Eden stands in shock, still from what he had just seen. His eyes are wide as a canyon, and his mouth hits the floor. He looks at his hands, free from any weapon, but not from blood. Blood stained his hands like a coffee stain on a resume.

  No. No. No, no, no, no, no! This cannot be true! I must have passed out from the blow the ogre gave me. He cannot have died. But a dream would not show the death of a man I knew little about, but he could not have died. He could not have died-. Eden thinks to himself, shaking like a flag in high winds. But once Eden looks up, reality starts to hit him. Right above the gruesome remains of his short lived friend Tanker is the brutish ogre, grinning ear to ear, as he starts to walk towards the broken boy. The old men on the battlefield have come to a halt, watching as their dear friend for years dies right in front of them. He dies a fool’s death, but not of his own volition. He dies due to the error of the man who indirectly caused this whole ordeal. But the spirits, no, demons are a better fit, who caused all of this, they laugh. They laugh harder than ever before, both at the despair in the fighter’s eyes and at the death of one of them. They echo throughout the tent, contrary to the stillness of the arena.

  “Now this is getting good!” One of the spirits says.

  “Yah I was worried it would be too easy, but luckily we got some excitement out of this.” Another spirit calls out.

  Notice! Skill “Patience” has been activated. Mental fortitude will be increased.

  Error! Skill “Patience” has failed to activate. The mentality of the wielder is too unstable.

  “Haha. Hahaha. Snicker, hahaha!” Eden cries out, only able to laugh in the face of such disrespect towards Tanker. He raises his gaze at the beast, but his sight flickers. What was once a wooden arena floor is now hard steel. What was once a stadium is now but a few onlookers, wearing ropes and a muffler. And what was once a foul ogre, hovering over a bloodied body, is now still a bloody body with a monster above. But rather than a green foot standing over the body of Tanker, a talon is there in its place. And the corpse; it is not of Tanker, but of a dear friend, Eden’s dear friend, Ivor. Eden redraws his axe, along with a bottle full of his red glue, and he stands up proud, right at the chicken who killed his comrade. He is no longer scared, but rather full of hate.

  “You fucking bastard chicken!” Eden yells out, both surprising and confusing everyone with his will to fight, and him calling an ogre a chicken. But Eden cares not, for he is already rushing towards the chicken, which is far larger than any other chicken he has seen before.

  “You may be bigger than any other chicken I have seen, but I shall slay you nonetheless!” Eden yells out once he reaches the striking distance to attack the chicken.

  “Eden! What are you doing!? Fall back!” Old Man calls out, but this is unheard by Eden. The chicken swings down at Eden, using its oddly long forearm to smash Eden into a bloody pile, another bloody pile. But Eden is quick to evade, as this chicken is clearly not as fast as the smaller one he faced long ago. What the chicken hits instead is the jar of glue, which Eden threw at his forearm, and is now stuck on the ground. Eden then swings at the assumed indefensible torso of the chicken, slicing through his feathers deep into its flesh. However, Eden was not nearly as safe as he had thought, as it seems this chicken can detach its arm, only to reveal a much shorter one which nails Eden, sending him flying, along with causing his ribs to fracture.

  “So you have some more mutant abilities compared to the average of your kind. I will butcher you all the same!” Eden screams as he launches himself up.

  Notice! Skill “Wounded Warrior” has been activated. Physical abilities will be increased.

  “Eden! Snap back to reality!” Old Man calls out, once more trying to bring Eden out of his rage and back to strategising with the team. But again his attempt proves fruitless, and Eden is still ignorant of even his attempt.

  Damn it Eden! He is not listening to reason at all! I knew that man was more emotionally driven than one of pure logic, but I cannot let this foolishness cause us to fall. Our best bet is to simply use this aggression to our advantage. Old Man concludes, as he begins to call out a plan.

  “Team! Eden is clearly far too gone to listen to reason at this time. But even if this may lead us to death, it is best to use his sacrifice to better our odds. Fire every arrow, needle, and bullet you can, and make sure you cover for Eden. Luckily he disarmed the ogre by trapping his club in some kind of red substance, so the ogre cannot block our shots. So fire!” Old Man screams to the group, who start to take turns firing at the ogre, covering Eden with supporting fire. The ogre recoils from these attacks, not powerful in their own right, but plentiful enough to overwhelm the beast, giving Eden a window to attack the creature once more.

  Stolen story; please report.

  It seems the chicken did not bring a good ship to abduct me this time! The roof is caving in on the fucker, much like how that bastard caved in- strike first and morn later Eden. Eden snaps to himself, as he sees the chicken sporadically move around from the metal shards falling on and into it.

  “Shall we see how you like to be turned into red mist you piece of shit!” Eden rages out at the chicken; his eyes bloodshot from an endless feeling of wrath. He carves straight into the chicken, focusing all on offence to kill the worthless creature in but a few blows. He slices the legs, its arm, its stomach, everywhere that Eden can ever hope to reach is hit by his axe. However, the chicken is not one to take a beating one-sided. It swings back with its wounded arm, killing much of the force it could normally output, allowing Eden to hold his ground after a punch, especially so with how the axe is healing at a comparable rate to the created wounds on Eden. Blood splatters across the area, both from the chicken and from Eden, but more and more of Eden’s blood begins to be shed, beginning to reach an overtaking of how much the chicken is bleeding. This is not helped by the chicken healing from its wounds, albeit not at a fast enough pace to recover its strength to kill Eden outright.

