Do it!

You kick sand in his face and surge forwards, but ****-Soo’s been expecting that move – the knife flashes out again, and you barely twist away in time to stop it taking off your right ear. You’re close to him, now, hand-to-hand close, and you try for another jab – but ****-Soo’s elbow blocks it effortlessly, and then the knife is back, poised in front of your heart.

‘You lose,’ ****-Soo whispers, eyes glittering in the darkness of the cave. ‘Say it. You lose – fucking surrender. Admit you’ve lost, and I’ll let you go. I’ll even let you run to your girlfriend. It’d be funny watching you cry. But you need to know who’s better than you.’

Your chest heaves, lungs working overtime, the room spinning. ‘I…’ you **** out, looking down as if this actually hurts to say.

Step three: lose.

‘I lose,’ you say under your breath. ****-Soo leans forward, a predatory smile on his face.

‘What was that?’

‘I lose,’ you bite out. Then you fake a shudder of pain. ‘Fuck, my leg…’

It’s the perfect excuse.

When ****-Soo’s eyes flick down momentarily, you explode forwards – deflecting the blade with your shoulder. It slices through shirt and skin, but you barely notice the pain, because –

Step three point five: cheat.

You bite him on the nose with animal viciousness, teeth sinking deep into his flesh. Blood fills your mouth, thick, warm and coppery, but you’ve already got HIV; nothing matters any more.

****-Soo howls, rearing back, his nose a ragged mess – then you headbutt him hard enough to see stars, before giving him a two-handed shove right in the chest. It knocks him off-balance just for a moment, and you let your entire body collapse forwards again, colliding with his chest – no technique, just brute **** and dead weight –

And it’s basic physics.

****-Soo stumbles back, off-balance. Blank shock shows on his face.

‘Not fair,’ he whispers, arms windmilling, just as he runs out of edge and his body twists and he disappears down the chasm. The last you see of ****-Soo are the whites of his eyes, vanishing into the black, as his scream echoes down the walls of the shaft.

A sound which is abruptly cut off as his body hits the rocky floor with a bone-shattering crunch.

You blink. The sudden silence in the cave is deafening.

And there’s no sound from below.

Not even breathing.