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«We must save the man he owned! And then how did he own it and turn himself into a demon himself?» Damian asked, even more astonished.
Damian bombarded Diosmed with questions as they both avoided the creature’s attacks. The Rakshasa fought with bare hands, with unprecedented power.
«The Rakshasa are skilled illusionists and show the enemy what they wants. Somehow, he understood that you wanted to save someone and showed you what you wanted. These demons can turn into anything. Look at his hands!» Diosmed explained.
Damian stared at the demon’s hands, they were like the feet of a beast, except the one corresponding to the head of the snake, which was not a hand but a tail. Then he looked better carefully and noticed an abnormal detail.
«The palms! They have their palms reversed with the back!»
Damian felt the power flow inside him, a blue energy enveloped his entire right limb, but he was not yet able to control this power. Diosmed, despite his injuries, used his Dragalòs with skill. A green energy poured out of the sword, the young man concentrated his power and launched an attack full of power that hit the face of the tiger’s head. The demon was blinded to the right eye, suffered pain and backed away.
«Warriors of the Colosseum unite with me! We must defeat him! With his power he can raze the entire city. Fight!» Diosmed urged them.
Many of the gladiators did not understand the situation, the spectators themselves, who thought it was all a staging. Often in the Colosseum gladiators impersonated mythological creatures or gods and so people believed that he was a person disguised as a monster. The remaining beasts were sixty compared to seventy gladiators plus the Rakshasa, which had a greater power than all the forces of the single participants added together.
«I know who he is!» a man said in a language not very understandable.
He was a Provocator who spoke in a foreign language, but Damian and Diosmed understand him. He had a dark complexion, with a mustache and a long, black beard, and he had lost his helmet. He came from a place unknown to the two.
«He is Ravakhan, King of the Rakshasas!» he said trembling and immediately ran for cover.
«The king? We’re screwed, we’ll never be able to defeat him!» Diosmed swore.
Damian tried to fully understand the situation. For him the Demons were a world to discover and they would certainly bring light to his past. The only thing he could do at that time was to survive, fight and save as many people as possible. Ravakhan summoned the possessed beasts to him and they immediately obeyed him. They began to attack with more power and aggression, their power increased. He increased the strength of all the beasts possessed by demons, the only ones still alive. They obeyed him and carried out his orders. Diosmed and Damian were in the eye of the storm. The Rakshasa felt their powers and that wound had made him blinded by anger. The two hurled themselves with all their strength against that being who promptly threw them into the air using his ten arms. The two young men lost their helmets and the armament also suffered from the impact.
«We must find his weak point. It is impossible to cut all his arms or all his heads one by one!» Diosmed said.
Damian had noticed that his companion was exhausted, he had killed ten beasts and his energy was beginning to fade. On the other hand the gladiators died, but the most skilled ones defeated the fairs. Damian peered into their eyes and noticed the red color in almost all the remaining beasts. The few who did not have red eyes had an unusual color.
«Diosmed, the white tigers are not controlled by him!» Damian shouted and the young man hesitated.
Indeed, it seemed to be so because the beasts controlled by the Rakshasa had red eyes, while the white tigers had blue eyes. Suddenly, one of these white tigers jumped on Damian and threw him to the ground.
«Yagrabigiò, zo Vexokemù!» the tiger said.
«Save us, please!» Damian understood and was shocked by those words.
Despite what she had said, the tiger attacked Damian and thanks to Diosmed’s intervention, the feline’s intent to bite the young man’s neck was blocked.
«She spoke!» Damian said incredulously.
«This is no time to play pranks, focus on the enemy! The real problem is the King of the Rakshasa. Don’t be fooled again!» Diosmed said in a severe tone.
Damian didn’t know if it was an illusion or not. The Rakshasa had already deceived him with the story of the possessed man and now those tigers, with white cloaks and black stripes, clouded his mind. He rose from the ground and re-entered in that battle for life. Ravakhan had hurled the beasts against the gladiators a little earlier and was now calling them to him to launch the decisive attack. Diosmed, who had almost lost his energy, tried to hit his opponent again as black panthers arrived with the intent to surround him and kill him. The Rakshasa pointed his eyes at Damian, wanted him, that was clear.
