"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! ARE YOU READY FOR A MASSACRE?!"
"YEAH!!!!" The excited crowd instantly yelled and cheered at the announcer's statement.
"WELL THEN, I GUESS YOU ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING, SO I WON'T NEED TO REINTRODUCE. WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, LET'S DIVE RIGHT INTO TODAY'S BATTLE THEME! WHICH IS...?"
"THE VICTORY AGAINST EVIL!!!" They yelled in unison.
"THAT'S RIGHT!! TODAY WE CELEBRATE 150 YEARS SINCE THE HORRIBLE DEMON LORD WAS DEFEATED BY OUR GREAT HEROES! 150 YEARS SINCE THE END OF EVIL AND THE DAWN OF OUR GLORIOUS AGE! AND WITH THAT THEME SET FOR TODAY, ON THE LEFT SIDE OF OUR ARENA, LET'S WELCOME THE ANTAGONISTS!!!"
The announcer, standing on a high pedestal, pointed to his left, where the slaves had just walked out of their waiting rooms and were now standing in the middle of the arena.
"BOOOO!!!!!"
"BOOOO!!!!!"
And immediately, the audience continues their disdain and discouragement towards the pathetic slaves.
"AND ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ARENA, HERE ARE THE HEROES WHO WILL DEFEAT THE ANTAGONISTS TODAY, THE HOLY KNIGHTS FROM THE CENTRAL CHURCH!!"
"WOOOO!!!!"
As soon as the announcer moves and points to his right towards the knights already in the arena before the slaves, the crowd instantly changes their attitude, cheering enthusiastically.
Quickly, the announcer waves his hand up and down to order the people to stay silent. "BUT THAT'S NOT ALL." He continues his speech.
"TODAY WE HAVE A SPECIAL GUEST, ONLY FOR THIS SPECIAL OCCASION. CAN YOU GUESS WHO THAT IS?"
"Yeah!!!" The audience immediately understands themselves.
"THAT'S RIGHT! PLEASE WELCOME OUR WONDERFUL KNIGHT, THE GREAT AND HOLY, THE ONE AND ONLY, SIRRR GALLAHANNN!!!"
"YEAH!!!!!"
A man in shiny armor, without a helmet, rides out on his horse, clip-clopping slowly into the arena with his hands spread out as he is welcomed and cheered by the audience.
"Gallahan! Gallahan! Gallahan!!"
The crowd resumes calling and yelling his name in unison as they see their idol finally show up.
"Greetings!" As soon as he speaks his first words, the audience instantly shushes each other into silence.
"Ladies and gentlemen! What a pleasure to be here today! As you all know, today we celebrate 150 years since the purge and extermination of evil from this beautiful world.
That's why today, we're glad to bring you a show to demonstrate how evil was purged centuries ago! I guess you can't wait to see it, right? Without further ado, let's start the show!"
"YEEEAAAHHHHHH!!!!"
"ALL RIGHT, SIT TIGHT, SIT TIGHT, EVERYONE!" The announcer tries to maintain order among the crowd, then continues.
"DUE TO THE REQUEST FROM SIR GALLAHAN, WE'RE GOING TO START TODAY'S SHOW IN THREE..."
As the announcer's countdown echoed throughout the arena from the loud magic speakers, the minds of the slaves were filled with fear and anxiety.
"Are we going to die?" A slave asks the others.
"TWO..."
"Yeah..." Another answered.
"ONE!!!"
"Hyahh!!"
As soon as the countdown reached one, the knights immediately kicked their horses, urging and forcing them to charge toward the slaves as fast as possible. They drew their shining long blades from their hips, ready to engage.
"Let's go, my boys! Bring the audience the best show of their lives!" Gallahan yelled at the knights moving behind him.
As the knights closed in on the slaves, they prepared to fight for their lives, taking defensive positions despite their inferior weapons. Their hearts raced and their faces grew sweaty as the knights approached with their long swords. But then:
"Where are they going?!"
The knights suddenly split into two groups, moving in different directions to surround the slaves in a circle. They kept moving, shrinking the circle's radius as they circled the terrified men.
This leaves the slaves confused, spreading their attention thin and making them careless as the knights move all around them.
One slave can't keep up with the horses circling him. Distracted, he lets his guard down at an unfortunate moment.
"Behind you!"
"Huh- ARK!!" He is slashed in the back and instantly collapses, blood spilling on the ground.
"YEAH!!" The crowd cheers at the knights for the first kill of the show. In response to the audience's enthusiasm, the knights tighten the circle even more and begin the massacre to satisfy the crowd's bloodthirst.
