****(POV)

Amidst the cheers of the crowd, the commentator started talking.

He announced loudly with enthusiasm that the upcoming fight would be a 3-way free for all.

That only one of us would come out alive.

How pointless, to organize this.

They should have just organized a simple duel.

I and my brother would obviously gang up on the third party.

Cooperating.

Were they expecting a reversal where he backstabbed me?

That only showed how little they understood about him.

Or me for that matter.

There would be no fight.

Not between us.

We would talk it out as usual.

To be fair at this moment I still didn't know what I was going to choose.

Life or death.

I truly wanted it all to end.

But at the same time, I did promise.

Still, this planning was obviously dumb.

Akin to beating a dead dog.

Extremely pointless.

It made me chuckle realizing once again how stupid our captors were.

They had power and that was it.

A whole organization of men that were mentally ill.

And yet the world chose to ignore them.

The world just left them alone.

The world just left us alone.

This sick world.

How ridiculous.

As usual, the guy kept screaming about how amazing the fight would be.

Something about turning old friends against each other.

They all loved that stuff.

Betrayals.

And yet they worried about when a dagger will find their own backs.

Bunch of hypocrites.

Living for the drama.

Feeding of the despair of other living beings.

Filling their empty fucking lives with our suffering.

I heard some of the words even without paying much attention.

Apparently, they spent a lot of effort on this fight.

Effort? Do these guys even know the meaning of that word?

All the sweat, the blood, and the tears were shed by the people inside the arenas.

Well as far as these bastards were concerned, we weren't people.

The weak and the poor underserving to survive.

Yet I used to be richer than most of their customers.

Arbitrarily setting rules to go by that they didn't even respect.

Please, how laughable.

No matter how you came from.

No matter who you used to be.

No matter the people you knew.

A slave would end up dying here.

Fatality guaranteed for sure.

They did not care.

I did have the feeling that one day that would bite them in the ass.

When you treat everyone like livestock you are bound to offend.

This is the only thought that kept me going, to be honest.

Knowing that these guys were pure trash.

It was just a matter of time until they pissed of someone they shouldn't.

My dream was that some passerby would clean the trash on a whim.

Rid the world of them.

I looked at my brother.

He gave me a helpless shrug.

Then a slight smile.

Honestly, I feel like we had the same thought at that time.

Wow, we surprisingly survived a long time.

In this hell where people dropped like flies.

In this hell, was struggling even worth it?

We understood each other.

At first, there was despair.

Then there was denial.

After came defiance.

All until the death of my dog.

Then came anguish and sorrow.

Now I finally understood the final step.

This journey would end with resignation.

Understanding that all that effort was for naught.

Surprisingly a part of me felt relieved.

Almost laughing at the absurdity of it.

A cosmic farce.

My paltry, meager, negligible life was meaningless.

Born only to suffer and entertain others with my struggles.

Today would probably be the day of my death.

Then the commentator gave a signal.

Then came something I didn't expect.

Shattering this false sense of serenity of mine.

Turned out that they weren't beating a dead dog.

No, instead they were raising a dog from the dead.

In front of us appeared a zombie dog.

What used to be MY dog.

The clear and loving eyes empty.

The soft fur rotting.

The mouth drooling endlessly.

Blood flowing out of many holes.

The smell of death filling the arena.

A dark aura overflowing.

I fell.

My knees were weak.

My spirit collapsing.

There would be no relief.

Not even in death.

Not even in fucking death.

An abomination.

One even stronger than the original one.

A rank 3 one.

Way stronger than any of us.

Thirsting for the flesh of the living.

For this fight we had weapons.

Useless piece of junks.

As useless as I felt.

I couldn't protect him in life.

I couldn't protect him in death.

I would lose my brother too.

I would lose everything.

I would lose everything I ever loved.

I would lose myself.

All in such a twisted way.

I kept looking at the lifeless moving husk.

Remembering the past.

All the amazing memories.

All the struggles we shared.

All of it clashing with the horrible reality.

Unable to move, I just watched.

Watched the gaping rotting maw approach my head.

Then I closed my eyes.

Simply waiting for the end.

I waited and waited.

They say time slows down right before the end.

Was this it?

But I already faced death many times.

Why was this time different?

I slowly opened my eyes.

It took me a while to understand.

The situation too unexpected.

We were going to die.

Two powerless brothers.

Me the barely rank 2 one.

My brother was even weaker.

Or that is how it was supposed to be.

Yet he easily cleaved the creature.

All during the little time I had my eyes closed.

Was it a miracle?

Obviously not.

I could see him composed.

He expected such an outcome.

The brother that was weaker.

That kept getting injured all the while.

Turned out to be hiding his power all along.

So much for someone that called himself dumb.

Seems he was always the schemer.

This was great news.

I smiled at him.

Brightly.

Told him to avenge me.

For real this time.

He looked at me.

Then he shook his head.

He smiled and told me something I would never forget.

"Without you, I would have remained a dead man forever.

You see I have many qualities. However, living seriously isn't one of them.

I get depressed too easily. My will isn't as strong as yours you see.

Take care little brother, live well."

That's when he impaled his heart with his sword.

As I kept silently screaming, his body grew cold.

Thus, ended the second event….