Fists like lightning, dodges like the wind. The air parted as the toad came at me like a bullet. Laughter rang out but who could say whose? A fist breaks through. Blood roars, explosi in the background, and a dodge bees more.

  As the fist whips by, the lessons pour in. A bite sms down and the fist recoils as purplish blood pours out. My heart speeds up, faster, faster! Harder! The words bubble up through the haze of my spirit.

  “I will not lose to you! I will not lose here!”

  My blows sh out, smming into flesh over and ain. The toad slides back as I push forward, to the future, to victory. His eyes widen, panic taking them, as he leaps into the air. My eyes travel, only to see him flip around and-

  My ughter rings out as he kicks against the ceiling.

  Like an arrow he shoots towards me, fist extended. My smile threatens to break my face as I do the only thing I do. No, the only thing I want to do! I lean back, fist primed, before ung it right at his!

  Our fists ebsp;

  Agony lights up in my mind, but I push through. My hand is breaking, my bones breaking, the muscles tearing. The blood roars, the pounding flow of it screaming in my head as s scrape and wail with the roar of alligators in the background. I stare into the toad man’s eyes, his focus entirely ed with me. No longer are those the eyes ance er. I only see a warrior's spirit but one far too weak!

  “AHHHHH!”

  Toady eyes widen as my fist pushes through and breaks our stalemate, smming into his head. He is pushed back, jumping back to get some distance. He bends, legs sg up, before he leaps back, leg exteo sm into me.

  My eyes bze as I copy him. Dashing forward, feeling the weight of my limbs and the blood p down and the bruises f. The pain of my brokeh, the bored breathing of my nose, all scream at me as the toad’s eyes shih shock as I do something he could never see ing.

  I leap over his leg, my owended. A perfect mirror of his move, before smming it into him. My leg in that moment seems to evolve beyond a mere limb and into a on all its own. Like a whip unleashed, it cracks into his side, sending him back for a ge.

  Laughter echoes around us as I follow up. No time to breathe, no time to move! I’ll break you down until you’re g on the floor!

  Fists e but they e slower! Legs kick but knees are rammed into them. My bones creak, the blows hit like onballs, but I’m not dohe toad seems born for the battle. The way it moves, the way it fights. I’m pushed back despite the sed wind.

  A fist sms into my oo slow to dodge, and I feel it break all ain as breathing suddenly bees a nightmare. Blood pours down, air gets harder to breathe. Sushes off my form. My entire body seems to pulse with my heartbeat. Exhaustion begins to take hold ahe fists keep hammering into me, breaking me, legs snapping into my sides rapidly any ce they get.

  I’m beaten, bloody, and bruised. In what seems like a split sed the fight begins to turn and the toad unleashes a hailstorm of seismic attacks. I smell fire and smoke now, my eyes water, my ears ring, my mouth is full of blood, something cracks in my chest. My eyes shake as every punch feels like being hit by a tree. One arm goes up to defend, burnt bd fractured. Hot agony explodes as it breaks, as the bone pushes through the skin, and more blows hammer on it. I nearly colpse but-

  I ugh.

  I weather the blow. I tank the attacks. I feel them all and take them all!

  I stare into the toad man, no, the Battle Toad’s face. Exhaustion, respect, fear, worry, determination, duty. I see them all clear as day. I know this toad almost better than I know myself. In this fight, I almost see his life story through his eyes.

  A guard. A protector. A family man. I know it as sure as I know the sun rises in the east as in the west. He’s proteg his home and his family from me. The threat of the sewers. Since when had anything in it ever been kind? Anything but hostile? Anything but a monster?

  Never.

  This is all he knows. And he worries, for this new monster has nearly won. He feel it, see it, se. He’s losing the battle. My smile softens, my grin bees pure, but none of the adrenaline leaves me.

  Nor any of the pn.

  My left arm, this whole time, has been cocked back. Focused. Waiting. Master’s words echo in my ears as a horrible sensation from the past fills me. Harder. Faster. The feeling of my face shattering against the wet ground. The feeling of my body feeling stunned and locked down. But mostly, the feeling of a punlike any other smming into my gut and breaking my mind.

  Through a bloody nose and a broken mouth, I say the words.

  “Harder.”

  He hits harder.

  “Faster.”

  He hits faster.

  “Punch it.”

  My left arm rockets forward and I stare into the Battle Toad’s face as his pupils shake. All my strength! Take it! All of it right into your stomach you bastard!

  “AHHHHHH!”

  A gasping toad croak is all that’s said… before he crashes to the ground.

  I heave, sounds and smells and feelings and pain and more and so much more all overwhelming me. Everything is too much, everything is raw, everything is all and happening and, and, and…

  I won.

  It hits like warm water on a cold day, spshing into my brain. My eyes roam down. The toad, lost. I won. I punched him so hard, he colpsed.

  I won.

  Those words nearly kill me as I stumble, feeling drunk. I cry out as I nearly colpse to the ground right with him. The world, it shakes and jumps and jumbles. I don’t know what’s happening. A quick look around-

  Alligators the size of school buses are fighting wraiths. s around them, pulling tighter, stant fire rippling along them. Whatever explosions would have happened from that, have happehe alligators burnt b pces. They eat them, their teeth grinding the metal, as rats bigger than any I’d ever seen join in. That’s by far, not the worst part though. That would be…

  [??]

