[zeno_font_resizer]
[wp-night-mode-button]
“So you are the guys who stood above the trash and came here!” Amano said as he took out a lollipop out of his pocket and put it into his mouth.
“Shall we start? ” Ken prompted as the brown worn out grass gushed past the field as silence enveloped the whole stadium with each and every spectator closely looking at the center of the ground.
”Two of your friends have very low health! They will be eliminated even before the start of the actual fight!”
“Need not to worry! I won’t let that happen.”
With a grin on his face and taking out the candy out of his mouth, “ So I assume it’s going to be a one on one fight”
“Who knows but certainly I won’t deny that” taking out his sword simultaneously.
“Nice. The others weren’t even fit for killing also”.
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”
“I expected such retortes from a person of my Caliber”.
“Shall we then?”
Jumping off the hook, Ken dashed towards Amano, a flamboyant guy with long hair, a purple coat and perfectly, matched shoes and made the first move.
Amano didn’t have any weapon to his assist and seeing Ken running towards him, he wasted no time and immediately took out a metal ‘Kendo’ stick.
The ground cracked, as Amano moved towards Ken with equal pace and “Clang!”. Metals met as Ken launched a series of attacks on Amano but only to be dodged and defended beautifully by him. Falling backward, Ken obliqued his blade and slashed at his gut but Amano blocked it every time with superfluous work of hands.
Failing to even make a scratch, Ken separated from him and fall backwards to chalk-out something new. But Amano was in no mood to let Ken breath as without wasting a second he pressed Ken with a powerful strike from above Ken’s head, forcing Ken to block the shot and coming right under the zone where Amano has an upper hand over Ken.
Using his full power, Amano forced Ken to use the spell ‘enforcement’ <increasing Ken’s body strenght> while bending his knee and sitting down on it to dissipate Amano’s impact and his force.
“I expected you to be better” Amano said with least expressions on his face.
Shifting his balance from left to right knee, he equaled Amano’s force and slowly and steadily pushed him back while maintaining his stance. “I won’t let you down, Amano!” crushing his teeth against each other.
Amano wisely separated from Ken. Taking out the lollipop from the mouth and rolling it back into the plastic wrap, he opened the player’s storage and putting his hand into the void, he pulled out another Kendo stick.
Flexing his hands on the sticks, he moved around as Ken followed his footsteps. Moving in a circle, head to head Ken and Amano fixed their eyes on each other waiting for the other to make the first move.
“Come at me boy!” Challenging Ken, Amano prompted as he flexed his arms and moved the sticks around with swiftness in his wrists.
Looking at his blade, Ken thought of something and then focussing on his target he used ‘Smokescreen’, a simple but useful spell to cover the whole arena in black dense smoke. The crowd reacted in excitement as Ken disappeared from Amano’s sight and camouflaged himself in the thick smoke.
“………………”
“…………………” sounds of footsteps came from all around the ground but as time passed and the smoke began to lighten a bit, the footsteps completely disappeared and from the pin drop silence emerged a thunderbolting Ken who attacked Amano from Left, followed by Right and Center.
“Clang! Clang! Clang! ” blocking Ken’s attack Amano not only wasted Ken’s Nixp but also brought down his spirits as after numerous attempts, Ken himself stopped his attacks and anchored his sword down deep into the ground to compensate for his frustration.
“Is that it kid? Was that your best?”
Ken replied nothing as he knew that he had no immediate trick under his sleeve that could cause trouble for Amano. So he decided to wait and study the strengths and weaknesses of his invincible looking opponent.
Waving his stick towards Ken, “if you aren’t going to do anything, then I’ll do something!”.
“Frugal.” Ken used a quick spell before Amano, bursting out with speed and agility covered the distance between him and Ken within seconds and launched quick attacks on Ken which he defended with his bare arms and nothing more.
“……….” “…………” “…………” with sounds of metal meeting flesh echoing everywhere, Amano and Ken both moved around the whole stadium with Ken falling back each time while Amano, hitting each shot with greater intensity towards Ken.
Trapping Ken in a niche near the stadium wall, Amano straighten his right Kendo and pointing it towards Ken‘s, he pushed it right into Ken’s stomach but only to be saved by Ken’s agility, who jumped above the stick right before the contact and landed onto the horizontal metal which hit the stadium wall and made a small depression into it.
