Climax

“Fucking give up already!”

Minerva was punching me ferociously in the stomach. I could do little more then take it. She had me mounted and restrained. Escape was impossible.

Each punch send a new wave of agony through me. My rib cage must have been pulverized by now.

Of course, the Dark Lord didn’t start out with that.

But after breaking all my fingers as well as toes and extracting a decent amount of my teeth, there was little else she could do. I was barely clinging to life as it is.

Anything too excessive at this point would cause me to die.

And Minerva still aimed to get me to surrender.

“Don’t you fucking get it? You lost!”

She punched me again.

“Yeah! I admit it!”

PUNCH!

“You got close!”

SMACK!

“I’m fucking exhausted!”

PUNCH!

“So what!?”

PUNCH!

“You think I can’t tough this out?”

This time she pierced my gut with her finger. Black tendrils extended inwards and wiggled around like worms. Even considering everything I experienced with Femto, this was a new sensation and one that had me screaming in insane agony.

“You think you can outlast my ****, you bastaaaaaard!”

“Yeah…” I **** myself to grin up to her through broken teeth. “...still doesn’t hurt as much as crushing my balls.”

My opponent howled in rage and punched me in the face sending another flurry of teeth’s flying. I don’t have many of them left.

All her previous mirth and calm had evaporated at this point. Minerva was probably keenly aware that she was cutting it very close. At the start of this **** she dragged me to the shadows to preserve her energy but even so, she has to run on sheer willpower by now.

Once the body shuts down all your grit and vigor stops mattering.

All I need to do was wait and endure.

The pain I was in was of course beyond anything I could even attempt to describe. But Femto trained me well. We spend months ramping up my resistance to pain. All so I wouldn’t give in when it came down to this.

For Femto’s sake. No, for the sake of all of my girls.

There’s no way in hell I’m losing here!

Minerva’s punches were getting weaker. Her slick body was strained to the absolute limit. It was less shiny now. And it stopped losing liquid a while ago. Her breathing was also immensely labored. She was on her last leg.

Finally, after one more punch she suddenly stopped and let out a long, raspy breath. For a moment it sounded as if her respiratory system had failed her. Suddenly, I was completely forgotten as she clutched her chest with a pained expression, seemingly battling her own body.

After a few seconds of that, her breathing stabilized again. She glared at me with eyes glazed over, but still burning with hatred.

Then the bells tolled.

7 P.M.

Inside the arena only a small spot of sunlight remained.

“Fuck it...”, she muttered through her heavy breath.

“FUCK IT!”, she shouted and raised her arm into the sky.

In it, a blue darkish axe began forming.

“I

just

kill

you!”

Shit.

I was hoping Minerva was too proud to give up.

But the shadow axe...the one instrument she fabricated hundreds of times before….did not form properly. Instead, it merely appeared halfway before crumbling to dust.

Plan Dehydration ( 64%/32%)

chances of victory by kill: 33.0%

chances of victory via surrender: 16.5%

Minerva looked at her hand and the crumbling dust in astonishment. But only for a second.

She grabbed my throat with her other hand and squeezed.

I gagged. Suffocation was a feeling I was very well accustomed to. Of course, given the **** with which Minerva was digging her fingers into my neck I imagine she intended to crush my windpipe outright. But while the pressure was tremendous, it didn’t quite get the job done.

Still, even without it, this was a dead sentence.

I tried to slap at her hands with my maimed fingers but of course it was utterly useless. I could do nothing but watch as Minerva continued to apply pressure, staring down at me all the while with manic, bloodshot eyes “Die, already! Die, Die, Die! DIE! DIE! DIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

My vision was getting dimmer

And then the pressure suddenly stopped.

That was because her fingers had started to crumble away.

Plan Dehydration(128%/64%)

chances of victory by kill: 97.0%

chances of victory via surrender: 48.5%

I gasped and coughed and this time it was not astonishment I was seeing in Minerva’s eyes as she observed her maimed hand. It might have been the closest feeling to fear the Dark Lord was capable.

Then she opened her mouth and plunged forward, I barely managed to jut my arm upward in time to prevent my neck from getting torn open.

Instead, her razor sharp teeth sank deep into my arm and she began greedily sucking.

The Dark Lord bit into my arm with her razor sharp teeth and started drinking. I could see how my blood was flowing through her translucent, almost transparent skin.

It went about halfway down her neck before Minerva started heaving and retched it all back out again, covering my face with it.

I used that brief lapse in concentration to wiggle myself free of her.

The Dark Lord, emitted a low guttural hiss as she vomited further and I crawled away. “Wheeeere do you think you’re gooooiiing!?”

I ignored her and crawled faster. Even if it resulted in mere seconds. I needed to do whatever it takes to endure. To just endure a little while longer. With my body broken like this I could not even crawl properly and began rolling myself away.

I sensed my body failing me and yet I kept rolling. Just one more rotation. And one more….and...one….more…

I made it to the last sliver of sunlight that touched the arena ground before my body gave out.

“You’re pathetic.” I could hear Minerva following me with heavy footsteps and equally heavy breathing. “...squirming like a worm...I’m...going to…I’m...”

And then Minerva stopped. There was a loud thud and I achingly craned my head back. The Dark Lord, just a few inches away from me had collapsed to the ground.

With a heavy, strained grunt, she tried to lift herself up, using her still intact hand to gain leverage but this one crumbled too, causing her to fall back down again.

Now reduced to stumps, her next attempt proved equally fruitless, her arms simply grinded themselves down by putting pressure on the arena floor.

She screamed loudly and now stemmed her elbows into the sand of the arena, trying to lift herself up, trying to exert enough **** to get up on her knees. This attempt was more successful but doomed to failure all the same as she collapsed down again.

Minerva did not try to get up a fourth time. All she did was roll herself on her back, once again doing nothing but focus on her strained, labored breathing.

...

The feared Dark Lord was just lying there, taking **** shallow breaths, a hollow, dried shell of her former self.

Plan Dehydration (256%/ 128%)

chances of victory by kill: 196.0%

chances of victory via surrender: 98.0%

Then, after a few more seconds she, at last, spoke.

“I surrender.”

The arena was dead silent. Even Ben needed a few seconds to process what he just heard. “F-for real this time?”

Minerva craned her head around and glared at him. “Of course for fucking real. End the fucking match already.”

Ben cleared his throat.

“M-Minerva has surrendered! The winner of this match and the 129th Rasheul Great **** Tournament Champion is AMBER DOMINATOR MARI BETA!!!”

…

…

...

The arena did not cheer. It seems everyone was unsure as to how to process the loss of their invincible Dark Champion. But regardless, all the pain and suffering that my body sustained was healed in an instant.

But inside I was in agony. Because Minerva’s surrender also meant I failed.

And lying on the ground, Minerva was grinning at me. Her previous fury seemingly nothing but a memory. “Congratulations to a worthy opponent.” She chuckled. “Let me give you your well earned reward.”

For a blissful moment, I did not catch her horrific meaning.

“Valkyrie”, the Dark Lord commanded. “Stop breathing.”