Everlast Online

The first event had been decided: [The Equaliser], Wolf Fang's chosen event.

With the selection made, Loki's form shifted once again, this time settling into some kind of blue goblin, before beginning to explain the content of the event.

"The equaliser is a personal favourite of mine." Loki grinned, the sharp teeth of their goblin form on full display, "Both competitors enter in equal positions: No difference in stats; no difference in level; and no difference in weapons since they don't get any at all."

Loki got a small laugh from their last comment and stopped to bask in the attention before continuing on.

"It's just a good ol' fashioned deathmatch where we watch two mortals beat each other until their faces are unrecognisable." Loki laughed, falling backwards only to gently catch themselves by floating in the air, "Ya'know, we used to do this in Asgard, steal a couple decent mortals from Valhalla and make them fight for the God's amusement."

Loki had a pleasant grin on their face as they reminisced on the good times.

"... At least until Baldur got all whiney about it and made everyone stop." Loki's face twisted into annoyance as they remembered how things came to an end, before once again cracking a smile "Still though... I got him back. Hehehehehe..."

(A/N: Loki manipulated Baldur's brother Höðr, who was blind, into killing Baldur. Fun little bit of trivia that I learned for this chapter)

"Anyway, let's get this show on the road." Loki called out, eliciting an excited cheer from the crowd.

Wolf looked over with a grin, his dirty, blood-covered canines almost jumping out of his face as his eyes bore into Liz with a clear desire for conflict. As the cheering reached its peak, Loki shifted again and began to grow, but before the change hit their hand they raised it and with a burst of power, clicked their fingers; washing the world in white for a moment.

Liz felt that familiar lurching feeling and as her eyes refocused she found herself with the rest of her guild. Floating behind and above her was a screen that displayed a beautiful sight: A lone and basic platform arena floating through a sea of stars; the lights of thousands of different stars shining down onto the arena. The crowd could not be seen, but Liz was certain they were there as through some kind of magic she could feel their presence.

Liz watched in awe of the new environment before a change occurred, a rip in space itself. Through it a creature that no player had ever seen before passed through; it was like a mixture of an impossibly large whale and a jellyfish, made from a pink and purple cosmic radiance - beauty like no one had ever seen.

This creature was a monster that was nearly extinct throughout the multiverse called a star-whale, but more importantly it was Loki. The creature began to speak once again, revealing who they were.

"Is everyone ready to begin!?" They called out, a telepathic wave rippling through the space and causing a distant cheer from the crowd - muffled by the emptiness of space.

A giant countdown clock materialised over the arena that began at three. As it ticked to two, space twisted in on itself in two locations and as the warping corrected itself, two players were what remained.

Both looked around in minor confusion, Magnus and Wolf eventually locking eyes as the clock hit one.

Wolf seemed disappointed for a moment, but not long enough to kill his toothy grin, while Magnus just got himself ready.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the timer hit zero and another telepathic wave rippled through the arena:

"BEGIN"

Instantly Wolf charged forwards, aiming immediately to land the first hit, but Magnus was more than prepared. He sidestepped the obvious punch and landed his own on the red ogre's side, but shockingly the attack did very little.

One thing Loki had conveniently forgotten to mention was that despite their equal stats, they were not truly equal.

There were differences between the races in how stat points affected their power; a dragon's [1 STR] could not be the same as a slime's - and the same was true here.

(A/N: It's basically like weight classes in MMA or boxing)

Red ogre's were born with significant muscle mass, their bodies incredibly dense from birth, which granted them incredible physical resistance; as a result this meant that even with the same END, Wolf simply had better defence and stamina than Magnus.

And Wolf recognised this with a single hit.

He spun in an instant, but Magnus was just barely able to lean out of reach of the punch and create distance - also recognising that he could only do very little to damage Wolf. However, Magnus was not entirely out of the fight.

Magnus was a weretiger and excluding the mythic-beast races, they were one of the strongest beast-races.

The difference in the two fighter's power, that being the STR, was ultimately negligible due to both being from physical powerhouse races, but in terms of their END and AGI there were significant differences - with Wolf being superior in the former and Magnus in the latter.

