C189: Round One. Fight

C189: Round One. Fight

Alt Title: Asura

Date published: 2/14/2025.

To clarify, I will not be covering much of the base details of Ror except to mention any changes that happen in the story here and now. 

***************************

"He has drawn their ire away from the humans" Brunhilde speaks her mind to which Goll is also surprised, she is still shivering from the hatred she sensed emitted towards them after Brunhilde taunted the gods about fighting humans. 

Brunhilde has a lot of work to do to find the best and brightest of humanity. The strongest, the worst, the smartest, the most experienced, The weirdest. Anything to secure a victory, even if she has to sacrifice her own sisters to do so. 

With her thoughts organized, she begins to work on the possible candidates that fit these requirements, it helps that she only has to commit to 12 heroes with Axel taking the 13th spot but she still cant help but worry about what is to come and pass. 

Some time passes and soon the stadium is ready with both sides, gods and humans filling up the stadium. At the center is a single figure wearing a purple cloak, their face appears to be robotic unless it's a mask. His skin is of a darker shade looking like a gray swamp coloration. This is Heimdall and along with his trusty Gjallarhorn at his side, he takes up the announcer role for the battle of Ragnarok. 

He begins by hyping up the audiences and then explains the rules of Ragnarok when a figure begins to walk out from the human side. Heimdall is obviously perturbed by the persons interruption. He tries to call out to them, "What are you doing, we are about to start the first match" 

"I get that but i decided to be nice or i guess mean depending on the view point. Send out my first enemy." 

"HAAA, who the actual hell are you brat?" 

"Oh? Were you not in attendence for the meeting, that feels like a big oversight for someone who is to be our announcer. Though it does explain why you don't hate me like everyone else does" Axel is surprised as while he didn't see the announcer in the audience before, he thought it was because they were so scrawny and not because they just weren't there. 

Shaking his head Axel summons some bundles of energy and transforms them into a microphone in terms of appearance.

"Greeting everyone, humans and gods. My name is Axel Gram and I am part of the secondary Ragnarok occurring this time around. You were told about the intermittent matches but not who was involved. So I shall tell you all this, I am the final fighter of the Human side and the one who has already killed a pathetic god when they were having their meeting. My role in taking my current stance is due to my position, and if you're curious on what that position is, then just look up at my throne."

The humans do so and as the only thing in the sky is the 'new world' they are made aware of the implications of Axels current appearance. Defending his home against the gods who seek to destroy it. Yet as everyone looks up at the sky, the fighters that represent humanity instead are focused on Axel himself. 

"Good potential" 

"Strong" 

"Cute but yes Strong"

"Such powerful Qi"

"🎵Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are 🎵"

"Children are too arrogant" 

"Blue hair"

Their differing reactions is all that needs to be said about their personalities though amongst the crowd there are two who remain silent. One who is disinterested while the other who is just too interested and envisioning what the fight between them would look like even as sweat beads down his aged body. They all look forward to what Axel can do.

The gods instead discuss amongst themselves on who to send after Axel since he so kindly offered himself on a silver platter as the first course instead of a regular human. 

Taking a few minutes, Heimdall is finally informed of who the approaching god is. The gate opens and from within a herd of elephants begin to make their way outside. Sitting on the largest of the elephants is Axel's opponent, Axel smirks upon seeing who it is, realizing that he already completely screwed up the Canon of this world and is curious about who Raiden Taimeemon is meant to face later then.

That's right, Axel's opponent in the preliminary round is Shiva, the god of destruction and creation. A tall man of purple skin and 4 arms. He wears a yellow Dhoti, essentially a cloth that is wrapped around his waist and tied at the back. He also has one more cloth wrapped around his hair, keeping it out of his third eye. Though technically he has a total of 5 eyes he only ever keeps 3 open. 

"Well this is a treat" Axel says out loud as Shiva jumps off the massive elephant. His appearance affects all the Hindi folk in the human side of the audience as they offer prayers of salvation and how they wish to be spared from the great calamity that is foretold to arrive upon Shiva's descent to Earth. 

"Indeed, it is a treat but it's for me and not for you. Ill be sure to put you down into the ground where you deserve to be, bug"

"Oh, a bug, me" Axel's body appears to glitch due to a small release of electricity, "well I guess I'll show you just how much of a bug I am." Axel says and turns his back to the god of destruction. Veins pop up from Shiva's face as he clenches his fists. Heimdall soon announces the fight to begin and immediately a shocking twist of events occurs.

