Upon hearing the news, Arjun ordered all communications to undergo immediate censorship. He hurried over to the Royal Palace to report to him on the situation at hand, King Min would have likely known by now from his private intelligence.
The news was unsettling to the select few who were indulged with the shocking news. The treachery of Paul and Noore was just as bad as the other news he had to convey, the capture of Badala by the Golden Path collaborating with De Pleur. Reports say that many of the former outposts under these two's influence have changed over and those near it that was managed by the Army were overrun or at risk.
Things were starting to make sense, the Golden Path and Willis in particular had been dabbling around Varshakot for over a month now without much development. De Pleur had actually been negotiating to switch sides and cooperated in setting a trap for Badala who was roaming the Valley to clean up the place and settle that issue they had with Amita's remnant group now hailed as the Mukti Tigers and joined them in their struggle against the Golden Path. Noore's intentions had not been made clear to him but he believed it had something to do with Paul.
Arjun sent men to restrain his daughter in the Royal Fortress before he left because he knew she would do something foolish. Arjun arrived at the front door to the Royal Palace and was greeted by Gary who brought him to where the King was. Even before arriving he could hear angry yelling and the sound of furniture breaking.
When Gary opened the door to the King's study a chair flew out and struck the painting on the wall with such brutal force the picture frame and the chair broke into pieces.
"Arjun, great timing! Have the troops ready, we're marching over there!... That ungrateful American cocksucker!"
Arjun stood in his way as he marched forward to leave for the armory.
"The heli-assault battalion has already been dispatched. I must brief you on the current situation at hand and keep you from going out until I have fully said what is necessary. My liege." Arjun said calmly and patiently which helped Pagan settle down his rage a bit.
"Tsk! Fine! Gary, get me a bottle of gin on the double!" Pagan went over to sit at the couch with a hand to his forehead.
"Yes your highness, right away!" Gary dashed off for the cocktail bar in the dining.
"Let's hear it then."
"Yes, your highness! At 2200 Hours, we received a long range transmission under Lord Badala's frequency stating De Pleur's defection and a trap set by him for Lord Badala. At the same time frame, there was a region wide assault on all of the establishments throughout Noore and De Pleur's territories by the Golden Path rebels and by traitor forces align to these two. The Mukti Tigers of Amita in the West were holding up fine and have in fact protected the airport from any such attack."
"I guess we have my boy to thank for that…." He said in a dry tone.
"Upon learning of these developments, four battalions of motorized forces and heli-borne light infantry units were dispatched to the scene to keep major infrastructure such as King's Bridge and the Airport under our control. Resistance was encountered around the Shanath area as well as the road towards Banapur. The rebels hold the areas Banapur, Shanath, and the regions surrounding Varshakot. From current reports, the road towards Bagdahur and Meh Teh Airport are secure and we've begun preparing troops for a rescue operation. So far no demands have been made by the other party regarding the release of his lordship."
"There won't be one. Not with the kind of blood he has on his hands. It doesn't matter, go to Banapur and raze their village, that'll get their attention."
"Y-Your Highness!" Arjun was persistent against launching a revenge attack on the civilians in Banapur.
"I said burn those fucking monkeys out!" Pagan threw his lamp at the wall in a fit of anger. Then Gary came in.
"Didn't I say get me a bottle of Gin? Why the hell are you standing about?!"
"Your Royal highness, I have with me a letter prepared by his Lordship, should an occasion like this happen he told me to hand it to you as it would explain everything you needed to know!" He raised an envelope to Pagan who snatched it out of his hand and unfolded the paper and read it.
Then the most absurd thing happened, Pagan began to laugh and it increased in volume until it turned into maddened howling. But the tension on his face loosened considerably.
Pagan turned to them with a wide grin on his face and held out the letter for them to see, there was only one word printed on the sheet of paper but it summed up everything. It wrote…
Abracadabra.
"That Boy's got an ill sense of humor!"
Ajay woke to the wet coldness of water from the bucket thrown at him by an interrogator. Ajay blinked a few and regained consciousness to his surroundings. He was suspended by a chain from the ceiling from his hands and his mask was apparently not taken off yet his armor and weaponry were which was a given. The place he was in was no surprise to him from all the wailing and screaming, the City of Pain. De Pleur's work place.
"What's your name?" Ajay asked the interrogator.
"Why?"
"I wanna find you later."
The interrogator backed away slightly afraid by his threat, but his confidence returned when the doors opened and in came Paul, still on his phone. "Yup! Ok! Ok! G'night Sweetheart!" He put away his cellphone.
"Sorry about that- daughter… You must understand."
"Do I look that old to you?" Ajay wore a :-I Expression.
"Maybe not, who knows. Beneath that mask might be a charming face, you could have at least made a few bastard children with the ladies you've entranced so far." He laughed in a dry sense.
