THE LAST KEEPER

He tried to pull his feet out of the mud as quickly as possible, but he was not fast enough. Who even makes a fighting bear out of mad? His opponent was a beast-sized titan of a man, and he smiled down at his tragedy. He smiled widely, and his fist came down hard and smacked him across the face. His head smacked violently to the side, and he went flying a few feet in the air before he landed on his back.

The giant of a man cheered and lifted both his hands to the sky, and the crowd outside the arena cheered loudly.

”Finish him!! Finish him up!!”

Sir black must have been used to pain and quite enjoyed causing pain to others, but he treasured his face more than anything. He twisted his head to the side and spat a mouthful of blood. His jaw might have just been dislocated, and he knew it was going to hurt for a while. The chants got higher and higher, and he must have overestimated himself to think that he could go against the champion in the ring.

The man had been undefeated for half a decade now, and everyone who went against him died. No one dared to challenge him anymore, and so to keep entertaining the king of Lanka with the fights, only the gullible and the desperate got lured in to fight. and the criminals too. Those who had committed crimes were thrown into the ring with the beast.

sir black could have used other ways to land in the most deadly prison of Lanka, but this one might have been the easiest. Of course, it was not his forte to act like he was gullible, so he just spoke badly about the king of Lanka in public, speaking about how his rule was a dictatorship and the normal people were tired.

Lanka was ruled by a tyrannical king vanga. The man ruled with an iron fist. Speaking about his rule in public negatively guaranteed prison time, and what better way to meet the man he wanted to meet than going to prison? His plan, however, had been spoiled, and he had been thrown into a match of death that was beginning to wear him out. His red coat had now been tattered, and he hated being filthy. He hated filth on his clothes.

The beast of a man jumped a few feet in the air with two fists together before he landed, and sir black knew that if he landed on his chest, he was a dead man. well damn it. He rolled away as fast as he could on the mad and barely missed the attack. Where the man had landed, however, a depression formed. Who even gave birth to such a big man? Such a cruel difference in genetics angered him to no end.

The man was fast, even with his size, and the madness in the fighting pit did not seem to stall him at all. Just dodging the attacks and running was not going to save him. Another attack landed on him and he was thrown into the wall of the pit. black danced in his vision for a while, and breath rushed out of his lungs. He could feel himself struggling to breathe and he hated the odds he had been put into. The outcome was glaringly clear, and if something did not change, he was going to die. for sure.

The man reached him in a moment again and landed another blow to his torso. The sound of his lungs breaking reached his ears, and his vision all but swam. How was someone that huge so fast? The man smiled an ugly smile at him as if he enjoyed causing pain. In that degree, they were the same, and they shared the same hunger for destruction. A smile of his own reached his lips. He and everyone like him are what is wrong with the world. How ironic, he always felt seen when he met someone like him, and yet at the same time, he felt repulsed.

The man grabbed sir black by the neck and lifted him as if he were a rag doll. The crowd went wild. This is the reason that motivated sir black to watch his general build another world. a world where people did not cheer when another person was seconds away from death. sir black shut his eyes for a second and listened to the crowd as they chanted away.

”Finish him!! Finish him!!” cheering, and laughter echoed in the arena surrounding the pit. King Vanka Sevara was at his seat, seeping wine, watching with hungry eyes for his champion to finish yet another man. sir black opened his eyes. It was now or never. After all, he was worse off than anyone in that arena. He could not die just yet. Vanka also always promised to grant a wish to a champion, and he needed a wish to be granted. His plan might not have gone the way he wanted, but he could twist the current situation to his favour.

He was afterall not a man to come out and fight with a plan B. He had been waiting for this moment since the start of the fight. This was the final move of the champion. He always lifted his victims by their necks to show his power and dominance before he broke their necks for the whole crowd. It was his ultimate move. The neck breaker.

With his tongue, sir black moved the thing in his mouth. He bit down hard on it, and the liquid flooded his mouth so hot he almost screamed. He did not hesitate, and when the champion turned his eyes from the crowd to look at him one last time before he could break his neck, sir black opened his mouth and spat the black substance into the beast’s eyes, making sure to land it. There was a momentary pause as sir black moved his tongue again and retrieved another pill in his mouth before he chewed and swallowed.

The substance he had spat out was so lethal it could have burned his tongue if he had not swallowed the follow-up pill immediately. It took the champion a few moments to register what had happened when his eyes twitched and started burning.

sir black smiled as the man blinked rapidly before he let out an earth-shattering roar of pain, and finally, sir black chuckled.

”You enjoy causing pain to others, and so do I. That is why I have to stop people like you. There can only be one of us,” sir black said. ”Next time, don’t take too long to finish me. Excuse me, there is no next time,” sir black chuckled, ignoring his burning tongue that, even with the antidote, still burned a little. The tongue was the part of the human body that healed quickly.

The man roared again, throwing sir black away with too much force, so he could use both his hands to soothe his eyes. sir black landed, a few feet away, so fast he was not able to break the fall. As two more ribs broke, he did not stop cackling. Victory always came at a price, and he loved to win. The crowd had now gone quiet, and only the sound of his laughter could be heard, along with the roaring of pain of the champion.

Even so, sir black knew that to be champion, he had to finish the current champion and get his wish granted.

Weapons were not allowed in the pit, but what if you buried one in the mud before the fight? Of course then it won’t be seen as a breach of the rules. sir black ran across the arena and retrieved his two small blades he had had someone bury in the dirt. Of course the person knew he was gonna lose anyway, but still buried them for the fun of it after getting paid half with another promise of getting the other half after the game.

He ran back across the mud, the pleasure of hearing the champion roar in pain pushing him to the limit. Even as the man roared, he still tried to swat sir black away, but with his eyes now empty sockets from the burning substance, he was just swatting the air desperately. Even so, sire black had to be careful not to get swatted away. A wounded beast was sometimes worse than a hungry one. sir black slashed away like the madman he was while he laughed, and the blood from the champion splattered on his red coat, painting it red. His favorite colour.

”I’m going to tell you a secret before you die,” Sir black said, slashing the tendons at the back of the heels, sending the man forward onto his knees, and finally they were standing at the same height.

”You don’t play with honour,” the man spat, even though he had been stripped of almost everything. It seemed his pride was intact. That did not shock sir black at all. They were both cut from the same cloth, and their pride in whatever they did was one thing they never lost.

”I am not from Lanka. you have just lost to a man from Tagayia,” sir black said, and just as the man opened his mouth to obviously set him up in one move, sir black slashed his mouth, taking his tongue with him in one move, and with the blow, he smashed his throat, ear to ear.

”You are really bad at keeping a secret,” Sir black tsked before he lunged both blades on each side of the fat neck.