Fall of the gladiator
As the warrior stood preparing for battle. He wondered what they would throw at him this time. Would it be tigers? Bears? Helpless prisoners? He didn't know. Nor did he care anymore. As the muscular and once proud warrior donned his armor.
"Time to go, pretty boy!" that was Sarge. As he was known. Nobody knew his real name. But it was said he thanked his current cheery demeanor to the torture that eventually drove him insane. While the warrior was pondering this he realized he should focus, lest he want another scar for his, now very impressive, collection.
"oh well, chicks dig scars, johnny boy!" that was Sarge again. It startled the warrior how Sarge always knew what someone was thinking. He made a note to ask him once he got done killing his new prey. He picked up a piece of braided wolf hair and used it to keep his dreads in place. As he rubbed his gloved hand across his bearded face. He wasn't afraid. He was never afraid. He hadn't been afraid since his other life. His life that wasn't filled with bloodshed and violence. But none of that mattered as he saw the door to the arena open. He entered and felt the soft ground beneath him. So it had rained. That changed things. His footing was bad when the ground was wet like this. But it was nothing he couldn't handle. As he gripped his sword even tighter and brought his shield up. Wary because no-one else was in the arena. And yet the crowd was cheering. Who was he supposed to fight? Then he heard a shrill screech and he spun around. Temporarily forgetting how wet the ground was and so he fell to the ground. "what's happening!" a voice in his head said. He never fell down. No matter how slippery the ground was. Someone must be playing tricks on his mind. That was dangerous. He didn't often fight tricksters like these but when he did it always was a royal pain to deal with. He clambered back to his feet and looked around. Then he saw someone charging towards him. A young man, just more than a boy. His stance was sloppy. But he had fight in him. No! Don't get personal. He regained his focus and slammed his shield into the face of the young man facing him. He followed up with a swift strike to the throat. And as he heard the boy's grunts and shrieks of pain he realized the boy was him 30 years ago. Damn that sorcerers tricks!
"Show yourself you cowardly hound!" his rage was nearly uncontrollable now. He could take the tricks of even the most adept mesmer with ease but to use his own past against him! A past he tried so hard to forget.
"Oh but forget it you won't, little warrior" said a woman's voice. She was close. Or was she far away? Her tricks made it impossible to tell. But how could a mesmer read his thoughts. Not even the grand masters could do that.
"who said i was just a mesmer. You warriors are so quick to jump to conclusions" she chuckled and continued: "It makes it so easy to toy with you" the warrior took a deep breath and focused. And then he knew where she was. And the the realization shook him. She had been right behind him the whole time! He didn't know how he could be so foolish and careless to forget to check his back.
"Don't feel bad, boy, after all I am the best at deceiving poor little souls like yours" she said as the warrior turned around to face his foe. "Who are you!" he demanded. The beautiful woman in front of him simply said that he already knew who she was, if he could remember. But that was something he would never do. his past was exactly what it was. A past. And he would like to keep it that way. But he also wanted to know who this trickster was.
"mmph. You really are slow. Maybe this will help you remember. You knew me as Rosie" Rosie! That name triggered a flood of memories that now overwhelmed the warrior. Flashes of his past. His life before this life, his childhood, his first kiss, his enlistment in the thundering tigers. The best known band of mercenaries in all of Kryta. But there was still a part missing. Why did he join the tigers when he had everything he needed at home. He would become a part of the police. Work the same district as his father had done. Do rounds on the streets he grew up. What changed. He knew Rosie had something to do with it but he couldn't remember what.
Rosie chuckled and said: "by the gods, you really were a lot smarter when we were dating". Then he realized that Rosie was his girlfriend back home. The warrior smiled as he thought back to the days when he was still happy. Truly fulfilled. A blissful feeling washed over him as he remembered how Rosie and he used to sneak away to the top of the hills to watch the village where he grew up. And to look at the majestic city where his father worked to keep the peace. Many blissful memories flashed through his mind. Until he saw a picture of Rosie standing over him. Her nails unnaturally long and covered in blood. The warrior gasped as it all came back to him. He had forgotten this. Rosie had been taken over by a demon. And had then killed his whole village but spared him for some reason. As he thought about how she stood there, among the burning wreckage of the town where they met, watching him with those demonic eyes. Eyes he would never ever forget. Slowly the Rosie in his dreams and the Rosie in the reality melded together. As she stood here she was completely different. Her once brown hair was now white like snow her skin nearly just as white now. There was just one feature that hadn't changed. Those horrific eyes. Two horizontal slits inside a yellow iris. And the part that used to be a milky white was a horrific dark crimson. The warrior fell to his knees and cried out in rage. He never wanted to remember his past. It was why he had never tried to escape from the arena. Even though he probably could. He wanted to rot inside his cell, or fight enemies until one of them eventually cut him down. He would die this way, with honor. But no-one had been able to even beat him. So he had been in this arena for seventeen years. In this hell. Unable to die but at the same time unable to truly live. Even the combat held no thrill anymore for him. But he was content. As long as he wouldn't have to remember his past. But now he had remembered, and with the realization of what had happened to him an uncontrollable rage took over. He sprung to his feet and charged at the demoness. She nimbly sidestepped him and he skidded to a halt.
