by Jamie Hawke
Only, now the skinny guy had seen me, along with his would-be victim. Both turned on me, but the closer one still had a guy he was up against. He had to return his focus to him when the man lunged. I slammed my spear into the man’s back. With my super strength, it went in easily enough and came out the other side, an inch from his opponent’s eye. Unfortunately, the spear shaft wasn’t strong enough to hold when I twisted and pulled, and snapped in half. I grabbed both halves just in time to raise them and block a strike with a club from the guy in front of me. If not for my leveled-up strength, I would’ve been dead at that moment.
I fell back and kicked out, knocking his knee backward and accidentally saving his life as the skinny man struck. Since my opponent wasn’t there to meet the blow, the skinny man overextended and fell on top of him. They grappled for a moment before I found my happy spot by thrusting the pointed half of the spear through the back of skinny’s head and into the mouth of the other. He wasn’t dead yet, but I took the other half of my spear and jammed its crudely broken side in through the eye-socket, ending him.
Damn, this was starting to feel like second nature. As much as I was aware of the fact that I was taking lives, my conscience didn’t say a damn thing. Either I was becoming an asshole, or my adrenaline was too amped up at the moment and I’d cry like a baby later, when I had a chance to cool down. Either way, right now I was relieved it was working out this way. Four down, six to go.
THWUMP! Everything went black and I staggered forward, faintly aware of a woman’s scream from up in the stands. I blinked and my vision came back as I saw myself stumbling into the wall, then the shadow of another strike incoming. Whatever had hit me would likely kill me if it connected again, so I needed to think fast.
I dropped and kicked off the wall, rolling back and right into a woman’s legs as her cutlass swooshed overhead, then fell to the ground as I knocked her off balance. My hands were on her calves, and I managed to heave myself up and into her thighs, bringing her to the ground. Shuffling up, I realized this woman had to be twice my size. She let out a growl and slammed her fist into my head. The blackness started to return and I tasted iron, felt warmth on my neck and realized it was likely blood, but couldn’t stop now.
Her fist came at me again and I threw myself to the outside, wrapping my arms around her to catch my breath as I pushed up, holding her arm against her head. She struggled and was damn strong, but not strong enough to break my grip.
“You should be dead,” she growled, then reached for my balls and grabbed hold, squeezing like a vice.
“FUCK!” I shouted, knowing that my chances of ever having a baby were about to become worse than any of these supers here if she kept that up. Hell, judging by the pain and her strength, she was about to rip off my twig and berries. No time for catching my breath. The only thing I could think of was causing her pain to distract her grip, and the only course of action I had at the moment was to bite. Her arm was my first target, but my bite tore flesh and she simply managed to squeeze harder.
I thought I was about to pass out from the pain, but saw only one target left. Releasing her arm I tore at her bikini top, exposing her breast and nipple, and tore the fucker off with my teeth.
Yeah, that did it. She was howling and thrashing, but I managed to roll away, my family jewels still intact. The pain was in my legs, my stomach, and spreading. I tried to stand, but collapsed, hands on my groin as if that would protect me from further pain. Her hand pressed to her tit, she was coming at me. How many times can one’s life flash before their eyes? I waited for it to happen, but am glad to say that it didn’t. What did flash before my eyes was Charm. Not a sexy, naked, hand on my dick Charm, but her, standing in a dress, her cute lips turned up in a smile, her loving eyes staring at me. It was a red dress, one I’d never even seen in real life that I could remember, but damn it looked real. At that moment, I swore to see her in it. Someday. Somehow.
When the woman snatched up her cutlass, looming over me, it wasn’t just fear for my life or my nuts that pushed me on, it was the image of the red dress. I said fuck it to holding back, hoping nobody would notice, and pushed through the pain to lunge. Of course, if you’ve ever tried to push through that pain, you’d know it’s impossible. I fell right back to my ass, and instead of attacking her scooted back to avoid the strike that narrowly missed me.
The pain wouldn’t last long, I knew, but I didn’t have time.
“Fucking suck it up,” I shouted at myself, and then grabbed dirt, which I flung at her as I rolled. She’d learned her lesson about being taken down from before, but I expected that—instead of going for the takedown, I waited for her to lunge back, and then spun on the ground to kick her legs out.
I don’t know if you’ve ever spun super fast on dirt and stones before while wearing nothing but weird gladiator underwear, but it stings like a bitch. Now my back was likely bloody as well, but I had my advantage and took it. Instead of going for her, I scrambled over to where I saw something gleaming in the dirt. My spear! My hand grabbed hold and I turned back, thrusting it through her calf muscle before she could even stand.
Her shout of agony was satisfying, but even more so when I knelt, realizing the pain had faded and jumped to land on her arm. I wrestled the cutlass away from her and turned back in time to see someone with a sword charging for us. He had half his scalp chopped off and was crying, tears streaking through the blood on his face, but he was committed to killing us. I cursed and took the final blow before he stole it from me.
One good thud and the woman below me was gone.
