Chapter 21

Trust

"You all saw it here first, folks!" Heimdall shouted to the bewildered audience members, "In a SHOCKING twist! The fabled Scabbard of Excalibur, once a relic lost to time. Has now somehow made its way BACK into the hands of its owner! And saved Arthur from the icy grasp of DEATH!"

"Oh thank goodness.," Pandora said in an out of breath voice after witnessing Arthur's unexpected comeback, "I thought we were done for back there!"

Similarly her friends next to her were equally relieved that Arthur was not dead, with Göll wiping the sweat from her forehead as she breathed a sigh of relief, "I almost had a heart attack back there! Things would have been really bad if we actually lost three times in a row. It would have been a huge blow to mankind's morale!"

"Indeed Göll," Prometheus replied, "Though I do not know HOW Arthur managed to find and retrieve Excalibur's scabbard in time for his fight, I am immensely grateful that he has it now, for our chances of winning the third round are better than ever with it!"

"H-how does the Scabbard of Excalibur work exactly?" Pandora asked," I've heard a lot about it and its healing properties from my dad, but he never talked about the exact details of how it worked."

"The Scabbard of Excalibur," Prometheus answered," possesses ONE of, if not THE greatest healing abilities in any Divine Weapon ever created throughout Heaven's history. When held by the user, the scabbard heals any types of injuries inflicted upon them, no matter how serious, and restores them to full health. Wounds, burns, broken bones, even the icy grasp of death is held back by the scabbard's ability."

"Incredible," Göll gasped in amazement, "So, with Excalibur's scabbard in hand, Arthur is basically UNKILLABLE?"

" Not quite," The Titan replied, "When something has such immense and powerful strength, it obviously must have some sort of drawback to balance it out, the Scabbard of Excalibur is no different. Its weakness is that its marvelous properties can only be used THRICE in battle before needing an entire day to recharge its strength, so Arthur needs to be strategic on how he uses these revives, especially when facing a god as powerful as Nezha."

"S-so what you're saying is," Pandora said," That Nezha essentially has to kill Arthur four times before the King of Camelot actually loses the fight?"

"Well three times now actually," Prometheus corrected her, "But it's no wonder Arthur chose to not avoid Nezha's attack just now." The Titan said thoughtfully.

"The effects of the scabbard were ALREADY taking hold after he suffered a broken rib and a wounded side, so he decided to make FULL use of the scabbard's power by taking the full force of Nezha's ultimate move, allowing him to also gather intel on how the attack works as an added bonus."

"Whoa..." Göll and Pandora muttered as they marveled at the King of Camelot's strategic planning and cunning.

Seeing that humanity still had a fighting chance in the match, Prometheus couldn't help but look up at the God's VIP section to taunt the Egyptian Chief God who now sat there wearing a look of anger and annoyance, with a smirk.

"The game is far from over Ra, humanity still has much to offer in this Ragnarok. Don't you dare think you've won just yet."

In the God's VIP section, Ra growled as he tightly clenched his fist and bared his teeth, before seeming to calm down and take a seat back on his throne.

"No matter," The Sun God said to himself," Humanity thinks that a mere scabbard can save them from destruction, but all that human has really done is prolonged the time before his inevitable death by a few short minutes."

"Indeed Lord Ra," Said Amaterasu, "All the Third Lotus Prince has to do is murder that foolish king three more times and it will be victory for the gods, and humanity will be mourning the loss of their fighter again soon enough, only this time it will be for real."

"Killing him three times over is still gonna to be a challenge for the Lotus Prince though," Huitzilopochtli commented, "That Arthur guy managed to chip Nezha's ring with a single strike, so he's definitely no push-over..."

"Just eat your damn tacos, Huitzy."

The Aztec Chief God sighed, making a mental note to never again bring snacks to eat on the sidelines whilst watching Ragnarok.

As Nezha got back to his feet, he eyed Arthur's scabbard with great interest, even amongst gods, the tales of Excalibur's scabbard and its incredible healing properties were well known.

"So, that is the legendary Scabbard of Excalibur..." He murmured as he stood up, wiping blood and sweat off his chest," But the legend says that it was lost to time. How on earth did you manage to find it back in time for our match?"

Arthur chuckled, "True indeed, Prince Nezha. I did lose the scabbard due to my own carelessness, but..." His head turned to face his loyal Knights of the Round Table, namely Lancelot, as he gave a small smile and nod to show his thanks, "I am fortunate enough to have an old friend willing to aid me in my time of need!"

Nezha followed Arthur's gaze towards the fallen knight and frowned in confusion as he saw who the king was referring to.

