaced… Come on, let’s go”.

Jin stood up and they stepped out of the room. “When is the fight starting?”

“No one knows till it’s about to start”, Jin said, as they walked down the hall. It was their turn to clean up. After cleaning, we should get into the bathroom before the others wake up”

“You sure about that?”, Kang muttered, staring down the hall at a guy who just walked out of his room. He was a new guy and the room used to be Rico and Remi’s room. “There’s that guy over there”

“Good morning”, the guy greeted and walked closer to them. “I am Finn. I’m new here, you?”

Kang shook his hands, surveying the guy’s muscles and extremely fit shape with his eyes. “You’re new?”, he asked and looked at his own lean hands. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Kang”

Jin nodded at him. “I’m Jin. You’re welcome”

“I’m still pretty sleepy and I’m just trying to find my way around here so I’ll return when you guys are done”, Finn said. “Maybe you can show me around”

“You didn’t forget about the fight, today, did you?”, Jin asked. “You probably won’t be catching enough sleep till the fight is over”

“Oh! Yea. You’re the one fighting… with that rude bully. Wish you good luck”

Jin smiled. “Sounds like you already had an encounter with Snape”, Jin said. “What did he do?”

Finn turned his head and ran his hand through his hair. He parted his hair, revealing a bruise on his head. “See that? He did that to me, just yesterday”

“Be careful around these ones”, Jin replied. “Also, you need to start working on your strength and your Shin Zhu”

“Sure. That’s natural”, Finn said, smiling as he clenched his fist turning his hand and wrist into steel. “It’s not pretty amazing”

“Yea. If you train hard, your power level will grow”, Jin said. “More durability and probably, you will be able to turn your full arm into steel…. Or your full body. We should get to our cleaning”

“Yea. We will catch up, later, I guess”, Finn said and shook hands with Kang.

…................

A few minutes after they’ve had breakfast, it was time to go for the fight. Snape glared at Jin down the hall and Jin smiled back. “That’s pretty confident of you”, Kang said. “Has he ever lost a fight?”

“No”, Jin replied. “You can’t lose a fight on the ring and still be here”

They had formed two lines in the hall to walk out whenever the order was given. A soldier walked in through the passage, quickly followed by a girl; the same girl who had come to take one of them, and another soldier. “Hold on”, she said, walking around and assessing them one after the other.

“Look away from her, Kang”, Jin whispered and turned Kang’s head, forcefully. “You don’t want your ass drilled, do you?”

“I still don’t know what the ass drill means. Are you being literal?”

Jin turned Kang’s face towards another guy in the other line and pointed his finger to be more specific. “Can you see that guy?”, Jin asked. It was the same guy that was picked to go with the girl. He was hiding behind another fighter, secretly avoiding the girl’s sight.

Kang’s eyes met with the girl’s and he kept staring back at her. She didn’t move her eyes away, either. He realized he had messed up, as she stood still and focused on him. He moved his face away, slowly, with his eyes wide open. “No, don’t look away”, she said, softly. “Look at me”

“Uh”, some of the fighters muttered, wondering who she was referring to.

“He knows himself. I said look at me!”, she howled at him.

Kang kept his face forward and closed his eyes. “I think she’s talking to you, Kang”, Jin whispered in his ears. “Just answer her”

She held his jaw and turned his face towards her. “When I say look at me, you should look at me”, she said and slapped his face. “Look up. What’s your name?”

He raised his head. “Kang”

“You should be going with me, right now, if you had more meat in you”, she said and looked at Jin behind him. “You are his friend, right? ‘cause I could see you helping him turn his head. Am I right?.... You’ll probably feel good with my masters, won’t you?”

“No, I won’t”, Jin replied. “I am fighting, now”

“Ok”, she nodded and walked away from them. She pointed at another fighter. “You. Come with me”

……..

‘…. They say the greatest matchups come once in a million years. This one is now. Looks like we won’t be having something this great in the next few million years. Stake your bets as Snape, the Slithering Sentinel, goes toe to toe against Jin; the flame fountain.’

“Come on flame foun-whatever”, Snape howled at Jin, as his head shapeshifted into that of a huge snake. He honed his two swords against each other and ran at Jin.

Jin had one sword with him. He clenched his second fist and a fiery aura swirled around his arm. Snape swung a sword, clanging against Jin’s sword. Jin swung his second arm and shot a wave sliding Snape off the ground. Snape, immediately, dropped one of his swords, turning his arm into a sloppy worm, and swiped Jin’s feet off the ground.

