Knights Apocalyptica

Erec’s fist crunched into the man’s face and sent the man flying onto the ground on his ass.

It was too easy to be satisfying, but shutting him up gave its own little flush of pleasure. The rest of the Casino staff paused, stunned, as Erec just confirmed the way this situation was going to go.

Then, another one of their thugs made the mistake of trying to get revenge, rushing at Erec. Only for Enide to appear, one of her high heels in hand that she smashed into the guy’s face, a wide grin on her face.

He fell to the ground, and she kicked her other higher heel off her foot at him, smacking him in the forehead and putting him down the second he tried to rise.

Enide bounced in place, now barefoot. More enemies were on the way, men and women from the Casino who’d noted the sudden violence and headed to help. Among them, surely, there was someone worthy of a genuine challenge. Fueled by the euphoria and thrill of battle, Erec reached for his axe.

Only, Enide stopped him from drawing it. She appeared next to him, a hand on his. “No, no, no. This is a contest. You and me. We rush for the door. The game’s over when Olivia and Garin get to it; you and I take out anyone who dares to get in the way. But no weapons. We gotta see who wins with our fists. If you kill someone, then you lose, hero.”

“What do I get when I win?” Erec asked.

She let his unanswered question hang in the air, taking a step only to vanish and reappear to the left of a woman running towards them. With a swift kick, she hit the lady in the back of her knee, causing her to fall and smack her face right into the carpeted floor of the casino.

Enide wasn’t playing. The game had started, and now she had a lead.

“You keep count,” Erec growled; causing Garin to give him an alarmed look. But he wasn’t talking to his friend. VAL knew who he’d directed that at, not that he needed to give the order, since VAL probably would have tallied the results of its own interest, regardless of their game.

[Can do! I wonder who will win. Do your best, buckeroo!]

His heart roared into action, as he rushed down the nearest set of men—using one to smash into the other, then kicking them as they tried to get up. In a handful of seconds, another guy rushed him, which earned him another point as he smashed a fist into the bastard’s gut. He’d win. No matter what—the door was a loose aim in his mind; yet per the conditions of their challenge, he kept both her and Garin and Olivia in his peripheral.

A man came at him with a chair. Erec grabbed its legs mid-swing and tugged at it, breaking the thing in half in the fight over it. Then he took the broken pieces of lumber in his hand and smashed them into the guy’s head, drawing blood.

It couldn’t have been enough to kill him. He made sure of it. He would not lose.

More casino staff pushed past the tables and slot machines. Erec grabbed the closest man and threw him at another, his muscles screaming as they strained from the force of lifting an individual.

But Enide was doing just as much damage, running and flashing around. Her precise strikes targeted and specifically focused on any of the staff who drew a gun, doing her best to rein in the fight and keep it as clean as possible. Which meant hands and blunt weapons, but it was apparent in half a minute in their scramble for the door that the fight was rapidly spiraling out of the Casino’s control.

Even if they fired a bullet into him, Erec was confident he’d push past it. Fury pumped through him, and beneath the inferno, he felt the brush of the silver fire simmering below. Ready to call at a moment’s notice; far more plentiful than ever before.

For now, he left it untouched, burning beneath Fury as he relied on his fists. Smashing, wrecking, and making a joke out of the next couple of people who challenged him.

Garin and Olivia avoided whatever fighting they could. And if someone reached them in the chaos, Olivia provided support for Garin to hold off anyone before Erec or Enide appeared to knock the offender out.

Without words, he and Enide danced their way through the battle. Focusing on racking up victories in the frantic and violent brawl in the middle of the Casino. Providing a lesson that they were people that the Casino had never chosen to fuck with. Erec didn’t even care about the gambling or the chips. He reveled in the excuse to fight.

Eventually, the Casino ran out of staff willing to engage and offered a bounty to the gamblers that would stop them.

Three-fourths of the way out of the building, one of those gamblers showed and proved the first actual challenge to Erec. Someone who could take more than one or two punches—though his build was deceptive. When Erec cast a five-finger spell of unconsciousness in the form of a fist at the guy’s head, the man didn’t even move. Wind and force pushed back against Erec at the point of impact, but the guy didn’t even flinch. He just stood there in his loose button shirt and an alarmed expression.

