Where the first final duels go smoothly on the biggest part until the last 2 names are picked.

No one's POV:
-

The next day arose with excitement in the crew Reapers.

As everyone gathered to the centre of the deck for the final battles of the Unfairdictable Circle, the pirates were already betting and trying to predict who would take the win. The names of the remaining 10 fighters were in the bucket and in Adrian's hands. Said 10 were doing a warm up to be more prepared for the duels.

"Nervous?" Alter asked as he and Geno were practicing in some melee combat techniques. He could clearly see and sense the smaller's mood as he was thoughtful and not focusing much on the sparring. He had easily grabbed him by the arm, swiped him off his feet and caused him to fall on his back.

"I dunno…" Geno replied hesitantly, not reacting much that he had fallen on the floor.

"Even if most from the crew still don't believe in ya and your abilities, lemme tell ya that it ain't everyday for us to see a new fighter bein' so close to the finals of the game." Alter said as he offered his hand for the other to hold onto it and stand up. Instead of accepting it Geno rolled backwards and was quick to stand by himself on his feet, ready to throw hands again. Alter just hummed. "Put in good use all of your skills and abilities, stay calm and focused. You do well. Even if you loose, don't feel bad. Some of your opponents ended up to the finals whether because they were lucky enough to fight in the way they have the advantage, whether because of more experience."

"… Sure." Geno mumbled.

~

Now the fighters had gathered around the circle too. Adrian stirred the papers with the names and a few seconds later picked 2. The first duel of the finals was between Ramirez and another dog monster, a giant molossus about 3 and a half heads taller than the doctor.

He was picked first and he had chosen the duel to be in melee combat. Both canine monsters seemed chill at the beginning,  staring at each other with a calm glare. But the moment Adrian gave the signal and out loud the command to fight, both of them started snarling and showing their teeth.

And just 3 seconds later they pounced at each other and started beating each other up. The molossus, named Plato, seemed slower to his hits but was enduring better and more hits from Ramirez, plus he was delivering much harder his blows.

He might not had big claws like the alsatian dog monster's, but he definitely had bigger and heavier paws. For a few seconds the 2 backed away and stared at each other with eyes emitting flares from the heat of the battle. They had ripped each other's skins and shirts.

Blood was running from their wounds on the floor. They didn't stay motionless for long as they collided with each other again. The deep and vicious snarls coming out of their throats were causing shivers down Geno's spine as he watched them fighting, well, like actual feral animals.

Another minute of ferocious battle later, the 2 backed away again. Ramirez seemed far worse that Plato. In fact he suddenly stepped back and seemed to struggle find his balance. Then he fell forward and stayed on all fours, shaking lightly. Was he about to collapse?

"Andiamo Leandro…" Geno heard Aldo whispering in agony as he stared at the doctor's direction intensively. Plato dashed at Ramirez ready to deliver the final blow.

And that was when Ramirez pounced again at him. He swatted Plato so hard in his face, the molossus monster fell backwards. Ramirez was now on top of him and punching him in the face while barking and snarling at the same time. His eye had gone crazy.

The moment Plato tried to roll and switch positions with Ramirez, the doctor somehow managed to get off of him while turning the other to lay prone. Then he bit down on his neck and Plato left out a deep whine of pain. But instead of relaxing, Ramirez deepened the bite even more. More ferociously, more aggresively.

"Woah woah! That's enough doctor! Let go of him!" Adrian tried to separate him from Plato.

Alas, the alsatian had clumped himself onto the molossus and not letting go even though he had no strength, nor any chance to fight back, struggle even. At this point he wasn't just trying to knock him out, he was going for the kill. Geno didn't know what came over him in that moment as he entered the circle and tugged abruptly Ramirez.

"Həy! Dogface! You're deaf or wha-?!"

Distant music of violin reached his ear holes. Melancholic, nor fast nor slow speed. The melody was gorgeous. It suddenly stopped.

"S-Sorry. What you were playing… it sounded incredible Señor."

A young, shy and slightly rough voice was heard.

The same melody was heard. It was suddenly interrupted by quiet, clumsy clapping of hands. It stopped and a sweet giggle was heard.

"That was beautiful!"

A small child's voice was heard here.

Geno didn't prevent to hear anything else as he suddenly felt getting pinned on the floor. Ramirez was above him, gripping the skeleton by the neck.

"!¿Cuánto escuchaste?!" He asked frantically and with vicious rage in his voice. Geno was so confused from what had happen he didn't reply anything. That caused him to feel Ramirez gripping his neck tighter. "¡¿CUÁNTO ESCUCHASTE MALDITA SEA?!" The doctor barked loudly.

His body suddenly spasmed for a moment and it was enough for him to let go of the small skeleton, soon fly back by blue magic. Geno truly thought Alter had done it. But when he looked at him, with confusion he realised that he did seem on guard, but his pupils weren't glowing.

