The Lord of Rot

Step. Step. Step. 

Struggling walking behind the Union. He had been clad with chains around his hands, but he was far too tired to pose any resistance. He did not realise where this exhaustion had come from. Probably the battle he had had earlier this day. But it must have been something else. Had he been drugged?

It couldn't have been so. But he felt himself slowly drowsing off. "Come on! Walk a bit faster, can't you?" 

'Ugh, how the hell am I going to get out of here?' 

His mind was quite frantic, his eyes were slowly closing, his body moving automatically. 

...

"Look at that poor bastard!" Someone in the audience yelled, another joined in, "Ha-ha-ha!" It seemed half of excitement, half of pity. This bit of laughter made him feel awake, in a Pavlov way he had been conditioned to feel intense energy whenever he heard the crowd cheering for him. This didn't happen often...

But as he opened his eyes, feeling the weight of the chains drop off of him. He looked around to see one of the larger arenas. Around him must have been thirty people watching his battle behind the nets. It was an overwhelming feeling that made Konrad feel that he had to perform. But if he performed to well, then it wouldn't be good would it? 

"Hope it'll be violent" yelled one of the watchers, "I heard it's gonna be that fella against at least five of 'em, that'll be the last we see of him, betcha 5 Durs." The man sitting next to him would say, "Nah, I won't bet on that, I don't want to lose that much, we already payed a lot to get in here." 

Konrad didn't react violently, rather his ego was up in the roof. 'What, five? That's not too bad. I'll do that quickly...' 

So instead of worrying to much, Konrad merely leaned back in the arena and smiled a bit. It wasn't made to look egoistic or overly confident, but he was quite sure in his ability to fight against monsters. 

The bustling noise on the other side made him acutely aware of the situation on the other side. He heard the monstrosities jumping against the door, loudly making noises and shrieks. 

As the metallic and wooden gate slowly was lifted, all of the monstrosities suddenly turned towards him. These looked like normal monstrosities, they were rotting, pieces of fur or skin slowly falling off of their bodies. They had claws or mandibles, all of them looked like horrible chimeras. 

Their facial features were the oddest, as there were five of them he couldn't stare at each one too long. But there was an oddly reminiscent way to them. 

He didn't pay too much attention to it. 

...

He had yet only fought against two of them at a time. Since it was the first time he had battled against so many vicious creatures, he felt a sense that he had to show off. As one of the monstrosities leapt towards him, in the same lacklustre and brutish way, it felt like a kind of madness within them. 'The curse of rot really does affect animals in a bad way...' 

He responded to the leaping creature with a subconscious usage of his hand. It whistled through the air, sticking itself right through the skull of the leaping creature. In an instant it would fall limp, and then slide off of the bone sword made from his own body. 

He had spent enough time fighting that creature that another sneaking creature was already behind him. It would jump at him, but at that moment Konrad turned around and felt the smaller creature fit perfectly in the palm of his hand. 

He would crush it with all the force in his hand. It would go limp in the same way. 

He heard intense cheering in the background. 'How odd...' He couldn't understand why they had been cheering in such a way. They almost seemed to be yelling, "Come on! Let's go!" Wasn't he supposed to die? It was utterly confusing for Konrad as to why they were cheering for him.

This made him excited, so he turned his body and twisted it into his leg. The leg would hit the body of one of the last stragglers, all the force would enter the creature's body, and then smash it apart from the middle.

It was growing monotonous, these creatures were weaker after all. It wouldn't be too hard, so it would be boring. But the cheering? That made the few moments worth it. 

The last creature seemed to be weaker than the others. 

After killing the second to last with a slide of the neck. Its insect-like head sliding off of the body in a disgusting motion. The last creature would almost look to be trembling. 'Is it scared?' 

Konrad would laugh a bit at the action of the creature. 'Why would you laugh?'

It pretended to be human. 'How pitiful' 

'Well, if I kill it now, then I'll be able to reenter the cage and keep on plann...' 

He walked with haste towards the last creature, then took his arm focused his strength to the tip of his hands. A bony protrusion would grow from it, the sharp blade would be launched right into the chest region of the monstrosity. A weak exhale would be heard from the creature, it would almost seem to produce some kind of vocalisation: "Orr rad" 

"Finally" Konrad would exclaim, proud of himself for winning the battle in such haste. The cheering wouldn't stop. He never knew he could feel such pride for a battle. 

Just as he was about to celebrate, he heard the same great voice again. "Bravo! Bravo! I knew you had it in you!" 

'What was it that Viktor said again?' 

'Shit...' 

He heard another voice calmly resounding inside his head.

[ You have cleansed a rotting soul... ]

[ You have cleansed another rotting soul... ]

[ You have cleansed another rotting soul... ]

[ 99 / 100 ] 

[ In this world of deities, rotting corpses and battles beyond your imagination, how far are you willing to go? ] 

'What? Why are two things talking at once.' Konrad thought. The man of the hour waiting eagerly for his response. 

"Well, I'll take that as a yes. You'll fight again tomorrow, young man. Well have to introduce you to another good fighter just as yourself, he's a good one, so don't kill him..." Then he began to laugh frantically

Then they all cheered again, "Angel! Angel! Angel!" 

He was going to battle against the Angel...