Chapter 6: 6: Misfortune – [V]

Content warning: This chapter contains graphic depictions of physical violence and may be too disturbing for some audiences. Reader discretion is advised.

                Several hundred pounds of raw weight clashed with the solid dirt floor, sending puffs of dust into the air with each of the minotaur’s steps. Jet black hooves, worn with age, advanced towards the broken and shattered podium. Pausing at the podium, Kregnok reached down with his right arm to retrieve his weapon. Rippling muscles and slick brown fur reacted to the oversized cleaver being hoisted single handedly into the air before coming to rest upon the minotaur’s broad shoulder. Two gray ridged horns curled out and arched forward from the back of Kregnok’s skull, forming a deadly duo easily capable of skewering any grown man with but a single charge.

                “Tut tut Mr Kregnok. Your beef isn’t with me but with the lovely little Lyssa today. Don’t force me to turn this match into a forced elimination.” The announcer reprimanded Kregnok, resting a hand on one of her axes while wagging a beastly lion’s finger at the bullheaded beast with the other.

                “If you’d keep those useless quips to yourself then maybe I wouldn’t feel the need to smash your face into that thick-furred skull of yours every time you open your mouth.” Nostrils flaring, Kregnok responded in kind, releasing curses and a loud snort to voice his indignation.

                “Is there any way we might resolve whatever issue it is… without fighting?” I hesitantly asked. From the perking surprise I saw in the announcer’s eyes and the deep scowl Kregnok shot in my direction, my hopes for a peaceful resolution to whatever problem Lyssa and the minotaur had with one another rapidly ground away into dust.

                “Kregnok proposed the challenge and you accepted it, remember? Once officiated these challenges must be seen to conclusion. If you concede now it’ll require the acceptance of both parties and you’ll be required to pay ten times the original submission fees. You’ll also likely incur the anger of a great many of the audience members who are here specifically to see the two of you fight.” Upon waving towards the audience, the announcer’s action drew the attention of the crowd who’d grown restless. They’d started to shout increasingly angry demands for her to start the match.

                “I won’t let you get off that easy. Not after what you did to my horn.” Cursing, Kregnok snorted again, raising a free hand to point out a visible fracture in one of the horns atop his head. The crack running halfway around the horn made me realize why the announcer had called him crackhorn… How had Lyssa even done that? I’d seen this girl’s body and it didn’t seem to me like her physical form could do that kind of damage to a horn that happened to be as thick as a human leg.

                “S-sorry, I don’t know how that happened…” Shaking my head I crossed my arms into an X. Without thinking about it, I spilled the honest truth as only I knew it to be. I’d never met this monster before today so I couldn’t possibly be privy to whatever had happened before I’d arrived in Neth’Lareese.

                “Are you joking with me!?” Kregnok bellowed curses, the air rippled with his outraged roar. “Start the match! I need to teach this little brat the lesson she deserves.”

                Before I could object, the announcer nodded an agreement and addressed the stands. “We have a fight people! And today’s match looks to be a heated one! May the best fighter achieve glory today, and to the loser goes the shame!” Raising both arms, she stepped back, signaling the match to start with a downward swoop.

                Leaning forward into a charge, Kregnok’s heavy frame shook the ground in his approach. Betrayed by my rational human thought processes, I naively assumed the lumbering beast would need a running start in order to gain any momentum. Instead my eyes widened fearfully. In the fraction of a moment Kregnok’s frame closed the distance and now loomed above me. Hooves bracing into a solidified form to leverage the cleaver, Kregnok swung at me full force from his back. The swift movements of a lumbering beast left me with no time to think, only react. I did the only thing I could possibly do with the limitation of movement I now possessed. I ducked.

