by Luca Braña
“All anyone wants is to be free from this prison, right?” Magy leveled, as she put both hands inside her chest, taking out her twin scythes. She winked as her opponent’s eyes widened.
“Eh… That’s a nice trick! I wish I could do that!” the translucent girl said before shaking her head, causing her hair to stand up and move like snakes, “but my tentacles are just as good! Be careful, though, a sting from them really hurts!” she warned in a playful tone as her waist-length hair waved around.
“Oh, I look forward to it, then!” Magy said with a small grin on her face as she got ready. “I just so happen to love pain, I’m sure we’ll get along great!” Magy let the dark energy cover her body and launched herself at a surprised Medusa, who barely had time to dodge a cut from one of her scythes.
Thinking fast, the jellyfish girl sent her hair towards Magy, who evaded by jumping up in the air and—by concentrating her dark energy into her scythe—sent a crescent wave of darkness towards Medusa, who once again used her enhanced reflexes to dodge.
“Oh! So close, so close!” she said in a panic as she landed on the ground.
Magy wasted no time in using her dark energy to make a burst behind herself, propelling her towards the jellyfish girl, who panicked for a moment, before sending her hair straight towards the approaching reaper. With a smirk, Magy dodged at the last second, using her energy burst again to propel herself to the left. In quick action, she struck out with her scythe, passing right through the jellyfish girl, who let out a pained gasp, before lashing out with her leftover hair. Magy was unable to move in time.
“Ahhh!” the pink-haired girl cried out as the tentacles hit her, sending agonizing pings through her body. Medusa was right, her stings hurt, a lot. And it felt great.
Rolling backwards away from the jellyfish girl, Magy got into a crouched position and looked at her, licking her lips in anticipation. “That felt great! I can’t wait to feel more! Come at me, I’ll make you feel great too!” Magy declared before using her darkness to propel herself at her opponent, this time much faster than before.
Medusa didn’t have time to react, so she covered herself in her hair hoping to block the scythe, but was surprised as—just like before—the weapon passed right through her, sending an uncomfortably cold sensation through her body. Shocked by the attack, she was unable to respond as Magy slashed her again and then, using a dark-enhanced kick, sent her flying a few meters away.
“My scythes can pass through any physical defenses, your hair won’t help you,” Magy said with a smirk as she approached the fallen mutant who was struggling to get up. “Each time my weapon cuts you, you get one step closer to death. But don’t worry, I’m not evil! I’ll just knock you out now,” Magy raised one of her scythes up high before frowning as her arm began to tremble and it became hard to move.
“S-so scary, b-but I’m not done yet!” the jellyfish girl said as she got up, grimacing in pain. “M-my stings inject a paralyzing venom. Soon, you won’t be able to move anymore!” The girl smirked, even as she panted from the weakness she was feeling.
Magy let her arm fall down. She could barely move her arm.
“It seems I’ve been beaten. I didn’t expect actual poison. You are a jellyfish, I should’ve thought you’d have some venom,” Magy struggled to speak, “if you are going to beat me, I don’t suppose you could allow me to… feel your sting again?” she lowered her voice, which embarrassed Medusa.
“U-uhh, the poison could be dangerous!” she exclaimed in nervousness, though she raised her hair again.
Magy’s smile didn’t leave her face. “Oh, but it also would knock me down faster, wouldn’t it?”
“Very well, I’m into that weird plan of yours, so, I’m sorry,” she said as she sent her tentacle-like hair towards Magy, covering her in them, bringing her closer so she wouldn’t struggle too much.
“Ahh! Ahhhhhhh!” Magy cried out in agonized ecstasy as she felt the burning sensation all across her body. It hurt and yet she loved every second of it, but…
“I… GOT YOU!” Magy screamed out as darkness surrounded them both. Before Medusa could react, it exploded out in a violent wave of blackness, making the jellyfish girl cry out in pain. The pink-haired girl, seeing her opponent’s agony, felt herself lick her lips in enjoyment, even as she felt the pain of the tentacles still attached to her. Ah, so she liked to inflict pain as well… this place has truly broken her.