"Oooh so you wanna play with the cat, little mouse?" she said as her nails lenghtened and darkened. He saw their gleaming edges and knew that they were sharp enough to cut through solid steel. He could once again remember how they felt, carving up his skin like he was some kind of toy. But that would not happen this time he said to himself. He was focused on his goal. And his goal was to kill the treacherous demonspawn in front of him. He cleared his thoughts. They would just be a liability in this fight. She could read him like an open book. So if he thought too much about his moves or his strategy she would have no problem countering him. So he trusted his finely honed instincts.
He sprinted to where his lost lover stood and barely dodged a bolt of pure shadow. He stepped forward followed by a sideways roll and a dash to the left. This left the demoness only temporarily confused. But she regained her wits fast enough to block the shield he had thrust at her face. She was still incredibly strong for her small posture. As she pulled the shield away and threw it up in the air, just to follow it up with a bolt of purple fire that shattered the shield. The shards came down unnaturally fast as their edges began to glow with black flame. The warrior rolled away again. A few of the shards hit the ground and exploded with dull roar. But still more shards kept speeding towards him. He realized he couldn't evade them all. But that didn't mean he should let himself get hit by the brunt of this unnatural offensive. He hit 3 of the shards in one broad swing of his sword and narrowly evaded the others. But the swarm of shards split and turned, now coming at him from two sides. He threw his sword at the woman he had once known as Rosie and forced her to recall some of the shards to block the sword now barreling towards her at breakneck speeds. The rest of the shards however, where still on course to gut the warrior. So he pulled out his two axes and started spinning. The incredible momentum of his spin deflected many of the shards. But one of the shards got through and exploded. The opening this created made it possible for the other shards to strike the warrior. Barely managing to defend his vital areas the warrior fell to the ground in agony. The pain of the dark energy from the shards running through his veins was almost too much to bear. Clenching his teeth was all he could do to keep himself from passing out. But even if he didn't pass out, he would still be powerless against the demoness. With all his weapons destroyed he didn't know how he would be able to go against the demoness' claws and superhuman strength. But then he though back to what his father told him after he got beaten up at school. "When in a fight son, you never go by what you know. What you know gets you beaten, taken out, and that's unacceptable. You need to go by what you feel. Go with what your senses tell you. Fight dirty, trust your instincts and you will never have to fear any enemy ever again" As a single stream of blood left his mouth the warrior smiled at the irony of the situation. That the words of his father telling him how to win a fight would be the last thing he would think about in the one fight he was going to lose.
But irony wouldn't kill the demon. He focused his senses and he sensed that the demoness was weakened. This in part renewed his vigor and he stood back up. And while the warrior was sure he was going to die he was determined to take the demon with him. He forced himself to fight back the pain and he charged the demon. He was going to hit her. If only to stop her patronizing laughter. The demon spawned two demonic hounds that jumped on top of the warrior. He punched one and with a cry of fury ripped the head of the second demonspawn. The first hound pounced again but this time the warrior was ready. He caught the hound by its jaws and split the filthy thing in two. Then he determinedly started walking towards the demoness. She was obviously surprised by the ease with which the warrior had killed her demonic pets. She threw up a wall of black flame but the warrior appeared unfazed. He felt nothing through the pain deadening rage that coursed through him. His eyes appeared to glow red as he punched the woman in the stomach, followed by a knee to the head and another punch. This one with his right hand to her face. Temporarily dazed by this assault the demoness fell to the ground. The warrior jumped on her and began to hit the demoness repeatedly in the face. The demon screamed in rage that he was being beaten by a lowly human. But the demoness had still more tricks up her sleeve. Even as the demoness morphed into the Rosie he once knew the warrior was too blinded by rage to see it. And when he finally did he was even madder. How dare she use the image of my love! Due to the warriors onslaught the demon's body was beginning to crack and fade. And with a hellish shriek Rosie's body exploded, throwing the warrior away. The demon's true form appeared. It was a shade. A demon appearing like black mist. The shade dashed to the warrior and impaled his chest with his one of his blade-fingers. Picking up the warrior effortlessly.
"Did you really think you could destroy me? Me?" the demon's voice was now deep and raw.
The warrior retorted: "For a mind reading demon you're really quite gullible. Don't you know why my old mercenary band was called the thundering tigers? It's because we're fast and ferocious, like tigers. And we all have the power of thunder." The warrior began charging up with electricity and grabbing the elongated shadowfinger that impaled him. Electrocuting the demon in the progress. Then he pushed the shade away with a gust of air. Smacking it into a stone tree. the tree cracked and fell down on the demon. This last display of power drained the warrior of his last remaining ounces of strength and he fell backwards on the ground. The demonic shade reformed from beneath the shattered tree and glided towards the warrior. The crowd was silent and shocked. They didn't know that today's challenger was a demon! Let alone a demon that could survive being struck by lightning and then buried under the rubble of one of the great trees.
"Just... finish me." The warrior couldn't do anything but wait for death. Death that would finally come after years and years of fighting and agony.
"You think I'm going to kill you? You're not worth death. No, no little warrior, I will set you free" and those were the last words the warrior heard before everything went black.