"Why don't you take it off and find out?" Ajay challenged.
"Nice try, but I'll let you keep it on."
"…. Are you afraid of me?" Ajay's smile question exerted an invisible pressure onto Paul that he found it difficult to move, he quickly recovered so as to not look like he lost composure. But Ajay could see it in him. It didn't matter, but if Paul saw his face and told the rest who he actually was it would be terrible so he played a bit of reverse-phycology, enticing Paul to take it off and see something he'd regret.
"Where're Sabal and Willis? I expected them here for the grand unveiling!" Ajay said to him.
"You're a bit out of luck today. Sabal and Willis are cleaning up that mess you caused this morning, and what was that with Amita? Ahahaha!... Mukti Tigers….. That was the most childish thing I've seen, if breaking off and forming groups were that easy, Kyrat would be full of 'em!"
"True, but Amita's not simple. Sure she can be an angry bitch at times but she's way more intelligent than your average fryface!" Ajay insulted Sabal's lack of intellect.
"Humph! Perhaps." Paul was preparing something behind a plastic suitcase.
"Whatchu go there?" Ajay asked cheerfully and curious.
"I'm getting ready a truth serum for yours truly!" He said as he tapped the springe to release some of the fluids.
"Sweet!" Ajay responded with no sense of tension in his voice. The interrogator who dosed him with water was sweating nervously as Ajay chose to stare at him the entire time.
"S-Sir, permission to attend to the prisoners!"
"Granted, get out of here!" The interrogator was ruining his presence for him, the interrogator rushed out of the room and closed the door behind him.
"Any new guests in Pain City?"
"Just a few. Couple of folks from state side, bunch of kids- Why am I even telling you these things?"
"You were nice enough to respond, Paul! You know, things are going quite disappointingly for me here! I was promised beating until I couldn't move, the hot iron under the skin! This is not what I signed up for!" Ajay complained.
Paul have to manually close his mouth to the invitation Ajay was giving him. He expected him to resist in a futile struggle while he forced him to disclose secrets to him to use as leverage with Sabal's Golden Path and Willis.
"Well, want doesn't get." He said as he prepared to inject it into Ajay.
"Aren't you going to ask me if I've been experiencing dizziness, sweating or drowsiness first?" Paul chuckled.
"I wish all my victims were as fun as you!"
"Yeah? Well, you should try being in their shoes for a while."
"Humph!" Paul injected the truth serum into Ajay's hand and waited for the chemical to take effect.
"Does Sabal even know you captured me?"
"You worry about yourself. He'll be here when he's finished."
"That's gonna take a really long time, with the kind of people he has to work with, that and himself being a lousy Commander." Ajay chuckled.
"The serum should have taken effect by now, ok. Who are you?"
"You already know."
"Your name?"
"Badala." In Ajay's mind, since he was wearing the mask he was technically Badala.
"Bullshit! Your other name."
"Soren."
"Your birth name!" Paul tried to specify.
"You already know it!" He responded truthfully again, because Paul had actually met him when they settled in at his compound.
"Arrghh!" Paul punched him in the gut and Ajay swung like a pendulum.
"What are your plans in the future?" He asked agitated.
"Doing the same thing you're doing back at you." Paul punched him again.
"Tell me the troop movements in the Uttar Region then."
"I dunno, whatever troops do in Uttar I guess..." Because he really didn't, these things were Arjun's line of work.
"You serious?"
"Yep!- Urghh!" Paul hit him again, he was getting more and more unhappy that despite the highest dosage of truth serum he gave wasn't doing its intended job. On Ajay's point of view, he felt fine with no change in behavior, he figured it had to do with the immunity he formed from all the drugs Yuma pumped into him at Durgesh or just he excessive dosage of substances. Or he was under its influence but just gave very vague descriptions.
"Fine then….. I'll ask something to soften you up first. What is it you fear most?"
Ajay remained quiet for a while, and Paul took it as he stumbled onto something good. Men always crumbled at this point, either resisting or indulging a terrifying secret fear.
"Honey Badgers." Paul wanted to plop backwards.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"
"No! I'd go with a knife at Tigers, Leopards, Yetis, Bears but not Honey Badgers. Especially that one Honey Badger back in Nadi village, and boy! Were those marines freaked out when they saw it!-…." Ajay started jabbering on and on.
"SHUT UP!"
"What? Isn't this what you wanted? To find out what I knew? For instance, I know you better than anyone here ever did, Mr. Cuck!" Ajay said with a grin. Paul's gaze became stricken upon hearing that.
"How does it feel, that far away back at home some dude is banging your wife! Gurrghh!" Paul tightened his knuckles and mercilessly beat Ajay onwards for five full minutes.
At the end of his beating when Paul's hands were numb from the pain of boxing him with his bare fists, Ajay proceeded to laugh in pain.