  [??]

  [??]

  Not a single one’s power level be seeher the weaker ones have already died or they aren’t here to deal with this kind of battle. The wraiths float in the air, while the alligators snap out at them. The rats the size of cars seem to dart through, attag either side. I have no idea why any of this is happening but it’s a w thing for sure. If the wraiths win…

  A cold shiver goes up my nearly depleted body. I have to get out of here, right now.

  I turn and-

  Oh.

  [???]

  A being like a flood approaches from the water rooms. If not for its shape, I would just assume it ure water. But pure water doesn’t take the shape of a giant humanoid with a hundred watery tentacles.

  What is with these sewers?!

  That thing! That thing must be over level a hundred!

  My fighting spirit suddenly has somewhere else to be because the urge to run for my life is all that remains. It’s coalesg still, the thin water pulling together more and more. I feel like ao questions I may have had are right there somewhere but idle curiosity wait a lifetime if need be. I o leave right now.

  I take a step… and freeze.

  The Battle Toad.

  I gnce back at it, passed out. Knocked out by my punch. Indecision wars at me for only a sed. I rush to it.

  “Get up! You have to get up! Or yoing to die! e on!” I shake it, kick it even, anything to make it get up.

  Nothing. That punch had every ouny being, all of my strength in it. Even now, despite my right arm being broken, it’s my left arm that feels weakest.

  “Fuck!”

  The Water Elemental is coalesg faster. Evehin water from over here is starting to pour into it. Bad, very very bad. Time is running out.

  I grab it. With both arms. One is broken, ag more like a broken lever than any kind of arm. The other is so weak that the muscles have been torn to pieces. His body is dragged across the ground, but it’s too slow. Far too slow.

  “Fuck, e on! e on, e on, e on! You fight me that hard but ’t wake the hell up?! I barely even hit you! What about your family toad? I know you have one, I saw that look in your eyes! You aren’t going to die here like this, you bastard! How dare you make me do all this work huh?!”

  My arms nearly give out, the adrenaline is p out of me. My arms are like lead balloons filled with broke with nth in them. All seems lost. The toad will die. If I stay here, so will I. There’s no way that thing will simply let us be when it bees whole and focus on us. Nothing here has been that kind of kind.

  I could leave him. I o leave him. He nearly killed me, tried to kill me, would have gdly killed me. He’s an enemy. Letting enemies live is the luxury of the strong. I’m not this stro. I ’t afford this luxury. He isn’t worth my life.

  That’s all of what my brain says. It’s right, as brains so often are.

  But my spirit roars and screams and bellows. I am the decider of things, not logiy brain, not anything else!

  I do what I want!

  And I don’t want my first good sparring parto die!

  “Get up you fug bastard!”

  I scream, pulling with all my might. He’s dragged faster, my limbs barely responding but responding all the same. We have seds at best and-

  A kick. I nearly stumble with the force but barely, just barely, the toad kicked.

  “Yes!”

  Faster, faster, we head for the tuhe toad blearily ing to awareness. Wet stone goes to hard rod-

  Water sms into me, a tsunami, flooding me and the Battle Toad down it at rapid speeds. I fear for the worst. Had that thing really decided to kill us?! The flood takes us deep, water all around us, far more thahing was made of, and all sparklingly . Finally, it seems to be over as we sm into the hard ground and the water tinues on.

  I went down a water slide once, my haggard brain tells me.

  That was nothing like that.

  I gnce dowunnel, now too far away to make anything out. More water is rocketed down, smming into both of us, but not enough to send us flying away. I gape as I realize it. That wasn’t an attack, that was the back blow. The same unch moves air, that thing made water just by moving too hard.

  Any sounds of fighting, explosions, wailing spirits, angry alligators, or g s, all die immediately.

  When water doesn’t immediately surge dowunnel and annihite me, I breathe a sigh of relief.

  Too close. Too dangerous.

  My body colpses, broken and bruised, damaged and hurt. I slide down, my back against the wall. I look over to the toad.

  Only to see him standing. And looking at me.

  Ah. Right. Oh shit.

  It stares me down, clearly in far better shape than I am. I may have won but only by the slimmiest of margins. I took far, far more damage than it did. In a way… I kinda sucker pu really hard while it was tired, while it had beateo near death. Well, more like halfway there. I knew what beien to death felt like, after all. I still had a long ways to go for that.

  A fact that was only getting more w as it tio stare at me, fists ched.

  It approached and I resolved to at least meet death with my eyes wide open. I grirying to get up, only to immediately fail. Ah, damn it. I figured that would happen. I was so tired. The Battle Toad stands above me now, gring down at me. I simply smiled.

  It thrust a hand forward and-

  I blinked in surprise and then ughed.

  Not a fist. A hand. Reag down.

  I took it and he pulled me up. He croaked out something, no doubt in a nguage I couldn’t uand, and began walking dowunnel.

  I followed, broken and bruised, but with a grin that would’ve had my mother spping it off of me.

  It was finally time to go dowunnel and with any luck?

  Out of this damn sewer.

  Warix_Viviana