“Close!” blabbering to himself, Ken knocked down the left stick out of Amano’s hand and delivered two-three solid kicks on Amano’s face forcing him to fall back as Ken stood over the wall-stuck Kendo with his body perfectly balanced over it.
The heat between the two paused out as Amano stood silently, recovering from the brilliance that the brat demonstrated infront of him. Wiping the blood off his mouth, Amano pulled out the lollipop from his pocket put it into his mouth.
Picking the other stick from the ground, he looked towards Ken who landed onto the ground and taking long strides he ran in Ken’s direction. “Tourcherer’s play”. Long hard metal pikes appeared from ‘Saki-Gawa’ to ‘Tsuba’ region of the stick <basically throughout the stick except for its handle>as the spell showed its specialty.
Seeing the metal spikes, Ken knew that at any cost he had to avoid taking any damage from that ‘spiky’ stick as even a single contact of that stick could cause reduce his health drastically.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” a charging Amano came as Ken moved left and right avoiding the stick. Then falling backwards and jumping over Amano’s head, Ken avoided the second hit as he looked towards his legs which trembled slightly due to the force that Ken used to avoid the situation.
Turning behind, Amano delivered a kick at Ken’s legs causing him to fall down on his knees. Wasting no time, he landed a solid hit on him causing blood to ooze out like a river from his shoulder which took the impact of Amano’s deadly weapon.
“!…………..!” Ken shouted in great agony as Amano took out the stuck Kendo from his shoulder. Then targeting the other half, he made three similar cuts into Ken’s thigh as Ken screamed with greater intensity, each time the stick met his body.
With blood all over his the stick, Amano moved back as Ken held his shoulder with his arm and tried to make it up on his legs. But the injury was too deep to comply with his desires and even after numerous attempts, he couldn’t stand up on his own.
“We should go and help him, Harry!” Amber shrieked as she moved two three steps towards Ken.
“No! wait Amber. This is not our fight and we should not interfere in this.”
“But look at him Harry. One more strike and he is out for sure”
“He won’t go down so soon.”
“Are you a moreon?. Can’t you feel the pain that he is undergoing?. If you don’t want to help that fine, stay out of it and let me go”
“Amber wait!”Screaming at her while holding her arm. “Can’t you see, how hard is he trying to fight on his own. If he wanted our help, he would have asked for it for the start.”
“Look at me Amber”, leaving her arm as Amber looked at Harry. “This guy Ken, is not like us. He is someone special, very special and very brave. The pain and agony that you see now is nothing but normal training for him. The hard work, the effort and the heart which he gave to this game will now pay off.
So just wait and see the mastero unfold!”
Amber looked up at Harry. The satisfaction and calmness that Harry had on his face were ensuring that he was sure that Ken will rise up to the challenge. And hence without any second argument, Amber retraced her footsteps and came back to where she was to see what Ken has in store to overcome this problem.
“You are too weak to make it on your own. So let me get you out of this misery!” Amano lifted the stick at Ken and with full force lowered it down, right down Ken’s neck.
“it’s over” Amber muttered as she closed her eyes in fear.
“!..” sound of blood and flesh came as the ‘spiky’ Kendo made contact with Ken. Hearing the sound, Amber opened her eyes and looking at Harry she shouted “I told you, he needed help!”.
On one hand, where Amber was worried over Ken on the other, there was a smile on Harry’s face. Confused and dumbstrucked, Amber looked on to the scene to find something else, something different from what she had expected.
Under the heavy Kendo was Ken, who was shielding himself with blood-stained arm as he stopped the stick with nothing but simple and pure strength.
“I may be weak. I may be inexperienced. I may be clumsy. I may not be upto your expectations but I am what always wanted to be.” Pushing back the Kendo, Ken stood up and taking deep-breaths he launched a series of hand attacks on Amano and nearly knocked him down.
Taking in heavy breaths, Ken separated from him and picked up his sword from the ground.
“Well done brat! I’m highly impressed by your performance. But sorry to say that all your bravery will go down with this”. Closing his eyes and clenching his fist, Amano started to mummer something as yellow, magma colored energy started to gather in his fist.