"Come on! Beat me till your knuckles bleed! I know why you do what you do, you like the way it feels don't chu'- it's what you need!" Ajay taunted him.
"Raaarghh!" Paul picked up a baton and continued to beat him.
And at the end of his beating due to his fatigue, Ajay let out blood from his mouth but continued a wet gurgling laughter which unsettled even Paul.
"Hahahaha…(Sigh) You know, Paul. There are two types of interrogators in this world. The ones who are good at dishing out but when it comes to receiving some of it they'd faint on the spot. Then, there's the type that has had a taste of the good old medicine called pain for untold decades. What was inflicted on them they learnt, they know exactly where your weak spots are. i.e. Yours would be Ashley."
Paul trembled at the thought of Ajay grasping hold of Ashley.
"Imagine yourself hanging, where I'm hanging. I place your cellphone right-…. there." Ajay pointed with his chin to the work bench with all the torturing tools. "Then as I torture you without reason, the phone rings-….. and then-…." Paul had fallen into an imagination of the nightmare he spoke of. "I pick it up and answer it-…" "Huh!" Paul gasped as he was laying on the floor with his hands bleeding and swollen. "Is this Ashley Harmon? I'll say and she asks who am I. So I'll tell her…. A friend of your father's, I was wondering if you'd like to come to Kyrat, bring you and your mommy over to see what your daddy does for a-."
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! You fucking animal!" Paul threw his tools on the table at him, some were razors that cut Ajay as they flew by but they weren't deep so it wasn't a problem.
Ajay was quite pleased with his work, he decided to have a little fun with Paul and screw with the sorry bastard. Would he do those things to Ashley or his cheating wife? Of course not, but Paul didn't believe it, he was convinced Ajay would really do so.
"That's why I said you should have waited for Sabal and Willis to come or it wouldn't be fun! Tsk!"
Paul raised his 1911 at him and pointed between his eye.
"Ah! Did you finally gain the courage to do it? Oh!- By the way, whatever happens to me….. Actually-… Hmmmm…. Well I'm sure Pagan will at least settle it later, and you should know how he's like when things don't go his way, am I right?" As if Ajay wasn't bad enough, he was reminded of Pagan. Paul was very familiar with what Pagan was capable of. His lover Ishwari once persuaded him to sponsor a bunch of medical students to Singapore and when they never returned he had their families executed and sent some men to deal with them there.
Paul left Ajay hanging while he went into the opposite room to think and freely express his emotions not in Ajay's presence.
He was now starting to regret his decision in placing his cards with Willis. The agency he had been working for in the past was a special branch under the CIA so Willis had tabs on who he was. And communicated with him while he was in Varshakot for over a month to collaborate this partnership. Willis promised him something in return for his help, and he gave it in advance payment. To kidnap his wife and her lover, wipe out their existence and bring them to him to torture slowly till death with the comfort that no one is going to question their disappearance. They were already on their way. And after that, he would be given a private estate in the American countryside to raise Ashley. Things were already going as planned yet he couldn't shake the feeling his darling baby girl was in danger left alone with just a babysitter, he'd have to arrange for her to come over. But even then the feeling that Badala gave off was causing him anxiety, he just needed to go or he'll never been free. Problem was that Pagan was behind him and he knew what he could do.
"Fuck this!" He dialed his phone. The dial tone rang for a while. "Pick it up you bitch!"
*…Paul.* When Paul defected, he brought Noore along into the picture because it increased his entitlements and also because he could blackmail her with the family he took.
"I've got a job for you, last one and your family will be free!"
That's right, if Noore was the one who held responsibility for Badala then Pagan wouldn't direct his rage towards him but that pitiful Noore. He held his part of the deal with Willis, Noore was just there to watch over him.
*Name it.*
"Tell me, Noore….. what do you think about letting into your menagerie one Northern Demon?"
The Condotierri and hunters sat around the veranda of the Bell tower they used to send the long-range communique to the Army High Command. Now that they had completed their mission they sat around separately not talking to one another. They had their own thoughts to deal with.
Bipin wasn't taking the events that occurred very well. As he sat on the ledge of the bell tower with a bottle of Shangri-lager in his hands.
Samson took a while to climb that ridiculous maze of ledges, whatever this bell tower was, it was designed to not let anyone climb up to tamper with the electronics on top. The monotonous propaganda kept blaring out its repeated programed speech.
"You look like he died."
"And you think he hasn't?" Bipin said without looking behind where Samson was.
"You of all should know very well how capable he is."
"He's not the be all end all like everyone thinks!" Bipin had enough of the beer that was tasting stale from exposure to the cold air and threw it down.
"I know, but if he were to be captured. I doubt he'll be held for long."
"You don't believe they'll just shoot him to save the trouble?" Bipin being pragmatic as always, though he wasn't wrong with that assessment.
