no surrender, no escape [fangor vs curtus] day 4

"Who's in the shadows?
Who's ready to play?
Are we the hunters?
Or are we the prey?"

♛

"Don't worry, Fangor, I remember you," were the words of the boy.

The boy remembered my name. Good. He may as well know who it is that's going to kill him tonight.

When he had finished speaking to me, he raised his weapon, stabbing it into my back before I could react quickly enough to evade the blow. I felt the sharp, searing pain that it brought with it- it was the first time that another tribute had inflicted a wound upon my flesh. Before, it had only been the child-like mutt creatures that I fought with Eight and Ten's female tributes, both of whom were dead now.

I now felt an even bigger rush of adrenaline flowing through me than I had felt when I first approached this boy. My blood was pumping through my veins, and I briefly glanced to the orange pumpkin creature that I'd taken as a follower- Punk, Pris had called it.

"Go hide until I'm done, little one," I said to it.

Then I spoke to the boy in front of me, my axe still raised and ready to draw more blood. My first blow on him had been only a shallow cut into his hip, which wasn't quite satisfying enough for me. I wanted him dead.

There was another thing I wanted, too, though. I wanted his name. I wanted to know who it was that I was fighting right now.

When I killed him, I should at least know his name, surely? I supposed I could only get his name by asking him for it, though, meaning that that's exactly what I was going to do.

"Good," I say to him in response to his remembrance of me. "How about you share your name with me, then?" I asked. "Or would you just prefer to remain a nameless body when you fall to my weapon?"

I raised my blade to pierce his flesh once again.

"Who's in the shadows?
Who's ready to play?
Are we the hunters?
Or are we the prey?"

♛

My next attack wasn't nearly enough to kill the boy, and the next swipe he made at me caused my calf to be cut open rather deeply.

"Who's to say you won't be the dead one."

To be entirely and reluctantly honest, the boy was right. There was nothing saying that I wouldn't die in this fight, but it didn't mean I was going to lose my confidence. I ignored his words, though. At least, I ignored those ones. That wasn't the only thing he said to me, though.

He also refused to give me his name, instead stating that everyone watching already knew it.

Whatever. I didn't need his name. If I made it out of this arena alive, I'd figure out his name at a later time, after he was dead and I was victorious.

He just needed to be careful about what he said and who he said it to.

"Alright," I said to him in response. "I don't need your name. I just need more of your blood on my blade. How's that sound?"

I was asking for this fight. Not only had I started this all off by attacking the boy, I'd also volunteered to be in this very arena. I wanted change in my life, and I got it. It was a thrill I couldn't have achieved in any other way, and I didn't regret my choice, even in the slightest. If I was going to die in here, I was going to try the best that I could to bring this boy down before me.

If there was an afterlife, surely my dad would be watching all that was happening right now, cheering me on and hoping that I would survive. Pris would be cheering me on, too, shouting for me to rip her killer apart. Although, she'd want to know his name, too, in order to, as she had said to Eight, 'stomp on the letters'.

I couldn't focus on finding out his name right now, though. If I were distracted, this would end badly for me instead of him. Distractions would be my downfall, so I had to shake them from my mind, and cut them from my focus. My axe needed more of this boy's blood on it, and I needed to use it to reap his soul from his body. He needed to fall to the ground at the end of my blade, his life ending and mine continuing.

"Who's in the shadows?
Who's ready to play?
Are we the hunters?
Or are we the prey?"

♛

His words were ones that I chose to ignore this time. If he was going to continue to snap at me with his little comeback remarks, I wasn't going to feed into it any further. I felt his blade cut me again, not quite as deep this time. He'd sliced into my cheek after I had cut into his back. I gritted my teeth, ignoring the pain in the same way that I was choosing to ignore the boy's words this time.

All of this was just a reminder of why I was here. I'd volunteered because I wanted some change in my life. I wanted to experience something different from just living on the streets of Nine every day of my life. I wanted my fight for survival to be a bit more exciting. Rather than my fight being only to find food and water every day, and a place to sleep every night, it would be that, along with physically fighting with other people and creatures that were trying to kill me as I tried to kill them.

This was the change I had asked for. I'd never go back to the way I had been living before. If I died in this arena, I wouldn't be living on the streets anymore because I wouldn't be living anymore. If I survived this arena, I wouldn't be living on the streets anymore, either, because I would be living in the Victor's Village instead. Regardless, there would be a change, and that's what I wanted.