BAM. With his back still turned, he falls over while extending his leg up to kick, with proper posture for a Volley, a soccer based term for kicking whilst in the air. As for the ball….it's Axel's own head. With a bang, the head is sent flying straight at Shiva's own. Their foreheads collide and Axel's head goes flying up when the skin around the headless body extends and brings Axel back to normal, facing the god of destruction with a persistent smirk on his face.

To explain what happened: after turning his back to Shiva, Axel cracked his neck and then popped off his head from his neck, his hands holding it even so Shiva doesnt notice but the human audience does as their reactions are quite visceral as a few threw up while others grew pale thinking Axel already dead but as he nearly confirmed their thoughts, he kicked his own head and then retracted it back to normal thanks to his Slime physique. 

The gods who now know what happened are also perturbed while Heimdall does his job right and hypes up Axel's whole moment. Shiva is holding his injured face but as no one really knows how Axel did this, they can't come up with a counter measure except getting close and beating him up. Which is exactly what Shiva does, his 4 arms spread wide as he appears next to Axel in just a moment. Shiva smiles as he doesnt see Axel react to his movement until his own vision seems to slow down and he sees Axel turning his head towards him with a derisive expression. Then the most shocking thing to ever happen to Shiva is done.

From his back,Axel grows 2 new pairs of arms, tearing through his clothes and the two of them, Axel and Shiva begin to grapple. 

Yet it's less so grappling and more so that one for one, shiva is stuck in place while Axel unleashes a flurry of blows upon the gods chest before punching him in the jaw while releasing the locked down arms.

Seeing the god of destruction being sent flying causes a flurry of cheers to come at Axel. Though everyone's curiosity for what the arms are and how they work is at the back of everyone's minds. 

Axel dispels the hands and points at Shiva who is lying down on his back, still processing the beating he just took so easily. "While that is the god of destruction, I have the power of a god who is the origin of his 'people', the Asuras, or rather the Asura himself, IS Me" 

"The tale goes that there were originally only a few gods but one amongst them, Asura had gotten married and had a child. The others chose to betray Asura, sealing him away for twelve thousand years." As Axel speaks, his body begins to rapidly mature and he grows from his 8 year old physique into that of his demigod state when he took in the divine power of Wrath. His bronze ceramic skin is evident to all. The thick muscles that make Shiva's look like twigs in comparison..

"In this time, they had captured his daughter and used her as a power source for themselves. But once the seal was released, Asuras' own eternal..undying rage made him stronger than every god who betrayed him before. Going so far to even kill the god who is the very source of their power. His power stoked by hatred and rage yet it was his love that allowed him to survive for so long. It was love and hope that he struck down his creature and allowed himself to die and be reborn…human. "

As Axel finishes the narration and all the gods grow pale at the thought of some ancient god with such immense wrath and oh so powerful enough to kill the one who essentially made them. The final nail in the coffin for them is the markings growing across Axel's skin. The originally black markings turn red as if heated up. 

During this whole explanation Shiva has had time to get up and seeing that Axel is turning up the heat, he does the same. "Damn, this is nuts. I haven't been pushed back this far in a long time. My blood is really pumping now" 

Shiva starts dancing in front of everyone and while many were originally confused, historians pitch in the knowledge of Shiva's War Dance. His signature technique which makes him unpredictable. 

Tandava. Shiva rushes forward whilst dancing while Axel simply recalls his 4 arms, all crossed but gradually glowing brighter. Shiva begins to land blow after blow on Axel, but even as the strikes emit fire and strike Axel, his ceramic skin only grows darker and darker with no changes in his expression. 

Even as Shiva jumps into the air and unleashes his Krittivasa, not a single instance of blood flows from Axel, after all, he wasn't even hurt. Cracks appear on Axel's skin but just as quickly as they appear, they are fixed.

Soon a golden red glow shines upon all 6 of Axel's wrists as the very gauntlets unique to Asura appear on Axel does Axel make a move. With his eyes shifting to a bright white glow, he strikes out at Shiva. Yet Shiva's dance allows him to dodge…this time. What follows is the other 5 fists extending and striking out at Shiva. 

