Black Market Merchant

Chapter 143: Ketchup
Queen stood up and tossed her long loosened black hair out of her face. A confident smirk was now plastered onto her face as she raised up her dull black sword. The three charging triplets were not worried seeing her rising back up to face them and they continued to charge headlong at her, like three angry red bulls.

Connor and Patrick were the first to reach Queen with their axes at the ready. Sean was still impatiently waiting for the pill to take effect, but he was doing his best to keep up with his brother’s speed. Connor leapt high and held his axe above himself with both hands, all with the intention of smashing her to bits! Closing the last of the distance in a flash, he struck down hard at Queen and a large cloud of dust flew up on impact, missing entirely. Just as she was hoping.

Dodging the obvious attack easily in her Advanced Armament: Stage 1, Queen moved off to the right of the massive black axe. As she did, Queen jabbed out at Connors left arm, piercing it with ease. Connor yelled and pulled away to let go of the axe briefly. Seeing this Patrick tried repeating the same attack as his brother, jumping high and slashing at Queen. Only this time with more of a chopping angle. Queen dodged yet again, only this time she was unable to counterattack like before due to the smart decision to attack at that angle and she was forced to jump further away.

Another plume of dust blasted upward as Patrick’s axe struck the floor taking out a large chunk. The chipped portion of the flooring went spinning harmlessly across the stage, but the show of power awed the crowd to no end. Without waiting a second, Patrick followed through his swing to slash at Queen, who in turn, laughed as she lightly slipped further across the stage unharmed.

Patrick then called out to his brother in this brief pause in the fight. ”You alright? She is too fast for these kinds of attacks. We need a plan!”

”Shut up!” Connor yelled wrenching his axe free. Flexing his wounded hand Connor grimaced angrily finding no major damage was done. ”We don’t need a plan. You know what, give me your axe. I’ll show you how to handle her.”

“But she is to fast now and…” Patrick retorted, but his words fell on deaf ears.

Connor pushed Patrick aside ignoring his protests and took the axe in his other hand. Queen stood waiting for them just steps away and didn’t seem the least bit concerned about the huge red man coming at her with dual axes. Her confident grey eyes stared unwavering at her opponent.

”That’s right big boy, come on and show me what you got.” Queen taunted curling her lips with excitement. Then she flaunted her skills by spinning the blade around in her hand before taking the stand-on stance once again.

Connor spit in her direction and started swing haymakers at her with the axes. The big, shinny, black axes streaked viciously at Queen, every one of the strikes were filled with the intention to kill. Queen stepped back in rapid half steps while parrying the axes skillfully with the dull edge of her katana. She struck at the axes in a way that caused them to shoot downwards and to strike the ground. This caused even more dust to float about on stage as huge chunks of the stage were being destroyed without a second thought. Her plan was now in motion, and ever so easily.

”What is she doing?” Wayne called out to Sadie. Sadie had let go of the fence and seemed less tense now that Queen was armed once again. Though the speed of which the fight had now reached was more than she had expected.

”S-she’s doing an idea that I suggested. A three on one situation is never a good thing to fight. So how to beat those odds? Just wait and see.” Sadie replied crossing her arms while never taking her nervous gaze off the fight.

Queen was holding off Connor easily and just to rub it in, she started deflecting his attacks one handed! The hatred and frustration held on his face was clear to all. Queen had gotten into his head and all he was doing now was blindly fighting her.

”Come on, is that all you got?” Queen continued taunting giving another laugh.

”Shut up already!” Connor grunted not letting up his attack.

Chunks of flooring scattered in every direction, sparks flew off of the two opponents’ weapons on every hit, and tan dust rose in large, choaking plumes, all the while slowly covering up the Arena Stage from view.

Queen continued back pedaling across the stage, being sure to circle away from the other two brother. If the Arena had been any smaller fighting like this would have been difficult, but the stage was exceptionally long and wide. The dust, however, was now finally starting to make seeing on stage difficult and even the crowd took notice. Connors deflected strikes only continued to add to their inability to see.

