"Stomp.. Stomp.. Stomp..."
With each step Alaric took, Yoshi felt like hammers were hammering away at his heart.
The taste of death was right at his door step.
Yoshi looks over to where Kane was standing.
Throughout the fight, Yoshi had turned his head over to this self-proclaimed heavy weight champion more than once.
"Looks like my bet was wrong."
Earlier on, while they were making their way to the arena, Yoshi had been keeping an eye on Kane.
He didn't know why, but back when he first saw Kane his senses were screaming at him to escape.
When he was looking at him, every fibre of his being told him that Kane was dangerous.
But after he got closer to Kane and made more observations, the dangerous feeling dissipated like smoke.
Kane seemed like every other prisoner he had arrived with.
Earlier, Yoshi took a chance by starting a conversation with Kane, but that dangerous never returned. No matter which way he looked at Kane, he seemed just like a regular prisoner. Pity.
Yoshi shakes his head and changes his focus back onto Alaric.
"Laughable, looks like I'm getting so old that little pups like you are starting to look down on me."
Yoshi stands up shakily and stares straight into Alaric's eyes.
"So what if you're a pure breed? So what if you can activate your second blood limit? I'll still kill you and leave this damn place!"
From his forearms to his shoulders, a dark green light started glowing brightly.
Once the light had subsided, Yoshi's sleeves were gone and replacing them were snake like scales.
His arms dangled at his side like lifeless pieces of rubber.
In both hands, he grips daggers that are dripping black, corrosive liquid. Every time the liquid hits the ground, smalls holes would form.
One of Yoshi's eyes turned into a vertical slit like a viper.
"Take this! Double fang blade! Toxic whirlwind!"
Like whips, both his arms extend out and start lashing at Alaric.
As though he had no bones in his arms, Yoshi slashes at Alaric at impossible angles. An attack was released from the right, but the blow would appear on Alaric's bottom left side. Another attack was released from the centre, but actually fell from above. Because of his snake like arms, Yoshi could attack from any direction.
As if he could see into the future, Alaric dodges each swing by mere millimetres.
Beads of sweat form on Yoshi's head. No matter how hard he tried.. he could never land a proper blow on Alaric.
With a smirk on his face, Alaric kept dodging with ease.
Suddenly, the temperature in the arena dropped dramatically.
Alaric turns and sees the dwarf glowing blue. After the light subsides, Thovor was covered in ice blue armour from head to toe.
"Hail Storm!"
Blocks of ice appear from thin air and Thovor starts hitting them with his hammer axe. The blocks are smashed into smaller pieces and shoot towards Alaric like bullets fired from a Gatling gun.
With a cold snort, Alaric's body blurs. While Alaric is running and dodging the hail storm of ice bullets, Yoshi was right on his tail slashing at him from every direction.
Just then, the temperature in the Colosseum spikes! Standing at a distance, the dark elf had just stopped glowing red and massive flame wings appeared behind him.
He shoots up into the sky and pulls on the bow in his hands. He pulls the bow to full extension and mass amounts of fire energy starts being sucked towards him.
"Armageddon!"
The dark elf releases the arrow, and like a comet falling from the heavens, it fell towards Alaric at an alarming speed.
Yoshi quickly backs off and fires his most potent attack.
"Thousand Kisses of Death!"
With his hammer axe raised to the sky, Thovor released his own most powerful move.
"Ice Age!"
Ice, fire and poison collide in the centre of the Colosseum.
There was no explosion. There was no loud bang.
Alaric simply said, "Charlemagne's greed"
Like water being poured into the drain, all of these powers were sucked in to Alaric's outstretched hand and gathered into a volatile sphere.
With the smirk still on his face, Alaric whispers, "Boom."
As if an atomic bomb had detonated, a shock wave bursts out from the centre of the Colosseum. It was so intense that even some of the audience members in the front row paled in fright.
Luckily, a bright yellow screen appeared around the Colosseum like a force field and kept everyone in the audience safe.
When the smoke clears, gasps could be heard from all around.
From the centre all the way to the edge of the arena, a huge crater had formed and the only one left standing was Alaric.
On one side of the arena, there was an ice blue dome. After a few seconds had passed, the dome slowly crumbles, and dying flames could be seen inside.
Inside these flames, Thovor, Yoshi and the dark elf were kneeling.
On Thovor's back, burnt skin and shrivelled muscles were falling off the bone. Clearly Thovor had used his own body to shield the others from harm.
Alaric smiles.
"Is this all you can do half breeds?" He laughs maniacally.
"Slaves will always be slaves. Half breeds will always be worse than slaves. Us pure bloods will always be on top of the food chain. And no matter how hard you try or how hard you train, you half breeds will always be a bunch of worthless insects."
Right then, Yoshi's body blurs and appears directly behind Alaric.
Without looking back, Alaric's left hand reaches out and grabs him by the neck and slams Yoshi down in front of him.
"I've said this before, Night Walker. You will be the first one to die."
Alaric raises his foot, and was about to stomp down.
Before Alaric's foot went down, an odd cough could be heard from the corner of the ring.
