The night was young,
and the crowd was roaring with excitement,
apparently, anyone can enter without paying,
so I sat at the bar where they had film recorder broadcasting the live footage on the wall,
I paid for the best tasting wine the bar keep had and bought some drunks some beer,
as long as I don't stand out no more than necessary,
keep my power level down,
I should be fine.
Tonight's event,
everyone went nuts over,
was a boxing sport,
but just like any boxing related anime, it was Artificial Demons with metal cybernetics with steam-powered arms duking it out in a giant wrestling/boxing ring,
it was bloody,
to say the least,
each round was a five minute slug fest with breaks in between.
I got some old guy to talk who seemed to know the Tribe the best.
According to him, the Water Tribe operates like the mafia,
you keep your head down and work hard,
you'll go under the radar,
cause problems or do anything to be noticed,
and ya disappear according to the old man in the eye patch.
"I can tell you ain't from around here, buying strangers a few rounds, what's ya name boy?"
I slip him a fake name,
can't tell who to trust and not to trust.
He doesn't buy it but also doesn't press further.
"So what brings an outsider?"
I asked if there were any weapons of noticeable history around here and where I could get it.
"Looking for our Tribe's ancient relic, huh?
You're in luck.
I happen to know what you're looking for,
problem is it's in the Don King's place, and to get an audience with him,
you got to get the favor of two out the eight consiglieres and to do that you got to join his association,
the lowest rank of his household and work your way up.
To do that,
you got to get an invite to join,
and to get an invite,
I suggest winning the boxing matches one day and then winning the gladiatorial combats the next night."
I pay for another round of beers for the man and his friends.
"Thanks, old man."
The bar keeps bringing out more beer for the man,
and they all pop them open,
almost in sync.
"I know not why you want to get noticed by that corrupt Chief but if you do anything funny, do me a favor and keep me out of it, but on the off chance you stir up trouble for him and manage to sock it to him, remember your friends who told ya this information."
I finish up my wine and watch the rest of the matches before finding myself an inn for the night,
tomorrow I got plenty of work to do, yipee ki yay little fucker.
The next morning,
I found myself looking at the amatuer boxing applications,
so, me being the underdog lover, I applied for the least favored coach and then asked around till I found the correct house and knocked.
The coach came to the door and to my surpise it was the old man from last night!
"Kid?" He asks in disbelief.
"Ya." He welcomes me into his home, I smell fresh food,
and he invites me to eat with him, so I indulge him,
we do some yakking and after we ate, he had me study the core principles of boxing and sense I don't have any metal arms I'm going to have to use metal in some compasity.
The old man begins talking about affording a cheap exo suit powered by steam,
so I told him to draw in detail what he needs,
confused,
he tells me not to worry about it and that if I paid him up front,
he'd find me one in my size.
I complied sense he shut down my idea to create the materials,
and he gets me set up with a cheap suit from the colosseum,
afterwards,
he got me into the ring by renting the colosseum for an hour,
and finally, he taught me the jabs,
hooks, uppercuts,
the stuff I already knew and not to sound like a jackass but I did study boxing,
I'm just choosing to keep my mouth shut. After that,
we sparred, held back a lot,
and I mean A LOOOOOT!
The last guy I love tapped turned into a blood paste,
so I took extra caution with my coach,
after my time,
we went back to his place where I learned more about the state of affairs the Water Tribe was in.
"To paint you a bloody picture here,
kid, the Demon Council kept our Chief in check,
now that the Council is gone,
Don King does as he pleases,
meaning everyone is free to hunt down as many humans as they like,
this may sound human of me,
but not everyone relishes in violence and eating humans.
I'm personally not a fan of eating humans,
but I was born this way, so ya got to do whatever you can to live, right?"
He takes a puff of his cigar.
"Old man, in my opinion,
we need more human like demons,
there's a fine line between being a Demon and a Devil,
as a man who has fought our own kind and killed some, I can sympathize with the need to gain power with people who are suffering.
