_“Is it over?”_ Agony had hammered his beaten body. _Twice._ A bell pealed in his head, and its echoes shook his stomach. His hoarse breathing stung like the scales that dug at his flesh. He clenched his eyes against the eternal throb, and only darkness aided him against the piercing sunlight, the celebratory screech, the sweaty stench, and the coppery bile that overcrowded his nerves. _Was it over?_ The thought rasped aloud in his head. On the wavering precipice of consciousness, he sucked in air, closed his hand, shifted his leg; with one step--three taps of the fingers--he could let go. _And … maybe he ought to._ He’d been ineffectual this fight: every move had been doubted, downplayed, disregarded. That announcer cemented it. Vauruk, that fast fucker, had flown laps around him. If this was defeat, it was decisive. Total, even! … at last, V, he’d really … … No. _No._ **Fuck that!** He was Kaldov-**FUCKING**-Golalud. The Bronze Breaker; the Thrashing Titan; the Iron Serpent. No matter what, he believed it for every single match: he was going to fucking win. Grasping that resolve, he turned, stepping away from that precipice, turning his eyes back to the light, hurling the pain into the fire and letting it fuel his blazing body. He wrenched himself up from the ground, flipping over. The bat was there, reveling, angled just away, a hair’s breadth too far. The sand mixed with blood on his stomach as he lurched. With a serpentine grip he seized Vauruk’s ankle. The warrior bat saw, gasped: blurrily Kaldov clutched the other one and yanked as Vauruk resisted. Kaldov roared as red dripped down his face, his arms, his body. Vauruk’s balance was forfeit: down he tumbled to the sand. Kaldov bared his teeth and volleyed forward as the flipped bat backpedaled, kneeing Vauruk's stomach. The announcer didn’t get a chance to narrate: it was Kaldov’s turn to tell the world what was happening. ***“YOU THINK I’M FUCKING DONE?!”*** An arm reeled back, a fist tensed, Kaldov unleashed a barrage of his might onto the warrior bat’s skull. ----- **Author's Note**: This is a page from a comic that [Vauruk](https://inkblot.art/profile/Vauruk) and I did for ArtFight 2023. It stars our boys, Kaldov Golalud (by me) and Vauruk the Formidable (by [Vauruk](https://inkblot.art/profile/Vauruk)). We intend to upload the pages of this series cooperatively, alongside the accompanying writing, over the next few days. The content will include violence and mild gore, and pages containing the latter will be tagged as such when warranted. Thanks for following along, and I hope you enjoy this! [|< First](https://inkblotapp.page.link/L5N6TCGxgqLkePyM6) | [<< Prev](https://inkblotapp.page.link/oNe93V7Cr88DEsiJ7) | Page 09 | [>> Next](https://inkblotapp.page.link/xU6HM7GeAj5NQrhz6)