«Save us!» twenty-three white tigers roared in chorus in that strange language.
Damian realized that these were really talking to him and only he could help them. Meanwhile other beasts were coming from all parts of the arena, they had abandoned their opponents to head to the center, right where the two young men were fighting. Diosmed with his sword held the panthers at bay, Ravakhan instead advanced towards Damian.
«You blue eyes! You will be the key to my new kingdom! The pact is signed! Defeat the man who holds the blue power and you will have your reward!» Ravakhan shouted in what seemed an abnormal language, mixed with the verses of the beasts of his ten heads. Even the hiss of the serpent felt as strong as the lion’s roar. The mouths opened and spoke in unison. The beasts were about to reach Diosmed and Damian who turned to those tigers in a panic.
«Zomixe khògtig bo yagrebokxù!»
«I will save you white tigers!» Damian shouted in that strange language, with courage, towards that tiger that had attacked him shortly before.
Incredulous at his words, perhaps out of fear of that monstrous demon, he extinguished the reason and relied on instinct. He concentrated on his sword and the enemy. He started running towards the faster and faster Rakshasa and hit one of his front legs. The sword crossed, from side to side, the right front leg without hurting the demon, as if it were not real. No cuts, no wounds. Damian made a serious mistake, Ravakhan with his five right hands grabbed him and threw him back to the ground. He began to bleed from his mouth as his mind began to dim.
«Miserable human, what you thought you were doing. Your time has come! I lost too much time in this arena. My remuneration awaits me, I will have my new kingdom!» the demon cried in the same language that Damian had used a little earlier. For Diosmed they were just nonsensical sounds, but Damian understand it.
The white tiger that had attacked him before, ran towards Damian and whispered something back to him in that language:
«Uiinoù yoto yizixù!»
«Hit his left eye and we will be free!»
Damian realized that the white tigers wanted to help him. That monster with its illusions could easily deceive him, first with the fake possession and now with not real legs.
«What are the real ones? Four legs, ten heads, ten arms! What is real and what is not?» he reflected to himself.
Meanwhile Diosmed fought against a red-eyed black panther.
«My dear, we are playing the games! What are you and me? Two beings chained without freedom!»
He had never felt joy in killing those beasts. He had observed them several times at night in their cages, thanks to the dim light of the torches hanging on the walls. He felt pity for those beings that once reigned in the forests and in the savannas, and now they were subjects of man in a kingdom without glories.
The panther roared and then jumped towards Diosmed who, at that very moment, using the Dragalòs, pierced his head right between the eyes. Killed the demon, he returned to help his friend in the fight against the most despicable being that the Colosseum had ever seen. People stirred up beasts and gladiators, for them it was all part
of a show. Actually, the demon with the ten heads and ten arms was not part of any canonical script.
«Damian, come here!» Diosmed called him.
Damian was tired, after suffering that hard blow he no longer had the strength. He walked slowly and was short of breath. Ravakhan was advancing very slowly and this weakness allowed the two boys to be reunited. Diosmed ran to meet him and Damian quickly told him the suggestion of the tigers.
«You have dreamed, it cannot be!» Diosmed said, incredulous at Damian’s words.
«Trust me. Hit the tiger’s left eye, I’ll try to distract him» Damian urged him.
Ravakhan joined them and attacked with all his ten hands, quickly grabbed Damian and lifted him from the ground.
«Stupid human! You will be a sacrifice to him. Oh yes, he will be happy! I will have my kingdom again, my clan will be resurrected and if he does not keep his promise, I will make him disappear with all his devils!» the ten beasts said in that strange language in chorus.
Damian screamed in pain, he had wounds all over his body. Diosmed took advantage of that moment and, taking Ravakhan off guard, with the Dragalòs blinded the left eye of the tiger’s head, which roared very loudly and the pain left the grip. Damian crashed but the white tigers muffled the fall. He found himself on a soft pile like wool.
