"Are you ready?!"
The both of them screamed, "Yes!", and then the referee clapped his hands.
Denzel began to move back, looking at E-phant, bending to estimate his actual size.
Denzel kept approximating the size of E-phant to a Bear he fought when he still dwelled at Mountaly.
"One two three... About twenty to thirty inches height difference, I should be able to do this." Denzel said that to give himself a little assurance. He was sweating profusely at that moment. Even the height he tallied was just calculated guesses that were not close to accurate.
Still looking at E-phant, Denzel kept moving back, checking to see if he had a chance.
When E-phant saw that Denzel didn't make a move, he dashed forward, running towards Denzel at full speed.
That was a barbarous movement, and most animals always had barbaric movement. Denzel only moved to the left, and E-phant lost his balance.
Denzel was about to laugh when he looked at his abdomen. He saw a little scratch that eventually bled on his stomach.
He looked at E-phant, wondering where the attack might have come from. That was when he saw E-phant's right arm lunge forward, the attack was from the fingernail of E-phant's hand.
Denzel got more terrified, still trying to infer how quick he could stretch his arm when he attacked that way. It was as if E-phant had already known Denzel would do that before he even ran towards him.
Turning back, E-phant dashed towards Denzel once more, but Denzel didn't know when he arrived at his front.
'How is he this fast with this size?' Denzel thought to himself as he did a back stance the moment E-phant got to his front.
Doing a backflip, he kicked E-phant's chin and jumped back, moving back as fast as he could.
It didn't even take E-phant seconds to recover from that attack. E-phant dashed towards him again, but it was like Denzel had already known what he would do.
Denzel went as low as he could, sending E-phant attacks to his lower abdomen.
E-phant didn't even flinch a little, the attacks felt like feathers to him. He kicked Denzel away, making Denzel fly away, his back slamming the ground.
Denzel looked at E-phant as he used his palm to smudge his lower abdomen, telling Denzel that his attacks were painless.
Denzel expected that normally because fighting huge animals, they also felt little or no pain when he punched them.
Slowly, Denzel began to get used to E-phant's speed. But he was already panting, while E-phant wasn't even close to being tired.
E-phant ran to Denzel once more, sending his arm from below to give Denzel an uppercut to his stomach.
Before the attack could get to Denzel, Denzel was able to use his both hands to hold E-phant's arm, shielding the attack from his upper abdomen, clenching his teeth as he did. Moving in slow motion, the attack was too much for Denzel to hold back.
The attack wasn't able to reach Denzel's stomach but, it wasn't possible to stop the force from the attack. The force threw Denzel back, and Denzel almost lost his balance.
Before Denzel could gain his balance, E-phant went towards him, sending him a flying kick to the upper part of his body.
"Arrgghhh!!!" Denzel felt like one of his ribs had broken. He was knocked to the ground immediately, the pain from the broken rib was more when he landed on the floor.
Denzel couldn't even stand, he was still groaning in pain, coughing continuously.
"Is it over...? Is it??" The crowd was curious, each of them standing to their feet to cheer E-phant for his victory.
The pleasure E-phant gained from beating Denzel was much, from the way he grinned, it showed that he was having fun.
"He is still moving, The blanket boy isn't dead yet!" A voice shrieked from the crowd and each of them looked, dropping their hands down.
E-phant looked back at Denzel and saw how he tried to get up.
"You can still move? I didn't want to kill you before, but I guess I will do that now."
Moving slowly to Denzel, Denzel wanted to stand up real quick, before E-phant got to him.
'"Switch... Denzel switch with me..."' Denzel felt another weird atmosphere around him again, just like the one he felt earlier that day.
'What's this feeling?' Denzel thought to himself, trying to understand what particularly went wrong with him.
Denzel halted in his movement, shaking his head to knock that feeling off. He looked up and saw E-phant coming closer to him.
He knew that the moment his opponent gets close to him, the next thing coming is his death.
'Is the way I'd die?' Denzel said, letting his guard down intentionally. He looked at himself, sat up and placed his hands down.
"What? Did he give up? Why?" Denzel began to hear from one person from the crowd.
When E-phant got to his front, He raised his leg, kicked Denzel to the ground, making him lie on his back.
Raising the leg once more, he trampled on Denzel's chest. The pain was unbearable, but, he couldn't do a thing about it. His eyesight began to get blurred, and he closed his eyes.
"Denzel... Dense... Den-zel!" As he closed his eyes, for some reason, he began to hear the voices of Rocco, Ariel and Carter call out his name. Memories began to rush into his head and the last memory he saw was their brutal death that day.
"No, am I a dolt? Why would I give up?" Denzel said, and opened his eyes immediately he did. He saw E-phants leg run coming straight to his face.
'Switch!!' Like adrenaline, he unconsciously yelled that in his mind.
What happened next was a mystery for everyone. Denzel himself didn't seem to comprehend what exactly happened to him.