  Eden is losing steam in the fight with the ogre. He has little chance to handle much more. It is already a miracle he is still holding on, trading blows with such a powerful foe. Should I just let the two fight it out, and kill the ogre once Eden falls? No, do not think like that; the thoughts of a coward. Old Man reasons to himself. But he still knows Eden has little chance to win this match without interference.

  What to do. What to do. We have little time to come up with something, especially since our ranged force is running low on firepower. I mean, Cowboy is almost out of bullets, and without his gun, all he has is that lasso of his. Wait! The lasso could be it. Old Man concludes, as he goes over the cowboy.

  “Cowboy! Quickly fire off your last shot and then come with me! Aim for an eye if you can!” Old Man orders.

  “Ya got it partner!” Cowboy calls out in response, as a bullet rings out towards the ogre, this time hitting its left eye. He then quickly goes to where Old Man is.

  “What you need, partner? Got a snake in your shoes or something?” Cowboy asks Old Man, dejected at his question.

  “No you old fool! I need you to get your lasso and come with me. I plan to grab one of the ogre’s arms for a short while so Eden can hammer away easier. Also can you stop with the damn Texan accent Cowboy? You were born in Montana.” Old Man tells Cowboy, who is offended at the callout of his birthplace, but complies nonetheless.

  “Smack You think I am done with you, you damn Clucker!” Eden calls out as he smashes his axe on the chicken’s wrist, this time fully cutting off its right hand. However, this is met with a backhand by the chicken with its left hand, sending Eden flying as the left hand has mostly healed. Though that was about the only thing the chicken had decently healed. Its face was full of slash wounds, and its left eye was bleeding out, fully gone at this point. The chicken’s torso has almost a third of it separated from its legs, which were more stilts than legs with how much flesh had been sculpted off by Eden’s axe. But the beast still stood upright, something Eden was struggling to do.

  “You think you got me on the ropes now, right? You think, ‘how could a tired, broken down human kill me’. Well let me show you how much more blood I have left to spill!” Eden cries out, mustering up all the power he has gained from “wounded warrior”, as that is the only thing keeping him going. His internal organs have been all but turned to mush, pardon to vial ones, which are only partially damaged as the healing focused on those parts. Every part of his body pours out blood like a hose. The only thing keeping Eden standing is sheer bravado and magic like no other, sourced from his axe and “wounded warrior”. Eden spits out a glob of blood mixed with saliva and begins to charge with all his might at the chicken, making a trail of blood as he runs at the chicken. Though his pace is rather slow due to the injuries.

  “I shall avenge all those you have slain! All those who died for naught from your acts of arrogance! Strike me down if you dare to try!” Eden yells out, perhaps for the last time, as he raises his axe and jumps in the air, as the chicken readies a left hook to land the killing blow.

  “Now Cowboy!” Old Man yells, to which a lasso is tied to the ogre’s arm, of course unseen by Eden. Once the lasso wraps around the ogre, Old Man grabs it and pulls with all his might, stopping the gravely weakened beast from matching Eden’s swing.

  Smash! Eden’s axe buries into the creature’s neck, right where he struck the ogre for his original killing blow towards the foul beast. The ogre falls to the ground, caving into the wooden floor as it lands with a loud thud. The ogre is dead, but this does not stop Eden.

  “Oh did you grow a conscience now? Holding back your punch? Or did you do that in the hopes of mercy? Either way, I am still going to kill you. Haha, did you think I would spare you after all that you have killed!?” Eden yells out to the dead chicken, as he raises his axe and starts to swing, again and again. Each swing rings out a large thud as it breaks the dead chicken’s bones and slices through everything else.

  “You. Thud Deserve. Thud No. Thud Mercy! I will rip you into pieces, and then rip those pieces, poison them, and then feed them to your children! Thud. Eden screams without thought, losing all reason for the sake of slaughter. His eyes have not lost their bloodshot look, and his muscles are being overstrained, even the muscles not yet healed enough to probably function. But he buries the axe with rapid repetition. Blood shoots up like a fountain, and random large organs fly out, most of which land on Eden, who keeps on swinging. The madman only stops when forced by Old Man, who grabs his arm in between his swings

  “It is already dead Eden. Calm down.” Old Man calmly tells Eden with widen eyes and a slight shaking. Eden does not process these words, but finally ends up turning and looking at Old Man.

  “Who are yell dares to interrupt- Old Man? How are- where is- what is going on-?” Eden says, losing a lot of the adrenaline that was keeping him standing is lost. His eyes turn normal, but that is the only thing normal about Eden in his current state. The healing of the axe as its limits after all. With the bravado no longer in him, Eden falls to the ground, passed out in a pool of blood.