Erec didn’t hesitate, pulling back only to grab onto both of the shoulders of the guy and smash his forehead into the guy’s skull.

It was like cracking his head into a brick wall. Erec bounced off. His thoughts were fragmented and reeling, but that pain only served as fuel for more anger and rage, letting him dive deeper into Fury.

Every second wasted on this puny man was another second Enide had to take out more people.

The twig of a guy was still reeling, trying and failing to free Erec’s hands from his shoulders. It made little sense how he could take the blow, given his ability to fight off Erec’s blows. It was pathetic and frustrating, and he couldn’t put together how.

[Kinetic force redistribution. That’s an annoying talent.]

Erec had no idea what that meant, and it didn’t matter. If this man couldn’t be taken down with a punch, then the answer to the problem was simple.

This guy was an utter waste of time. He was light and skinny, and Erec could grab him.

With Fury thrumming, Erec adjusted his grip, and dead lifted the man into the air, listening to him scream above. Then threw the guy directly at the slot machine he came from in his bid to stop them from leaving the Casino. He crashed into the machine, sparks and messed up audio screeching from the broken equipment; the guy seemed unharmed, but wouldn’t be getting up to get in Erec’s way again, freeing him to go back to taking out the people he could.

Getting the rest of the way to the door was laughably easy. After a couple of failed Casino goer’s attempts to stop them resulted in being beaten, and the Casino’s staff all but giving up, the fight was effectively over.

Once Olivia and Garin made it out, the game ended.

The Casino gave it its best, but it hadn’t been prepared for the overwhelming power on display. If they’d stuck around longer, Erec was sure that eventually, he’d have found a true challenge, but that wasn’t the terms of the game. It wasn’t about the biggest person they took out, but the number of people they did.

Erec saw a notification flashing in the corner of his vision, and let it spawn out.

Psyche: Rank E - Tier 7 → Rank E - Tier 8

Agility: Rank E - Tier 6 → Rank E - Tier 7

Pushing himself for speed, and restraint had let him break into the next rank of those two Virtues. Once more, Fury was showing it sped up his growth in how it pushed his body. The brief and hostile fight hadn’t lasted long at all, but it left him with a smile, even as he let Fury burn off.

“Eleven to Erec, Ten to Enide,” Garin said, running a hand through his hair. “Two to me.”

[…He got it wrong. Sorry to say, Researcher, she got twelve. You lose.]

“She won,” Erec corrected Garin. The Fury that had been burning down surged with this new fuel again; his eyes locked on Enide, who gave him a coy look.

“Damn right I did, and you owe me—“

“Freeze!” A loud voice cut through the discussion; a small group of blue-cloaks flew above the crowd on arcane disks; glyphs forming as they rushed the Casino. Impressive response time. Erec put himself between the group and these newcomers, not sure if he should be delighted for more of a fight, or concerned over the first real enemy.

How would a Magi handle a punch?

“…His eyes,” one of them muttered. More of the casino staff was spilling out behind them, throwing out angry accusations and contributing to the confusing stir. Enide saddled up next to Erec, grabbing his arm to pull his attention.

She looked up at him. “Hey, I won, right?”

“Yeah,” Erec did his best not to growl. The intensity of the situation made keeping his cool like trying to grapple with a snake. The Magi were forming a semi-circle, cutting off their escape, but not yet starting the fight. Enide’s eyes drew him in, and the mention of his loss was enough to draw his ire; it was a deserved win, but against people that weak? What did it matter?

Could she keep up with him against these Magi? He wanted to see, desperately.

“Then… For my prize, I want you to dial it back and let me handle this. Just be my arm candy, understood, big guy? Unless you’re not a man of your word. Think you got the honor in there, right slinger?”

Chivalry.

The word was like a sobering thought, and it didn’t deserve to be. If this was her demand, who would he be if he broke her rights as the victor of their competition? Unhappy, but feeling his Fury tempered, Erec folded his arms, trying to stem the fires within.

Enide gave him a pat on the back, then swayed out in front of the group, spreading her arms back. “Oh finally! You all showed up! This casino tried to extort me and my friends!”

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