Letting the dark energy dissipate, both she and the jellyfish girl fell to the ground, her opponent lying on her back in pain, she on her knees in exhaustion. “It seems it’s my win, new friend.” Magy smiled at the groaning girl on the ground, whose hair had retracted back to herself.
“It… Ouch, seems that way…” Medusa replied with shortened breath, rolling to her back and trying to get up.
“Combat concluded. Winner is in great standing, loser is still in good standing. The next combat will start soon,” the cold voice announced, causing Magy to sigh in resignation, getting up off the ground. The jellyfish girl stared at her in shock, how could she already move?!
“Oh, me? Scythe here takes care of my body. If I get poisoned from your venom or even from food, she’ll be focused on curing me. It was a daring plan, but I’m glad it worked!” she said as she walked over towards the mutant girl, offering her hand, which the downed girl took with a grateful smile.
“H-haha… Ouch. I-it’s hard to think, ever since I turned into this, but you got me,” Medusa said, wobbling on her feet before sighing.
“Well, I must go back to sit with the others. See you, Magy,” Medusa said with a smile, waving at the pink-haired girl, who returned the gesture. At least now they knew not all mutants were bad people, they were just scared of the giant dragon. Magy herself would love to teach him a lesson.
Arriving back at her seat, Magy beamed with pride at the congratulations given by both her brothers, although she wondered why Cyko was blushing. Still, it felt nice to fight someone else that could pose a challenge to her, even if it was forced. Sitting down on Cyko’s side, she rested her head on his shoulder. The fight left her tired.
The next several fights were interesting and showed off everyone’s potential. Geon, Cyko’s older brother, showed the might of earthquakes by causing a shapeshifter’s wings to vibrate so strongly they fell flat on their face. One kid with mind reading powers could evade all the attacks from someone who could launch strong, steel projectiles from their fingers until they dropped from exhaustion. Then, two large mutants, a rhino and a bull, showed just how powerful the mutants were, as they engaged in a vicious physical showdown, with the bull coming out as the winner.
Following this, the scientist declared a fight that left Cyko’s stomach in knots. Tela was called to fight and right after that, her opponent was revealed. Leo, another member of the mutant ward, but not just any other. He was a lion mutant, sitting right next to Drago, from what Cyko could see. The mutant rose with a challenging roar and, while nowhere near as large as Drago, he was still much taller than even the adult guards in their bulky armor.
“Tela, please be careful…” Cyko whispered in his mind, which caused the girl who was far away from him to turn towards him with a smile. It filled his body with warm feelings as she made her way towards the arena.
“Thank you, my friend. Leo seems unlikely to cooperate, but I’m not defenseless either,” she said in his mind, transmitting her own feelings of determination and confidence to him. Cyko nodded at her. She would be all right, he trusted in her, after what he had seen her do to Drago.
She arrived at the center of the arena, looking at her opponent who towered over her. Wrapped in a massive version of their armor uniform, he looked very intimidating.
“Grr… I am Leo, the second strongest of the mutants! I can’t believe how lucky I am to beat the child that made our illustrious leader fall to his knees!” the lion roared as he watched Tela approach him, a fearless and determined look on her face.
“So, you’l
l also stand in our way? You’ll also try to stand in favor of this continued torment?” Tela asked with a hard voice, glaring up at the lion who roared out a laugh.
“Torment? This is great, girl! I have earned this power by surviving their trials and now I can fight and crush enemies with my own two hands!” he yelled as he spread his arms, causing the ground below him to disintegrate and form a cloud around him.
With a loud snap, the dust formed into a giant hammer in his left hand and an equally intimidating axe in his right. More dust floated up from the ground, surrounding his body and with another loud boom, formed into a massive rock armor, giving him an even more daunting appearance. Tela stood still, unfazed by his powers.
