Blades come rushing in, like a wave of omen toward Zack as Kruger dashes forward relentlessly.

An electrifying shock creeps through every limb, making him freeze in an instant. As if his entire body refuses to make any single move from the shock. The feeling of fright once more is overflowing throughout his entire body. Uninvited. Rendering his body useless.

Like an echo from a distant dream, a mysterious voice caught in his ear, shaking his very core deep inside. Ignoring the fact that the pair of blades has already an inch away from sending his head flying.

|Move, brat!|

Zip it!

As the inevitable death becomes closer than ever before, Zack grits his teeth, steeling his resolve. Forcefully moves his body and managed to get away from the line of attack.

Seeing those reflexes carves a hideous grin on Kruger’s face as he endlessly sends one strike after another. Not letting even a slight chance for Zack to think about retaliating against the attacks.

His moves weren’t just haphazard attacks aimlessly targeting whatever comes at him. With dreadful precision and pure brute force, it’s more than enough to spell nothing but doom for the opposing forces.

The bladework is so refined, it would rapidly hack everything that gets in the as if he is the rapids himself without letting them figure out what hit them. Whoever tries to ride on his current will only get consumed by the raging stream of domination. Reigning above the weaklings.

As if it’s a clash between the Grey Lion himself and the frail Hawk.

No matter how agile or swift his dodge is, all it takes is a single fell swoop to knock Zack out of the deadly game of tag. Zack knows it better than anyone else, especially with a few newly formed wounds in his body.

Kruger stopped amidst his maneuvers. Zack immediately backs off with a leap, far away from the playful Grey Lion in front of him. Judging from Kruger’s expression, he’s not even serious, nor breaking a single droplet of sweat. All the while successfully leaving scar marks across Zack’s body.

“It’s no use struggling. No matter where you go, you can’t escape, young man.”

“Ain’t you too confident? As if you’re the one raising me, knowing where I'll go.” Hissed Zack looking with disgust.

“Confident?” Kruger scoffed. “I’ve just had a good picture of your face.”

“Eh? Face?”

Kruger points his finger straight, so does Zack becomes dumbfounded. Like thunder spreads across the clear sky, those words hit right at the heart and instantaneously force Zack’s brain to cease functioning. He just realized it.

What kind of an idiot… didn’t put on any cover before the stunt!

But not for long, his short-circuited brain snaps back to its place when those pair of blades come closer. Leaving another scratch on his body. At the same time, Zack searches his way between the attack, looking for a chance to strike back.

KRAK!

A hard uppercut directed at Kruger’s jaw created a cracking noise at the same time. Slowly a bursting pain crawls from his right hand where he landed the strike. Meanwhile, Kruger takes a glance at his attacker with a disdainful face.

For real? He didn’t even budge!?

The enemy under his range, Kruger swiftly stabs without a second thought, pinning him with the machetes from both sides. Zack quickly slid his body beneath the line of attack just to lose his foothold on the ground.

Zack takes a glance behind him to grasp the current situation while grimacing in pain as he firmly squeezes his right hand. Losing all the strength in it, perhaps broken even.

Behind him, is the mountain of corpses. An overwhelming opponent in front. One hand to work with. And three lunches to bring home.

So we’re back at square one, huh?

Yet the moment he raises his head, the blades have already danced in the air, swirling around while waiting for the chance to sit on top.

Zack impulsively backflips to evade it. A cloud of dust soars through the air from the jump as well as the place where he firmly landed on the corpse pile. Strengthening his leg, with full force he pounces on Kruger with a clenched fist filled with resolve to put it to the end. Putting all of his strength on the left hand.

Kruger swerves to the side while grabbing his floating fist in the air. Then, Kruger swings his arm downwards and throws Zack’s body, hitting the ground hard on his back. His consciousness is fading away as the vision slowly become blurred from the haze. Blood splurted from his mouth.

“Are you running out of ideas and starting to give desperate attack, young man?”

His eyes suddenly captured an image of sharp blades thrusting into him, Zack reflexively rolls his body and gets back to standing on his feet. Both eyes widened despite still being lightheaded from the last hit. Almost falling apart even just for straightening his body.

“Don’t overstrain yourself. Just give up!”

“Ack!”

However, no matter how hard he tried to get back up, Zack is already at his limit.

A fist on his face is more than enough to make him overthrown. Blood starts pouring out from his nose as he tries to stand back up with pitiful panting breath. Coughing up red liquid as well. After many attempts to support his own body, Zack immediately collapses to the ground. Forcing himself to move beyond normal human speed from the fights before has taken a toll on his body.

Until this point, Zack just realized… how powerless he is.

“I admit, you have the basics of CQB. But that alone is not enough to take me down. Besides… You’ve reached your limit, no? Seeing yourself in such a dire state.”

“Not yet… huff… huff…”

“As I said, it’s no use. Just give up already and be obedient!”

“Argh!”

Kruger stomps his leg right at his back, forcing Zack to lie still on the ground. Pinning with his weight as he slowly puts a knee on his back.

“To think that you went all the trouble just to get crushed underneath, how laughable…”

“Shut up- Arkh!”

Without a second thought, Kruger stabs his left hand as it still tries to resist him. Making it pierce his hand and firmly stuck on the ground altogether with the long machete. Blood starts to flow down the ground underneath.

“You sure are persistent. Yet too rebellious for my liking.”

While Kruger keeps on muttering words, Zack still struggling to make his way out of the impossible predicament. Gritting his teeth strongly in symphony with agonizing pain crawling all over his body. All the weight is slowly crushing his rib. Tearing his lungs apart from the inside.

Can’t move… can’t breathe… My lungs…

Have to… go home…

Get back… to Aura…

|Pathetic, your wanky arse got downed by this bastard, eh?|

Go away…

|Don't even try to resist, yeah?|

Shut up.

|Give it up, brat. I know you hate futile effort.|

Shut the hell up!

|Come on… hurry up!|

No

|Zack!|

Don’t wanna!

|Lemme put an end to this bloody drama, shithead!|

Shut the f*ck up!

Just… leave me alone…

Kruger grabs his hair. Lifting Zack’s limp head. Throwing his gaze at the crowd. Even when there’s someone in dire need of their help, they decided to just simply watch from the side. Not giving the slightest effort to do something about him.

No words are spoken, only the terror of cold silence is one filling up their hearings, louder than any words could’ve said.

He stopped struggling.

Even his breathing has ceased.

The status of his opponent is what Kruger noticed beforehand. Seeing no movements were made, Kruger rises and walks toward the terrified crowds in front. The dreadful look in their eyes is carved clearly as he gets closer. Just what he needs.

“This is a warning for all of you. Whoever tries to wriggle out from our previous deal, or even lift your fingers against us, this is your fate.” Snarled him pointing at the body behind him.

“This is a final deal that I propose to all of you.” He raises his fingers, putting tremendous pressure on everyone present. “Work for us unconditionally, and you all will be rewarded handsomely, including us to guarantee your family’s safety. It’s a win-win solution, don’t you think gentlemen?”

Even so, the frightened expression on their face is becoming more vivid as time passes. Slowly becoming more terrorized than before. Looking far ahead past the man himself, as if a ghost has appeared. At that moment, Kruger realized that something is off, especially where they were staring at.

For a split second there, Kruger freezes in place. Along with a voice breezing through the lingering cold air. Standing behind is the person in question. 

Back on his feet, covered in blood, dripping from all over his body.

Silently approaching with an ominous presence.

“What a bloody farce…!”