"Sabal is all about displays of might like Solomon, to show they're strong. He'll likely parade him through Banapur then torture him in a quiet place to get revenge for his face. Badala would likely use that opportunity to escape when he has the chance."
"I'm going to Banapur."
"Oh no you don't!"
"You have no jurisdiction over me, mercenary!" Bipin tapped Samson's hand off his shoulder.
"No I don't but in the best of Badala's interest I'll keep you from endangering yourself. We'll station near Shanath by a telephone line and wait for signs of where he is then answer it quickly. Luca happens to be a rather good communcations specialist and can tap in on phone calls in the region with the computer software he has at hand." Samson proposed to Bipin.
"(Sigh)… Alright."
"Don't worry, we'll get to him eventually. Your worries are just as great as ours. Even for me, to send us away even though we were mercenary. He's just a weird fellow!" Samson scratched his head.
"Aye. He is that."
"Let's get down there and rest up."
"Right."
Samson and Bipin left the bell tower and met with the rest where they set up camp to spend the night and save their strength for tomorrow morning.
Ajay's consciousness stirred back into awakening. Since his time in the City of Pain, Paul injected him with a dose of heavy tranquilizer used on wild animals like tigers on him. He was awoken by the sound of cheers. The place he was in had a candlelight ambience and he realized his hands had been restrained by cuffs. He took a second to look around. This place looked familiar, but the thing that gave it away was the two topless women holding the restraints to each arm of his.
-So Noore was in on this then.-
Ajay could understand why, Paul must have threatened her with her family or perhaps promised her the release of them to her should she join him in the defection. But it was clear he didn't and Noore likely didn't have long to live with him around.
"People of Kyrat….." The horn blew and the door swung open.
"Who do you cheer for? The Brave elephants?" The two women guards yank the restraints on him
"Ok! Ok! I'm going! Geez…." Ajay walked casually to match their pace.
"Or the fierce tigers?"
As Ajay stepped into the clear of the arena he could see the crowds on both sides of the arena walls on top, Noore was in front, presenting him to the crowd most likely.
"Or do you cheer for the butchers."
"Favored Son to King Min, a fellow Vice-Lord of the Valley of Death, killer of innocent men, women and children of Kyrat…." Noore kept her façade of belittling him though she didn't really mean any of these things she said.
"He abandoned his people to live in the decadence of America-….." Noore proceeds to grasp the restraints from her subordinate and pull him along with her.
"-But he returns in chains to face judgement. Your Judgement, people of Kyrat."
"The Northern Demon. BADALA!" She shouted his name for all the audience to hear, and the crowd went wild. Not sure if it was the real Badala or an impersonator. But they paid to see something interesting. Ajay looked up at the parapet and saw Paul flanked by his guards. Paul saw him and raised his glass of champagne to him.
-Thank you Paul, you've given me a setting that I was just looking for!-
Ajay released a fearless grin back which made him unsettled again that he'd use this opportunity to breakout. But Noore was confident he wouldn't do anything while she was accompanied by her personal guard who were standing around the rim of the arena, all cladded in heavy type armor and carrying bullet-hoses.
"Some people believe you can make a difference here, Badala. This is the moment of truth."
"Yeah sure, I bet they'd pay two-thousand rupees to see that! Knife at my feet, got it!" He turned his cuffs to the topless woman. Noore was left in a daze, how could he know what she was planning? She nodded to her attendant to unlock the restraints as she did. Ajay flicked his hands and rubbed his wrists slightly to get a feel then jumped into the arena without question. The crowd burst into cheers when they saw his eagerness to join.
Noore left for the parapet to commentate, her personal guards retreated out of the arena as quickly as possible as the game was about to start.
"Welcome to Shanath Arena! Let the betting begin!" The crowd cheered once more.
Ajay took a knee and picked up the knife from the sand taking his position but the wooden barricade to conceal his silhouette from the beginning waves.
"Round One!" Noore called out from her observation parapet with Paul.
The doors began to open and men and animals poured out to fight with one another. Most composed of Royal Army soldiers who wanted to make a quick buck and survive the arena, others were locals given the Royal Army kit to fight for the same reason. The animals….. were just animals.
Ajay was waiting against one of the doors for the men to exit the room, he hoped the one he chose wasn't filled with drugged animals because it would be a different result from what he imagined. But he heard footsteps approaching and the shouting from inside the room.
Ajay flung his knife and impaled the first to exit, pulled his grenade pin and kicked his body back into the room. His comrades were too shocked by the sudden attack that they stumbled and weren't quick enough to remove the grenade from their friend.
The room exploded with dust and red mist, the crowd that was above to witness him went wild. By now the other three teams were engaging one another with the animals, wild dogs somewhere in between. They fought in the compound and Ajay wasn't within their sights so they concentrated on what was in front.