“Exitio ac morte” opening his eyes, he fired a high-intensity ray towards Ken as the ray traveled the distance between the two head straight towards Ken. The intensity of the ray was such that as it passes above the ground, it takes off the surface with it leaving nothing but only plain soil.
Seeing the ray, Ken knew that something special will be needed to overcome this ray. Chanting something, Ken waited for the ray to inch closer and closer. “Slayrin!”.
The blade shimmered with white blazes as Ken threw the sword in the direction of the ray. The white blaze, sliced through the magnum colored ray and cutting through the whole path, it reached the source. Amano saw the blade coming and he tried to run from it. But being the source of the ray, restricted his movement and the blade came slicing through the beam and chopped off his right ear in one strike.
“…………..” yelling in Agony, Amano stopped the ray and spit the lollipop out of his mouth. Pressing his head with his hands, he tried to cut-off the flowing blood but failed miserably. Meanwhile, ken tried to regain his shape but his body was so badly wounded that his legs and arms could crumble any moment.
Taking a look at his health bar, Ken knew that he didn’t have much energy to spare. One more powerful hit and he is out. Further, for the first time, his NIX was also going to run out of supply as such vigorous fight had caused it to get depleted greatly.
“You insignificant worm. You are nothing but a mere termite infront of me. I’ll crush you to pieces and throw you out of here. You’ll pay for what you had done.” Screaming in anger, Amano removed his hand from his ear and throwing his Kendo on one side he chanted,
“Satan’s Lullaby !”. Deep black clouds appeared in the sky as the sunny day changed into the dark moonless night. A deep red circle appeared onto the ground as the green earth turned into bloodstained mud. Complete silence prevailed all over the stadium as out of the red magical circle appeared an undead. A single skeleton with only a sword in hand and nothing else.
Walking with clumsy and uneven steps, the undead started to walk towards Ken. At first Ken didn’t understand anything but later it came to his mind that the creature was what he saw in one of comics that Ak offered him to read. Knowing what is to come, he shouted towards Harry and asked them to run as far as possible from him and if possible even the ground.
Understanding his instructions, Harry and Amber climbed up the stadium’s wall with the help of Amber’s magic and placed themselves safely with the crowd that was watching the whole display of Ken’s fighting and valor.
At first, there was only a single undead by slowly and steadily their number began to increase and within no time their number increased from one to nearly a hundred, cramming up the space which was available.
Laughing with an evil smile, he exclaimed “That’s goodbye for you kid. These undeads will shred you into pieces and eat you up”.
For the first time in the entire event, Ken laughed. Laughing to himself he said, “I didn’t knew that it will come so soon. Yesterday only I was thinking about it and today I have to use it ”. Looking at the black sky, Ken turned back to the original himself, the cold, dead-faced person.
“You know Amano, you are the first player on whom I’ll be using it. I never thought it will come so early and frankly speaking I’ve not even mastered it also but the situation demands it.”
“………” with hideous breaths, Ken clenched his fists and mumbled something to himself. Then punching his fists in the ground he chanted “Restriction”. The earth cracked and the ground rumbled as pounds of mud began to pump up out of the ground and collected near Amano. Surrounding him, the mud tightens like a snake around Amano’s body restricting any moment that could be possible.
Meanwhile, the undead’s fell and rose again as the tremor stopped. Some were crushed under the huge pile of mud but most of them somehow survived and made their way near Ken.
Now, Ken was in deep deep trouble and he needed to do something fast. But opposite to the situations demand, he sat down on the ground with his legs crossed and started to meditate with complete silence.
“!..Aarrrrrrrrrgh….!” the crumbling of grass and sounds of the undead, the only two sounds which came to Ken’s ears as he tried to concentrate on gathering all the NIXp which he had.
As the undead raised his sword to kill Ken, Ken stood up and before the sword could reach him he fell backwards and chanted, “Eternal darkness!”.
A black ball of energy came out of Ken’s palm as he turned his palm upside down. The black mass<ball of energy> rose up in the sky and slowly and steadily moved towards the center of the ground.
Lightning appeared within the black clouds as the black ball started to expand on its own. Slowly and steadily, its diameter increased to nearly the size of the ground and suddenly within a few seconds, it contracted to its original size.