The crowd was getting annoyed. The fight was getting good now and the dust nearly blocked everyone’s view. Even those on the front rows knew not of what was going on. All they could hear was the sound of Connors yelling and the sound of metal on metal followed but the crunching smash of the axes hitting the stage.

”What’s going on? It’s getting murky on stage. Did someone turn on a fog machine?”

”Really? That’s kind of cool.”

”Wait, I can’t see all the fighters now. Get that dust out of here!”

“Where are the staff at? We can’t see!”

Indeed, now only Patrick could be seen standing unarmed at the far end of the stage, which just so happened to be the least cloudy. The ominous sounds of metal to metal and heavy booms could be heard, like thunderstorms rumbling in the distance. Patrick didn’t know what to do now, both Connor and Sean were out of sight and he was disarmed. Smashing his fist into the fence knowing all he could do now was wait.

”Getting tired yet?” Queen asked knocking aside another swing from Connor. She was hardly even struggling at the moment, even after all that had happened during the entire fight.

”N-not yet! I’m going to rip you apart.” Connor replied with a growl dripping with sweat. His red body now resembled a boiling hot dog’s.

”Better end this now anyway.” Queen suddenly said knocking away his next blow into the air above them. Then grabbing her blade by the hilt with both hands, she sent it careening downwards aiming for his exposed head.

”Cha-ping!”

Out from the dust another axe intercepted Queens attack, saving Connor from defeat. Queens sword was knocked back behind her and she stepped back to avoid a follow up swing from the next brother.

”Did you forget about me? Ha-ha!” Sean shouted. He had caught up with the two fighting and was now bulging up as well. Unlike the other two, he hadn’t received any injuries yet and was completely fresh and ready to fight. ”My turn, bro!”

Queen sighed as if annoyed and continued her retreat through the growing dust cloud. Sean was hot on her heals. Sean thrashed his axe at her with far more speed and energy than his brothers had, they were exhausted. If it weren’t for Queens prosthetics, she too would be tired by now, but this was not the case. She was completely prepared to take him on.

The two dashed through the dust, blades clashing, and the chipped flooring underfoot flew off in every direction. Those sitting on the front rows soon saw that it looked like the two were nearly even as they occasional immerged into to sight.

What was clear though was that neither had been hurt yet. Connor stayed behind and let the two get away so that he could catch his breath for a moment.

”You’re going down!” Sean shouted smashing down at Queen. However, Queen didn’t deflect the attack this time, but blocked it’s pointed tip with her blade and held it in place.

”I think this is good enough.” Queen said calmly lowering her blade so that Sean and she were looking face to face. ”It’s time to end this farce of a fight. You guys ended up being a letdown. I still only had to use Stage One.”

”What?” Sean replied both angry and confused.

Suddenly, Queen dipped to her left so that her swords point pointed down and caused Sean’s axe to crash to the ground next to her. Then continuing to spin left, Queen stepped behind Sean and sliced at his defenseless backside. The blade struck deeply into him, splattering the blood across the ruined stage.

Sean arched in pain as he screamed. However, Queen was not done. As Sean was turning around to throw a swing at her with a balled up free hand, Queen had expected this and had already ducked low. As soon as his left hand swung over her, she struck upwards with her blade; neatly slicing off Sean’s arm at the elbow!

Sean screamed in pure agony and dropped his axe to clutch at his severed arm. Blood sprayed and dripped in globs, unhindered to pool around his feet. The Power pill not only gave the users more strength, but it seemed to also increase blood pressure. This spelled the end for him.

Queen raised her dull black blade once again, her face cold as ice and then struck. Sean looked up in terrified shock at Queen and tried to speak, presumably for mercy. Queen didn’t hesitate. The sword sliced cleanly across his neck, leaving a red waterfall behind. Sean was defeated.

Queen flicked the blood off her blade and turned to peer into the still thickly billowing dust. ”That’s one. Now, where are the others?”

”Sean? Where is she? Damn dust!” Connors voice called out from her left.