He jumped off the ledge and took down a soldier with his back turned, stealing his rifle and blazed away at the surrounding soldiers. The other teams took notice of him and turned their attention solely on him, reminded that they were still within an arena with the Northern Demon in it as well.
Up upon the parapet, Noore returned to her seat next to Paul whom was cheerfully drinking the champagne he was provided. Both of them bore witness to his brutality, Paul enjoyed it while Noore was dreading it.
"How the hell did you catch him in the first place?"
"A thousand soldiers and Golden Path warriors in a favorable position and plenty of mortar fire. A bit of luck might I add! About four hundred of those men never lived to see this moment…. A demon, fighting in the arena for life." Paul chuckled like he was completely in control of the situation.
Noore remained quiet, she found it weird why Paul had brought him here and alive at that. Where he should have been quite well kept in the City of Pain for that matter. So why did Paul hand him to her to take care of and occasionally earn some bucks from using him as entertainment? Even though Paul had promised to return her family after taking custody of Badala until Sabal and Willis had returned from the frontlines, she didn't like the feeling she was having. So she planted a knife below to keep him alive as much as possible. When Paul left, she wanted him brought to her quarters where she could negotiate her family's rescue for his release. Noore was having second thoughts about her initial plan after seeing the brutality of his fighting prowess, what kind of leverage did she have on him to ensure that if she released him, he'd be obliged to follow her request.
"Round three!" The separate announcer called out the beginning of the third match already.
"Let's mix things up a bit. Have all the teams in the next round go for him." Paul suggested.
"What?!" Even for her that was absurd, that meant he had to deal with soldiers at the fourth round's level and still fight all of them at the same time.
"Something wrong with that? I guarantee he'll be alive, I'll even bet on it a hundred thousand grand."
Paul waved for one of his ten soldiers who brought a briefcase with notes in US green instead of Rupees.
"Fine." She turned back to look down at the Arena with worry on her face.
-Will he make it?-
The round ended without much difficulty, he only had to concentrate on small groups at a time so it wasn't difficult yet. There had yet to be Heavy troopers and large animals that made it more of a challenge for him.
"I'm impressed Mr. Badala. I expected you to fall much sooner. But, this is Shanath Arena, and we're only warming up."
"Yeah. Yeah." Ajay casually picked up the ammo and knives he could salvage while he still had time.
"The betting is open for round four!" Screaming from the crowd, telling Ajay to hang on due to the exorbitant amounts bet on him.
Ajay stood behind the column with his rifle at the ready awaiting the arrival of the four colored teams and the big cats this round. He watched as the teams from either side converge but they neither fired upon one another nor fling their knifes too. He was starting to find something off when they started looking around in a group.
"A slight twist to this round, people of Kyrat. You've heard him in all his gore and glory. The Northern Demon sweeping his enemies before him in the hundreds, the thousands! Now. Witness him triumph over the arena as he fights against all contestants of the arena in a one versus all scenario. Watch him slaughter his way to VICTORY!" Noore announced the plot-twist even Ajay didn't see coming. The crowd went absolutely bananas, shouting and cheering even louder than before, people crowded around the gambling handlers with notes swinging towards them.
It had gotten pretty serious now, even he wasn't sure of the outcome. Because all the soldiers had their wits about them now.
Ajay steeled himself and ran out of cover to impale the closest man near him and fired his rifle at the rest. The volume of fire at him was even greater than before and they spared no expense in ammo to keep him suppressed under cover for them to maneuver.
Ajay was going to have a hard time ahead of him.
Sabal and Willis had spent a long day sorting out the problems around the territories that were unstable, The Royal Army sent quick reaction forces almost the size of a regiment to contest for the territories towards the Airport and the routines to King's bridge. However, this proved troublesome with the Tigers to the West which were holding them off for the Royal Army QRF to reach them in time to support them. King's Bridge was once again heavily fortified with emplacements around the roads and a camp assembled at the foot of the mountain to the bridge.
Sabal's forces and the Shanath traitor forces that were on their side as well were forced into submission by these elite forces that mobilized. Willis had underestimated the response time of the Army Command, it probably had to do with the fact that the trap in Varshakot wasn't very well contained and someone escaped and sent a transmission to the Uttar Region. If not for that, the Airport and King's bridge barracks would have fallen into their grasp.
They were now in the City of Pain as Sabal had left overall management to the field commanders, Willis saw it more like he stopped pestering them with his presence. He'd never seen anyone so horrible at leading militarized forces, how in the world did Sabal rise to this kind of power? It didn't matter, he just wanted a fool like him to break the country down to call for US intervention. They did it in Iraq, they could do it here as well. While the middle east was only had oil, Kyrat was filled to the brim with Rubies, Diamonds, rare earth metals, Coltan, Iron, Aluminium, Titanium, the list went on. It was a miner's paradise. The source on these materials came from the MI6 database as there was a mining company called KEO that was under the British crown pre-WWII and was also a branch office for station H.
