Hammer Time

Apologies for the lame pun, but I just saw Henry's fight, and... wow.

So we all gathered in the stands, as per usual. Henry was in the arena, standing across from that runner girl. She seemed scared. Normal, I guess. She was just a normal girl in a death tournament, against a hammer wielding buff guy with a bad case of crazy-eye.

"The final battle before the quarter finals shall now commence!" William announced. "Carry Yang vs. Henry Mitchel!"

Huh... could've sworn his last name was McBurnscars… Whatever... Not important.

"Begin!" William shouted.

The runner girl, Carry, drew a familiar looking handgun and took aim.

"Is that...?" I thought aloud.

"One on Lind's guns that he lost during his fight," Sal confirmed, before I could finish my thought. "She must have gotten her hands on it somehow."

That was interesting.

Have I explained what exactly a Runner is on this blog? I don't remember, but they're basically victims of the Fears or their servants who have left their lives behind in order to remain on the move. As such, some runners pick up a few survival instincts. Such as trying to end any confrontation as quickly as possible.

That being said, the first thing Carry tried to do was shoot Henry in the chest. A smart move, as that would generally kill most people, and guns can be pretty hard to dodge.

It didn't work. Henry casually deflected the bullet with one of his hammers, as the other one flew through the air and hit Carry right in the kneecap. She desperately fired another shot as she lost her balance, but it missed, and Henry quickly cleared the distance between them, hitting her in the chest hard enough to send her flying backwards. He kicked his discarded hammer up off the ground , catching it, before dashing toward her again.

He darted behind her, grappling her throat with the heads f his two hammers, and, shifting his weight sharply, he slammed her into the ground. He stood over her for a moment.

William stood up for a moment, examining the situation.

She wasn't dead yet though. She took in a pained breath, and pushed herself onto her elbows.

"Still alive?" Henry said. "I'm almost impressed."

She then raised her gun again, which she had somehow managed to keep a hold on throughout all of that, and fired. But Henry simply shifter his feet a bit, and the bullet passed right by his face harmlessly.

He slammed one of his hammered down on her wrist, giving off a sickly crunching sound. Her gripped loosened, but her gun remained stuck to her palm.

"She super-glued her glove?" Anthony said. "Huh..."

You know, with the amount of firearms that people seem to drop, I'm kind of shocked no one else has tried doing that before. I mean, I suppose it would inconvenient if you needed the free hand, but... still a little bit clever on her part.

Henry, seeming to have had enough, raised his other hammer above his head, preparing his finishing attack. All Carry could do was look up him in horror as he brought it back down again, crushing her skull.

Anthony covered his mouth, looking like he was going to vomit, while Sal simply shook his head. I kept watching quietly.

"The winner of this fight is Henry Mitchel!" William announced. "This concludes the first round of the finals. The quarter finals will begin in the near future. I suggest you all retire for the time being."

"That poor girl," Anthony said, composing himself. "I'd hate to be the next guy to fight him."

"On the contrary," I replied. "Now I wanna face him even more."

Henry, from his place in the arena, turned his attention to me, meeting my gaze with both of his eyes. I could feel Daniel shuddering inside my head, but I ignored it. Henry smirked, and turned to leave. As he did, the eye that was still being possessed by Judgement kept its gaze on me, until they had left.

"You may be in luck," Malkator said. "I was keeping an eye on both of you during that fight. I think your destinies will be entwining soon enough."

So yeah. That's the end of the... octo-finals? Is that the right word? I dunno… But we're down to eight people now. Me, Sal, Henry, Sera, Faceless, Cerise, Javonir, and Malkator.

This'll be fun...