"What...?"
"What's happening...?"
"I am completely lost..." Voices echoed from the audience when they saw Denzel on his feet behind E-phant.
When E-phant was about to crush Denzel's leg with his feet, In less than a second, he kicked himself up, jumping high enough to reach E-phant's face and then landing behind E-phant.
He looked behind him and saw that E-phant didn't move an inch. E-phant turned his neck, but Denzel could see the blood dripping from E-phant's neck.
Still mystified, Denzel looked back at his hand and saw blood on a very long nail, and his hand were filled with scales. It was like the feet of a bird.
Still looking at his hand, he saw it transform back to his human hand in a very quick manner.
On the other hand, when E-phant felt the scratch on his neck, he touched it with his hand and saw blood seeping out of it.
"You dare make me blee-" E-phant turned around saying when he began to cough out blood. He looked at his chest and saw a little hole that Denzel pierced at the lower part of his left chest.
That was when his face tilted to the left a little. It wasn't just a small scratch that was on his neck. His head was almost uprooted from his body as almost half of his neck was sliced.
Still confused, E-phant went on his knees and then fell on his belly, coughing out blood. That was the end.
Everyone in the hall including the referee and Denzel were completely speechless, shocked about the whole situation.
Denzel himself was completely lost, still looking at his body to understand what exactly happened.
At the back of the crowd, Owl shook his head, smiled and walked out of the room.
"That's not fair!! It's unfair...!!" The silence was broken by the man that was kicked out of the ring by E-phant earlier, and the whole crowd turned their face to look at him immediately.
"We have been here, battling to get to the top when some insane runt enters here to battle the one at the top.
I won the last battle before this and I was meant to be the one battling E-phant... I would have probably won the weak giant if I fought against him.
Is it only me that sees the injustice in this place?!!"
"No!!! That's true!!! We all see it!!" The crowd began to echo out.
"That runt is meant to start from the bottom before he got to fight E-phant!" A voice yelled out.
"Yes, The Blanket man should fight against B-Tiger!" Another man echoed from the crowd. B-Tiger was the man that was kicked out of the ring earlier.
"Yes! The blanket man should fight against me!" B-Tiger yelled out from the crowd.
When the commotion in the hall began to increase, the referee left the hall to meet with Owl.
"Sir, should I approve of the battle?"
"Hmph! Not like they can kill him, just agree to it."
The referee walked back into the room. He squeezed himself through the barbaric crowd that kept on causing a commotion at the hall.
"Approved!!! The battle has been approved!" The referee yelled the moment he got to the centre of the hall.
He called the men with the stretcher to come and take E-phant out.
"Hehe, Blanket man, I am going to end you..." B-Tiger began to say, looking at Denzel with very wild eyes.
"Does the battle begin now?" Denzel eyed B-Tiger before asking the referee.
"Yes, it does."
"Please could I take a little break? I just finished one hefty battle..."
"No, that's not how it's done here."
"A water at least?" Denzel asked the referee.
"No referee, don't give him a chance! We would fight this way..." B-Tiger frowned his face, giving Denzel a wicked look.
"Are you both ready?!" The referee walked out of the ring and yelled.
"No, I'm no-"
"Yes, we are"
"Begin!!!"
The fight began, B-Tiger rushed Denzel, his fist raised. Denzel sighed, looked at him, and went low.
He first sent a punch to B-Tiger's stomach, and then he immediately went down, splitting his legs on the ground.
Doing that, his legs kicked B-Tiger's own, and B-Tiger lost his balance. He was still reacting to the attack Denzel sent to his stomach when Denzel knocked him off his balance.
Denzel stood up back, looking at how weak B-Tiger was. He shook his hands when he began feeling to feel pain in both hands that transformed to the Eagle form.
B-Tiger walked towards him once more, locking his arms with Denzel.
"Hey, you are weak..." Denzel said to B-Tiger the moment they interlocked their hands together.
"Wha-?" Before B-Tiger could finish what he was saying, he felt himself being raised and Denzel slammed him to the ground.
"Arghh!" B-Tiger yelled.
"If you fought against E-phant, you would have just died," Denzel said still shaking his hands that pained him.
"What?!" Voices started to shout from the crowd again.
"Has a new champion come to replace E-phant? Just who is he?" Another person from the crowd said. They were all stunned, looking at the way B-Tiger was being humiliated in the ring.
"Just end him and stop torturing him!" Someone else added.
"It was him that asked for the fight, not me!" Denzel yelled back to reply to the person that shouted out, while he dragged the head of B-Tiger that was already bleeding.
"Just... just kill me..."
"And hell I would..." Denzel said, smirking as he raised him to strangle him.
As he strangled him, the smile on his face began to fade, as he looked at B-Tiger's struggles.
Memories of his friend's death rushed into his head once more and he dropped B-Tiger immediately. He placed both hands on his face and staggered back immediately.