The spiderweb began to unravel slowly. Mabushi kept tearing himself apart, struggling to be free. The audience's whispers faded under the weight of the shocking scene. Even Silvara stopped smiling.
Mabushi collapsed to his knees, his rough breathing was echoing. Every inch of his body screamed in pain. His chest rose and fell like someone who had just drowned and survived. His eyes were not the eyes of someone who lived. They were the eyes of someone who burned.
His hands trembled uncontrollably. Both swords slipped from his grasp and hit the ground. What had happened struck him like a bullet to the heart. He felt that his own body had decided to surrender, even for a moment.
He bent forward, gripping the ground with his bare and torn hands. Silvara was still standing in the distance, watching in silence. Until now, she hadn't attacked again. As for Ann, she covered her mouth with her hand, without knowing if she have to scream, cry, or run to him.
Mabushi who looked like a corpse moments ago, had suddenly stood up as if something had exploded inside him. His primal scream carried all the pain, defeat, and defiance buried in his chest.
Silvara's eyes widened for the first time. Not from fear, but from disbelief. How did he stand after all that? How could he move like this, with that blood loss and those torn muscles?
He was coughing up blood between his words:
"I… have never lost… a single fight! And I won't lose… ever! Especially not to… a foolish girl… like you!!"
His first step was shaky.
The second was faster.
By in the third one… he forgot the pain entirely.
Mabushi rushed forward like a madman, his eyes were blazing, his swords were swinging in his torn hands. But Silvara didn't move an inch. Her hands lifted gracefully, tracing shapes in the air again. In the blink of an eye, a massive tree trunk rose before her, hardened like stone, emerging from the earth itself.
Before Mabushi could grasp what was happening, his head slammed into the trunk with crushing force. The impact echoed through the arena like a hammer striking iron. His body shuddered, staggered for a moment, and his eyes widened from the shock. A thin line of blood trickled down his forehead, then burst, and splattered across his face.
The crowd gasped. Some smiled. Others laughed. Mabushi wavered, but didn't fall. His knees bent for a second, then he steadied himself again, wiping the blood running down his face. He looked at his trembling hands, bleeding wrists, and the sticky strands that were still clinging to his fingers despite breaking free.
His breaths came out rough, torn from his chest. For a brief moment, he no longer saw Silvara… he only saw a black void creeping into the edges of his vision.
He thought to himself:
'My body's done… My arms will stop working. Even my chest muscles are tearing with every breath.'
He shut his eyes briefly, then exhaled slowly. Inside, a thought echoed… the one he'd been avoiding since the start:
"That thing… the drink."
His trembling hand reached for a small pouch on his belt. His fingers touched a tiny glass vial containing a dark blue liquid that shimmered like a gemstone under the light. It was his last spoil from an old theft, kept for a moment he knew it would come.
Another voice inside warned him:
'If you drink it, you'll become a machine for five minutes. No pain, no limits… only speed, power, and pure focus. But afterward… your body will collapse. The pain will return tenfold. It might destroy you completely.'
He raised the vial before his eyes. His tired face and burning gaze reflected in the glass. A faint laugh escaped his lips despite everything:
"Five minutes is enough… more than enough."
He bit the vial's cap off, lifted his head, and poured the liquid down his throat in one gulp. The taste was metallic and sharp, but he swallowed it all. Only a few seconds passed before burning heat surged through his veins. His hand were trembling. His grip tightened again around the swords. The veins in his arms bulged under the strain.
For a moment, Mabushi felt the heat expanding to his chest, as if flames had erupted beneath his skin. Sweat streamed down his forehead… but strangely, steam rose with it, the droplets were evaporating before they hit the ground.
Every breath he took was deep and heavy, like the exhale of an exploding beast. His eyes grew sharper, its pupils were contracting until they resembled those of a predator locking onto its prey. He began walking towards Silvara with a slow steps that seemed to make the air heavier with each one.
Silvara's smile faded little by little. Her eyes trembled, and in her mind, a whisper formed:
"This isn't the same reckless Mabushi from moments ago… What is this? His body… is steaming?!"
She looked down at the ground beneath him. His steps didn't leave any footprints, but it left a tiny circles of vapor trailed behind.
Mabushi shot forward like an arrow. His steps no longer belonged to a human, they were blinding leaps that vanished and reappeared. The twin swords in his hands swung at speeds beyond what the eye could follow, each strike trailed by bursts of steam surging from his body.
