Chapter 207: Sasha’s Gauntlet

Chapter 207: Sasha’s Gauntlet

In the arena.

“For the chaos of this fight, I would like you to take a look at the arena tiles!” Zonbi announces.

Sasha and Traya glance down at the tiles, noticing that some of the tiles turn red.

“Touch those red tiles and you’ll find yourself burning!” Zonbi announces. “And that’s not all! The tiles alternate over the course of the fight!”

“That’s something I can handle,” Sasha thinks.

“Begin!” Zonbi announces.

“Try to make this fun,” Traya says lightheartedly.

“I have no interest in entertaining my opponents,” Sasha says with a stern tone.

Traya begins leaping from safe tile to safe tile as she giggles. “Then I’ll work extra hard to make it fun for both of us!”

Sasha stays in place but keeps her focus fully on Traya.

As Traya closes in, she swings her arm in an awkward arched motion. Sasha leans back, just barely avoiding Traya’s straightened hand. However, a small cut still forms on her cheek.

Sasha thrusts her fist forward, punching Traya in the face, which sends her tumbling across the tiles. She takes burns on her arms and legs from any red tile they touch. She eventually manages to steady herself and get to her feet on a safe tile. “Well, that wasn’t too fun,” she mutters.

“You seem to have some kind of invisible magic force surrounding your hand since you were able to cut my cheek,” Sasha notes as she jumps to a different tile. “I will end this quickly.”

“You’re pretty arrogant, you know that?” Traya groans as she begins tile hopping. She lands on a safe tile surrounded by red tiles. “Let’s see you back it up.” She uses her hand to signal Sasha to come closer to her. “Unless you’d rather stall this out and not actually ‘end this quickly,’”

A soft growl echoes in Sasha’s throat as she glares at Traya.

Traya smirks as she thinks, “I know what she’s going to do. She’s either going to launch herself straight for me without touching tiles or she’s going to launch some kind of ranged projectile attack. I’m pretty agile so neither would work against me.”

Sasha bends her knees, pressing her feet against the tile she is standing on.

“It’s a direct launch attack,” Traya thinks as her magic flows strongly around her hands.

Sasha launches herself forward, but she stops herself and lands on the red tile directly in front of Traya, shocking Traya.

Not knowing how to react to this unexpected move, Traya fails to defend herself as Sasha throws a barrage of punches. Sasha’s punches pulverize Traya. She ends her barrage by piercing Traya’s gut with her hand. Traya coughs up blood as Sasha yanks her hand out. Finally, Sasha grabs Traya’s body and tosses her into the zombie pit where the zombies gather around her to start their feast.

“That’s the battle!” Zonbi announces. “Sasha is the winner!”

The demons cheer, and some even whistle with satisfaction.

All the arena’s tiles turn back to white. Sasha glances down at her feet. The red tiles had burned completely through her shoes, leaving her barefoot with burns on the bottom of her feet.

“It could be worse,” she mutters. “It’s mildly uncomfortable but I will have to deal with it. I’ve still got four more I have to take out.”

Sasha takes a deep breath, but quickly notices a four-armed female demon with purple skin and wavy black hair leaping toward her with a sword. She jumps out of the way just in time to avoid the slash.

“What’s your problem, huh?” Sasha asks with a disapproving tone.

Team “Mind Bogglers” – Papen. Magic Rank – Low C-Rank.

“Don’t mind me,” Papen says with a sadistic smile. “Just a little eager to start.”

“As eager as you are, you do not have permission to attack before the match officially starts,” Zonbi scolds.

Despite that, the crowd cheers anyway.

***

In the VIP suites.

Sue glances at Sergon, giving him an amused smile. “You feeling a little nervous yet? Sasha took care of Traya quickly indeed.”

“I’m not worried about anything, so you can cut that stupid smile out,” Sergon replies. “Even if her teammates fail, Medusa will destroy them. She’s my daughter after all.”

Sue squints her eyes a bit as she continues staring at Sergon. “Are you sure you’re not just overhyping Medusa just because she’s your daughter?”

“Quiet!” Sergon growls. “Just wait and see.”

“Sure. But let’s focus on the current battle that has now started.”

***

Many arena tiles have been replaced with spike pits. Papen jumps toward Sasha’s tile and starts rapidly slashing four swords, one for each of her arms.

Sasha forms a Dark Spear and blocks all four swords continuously. No matter how fast Papen slashes, she can’t get a single hit on Sasha.

Papen widens her eyes, her anger rising. “How are you doing this!?”

“It’s an answer you don’t want to hear!” Sasha shouts. “I’m simply stronger and faster than you!”

Papen drops two swords just before Sasha kicks her back. Papen lands in a spike pit, becoming fully pierced by the spikes. Her eyes widen as blood flows from her mouth and wounds. However, she smiles seemingly like she is victorious. “I got you…” she mumbles.

Sasha clenches her teeth as she winces in pain. Two spikes have been pierced into her body, one in her abdomen, and the other in her right thigh. “She ripped those spikes out of the pits next to her at the last second and stabbed me as I kicked her…” She coughs up a bit of blood as she continues. “These spikes are way stronger than her swords…”

“Sasha!!!” Zeth screams with concern.

“Don’t mind me… I’m fine,” Sasha assures with clear signs of pain in her voice. She pulls out the spikes and stumbles back slightly as some blood flows from her wounds. “Still got three more I have to take care of…”

“Papen has died so Sasha is the winner!” Zonbi announces.