"That guy... Isn't he that one traitor knight who has an affair with your wife or something? Lance-something or other?"

"Lancelot," Arthur corrected him, "And I would rather not talk about THAT particular detail right now if you please."

"Touchy subject, I get it, but I just don't understand why he would choose to help you, and why YOU would accept his help."

Arthur simply smiled at Nezha's curiosity, "I believe we were in the middle of a fight, Prince Nezha, not a discussion of my personal relationship. Forgive my manners, but please let's just drop the subject."

"My bad, let's continue the fight then? Now by my count, I've already killed you once before. So if I want to win this fight..." The Third Lotus Prince gave a faux look of being deep in thought, before grinning.

"I'm gonna have to kill you three more times to get rid of your scabbard's little effect," Nezha grin widened at the thought," Well hot damn, no one told me this was gonna be a video game boss fight. This is the most fun I've had in a fight since battling the Monkey King!"

And with that, the Third Lotus Prince raised his spear and the two fighters continued their battle.

"And there they go again!" Heimdall yelled, "Nezha's mighty Three Heads, Six Arms form has proven itself to be a massive challenge for the King of Camelot! But Arthur himself has a powerful trump card in the form of the Scabbard of Excalibur! I can't WAIT to see what happens next!"

Once again, Nezha employed the use of his pantheon's signature battle style, which paired with his three body form, became an even deadlier form of attacking. Now whenever the Third Lotus Prince spun himself around to deliver a strong blow with his main body, his exposed back was no longer vulnerable to potential attacks from behind, thanks to the presence of the other two. And whilst he did this, it opened up the possibility of his other bodies suddenly delivering an unexpected blow to Arthur as he turned.

Arthur grunted as his guard was broken by a powerful swipe from Nezha's spear, and without even a second to catch his breath, the King of Camelot had to jump backwards to dodge Nezha's left body as the Lotus Prince swung the Qiankun Ring, as though it were a melee weapon, at him.

Repeating this process, Nezha began forcing Arthur back, masterfully advancing forward whilst he spun himself around, increasing his centrifugal force which allowed him to deal heavier damage. His spear and ring acting as the painful consequence, should Arthur be unable to dodge the spinning Lotus Prince's attack.

"DEADLY LOTUS SPIN!"

Arthur gritted his teeth as he parried each blow with his blade, dodging and swiping with his weapon in an attempt to stop Nezha's advance, and though at some points he was successfully able to force Nezha to stop spinning and block his attacks. The Third Lotus Prince would always regain his momentum, continuing to unleash his whirlwind of weapons upon the King of Camelot.

"This is RIDICULOUS!" Muzha and Jinzha protested, "Our brother obviously skewered that human! If it weren't for that scabbard of his, Arthur would be deader than a doorknob! Even if he's still alive, this round should have been counted as a win for Nezha!"

"Calm yourselves boys," The Jade Emperor said, "The healing abilities of Excalibur's scabbard isn't the only reason Arthur is still in the game, most gods would have already crumbled under the pressure of Nezha's continuous chain attack. But he, on the other hand, is fighting back and was actually able to disrupt Nezha's flow. That by itself is already quite impressive."

"Apologies, Yu Huang," Li Jing replied on his sons' behalf, "But please forgive my rudeness, for I must say, my sons' words are not without truth. That human seems to have an over reliance on his weapon's magical ability, without them he struggles against Nezha's attacks. So I must agree to an extent, if it weren't for the Scabbard of Excalibur, round 3 would have ended with Nezha as the victor."

The Jade Emperor stroked his beard thoughtfully as he nodded in agreement at Li Jing's assessment. Meanwhile Erlang gave a loud snort at the Pagoda-Bearing King's words.

"Well well, it's the first time in a long while that I've heard you compliment your son's in one way or another," The Warrior God said, clearly impressed, "Guess Ragnarok has a lot more surprises in store for all of us."

Li Jing's eyes narrowed at Erlang's comment, and he opened his mouth to respond to the Warrior God's remark, but someone else beat him to it.

"I know that my husband and son do not have the best relationship between themselves, but that does not mean Li doesn't have any love for Nezha at all, my husband cares deeply for our son, though he may not be the best at showing it. I hope you can understand that, Erlang." Lady Yi spoke with a disapproving glare at the Warrior God.

"Forgive me, Lady YI," Erlang said as he raised his hands in defeat, uncharacteristically shifting uncomfortably under her piercing gaze, "I spoke out of turn."

With that, Lady Yi turned back to her husband, patting his hand supportively, "Don't let his words get to you dear." She said comfortingly to Li Jing.