I'll spare you my tale,
but understand I've seen my fair share of the Artificial Demon,
Exorcist war,
I even fought in it and led the surviving troops back in tactical retreat,
then I came back and single handedly slayed the Exorcist."
Not completely a lie but not the full truth either,
the old man doesn't believe me in the least but sees I've been in several fights. "Well, Lumier, regardless of what you claim, I'm about to see what you're made."
That night,
we watched the next bouts of boxing, and while they were entertaining, I studied how each demon fought,
the most common style that was used was out boxing,
meaning dodge then strike,
capitalizing on missed swings.
The least used style was slugger style, focusing on strong strikes and enduring each hit.
Finally, the other most used was swarmer style,
focusing on a flurry of punches, overwhelming the senses.
After that,
we watched the gladiatorial combats, which I personally didn't care for watching,
these so-called gladiators weren't even warriors,
let alone trained professionals.
In between the rounds,
I ate their food they had available that wasn't human.
Once all the matches concluded for the night,
I returned to the inn and bid my coach good night,
after I returned,
I blended into the shadows of the night and watched over the Tribe on top of a tree above a great waterfall.
I observed the corruption,
once I make a name for myself I'll start plucking at the root of the problem, I don't care if we're a endangered species, my new Demon Council and Tribes don't need power hungry individuals and Artificial Demons that eat whenever they want,
when they want,
as they want.
The next day,
my coach and I got in the ring again at the colosseum,
he introduced me to a boy my age and had me spar him,
I alternated between the three different styles having five minute rounds for a whole hour.
After that hour the next group came in to relieve us of the ring or was going to. "Imannnnnni! It's been a long time since I've seen you have a student practicing. Now, then I thought I was painfully clear to never set foot in this ring again, was I not?"
My coach, the man he called Imani, tells him to piss off much to the man's entertainment,
the other coach then begins to be a douche bag and in a rude way tells him to hang up the towel and that every single person he's trained in the ring has either been killed or didn't amount to anything.
I decide to tune the guy out for the most part until his fighter decides to get in my face with his stupid buzz cut mohawk, he was talking all sort of trash so I give him the death glare and told him to beat it before things got ugly.
Of course this bitch ass mother fucker laughs,
they all do,
so my coach tries to seperate us but the other coach actually decides to allow us to have a bout.
"Come on, Imani, let's have some friendly competition."
We pick a corner,
and my opponent's coach rings the bell,
I put up my guard,
and the man approached me,
saying he didn't like my eyes,
so I slugged him so hard even when he blocked.
He leaped back a good five feet.
"Nice! Nice! You picked a good one this year!"
The dumbass rushes me and throws jabs,
hooks uppercuts,
corkscrew jabs and hooks,
and I just knock his ass down with a single punch.
"Get up, I'm not done with you yet. Your humiliation has only just begun."
The guy just rolls around,
so I pick him up by his hair and make him stand up.
He puts up his guard and throws a punch,
I could end this whenever,
but I chose to make this miserable and humiliating for him by dodging and punching him in the nuts.
Man was down,
his coach got all pissy and decided to fight me instead,
so I humiliated him just as bad,
I dodged, punched, submission locked him,
then choke hold him.
"Tap out, or I'm gonna kill you." The man refused so rather then killing him I found it more humiliating to let him live, I get up and look my coach in the eyes and he could see that my story of the Artificial Demon,
Exorcist war was real.
"Y-Y-You're the Demon Lord!"
He says in fear,
and just like that,
he finally pieces it together,
but will he keep my secret?
Will he become my next ally or next victim?
أنت تقرأ
Artificial 3: The Valla Chronicles
الخيال (فانتازيا)With the death of Demon King Metatron, the world is once again safe, with the promise of starting over, Seth now embarks on his personal journey to find the Legendary Weapons scattered across all the different Demon Tribes. Can Seth restore the Demo...