As the adrenaline continued to pulse through my veins, my grip tightened on my axe, the boy's blood staining the edge of the blade. I wanted more of his blood on it. I wanted the entire thing to be coated in the redness that came from his wounds. I wanted it. I needed it. I felt the lust for blood taking me over. It was turning me into an animal- into a monster- but I didn't care. It was change, and change had been what I had wanted.

"Who's in the shadows?
Who's ready to play?
Are we the hunters?
Or are we the prey?"

♛

This wasn't going anywhere good for me. My axe made no more than a small slice into the boy's cheek like he'd done to me, and the silence between us was causing more tension to build. Before I could react further, however, the worst pain I'd ever felt pulsed through my arm. He'd cut my left arm in half at the elbow, and I yelled out in response.

"Fuck!" I exclaimed in pain. That was when I decided that I needed to try something different. Switching out my lightly bloodied axe for a clean, fireplace poker that'd never graced someone's skin in an attack before, I prepared to keep fighting. I couldn't give up now. I needed a different tactic, though. I needed to see how well I could do using this thing as a spear.

My elbow where my forearm had once been connected was bleeding profusely and the pain didn't die down much at all since the initial blow, but I couldn't stop.

I started this fight, but it was now that I realized I may not be the one to end it. Rather, it may end me. My overconfidence had gotten the best of me. My cockiness was my downfall.

That didn't mean that I was going to stop, though. This makeshift spear would be attempt in trying to survive no matter how hopeless it seemed now. Hopelessness didn't mean giving up. Living on the streets of Nine seemed like a hopeless attempt at surviving when I was young, but as the years passed, it got easier, and I was glad I didn't give up.

I didn't have years to finish this fight, though. I had moments.

Each moment that passed was yet another risk I was taking. It was my fault that this fight had begun. It was my fault if I died here. If this boy managed to fight me off, it was the end for me- but I wasn't ready for the end yet.

"Who's in the shadows?
Who's ready to play?
Are we the hunters?
Or are we the prey?"

♛

My second choice in weapon wasn't doing any better than my first, simply grazing the chest of the boy. I wanted him dead, and this wasn't doing the job, but I'd keep trying. I realized now that this had turned from a want for vengeance for Pris, to both that and a need to survive. I was fighting for both of us now. I wasn't going to give in easily, either. I'd already decided that long before this fight even started.

The boy launched another attack at me, but this time, it didn't quite hit me. There was a temporary sense of relief as this happened, but I knew it wouldn't last long. He'd be back for more in just a moment or two. That meant that I had to hit him with everything I had. My spear in hand, I lunged toward him again.

I was ready to kill. I'd been ready to kill since I started this fight, but now, it was even more prominent of a thought in my mind. Kill, kill, kill. That's all I needed to do right now. Kill, and perhaps I could survive. Killing was the only way to live in this arena. I knew that when I came in here, so it wasn't a surprise for me. I was ready for it, at least mentally, but I suppose I may not have been physically capable yet, judging by how this fight was going so far. I'd killed a mutt in this arena already, sure, and it was pretty human-like, but it wasn't a human being.

This boy was my target, and he was a human being. That meant that ending this fight would be taking the life of another person, and I was surprisingly ready for that. I wanted it to happen, actually. I wanted to end this boy's life.

What was wrong with me?

"Who's in the shadows?
Who's ready to play?
Are we the hunters?
Or are we the prey?"

♛

Blocking his blade as it swung toward me made me think that perhaps he was slipping up. Although, I'd completely missed him with my fireplace poker turned spear, so perhaps I was doing the same as he was. I had to figure out how to get out of this alive, but it was turning more and more hopeless as the fight went on. I gritted my teeth in frustration at my own failure, as well as in a way of fighting the pain that still made itself noticed in my body. Where my arm had been cut in half, I felt pain like nothing else before, and it still wasn't dying down.

Realizing that neither of my weapons were working well one-handed, I didn't know what to do at this point. I was starting to lose hope. Perhaps I should just switch back to my axe and keep fighting, I thought to myself. I threw the spear on the ground in frustration and picked my axe back up. It wasn't likely that which weapon I was using was actually the problem, but I could always try to convince myself that it was, right?

I thought of what the people back home were seeing. Were they seeing a fight that looked hopeless for the boy from Nine, or one that looked like the boy from Nine still had a fighting chance at winning? My guess was that they saw the former, rather than the latter. I was starting to see that now, too, but I couldn't let the other boy see my drop in confidence. Now wasn't a time for giving up. There was never a time for giving up. Especially not now.

I now let out a yell as I charged at the boy, axe in hand, ready to do whatever I possibly could to take him down.