He wasn't using magic. The siren looked around, then at the priest as he walked with fast steps towards him, checking his neck to see if Ramirez had opened wounds. An aggressive bark was heard again from the dog, who was ready to go again for Geno, not caring as Alter was ready to stretch his arm towards him.

"Ŋø γøυ đøŋ'τ ð œ g!" The smol heard the priest whispering  and realised the guardian was about to take over.

Generally from the day Geno's life got threatened when Ramirez flipped over, there were times where as Alter was casually talking with Geno, if his look was catching the alsatian monster, his voice was suddenly changing pitch by being deeper and his eyesockets were filled in bluish colors.

At worst the siren had seen his head twitching even if Ramirez was minding his business and not even paying attention to the skeletons. When Alter was snapping out of it, he didn't even seem to understand that he had felt murderous towards the dog and kept talking casually with Geno.

As of now, Geno could see smoke coming out of Alter's mouth as he death-stared at the doctor. Yup, Trélα was not fond at all of Ramirez. But nor Ramirez, nor Alter in his guardian state were going to cause harm. Another one was going to interfere and get between Ramirez and the skeletons.

"Not another step Leandro."

Aldo opened his arms and blocked Ramirez' way. Against all odds, the much taller dog stopped on his tracks in front of the tiny beaver monster. They were both glaring at each other.

"Get out of my way." Ramirez growled annoyed.

"Unless you give me a very good reason as to what shaking thing Geno has done to you to turn against him, no." Aldo stood his ground. Ramirez looked at him, then above him to glare at Geno. He tried to walk ahead, only for Aldo to block his way once again.

"Aldo. Move." He snarled.

"Or what? You're going to hit me? Go ahead. Let's see what you'll achieve by this. Snarl and growl all you like, that doesn't scare me. I can do those too if I want. You tell me if you like what you'll hear." Aldo's eyes daggered as he stared at the alsatian monster, literally ready for the hit, or perhaps, do some cool move to face the doctor's hit as Geno thought.

Ramirez' expression turned annoyed but also… agitated. His growling started slowly dying down. He looked to his right, exhaled and then… walked away. Everyone around looked at him confused as he left from the circle and went beneath the deck.

Whispers then started spreading around, confusion and hostility mainly sprinkling their comments. Yalin had brought first aid, treating Plato's neck first and foremost, as Ramirez was very close to bite the biggest vain of them all and the teeth had reached deep.

"Doctor Ramirez has won this round. He is free to go rest for now. If he refuses to fight however when his name is picked again, he will be out of the game." Adrian announced.

Geno was next. He fought against a human-sized black salamander monster with yellow spots all over his body. He was lucky enough to be called first and even more observant to realise that by choosing the duel to be with fighting sticks was the wisest decision.

He had seen the salamander having a slight advantage when the fight was with no weapons, while he seemed clumsy handling those in his non human-shaped hands. Plus, his whole body was weapon by itself, as he could release toxins at will from all of it and cause burns to his opponent.

So, the fighting sticks were the better choice for Geno to keep his distance from him and strike him. In less than 3 minutes the salamander monster was on the floor, his fighting stick a few feet away and Geno was pressing the one tip of his fighting stick at his throat.

10 seconds later he was announced the winner of the round. Just as he left the circle, Ramirez returned up to the deck with his casual grumpy expression and stayed to keep watching the battles as if nothing had happened. As it seemed he had treated his wounds by himself.

The next duel was between a cheetah and pygmy elephant monster, with spears. The cheetah was lucky to pick the weapon. He was more skilled with the spear unlike the elephant who was trying to strike hard but couldn't do so fast at all. Despite the first left on the other aggressive hits, when he was announced winner, he shook hands with the elephant and hugged.

As Geno had seen, these 2 were good pals and as he heard, they were to be sold as slaves, taken violently from their homelands. The ship that Dumaku, the cheetah, was in with other monsters and even black humans all from Africa, was raided by Destino Oscuro.

Captain Nightmare didn't want all the slaves and when he came in contact with Reaper they made deal and exchanged. Dumaku ended up getting picked amongst 70 other of the monster slaves and just 30 human ones by Reaper and given the choice to become part of the crew or sell them.

"There was no wrong answer, or a worse choice. Captain had told us he had contacts with some decent slave dealers who wouldn't make us live and wait in terrible conditions and we would be sold at a good price for non heavy, exhausting or tiring jobs. Most of the other monsters and all human slaves I was with chose that in hopes that they could find conditions even slightly better than the ones they had before our kidnappers' ship get raided. At the end that wasn't a lie. I witnessed and saw a few fellow monsters being in nice positions and doing interesting jobs. They seemed rather happy to any pirate island us the Reapers would stop by, at worst satisfied, all thanks to being send to actually decent slave dealers as Captain had assured them."

"Why didn't you choose the same? Were you the only one?" Geno had asked Dumaku.

