"What happened? Little Bunny? Too scared to fight me without your tiny sword in hand?" Leo taunted, flipping and juggling his daggers as he slowly advanced toward the now weaponless Khyaal.
*Cheers*
The crowd erupted in deafening cheers, fully rallying behind Leo now as they sensed the momentum shift in his favor.
At the start of this match, most had doubted him. He wasn’t their pick to win, nor did they expect him to last this long. But as the fight unfolded into a classic David versus Goliath spectacle, something shifted. The underdog, battered and bruised, still stood tall against an overwhelming force—and by the end, they couldn’t help but root for David.
Yet, despite how it appeared on the surface, Leo wasn’t truly in control of the fight, as the reality was far grimmer.
His body was wrecked—bruised, battered, and barely holding itself together. The sheer amount of blood he had already lost made his head feel weightless, his vision threatening to blur if he let his focus slip for even a second.
Every breath burned in his chest. Every movement sent fresh waves of agony through his body. He could no longer move at full capacity, nor could he bend his body at certain angles without the risk of tearing his wounds open further.
And yet—he kept going.
His face remained unreadable, his movements sharp, his grin unwavering.
To the crowd, he looked like a predator circling his wounded prey. But beneath the surface bravado, Leo knew the truth.
He wasn’t pressing his advantage. He wasn’t in any physical state to.
All he could do now—was pretend to be strong and fight till the end through sheer guts, as there wasn’t much else left in him.
However, just as he reached within a ten meter range of Khyaal, something on his opponent’s face shifted, as his eyes turned from shock to conviction.
"Scared? Me? Of you?" Khyaal scoffed, his lips curling into a grin as he cracked his neck. "You overestimate yourself, bunny. And you underestimate me."
A moment ago, uncertainty flickered in his eyes, the briefest hesitation on how to continue this fight without his weapon. But the second he saw Leo closing in, all his doubts vanished.
Confidence surged back into his stance, his broad frame straightening as he prepared to meet his opponent head-on.
BOOM!
Khyaal stomped down with his full weight, the sheer force of his step fracturing the very ground beneath him, as without a second’s delay, he dug his fingers into the shattered battlefield and, with monstrous strength, wrenched a massive chunk of stone straight out of the ground, as if uprooting a mere pebble.
Leo’s eyes widened in disbelief.
’Shit—!’ he thought, as WHOOSH!
Before he could even process the absurdity of the moment, the massive slab of stone was already flying towards his skull.
SHUA!
Leo’s instincts took over. He bent backward in a desperate evasive maneuver, narrowly avoiding the lethal projectile as it whizzed past his face.
As a fraction of a second later, it crashed into the ground behind him—
BOOM!
Stone exploded upon impact, sending razor-sharp shrapnel flying in all directions as the crowd gasped in collective shock.
"HOLY SHIT—!"
"He just—ripped the ground apart?! With his hands?!"
"HOW STRONG IS THIS GUY?!"
The disbelief was evident in the roars of the audience, but Khyaal wasn’t interested in their awe.
His first throw had missed.
And he wasn’t keen on missing again.
Hence, the instant the first stone shattered, he stomped again, effortlessly prying another massive chunk from the earth before hurling it with even more force.
WHOOSH!
Leo flipped backward just in time, dodging by the narrowest of margins.
As BOOM!
Another explosion rocked the ground as the second boulder struck, sending another wave of shrapnel slicing across his back.
Gritting his teeth, Leo barely had time to process the pain before—
WHOOSH!
A third stone was already flying at him.
Too fast.
Too close.
And with no time to dodge.
"The fuck—" Leo cursed, his mind barely registering the incoming attack before his body reacted on pure survival instinct, crossing his arms to brace for impact.
CRASH!
The sheer force sent him skidding backward, his boots digging trenches into the dirt as he struggled to stay upright.
His arms burned from the impact, muscles screaming in protest, but he had no time to recover.
Because Khyaal was already on him.
"Your little tricks won’t save you now, bunny." His voice was guttural, animalistic, raw with bloodlust.
He fought like a true berserker—unshackled by weapons, unbound by technique.
Where others would falter without a blade in hand, Khyaal thrived.
His brute force alone was a weapon and with every movement of his carrying devastating weight, he was as dangerous a fighter without his weapon as he was with it.
WHOOSH!
A violent right hook came straight for Leo’s head, as Leo twisted to the left, narrowly dodging the crushing blow, his instincts kicking in to counter immediately as he flashed his dagger, aiming straight for Khyaal’s exposed throat—
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But although he made a good counter, the brute reacted faster.
With sheer raw force, Khyaal grabbed Leo’s arm mid-strike, halting the blade’s momentum in an iron grip, as Leo’s eyes widened slightly in disbelief.
’Shit—he’s even faster without his sword.’ Leo realized, as it seemed like without having to swing his massive heavy weapon, Khyaal moved with even more freedom and speed.
A slow grin spread across Khyaal’s face as he tightened his grip, muscles flexing.
"You’re quick, bunny," he said, voice dripping with amusement. "But I’m stronger."
As then, without warning—
Khyaal yanked Leo forward, slamming his knee into his stomach.
"Uh—Oh" Leo mused, as he felt the wind being knocked out of his chest, before he felt his body being lifted into the air with brute power, as Khyaal took him to the skies, before slamming him back down towards the ground with a powerful WHAM!
*THUD*
Leo felt the air being knocked off his lungs, as he was slammed down to the floor with a powerful crash.
His skull rattled, his lungs emptied, and before he could even register the pain, Khyaal pressed his massive giant-like hands against his throat, as he started to choke him out.
The pressure was instant, overwhelming, as Leo kicked and thrashed against the pressure.
His right dagger was knocked from his grip, clattering uselessly against the stone, while his left one was dangerously teetering on the edge of his finger tips, threatening to drop out of reach.
’Must fight back—’ Leo thought, as his fingers clawed desperately against his left hand dagger, bringing it back into firm grip, before he slammed it into Khyaal’s right arm.
"KYAAA—" Khyaal roared in pain, as blood sprinkled out of his wound like a fountain, however, despite Leo plunging a dagger in his right arm, he still did not let-go of the pressure, as he choked Leo down with all his strength.
’Fuck—’ Leo thought, as his body screamed for air.
His vision darkened at the edges. The world blurred. His heartbeat pounded, thudding in his ears like war drums, as the roar of the crowd, the battlefield, Khyaal’s snarl—everything dulled, as it felt drowned beneath the suffocating grip crushing his windpipe.
’Move. Do something. Don’t black out. Don’t black out—’ Leo thought, as feeling desperate and with no other options left, he activated [Kill Strike] hoping to blow one of Khyaal’s arms clean off—
as BOOM!
Blood. Flesh. Bone.
Khyaal’s left arm erupted in a violent explosion of raw force, his bicep ripped apart as muscle and sinew were torn asunder.
"AAAAA—-"
A deep, guttural roar of agony erupted from his throat, but even as his limb was blown off, even as the sheer pain should have sent him reeling—he still did not let go with his one good arm.
Leo gasped for air, his entire body convulsing, but Khyaal still held him down with his remaining arm.
His grip had weakened slightly, but it was still there. Still pressing. Still choking.
The bastard was actually fighting through it, and Leo saw it at that moment— the absolute, terrifying willpower in Khyaal’s eyes, which looked down on him with conviction, even with an arm blown off.
’I’m going to lose–’ Leo realized at that moment, as his vision flickered, and his limbs stopped responding to the commands of his brain.
Slowly, the world around him turned into nothing but distant noise, as his thoughts slowed, and his consciousness faded.
As then—
Everything went dark.