Once more, the screen displays the faces in quick succession and the stoic face of Miroslav Zanaya flashes up. He gets up from the dugout and stands in the centre of the ring, staring up at Alduin with cold eyes.
"I will not fight. This is barbaric sport and while I will fight men, I will not fight unholy creatures."
He sat down, crossed his arms and his legs, shutting his eyes.
"Bring whoever, they will not break me. But if they are not a man, I will not fight back."
Alduin rubbed her chin and gave him a stern look, leaning over her balcony to get a true understanding of his size and motives. She winked and smiled.
"I don't think you'll feel that way when you see what emerges out of the depths. Trust me."
She leans back and holds her microphone as if she were a singer belting out her favourite song.
"Coming from the swamps of Russia, she hears the trees and the trees say "violence"... The Baba Yaga!"
At the mere mention of this name, Zanaya's eyes open and fixate on the elevator across the hall.
He never moved from his position, but the fear in his face was primal.
The kind of fear that moves a man to do terrible things.
-
NFC Quarterfinal Match: Miroslav Zanaya Vs The Baba Yaga
Ancient, thick hands clasp either side of the doors and force them open, grabbing the sides of the doorway and pulling the head of the great old hag through. She was blind, her nose riddled with boils and pustules, the bones crackling as she pulls her wrinkled frame into view. Her pot bellied stomach is bare and writhing, her lower extremities covered with a mouldy cloth that extends around her waist. A large burlap sack being dragged behind her, attached to her leg with a thick rope.
Zanaya does not move from his spot, but his eyes remain on The Baba Yaga as she drags her limbs around the pit, circling him as she looks for a weak spot.
"Our quarterfinals roll on with the Sambo specialist taking on what is possibly the most well-known Slavic folklore beast. What do you expect we'll see in a tournament already rife with surprises, Nelle?"
"Honestly? If Zanaya doesn't get off his ass and accept the situation, he's going to be ripped to shreds. Regardless of how well strong he is." Nelle sighed and flicked through the book, shaking her head. "Men are ridiculous."
As the Baba Yaga drew nearer, she stopped and smiled, yellowed ogress teeth visible from underneath the crooked nose as she pulled open the burlap sack and a Childs voice screamed out."Mama! Papa! Someone help me!" Before she closed it and looked at Zanaya, laughing as his expression broke from stoicism to blind terror.
"Marishka..." He breathed. "My daughter..."
He stood up to prep himself for an attack, but The Baba Yaga shook her head and wagged her finger.
"You must know what we know. Feel what we feel. Isolation. Suffering. Grief." Her voice croaked out like the trees in the woods before she clasped both hands on the bag and with great force sent it flying into the canvas with a sickening splat.
I dry heaved and even Nelle looked away, horrified.
"That's what she does to those who cross her..." Nelle whispered, catching her composure. "She punishes them."
The tearful scream of Zanaya rings out for just a moment before his head falls and his will is broken.
The Baba Yaga leaps towards Zanaya to take advantage, claws bared and a cackle that rips through the pit.
In an instant, she is knocked flying into the air by an uppercut. Her body soars and lands in a heap, her nose completely broken and gushing like a faucet.
Whatever was hitting her, it wasn't Zanaya anymore. His teeth were gritted so hard that I could hear the grinding from my booth, eyes locked in a death stare and veins bulging from his neck.
He did not allow her time to recover; he ran forward and using his forward momentum wrapped his arms around her waist and flipped his body backwards into a horrifying snap-german suplex, sending her head and shoulders crushing into the mat and bouncing until she lay on her back.
Calm, calculated and malicious, Zanaya walked forward with the bag in hand. Still wet with blood and placed both of his feet far apart, his posture low as he pulled it over his head and down onto her stomach with gruesome results. She vomited bones, flesh and blood up over the canvas before aiming at Zanayas face.
With the moment she had to manoeuvre, she clawed at his eyes, opening up a huge vertical gash that spread from his eyebrow to above his lip. Cackling with blood and vomit strewn across her face, she leapt forward to try again.
This time, however, she would not be so lucky.
Zanaya leaned back as she came forward, causing her to stumble while he again maintained a waist lock. He gripped harder until bones snapped and she shrieked. Rearing his head back, he head butted her in the broken nose until her screams were muffled by the blood and agony. Only when gurgles could be heard did he deliver the final, crushing blow.
