Chapter 30: Freak Encounter 8
A few hours after their hearty meal, most of the fighters including Lance, gathered in the arena for some unscheduled event.
Nobody knew what it was all about, but all thought the confusion would be lifted once the Landlord showed his face.
To everybody’s surprise, the one stepping up the podium from where the Landlord announced the day’s event, was none other than Scorpio.
“The very fact that I am here now, signals the change of many of the usual routines.” Scorpio said with authority spilling out of his voice.
“Today there will be two main events! The first is a battle between Lance and all the warriors in the arena present at this moment.” Lance was left speechless, while others voiced their anger, calling such a fight dishonorable.
“Silence! You have no choice but to accept these conditions, be thankful you are not in his shoes!” Scorpio said while pointing at Lance, who had a dark shadow over his face, as his body started trembling.
“Ha ha ha! You think I am the one at a disadvantage?” Lance said with a domineering voice.
Angered by his words, most of the warriors started yelling and cussing, making Scorpios job of having control over them even harder. Yelling with all his might, he finally silenced the warriors.
“As for the second event, Lance and Freakshow will be battling the Hydra.” What seemed to bother the warriors and even Lance, more than the mention of a legendary beast, was the assumption that Lance would be fit enough to fight after the first event.
As the warriors kept arguing whether it was fair or not, Scorpio made a quick exit. Lance also excused himself from the rowdy crowd, in order to prepare himself for the worst outcome.
“That Landlord knows who I am, normally that would be the signal for me to leave.” Lance said while walking down a long corridor beneath the arena.
“…But!” Lance remembered what the man with the bite scars told him, and the anger he still held inside his heart.
“Until I beat the Landlord into a bloody pulp, I won’t run!” Lance continued his walk until the time for his fight with almost all the warriors came.
The constant mumbling from the audience, who was perplexed by the presence of so many warriors at the same time, created a dreadful atmosphere for any normal human who was heading into the arena, but Lance was nothing close to a human.
He entered the arena without hesitation, to those in the audience his steps seemed almost sluggish, but to those that were about to face him, his steps seemed to be that of a giant. As he stopped in the center, the warriors began circling him.
“Now this scene is familiar! I’ve been in this kind of situation so many times, it’s getting dull.” Lance sighs as he relaxed his guard.
Just as he did, several courageous warriors took the initiative of attacking him. One held with both his hands a sword specialized in cleaving a body in two, another seemed to attack Lance with his legs, while another threw knives from a safe distance.
In a split second, Lance dodged the second warriors kicks, while braking in half the sword of the first warrior and dodging all the knives from the third one.
“I missed?” The warrior with knives asked with a shocked voice.
“That was cowardly of you.”
“!” Without letting the warrior react, Lance knocked him unconscious from behind.
“Anybody else wishes to lose their favorite toy?” Lance asked as he broke the second warriors legs.
What happened next, was a full on assault by all the warriors at the same time.
“That’s it! That’s your only chance of even touching me!” While keeping his cool, something within Lance was starting to unravel as if a trigger was activated.
Regardless of the numerous blades coming at Lance, he went in without any hesitation. The sound of shattered blades and bones, were followed by moments of silence when Lance was hit by a fist, cut by a sword or stabbed with any and all sharp objects.
By the time there only a few warriors still able to fight, Lance had lost three fingers on his right arm, and half of his left arm was missing. Many of the sharp objects lodged in his body were vital point hits, all fatal.
Normally the remaining warriors should have just gone in and delivered the finishing blow, but instead they stood motionless as they questioned how Lance could still stand firm.
“Why…why does it feel like if I attack him now, I am going to be the one losing, even though he is in that pitiful state!” The warrior asked the others around him, but the one to answer his question was Lance himself.
“It’s…because I am a monster.” Lance said while pulling out the sharp objects from his body, with his right hand that had miraculously recovered its missing fingers.
Determined to finish this fight, Lance moved towards the remaining warriors, which were about to surrender to fear.
“That’s enough, we yield!” The familiar voice that distracted Lance, came from one of the bloodied warriors, that was close to dying.
It was then that Lance realized what he did in those chaotic moments, and regret overwhelmed him, as he went to the man with the scars to apologize.
“No. Stop apologizing. I am the one that needs to apologize.” The man with the bite scars said, while gasping for air.
“I take back what I said before…please save this city, I don’t want to die knowing I did nothing…to prevent this corruption. Please, let me be remembered…as the one that called for the help of a hero…please…” The man said with his last breath, a word that Lance had never heard before being attributed to him.
“Hero…I was a hero in your eyes?”
What will Lance do? Stay tuned for the next chapter.