"Me and 5 others decided to become pirates, to follow Captain Reaper. Personally, despite the danger, I'd rather die with the thrill of raids and adventures than chill on an island. It's in my blood to not be able rest for long."

Gajaah was coming from Malaysia and amongst 4 other fellow pygmy elephant monsters was taken to be sold for decoration purposes. Literally just that.

Their kind of Animalistic monsters was rare and many would shower the sellers in gold to see or have in their possession such beasts, as indication of wealth and power. The destination would have been actually in Lisbon if Captain Reaper hadn't interfered and raided the ship the monster elephants were in.

However when they had taken care of the sailors and soldiers and went to search for the goods, it didn't take long for the pirates to stumble upon a really sad icon. 4 large piles of dust were laying on the floor of one of the ship's cells.

Gajaah was weeping and mourning above said piles, only him strong enough to last longer than the others in hunger and thirst, but close to his limits too. He didn't care for the appearance of the pirates, whatever they were to do to him was less important than his dead fellows.

First and better Dumaku stepped closer to him, offered him water and with Ramirez' help managed to communicate with him and inspire him to not stay out of action, pick himself up and live to fight the filthy human kind, who had caused him so much pain and grief. To that Gajaah suddenly raised head.

He looked at the opening of the cell he was in and his eyes were filled with anger as he trumpeted loudly. He had asked if there were survivors. When he heard they had tied up a few human sailors and soldiers to sell later, as if he wasn't malnourished and exhausted anymore, he stood up and walked out of the cell by himself.

With Captain Reaper's command, the pirates allowed him to exit, as if he had understood first what Gajaah was going to do. When the elephant monster saw the humans staring at him in fear and agony, he trumpeted again angrily, walked up to them, pushed them to fall on their backs and started stepping on their heads, turning them into sauce.

He left no human alive, just their headless bodies laying around. And despite the first decision was for them to be sold, the Captain had allowed him to release the anger and frustration on them, signing everyone to not stop him.

Once Gajaah was done, he snatched the water from Dumaku's paws, drank it in one go, thanked him and then fell prone collapsing, but not dusting. A few hours later with the care given to him he got revived from his slumber and was asked by Reaper if he wanted to join his crew.

He had just nodded angrily. He was absolutely chill and friendly with his monster crewmates, even Markus and Michael, but the moment he was hearing they were going for attack towards other humans he was always ready to throw hands.

~

Michael had been picked to fight against a wild hog monster, actually one of the few others who had accepted to join the crew at the same time with Dumaku. The human was at disadvantage, as he had to fight physically and not with weapons or magic.

He was a thin boi against a thick-skinned monster who would feel most hits coming from the human like tickles. And yet Michael did manage to beat him by tiring him out and with a strong kick cause him to fall on the floor prone and pin his arm behind his back.

"F*CK YEAAAH! THAT'S MY COUSIN!" Dave roared triumphantly as he raised his fist in the air. Geno secretly snorted. But soon his attention turned again to the game as Adrian was announcing the last 2 names.

Aldo

Alter

The 2 monsters walked in the circle and the beaver was asked to pick the fighting style. Aldo looked at all the weapons present carefully. But not long after he shook his head left and right. He approached Adrian and whispered something to him. Then… he walked out of the circle.

"Hey! Where is he going?!" Was the common question amongst the pirates. Adrian said that Aldo would be back in a minute and that… he would bring something else with him. Alter seemed rather confused as he waited patiently for his opponent to return. 2 minutes later the cook was finally back. And he was holding-…

No way.

Geno recognised these different length canes the cook was holding. He entered the circle. By the second the pirates' whispers would grow more and more in numbers as they stared at Aldo with wide open eyes. Especially Alter, he was almost shaking, rather from surprise. He blinked fast a few times.

"Sei un…" He didn't complete his sentence. He just stayed there, still staring at Aldo.

Who bended and gently threw ahead the longer of the 2 canes he was holding. Said cane stopped in front of the tall skeleton's feet. Alter took a step back, looking now alternatively (eeei) at the weapon and Aldo. The beaver ignoring Alter's surprise looked up to him smiling confidently.

"No magic. You and me. Diamo loro una battaglia nel modo e nello stile che conosciamo meglio." He swung his cane in his hands then hit the tip of it loudly on the floor. "Lo facciamo Astera?" He asked at the end.

"Somebody is f*cking with our heads. Aldo too?!" A pirate said loudly. Everyone watched and waited to see how would this unfold.

Even Ramirez seemed interested to see how this would go. A few seconds later, Alter finally snapped out of his surprise. A smile crept on his face. Then he chuckled. The left palm of his hand faced the cane in front of him, which flew up. He hit the one tip of the cane on the floor, just like Aldo had done with his and his smile grew bigger.

"Heh. Duello accettato Stellar."

The 2 took battle stances.

"Fight!"

This was going to be interesting.

3100 words. until the next chapter sweet exotic bebehs! happy april. *pat pet x1.000.000*