With a heart-wrenching roar he snapped his body backwards and drove her face and skull into the mat with such force that she remained up for a moment. Though certainly not on the level of Alduin it was still impressive.
Her body lay still and Zanaya slapped his head over and over, licking the blood off of his fists before falling limp as his victory was announced. Confused and looking over at the crumpled form, his eyes cast to the now opened burlap sack and to the shock of us all, did not spot any children inside.
Just a bag of leaves and some dead rabbits.
-
Alduin applauded the Dagestani as he went back to his seat, looking over something on her phone before casting her attention to the last two competitors of the quarterfinals.
"Now, I realise we have an odd number of competitors remaining and it dawned on me during the opening ceremony that ONE of them is fighting for the wrong side... roll the footage, Watson!" She leaned over the balcony and bit her lip, grinning.
It was the moment Stefano Justiano had attempted to accost Wendy. She ripped him in half in an instant with elongated fingers, pulled down her mask to stretch out her mouth and lap up the viscera before going back to lay down against the wall.
"I knew they CALLED you Wendigo Wendy... but I didn't think you actually were one!" She laughed, replaying the moment over and over. "But, this means you're not eligible to compete in the tourney. At least... not on THIS side."
Wendy stood up and walked to the pit to confront Alduin, still showing virtually no enthusiasm and borderline-tiredness.
"What can I say? YOU took ME. I was kinda in the middle of something with my friends, y'know. We got our own shit to deal with, and it's a lot weirder than this. So if you don't want me, how bout you send me back?" Alduin beamed down at her and laughed.
If she wasn't the NFC Champ and a destroyer of wills, I'd find it endearing.
"Oh, honey. We took you, yes. But we always ensure they who we take has a reason to fight. Otherwise, nobody would ever properly compete and it'd be a boring fuckin' bloodbath... that's how it USED to be. Motivation is the key to anything in life and while you may not be here completely willing, doesn't it strike ya as odd that EVERY competitor so far has just gone along with it? They all had a wish... so do you." Wendy's eyes flicker for a moment before returning to their half opened state.
"Well, you're in luck! While you're about to be disqualified from THIS tourney. There'll be another you're entering. The Wildcard Invitational. I'll provide details shortly. For now, be a good girl and rest."Wendy scoffed and stretched her arms out as she walked back.
"Just remember. You may be able to rip me to shreds, but only one of us can keep coming back. And I am one persistent bitch."
Alduin smiled and her eye narrowed as she cracked her knuckles.
"I'm counting on it, kid."
-
So, the tournament semifinals were almost set; Eustace De Kolta, Miroslav Zanaya and Rex Chugg had all beaten their respective creatures of the night and proceeded on. All that remained was Nora Zayne.
As she walked to the pit for her fight, I felt faint. I couldn't for the life of me explain it, but something about her immediately lapsed my focus. Like seeing an old photograph for the first time in 10 years or the smell of a bbq on the first hot summer's day; it was intoxicating. Flashes of emotions and places I'd never been to hit me like a freight train.
"Hey, Sal. You good? You're sweating a lot and I don't want that nastiness on my book." Nelle peered over at me, taking my temperature. "Jesus, you're not well. Want me to take over?"
"N-no, I'm fine. I'll be fine. Motormouth has gone through worse than this, lemme tell ya!" I feigned confidence, but my mind was burning.
"I ever tell you the time I called a monkey knife fight while I had the flu?"
"You did not, but that sounds horrifying and disgusting on several different levels, Sal. And we're watching literal monsters tear people to shreds, so that's saying something."
"If it helps. It was two men in monkey suits with machetes and the flu wasn't the flu, it was seafood poisoning. I puked all over my Hawaiian shirt, the monkey suits and one of the guys slipped riiiight as his opponent was cutting him. Was not a fun sight."
Nelle stared at me incredulously before laughing and patting my shoulder.
"I guess you're full of surprises, Sal. I wonder what other things a guy recently released from a psyche ward could tell us."
"Catch me in the interval, we'll share war stories, I'm sure you've got plenty, right?" I quipped, taking a drink of water and trying to calm myself as the lights dimmed.
"Oh, so many. When this is over, we'll go to a bar far from here, in-between spaces and filled with the best drinks you can imagine. It'll be on the house." The screen dinged and Alduin leapt from her place above to greet Nora. But something in her gait seemed different, more determined than before.