«We owe you, finally we are no longer under his control. Now we will have our revenge! With his power as an illusionist he has deceived us. A dark magic hidden in his eye subjugated us to his will. Now the 23 white tigers are at your service!» the white tiger said.
Damian still couldn’t believe it, the white tiger had spoken to him again and wanted to help him.
«I am happy to have saved you! Let’s end this fight!» Damian replied in the same language as the tiger, unconsciously.
«His weak point is the blue wolf!» It was the last thing that the white tiger told him and then, along with the other tigers, he attacked Ravakhan.
Diosmed saw that strange attack and was amazed, then he helped Damian to his feet.
«Diosmed, the wolf! That is his weak point!» Damian said.
«I don’t know who you are, but I’ll do what you say!» Diosmed answered him, convinced by those words.
The tigers hurled themselves at Ravakhan, who reacted quickly and started hurling them right and left using his arms. Biting tigers with its mouths, the snake injected a powerful poison, the crocodile destroyed the skulls of the tigers with ease, the gorilla with the force of its fists swept away everything. The lion’s head was bitten around the neck by a tiger, but Ravakhan’s claws speared the tiger and the she released her hold. The blue wolf, on the other hand, was still alive. As much as they wanted, they could not defeat the enemy demon. The strength of all the beasts resided in one body and in a short time swept away twenty-two tigers. A breathtaking spectacle for the public and for the Emperor who laughed on his bench, between the senators and the praetorian guard.
The Colosseum became dyed red with fire. The flames of the outbreaks surrounding the arena revived and increased in size, while the black energy of Ravakhan flared up more and more. Many gladiators fell to the ground lifeless, others petrified with fear. The Rakshasa was showing its true power. The black energy had turned into a deadly smoke that entered the body through the breath and stole the life energy of the unfortunate. The arena was entirely pervaded by that black haze.
«Nothing can be seen!» Damian said.
«Soon, we must defeat him!» Diosmed shouted in despair.
«I will help you one last time, the wolf is the key to everything!» the last tiger left said.
«Ravu» said the tiger, then disappeared into the darkness.
«The Wolf, I understand. Diosmed we all stick together!» and his friend nodded.
The black mist was also expanding in the stands and the crowd began to run with scare. The Emperor suddenly thundered: «Calm down! It’s all the work of the show!»
Many stopped and took their place in silence and the Emperor himself drove the dark energy away from the stands.
«Graa, auu, gruu, aargh, hush» all the animal sounds of Ravakhan’s beasts were heard in the darkness. By now the arena was completely submerged in darkness and even the gladiators left alive went into the most absolute panic.
Damian could still see something in the dark.
«Diosmed are you here?» Damian asked in the dark.
«I’m here. As soon as he arrives we must attack!» the young man replied.
«Fools, you will die and I eat your meat!» the demon interrupted in his language.
Ravakhan hit them with his ten hands and the two fell to the ground in total darkness. His red eyes sparkled and allowed Damian to discover the position of that despicable being. Ravakhan was ready to bite Damian with his jaws, when he was bitten by the white tiger at his right leg and knelt down.
«Agraaah!» the enemy cried in pain.
«Diosmed now!» Damian urged.
Diosmed with the Dragalòs wounded Ravakhan in the chest. Damian, getting to his feet, began to run towards the demon who took refuge in that black cape.
«Where will be the wolf? » Damian kept asking himself.
In that darkness it was difficult to understand which the right head was. Later he saw something different, not with his eyes but with his mind. He felt a much more powerful negative energy coming from a precise point. He took the Dragon’s Claw from the sack and the dagger’s eyes shone a deep blue. He felt the force flow in his right hand and launched an attack at that exact point. He stabbed the blue wolf’s head with his dagger.
«Graaaauuu!», Ravakhan complained of the ppain,«How dare you! How can you humans compete with me!» His beastly voice rumbled with pain. Black blood gushed from the wound on the wolf’s head.