“GRAAAA! I would have preferred to fight our so-called leader one-on-one, to show him who is the strongest. But by fighting you, I’ll prove to him my power and become the king I was born to be!” he roared as more dust rose around him. “Now choose! Either be sliced by my axe… OR BE CRUSHED BY MY HAMMER!” The lion dashed towards Tela with both weapons raised high.
“So be it then…” she whispered under her breath before raising her hand towards the charging beast, her eyes shining with power. Before the lion could comprehend what had happened, he was pushed back, all his momentum turning back against him as she sent him flying, crashing hard against the far wall, opposite from Tela.
“Your own abilities will prove to be your undoing…!” her words came out between her clenched teeth. She raised her other arm and made a crushing gesture with both. Still stunned, the lion roared in pain as he felt his rock armor start to compress against his own body, threatening to squash him from the insides.
“As if that would be enough!” Leo roared in opposition, using his earth control to disperse his armor, momentarily freed from Tela’s hold, allowing him to launch himself with much greater force than before, his axe raised and ready to slice her in two.
The redhead, however, was faster and used her telekinesis on the raised weapon, dragging it down to the ground just before it reached her, causing a great crash. With her other hand she sent a strong kinetic push against him, sending him flying away once again, which made him lose hold of the axe.
Immediately, she took hold of the giant axe and willed it to spin with such speed that it resembled more of a saw. With a gesture, she sent it towards the staggered lion who looked up just in time to block the attack with his hammer, destroying the axe.
“Using my own weapon against me… YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!” he screamed with hatred as he willed his power to take hold of the entire ground. Large clouds of dust formed in the air around Tela, whose face stood unfazed at his display.
“Be crushed!” he yelled as he willed the dust to form into large spikes that rained down on her. She raised a hand upwards to stop the spikes and another one to stop a giant stone cannonball from hitting her. She blinked as she saw Leo appear in front of her, with his hammer raised, ready to strike.
“DIE!” the great lion roared, bringing his sacred hammer down on the redhead.
It struck the ground, causing a large boom to resound through the arena. But, as the worried children looked on, they found that Tela had somehow gotten herself on top of the hammer, arms still extended to show she was holding both the spikes and the cannonball. The lion glared at her form before trying to raise the weapon from under her, but it seemed a thousand times heavier.
“Mind over matter!” Tela yelled as she made the cannonball hit him in the head, stunning and disorienting the beast, leaving him wide open for Tela’s final move. With a snarl, she brought her raised arm down, which caused the many rock spikes floating in the air to shoot towards him, impaling and piercing his entire body, only missing the vital areas.
“GRAAAAAAAHHHH!” the beast roared in pain as his skin was assaulted and pierced by his own spikes. The stakes continued to rain on his defenseless body until there were none left in the air.
Bleeding profusely from the stab wounds, the lion’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he fell to the ground, unable to fight any longer. Tela looked at his fallen form with a pitying but fierce look on her face.
“I’m glad I was the one to fight you, and not a defenseless child. Learn your lesson; the path of violence and thirst for power won’t get you anywhere,” Tela said softly before turning away from the fallen beast, ending the battle without a single scratch on her body.
“Combat concluded. Winner is in excellent standing, loser’s standing remains good; however, he’ll be taken for medical treatment. As this session’s combatants have damaged the arena beyond quick repairs, today’s battles will end. The next session will be in three days. All subjects will return to their dorms,” the scientist declared as a team of mages made their way towards the fallen beast to extract him.
Cyko stood in awe at Tela’s performance. She absolutely demolished that giant lion, all while making it look easy! She didn’t even break a sweat. The message, he knew, was clear… Anyone from the mutant ward who continued to support this atrocity will have to answer to Tela. And from the look of absolute rage on Drago’s face, it seems he also got the message.
“Tela, by Luni, you were amazing!” Cyko thought to the redhead, his admiration for her growing even more. He knew now how powerful she was, even he would have had a lot of trouble against that giant lion! “You made it look so easy, and you don’t have a single scratch on your body!” he praised her with a big smile as she turned towards him.