Across the distance each fighter stared the other down, their difference in stats understood; advantages grasped. All they lacked now was an understanding of their opponents' experience.

Wolf of course was not just a seasoned boxer, at least not anymore. He had lost his ability to fight in real life and that terrified him - losing the only thing he truly loved nearly broke him - and so he relished the opportunity VR had given him, determined not to waste the chance he had been gifted. As a result Wolf had downloaded (and in some cases created) more than a hundred different VR programs that each taught him different styles of martial arts.

By the time ELO had been released Wolf had become a master of close to two hundred styles of martials arts from IRL styles like karate, kendo and even illegal styles like bakom; but he had also managed to create programs for fictional martial arts like Icoran pursuit style or crimson limb style from other games he had played.

While Wolf could not be considered to be a true master of any martial art other than boxing, the variety of styles he knew and his ability to combine them would allow him to face any martial master on equal footing.

On the other hand, Magnus was the leader of one of the most powerful gangs in his country. He had fought his way to the top, quite literally crushing and killing his competition through years of brutal fights. Among gang circles he was considered a legend: The Titan; the Bloody Giant; the Immortal.

The fights he had been in were brutal and oftentimes he was the only one to make it out alive. Magnus was a good man, one with morals and rules, but he had more blood on his hands than even a seasoned veteran.

With Wolf and Magnus' stats evening things out and both competitors having a wealth of experience the fight came down to a single factor: Technique vs Battle Experience.

Magnus moved first, making use of his superior speed to close the distance he had created as quickly as he possibly could. Wolf could have moved, but chose not to; instead he lowered his stance and prepared to stop Magnus's charge with force alone.

The two men collided as Magnus's fist hit Wolf's chest with a sickening crack, breaking a rib with only one punch. Wolf grunted in pain, but did not stop his plan as he grabbed hold of Magnus's outstretched arm before twisting and pulling Magnus over his shoulder; throwing him to the floor with enough force to splinter the ground beneath them.

"Ugh..." Magnus gasped as he hit the floor, not hesitating as he twisted his body and pulled free from Wolf's grip only to spin further and attempt to knock his opponents feet out from under him. However, with Wolf's superior defence the kick was ineffective and with his fist coming crashing down Magnus had no choice but to jump back.

Wolf's second attack and missed while Magnus's was ineffective.

Neither wasted a moment before trying again as Wolf reached out to try and grapple with Magnus, who quickly ducked under his arms and launched a flurry of blows on his side. Each blow individually did little, but as Magnus continued to move and rain down blows on Wolf's body, the damage began to build and bruises began to appear along Wolf's red skin.

Of course Wolf did not sit and take that, grinning as he jabbed Magnus in the throat - completely throwing him off and sending him back gasping. Wolf was on him in an instant, Magnus unable to do anything but block as fist after fist collided with his guard. It was not long before Magnus began to feel his bones creak, each blow threatening to snap right through his hands.

In a frantic attempt to stop the onslaught he recklessly charged forward, attempting to knock Wolf over. However, with his superior END Wolf was able to stop Magnus's charge with only a few steps back before grabbing Magnus and bringing his knee up into his stomach over and over - each collision hitting with a nasty thud against Magnus.

Magnus finally pushed away after almost thirty seconds of that, tumbling backwards as blood gushed from his mouth - his organs having been damaged from the beating. The distant muffles of the crowd became louder as the brutality increased, and Magnus could do nothing but glare at Wolf.

"Come get some, kitty." Wolf mocked, the first words spoken between the men. Magnus scowled, but did not fall for such an obvious taunt, "If you don't wanna come to me..."

The ogre's grin widened and his eyes shined cruelly before he blasted forward with an unexpected level of speed.

"... Then I'll come to you!" He cried, his fist pulled back and aimed straight at Magnus's face.

However, Magnus easily sidestepped the punch. Wolf was not concerned as he knew Magnus's arms were definitely not in the best shape, but what he had not expected was for Magnus's head to crash into his nose.

Magnus's forehead crashed into Wolf's nose with a sickening thud before it crumpled under the weight of his attack - snapping sideways. For the first time in the fight, Wolf had take a heavy hit and fell backwards, just barely catching himself from falling over as green blood rushed from his nose like a river. Despite the injury and the intense pain it caused, Wolf did not feel anger or fear, but pure elation - he had finally recognised Magnus as someone worthy of fighting.

