The Good Nightmare

Kang’s eyes remained wide open, as though he was trying to see the future. He was thinking of it, though, and it didn’t seem good. It would be a quick fight and he was definitely going to get slayed. “Wake up, Kang. She’s gone”, Jin said and shook him awake. Kang looked around. Everyone else was already seated. “Come on, sit down”

He sat down. “She’s going to kill me, won’t she?”

“Only if you let her”, Jin said and drank some water. He leaned closer to Kang. “Listen! I have this drug that should help you win your fight. You just have to take it tonight and, tomorrow, you won’t feel nervous anymore. You just jump into the arena and kick some ass”

“Are you serious?”, Kang muttered.

“The tiny boy’s about to get fucked!”, the fighters jested, laughing at him. “That small innocent ass”

“It’s enough!”, Jin retorted, and smiled at Kang. “I’ve always won all of my fights for a reason”

“You take the same drug?”

“No. You only use it once and it works for ever”

……..

Jin brought out a small bag and shuffled through it. He touched the bracelet he had collected from Sea and kept it aside. Kang hadn’t seen it yet. No one else had seen it, yet. He picked out a nylon, with pills in it, and handed it to Kang. “Take. You can have all of that”

“You said I’ll only need one”, Kang said, doubtfully.

“You might need more than one. I used it just once and I’m here”, Jin said. “I don’t need it anymore so you can keep it…. Also, one at a time. Don’t use more than one”

“Uh… okay”, Kang replied and picked one of the pills. Jin poured some water in a cup and gave it to him. “I hope it works…. What’s going to happen?”

“You’re going to fight. How do you mean?”, Jin said and laid back on his bed.

“I mean, is it going to make my Shin Zhu come out?”, Kang asked, still staring at the pill on his palm. “Or probably increase my strength or something?”

“Just take the pill, Kang. You will be surprised”

Kang threw the pill in his mouth and washed it down his throat with a gulp of water. He laid back on his bed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

★

‘…. Kang, the Blank, has bravely challenged two middle-tier fighters; Gandhi, the Expanse Demi, and Kabir, the Flail……'

Kang found himself between the two fighters. Gandhi smiled mischievously, as he increased his body size, towering above Kang. Kang looked at himself. He definitely wasn’t in his own body. He didn’t look as lean as he actually was. He was wearing a kind of cape and holding one sword on his right hand. On the other side, Kabir just stood there, glaring. Gandhi dropped his enlarged arm on Kang, throwing him on the ground. Kang flipped back on his feet, immediately, feeling a little hyped. He definitely wasn’t scared or nervous in any way. Gandhi clenched his fist, ready to throw another punch at him. Kang ran at him and clenched his fist too. Gandhi threw a punch at him. He threw his hand up, as if ready to block the attack with his tiny hand. Kang’s hand enlarged to an equal size, stopping Gandhi’s arm. His second hand enlarged too, as he threw a punch at Gandhi’s face, throwing him up in the air.

Kang took a short glance at Kabir, and saw a million darts heading at him. He flipped his cape, quickly, preventing the darts from hitting him. He turned towards Kabir, quickly, and flexed his fingers, throwing darts back at Kabir. Kabir ran closer and bent his head, avoiding the darts. He swung his arm at Kang, quickly. A rope short out of his hand, with a flail at it’s end. The spiked ball dashed into Kang’s leg, swiping him off his feet.

He grunted in pain, as he could barely raise his feet. He raised his back and pulled the spiked ball out of his leg. Looking up, he saw Gandhi in the air, about to drop on him. Kang rolled on the ground, before Gandhi could drop his heavy body on him. He sprung up, as the wound covered up quickly. The more he fought, the more confident he became. Kabir flung the flail at him again. Kang swung his arm back and a similar flail jumped out of his hand. He bent his head, quickly avoiding Labor’s flail, as his own flail hit Kabir’s hand.