SHREEK!!
Within 10 seconds after the first kill, the second slave is slain by the blades of the holy knights.
"NO, NO, GO AWAY!! GO AWAY!!! ACK!!"
Then comes the third.
"GAHHH!!!"
Then the fourth. After just two minutes, the number of slaves alive is half the original number.
The slaves try to fight back with the weapons they picked up earlier, but it's all useless. Most of their weapons break upon impact with the knights' well-maintained swords, and the slaves have no fighting skills to put up a real fight.
"Save me..."
Amid the chaos, Shuku is left bewildered by the noise and madness all around him. The terrifying sounds of meat being slashed and the voices of the hopeless slaves crying for help as they die in front of him are traumatizing.
The slaves know that the weapons given to them are just for show; they already understand that this is their inevitable end.
"Don't, please, spare me! I would do anything—!" A kid, realizing he can't fight back, decides to drop his sword and run, trying to outrun the horses on his own two feet.
"Yeah, run as fast as you can!" Gallahan, feeling the thrill and adrenaline of the chase, smiles as he closes in on the limping slave. He slashes the kid's head off his body.
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!! PLEASE, SPARE ME! I'LL DO ANYTHING—!" Another slave, too terrified to even fight or flee, drops his weapon, kneels, and begs the knight in front of him for mercy.
Yet, the slave's sincere plea is met with the knight's cold eyes and the shining blade slicing his chest in half.
"So... this is how it is, huh..." Knowing his time has come, the middle-aged slave who spoke to Shuku earlier talks to himself in his final moments as a knight rushes toward him.
Strangely, he feels no fear despite death approaching. Instead, he senses a peace finally arriving after what feels like an almost eternal hell.
As he prepares to meet the knight's holy sword, his attention shifts slightly toward Shuku. A knight sneaks up behind the kid, poised to strike. For reasons unknown, the man instinctively yells at him.
"Kid!! Watch your back!!"
"Huh??"
Shuku turns his head at the sound of the voice, only to see the blades coming at him with maximum speed.
SHREEK!!
...
Shuku's head is sent flying through the air as a knight beheads him. The entire audience watches in excitement as his head lands on the ground a second later, rolling a few more times before finally coming to a stop, blood spilling everywhere.
His headless body collapses a few seconds later, the metal slave collar rolling on the ground since his neck is gone. This leaves the middle-aged slave as the last one standing in the arena. Just, not for long.
"ARGLL!!!"
After witnessing Shuku's death in shock, the man is quickly slain by the knight who is coming at him. A swift slash to the stomach kills him instantly, and he falls to the ground, joining his nine fallen colleagues.
"YEAH!!!"
Immediately, as the final 'antagonist' falls, the audience stands up, celebrating and yelling his name.
"GALLAHAN! GALLAHAN! GALLAHAN!!"
"GALLAHAN! GALLAHAN! GALLAHAN!!"
Throughout the entire arena, Gallahan's name echoes. He slowly moves to the center of the arena, raising his arms to welcome the warm cheers from the audience.
"YEEEAAAHHH!!!"
The crowd goes wild as Gallahan responds to their cheers, jumping and shouting in joy. He strokes his hair and lifts his head.
"Phew... What a great show! Did you all have fun—"
"I LOVE YOU, GALLAHAN!" A girl yells.
"Thank you, thank you, beautiful lady! I love you too! So, did you all have fun?!"
"YEEAAHH!!!" The crowd shouts in unison.
"Gallahan! Gallahan! Gallahan!"
"Thank you, thank you! You guys are truly the best, thank you—"
"Is that all you got?"
"!?!!"
"What the?"
Suddenly, a voice emerges in the arena, grabbing all the knights' attention. Despite not being loud, it's clear enough for Gallahan to hear over the crowd's yelling.
"Who's that?!" He asks. The audience, puzzled by what's happening, stops yelling and watches in curiosity.
Instinctively, Gallahan turns toward the direction of the voice. Strangely, he can't see who's speaking, but the voice seems to come from one of the slaves' dead bodies.
"I thought you knights were strong, but it turns out you're even weaker than the monsters in that dungeon. Pathetic," The mysterious voice continues.
"Who's that?! Who's speaking?!"
As the voice continues, Gallahan becomes more confused and worried, his instincts telling him something isn't quite right.
"All you do is enslave the poor and vulnerable, feeding on the suffering of others, yet you call us evil."