Magnus didn't wait for even a moment as he stepped forward, his arms feeling less vulnerable as he landed hit after hit on Wolf's face. He moved fast and pulled back the moment he saw Wolf's muscles twitch - allowing him to avoid Wolf's attempts at grabbing him - before stepping back in to continue his bloody onslaught.

Wolf would of course land the occasional hit and so blood flew from the two men as they went blow for blow. Each attack landed like a pile of bricks, bones snapping under the weight of each attack until both men stumbled away from one another dripping with blood and cradling different wounds.

Each of Magnus's breaths felt like his lungs were being rubbed against shattered glass, his ribs digging into them; meanwhile, Wolf had only a single working eye as his flesh had swollen the other shut.

Both men were dripping with blood - blood from their own body and their opponents.

The sounds of cheering and Loki's commentating had long since been drowned out as they panted heavily, staring at one another. They had been fighting for more than an hour and both men were close to their limits, but both refused to admit defeat.

Once again Magnus initiated the next part of the fight, stepping forward and landing a punch on Wolf's gut. Wolf became slightly winded, but threw his fist out in a hook; connecting with Magnus's temple.

The weretiger briefly felt his consciousness slipping, but steeled himself at the last moment and used his abnormal stance to sweep at Wolf's legs. Between Wolf's injured state and Magnus coupling the attack with another punch, Wolf could not stop himself from falling backwards - crashing against the ground. Magnus did not hesitate, climbing on top of the ogre and bringing his fists down like a hammer one after another; each of his attacks splattering the surroundings with blood.

Magnus could not hear them, but the crowd had gone silent; fearful of the brutality they had just moments ago been cheering for. The distant arena was silent, save one deity who continued to laugh and point with a wide grin on their face.

Loki was having more fun than they had in centuries and all for one reason, they had changed the event. Loki couldn't do much, but what they could do was exceptionally cruel - changing the settings of the fight to be as realistic as they possibly could be, bringing both pain and gore to their highest levels; it had reached a point where reality and game were nearly indistinguishable.

But the brutality of mortals was exactly what they wanted. Why would Loki care if a few maggots ripped one another apart.

Magnus's fists began to slow as Wolf's struggle began to end, but Magnus refused to stop until he won: Until Wolf died.

However, he had miscalculated and as his attacks slowed Wolf took advantage.

Wolf's energy was quickly depleting and he was certainly close to death, but with what remained of his strength Wolf shifted his body - grabbing hold of Magnus's wrist and wrapping his legs around Magnus's waist with his abnormal flexibility. He had just enough leverage to move, pulling Magnus off of him and grabbing the weretiger in a hold - one he refused to let go of.

With all his strength he pulled and constricted around Magnus's arm; he didn't stop as he heard the arm pop; he didn't stop as it began to crack; and he didn't stop when Magnus began to scream in pain - the most noise he had made in the entire fight.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Magnus bellowed, desperately trying to free himself as he watched his flesh begin to rip apart. Moments later and with one final pull, Magnus watched as his arm was ripped clean off of his body in a gorey explosion of blood, flesh and bones.

With that final burst of strength Wolf collapsed into unconsciousness and Magnus writhed in his own blood, gripping at the place his arm had just been.

He steeled his nerves and bit down on his bottom lip, blood beginning to leak from his mouth as he found the will to stand up. He moved slowly, each step of the tiny distance he had to move agonising and laboured until he stood over Wolf's unconscious body.

He raised his foot, hovering it over Wolf's head as his vision began to blur. But no attack came.

Magnus's eyes rolled back into his head as he fell backwards, hitting the bloody floor right next to Wolf.

The next ten minutes were watched in silence, the victor decided in a pitiful victory.

Wolf had hit the floor first, his face bloody and unrecognisable from Magnus's heavy blows… But the equaliser was a deathmatch…

Magnus could not survive such heavy blood loss.

The tally was decided the first point setting the mood of the guild war, a depressing loss for Walpurgis' valiant warrior:

[Wolf Fang / ~~~ / ~~~]