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// [IV] First Fight 
// Story: Power's Price 
// by Crimson Lionheart 
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	The 40 foot behemoth rushed straight towards me, crumbling one of the stone pillars in the process. I dive and roll out of the way but roll wrong because of the pack on my back. The berserker runs past me from the moment it already had and crashes straight into the stone wall underneath the royal box, making the entire room go quiet as it shakes and large, visible, foundation shattering cracks appear around ground zero. The crowd  became louder than ever now. The beast bounces back, shakes it head and roars, as if our ears weren't already ringing. 
I swung my Hexagun out  and took aim. It turned at me and started running. I took two shots, both shots hit it in the chest and did no damage. I tried to dive out of the way again but it cought my feet and spun me out of control. I heard it smash into another wall and another roar. Just in front of me was the torch from the pillar it knocked down. I slid my gun back behind my back, removed my sword from it's sheathe and picked up the torch. The rapid thumping from behind was clear it was coming at me again. I spun around to see that it was only a few feet away. I quickly side-stepped to the left and swung the blade at it's knee as it passed. It tumbled and stopped a short distance away. 
I rushed over to it and jabbed the torch into it's back where I thought it's heart was. It cried in pain as the flesh....stone...whatever turned a horrid, murky black before I pulled the torch back. With where the torch was as a target, I stabbed down with my sword until I couldn't stab it any further. It let out a last screech before going silent, the crowd following suit. I turned to the royal box. King Tar'kor was absolutely stunned just like the crowd, Luna looked relieved and Celestia looked pleased and somewhat forlorn at the same time.
"I win," I hear another dying growl from behind me, "now what do I..." I never thought that a marble pillar could move so fast, wait. I smashed into the pillar and it crumbled on top of me. I lay there with a thick layer of marble stones covering every inch of my body with my face only just exposed. I can hear the roar of the crowd laughing and cheering but it is shadowed by the mighty roar of my resurrected foe. My entire body ached, I could feel the thousands of cuts and scrapes all over my body. I could feel warm blood pour all over my body. I just wanted to quit, just lay back and let this thing crush me.
"And another Minotaur is added to the ever growing list of those who have bitten off more then they can chew," I hear Tar'kor shout from above. The crowd began to cheer. Now I just wanted to get up, keep fighting. Just to prove him wrong. I wanted to see Tar'kor's face when I place the head of his precious little berserker at his feet.
I pushed my arms outwards with all the force I could muster. It hurt, a lot, but I wanted to see the look on his face. I kept pushing, harder and harder, until my right arm broke through my rock sarcophagus. The crowd cheered even more, louder then the creature could ever dream of being. I pushed off as much rock off my chest as fast as I could. I sat up and watched the rocks tumble off my chest. I leant forward and slowly staggered to my knees. I was tired, starving and in pain, so much pain, but I was standing. "You can't get rid of me that easy!" The crowd roared at an all time high now, how loud can minotaurs shout? This already was twice as loud than I have ever known. I looked at the berserker and it looked at me, my sword still protruding from it's back.  "Come at me bro!" I shouted at it. This time it walked over to me, well, there wasn't much room to gain moment but this was the slowest I have ever seen it move. It looked like it was staring into my very soul. It was angry and looking for revenge. I tugged on my two axes on my backpack but they didn't budge. I ripped them off and held them at the ready.

This might help

`	I felt a burning sensation in my toes, then my knees. I looked down and saw that my body was slowly catching on fire. This wasn't any normal fire though, it was black with a slightly red hue and it felt like I was only standing too close to a fire, instead of being in the middle of it. I began to panic.

Don't panic, let the flame take you

'Well, I am fucked anyway. May as well listen to the thing that put me in this place.' I relaxed and I felt the heat rise and go to all places of my body. I saw that all of my cuts were being cauterized. I could feel my muscles expanding and strengthening underneath the flames. When the flames reached my hands, they rushed up the handles of my axes and along the blade. As the fire attached itself to my two blades, my hands felt like they had been thrown in to a furnace but soon cooling back down to how it was before. I fell to one knee and howled a throaty scream. I looked at the berserker who is now only a few feet away. 
I got back to my feet and dodged the first punch it threw at me. I dashed for it's right leg then jumped and swung my right axe as hard as I could at it's knee. The axe turned the skin black before plunging a good foot into it's knee. It wailed as I fell back down and landed with a roll. I gripped my remaining axe in one hand. It used it's left hand to try and squash me with an open palm. I jump out of the way and spin  to gain more moment for my next strike at it's wrist. I close my eyes and put everything I have in to my next strike. I swing until I feel my axe hit something solid and immovable. 'I can't believe it, I didn't even cut it's arm.' I open my eyes to find my axe stuck up to my hand in the marble floor. The berserker lifted it's arm and look like it was about to cry when it realised that it's hand didn't come up as well. It turned to me, lowered it's head and roared in anger. 
I tried to pull up the axe to cut it's head off but the axe wasn't moving. I stumbled backwards and fumbled around to try and get my hexagun out. I looked to my left and right quickly. I had a rampaging berserker in front of me, rubble on on side and a marble pillar on the other.When it finished it long and pain filled roar, the berserker charged me. I shot 3 bullets at him, all just bouncing off of him. When he hit me, he picked me up and kept running. I pulled out my dagger and tried to stab in between the gaps in his skin as many times as possible. I felt a solid bang as both of us stopped suddenly. My vision began to fade to black. Even with my failing vision I could see that it was smashing me against the edge of the stadium over and over again. As the last little bit of my vision faded, I saw what was left to see through a haze of fire.


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