“Fuck!” he cursed, grinding his teeth.
Vera turned her attention back to Eilee.
Quintz attempted to raise his sword, but she had gotten him good, and he knew she had severely damaged his spinal cord. He dropped to his knees, his sword rattling as it hit the floor beneath him. He could feel the blood collecting on his shirt as it drained from his body rapidly, too rapidly. He took deep breaths before he felt himself losing consciousness.
***
Kinzer slashed at Janka with his sword. The more they fought, the weaker Kinzer grew, not just because of his own limitations, but because of how strong Janka was. Kinzer struggled to catch his breath, and when Janka moved out of the path of Kinzer’s sword, Kinzer managed to slice through the belt of his strap-on so that it slid down his legs.
Janka took it in stride, stepping out of the device he’d used to brutalize Hayde’s body before he lunged at Kinzer once again. Kinzer’s sword clanged against Janka’s dagger with each blow, mixing with the sounds coming from the battles ensuing at the other end of the room. Meanwhile, the injured Hayde continued wrestling with the pain he was enduring because of Janka’s assault, giving Kinzer his motivation for pushing on. If not for himself, then for Hayde.
Janka and Kinzer found themselves in quite a rhythm before Janka changed it up so quickly, he surprised Kinzer and slid his dagger into Kinzer’s shoulder. Cursing, Kinzer twisted his body quickly, pulling the dagger from Janka’s hold. He swung back around, and Janka squatted, evading Kinzer’s sword before rising back up with an uppercut to the jaw that sent Kinzer flying back.
Kinzer landed beside the moat surrounding the room. He could feel blood racing through his mouth. The punch had been so severe that it had left his body stunned, locked in place. He gripped his sword at his side, preparing to jump back up and continue the battle, when he felt a powerful force slam down on his wrist.
“Fuck!” he called out as he saw the cause of his pain: Janka’s heel crushing down on his arm.
His bastard of an ex stood over him, the chain still in his hand, grinding Kinzer’s wrist into the floor until his muscles gave and he released the sword.
Janka laughed. “Oh, Kinzer.”
Stooping down, he picked up the sword and pressed the tip against Kinzer’s Adam’s apple. Janka chuckled before tossing the sword aside. He squatted and pried the dagger from Kinzer’s shoulder, forcing it out. Kinzer screamed as Janka threw it into the moat behind him. “As if I need these silly weapons to destroy you.”
He snatched the chain nearest Kinzer’s collar and lifted him off the floor. Kinzer felt like his slave, leashed and under his control. Janka laid a blow into Kinzer’s face. Then another.
The power Janka still contained within his immortal body, even with the injury Kinzer had given him, gave him a tremendous advantage, one Kinzer was reminded of as he felt himself struggling to maintain consciousness. It reminded Kinzer of when Quintz and Brock had beaten the crap out of him.
“This is where you’re foolish,” Janka mocked. “You think I’m just going to finish you boys, but I have an eternity to make you suffer. I have so much anger I can take out on you both and your little holes. I doubt yours will be able to heal like Hayde’s after your little removal, wouldn’t you agree?”
Janka laid a few more blows before releasing him. He stood over him, his chest pushing out and compressing, his abs flexing, as he caught his breath. “It’s a great workout, right?”
Janka inspected Vera’s work across the room as she took on Eilee, Quintz lying on the ground from having been injured.
Janka grinned. “Get up,” he said. “Fight me.”
Kinzer knew what Janka wanted. It was a power play—Janka wanted to demonstrate his power over the defenseless, clipped Kinzer.
Despite knowing he was going to lose, Kinzer knew he had to fight. Not to prove something to Janka, but to himself.
He rose to his feet and went for him, but no sooner had he approached and offered his own punch than Janka decked him. Kinzer recovered before approaching him again, and Janka went again, missing that time. He didn’t seem discouraged. If anything, he seemed fucking amused.
“This is so much fun, isn’t it?”
Kinzer went in for a punch, landing it on Janka’s face but hardly fazing him.
“That all you got?” Janka asked, his expression scrunching up before he threw another jab that forced Kinzer back to the floor, his head hitting the stone so powerfully that he felt paralyzed. He tried to move his numb limbs, but they seemed beyond his ability to control.
Fuck.
Had he lost so soon?
He lay on the floor for what felt like so long…too fucking long…
He waited for Janka to approach once again, but he didn’t, and as he listened for the sound of Vera, Eilee, and Quintz’s battle or Hayde’s cries, all he heard was a very slow, rhythmic sound in the distance—as though time really had slowed down.
Finding his bearings enough to stir some movement, he turned back to his nemesis, but beheld a familiar face.
Not Janka’s.