My energy was somewhat drained, but I figured that put me back to a point about equal to me before I had superpowers. And this guy with the sword didn’t look like he was anywhere near that. Only, then I noticed three of them coming from my right, and they seemed to be working together.
Damn.
So far there had been the first four, then the lady, so that meant one more. Since I couldn’t see the final fighter, that meant… Shit! I threw myself sideways as a trident tore through the air. One of its spikes tore into my arm and knocked it sideways, but broke free, tearing the skin. It wasn’t deep but hurt like hell.
Idiot let his weapon go though, I thought as I picked it up and turned. A woman stood there, yanking the spear half from the other woman’s calf as she eyed me. The guy with the sword was about the same distance, so instead of trying to take them both at once, I shouted a war cry and charged the group of three.
I didn’t know what effect that would have on the other two, but I had seemingly drawn everyone’s attention, as the three backed up, preparing for a fight. That had to mean the other two were coming, so I grinned. But when I glanced behind, it was clear that it hadn’t worked out exactly as planned. Instead of those two working to take down these three with me, as I’d hoped, and then letting us fight for ourselves, everyone had apparently surrounded me.
Somehow, I’d become the prey, all of them the hunters.
The drums were still beating, to my surprise. All the excitement and cheering had drowned them out… but there was more—the crowd was silent! They watched with bated breath, waiting to see what would happen.
Holy fucking shit, I was going to die. There was no doubt in my mind. My bladder spasmed, but I caught the urge to piss myself and pushed it away. Just like how I took my fear and punched it in the throat before stuffing it deep down in some dark place, and started laughing.
Why? In part to make them think I was insane, in part because I’d just imagined Charm in that red dress, her tail sticking out through a hole I would have torn to make it more comfortable for her. I could see her bending down and putting on heels, that hole tearing so that her ass showed—just a bit of her crack above sexy, lace panties. Maybe black, to go with the red dress.
Yeah, it was a mixture of insane, turned on by my imagination, and scared shitless.
But it worked. At least two weapons lowered as looks of confusion came over those fighters’ faces, and those w
ere the two I went for.
It was the first time I’d fought with a trident, but I learned real fast that, if you ever have to fight in an arena and have a trident to fight with, don’t be a pussy. Do it. Grab that fucking trident by the shaft and triple penetrate your enemies, tear their guts out, and spin to do the same to the next. Trust me, it worked on the first two, and even though I only managed dual penetration on the third—one of the trident ends missing—I fucking tore his throat out with the remaining two.
Ignore the sexual references—I already said I was losing my mind a bit, right? Or don’t ignore them, embrace them as I did in the heat of the moment. Imagine, if you will, some large dude who has probably looked down on people like you his whole life, and there you are with a golden spear of death, three prongs already covered with blood and guts, and he wants to kill you. Well, fuck that guy in the face with a trident. Then fuck him in those perfect, oversized abs, and then in the chest, over and over while you laugh and stare your last two opponents down.
With a final plunge, I stopped myself, realizing my muscles were feeling the fatigue. I shook my head, clearing it as best I could. The last thing I wanted to do was leave here as an actual insane person. I had to remind myself that it was an act.
And what would an insane person do next? Hell if I knew, but I tore my rope-supported underwear off and flung it in the face of the next guy as I charged. He swung wildly with his sword, but I had the reach and knocked it out of his hands before ending him.
I could barely hold up the trident anymore by the time I turned to the female with the half-spear. My half-spear.
“How the hell did they even let you in here?” she asked, staring at me wide-eyed. “You belong in a nut-house. Better yet, floating off into space where no one would ever have to deal with you again.”
I held out the trident, arms shaking, covered in blood and guts, dick hard as stone, and said, “Say uncle.”
“What?”
“You don’t have to die.” I held the trident pointed at her now, doing my best to keep my arms steady. “What do you all say? Should she run away and hide? Or…?”
“Kill her!” someone shouted, and when I glanced over I saw it was actually Twitch. She was pointing at the bundle that held my armor, and shouted, “You have to!”
Well, shit. Apparently, she’d found a way to see my experience, maybe her windows were partially working or something, I don’t know. But it seemed I only had one fight left to level up. That would be it, the final level. Enough skill points to unlock the troubleshoot skill and get us to Charm. One step closer to that red dress.
My eyes turned back to the woman in front of me, and she crouched. She wasn’t going anywhere, I was pleased to see. At the same time, I wanted more than anything to curl up and go to sleep, so when she charged, I lowered my trident, leaned on it, and then let it fall. There was no way I was going to take her on with all that weight.
The spear tip came close to my jugular but left her open for a punch to the gut. I was relieved to see that my punches still had enough to them to send her stumbling back, coughing. Seeing that I’d ditched my weapon, she glared and tossed the piece of spear aside, this time coming in with fists raised. Many women I’d known knew how to brawl, having been raised on the outskirts of the ghetto, but this woman was clearly a trained fighter. Her abs shone with sweat and splattered blood as she came at me, throwing punch after punch, half of them connecting. One of my eyes started to swell after taking a hit, and then my lower lip split open. I got in a kick here, a punch there, but she was kicking my ass.