Finally, after the voice speaks for the third time, Gallahan and the others locate its origin. All seven knights turn their heads toward the bodiless head of a teenage slave lying on the ground, his face turned back to them.
"Now that I know, I don't need to hesitate anymore."
All the knights are shocked and terrified at what they see: the mouth of the head is moving when it should be dead. And what comes next horrifies the knights and the entire audience.
"Hey, is that?!"
"What's going on?!"
"His... the slave's head! It's moving!"
"His body, it's moving on its own!"
"UNBELIEVABLE! THE SLAVE WHO WAS BEHEADED IS STILL ALIVE AND MOVING!"
The announcer's voice echoes throughout the arena, drawing the attention of any distracted audience members to the separated head and body of Shuku.
Fear and anxiety skyrocket as they witness something unprecedented: a human still alive after being beheaded. The head shakes around the body, blood still leaking from the neck, trying to get up on its own.
The body and the head are not far apart, but the distance is enough to make him struggle to put his head back on until...
"Oh my god!!"
"What in the hell is that thing?!"
The blood leaking from the body finally reaches the detached head. Immediately, the blood stops being liquid and turns into a dense, sticky slime, tightening and forming a strong connection between the head and the body.
Slowly, the blood tightens even more, hardening the connection and pulling the head toward the body.
"OH MY GOD!!"
"He's... he's a monster!!!"
As the head drags along the ground toward the body, now standing on its own, people scream and panic at what they're seeing. But the most shocked are Gallahan and his knights, witnessing it up close.
In the entire known human history, no one has ever reattached their head after being beheaded, let alone a slave with almost no significant magical abilities. Unless, this human is not human.
As the head is delivered by his blood, he grabs it and places it back on his neck, making minor adjustments to fit perfectly as if it never left his body.
The slave takes nearly thirty seconds to reattach his head, giving the knights enough time to calm themselves and prepare to engage what they now consider, a real threat.
"Now that I know, I don't need to be nice to any of you. Oh, and by the way... thanks a lot for taking this annoying collar off my head." Shuku says, holding up the now useless metal slave collar and breaking his neck left and right with a sinister grin.
"As expected, you and your kind are really the devils! Everyone!!" Gallahan attempts to grab the audience's attention.
"Please watch as we purge this devil that has finally shown his true nature. We will show the monsters that we humans will always win, no matter what! Are you with me?!"
"..."
"YEAH!!!" The crowd is hesitant and worried at first, but believing in their knights, they eventually follow him.
With everyone in the arena on their side, yelling and cheering, the knights, especially Gallahan, feel their morale boosted. They are now confident they will defeat Shuku, no matter what. Only...
"Now, it's my turn." Shuku says as he drops the metal collar to the ground and grabs the knife he picked up earlier.
'What is he planning to do?' Gallahan wonders, staring at the slave in confusion.
Shuku then moves toward the body of the middle-aged slave who chatted with him earlier, stepping in his blood. He raises his right arm sideways, grips the knife firmly in his left hand, and slices across his right forearm.
Instantly, blood begins to flow like water, streaming down from his forearm to his hand as he lowers it again.
Right now, the knights and the audience are more bewildered than ever, wondering what this "devil," they assume, is actually trying to do. Only when the blood from the forearm drops and mixes with the blood of the other slaves on the ground does their confusion turn into shock and terror.
"What the fuck?! What in the actual fuck?!!"
The blood flowing from Shuku's right arm stops dripping down like normal liquid. Instead, it starts levitating mid-air from the tip of his middle finger, spinning around while more blood rises from the ground, moving up Shuku's leg, and supplying the blood on his right arm.
Slowly, the blood begins to solidify, forming a red tube as he opens his hand, creating a handle he can grip. As more blood flows, the tip of the tube shapes into an upside-down star, with two additional tubes extending from the star's left and right.
His irises, once a normal brown, have suddenly transformed to match the upside-down star's symbol, turning a deep, pure red after a single blink.
Finally, he raises the sword's handle sideways. The surrounding blood flies toward the star, spinning around it as the blade takes shape.
To everyone's amazement and shock, the blood continues to build up, forming the rest of the blade from bottom to top. Now, he finally understands where the Blood Blade has gone after he achieved it in the dungeon.
The Blood Blade didn't disappear; it hid itself inside his body, merging with and becoming his own blood. Only when he cut himself did the blood come out and act on his command, truly, a Blade made out of blood.
As the Blood Blade finishes transforming, using the blood of the dead slaves around him, Shuku swings it down and points it at the ground, keeping his eyes locked on the knights.
"Now, I'll show you what a real battle looks like."