' WIN! '

That is what in his mind right now. The metallic taste in his mouth which is caused by the contact of blood and his tongue is getting worse and worse. He is on the ground while his opponent leg wrapped around his abdomen and striking him repetitively toward his face. All he can do is block with his hand. The cheering of the crowd around the arena is getting louder and louder.

' I MUST WIN!'

He is desperate. He knows that he will die if he lose the fight. It is a fight where you alive if you win and you can die if you lose. His stamina is depleted and willpower alone will not make him win the fight. At the same moment, he questioned himself. How did he get himself in this position. Well, first, his name is Hashira. Hashira is 18 years old and he is 178cm tall and still growing. He has red hair, his left eyes is also red while his right eyes is black. People called him the demon child because of his countenance. He is abandoned by his family. One day, he is found by a group of mercenary. The mercenary somehow decided to take him in and raised him. And now he is in this position, he became a mercenary and a fighter who fights in a gambling den. Well, that is the summary of his life. It is the year 517. The world is inhabited with humans, demons and beings that are hated by everyone, gods. The world is filled with terror causes by the destructive nature of demons. While the gods who has the power to fight demons never helped the humans. They are all alone. Nobody knows the cause of demons hatred towards humans. Their hatred is so severe that massacre of humans is a normal occurrence and it almost happened daily.

Hashira is struggling to win, no, he is struggling to survive. The opponent is 198cm tall and he is almost twice the weight of Hashira. The weight class is different. It is not a fair fight. Well, it is not a fair fight, if you lived in a normal world. In a split second, when the opponent is striking his face. He grabbed his hand and causes the guy leaned toward Hashira body, losing balance. Hashira punched the jaw of the opponent , staggering him. Somehow, Hashira managed to go in a tucked position while guarding his face. The opponent recovered and lean his body toward Hashira's knee that is tucked. He continued the one sided beating toward his face.

Hashira has a strategy in mind. To make his strategy works, he must grabbed his arm first. The striking continues until the opponent lose the speed of his punch, maybe his stamina is almost depleted. The moment his left hand almost reached Hashira's face, he caught his arm and wrapped his legs around the opponent's body. Hashira has done the first step on his plan, which is to catch his hand. After that, he pull his hand to the left side on his body and locked it by hooking his hand. At the same time, the opponent face is leaning towards Hashira's body. The opponent can't move his hand at all. Hashira then put down his left leg and push the opponent's body to the right using his torso and make space for his right leg to tuck. To immobilised the opponent's right hand, he caught his right hand and pulled towards his tucked leg.

'Taste this triangle choke ', that is Hashira's thought. He then raised his left leg at the opponent's shoulder and he does the same to his right leg but this time, it is toward the opponent's right shoulder. 'The last step.' , he thought to himself. With maximum force he squeezed his leg to the opponent's neck, making him lean to the front. Hashira then blocked the opponent carotid artery bypass by locking his right leg and hold his right leg ankle using his left hand. With maximum pressure he squeezed. The opponent can't move. He is accepting his fate. He will lose the fight and that means he will die. Within a few seconds he passed out.

The fight is not over yet. He continued the choke. The arena is in a uproar. Everyone shouting and screaming at Hashira's to kill the opponent. After he realized the opponent has passed out. He then stopped. The opponent can't fight anymore. There is no purpose or reason in continuing anyway. Then the crowd started to boo him.

"FUCKING COWARD!" ,

one of the crowd shouted. Hashira heard this. After a few seconds, he stand up. He then looked to the one who shouted and said,

" Why not you come in here yourself. "

While saying this, his red eye started to glow. The intimidating gaze toward the crowd somehow felt suffocating. The one who shouted then, started to sweat and he slowly back away from the crowd.

" Exactly, a bitch." He said.

Then the crowd again shouted, " BUT THE RULE OF THE FIGHT IS TO THE DEATH. "

" No, the rule of the fight is I can kill him if he lose. I win and I decided to not kill him." Hashira said.

" JUST SAY YOU ARE A COWARD, HAHAHA." the crowd laughed.

"HAHAHAHA!"

Suddenly, Hashira laughed and the arena is in the state of silent. After he laughed, he said, " You think I'm rotten like you? While everyone out there is fighting demons for the sake of their friends and family safety, you son of bitches right here in this rotten place, gambling. While everyone outside struggling to survive outside, you wasting money to see me kill. The state of the world is chaos from the massacre , and you want me to kill other human?"

The arena is filled with silent. The embarrassed look of their face somehow makes Hashira satisfied. Then he walked out of the arena, but he stopped midway. He turned to the crowd and said, " The fact that some of you guys gamble using the money you get by selling your daughter to the brothels, you sold your sons as slave, there are even some of you guys use their own old mother hard earned money to gamble. And I'm a what? A coward?"

A few moments later, Hashira walked out of the arena and he went to the counter to collect the money he earned from the fight.

" Well said, Demon Child." The manager of the gambling den said while giving Hashira's money.

" It is the same for you, you are the one who opened this rotten place. As a matter of fact, you are the worse" Hashira said.

" It is the same for you too, this money that I'm giving you right now is the money that been earned by them from selling their daughters to the brothel or selling their son as slave." the manager said in a sarcastic tone.

" I don't care where the money is from. As long that I can survive, I'm fine with anything." Hashira said.

" Then we are on the same page. As long I can survive, I don't care what money I'm about to receives. It doesn't matter. I can even lick some rich old man asshole if he want me to." said the manager.

The Hashira looked at the manager with a disgusted expression.

" I mean... As long as he pays... " said the manager.

Even I , the writer is disgusted from his statement. Then, Hashira walked out of the den. His body is in pain from the fighting. He decided to buy a ginseng, to boost the recovery of his muscle. Then he got back to his house. When he is approaching the door to his house, he opened the door and realized the door is not locked. ' Something is wrong here.' He thought to himself. He then decided to arm himself with a dagger from his bag. He walked inside his house, slowly. Then he heard a snoring sound. Then, he light the candle. Apparently, it was his mercenary group leader. Hashira then filled a cup of water and splashed it to his leader face.

" WAAH! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT FOR?!"

" No, I should be the one to ask question. Dear, leader. What is the purpose of your visit?" said Hashira.

" I raised since you a baby and this is what I get in return?"

" Yes, who ask you to raise me anyway."

" It is because I'm a good hearted man, I have a heart of gold."

" You mean a good hearted man who barged in someone house and sleep using someone bed while wearing that someone underwear which that someone just washed this morning."

"It doesn't matter, I'm here because there is a job coming up tomorrow."

" What kind of job? "

" A high paying one, but risky"

" What job?"

" Escorting."

" Okay, from where to where?"

" From here to the Lair of Divine Being."

(CHAPTER 1 END)