Kill After Death

Throughout the clouds of the Ascendant Kingdom, the big humongous looking Serpent was gazing over the whole colosseum. Everyone was shocked, they had never expected that the room would be broken by the sheer strength and size of the Serpent. It was a white scaled giant with a purple hexagonal gemstone present on the top of the forehead. It's green eyes watching all over felt like it could sweep poison with its gaze alone. Damark was lying on his back watching over the Serpent, he hadn't expected it to break through. Everyone was petrified except for the knights. The man on the pillar looked at the serpent who had broken through and shouted, "GO BACK!". Damark thought, 'As if it would', The serpent looked at the shouting man on the pillar radiating a strong aura. It ignored the man as if it didn't even hear anything and looked over to Damark on the ground. The serpent was annoyed with Damark as he wanted to swallow him but was unable to do so and now wanted to teach him a lesson. Damark was looking at it with terrified eyes, but at the same time he stood up and prepared for any consequences. He had some idea that the knights may have taken some precautions, as to why they brought a serpent king in the first place. Rufendel was watching Damark standing in an attacking position with wide eyes, 'How could this be!? A simple tailor's son survived such a monster while others failed'. He wanted to enquire about Damark but he had also seen the events that took place on the projected screen, so he couldn't question him. The man was looking at the serpent with furious eyes, he turned his head towards Woer, and shook his head as a signal to ask for permission. Woer was thrilled with fun after watching Arvin's escape, but now that the situation had turned somewhat different from which they predicted he nodded to carry out the precautions. The man had a sword on his hilt, he took hold of the handle and pulled it out as a sharp wind was blowing around him.

The serpent leapt towards Damark with a dash and broke all the walls that had him confined in the large chambered room. The speed was unleashed as the area around it increased and it spat the poison out of its mouth at Damark. Everyone in the audience was in uproar and they were running as far as they could from the serpent. Damark started dashing towards the right and rolled as performed a deep dive with a roll. But the serpent had grown so much in size that with its closing distance the farther Damark ran from the shadow, the farther the ending got. He was covered with the big size of its body as if large clouds had descended on the ground.

He didn't know what would happen to him, will he die or was this the part of the plot. He couldn't escape the reach of the serpent and was now going to get squashed by its humongous size.

*SCREECH*

Although he was jumping and rolling to avoid the poison, but the serpent was getting closer and closer with each roll.

Suddenly, the distance between them closed in and he was just beside it.

'What do….I do ..'

'So big'

He saw the white scales of the serpent, each was as big as him.

*SWISH*

The humongous looking creature was cut into two part and the clouds behind it were visible as a door was created between its body.

*BOOM*

It didn't just stop here, the serpent was cut into more 4 parts, it felt like a giant person was making dinner for him and was cutting the serpent as if it were a vegetable.

The one that sliced the serpent was none other than the man from the pillar.

Everyone in the whole colosseum was silent like they were inside an ocean and if they spoke they would die. They didn't even imagine in their wildest dream that a person could slice something so strong like it was a piece of cake. They had their breaths on their edge, the one who was the most affected was Damark. He had fought the serpent and he knew just how strong it was and to cut it so easily.. just how strong did someone need to be.

The man landed near Damark and walked towards him. He was wearing a brown coloured shirt with black pants and boots. A brown hilt with some daggers attached to it. With each closing step the air near him was getting dense. Damark was right now on the ground barely pulling him up. He looked at the man and saw into his eyes. It were normal black eyes but when he concentrated more on the eyes, he saw faint sparkles of brown colour shining inside his eyes.

Just as Damark looked into his eyes, he felt that his entire body was kicked by a giant elephant and he fell into the ground without control. He could even move his face and was touching every bit of the soil.

"Tch"

"Why did you look into my eyes? Are you so eager to die?"

"Leave it"

He patted on Damark's shoulder and lifted him up.

Damark was not able to understand what was just said to him now. 'Look into eye? And die? What was that supposed to mean'

He wanted to ask but suddenly the man said, "Anyways, you did well for not getting scared of the serpent. For us, it was the weakest creature so we were already prepared for such things. This kingdom isn't that strong so it's walls were not prepared to handle such creatures."

Damark felt a chill run down his spine, 'Weakest? You call this the weakest? Just what are these people'

The man jumped back to the pillar platform and looked at his king. The King blinked in a strange manner and turned his head back. The man nodded and looked at the audience.

"Everyone can get back to their seats, we will be now continuing the trial. Due to a sudden change in event we have decided to change the criteria for passing this trail."

He sighed

"I will be giving a piece of the Serpent's body to everyone left, they will be given a sword to leave a sword mark on the skin. The minimum criteria will be set by a person I will be assigning soon. Anyone who could replicate the same depth as him will be accepted as passed. You would only have three chances to replicate the mark."

He jumped over to the sliced piece of the serpent. He unsheathed his dagger and divided the big piece into 214 pieces. And jumped back to the pillar.

Different lower knights came with a wooden log and placed the piece on it. They went to the participant and gave them the piece along with the log and a sword.

Everyone was now a bit happy as this trial didn't required anyone to die. This meant that they could pass this easily.

After everyone got their sword and pieces.

A knight with iron armor came forward and took out his sword. He lifted the sword a few metres away from the piece and just pulled his hand down.

*TAK*

A deep mark was left on the piece, he said, "I have hard to not cut the piece by using the least amount of force I can. I have made sure that it is at least possible for you all."

Damark exclaimed internally, 'least amount…. Really? You just pulled the hand down and have made such a deep cut.'

Everyone was called one by one to perform their trial.

The first person placed the piece on the wooden log and stretched his hand at the back of his head and pulled it back forward with a strong motion performing the vertical slash.

*Tak*

No scratch.

Even a mark that a sword was hit was not present. Seeing this everyone gasped in fear.

This meant that if the knight wanted them dead, they could separate their head and body just with their bare hands. Now they understood why their kingdom was wiped out.

The person tried again but still no effect.

With a tak sound his third try failed. He didn't know what would happen to the people who failed, thus he started looking down.

*BANG*

The person was thrown inside the wall with his body pierced by the piece which he was cutting earlier. He was no longer just like that.

All the criminals were experiencing an unknown fear of death…

'what was that??'

They couldn't even see him thrown back. But he was killed already not by beheading but by force from the thrown piece.

Damark had a cold sweat running from his forehead. 'What a cruel way to kill someone.'

The following participants continued with a fear.

The same events continued.

Damark thought, 'Although the Serpent is dead but its parts were still killing people, what an irony'.

Right now, a big man with a strong build was holding the sword in his hands. He performed a vertical slash.

*SWISH*

The scales were broken and the skin was now visible. But there was no impact on it, everyone was staring at him as he was the first person to be able to achieve such a feat. He performed another strike.

*SWISH*

Now the skin had a mark of sword on it, but it was still not as deep as the knight's one. The big man exclaimed with happiness and took a step back.

He was going to perform his last strike and he was sure that he would be able to do it.

*SWISH*

Yes… he was successful.

The depth of the sword mark was the same as the knight's one, only the area of impact was inferior.

He rejoiced and went back to seat in the nearby chair. No one said anything to him only the man on the pillar replied "Passed"

Now, it was Damark's turn to strike the piece. Everyone was looking forward to his performance. Suddenly the man on the pillar replied, "You don't need to give this trail, you have already passed. So go and have a seat."

Damark was somewhat happy from inside, but others weren't.

He went to the seat where the big man was seated.