”Ah, there you are.” Queen said casual turning to walk his way. Streaks of stage light beamed down in uneven columns through the dust as she started make her way to him.

”Patrick are you still there? You see Queen or Sean? It’s too quiet.” Connor continued.

”No, I can’t see a thing! This dust is too thick.” Patrick called back. ”Give me my axe back. I can’t fight without it.”

”And there is Patrick.” Queen spoke aloud glancing his way through the swirling dust, before continuing onwards, “He’s no threat. Connor is the one I want right now.”

”Hey, it’s thinning up near the back. Meet me there.” Patrick shouted out.

Queen chuckled. ”That idiot. Tell me what you’re doing next why don’t you.”

Connor was having no luck in his search. The dust he had help make was just too thick to see through. If that wasn’t enough, he also couldn’t hear anything. The crowd was booing and jeering too much for him to figure out what was going on. Hearing his brothers calling, he decided to go that way.

”Going somewhere?” A woman’s voice called immediately from behind.

In a flash he turned around swinging his right-handed axe. However, she was not there. All that remained was swirling dust and light beams crashing through the slowly thinning, thick smoke. It was an eerie place, not like any fight he had been in before.

”When I get my hands on you, I am going to make you beg for mercy. Then I am going to have some fun with that tight looking body of yours, before letting you die slowly!” Connor shouted menacingly into the dust patters and shadows around him.

He nervously looked around him while backing up. As he did, he stepped on some loose bits of stage and nearly fell backwards. Connor dropped to one knee to keep from falling. As soon as he did and looked up, Queen was standing right in front of him! Like a ghost from some horror movie, she was right up in his face!

”Queen!” Connor shouted and reactively swung his axe at her, but it was too late.

Queen was already sinking her blade right into his neck, slowly pressing down further into his chest cavity! Bubbling sounds rose from his overflowing mouth as he glared angrily up at his killer. In one last ditch effort he swung his axe up at her, but it flew way off target and went spinning harmlessly into the swirling dust beyond.

Silence returned to the bloodied stage as Connors body slumped over. ”I really don’t want to kill people, but it’s guys like you that make me change my mind.” Queen sighed heading for the back of the stage. Only one was left and her blade was still wet.

”Hey look!” Someone in the stands shouted. ”I see Patrick and he’s unarmed. Where are the others at?”

”Did he win? I don’t hear anything.” Another called back.

”Wait! I see something.” A woman shouted out pointing past Patrick. ”It’s Queen!”

Patrick was rubbing his injuries scanning the clearing dust in front of him. It had been a few moments since he had last heard Connor yell out ’Queen’ and this eerie silence was very much unlike him. He was about to call out when he heard the crowd calling out Queens name.

”Don’t tell me she beat them?!” Patrick moaned. Then he readied himself, though unarmed, he wasn’t going down easy.

”Well, well. There was three now there’s one.” Queen said sauntering out from the dust clouds to his right like a wraith. ”Let’s get this over with. I’m starting to get thirsty.”

”Where are my brothers?” Patrick growled.

”Dead. I turned those ugly tomatoes into ketchup. Do you want to join them?” Queen replied stopping a few meters away.

Just then someone from the Arena’s staff finally turned on a large ground fan. Slowly the dust blew off the stage revealing the bloodied remains of the two other Clover Clippers. The referee, long forgotten during the fight, was frantically searching for the fighters in the dust and seeing the remaining two, hurried to watch over them. The crowd exploded into a cacophony of excitement, the betting odds were blown, yet another upset win by Queen!

”You wench! You killed them!” Patrick yelled. His whole body was shaking with anger. He balled his fist, then blinded by rage, charged headlong at Queen.

”I win!” Queen shouted.

Then she lunged one step forward and slashed downward at the charging, swollen red man. Her sword flicked out to reach its full length and then came crashing right at his middle. His skull split, chest chopped, and torso severed, all cleanly right down the middle. His body splashed into its own blood and guts behind Queens feet.

It was over, she had overwhelmingly beaten the odds to win yet again!