They walked up the steps towards De Pleur's office.
"Go ahead of me, I'll catch up!" Sabal told him as he took a different route, Willis chuckled. He knew where he was headed.
The guards who saw Sabal parted for him as he entered the prison to visit a certain group, it was becoming his favorite pass-time to taunt them. Jason's friends to be exact.
They were gathered in a corner of the cell sharing their stories of after they returned to the states.
"You know, if you maintain this type of cooperative behavior I could arrange for slightly more….. comfortable accommodations for you and your friends." Sabal leaned against the bars of the prison cell they were in.
"Drop dead!" Daisy responded and made Sabal chuckle.
"You're my favorite! It's always a treat to come by every now and then. I just happened to be in a very good mood. Sadly, things turned out quite anti-climactic when the Warlord I wanted your friend to find and kill fell into our trap and now hangs next door being carefully tortured. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with your friend now, maybe topple over the current monarchy ruled by Pagan perhaps."
"If you wanted Jason to help then why were we involved?!" Steven screamed at him and slowly regretted it as Sabal gave him an intimidating glare that caused him to cower once more. His expression quickly flipped back to his original smiling persona in a split-second.
"I'll let you off easy this once, shall I? And for that matter about your friend Willis did approach him once in a quiet ranch in Austin, Texas wherever that is….. But unfortunately, he wasn't being very diplomatic when he spoke to him. He still thought he could be a normal person after all the blood-spilt there!" Sabal laughed heartily.
"It's not what he does anymore, he promised me he wouldn't!" Liza somehow got the courage to speak.
"Oh? This coming from the lover who abandoned him, Liza Snow?" Sabal grinned evilly as she became silent from his words that spoke truth in their meaning.
"But I have to thank you for it, my dear. Because if you were there to support him things would have been more difficult for us to persuade him to come." He bent down into a one-leg kneel against the bars.
"There's nothing quite like a broken puppet yearning for its strings to be pulled." Sabal made the motions of a puppeteer with his fingers while he laughed again more diabolically than before.
"You're a sick bastard!" Daisy scorned him.
"You have quite the mouth there. Wonder if it works as well in the bedroom too!"
"Tsk!" All she could do in her position was glare scornfully at him.
"After um-…. Jason…. has served his use and disposed of I might like to keep you as my concubine. Well, you and Liza Snow over there if your boyfriend doesn't object!" He knew the man was too afraid to shout back so he intentionally antagonized them.
"Drop dead creep!"
"Yes! It's those fierce eyes that I can't get enough of! Well, you'll have plenty of time to think were your current position is at."
Sabal didn't get to pass any more disturbing remarks as Willis came into the prison looking for Sabal.
"Was it too disgusting to watch even for you?" He thought Paul was at work with Badala that's why Willis came to see what Sabal was doing instead.
"Read." He held out a note from De Pleur. Which Sabal took and read, his expression changed from a smile to a slight frown.
"Humph! Greedy bastard. Trying to make a buck out of him. I guess that's ok. I've always wanted to see the Northern Demon fight to the dead in an arena." Sabal said as he scrunched the note into a ball and threw it.
"That just leave more room for error. Any fuck up can happen over there, especially when it's a public area. We're moving out now while it's still salvageable….. He had one job! One job!..."
Sabal and Willis left the prison on their way to Shanath arena.
Daisy went to the bars and reached out for the note and successfully grabbed it after a few tries. She unruffled the note and read it.
"What's it say?" Riley asked.
"…. Taking Badala to the Shanath arena to incarcerate, Noore will be free to use him for events. That'll earn us some extra cash to fund the cause…."
"An arena? Like the colosseum arena? Wow! How lawless is this place?" Oliver exclaimed.
"Suffice it to say we're safe here than outside these walls for the time being." Daisy repeated to them.
Daisy was carefully sorting her thoughts, recalling the conversation Sabal had indulged them with. This and the words of the jailers and interrogators that have been passing by the place.
From what she gathered, Sabal and the Golden Path resistance were having difficulties with an individual known as Badala hailing from the North regions where the ruling power was. The stories she heard about him were hard to believe but then so was Jason. The Golden Path and Kyrati citizens affectionately named him the Northern Demon. This was the person they had intended for Jason to kill for them, Daisy judged the possibility of that happening. Because if Jason won it did not simply mean they'd be returned to him but he'll be betrayed, the same could happen if Badala defeated him. But if they were both evenly matched somehow, then they could drag into a stalemate for them to think up a plan to escape this wrecked place. Perhaps go to the airport that was mentioned by one of the guards where Badala had taken control of and plead for him to allow them to leave so that Jason would stop fighting with them.
