I Among Dogs

Chapter 31: What I'm Fighting For

 "Do you promise...?"

I was suddenly faced with a flashback to a few hours earlier, I was at the Heeler's house, knelt down in front of Bluey as she was looking up to me, concern dripping all over her face just as I was about to head the arena.

...That's right. Bluey made me promise that I'd come home from the fight victorious, how could I have forgotten that when I made that wager with Kurou?

Another flashback confronted me. This one I still remember to this day, one night where I was awoken by Bingo sniffling and sobbing in her sleep from a possible bad dream...

...and me coming over to comfort her and help her sleep peacefully.

One by one, I was met with more flashbacks. At first, I thought this was my life flashing before my eyes, but the more I noticed that they were of me helping Bluey's other friends among other citizens of Canistralia, the more I realised this was reminding me of how much of an impact I had made to this region.

The region that had one last hope of reuniting the entire world, which was me.

...

...No.

I can't let this happen.

I can't throw everything I've done for this land away.

I... won't... LET IT.

My blurred vision began to straighten itself as I saw the distant ceiling lights of the arena itself that slowly got smaller in size, signalling to me that I was still falling to the floor. If I didn't act now, it was over.

With whatever feeling I had left in my body, I struggled to send that feeling to any part of my body, anything to stop my fall.

...

Until finally, at just the last second, a surge of energy rushed into my left arm and my palm slammed onto the floor just beneath me, catching me before my body could make impact.

A heartbeat.

And then another.

Just after I had caught myself, my heart began to function once again and feeling of paralysis whittled away to nothing, my stamina recovered as I used a burst of it to launch myself, allowing myself to stand back upright.

I'll never forget how mentally satisfied I was to see Kurou's smirk turn to a look of disbelief upon realising I was still standing and raring to go.

"And it looks like Faulkner is still in, mates! I don't believe it, he managed to push through such a damaging blow, it's like he's a super-human!"

The cheering from the crowd got louder as the announcer made his awe at my comeback known, Kurou meanwhile quivered his body to try and shake off the initial shock and glowered at me, but I could still sense a hint of hesitation in his expression.

I don't know how, but I could sense he was about to perform another strike to the chest in attempts to paralyse me again seconds before he'd make a move. My arm shot up, deflecting the blow as I immediately countered with a kick to the stomach, which actually did a bit more damage to him than I thought as I heard him audibly grunt out in pain.

Seeing a window of opportunity, I launched a punch to the stomach to increase the pain he must've been feeling only for him to quickly recover and block with his arm, swinging a leg upwards to attempt a strike to the head, I quickly leaned aside to lessen the impact of the kick before ducking around his leg and shooting my own leg upward, which he never anticipated as I heard a faint crack and watched as he took a step back, his face bearing a look of severe discomfort as I saw the first drip of red slowly run from his nose.