Each fist correlates to a different target on Shiva's body. Shoulders, kidney, liver, block a knee, grab the Dhoti to hold him in place. All these actions happen in less than a second but to the outside perspective they can see multiple versions of Axel and Shiva as they move at supersonic speeds, striking at each other. Shiva begins to look worse for wear while Axel's stone skin is the same as it was before, seemingly untouched, though any and all charred effects remain. 

As their battle continues Shiva's skin begins to heat up and redden but also more fire blasts explode out from his every attack which continues to darken Axel's skin. Bit by bit, the red glow on his markings starts to dim, replaced by white ashen lines that contrast against his pitch black stone skin. Axels movement slows down to a crawl as he now resembles a pitch black statue. Yet Shiva does not relent and keeps striking at him, planning the finishing blow until he once again hears Axel's voice.

"Wrath, the very embodiment of Asura only showed itself when he was at his lowest, having just lost his arms to the enemy, he witnessed a human girl that resembled his daughter perish under the onslaught of attacks his enemies released…to kill him. As i am only the inheritor of his will and power, I can not channel it the exact same way and require extra conditions to reach my current state"

"So thank you for warming me up" crarack. Shlaw, "ARGHHHH" Cracks appear around Axel's claw hands as the red glow begins to reappear when he swipes out with those very claws to rend Shiva's right knee, he cries out in pain as he is completely stopped the dancing but he continues to unleash attacks to finish off Axel, not knowing his very fire is unleashing the beast version of Asura's abilities. 

FWoosh, "AHHHHHHH" As Shiva unleashes one more attack on Axel's face, sending him flying back a few feet. Axel opens his mouth from which can be seen a bright glow of raw heat and fire. The previous white ashen markings are reignited as his body is properly set on fire. From the edges of this newfound fire, do 4 giant arms rise up around Axel's asuran state. These hands replicate his own beastly state but also personify the very flames of rage which are Axel's source of power in this match.

With these 4 large arms, Axel unleashes a short flurry of blows on Shiva that rips his body apart. With the numerous claw like markings, a human would have already had their guts spill out freely but even Shiva is reaching such a state soon enough if he continues to burn himself. To prevent the match from ending prematurely due to Shivas own fire. Axel commits to an underhand swipe up that sends him flying into the air.

FWoom, RAAAAAAHHHHH, "AGHHHHHHHH"With Shiva helplessly launched into the air, The 4 giant burning arms around Axel swarm to the center of Axel's chest. Axel let's out a beastly roar as from the space between all 4 arms does an orb of fire form. It is from this orb that a beam of fire rockets up and at Shiva. He cries out in pain as already 2 of his arms melt away from the heat and one of his legs. 

The beam soon ends with Shiva falling down, his body burnt beyond recognition as his red skin has been replaced by charcoal of it's own like Axel but Axel is not done just yet. The arms separate and begin condensing their own compressed orbs that then merge together as they are launched at Shiva who is still high above the stadium. 

BOOOOOOM FWOOOM

The combination of all 4 orbs causes a massive explosion that directly atomizes Shiva to nothingness and following that is a massive shockwave that splits apart all clouds, unleashing the power of a supernova would have normally exterminated all humans and gods here but Axel set up a silent barrier to block the aftereffects of the shockwave. 

Crarack, As the shockwaves ends and people return their attention to the arena, they hear an audible crack as the stone skin begins to shed off Axel revealing the raw red muscles, as if his skin too was melted under the power of fire and rage he had unleashed. The exposed arm holds onto the remaining stone that is on his body, as if to keep it all together while he makes his way out of the arena. Yet just before he exits the arena, his voice calls out to the hearts of all humans here, "The first point goes to Humanity" 

While the gods rage and mortals remain in awe of his raw power but while the humans sympathize with the pain he must be undergoing to use a power which he had 'inherited', the gods see it the other way and that his own power is hurting him, which means every subsequent match today will continue making him weaker and weaker. If they completely destroy the next 3 humans then they would at least get another 3 fights. That is assuming that they don't get lucky and kill him in the next match before he recovers.

It's only when he notices that he is completely out of sight that Axel grins as the stones collapse from his body, showing perfectly untouched skin, completely unaffected by the his usage of Asuras power, his other arm, leg and half his face return back to normal.

"Fools" 

**********************************

Alt Title: Battle against Shiva, First point to Humanity

Word count: 2901

Hope y'all enjoyed the fight and the more complete lore. I never actually played the game myself but I have watched someone else play the whole thing and even though it's spoiled for me. Ill still play it myself soon. 

Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.