“Next time,” she said, rounding on me and then connecting with a roundhouse to my thigh that sent me to one knee, “keep your underwear on. Die with dignity.”
“I can’t really have a next time if I die this time,” I grunted through the pain, and then took the next punch to the forehead in favor of being able to lunge up, grab her by the waist, and slam her into the wall.
In my mind, it was going to be this cool moment where spikes on the wall shot through her chest and stomach, and I’d have won. Unfortunately, it didn’t work that way. Instead, she made a face at the pain, then broke my grip and slammed her head into mine, making my swollen eye worse.
We grappled, tossing each other about, pressed firmly together in a way that made me keenly aware and relieved that my boner was long gone. She was right though, taking off the underwear had been too much. I’d never live that one down… if I lived at all.
It was almost sheer luck that, when she spun to get around me, I spun at the same time and my knee connected hard with her jaw. She fell down, I with my shin on her neck, and we stopped there, my fist raised. I was about to throw that last punch, finish her off, and get my level. The final level we needed to figure this out, we hoped, and then get to Charm.
“Do it, coward,” the bloody pulp of a woman said, staring up at me, and I hesitated. By God, I wished I hadn’t, because at that moment the missiles started raining down on us.
15
First, the far walls exploded, then sections of the stands and body parts went flying.
I glanced up at Twitch, who shook her head while Gale was at her side motioning for me to get to them. Her mouth was moving, but all I heard was the deafening explosions. If I didn’t move now, I was likely going to be buried under rubble, if I didn’t get hit by the blasts first.
Ignoring the lady’s calls to end it, to not leave her in her shame, I was up, charging for the far wall as more blasts went off around me. Odd how, when explosions and death are all around you, being nude in front of an arena full of people doesn’t feel like that big of a deal. Twitch and Charm didn’t even glance down at me when I made it up and over the walls to reach them. We ran for the only way we knew out of there, the doors they’d used at the back of the fighter staging.
“They found us,” I said, glancing up to see ships similar to the one we’d stolen from the enemy.
“More than likely,” Twitch agreed.
We ducked into the fighter’s area and nearly collided with the older woman with the flowered dress. She looked frazzled, but not panicked.
“Clothes,” she said, glancing at my crotch and then pointing to the tunics and britches along the wall.
“No need,” Twitch said, making me think she preferred me to run around like this, but then she tossed me the bundle with my armor. More explosions rocked the compound as I pulled out the armor and had it on in less than thirty seconds, including underwear—proper boxer briefs, this time.
“You…” the woman said, seeing me now for who I was. “They’re after you three, aren’t they?”
We didn’t feel the need to mention the fact that there were more of us out there, including the man we’d taken from Ranger, Wendlor.
“Which side are you on?” Twitch asked.
“The side that makes me a profit by keeping me in business,” the woman replied.
“Your business?” I asked.
“All of this,” she said, wincing at another explosion. “It’s mine… what’s left of it.”
“Seeing as those bastards are blowing your business to bits,” Gale said, “that sort of puts you on our side. So, which way is out?”
“If I help you…” She sighed and then pointed to the far wall. “There’s a door there, another stairway out of here to where, my people tell me, your ship remains.”
“And you?”
She shook her head. “I’ll be mounting a defense.”
I wanted to stay and ask more about what that meant, but she was already running off, calling orders into some sort of comms device. We made for the back door and were soon running for the wall, charging through crowds that had no idea which way to go as ships attacked from above.
“What the hell’s their plan?” Gale shouted above the noise. “Kill everyone and hope they get us?”
“Looks that way,” Twitch replied.
“We have to stop them,” I said. “Stating the obvious, I know, but the sooner we get
this whole affair taken care of, the sooner we can kick their asses.”
I pulled up my stats again and saw that Twitch had been right—not quite to the next level. So close, but not there. We bounded up those stairs, debating what we could do, but in the end, it came down to one simple point: We needed to get my level up, then hope that we’d be able to save Charm and find some way to stop this chaos.
We found the ship with Wendlor and Renowt, and he confirmed that all we needed was to open the gate. It could be here. Anywhere. It didn’t matter. We let them take the controls and get us out of there, taking it as proof enough of their loyalty that they’d stayed.
Twitch, Gale, and I went to the cargo bay, and as soon as we were there Twitch said, “First, you look like shit.”
“Thanks,” I said. “At least I feel like it too… so you know, it matches. Feelings and looks.”
“Uh-huh.” She looked me over, shaking her head. “We need to get you to the Citadel to get healed up.”
“But first we have to fix all this.”
“Right.” Her eyes took on a moment of doubt, then determination. “It’s quite simple, really.”
“The solution?”
“You have to kick my ass,” Twitch said. “It’s the only way to make this work.”
Gale and I stared at Twitch, totally caught off guard by what she’d just said.
“You seriously want him to kick your ass?” Gale asked.
“No, of course not,” Twitch admitted. “But if we—”
“Then fight me,” Gale interrupted, turning to me with a grin. “I’m not talking abuse or some shit, but fight and don’t hold back. Consider it rough sparring.”