It was risky and full of uncertainty but Daisy swore she wasn't going to sit around and let things happen to them.
The crowd cheered even louder at the results of the fifth round. Bodies of soldiers in Royal Guard attire lay all over the arena and in the centre was an actual mound of corpses. Kneeling on top of it was Ajay, bleeding from his extremities with severe wounds and cuts all over his torso. Ajay gasped for air, his entire body felt like it was on fire. The steel mask felt hot in contact to his face and his vision was blurry, he tried his best to steady himself.
Who would have thought things would play out like this? For the last two rounds he was subjected to fighting all the soldiers and animals with whatever was in the arena. No custom body armor, no modified weapons, no special tools. Just his brawn and wits, but even he was just one man. And the crowd acknowledged it as Ajay passed the final round without sustaining serious injury, he was automatically the next Arena Champion by everyone's book. He had won his freedom, or so everyone thought but he was shoved her by Paul to fight for his dear life and was still going back in a prison cell at the end of the day, if he died then at least for them he wouldn't bother the Golden Path's ambition any further.
Noore sighed relief in her heart that Ajay had made it out of that almost certain death situation on two accounts, one round fiercer than the other. Paul was making a different face, holding a very ugly expression as it was when Ajay stared at him with a smirk from where he was in the parapet. Paul got up and walked to the porch.
"I'll do this one if you don't mind." Paul requested he take her place in the end of the arena commentary.
"Uh- Not at all."
"People of Kyrat! You've seen it all here in Shanath. Tell me, are you not entertained?!"
The crowd shouted wildly with excitement.
"Today, with you as our witness, Badala has torn through the ranks of the enemies before him with the determination of a monster, a demon!... But can he survive against one final round?"
The crowd were baffled by his comment, the daily rounds only went to five so why was there a sixth? Noore stood up from her chair at his ridiculous remark.
"Paul! What the hell are you trying to pull off here?!" Noore got her answer from Paul with his 1911 drawn to her forehead, his guards turned their rifles to her and her personal guards and servants.
"Just watch." He said with a grin. Then it hit her, Paul never wanted to keep Badala alive but wanted him to die in the arena where she would take the blame for his death instead of him. "PAAUULL! You slimy-."
"Be careful what your next word are, Noore! Remember who still has your family!"
Noore's expression turned white as a sheet when he used her family yet again. She wanted to cry out for the injustice she had to undergo right now but she was helpless to stop it.
Paul turned his attention back to the arena.
"For the next bonus round, our arena legend will face off against the best of Noore's menagerie, her personal guards, and my strongest warriors! In a battle where the winner takes all! People of Kyrat, never in the history of arena battle will you get to see such a performance. Today you will be present in what will be written in the history books as the greatest arena battle of all time!"
To be a part of history, once in a lifetime. These words dragged them back to their seats and looking towards the betting handlers to place high stakes bets.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and girls! Place your bets, because it's time for the final round!"
Paul went off the porch back into the observation balcony where Noore and her subordinates were made to sit with guns to their heads. Paul picked up the radio on the bench and walked to Noore.
"Make the arrangements."
The excitement caught the crowd as they cheered loudly for Ajay to win or lose. To them it was a gambling game. But to Ajay it was life and death, the previous two rounds were hard enough. He was now facing elite guards from Noore and Paul with a combination of the biggest animals Noore could fetch from the wild. He looked up at Paul's smug look and responded with a devious smile to discomfort him again.
"Are you watching closely?" Ajay mouthed to Paul to lip read him.
The doors of the confine rooms opened in the arena. Ajay threw his gathered smoke grenades into the centre where he was to mask the line of sight from each other on both Noore's and Paul's guards' sides. Ajay was running on limited strength at the moment so he had to kill them as quickly as possible, although that didn't give him any countermeasures against Paul should he faint, the guy might put a bullet through his head.
The heavy soldiers converged into the smoke, each side's flamer types let loose a wall of fire into the smokescreen to try and burn him out. The mound of bodies caught fire that was all, there were no screams or movement from within the smoke so the elite guards and the crowd found it weird. The smoke sort of cleared up and showed only the mountain of corpses from the previous battles. The elite guards moved in to poke around to see if he hid amongst the corpses.
(Ping) (BOOOM) An unfortunate guard lifted a body which was acting as a counter weigh to the safety lever of the grenade under him and it vaporized three of the guards in the arena, while stunning the rest.
"URRGhh!" Ajay stabbed the flamer heavy with his knife and blazed away with the commandeered flamethrower at the unprotected guards whom caught fire instantly and danced about frantically. Ajay rushed for the cover of the pillars up by the larger door. Bullets scrapped the stone floor where he ran on but wasn't quick enough to graze him. Automatic fire blazed away at the column to keep him suppressed as they moved up to take the kill. Some of the men got over confident and went around to hose him but were gun down instead with his quicker reactions. But Ajay was facing a problem where he couldn't move from his position due to the suppressing fire volume being too great.