                I could feel the pressure from Kregnok’s swing press down over me, and I could feel the blade catch on the only part of my body I had absolutely no control over… My hair. Crimson locks scattered into the air and a prompt snort from above drove my fear, bringing me to attention. Perhaps my height saved me from the diagonal arc he’d attacked from but I glanced up in time to see he’d prepared a follow-up. A second swing! Kregnok had planned to deliver combo attack!? How was this fair? I hadn’t been told I could bring a weapon. Hell, I hadn’t even known I’d be here fighting this monster of a beast until just a few moments ago! My heart leapt into my throat. How could I escape! The cleaver Kregnok wielded measured easily as long as I was tall. I couldn’t just dodge out of the way!

                ‘Don’t think, just do.’ Thoughts were dangerous, possibly deadly. Where had I heard this proverb before? I couldn’t remember. But it was right. If I stopped to think about things now then I’d be dead in a matter of seconds. I simply needed to act. Already crouched down after avoiding the first of Kregnok’s attacks, my leg muscles tensed. With all the strength I could muster I did the only viable thing my body could do in this desperate situation. I closed my eyes and jumped.

                The slicing cry of an enormous blade ripped through the air below my feet. Ecstatic relief flooded throughout my entire body at the narrow escape. Had this been my normal human body I don’t think I’d have been able to manage this sort of maneuver. But I’d taken a gamble with fate and came out on top. Unevenly split hair whipped around my face. Opening my eyes I was struck by surprise at the results. Maybe this Lyssa girl had actually been capable of putting that crack into the minotaur’s horn. Looking down, I judged my clearance to have been more than adequate. Twisting myself around in the air above I’d actually overextended at least five feet above the minotaur’s head. Maybe I could do this! I didn’t have to kill anyone but Lyssa’s body was actually quite strong! If I could leap fifteen feet into the air, surely she had the physical prowess to fend off a towering bull-man. I just needed to rely on whatever muscle memory she’d programmed into this body I now possessed.

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                The problem now? I was descending into a threat zone I really didn’t want to be anywhere near. Kregnok’s strike forced up dust along the entire arc of his attack’s path, but it didn’t seem as if he’d noticed my disappearance just yet. Landing in front of him would be a no-go situation. Thankfully the angle of my ascent and the downward curve of my return was going to land me on top of the furry brown brute. I came down hard, landing flat across Kregnok’s back which caused him to stumble forward. Desperate to keep myself out of range of his deadly weapon, I reached out for anything I could hold onto. The two horns atop Kregnok’s head came to my rescue and I reached my arms around them both.

                I’ve never tried riding a bull before but I’m pretty sure holding onto the horns when he’s bucking and knocking you around isn’t how it’s supposed to be done. Kregnok possessed a far more humanoid frame than a regular bull though so his attempts to wrestle me away from his back were much less successful. A good thing, though I didn’t know how much longer I could maintain my place without getting knocked off. Dropping the cleaver in favor of reaching back with large clumsy arms and hands, Kregnok spouted obscenities, twisting and turning every-which-way to no avail.

                Staying where I was didn’t help my situation any. Every time I felt myself slipping a moment would come where I could readjust and I held on even tighter to the minotaur’s horns. It was all I could do to avoid falling off. Getting bucked off and trampled under the hooves of a six hundred pound Kregnok did not appeal to my desire to survive this ordeal… “Can’t… we… talk… about… this…?” I managed to utter in between the moments where my body would lift off and land back onto the minotaur’s back.

                “There’s nothing to talk about. If you won’t get off of me and allow me to slice you up then I’ll just have to crush you!” Cursing, Kregnok stopped bucking his head around and stood firm. I glimpsed a moment of peace but my heart stopped a second later. Kregnok bounded forward, head lowered. Wind whipped at my face, the cool dry air causing tears to well up in my eyes. My ride was moving dangerously fast towards the arena’s edge. This bullheaded beast was doing what bulls do best… charge at their target. The only problem I had with that was it looked like he wanted to ram the both of us into the arena’s strong stone wall! I counted the time before contact. Six hundred pounds might be able to gain incredible momentum from a standstill but could he do the same thing to avoid hitting the wall himself? Either way I didn’t want to chance that sort of physical close encounter. Five paces before Kregnok struck the wall I released my grip on his horns.