“I don’t enjoy violence, but it was necessary. Still, thank you, my dear Cyko,” she replied, winking at him. The blue-haired boy was once again filled with warm feelings, courtesy of Tela, making his smile widen. Magy, who had been watching the fight intently, giggled.
“Our leader is very strong, isn’t she? Scythe says we would have a hard time even getting close to her if we had to fight against Tela. Her power and, uh, c-charisma was it? It makes me optimistic on our chances of getting out of this place,” Magy said, earning an agreeing nod from little Myo.
“Yeah! Big sis Tela is so strong! She’ll save us, I’m sure!” the smaller boy piped in, making Cyko chuckle.
Yes, Tela was powerful, and he was sure they could trust her to pull through. But… Even if the battles had been stopped for now, he knew this would be the first of many fights to occur in the next few weeks. Cyko was half looking forward to it, half not.
8
The three days of rest from combat passed too quickly for Cyko’s liking. During that time, they didn’t have much to occupy them, except take advantage of the TV. There was only so much they could plan for ahead of time.
They had discovered that the company behind their current situation was sending aid, technically money, in order to help the authorities with the case of the disappearance of many children. This had been going on for a couple of months already, and they were no closer to finding them, the reporter said. Cyko cursed when he saw the news report; the jerks were making themselves out to be heroes!
Still, Tela had contacted everyone again, not too long after her fight with the lion mutant, and declared that mutants whom she couldn’t convince to work alongside them were to be met with full force.
“Leo didn’t think for a moment to hold back against me. If I was anyone else, his attacks would have been lethal. We can’t allow that to happen!” she had said, and further encouraged any other child with mental powers to run interference alongside her, in case of another match with a violent mutant.
And so, they found themselves once again in the Coliseum, nervous and preparing for the possibility of fighting either a friend or foe. Cyko, Magy, and Myo had somehow got their seats around the same area they were in last time, but that was little comfort for they knew there was still much left to happen today.
For round two’s first match, little Starry was the first child called, much to Cyko’s ire. She was only five years old, darn it! Still, he could do nothing as the scientists once again chose a random opponent for her. It was another
girl who wasn’t from the mutant ward, thankfully.
The little girl seemed nervous. Her older opponent seemed guilty at what was about to happen, however, both smiled at each other moments later. Cyko guessed that Tela must have said something calming to each of them, and after that, the battle began.
It turned out Starry’s opponent was a shapeshifter who could create extra metallic limbs on her body, which took the form of a battleship’s cannons with power to match. Starry would fly using her own dark energy and shoot her black stars in varied and beautiful patterns while her opponent would fire her main guns at her. Due to Starry’s small stature and agility, though, she ended up making it very hard for the ship girl to hit her, only being able to graze her at times. Cyko almost jumped out of his skin when one of the girl’s shells struck the barrier right in front of them, but thankfully it held.
Starry ended up winning, for despite the ship girl’s strength, she was rather slow, which allowed Starry to pelt her with black stars until she couldn’t take it anymore. After the battle, both girls were friendly, which brought a smile to his face. The battle was destructive and hectic, but at least they were friends now. That’s how it should be, they were forced to fight but not hate each other.
After the fight, some mages walked towards the arena to make quick repairs and the next combatants were called. Henry, his oldest brother, and a mutant girl were called out to the arena. The girl herself had the lower body of a snake but otherwise didn’t seem inhuman or even feral like the bigger ones.
The lamia, as Magy said that is what her species is called, smiled and waved at Henry as he approached her. It seemed she was a friendly mutant which was good for everyone. They talked for a bit before the battle began, too far away for Cyko to hear.
The lamia girl proved to be quick with her snake-like movements, but Henry knew how to catch her off guard with his plant powers. His seeds exploded into many vines to capture and strangle her, but the girl revealed to have another ability on top of her mutation… Singing. After evading Henry’s vines, she sang with a vibrant, beautiful voice.