Then as if anything could get worse, the doors in front of him began to open. It was time for the wild animals to come out. The doors slowly swung open, revealing the latest beast incarnate brought to the arena to die for entertainment. This time, it was the most difficult beast to ever take down within the arena. It was the alpha Rhino that rampaged through the areas in Shanath, sustained numerous injuries from harpoons and buckshot but was successfully captured and sold instead to Noore for the highest price offered. It was the rare White Rhino, Karkadann. Its name was derived from a mythical beast due to its near invulnerability to normal weapons. The rhino laid eye on Ajay because he was the nearest and kicked its leg against the dirt floor to prepare for a charge.
-Shit.-
The Rhino charged at the column and Ajay was left with no other option but to dodge. He jumped out of the way from the Rhino that slammed into the pillar and shook its head from the concussive force and turned to him again like it was only interested in him.
Ajay turned his rifle towards the guards that were in his way as he ran through them. Killing the ones that were directly in front of him as he escaped from the more serious enemy, the Rhino. The beast found him to be too much of a hassle and turned to the guards which were nearer and started to remove some of them from Ajay. Having recovered his footing, Ajay made his way towards the elite guards scattered about and began dispatching them with quick efficiency.
Then, it was just Ajay, the Rhino and the few guards surrounding it and trying to fight it off.
The Rhino noticed him from afar, recalling that it had made it miss him on several occasions. Adding to its fury as it changed its mind and went for Ajay instead. The Elite Guards who were fighting it were given a moment for a breather.
The Rhino charged at him once more in the centre of the Arena. Ajay fired his rifle at it with little to no damage to its tough skin but Ajay had no choice. He fired at one spot to weaken the fresh at its neck area. With the Rhino attempting to trample him, he had little windows of opportunity to make aimed shots and went for hip shooting instead. The guards that survived got up from their breather and actually stood watching, because their orders were to kill Ajay but then they'd have to fight the Rhino next. They all agreed to wait for Ajay to weaken the animal first before they intervened.
Somehow the crowd saw their actions and thought it was very unsportsman like so they threw harsh jeers and rubbish at the guards. On the parapet, Paul watched with delight as Ajay struggled to fight the Rhino, while Noore watched in horror. It was already brave to stand in the same place as the Rhino but to fight with it alone was almost suicidal. Ajay had no choice in the matter as he fought to stay alive. His rifle went dry which made it a huge problem for him as he resorted to all his additional weaponry. He threw throwing knives at the weakened flesh but they didn't have the stopping power. Ajay was forced to run around the obstacles to reduce the rhinos momentum when charging at him. Ajay slid on the floor and picked up a shotgun by a door to a confine room and turned to fire a few slugs at the rhinos head but again it shrugged it off, he was beginning to feel that not many things could kill this rhino.
His grenades were used up on the initial elite guards and his main armament was now empty. Ajay was now left with his knife.
Paul saw what kind of predicament Ajay fell into an laughed.
The rhino snorted at him for having only his blade now to defend himself, it decided it would finish Ajay with one single charge and kicked the floor a few times before charging with a speed no one would expect from an animal that size.
It was do or die now.
Ajay waited at the last possible moment before he dodged, the rhino zipped pass as he impaled his blade into the weak spot in its neck. "WHooooWHH!" The Rhino howled and shook its head hitting Ajay hard against the wall. At that split second that Ajay had lost his footing the rhino turned and charged at him.
(BOOM) The sound of the rhinos horn hitting the stone wall could be heard echoing around the arena.
"EEEYYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
The most blood curling scream followed, resounding throughout the arena and silenced all the commotion above the area.
Ajay…. Had been stabbed in the right chest by the lengthy rhino horn which was in turn embedded within the stone wall. To the crowd, to Noore, and to Paul it was a fatal wound that he wouldn't recover from.
As Ajay's body fell limp against the horn, swaying and not moving at all. The rhino was more concerned about pulling its horn free instead which it had trouble doing because its horn tip was caught on the iron rod internally used to support the making of the wall.
It was the most excruciating pain Ajay had ever felt in his entire existence, his eyesight began to fade, but this time for good. He knew better than anyone his own wounds as he hung impaled by the rhinoceros.
This was the hour of his imminent death, after all he had done to bring about the end of the Golden Path, to coming of true peace. It was all about to end for him, all because of a filthy animal. He would never see Pagan again, Bhadra, Saras,… Maya.
Never again. Never again. Never again. Never again. Never again. Never again. Never again.
Ajay's vision turned blank as his eyes were still opened.
He just...
...
...
...
couldn't accept it...
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...
...
...
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AWAKEN