The Pagoda-Bearing King gave a small smile, "Thank you my love, you really showed that rascal what for."

But as Li Jing and his wife turned to continue watching their son's fight, he couldn't help but think about what Erlang and Lady Yi had said. Indeed, when was the last time he had actually shown Nezha encouragement, instead of reprimanding him and attempting to 'straighten' him out? Was he truly worthy of the person his wife had described him to be?

Li Jing shook his head to be rid of those thoughts, regardless of the answer, once Nezha won his fight, the Pagoda-Bearing King resolved to do something to improve their strained relationship.

Back in the battlefield, Arthur leapt backwards, dodging another strike from Nezha's whirlwind of weapons; the King of Camelot's entire body was dripping with sweat as he continued this game of cat and mouse with his godly opponent. Every time Nezha struck a blow at him, Arthur had to either move out of the way to avoid the attack entirely, or parry it with his sword and shield if he couldn't dodge in time.

At the same time, Arthur also had to patiently wait for the perfect opportunity to strike back at Nezha, forcing the god to block his blade so as to disrupt the Lotus Prince's tempo and temporarily slow him down.

As Nezha's body spun around once again, Arthur narrowed his eyes, patiently waiting for the narrow time frame when one of the three small slivers of a gap that separated the Third Lotus Prince's three bodies faced him. And when that chance finally came, Arthur quickly raised Excalibur to attack, best case scenario, the king would be able to land a solid hit on the Lotus Prince. Or at the very least, Nezha would be forced to block his strike and stop his advance midway, even if it was only for a short while.

So far however, all of Arthur's attacks had only managed to achieve the latter, with this one being no different. And although it wasn't much, it was still making some sort of progress for the king in his fight.

Nezha grunted as Arthur managed to successfully parry another strike from his spear, throwing the Lotus Prince off focus again.

"I know that I JUST said you were one of the best opponents I've ever faced," Nezha panted as he caught his breath," But did anyone ever tell you that your persistence can be a REAL pain in the neck sometimes?"

Arthur snorted with laughter, "Believe me Lotus Prince, you aren't the first to say that, and you most certainly won't be the LAST!"

This exchange, while seeming like friendly banter to Nezha and the audience, had actually provided Arthur with the time necessary for him to execute the next step of his plan. For Nezha's guard was lowered and he was now wide open!

With a loud battlecry, Arthur swung a heavy blow with Excalibur, overpowering Nezha's guard, knocking his spear aside, allowing his blade full access to Nezha's unprotected chest! So with another roar, the King of Camelot thrusted the tip of Excalibur forward, aiming straight for the Third Lotus Prince's heart.

Realizing the danger he was in, Nezha's right body quickly reacted, sending out the Huntian scarf to intercept Arthur's attack, the Divine Weapon shot forward like a snake, wrapping itself around Arthur's left arm once again and halting his advance as Nezha held the scarf's other end fast.

Without thinking, Nezha instinctively thrusted forth his spear, the tip piercing Arthur's shoulder blade and burying into his flesh, causing the King of Camelot to roar in pain, as he dropped on one knee, the flesh around the spear beginning to steam as the weapon ignited into flames, causing a great pain to blossom across his right shoulder."

Nezha gritted his teeth as he surveyed the grisly scene he had created with a twinge of regret, whilst still holding the spear in place," Oh... WOW, uh sorry about that, I just... That came out of nowhere, sorry. I think that was a tad bit far for me, EVEN if you have a magical healing scabbard."

Once again, Arthur responded to being seriously injured by the Third Lotus Prince with a smile somehow still on his face, and his humorous spirit.

"That is one impressive scarf you have there Prince Nezha, do you think you could perhaps give me the name of your tailor if possible?"

Nezha gave a weak laugh at Arthur's joke, "Here I am with a burning spear stuck in your shoulder trying to apologize, and you STILL can be so light hearted about everything?"

Arthur chuckled at his opponent's words, "There's no need for you to apologize, Prince Nezha, you're simply doing what's necessary for you to win our match. However, I must now ask for YOUR forgiveness, for doing... THIS!"

As he said this, Arthur dropped the Shield of Avalon from his right arm, before grabbing onto Nezha's spear handle and jerking the entire weapon forward, causing the audience to gasp as the king forced the spear-tip deeper into his own flesh willingly.

This action, however, achieved exactly what Arthur was hoping for. The sudden force of his spear being pulled forward caused Nezha to stumble and trip, nearly falling over as he struggled to keep his balance by holding onto his weapon, thus leaving him wide open and vulnerable to any attacks!

