The Good Doctor

I had been up all night reading Anthony's notes to V so that she could memorize when one of he Cards teleported into my room. I quickly slapped the folder closed and turn to him.

"What are doing here?" I demanded.

"You're fight will begin in 5 minutes," he said. "Prepare yourself and head to the arena. If you are not there by the time the 5 minutes has passed, you will be teleported there."

"5 minutes!?" I snapped. "Are you fucking kidding me!?"

"I suggest you hurry," he said, before vanishing.

I then heard William's voice fill the halls, informing everyone else that the fight was coming up.

"Shit!" I said, running to grab my scythe and thinking quickly of anything else I might need. I still had Sal's APple cider, but I couldn't think of how that could help, so I ignored it. I grabbed the stopwatch off the dresser and stuffed it into my pocket. I hadn't managed to figure its power out yet, but who knows, maybe it could come in handy.

"Justin, are you sure you wanna go out there?" V asked.

"No like I get a choice," I said. "They'll just warp me there if I don't comply, and I don't have time to come up with a clever surrender strategy like Anthony did."

"You're sleep deprived," V reminded me. "You won't last two minutes in that ring."

"Then I'll just have to win in one," I said, walking out the door.

On my way to the arena, I considered who my opponent might be. Malkator, Sera, and Dalia/Cerise/whatever had already progressed to the quarters, so they weren't a possibility, and Anthony was out of the tournament, so that left... a lot of people...

Sal was a possibility, I was hoping it wouldn't be him. We need each other. If I do fight him, I still have no intention of losing to him, but I'll need to beat him without killing him (and I kind of hope he's got the same thoughts about fighting me).

Then there was that Hella girl. Anthony convinced me to check out a couple blogs, and from what I've seen of hers, she seems like a serious threat that I could definitely use a nap before facing. Same with Faceless and Henry. As much as I'd love to fight them, I was in no condition to at the time. So yeah, 4 people I was not eager to fight.

And then there were the rest of the random schmucks. Fingers were crossed that I'd be facing one of them.

I made it to the arena before the time was up. My opponent was already there. IT was the Oathbreaker. Great.

The stands willed with the other fighters and the families above them. I kept my gaze held on the Oathbreaker before me.

"Our 4th fight will be between Justin Ferin...!" William announced.

I heard Anthony cheer briefly from the stands. Sal might've said something too. I'm not sure. And... I think I heard my sister calling to me. Shouting some words of encouragement.

I pushed those thoughts to the back of my head and focused on the fight.

"...And," William continued, "Luigi Helthead!"

Luigi got less cheers. He might've had a brother or something up in the stands... I dunno…

"Begin!" William said.

We circled each other, sizing each other up. I had a grip on my scythe, ready to strike the moment he made a move. He drew a scalpel in one hand and a small vial in the other.

"You know," he said. "I've heard of you. What you did to my brethren out West."

I remained silent. I wasn't about to humor this prick by responding to his casual banter.

"You caused quite some strife for use," he said. "You even got the Thorned Prince to come out of retirement."

I don't know who the fuck that is, but okay. Whatever.

Luigi dripped a few drops of whatever was in that vial onto his scalpel. Not a good sign. His eyes briefly darted up to the stands before returning to meet my gaze.

"You know," he said. "You take after your mother."

I tried not to tense up at that.

"But you have your father's nose," he said. "And... brown eyes? Interesting. They both have blue ones."

He stopped his circling, and I followed suit. He switched his grip on the scalpel and smirked at me.

"This fight is going to go one of two ways," he said. "Either I'm going to kill you, and avenge my fellow Oatthbreakers. Or..."

He relaxed his stance a bit, letting his smug grin grow a little bit smugger.

"...You'll kill me," he said. "And your parent's and sister up there will see you for the viscous murderer you really-"

Relaxing his stance was a mistake. I charged, and as panic replaced his smirk, I darted behind him, caught his throat in the arc of my scythe, and pulled hard, taking his head clean off. Then, to demonstrate how annoying his speech was, I quickly stabbed the tip of my scythe into the mouth of his still airborne head. I then raised the scythe above my head, and smashed his stupid head into the ground, smashing it into a decently sized splatter of blood, flesh, and gray matter. The rest of him hit the ground with a satisfying thud.

A deafening silence filled the stands above. I mean, I guess it's not every day you see a mans head get lopped off and then smashed like a pumpkin, but I've had my fair share of exciting Saturday nights.

I calmly walked out of the ring as William announced my victory. I made my way back to my room.

"Justin?" V asked. "You okay?"

"Yeah," I said.

"How'd it go?" she asked.

"Fought an Oathbreaker," I said. "Killed him. I need sleep..."

So I plopped down on the bed and passed out a few minutes, all while V bombarded me with questions I wasn't really paying attention to. I think some of it might've been in Japanese. I dunno...