31. Bowie & Oakley
Iesu clobbered his opponent. Jumping high and hammering down. The other man hunkered under a cracked shield that was vibrating hard like an abused gong. Yuo had dropped to his knees countless times. He got up, again. His calves and thighs wobbly. Alternatively, Iesu was prancing like a pony. Sweat gleamed over his tanned golden skin as he verbally provoked his best friend.
The coliseum, crowded to overflowing, roared and applauded every hit and smash. This was the rematch of the decade, more than ten years in the making. And most of Hellenne's money was piled on Iesu. Nyaamah sat with Noah next to the Amazonian queen of Neo Hellenne and the hoary midget master of Old Hellenna. The decrepit hog slimed a smile at Noah, simultaneously rubbing his flaky exposed knob, while contrary, the muscular queen was very gracious toward Nyaamah, speaking courteously, though the language barrier erected a wall of formality between the two ladies.
Love. Love is the theme of today's single duel. A fight to the death in the name of l’amour.
“I loved you,” Iesu shouted under his helmet and over the din.
“I loved you too,” Yuo panted. “I love you still.”
The Retarii did not reply. Lust replaced love with a permanent erection. The concepts of patience, delayed gratification, co-suffering and kinship were not compatible with a perpetual boner. Love as the theme was chosen because it was catchy. It had a romantic connotation. And because it appeared apt given the long history between the two warriors. But lust is not love. Iesu just wants to bash Yuo’s head into the ground while he pierces him in the posterior. Love. Perhaps the only memory of this virtue existing in the Retarii is the fact that he respected the son of Gun's decision not to have sex. An error he wishes to correct. In public. Iesu will fuck his friend in front of the whole damn world while he pounds and drains the life out of him concurrently. He imagines the thunderous arena cheering and the gold pouring over this massive victory that has been denied him all these years while he was in the grave, while he was in hades.
Noah, no more that timid boy afraid to take a life, glared at and warned the liver-spotted elderly creature. The wrinkly one stuck out his tongue and flicked it in defiance at the teenager as if to say he could do whatever he wished as host, and the youth as a guest prisoner ought to behave. They were about the same height; Noah, slightly taller, grabbed the shriveled dwarf by his gnarly genitals, flinging him over the balcony. He landed with a high octane yell that was pitched one octave up when a circling armourbug patrolling the perimeter of the gladiatorial ground ran and flattened him over.
Distraction. But Iesu was not shaken. He would toy with Yuo till he made him his prey. All around, the stadium is in uproar that the grizzled pygmy lord of Old Hellenna is roadkill, provoking a sexual stampede. The people want to see blood, and see blood soon. They want the blood of murderer Noah. The bodyguards of the dirty old don swung into action. But Noah raised his hand.
He is beginning to understand his power. The youngest son of Lamech, descendent of Cain, inheritor of the Blackstar from Tubal 2, husband to his mother Nyaamah, and king of Enoch city, Noah is the bridge between the forces that exist. Programmes like Ari and Sakti may seem to stand against the directive of Azazel, and Azazel in turn often is at odds with the omnipotent TI, but in the end, the conflicts and frictions are all part of the greater mechanism. The mechanism for the gears of change; and with the Blackstar on his shoulder, Noah's guiding dark light, the youth, a messiah always present at the curtain call of an era, introduces a new age, some kind of reset, whereby society reaches maturity, a time for the plug out, Earth returning to plants and animals, happening right now even as Azazel prepares to uncord.
It rains. Pitter-patters to a pour, muddying the ground. The guards slip and fall. Death excites. The smell of aged dwarf blood mixed to hot rubber from the tyres of the armourbug diffuses in the downpour, suffusing the stadium. The crazy zombie state awaiting Iesu's kill exploded in hysteria. The blood bath starts. In the stands, audience slaughters audience. Nyaamah deftly drove two ornamental daggers decorating the iron skirt of an attending knight into the Amazonian queen before she had a chance. One down her throat, the other up her cunt. Her armour bearers and consorts flew into rage.
Equally, Iesu is transported in fury. His chance for a showdown and to parade Yuo's head to adoring fans is ruined. The showman in him infuriated. No one to watch him win. The spectators act as though they are gladiators. What was the point when he couldn't bask in praises and glory. When no one cared anymore of his talent to entertain. The people would rather draw their own blood. Execute their personal kill. Iesu switched up a gear to a frenzy. Charging into the bleachers, annihilating anyone in his path. He saw Nyaamah and Noah and the royal cadavers. Enraged, he charged toward them, climbing the tiered stands, swinging from massive house banners that draped over the walls of the coliseum.
Iesu came face to face with the troublemakers from Enoch City. Nyaamah stood her ground. Ready to stare down Death if she must. Noah's left pupil dilated to white. A tornado brewed. Adam's descendent saw two spectral wolves stepped forward and snarled. Three cats lounged around his mother's legs, as though they were an amulet for protection. And above, two crows flew in the flashing thunderous wind. Behind the boy, Iesu eyed a serpent with wings outstretched like a dragon.
He was fully charged. He charged at the fire-breathing beast with the delirious illusion of rescuing an imprisoned princess, a damsel in distress. The Retarii lunged at the sharp teeth of the leviathan but instead fell onto the knife - somewhat shaped like a Bowie - held by Yuo. The misty masquerade cleared and Iesu, whose concealing helmet fell off, lay dying in the arms of his best friend. No dragon, no wolves. No corvids nor felines. Just wet, and blood streaming from his fatal wound diluted by rain.
Iesu gashed his teeth, laughed and died. Angel lust was the only adornment upon him. He expected to be resurrected. But he wasn't. Azazel had pulled the plug.
The three survivors walked over corpses aplenty upon the drenched grounds. After the storm, a new audience gathered at the coliseum. Crows and ravens. Vultures circled above. Later even eagles descended for a feast. And flies. Lots of flies. Zvuv. It was happening. The Earth returned to the wild. At least with regard to Hellenna. But someone in the far future would reinterpret it occurring globally, or as a land called Atlantis sinking into the ocean. All that actually happened was that it heavily rained. And it was muddy. Milky.
They found an idling armourbug. Their transport home to Enoch city. Commander Yuo taught Noah, and the youth drove most. Somehow, legends changed the electric solar vehicle into a floating ark. And Nyaamah adopted a pair of puppies - male and female - abandoned by a bitch that they chanced upon along the way.
AI generated art prompted by author
Any similarities to persons and events are coincidental. Use of names of public figures, places and events are purely fictional and are not representative of them.