Jin fell backwards and flipped back on his feet. He created a fireball and shot it at Snape. Snape stepped forward, put his two palms together, raising his arms up and swiped his hand back down, splitting the fireball. He put a leg forward and threw an arm at Jin. A snake slithered swiftly out of his palm, diving straight at Jin. Jin swung his sword, cutting off the snake’s head, immediately.

From Snape’s feet, a snake dived into the ground, slithering beneath the earth surface and heading at Jin. He could see the approach from the movement of the sand. The path split in multiple parts, going around him in a circle. Jin clenched tighter on his sword, as he turned around, watching which snake would jump out first. Snape threw an arm at Jin, while he was distracted by the snakes in the ground. Jin closed his eyes for a second, as he could hear the flying snake diving at him. Jin turned swiftly and swung his sword, splitting the snake’s head in two. Immediately, the snake’s jumped out the sand. Jin closed his eyes, clenched his hands on the sword and bent on a knee. A wave of fire dispersed from where he stood, throwing the snake’s backward. He sprung up and jumped into the air. He created a ball of fire and shot it at Snape, throwing him hard against the ground.

Snape slowly got back up and ran at Jin with his sword, again. Jin bent backwards and Snape kicked his stomach. Jin fell on his back and flipped back up. Immediately, Snape threw another kick at his face. Jin fell on the ground, weakly. Snape swung his sword at the air, advancing towards Jin, and raised the sword, pushing it down. Jin rolled to the left, dodging the sword. He raised his left leg and kicked Snape by the side. Immediately Snape turned to face him, Jin threw a punch at his face. Snape threw his elbow at him and he caught it. He swung his knife at Snape’s neck, swiftly, slitting his throat. Jin staggered back, as Snape fell on the ground, bleeding from his slit throat.

Kang watched from the stand. His mouth gaped, as he watched Snape bleed to death. That was the first time he was watching a man die. The Gamblers stood up, cheering loudly, and clapping for Jin.

Jin raised his sword high and glanced at Kang. Kang put his hands together and clapped briefly. He didn’t like to watch a person die but he would have to do the same thing someday.

…….

The fighters walked back to the hall but Jin was yet to come back. “How was the fight?”, Kang asked, as Finn walked up to him.

“I think it was amazing. Jin needs to teach me how to use my abilities too”, Finn replied and looked behind them, as another guy approached. “Come on!”

The guy walked up to them, smiling widely. “Hey. I’m Romeo”, he said and shook hands with Kang. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too”, Kang replied. “You both are roommates?”

“Yea”, Finn said. “He controls ice”

“Really? Just like Rico”, Kang said. “I wished for that ability, you know?”

“Who’s Rico?”, Romeo asked.

“He used to be one of us. He was pitted against his roommate on the arena”, Kang said. “You can probably imagine how that turned out. He controls ice too”

“What happened with his roommate?”

“He defeated his roommate on the arena and while he was supposed to kill him, he didn’t”, Kang said. “I thought that was a great act. He pulled his roommate back on his feet and his roommate raised his hand as the winner”

“Where is he now?”, Finn asked.

“Actually, that is the end of his story. The both of them were killed, immediately they stepped out of the arena”

“Kang!”, a thick voice called, startling the three of them. They turned, quickly. It was Jae, advancing slowly towards them.

“I think you guys should go”, Kang whispered to them. “We will talk later”

“Are you sure I think we stand a better chance if it’s three against one”, Finn replied him. Immediately, three men showed up behind Jae.

“No. I can handle him. Get going”

“Come on, Romeo”, Finn said and pulled his roommate along.

Jae stepped closer. “Looks like your daddy is held up in there”, Jae said, threateningly. “How about we go inside the room and have a little chitchat? What do you think?’

He held Kang by the neck and pushed him into the room. “Please, let me go”, Kang said, weakly.

“I can let you go if you show me your Shin Zhu”, Jae said. “I want to see what you got”

“Just leave me alone and I promise-“

Jae grabbed his neck, suddenly, and pressed him against the wall. “I won’t ask again. When I get impatient, I just smash your head into the wall. Deal?”

Kang struggled and threw a quick punch at his face. Jae clenched tighter on Kang’s neck and smashed his head against the wall.

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