“Amano! Being overconfident isn’t good. Goodbye and always remember the name, Ken Koshi! ”. with his final words to Amano, Ken ran back to the furthermost distance from the ground as hord of undeads started to follow his trail.
The black mass of energy dropped down on the ground in the center of the Amano’s magical circle and Boom!. With a loud explosion, the whole ground got covered with white flash as the black mass expanded throughout the ground.
The crowd closed their eyes as the flash blinded them. A deep silence followed as the white light stayed for few seconds.
<opening their eyes> “Harry! Harry!” Amber fumbled with her words as she was fascinated by what she saw. The whole grassy surface was wiped out and only plain mud remained as a spray of water came up on the surface.
Amano was nowhere to be seen on the ground and so as Ken. “Amber! Where is Ken?”
“I don’t know” looking closely towards the demolished ground. “Wait I found something!” exclaiming with joy, she jumped over the wall into the ground and avoiding every obstacle, she went straight to the sword that was well anchored onto a white hand under a pile of mud.
“Harry! Help!” Harry rushed to the scene as Harry and Amber both dug up Ken from the ground. With all clothes wiped out <except his trouser> and blood all over the body, Ken lay unconscious on the torn-out ground.
“Ken! Ken! ” Amber shouted as she shook Ken but nothing happened. Meanwhile, Harry opened Ken’s stats to find out that Ken’s health was almost empty except for the small speck that remained in the end.
“Its fine! He’s okay” Harry said as the crowd began to clap in unison as they were highly impressed by the display that happened infront of their eyes.
“So ladies and Gentlemen!. The winner of this contest is the team of Ken, Amber and Harry.” A loud roar from the crowd followed an announcement was made in the stadium.
“So now, for the prize. As we promised, the winner of this contest will get a special boost and the boost is that the winner will be placed in the exact same location as the person who will be leading the players’ leaderboard in terms of the distance from the finishing point.”
A large green hologram covered the ground as the leading player’s position was marked. “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise! The leading player is near the foothold. Infact he has nearly reached the foothold and hence our winners will be going straight to the VALDRO castle ”, a roar again followed.
“So, I would request our players to kindly move towards the quantum teleporter that’s placed outside the stadium and I Steve will be signing off until next time. Goodbye!”
Amber and Harry picked up Ken and shouldering him, they took him near the blue-walled container that was kept at one corner with Steve standing near it. “Guys! How is Ken?” he asked looking at the wounds on Ken’s body.
“He’s fine. Just unconscious”.
“I’ll arrange for some medication immediately!” with Harry’s help Ken underwent a treatment as Amber and Harry decided to wait for few hours to allow Ken to gain consciousness.
[Meanwhile, Somewhere in the game]
(Sounds of devilish laughter echoing in a near-empty area with piles of dead bodies lying all-around)
“Stupid NPC’s, unnecessarily drenching my sword in their dirty blood.”
“Satoshi! Satoshi!” a voice came as Satoshi turned his attention towards the voice that came from behind.
“Hey! Dude, what is all this mess. I leave you alone for sometime and look what you did.” with a smile on his face, the player said while pointing towards the completely annihilated forest.
“I was getting bored you see. But these stupid goblins and war-beasts aren’t even good for killings”.
The forest of boom(as they call) was unfortunately turned into the forest of doom by the merciless killings of Satoshi who opened up the river of blood from the bodies of innocent goblins and war-beasts.
Skies turned black and thunder clasped as big black clouds covered the infinite and started to dance with strong winds rolling down the steep slopes of surrounding mountains.
“How many people will you kill? Seriously, you need to get a life!”
“As long as I’m getting fun out of it, I don’t care.”
“Seriously? Anyway, do you know that Ken Koshi won that competition which was organized earlier”?
“Ken Koshi!”
“Yes!”
“………………………..” laughing like a mad person Satoshi hit his head with his hands as rain started to pour down heavily.
“Oh! God. I didn’t expect life to be this good”.
“And guess what, he is heading straight to the castle”.
“I didn’t see that coming but that’s good, the sooner the better”.
With an evil grin, Satoshi looked at the sky as blood flew under his legs and flooded the whole place with smells of fresh blood and rotten dead bodies.