This looked almost personal to the champion.
"Four long fuckin' years and you made your wish, was it worth it?" Nora spoke for the first time and her oddly soothing voice was dipped in a calm anger. "Was it worth taking away everything I ever had?"
Alduin unstrapped the title from her waist and held it up as she leered over Nora, her towering frame eclipsing the light above her as she pressed it against Nora's face.
"More than anything you can imagine. I'm so glad you were ready this time, that they let you out of the crazy house to compete. I take it you've used your time well? Because what we have planned for you is... custom-fit to your personality."
Nora shoved the belt out of her face and jumped up to deliver a crushing knee to the champs face.
She staggered back and fell to a knee which Nora took as an opportunity to scale up on and drive her elbow down on the base of her skull, stopping just short of the strike as Alduin looked up with a mixture of anger, shock and glee.
"I like to think so, but I know you and I know this fuckin' tournament doesn't care about practice. We're made better through blood and suffering. I am no different." She leaps off and lands with grace as the crowd cheers hers and Alduins names. "We're destined to do this dance forever, one way or another."
"Oh, I couldn't agree more, but you've got a LONG way to go yet." She grinned, wiping her nose, and her eye flashed with a brilliance that betrayed the malicious energy she exuded. The elevator doors opened as if on cue, and Alduin grabbed the mic.
"Ladies and gentleman! The final quarterfinal match of the NFC Openweight Tourney is underway! Already standing in front of us is the effervescent and absolute badass Nora fuckin' Zayne! Her opponent, a creature that only fights when god is asleep and is ready to rip her to pieces... The Daywalker... The Ghoul of the Filipino mountains.. The Manananggal!"
The doors open and a black-haired woman emerges, crawling on her arms as organs openly trail behind her. Jutting out of her back are a pair of thick black wings, the ends soft and perched like additional limbs as she expediently crawls out and along the side of the wall, her greasy black hair hiding her face.
Nora stood her ground. But even from where I sat, it was obvious that this was symbolic of something.
She turned to Alduin, who was already walking away, and spat on the floor.
"You just can't resist getting a fucking insult in, can you?" She hissed, primed to strike at any moment, but Alduin simply laughed and gave her the middle finger as she leapt back up to her perch.
"Focus on them, not me, champ."
-
NFC QUARTERFINAL MATCH: Nora Zayne vs The Manananggal
Nora blinked and turned as the lower torso kicked her in the stomach with a mule kick, followed by a roundhouse to her neck and a hook kick to her temple, sending her crashing to the ground in a heap as the crowd jeered.
"MY GOD! What a flurry from the legs of this creature! I didn't even see the bottom half enter the arena! Nelle, what can you tell us about the Manananggal?"
"It's often confused with the Wak-Wak or the Aswang by outsiders. In Filipino culture, this is their equivalent vampire, witch and man-eater. Legends say women who were left standing at the alter split themselves into two so the bottom half could wait while the top half hunted. Others say that they feast on the blood of newborns and that's their favoured prey..." She shows me a photo in the compendium of one shoving its proboscis into a screaming man and slurping up his blood through sharpened teeth. "So cruel... why would Alduin do this?"
"I'm not sure why the commissioner and champ do ANYTHING, Nelle. But, we have our final match set and if Nora isn't careful, she'll end up its next meal!'
The top half cackled and flew over the top of Nora, prepping itself to swoop down and bite. Nora flipped back and assumed a defensive stance, wincing from the shots she'd taken. But with two opponents instead of one, this was not going to be simple. The moment she put her attention on the screeching top half, the bottom ran forward and executed a toe strike to her stomach, winding her before executing a dropkick that hit her in the face and chest, again sending her tumbling backwards. Regaining her footing once more, but this time dropping to a knee, the top half swooped in and slashed her bicep, taking her blood with it as it flew back to the wall to wait.
They were breaking her down bit by bit and while I expected Alduin to be clapping, laughing or making a cheap joke... she instead was standing with her fist propping up her face and a look of disappointment written all over it.
She was not impressed.
Nora could do little against them except adopt a defensive stance as they routinely battered her and took more of her blood. At this rate, she would fall.
"Nora Zayne looks like she's on the ropes folks, how much longer will it be before she falls? Only time will tell, but I hope for our sake she gets back up! I realise bias isn't my job, but humans gotta stick together!" I lean forward and completely out of character, I yell "GO NORA!"
