After the Second Fall Pt. 01.3

"I also present to you, Meister Reginald Browning of Northumberland, who has courageously taken personal responsibility for the atrocities committed by his predecessors, some of whom are also here." There was a mixed reception to these words, with some in the crowd politely smacking their thighs while others booed. Fortunately, no one was throwing rocks or rotten vegetables.

"The fighters from Northumberland were provided with a choice, to fight in our arena today or to join the Complex. Seven have chosen to face our Adams." Browning's eyes opened in shock. Piper was going to fight seven Gladiators in a row? Surely, that was impossible.

"If Adam Piper should fall, Adam Stash will step forward. Should Adam Stash fall, any of the condemned still alive may go free, so long as they never return to either Rieckenburg or Northumberland." The woman paused and closed her eyes. "Lord have mercy on us all." With her blessing complete, she stepped back from the podium.

The whole situation was surreal to Browning, whose mind was trying to come up with a way out. Across the sand, Piper was stretching while the other fighter stepped out of the circle. Behind him, a procession of enormous men made their way down the same path he had come. In front were seven of Northumberland's Gladiators, followed by more than two dozen other giants dressed in black. Once the first group had entered the circle, the second split and surrounded the ring, clearly intending to keep participants in and non-participants out.

Looking back to Piper, he saw that the man had removed his shirt and pants, standing only in tight black shorts. Behind him, the Gladiators were doing the same, although their shorts were the pale green of Northumberland. Switching back and forth quickly, he realized that this Piper was significantly smaller than all of the Gladiators, as well as almost all of the Rieckenburg fighters. Furthermore, the man called Piper wasn't nearly as broad as the others, appearing lean compared to them. Browning also remembered that Rieckenburg's fighters didn't have the stronger bones like the Gladiators. A smile came to his face, realizing the situation wasn't as hopeless as it had been made out to be.

A noise to his right startled him, and when he turned to look, he saw the bodyguards from before place a table next to the rope. On top was an array of knives and clubs, including his own. Moving over quickly, he muscled his way through the group of condemned and snatched his knife back from the Assistant Meister, knocking him to the sand for his impudence.

This was absolutely insane. All of the Gladiators were still in the ring, and they were going to give them weapons, too? That's when he realized that none of the Gladiators were moving to the table. "What's wrong with you -- why aren't you getting a weapon?" he shouted at the nearest one. The giant man looked down at him with disgust.

"No honor in fighting with weapons. If I beat Piper, it will be with my own flesh and bone."

The Meister -- former Meister? -- scoffed in disbelief, and was about to say something rude when a hush settled over the crowd. The change in noise level was so dramatic that Browning's eyes snapped around to their single opponent. He had raised his arms level with the sand and was motioning downward, urging the crowd to be silent.

The moment stretched and the tension rose as the man in black stared down seven fighters and fourteen others. A bell rang loudly and Pip stalked forward confidently.

Chapter 27

One of the challenges for a Public Relations professional like Lilith was that Arena matches were only seen by the two participants. There were no cameras or microphones or sensors or scanners or anything else in the Arena to record the fight. Furthermore, the only information the Arena Council published was the outcome. Consequently, it was difficult to build a proper following for fighters. Complicating things more, virtually all fighters retired or were killed in three or fewer matches.

Conversely, Pip was a marketing director's dream. His handsome, yet somewhat intimidating looks played well to both men and women, and he was naturally charismatic, if a bit quiet. The problem was that nobody knew what he could do, which is why she had set up the ballsport match. While that didn't go exactly as planned, it did make him immediately recognizable throughout the city. The rally footage boosted his notoriety even further, but Lilith knew that there were some that would believe the footage was faked or altered.

To deter future aggression toward Rieckenburg, Lilith needed something bigger. Her insight was to stage an arena match and broadcast it as far as they could. Their standard signals would make it to Brock-Loren and Northumberland, and to Marbelo in the evening, but with Northumberland acting as a relay, they could also reach much further, including all the way to Gracia.

An individual match for Pip wasn't likely to be so impressive, as he couldn't really demonstrate what he could do, but the executions provided an opportunity for something that had never been done. It took several days of working directly with Cassidy, Cates, and others from the Complex and the Meister's Office, but they had eventually landed on an idea so ludicrous that it would fit her needs.

As Pip prepared himself the morning of the executions, Lilith had given him his final instructions. "I know it's distasteful, but I need you to be as brutal as you can for this to work to maximum effect. The most important thing is for you to come out of this alive, but a close second is to scare the shit out of everyone; otherwise, this is all for nothing." He nodded his understanding, and she left him and John to discuss strategy. Or women. With them, it was usually one of the two.

From her position on the raised stage, Lilith heard the start signal and watched Pip move forward. Her hand clenched tighter on John's as her pulse ratcheted up. Around the platform, the crowd seemed to be losing its collective mind as people screamed and jumped around.

Rather than move forward together as a group, only one of the Gladiators stepped up to face Pip. For Lilith's purposes, the result was disturbingly brief, as a punch to his windpipe and a sharp twist of the neck left the giant laying on his stomach while his eyes looked up at the sky. A second Gladiator stepped forward, clearly sticking to some sort of code. Pip took two steps back and shook his head. Looking quickly between them, he waved his arm broadly, indicating them all, and gestured: it said quite clearly, 'Come get me.'

The Gladiators looked at each other, and after a few beats, the one that had stepped forward nodded, and they moved forward as a pack. They formed a line that bent into a crescent, soon forming a circle with Pip in the center. He smiled coldly and then moved into action.