"Did a fucking atomic bomb just go off in the middle of the ring? What the fuck are you guys playing at? Can you have a normal fight like normal fucking people?"
Kane coughs violently and dusts himself off.
Alaric's head shoots back in astonishment.
"Impossible! How did you..."
Alaric was cut off by another fit of coughing by Kane.
"Holy crap. Can I get lung disease from all this dust? Shit, I'm too young and handsome to die of lung cancer."
Kane looks up and realises that the whole arena has completely changed.
He spots Yoshi underneath Alaric's foot, and Thovor and the dark elf kneeling just a couple of meters away from them.
Angry at being ignored, Alaric points his finger at Kane and screams out.
"How dare you ignore me, half breed! After I am done with these maggots, I'll make sure to torture you slowly. I will break every single bone in that worthless body of yours. I will pull your tendons out one by one and make you watch as I skin you and feed your pieces to the dogs." Alaric laughs uncontrollably.
"Yo Yoshi, you all good?"
Alaric chokes mid-laugh. Not knowing when, but Kane had somehow appeared behind him and removed Yoshi from beneath his foot.
"You look like shit. Are these guys your friends?" Kane asks as he carries Yoshi over to where the dark elf and Thovor are kneeling.
He gently places Yoshi onto the ground and looks over to the wounded Thovor.
"Bro, you should really get that thing on your back checked out. It looks sore."
The dark elf looks on at Kane incredulously. He thinks to himself, "I didn't even see him move. And I can't sense any warrior energy from him at all. What's going on?"
"Hey pretty boy. You mind looking after these two guys for me? Yoshi's my mate. Just make sure he's still breathing by the time I get back."
Stunned. The dark elf barely manages to utter a response: "You... What are you doing?"
Kane stands up and dusts himself off.
"Just gonna take out some trash. I'll be right back."
At this, Alaric's fist was just a few centimetres from Kane's head.
With just a slight tilt of Kane's head, he dodges the punch by a hairs width.
All Alaric saw was a blur in front of him and then the halfbreed human disappeared.
"Slow down there tiger, you know how long it took for me to get over what I've been seeing all day? Bodies exploding, people turning into animals, people flying. Shit is crazy. I've just got a few questions if you don't mind."
Roaring in rage, Alaric attacks with all his might. A flurry of punches and kicks are thrown at Kane.
But dancing like a butterfly, Kane weaves and bobs around with ease, throwing a series of questions as he dances around Alaric, "Why do you guys glow? Can everyone glow? What would happen if i glowed?"
None of Alaric's attacks managed to land. Shocked, Alaric turns and stutters "You... How... Impossible... This can't be."
Kane replies sarcastically, "You... How... Impossible... This can't be."
In fear and anger, Alaric throws a wide left hook.
Kane, almost as if it's ingrained into his muscle memory, shifts his body from left to right as he ducks under the left hook. As he leans his body to the right, he throws a quick two hit combo into Alaric's gut and kidney.
Alaric doubles over and folds like a shrimp.
After the two hit combo, Kane quickly throws a left uppercut to bring Alaric's head into view. Then he throws a right straight, landing on his chin.
The yellow force field on the opposite side of Kane's punch flashes and starts cracking under pressure.
Screams of terror could be heard from the audience. Some of them start running to escape.
After Kane threw the right straight, he turns around and walks back to Yoshi and the others without a second look at Alaric.
Yoshi, Thovor and the dark elf stare at Kane like they are looking at a monster. Kane arrives in front of his friend, "Yo Yoshi, sorry for being late. Just took me a while to get my head around this whole powers thing."
Yoshi, still staring at Kane terrified, doesn't know what to say.
Kane carries on, "You know, when I first saw you guys glowing, and people blowing up and stuff, I thought to myself, what the hell is going on with this world? I even thought this was hell. But then I figured, all this thinking is really not my strong suit. So what if you guys can glow like fireflies? What's that got to do with me? I'll just do the one thing I know how to do.. Fight."
Kane giggles to himself, "Not a bad days work I think."
And right on cue, Alaric crumbles over. Completely out cold.
Before Kane could continue his conversation with his friend, a bunch of armed soldiers came rushing out and surrounded the four. Spears in hand, they encircle Kane and the others.
A high pitched male voice cuts across the Colosseum, "Half breed human, you have defeated Alaric Magnus and claimed the title of champion. His Highness Lucinius Arcus Antorius will allow you the honour of stating who you are."
Kane giggles as he looks at Yoshi and the others, then back at the announcer. "Dude, is that your real voice or you just putting it on? Cause you could probably compete with Maria Carey with a pitch that high."
Angered, the announcer screams in a higher pitched register, "Insolent!! HOW DARE...."
Kane laughs as he cuts him off "Don't get your panties in a twist, mate. I was joking"
Kane looks at the soldiers surrounding him and he starts skipping rhythmically.
"You asked me who I am?"
Like a phantom his body blurs and all the soldiers collapse simultaneously. Kane's body reappears and he looks back up at the announcer.
"I'm a Boxer"