                I tumbled to the ground, rolling head over heels before landing on my face. If Lyssa’s body did happen to be physically resilient, I couldn’t tell… Pain racked my body from head to toe. Cuts and bruises from the landing riddled my body and even the shirt I’d adorned last night was now torn… My heart winced at the sound Kregnok made when he slammed into the wall. Nearly six hundred pounds of flesh and bone impacted, sounding like a truck when it smashes into concrete barriers… Silence fell over the scene. Even the fans watching from the stands grew hushed. Kregnok still stood and I scrambled to my feet as well but something clearly was wrong…

                “I will kill you!” Stepping back from the wall, Kregnok’s enraged voice bellowed forth. I could see the damage left behind in the wall and shuddered. Chunks of toughened stone littered the ground and more still joined them when the minotaur removed his horn from the wall. One horn. A portion of the other remained stuck an arm’s depth into the carved rock. “You broke my horn!” He roared.

                “Technically you broke your own. Horn…?” I offered a weak smile. My reasoning did not go over well with Kregnok. The whites of his eyes burst into a bloodied rage, veins popped across the minotaur’s face and arms and he clenched his fists so tightly I could see the whites of the bone beneath his knuckles. I did the only feasible thing I could think of in that moment… I ran.

                I was fast, but the minotaur’s strides were longer. “I really think we should talk this out!” I cried out in panic, my heart racing a mile-a-minute. The only response I received were the resounding beats of heavy hooves in pursuit and the venomous snorting of a monster out for the kill. I hit the wall with a stinging embrace from my hands to cut my momentum before launching myself to the left. The beast in pursuit slammed into the same wall in a barbaric rage, never stopping to check himself before bounding once again in my direction. The next section of wall approached. If I could keep this up then perhaps I could get Kregnok to tire himself out. Despite the fear and panic welling up in my mind, driving my body forward, I didn’t feel winded at all. I could do this. I could maintain a constant and hope the beast would eventually calm down- No sooner than I thought this did I find myself falling.

                Kregnok had been charging at me the entire time. It never occurred to me that in his enraged state he might actually reach out in an attempt to grab at me. His right arm swung out. The minotaur’s hand brushed against the front of my bare feet, sweeping my legs out from under me. Chaos ensued, my body transformed into a rolling pin out of control. The air burst out of my lungs as intense pain rippled across my entire body. I couldn’t draw any air into my lungs, but I could see Kregnok looming over me. His raging subsided, replaced by a sadistic smirk spreading across his bestial features. My heart throbbed in pain from fear, panic, and a lack of oxygen.

                Grabbing my right leg around the knee, Kregnok lifted me up off the ground with more ease than he’d shown while carrying his cleaver. Stunned by the impact of hitting the wall at full tilt, I could do naught but look on in horror as the beast lifted me up and chuckled to himself. “You’ll pay for this.” Kregnok snarled. I didn’t need to see where he pointed to know he was referring to his now broken horn…

                A bloodcurdling scream of pain pierced the air, sending chills across the entire arena. My lungs burned, my throat instantly became sore, but none of it compared to the pain radiating from my leg. Kregnok’s fist crushed down with inhuman strength. Bones cracked, my kneecap shattered from the brute’s forceful grip. The lower portion of my leg now bent in a direction it was never intended to go! Screams of agony became silent as I found myself unable to draw breath that could replenish my vocals. Raising me up higher on broken leg, Kregnok briefly hoisted me over his shoulder like a trophy before swinging my body full force, directly into the ground. I could hear the bones in my chest splitting, the pain in my lungs becoming unbearable. Blood escaped my mouth, splattering into the air before my eyes.

                “LYSSA!!!” The sound of Lulu’s fading desperate cries were the only comfort I found and held onto in the face of my weakening consciousness…

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