Ravakhan fell to the ground, the dark mist disappeared and the sun returned to shine on the arena.
«Now I understand why you care to him so much! He will come and get you with his own hands!» Ravakhan said with a malevolent laugh.
His body became dust and disappeared into thin air. The white tiger nodded in thanks and, along with the other perished tigers, disappeared like a white smoke into the void.
«Whooo!», the audience applauded and shouted loudly. The battle was over, all the hundred beasts had been defeated.
«Ladies and gentlemen, here are the winners of the first test! 40 gladiators remained alive!» the fat presenter said from his position, dressed like a centurion’s stand-in.
«We win Diosmed!» Damian said and the young man smiled at him.
Full of wounds they supported one another, while the Emperor, horrified, gave them a look of contempt and hatred.
«The first trial is over! We will continue in the afternoon, meanwhile you will find all the food and wine you want inside the Colosseum! the presenter shouted at the top of his voice.
The gladiators returned to their cells that were inside the hypogeum, instead the carcasses of the beasts and the bodies of the experts were removed by the employees of the Colosseum.
As they trudged along the way to their cell, the two boys scanned the terror-filled eyes of the survivors. This vision provoked a strong contempt for the emperor in the two. The soldier, guarding their cell, opened the grate, the two young men crossed the threshold and were finally able to lie down on the bed and rest. They had wounds on the limbs, the back, the chest and the face. The pain was strong, but that victory had made them full of hope.
«You better rest for the little time we have left» Diosmed said.
«You too should rest, your wounds are deep!» Damian replied.
On this marble bed I never rested, I will rest only when my time has come. The second phase is coming, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it».
«Diosmed, don’t say that! Auch... what a pain!»
Damian could barely get out of bed. The wounds burned him, the bleeding had not yet stopped.
«Thank you Diosmed for saving me seve
ral times» he said with a smile to his cell friend.
«It was you who saved us, my dear friend» the young man replied as a small tear slipped from his right eye. For too long he had been alone, without friends or allies, in the Colosseum. He had always relied on himself and never on others.
«How did you find his weak point? I had never seen a demon like that» the Demon Slayer asked.
«The white tigers told me. I don’t know how it was possible, but they talked to me! They asked me for help, but in the end they helped me. They were all brutally killed, they didn’t deserve this end!» Damian said angrily.
«The last one is still alive and escaped while the others became white smoke» Diosmed replied calmly and a small joy lit up again on Damian’s face.
«Good thing!»
«Those you saw were not ordinary tigers, but White Demons. It is said that not all demons are evil, indeed someone is also the bearer of good luck. I don’t know how you understand the “Language of the Demons”» explained Diosmed.
«Demons? I thought they were simple white tigers with blue eyes! We are in a strange tournament! What is the purpose of the Emperor? Among other things, Ravakhan appeared without arousing suspicion at the beginning of the games, I didn’t notice anything strange and the Demon Language doesn’t even know what it is!» Damian said shocked and all in one breath.
«I met the demons here several times in the Colosseum. Today they have appeared in enormous quantities, just on the day that you arrived. Who you really are? You say you talked to the tigers, but don’t admit you know the Demon Language! Only with this language you can talk to a demon! Then I saw the dark energy and blue energy coming from you. Are you a demon? Confess!» Diosmed said with an inquiring air as he sat against the wall of the cell.
«I am not a Demon! I’m the same as you, a boy who comes from the place where the Village of the Gods is. My house was small, it was very cold at night. Dasmond often brought me blankets and straw to make me feel good. He helped me a lot and my memories are focused on him, while I can’t remember anything about my parents. I’ve never been to the village but I know the language that Dasmond taught me, the Language of the Gods. My memories are slowly resurfacing. When I saw the dagger and while fighting against the Demons, I remembered other things about me. Diosmed always told me that I am the Son of the Dragon and I have great powers. Then one night the Romans arrived devastating the village and now I am in their hands» Damian replied, hiding to him his brother’s death because he wanted to remember his whole story first.