The crowd cheers while Papen’s corpse turns into a zombie. The spikes retract and the arena tiles rise back to their original positions. Papen’s zombie body heads into the surrounding zombie pit to join the other zombies.

A creepy-looking man who is a bit short at about five feet tall steps onto the arena. He has slightly long black hair and has a creepy smile with wide-open eyes. He wears gray pants and a black jacket.

Team “Mind Bogglers” – Dira. Magic Rank – High B-Rank.

“I’m getting nervous,” Keith says. “This guy gives me the heebie-jeebies.”

“I know what you mean,” Zeth replies. “All we can do is hope Sasha can pull through it.”

Sasha squints one eye, her wounds giving her noticeable discomfort.

She thinks, “This guy is definitely the strongest one so far. I’ll have to be more careful this fight.”

“Now, for this fight’s chaos shift!” Zonbi announces.

Tiny air holes form on most tiles, some of which shoot out jets of air while others release only a breeze.

“Something to consider in your battle strategies,” Zonbi says.

Off the arena, Maskodon calls out to Dira. “You must win this one. We can’t lose our strongest fighters like this.”

Dira chuckles while keeping his gaze on Sasha. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.” From his jacket’s pocket, he pulls out some kind of blue pill.

“Begin!” Zonbi announces.

Dira immediately tosses the pill in his mouth and swallows.

“Some kind of drug?” Sasha thinks with a curious expression.

Dira pumps his fists together as his creepy smile twists. “Get ready, missy.”

Sasha clenches her fists tight and bends her arms, ready to fight. In only a moment, Dira goes from standing still to moving at full speed. In addition, he begins running up at a diagonal angle without jumping before effortlessly angling himself downward toward Sasha. He lands two quick punches, stunning Sasha long enough to kick her up in the air, further propelled by an air jet.

Dira runs straight up after her, bashing her with a series of rapid punches straight into her back, Sasha’s eyes widen as pain shoots through her body.

After ending his series of rapid punches, he pulls his right arm back, preparing a single powerful punch. However, before he can unleash his attack, Sasha overcomes her pain and grabs arm. She maneuvers their bodies in the air so that she has the leverage to throw Dira back down to the arena floor. While still in the air herself, she forms a Black Energy Ball in between her hands and releases it downward.

Dira dashes out of the way just in time to avoid the impact and explosion. He quickly tosses a green pill in his mouth and swallows it. Instead of running, his whole body spins like a drill as he moves through the air.

Sasha dives out of the air jet so that she is not a sitting duck. However, she struggles to land on her feet due to the wounds and burns she has sustained in prior battles. Dira’s spin attack lands a direct blow to Sasha’s abdomen, causing her to cough up blood.

“Sasha!!” Zeth screams. “Tag out!! Please!!”

Sasha’s body lands on the edge of the arena, nearly falling into the zombie pit. Her hands are covered in blood.

Dira’s body stops spinning, and he falls to the ground, facedown and dead.

Zonbi, the audience, Zeth’s team, and Maskodon’s team all stare, completely perplexed.

“What the heck just happened?” one male demon in the audience asks.

“Did he overdose on his drugs or something?” a female demon in the audience asks.

“Folks, your guess is as good as mine on what just happened!” Zonbi announces. “Despite delivering a brutal hit, Dira is dead but Sasha is not!”

Keith stands next to Zeth and asks, “Did you see what happened?”

Zeth shakes his head. “I was too worried about the hit that Sasha took. I have no clue what just happened.”

Despite her injuries further adding up, Sasha rises to her feet, but she is breathing heavily. Her eyes seem heavy and strained. The blood covering her hands begins dripping to the floor.

“Let’s see an instant replay!” Zonbi announces.

A replay begins playing on the jumbotron in slow motion. As Dira closed in on Sasha, she held her hands out like claws. His attack dealt its full force to her body, but as he spun, his neck was being sliced by Sasha’s nails.

“Well, there you have it!” Zonbi announces. “Sasha took the hit but carved up Dira’s neck in the process! She is the winner!”

The crowd cheers. “That was amazing!” one female demon in the audience shouts.

“I love how brutal she can be!” another female demon adds.

The audience begins cheering Sasha’s name. “Sasha! Sasha! Sasha! Sasha! Sasha!”

Despite the attention, Sasha stares at the three remaining members of the other team. She holds her arm out forward, pointing at them. “Bring on your fourth member…!” she demands with underlying exhaustion in her voice.

“Sasha! No!!” Zeth yells. “Tag out!! You’re in no shape to continue!!”

“Don’t worry, Zeth.” Sasha replies in between heavy breaths. “I can handle at least one more…”

As Dira’s corpse becomes zombified and walks into the pit, Team “Mind Bogglers” fourth member steps onto the arena. He is a man who has short brown hair and wears brown ragged clothes. His eyes are bloodshot.

Team “Mind Bogglers” – Nemuri. Magic Rank – High B-Rank.

“I will finish what Dira started,” Nemuri declares.

Sasha thinks, “This guy looks at least as strong as the last guy. Even though I’m stronger than him, I’m too wounded to fight at full strength. I must use Power of the Dead.”

Against strong opponents, Sasha makes her stand in her gauntlet of fights.

Chapter 207 END

To be Continued in Chapter 208: Hate in the Eyes