Abyssal (ManxMan)

King's Gambit

Hold on to your seats girls and boys cause things are about to enter a whole realm of crazy. Brace! Brace! Brace! 

Warning: This chapter contains some mature, violent  and self-harm scenes. Please read at your discretion.

King's Gambit

As King Marius spread his arms for his loyal subjects and servants to quickly and efficiently strip him, all Kai could hear was the sound of a waterfall. It took him some time to realize that it was the sound of blood rushing in his own ears.

He remembered hearing this sound once before when he'd gotten into a big fight in school and was called to the principal's office to be reprimanded and expelled. He'd always been an agreeable child, but on that day, a schoolmate had chosen to insult him in the worst way: by calling him fatherless and an orphan. As he'd stood there in the principal's office being harshly scolded for beating up his schoolmate, he hadn't heard a single word of what was said to him. The only sound he'd heard was that of a waterfall crashing in his ears, just like now. He hadn't known what the sound was back then, and had thought that he was about to die.

This time around, he probably was, if not by Marius' hand, then by a goddamn heart attack.

Marius' eyes dared Kai to look away as he was stripped of his royal robes down to his black scales' jumpsuit. Even if he wanted to look away, he couldn't tear his eyes from that flawless body; it looked like it had been sculpted from iron and steel. Oh, he was most definitely not human; he was without flaw.

At the speed of light, Kai's mind raced through the two outcomes that his current fight could end in. One outcome was more likely than the other. Rather, the other outcome would be the miracle to end all miracles. Outcome A resulted in Kai winning this fight, while outcome B was him being mercilessly and publicly crushed by Marius.

What about a draw?

He doubted Marius would let things end in something as unsatisfactory as a draw. Kai knew that he wouldn't if he were in the merman king's shoes. The only way for this fight to end in his favor was for him to win.

But how? How could he possibly win this fight? Assuming Marius wasn't a powerful foe with superior fighting prowess and potentially some magic, every drop of blood in Kai's body had been poisoned by the aphrodisiac by now. He didn't have even half the strength he had last time they dueled, and Marius knew it.

He fucking knew it, if the smirk stretching a corner of his lips was any indication.

You fucking bastard.

But Marius wasn't the only one with magic abilities.

The golden merman abruptly occurred to him.

I need your help, Kai pleaded, hoping that the magical merman that occupied his mind heard him. More than that, he was hoping he would come to his aid. Save for the time he saved his life from drowning, the golden merman had refused Kai any aid during the numerous times he'd been assaulted and humiliated on the grounds that his life hadn't been in imminent danger.

Talk about a useless power. Kai still wasn't sure what the golden merman's real power was, and only knew that it was called the ambiguously-titled Spirit of the Sea, whatever that was.

Fucking hell, answer me! You don't get free residency in my mind without giving me something in return!

Once more, he was ignored.

Marius stepped into the ring, muscles rippling.

"Bets!" The butler called.

Not a single merman bet on Kai. He doubted loyalty to their king was their only motivation; even Kai would have bet on Marius winning if he could. In almost every aspect, King Marius was the stronger opponent.