Breaking free of the Huntian scarf's grip, Arthur raised his sword high above his head with both hands, before swinging it downwards with all his might., delivering a powerful blow.

"EXCALIBUR'S JUDGMENT!"

"NEZHA!" His family screamed as the sound of metal tearing through flesh was all the audience heard as Excalibur's blade cleanly cut through and severed The Lotus Prince's left arm from his main body. They gasped as they watched Nezha's appendage fall limp to the ground with its owner quickly following suit, letting out a scream of agony as his three bodies reverted back to one.

As his opponent lay on the ground momentarily incapacitated from his injury, Arthur grabbed the shaft of the spear, and gritted his teeth, preparing for the pain that would soon follow as he tugged on the weapon, attempting to extract it from his shoulder.

With a sickening squelching sound, Arthur managed to pull the weapon out from his shoulder, leaving behind a large bloody hole as he dropped the Fire-tip Spear, allowing it to roll back to its user.

As Arthur inspected his injury, the torn, exposed flesh and muscles within his wound began to regrow and attach themselves back to one another. Slowly but surely, the gaping hole on his shoulder began shrinking and shrinking till it was completely covered up by pink flesh, which was then covered by a new, unburnt layer of skin. Finishing the healing process, indicating that another one of the scabbard's healing charges had been used up.

"I-I'm lost for words!" Heimdall gaped, "The mighty King of Camelot, Arthur Pendragon, has just CHOPPED OFF Nezha's arm in the most epic way I can POSSIBLY imagine!"

Humanity bustled with excitement seeing their fighter gain even more of an advantage, their confidence soared higher than before now that the god's representative would have to continue the match with literally just one hand. A bit low on their part, but they had already just lost two matches before and were now extremely desperate for a win.

"Heh... Heh, Heh, Heh..."

Arthur's attention returned to his opponent, the Third Lotus Prince was now slowly getting back up on his knees with a raspy laugh, momentarily he interrupted as he coughed out a few droplets of blood from his mouth.

"Impossible..." Erlang growled as he saw the grievous wounds inflicted on his friend," How... How could ONE man ever inflict such a powerful blow on Nezha of all gods? This can't be happening!"

By his side, Muzha and Jinzha, as well as many other gods, yelled for Nezha, encouraging him to get back up on his feet. Meanwhile, Lady Yi choked back tears seeing what had happened to her son, as Li Jing gently placed a hand over her shoulder to comfort his wife.

The Pagoda-Bearing King looked at his fallen son with a face that betrayed no signs of emotion, but despite his seemingly uncaring expression. Li Jing's eyes were filled with worry and fear for his son.

"Come on son," Li thought silently to himself as he watched Nezha struggling to just barely get up on his knees, "Win this. Win this and come back to us already!"

Turning his head to his left, Nezha examined the bloody stump that was once his left arm, the droplets of red that fell from it, creating a crimson puddle on the floor below him. As he did so, the Third Lotus Prince's soft giggle slowly turned into a wheezing raspy laugh, the audience watched in confusion as Nezha's laughter became louder and louder till he began coughing from how strained his voice had become.

"HAHAHAHA! You've really outdid yourself this time! Letting yourself get run through by a spear so you can get your opponent close enough to strike them down? CLASSIC! If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone was writing this fight to be as cliche as they possibly could for their audience!"

Arthur chuckled, "And here I thought you would be livid after what I did to you."

"Oh believe me," Nezha smirked as he wiped a tear from his eye with his right hand," I would be PISSED if someone else were able to take this MUCH off me as you did. But with how cool you are, I can't find it in myself to blame you. It's like you said, you're simply doing what's necessary for you to win our match!"

Arthur smiled as he gave a slight bow to Nezha, "Why thank you for the kind words, Prince Nezha. I am honored that a god would give me such praise."

Nezha groaned as he slowly got up on his two feet, nearly falling back down on his knees with how exhausted he was from before. Though he managed to persevere through the pain, standing strong and proud in the end.

"No problem," The Lotus Prince answered as he wiped off blood from his chest, "Though in exchange, can you answer this one question from me then, King Arthur?"

"Go right ahead, Prince Nezha, it is the least I could do," Arthur responded as he swung Excalibur idly by his side, relaxed at the moment but still prepared to defend himself should Nezha suddenly make a move.

Nezha's voice then turned serious and laced with the ever-so slightest hint of contempt, "Alright, look, Arthur you're one hell of a dude. You fight valiantly for your people, you're an easy guy to get along with, and we all already know how good you are at fighting. All of these qualities I can totally respect, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out nor comprehend. Why in Heaven or Hell would you ever forgive that Lancelot guy for everything he's ever done to you?"

