The Earth After Rebirth

"Did that idiot just snort at me, hey!! Dammit!" She was fuming. With Jin ignoring her, it only made matters worse.

"Lil, calm down will you? You know his situation, no matter how much you want to ignore it." Zak told her sagely.

"Oh yeah? If he wants to be understood he can say something!"

Their conversation wasn\'t heard, fortunately for them. The crowd drowned out anything that wasn\'t cheering for the gladiator or the rich brat brave enough to enter the ring.

"No son of mine is a wimp. Come on, go on." The father shouted proudly as his son hesitantly entered the ring.

Although he\'d seen this before, the gladiator wasn\'t exactly allowed to fight with all his strength against other rich people. He was still very nervous going up against a technologically advanced human being, the first of his kind.

Though he wasn\'t allowed to fight with his all he was still required to give them a show. Let a few hits in, make it seem like a real challenge.

He remembered the first time this was sprung upon. He also saw it as a chance to hit them where it hurt, but that didn\'t work well for him. He spent the next days in the hole, with a warning that if he did anything of that sort, his family was at a greater risk.

That\'s also the time he completely give in to them. If his defiance threatened his family\'s wellbeing, it wasn\'t worth it in his eyes.

He stood on the other side, waiting for the boy who walked slowly towards him as if he\'d already soiled his pants. When he realised however they the gladiator was rooted on his spot, he gained a little bit of confidence.

His steps towards him quickened and when he was close enough, he poured his right hook with all of his being. Jin didn\'t even try to get out of the way as it connected with his jaw.

He didn\'t expect for it to pack a punch, he staggered backwards a little. He could taste metal in his mouth, he didn\'t expect the force so he didn\'t clench hard enough.

For some reason that got on his last nerve. He charged the young man, his arms around his face, he spat on the floor before punching him on the nose. He could hear a crack, that satisfied him. But the young man wasn\'t impressed.

"F*ck! My nose, I think its broken! My nose! I\'ll have your head for this." He furiously spat. The pain wasn\'t anything he was used to, so he said all that in-between sobs.

It was hard to take him seriously. The crowd laughed at his miniscule threats. They understood his anger because he grew up sheltered, he never experience such pain.

"Come on now lad, it\'s just a bloodied nose." His father yelled from the stands.

He didn\'t care to impress his father anymore. It was then that he understood how barbaric the thing he loved the most was, it was certainly better when others engaged in fighting and he watched. Participating wasn\'t fun, not at all.

His threats fell on deaf ears, Jin didn\'t stop. He didn\'t give him a second to breathe, his fist met with his eye. The crowd would\'ve went wild if it wasn\'t their own that this thing happened to.

His eye exploded upon impact. The pain was slower to reach him, so instead of screaming his lungs out, he looked around dumbly trying to ensure the darkness that had embraced his senses was temporary. But no matter what he did he could see nothing through his right eye.

The crowd was now silent, they didn\'t know how to react. The killer they had made was actively mutilating someone from the upper district, something he was absolutely forbidden to do.

Like a cub looking for its mother in a forest infested with predators, a shrill that made the ears of all those present itch sounded from the ring. The pain had caught up with the young man.

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"Do something, stop this!" There was no excitement or joy in the father\'s voice any longer. It was replaced with inexplicable fear.

All thise stationed to guard the place were now running towards the ring. Every other prisoner on there were shouting for Jin to finish him off and quickly before he was stopped.

He didn\'t need to take many steps before he reached the young man, he swerved from left to right connecting his punches on both sides of his ribs. The kid could do nothing but cry, he was now coughing up blood.

He cursed his father for convincing him to take part in this charade. He wasn\'t even a decent fighter by Sanctauri standards, he just took up the challenge to impress his father. And of all the times the puppet killer gladiator to go rogue, it was when he decided to show off.

He\'d stopped shielding his body, he\'d stopped trying to dodge. Then he felt a pain shot up through his spine, he tried to turn but he couldn\'t. His legs felt like he was standing on spaghetti, they gave up trying to hold his impossible wait.

His body fell and went limp on the ground. The guards reached Jin, but he didn\'t stop for them. He felt like a different kind of being when they approached him, like he wasn\'t all there.

"Dammit. Hold him down!"

"I can\'t, he\'s too—ahhhhhhhhh." His arm was ripped from its socket.

The others ran out of the ring and locked the gate behind them. They were able to buy enough time to get the young man out of there, as for their colleague, they said a silent prayer for him. As he screamed, each one of his limbs getting ripped from his torso.

"This place is disgusting." Kiro whispered.

They were at the very back of the crowd. Hiro had his eyes wide open, it didn\'t seem like he was breathing either. Tears trickled down his face.

"That\'s my dad." He said softly.