Kabir held his hand, groaning in pain. Kang stepped on Gandhi and jumped up in the air, expanding his size and he dropped heavily on Kabir, breaking his neck. Gandhi got up, slowly and weakly. Immediately he looked up, Kang flung a flail out of his hand and hit Gandhi in the head. He swung another flail out of his second hand and hit Gandhi on the other side of hit head. Gandhi dropped weakly on his knees, with the spiked ball still in his head. Blood squirted out of the tiny wounds in his head, as he dropped on his face and died. Kang staggered forward and fell on his knees, breathing heavily. He raised his hands up in the air and the fighters cheered, loudly. The Larger Figures stood up and clapped for him. Not many of the Gamblers were happy. They definitely didn’t think he would win so they must have staked their bets against him. That was a good thing for the Larger Figures, anyway.

“Kang?”, a voice called. He turned around, wondering whose voice it was. “Kang?!”

The voice called louder, almost deafening him to the cheers of the fighters. He rubbed his ears and glanced at the door. The door opened, slowly, and the soldiers walked out. “Wake the fuck up, man!”, the voice roared in his ear, and the sand beneath him seemed to have disappeared, as he dropped into the ground. He jerked awake and he could see Jin’s face towering above him.

“Jin?”

“What the fuck are you dreaming about? You have a fight to prepare for. Come on, get up”, Jin said and pulled him up on his feet. Kang’s face slowly faded into a smile. “So are you ready to fight whoever comes your way?”

“I think I’m more than ready”, Kang replied.

……….

“Hi. You’re Finn, right?”, Jin asked. “I need you to help me with something”

“Yea, my name is Finn”, Finn replied, as he walked out of his room.

Romeo waved from inside. “Hello”

“That’s my roommate. His name is Romeo”

“Good morning, Romeo”, Jin said and pulled Finn closer to himself. “You know about Kang’s fight, right?”

“Yea. He will win, right?”

“We can make sure he wins”, Jin said and glanced at Romeo again. “We may need Romeo’s help too. Can he help?”

“If he can, I’m sure he will”, Finn replied. “So what’s up? What do you want us to do?”

“Kang may not be able to take on whoever he has to fight with so we will help him take down whoever his opponent is”, Jin said. “I have stunners in my bag. They are small and they can shoot far enough to get to any corner of the arena. We have to make sure the fight lasts long, unless he’s too close to death. You both should stay by me. Whenever I give the order, you both are to shoot your stunners at the opponent”.

“That sounds alright”, Finn said. “But I’ll still have to run it by him”

“There’s no problem with that. You should tell him”

Finn walked back into the room. “Hey, Romeo. Jin needs our help. Actually, Kang needs to help”

“I’m in”, Romeo replied. “If it’s something that we can do, then let’s do it”

★

“No. Use the dog”, the man said and slid the paper back to her.

“But I don’t want the dog”, the girl said, loudly. “He insulted me and you want to take it easy on him?”

“There are other ways to punish him, Ana”, the man said. “You are putting our business in the way, here. Why don’t you just give him as a plaything to the Gamblers? At least, no one likes that”

“No, I want him dead….. and the Gamblers won’t want to have someone as lean as he is. That’s bad for business too, especially now that we have the Grimm Arena breathing on our necks”

“You seem to be seeing things the way you want to see it, Ana. We can keep the Dergon Arena ahead of every other Arena and still not lose money on this one match all because you have a grudge with an ordinary player”

“You swore to my father you’d protect me, King!”, Ana howled. “Now, you seem to let this ordinary fighter get away after rubbing my face in the mud”

“Enough, Ana! Killing a low-tier fighter by pitting him against a top-tier fighter, all because you are hurt, isn’t protecting you. It will be an unwise mistake on my part and a selfish and rash decision on yours”, the man, King, retorted. “When your grandfather came from the Addax Arena, we accepted to help him because he wasn’t much of a monster like the others. Your father took after him. Don’t let your grief make you different from them, Ana”

“I’m the monster here, now, eh? Like all the fighters you’ve killed on the ring don’t make you a monster, eh?”

King turned his chair, away. “You can take your leave, now, and let this go”, he said. “You have called the Gamblers together so the fight must happen and he is fighting with the dog. I don’t want to hear anything more from you”

………