Arthur sighed as Nezha brought this topic up once again, "Look, Prince Nezha, I really would not like to talk about this right now."

"Oh no, no, NO! We're having this conversation! The dude royally screwed you over in the worst way possible! You thought he was your comrade and friend, but he goes and messes around with your own WIFE while your back is turned! Then he had the gall to go to war with you after getting his sorry ass exposed! He's considered the MAIN reason why your kingdom fell into ruins. Lemme tell you, If all that shit happened to ME, I wouldn't rest until he was six feet under! And even in the afterlife, my first priority would be to exterminate his ass and send him straight to Niflheim! You're a smart and sensible dude Arthut, so why the HELL would you give him the chance to backstab you again? Why would you EVER let him get close to you again? To let him back into your life again? It doesn't make any fucking sense!"

Arthur watched Nezha's outburst and subsequent rant with a somber look on his face, turning to Lancelot with an assuring nod and a sad smile. The fallen knight however, could not bring himself to face his former king, looking down at his own two feet in shame as the spectator's around Lancelot stared at him with disapproving scowls on their faces. Having a legacy so infamous that even a god was calling you out, was obviously not a good look for anyone's reputation.

"Hmmm... I see, very well then," Arthur said after thinking for a moment or two, "I shall answer your question to satiate your burning curiosity, Prince Nezha."

The Third Lotus Prince wiped his sweaty brow as he panted heavily from his sudden outburst previously, listening intently and waiting impatiently for Arthur's answer as did the rest of the arena.

"Although..." Arthur suddenly said, causing Nezha to wince as his desire for an answer and closure was thwarted once again.

"I myself do not understand something, Prince Nezha... That being you become so obsessed with this particular topic ever since it has been brought to your attention. While I am… surprised, that you are so invested in my story, to say the least. I do not understand why a god of all people would be so concerned about my past disputes with my former ally, as well as being so appalled by the fact that I've made peace with him... Unless,"

Arthur looked at Nezha with an odd look, realization began to slowly dawn on the King of Camelot as he recalled what Nezha had said earlier. Easily considering people as friends to the Third Lotus Prince was a weakness, as it meant becoming vulnerable by opening yourself up to others and allowing them to potentially betray you. Hence, it was smarter to simply treat them as lowly supporters, people to hang around with and hype you up, yet no true meaningful connections were made between each other. Thus meaning that you were less susceptible to being backstabbed by others in Nezha's eyes.

But such a mindset could not have always been within a person's mind since their birth, it had to have been developed, cultivated after experiencing a rather unpleasant event in ones life, and seeing how worked up Nezha had become after learning that Arthur had done something that directly challenged this philosophy of his could only mean one thing...

"Something happened between you and another... Am I right? Someone... Someone from your past, who you once regarded as a close friend, they did something... Something to betray your trust... Something that hurt you so deeply that you could never trust others as easily as you did before. That's why you could not wrap your head around the fact that I chose to forgive Lancelot for what he did, isn't it?"

Silence in the arena, as everyone turned to the Third Lotus Prince to see his reaction after Arthur's revelation. Nezha had become oddly silent after hearing Arthur's words, his breaths heavier as he tightly balled up his fist. Old, painful memories slowly flooded in from the back of his mind as he recalled the event that he had tried to forget for the past few centuries, yet was still so fresh and vivid that it could have just happened the day before.

"Yeah," He murmured with a dark look on his face as his golden eyes turned a fiery red, the Third Lotus Prince's every word dripped with venom as he spoke, but not towards Arthur, rather Nezha spoke so bitterly about another individual, one who was no longer amongst the ranks of the living.

"Yep, something happened alright," He growled, "And it taught me one VERY important lesson that I still follow to this day. You can't fully trust ANYONE, no matter WHO they are, or what they MEAN to you. Cause in the end, the person who stabs you in the back may just be the one who hurts the MOST."

Forgot to say this before, but Nezha's fighting style is based on those found in the 1986 Journey to the West TV series, with all the turning and spinning in the fighting scene's choreography. While they may not actually be useful or practical in real life fights, they still look pretty cool and this is a work of fiction so yeah.

As for Excalibur's scabbard, in Arthurian myths its healing power is supposed to make any wounds received by Arthur not bleed at all, preventing him from bleeding to death. Whereas in mine, it pretty much stops the user from dying at all and heals all wounds. I did this cause I thought it would be cooler, as well as have an excuse to give the scabbard a limit to its powers, so that it wouldn't feel like Arthur was just mindlessly spamming heal the whole battle and had to properly plan and make use of each charge the scabbard had.