It was so Cold I had No Choice but to Laugh

Joey nabbed a stone spear from an enemy, laughed at him, and rushed Kayel down. He’s smaller than Rayan. Jonathan could take him. Who else could take Jonathan’s punches? Him. There’s no problem.

He dodged two other bastards that tried to spear him and got to their leader.

Kayel raised his brow.

He’d got to make that bastard pay. He had to admit, he treated that guy like a joke because Jonathan was so strong as a powerful specimen of a human. But Joey changed his mind when Kayel dodged four consecutive thrusts, like they were as slow as a train going towards a baby’s mouth, and punched him in the face.

Joey bounced off the ground. He gagged for his breath and got kicked from the side. God. He’s more ruthless than Jonathan. At least the big man would give him a moment to rest after beating his ass. This guy would just keep on going like it was his first time doing it. Wait. That sounded wrong in Joey’s head. He picked himself up and cringed on his knees.

Kayel had already stretched his arms wide in a T-pose. That fucker knew to throw a good show. The only bad thing was that he’s the one getting beaten up instead of being the outsider pointing at them for being dumb. Shit. His spear was gone, too. He scrambled for his guard.

Kayel punched him again, and his fist broke through his feeble defenses. God. Where’s Jonathan? And by some fluke of luck, amidst the chaos of the sounds of crocodile people and people screaming at each other with true racial slurs, no one decided to help him. If it gave them power, then why not? Who the fuck decided that this was a one-on-one fight? But he forgot to describe what was happening as he wobbled to his feet. His vision recovered because he just saw Jonathan making a very dynamic entry by dropkicking Kayel on the face like a mighty buffed-ass swan.

The leader was thrown to the ground, rolling, trying to process what just happened. By then, someone screamed behind Joey. It was another monster that failed its sneak attack. It was dealt accordingly with a flashback of Enteng, empowering his kick on the enemy’s balls before ending it with a punch on the throat. The other two that followed that poor monster’s lead wavered, looked at their leader’s crotch, dropped their weapons and put themselves on the ground, took their tongues out, and pretended that they’re knocked out. Damn right. They should be scared. He got kicks for days.

Joey shook his head. He picked up a spear and a club from those… enemies and found Jonathan and Kayel having a go at each other.

Kayel threw a punch. Jonathan took it and hit back. Jonathan would end up chopping his shoulder, and Kayel would scream and hit him back. Jonathan would kick his stomach, elbow his face, dodge his attack and reply with an uppercut. Kayel would scream again, louder this time, and rain down a flurry of blows that Jonathan would take. Jesus Christ, this was boring.

Well, at least he could finish this—

Kayel sighed. He smashed Jonathan’s face and drove him to the ground. The impact silenced the battle for a second as Joey watched his friend bite the dirt. For a moment, Kayel seemed burning.

“Boring.”

“Really…” Jonathan laughed as he picked himself up. “I was sure for a moment that we were fighting at equal strength. What do you call that has been happening to you for the last minute?”

“Hmmm…” Kayel stretched his neck and cracked his knuckles. “A very weird massage.”

“Oho,” Jonathan wiped the blood on his nose and took his stance. “You do have a way with words, don’t ya?”

“Another thing that I’m better than you at. Clearly, you’ve built yourself to take hits and hit back, so I’ll criticize that aspect of your… being. But you’re not me, so I won’t stoop that low.” Kayel clenched both his fists. “You hit like a woman—”

Lucy came from the chaos of battle and slammed the back of Kayel’s head with a frying pan, and she angled it perfectly like she was serving a tennis ball. It didn’t even hurt. Actually, it proved his point. Kayel just looked mildly inconvenienced, especially when she dodged his punches, only to get his face slammed again and again. That’s why Kayel didn’t bother to dodge anymore. He proved his point again. He took Lucy’s attack and punched her in the face. He might’ve said something more, but Jonathan came to follow up. Of course, Joey did, too, since he felt guilty that he had just let a girl fight and get punched in the face.

Jonathan came flying with a knee deep into Kayel’s face. Kayel flinched, not because of the damage, but because of this big man’s sheer weight. He just grabbed Jonathan’s waist and slammed him to the ground. Joey came, leading in with a spear that bent and broke upon contact. He tried to follow with a club, but Kayel dodged and punched him. He was going to punch him again, but Jonathan leaped to deliver his weight with a spinning hook kick that almost brought Kayel to the ground.

Lucy came in with a black eye, screaming as she swung her ax and drew a shallow cut across Kayel’s chest, staggering him more. Why didn’t she try to attack with an ax before, he had no idea. Joey grabbed his club with both hands and attempted to bust his knees, but his weapon broke upon impact without doing much damage. Jonathan followed up again, jumping and spinning to do a tornado kick on the bastard to re-establish their combo, and landed perfectly. No one else seems to follow yet, so he kicked the ground, did a one-two combo, and finished it with an uppercut before switching with Lucy, who sank the edge of her ax at his shoulder, and with Joey, who dropkicked him for good measure.

But Kayel didn’t fall.

“I guess this is everything that you people could offer. I don’t believe this.” Kayel laughed. “Rayan got killed by these maggots. Poor Rayan…”

The air turned cold. Kayel stretched his fingers to summon a hail of ice blades and sank them into Jonathan’s body. Lucy faltered. She failed her sneak attack and got kicked in the chest. Something broke within her. She rolled on the ground like a ragdoll. He intended to finish her off. Joey panicked. This goddamn fanboy was too strong. The thought of running flashed through his mind. He froze. His lips quivered, but he scoffed at himself, screamed, and bolted towards Kayel.

“Jonathan,” he cried. “If you can move, take Lucy and—”

Joey kicked Kayel, maybe to annoy him. He didn’t know why he did that. Maybe it was the cactus. Maybe it was Enang. Maybe it was the others that helped him up despite him being an asshole. To prove a point, maybe. He screamed. That he could be the better version of himself than he always was. His right leg just rested on Kayel’s body. He laughed as six small ice blades tore it apart.