Watching Pip fight was hard to process as he rapidly switched from offense to defense and back again, always moving. On the stage, which was some twenty paces from the ring, it was difficult to actually see what Pip's hands and legs were doing. After an initial furious flurry of activity, the fight had slowed. Two more Gladiators were clearly dead, while a third laid in the sand, unable to move as he coughed up blood. Of the remaining three, one had a broken arm and another's knee had been blown out so that he was sitting on the ground, writhing in pain. Pip himself was largely unhurt, but Lilith could see that two or three blows had landed as his outer thigh was bright red and his nose was bleeding freely.

There was another brief, intense confrontation between Pip and the previously unhurt Gladiator, who seemed to be more-or-less holding his own. The one with the broken arm came up behind Pip and aimed a tremendous wheel kick at his midsection, only to have Pip step away so that the kick landed squarely on his fellow Gladiator's hip. The latter collapsed immediately while the former received a second broken arm as pip spun and connected with his elbow just below the shoulder. The Gladiator collapsed on both knees, unable to fight, and Pip quickly delivered a lethal punch to the back of his head.

Pip walked from one to the next, ending their lives as mercifully as he could.

Once again, a hush fell over the crowd as they realized what had just happened. The condemned looked fully in shock, and one woman was actively vomiting into the sand -- either from fear or from disgust.

Pip motioned to Stash, who stepped into the ring. There was confusion from the crowd and the condemned as the two quickly talked, then they bent together and dragged the first Gladiator to the side of the ring opposite the other occupants. When they had laid the seven gladiators in a line, Pip nodded to Stash, who stepped back out of the ring. One at a time, Pip folded their hands across their chests and made sure their eyes were closed. Then he turned back to the condemned and began striding purposefully toward them.

When he was about five paces away, he stopped. Nobody moved for some time, so Pip began to speak, although Lilith had no chance of hearing what he was saying. Of the fourteen people in the ring, only five were still holding weapons. He pointed to a side of the ring and some of the ones without weapons began to shuffle that way.

Suddenly, one of the men charged forward with a club raised above his head. He brought the club down toward Pip's shoulder, only to have the larger man grab it on the way down and pull it from his grasp. Before the smaller man could properly react, Pip swung the club parallel to the ground, nearly separating the man's head from his neck.

Three more ran forward simultaneously, two with knives and another one with a club. Three blows from Pip yielded three more bodies, making it clear that the weapons didn't matter at all.

The last man with a weapon dropped it and fell to his knees, begging. Pip just pointed to where he had before. When the man didn't move, Pip took two steps and kicked him in the chest, lifting him off the ground. The rest of the condemned quickly made their way to the indicated spot. When they had lined up, pip made a two-part motion, indicating they should turn around and kneel.

He gave them a hundred heartbeats to settle, then said something else, and gave them another hundred beats. Gliding softly through the sand toward the first in line, an elderly man, Pip pinched the base of his neck and the man slumped forward. He had done this twice more when the fourth in line, a tall, fat man, spun and stabbed at Pip with a knife he had been hiding. Pip deflected the blade with his arm, then grabbed both the man's armed and pulled down.

The man screamed and fell backward, both shoulders dislocated. He continued to cry out, so Pip picked him up by the ankles, spun around twice, and tossed him to the other side of the arena, presumably so that he didn't have to hear him. The man hit face first, but apparently didn't die, as he continued to moan.

As Pip walked to where the rotund man was trying to right himself, Lilith saw a trickle of blood making its way down Pip's left arm. Even from so far away, she could tell that Pip was not pleased. Pip proceeded to follow Lilith's instructions to the letter, adding to the man's agony for a full hundred beats before finally crushing the man's chest with his foot.

By the end, many in the crowd had turned away from the scene, finding it overwhelming, sickening, or both. Lilith would have liked to, but this is what she had asked for, and she felt it only right to watch to the conclusion.

Rather than return to where the three remaining condemned were kneeling, Pip walked purposefully toward Stash. The two Adams had a brief conversation before Pip stepped over the rope and made his way through the crowd, back toward the Complex. In his place, Stash stepped in and finished the executions.

After several bells, the shock of the spectacle began to fade in Rieckenburg and was replaced by awe. Did you see what Piper did? I can't believe he took out seven fighters at once. Wasn't it hilarious when he threw the fat man? That was absolutely brutal; I wonder if they'll do it every time.

Rieckenburg celebrated long into the night, enjoying the warm feeling of victory.

In Northumberland, the broadcast had been seen by most and the mood was much more melancholy, but Lilith and Cates had done their jobs well. The new council had already been chosen and moved in as soon as the convoy left, preventing a power void. Throughout the media, the executions were described as a new beginning, in which Northumberland could prosper without fear of war; after five consecutive defeats in the Arena, many latched onto this idea. What's more, the Grim Reaper himself was now fighting for them, and what could be a better feeling than that?

Author's Note

Thank you for taking the time to read Part 1 of this story; I hope sincerely that it was an enjoyable experience.

I would imagine that we all dream of being 'the chosen one' at some point or another: the movie star, the sports hero, the president. What about the people around those select few, on the periphery, influencing and interacting, but not directly controlling fate? After all, each of us is the star of our own story, but very few of us can be the main character in the grand scheme.

For those readers intending to continue with this series, you'll find a significant shift in the words to come, away from the story of John's life -- for that's what Part 1 was intended to be -- to the experiences of another prominent character and how their life interacts with our huge and handsome protagonist.

Northumberland has fallen; Marbelo is reeling. Adam Piper, the Grim Reaper, has become the subject of stories that parents tell their children when other threats fall short. And Rieckenburg, arachnid city of the South, is poised for conquest on a continental scale.

So who will play the key role in Part 2?

Your feedback, comments, and votes are genuinely, deeply appreciated.

Cheers,

Simon