He reached Silvara in a blink of an eye, his blade slicing through the air towards her chest. She leapt back at the last moment. But Mabushi didn't stop… didn't let her breathe. He roared as he lunged again, the wild grin on his lips maked him look more like beast than samurai.
A strike from the right… she dodged by ducking.
A strike from the left… she jumped back again.
But each blow was faster, harsher than the one before.
Silvara, who always kept her cold composure, began to feel true pressure for the first time. Her chest rose and fell quickly, her hands constantly summoning roots and branches to block him, but barely keeping up.
Her trembling eyes followed the edge of his sword as it grazed her cheek, leaving a thin red line before he rushes again. His confidence had peaked. Every dodge she made was proof to him… he was seizing control of the fight.
He shouted in a mid-attack, with a voice filled with madness:
"You won't run forever, Silvara! This arena… will be our grave!!"
As her feet kept retreating and his blade ripped the air before her face, it wasn't his screams that weighed on her chest… it was what she saw in him. She thought to herself:
'His power is unrestrained… it's the energy that burns its wielder before his foe. He's not fighting me… he's fighting something inside himself.'
A faint smile crossed her lips despite her labored breathing:
'This man… doesn't realize he's digging his own grave. Every strike he makes is a cry of pain disguised as courage.'
'He doesn't need an opponent to kill him. That drink, his rage, his pride… they'll do it soon enough. My role is only to show him a mirror to make him see what he refuses to face.'
She lifted her hands, calling new roots from the ground, while whispering:
"Mabushi the rogue… you don't need victory or defeat. What you need… is to see that you are not a lion, you're only a scorched leaf, falling quietly from its roots."
Mabushi stormed forward like a tempest, each step from him is exploding beneath him. His right blade shattered the roots defense, and his left tore through the air until he reached Silvara's body. One second, then his sword pierced her abdomen. Her body trembled from the impact, the blood was spilling hot across his blade. But she didn't scream. She looked into his eyes and smiled softly, strangely, like someone who knew too much.
She spoke with a trembling clear voice:
"You know… you're not a fighter seeking for victory… You're a man with a reason… one reason that makes you endure all this pain."
Mabushi's eyes widened, and he screamed from the depths of his chest:
"Shut up!!!"
He tore his swords free and hurled them to the ground. His fists shot forward… one to her face, one to her chest, another to her stomach. Blow after blow, each was harsher than the last, as if he weren't striking her, but he was striking the voice that was echoing inside his mind.
Silvara that was bleeding from her mouth, whispered through her pain:
"You want to live… even when death is certain… because something inside you… refuses to end."
Mabushi growled, grabbing her by the hair with his left hand and slamming his right fist into her face, while shouting:
"I said shut up!!!"
But she smiled again, her blood dripping onto his body, she whispered in way that echoed in his heart:
"Even your screams… aren't strength… just emptiness you're trying to fill with noise."
His face turned red, his veins were bulging around his tired eyes. Every punch made the arena tremble, while she didn't fight back… she almost wanted her words to carve deeper into him.
The fight was ended in the arena… there was only a man that's draining the last of his rage. His fists crashed down on Silvara's body again and again. Her face smeared with blood, her body limp, her mysterious smile was gone. She only stopped when she lost consciousness.
And still… Mabushi didn't stop. His hoarse voice roared, every punch was a curse against the world:
"Shut up!!! Shut up!!! SHUT UUUUP!!! SHUT—UP—!!!"
The arena shook beneath his blows. The crowd fell silent.
At last, the director's voice rang out, cutting through the madness:
"The winner is… Mabushi the Rogue!"
Mabushi froze for a second, his fist was still raised in the air. He breathed like a monster just released from a war with itself, his chest was heaving, and steam was rising from his skin. He lifted his head towards the crowd, a distorted smile formed on his bloody face.
He staggered to his feet with a swaying body. He took two steps forward, trying to leave the arena, but his legs gave out. His whole body trembled, dizziness crashed through his skull, the ground was spinning beneath him… then he fell.
He hit the hard floor with all his weight, his body was convulsing. The crowd gasped in one voice. Akio jumped from his seat in disbelief, while Ann froze in her place, her eyes were trembling in shock.
"MABUSHIIIIIIIIII!!!"
Ann's terrified scream finally tore through the silence. As for Mabushi… his consciousness faded, his hand was still reaching forward as if he's grasping for something unseen… before everything disappeared into darkness.