She looks up at me with shock and the top half of the Manananggal flies towards me, hunger and rage filling its flight.
In that moment, I see my life flash before my eyes and I'm not surprised by the earlier memories, but the later ones.
So... SO many of them are blank.
I barely have time to register what's going on before I'm pulled down by Nelle and the creature misses its mark, flying back around for another go.
"What the HELL are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Nelle bellowed, drawing her blade.
"I... No, I just lost control. Like something compelled me to do it!" I protested, feeling foolish and realising my headset was still on. Alduin had stood out of her seat so quickly that it flew back against the wall with a thud. My knees gave out and my chest grew heavy, I was panicking.
"Men... they just can't be trusted." Nelle sighed and slashed the wing of the creature as it passed again. "Take a deep breath, Sal. You'll be okay, I got you." As it screeched from the wound, it dipped to the ground and tried to re-strategise.
Before it could, however, Nora stood in its way and placed her fists out and a knee up.
"Your fight is with me. I won't let you near him. Do NOT overlook me." The Manananggal shot forward and two things happened at that moment. The first was that it stopped in its tracks with a sense of instinct you see in animals when they know the weather is changing, like it KNEW something was coming.
Then, it cast its eyes up and whimpered.
A great shadow had begun to grow behind Nora, crawling up the back wall and the head peeling away to loom over her. Not to attack, but to protect it.
"Wh-What is this?! A shadow has just formed over Nora! Has she got some latent abilities she was holding back on? Because this commentator would've loved to see that BEFORE he was attacked!" I stammered, adrenaline now fuelling me as the fight continued.
Nora looked up in just as much confusion as her opponent, but instead of processing it, simply looked back at her enemy and took advantage.
Running forward, she let loose a vicious back elbow that connected with the temple of the Manananggal, as it staggered back and the bottom half came forward, she was ready. One kick blocked, the other caught and shattered at the joint with an elbow as sharp as steel. One leaping knee to its gut later and the torso had crumbled to a heap, but Nora did not stop.
She ran forward and grabbed the Manananggal by the organs still trailing its body, ripping them away with her bare hands as she finally got the hair of the creature and held the head back as she delivered four horrifying elbows. Letting go as it stumbled around, she created some distance and let fly a knee with such force that the head was removed entirely. It soared through the air and landed at Alduin's feet, much to her delight.
"A STUNNING Hail Mary victory by Nora fuckin' Zayne! She advances to the semifinals alongside Miroslav Zanaya, Eustace De Kolta and Rex "Ultraviolence" Chugg! The question now is; what are they facing next?!"
Alduin jumped down and stared at Nora as she limped to meet her other finalists. Alduin grabbed the mic as the spotlight shone on her.
"My, my. You HAVE grown. This will be most interesting! The quarterfinals are over! All our victors have 3 hours to recover during our interval before we commence the semifinals. Bravo!"
She gave what seemed to be a sincere applause as the other finalists stood with her, Wendy still by their side.
"BUT before we can finish, we have one other matter to attend to... our Wildcard Tournament!" She claps her hands, and the screen comes to life, showing five blank boxes save for Wendy's inclusion at the top.
"Our full roster of competitors will be announced at the conclusion of our interval and will run alongside those matches for your pleasure! Nightmares and humans are welcome, the winner will be inserted into the finals to make it a triple threat for supremacy and the right to challenge me for the NFC Openweight title!"
She bows as the cheers of NFC rain down before looking over at Wendy.
"But for now, since she clearly held back in the opening round... we'll have a match between the dark horse herself hailing from The Hotel Inertia; "Wendigo" Wendy Hathale and someone who has just been DYING to get in front of an audience. He's originally from a hit channel called Beneath The Static that I'm told has a DIEHARD audience... ladies and gentleman; turn your cameras on and please welcome JJ Watson!"
From the other elevator, JJ Watson emerges. His legs emerge first, his torso bent backwards and stretching out farther than it feasibly should. His knees are bent at odd angles, like they were stitched onto the wrong body. He snapped his torso up in one swift motion, his face looking directly forward at a stunned Wendy. The perfect bronze skin, smooth black hair parted to one side with not a single lock out of place, shimmering white teeth like great pillars and big blue eyes, pupils dilated and staring without focus.
"JJ is ready to show you what lurks Beneath The Static, Wendy."