A few moments later, Melkor and War walked outside to the H.D.A's training grounds, and they each stood at one end of the fighting ring and started to stare each other down like two starving jackals about to maul each other for some food. The makeshift fighting ring was filled with dried blood and stank to all heavens, the perfect place for a good old-fashioned smackdown.

The two of them had, of course, donned some heavy, padded sparring armor, and would only be using wooden weapons for this fight, to avoid any potential heavy injuries. It was rare to see the arena this empty but it was a Thursday, which is a rest day for most of the minotaurs, had to do something with religion but Melkor didn't really seem to care all that much, the minotaur customs were quite strange to him after all. The human thought that the outfits looked ridiculous but didn't complain, knowing that fighting without these might end with them in the hospital ward again, and nobody wanted that.
The sun was glaring down mercilessly today and Mel already had built up a little sweat from standing outside in that heavy armor, War on the other hand was fine and already doing some stretches to get himself into fighting shape.

The human followed suit, and though it was a nightmare to stretch in these clothes, he knew he should try stretching more often if he is going to go through with this lifestyle.
Back on earth he always used to suck at P.E and would always get an A for effort but a D for execution. But the week in this environment and the total lack of fatty foods, not counting the time he didn't eat anything, made him a little more fit. Not to mention that his body had also changed since he got here, with him now being more slender and longer than before. He didn't sport any abs jet, or any significant muscles in general, but the requirements for both were certainly there now.

"So, big guy, are you ready for a beat down?" A very hyped-up raging war shouted to his opponent. He was jumping from side to side, while also having a few practice swings with the giant wooden club he chose for a weapon. It was a sight to behold honestly, this mountain of muscle and black fur, clad in heavy training armor and holding an oversized weapon in one hand could be something straight out of a video game.

"You're the one that's going to get beat down, SUKKA!" Melkor now also began hyping himself up, jumping up and down a few times, and swinging his wooden sword around as he'd seen in all of the star wars movies. He began taking a stance that pointed his sword straight towards the minotaur, while also bending his right knee and extending his left leg forward.
Melkor was pretty calm this time, he had fought Raging War before and knew that he was slow but hit like a truck, so he just had to be swift and hit him in his weak spots. Being agile in these clothes would prove to be a rather hard thing, but War had the same problem to work with so it pretty much evened out.

"And remember, do not use your lightning! You can use that thing where you get angry if you want, makes it more fun for me!" The bull reminded him. Boasting as if he would win this battle if Melkor didn't rely on his magic. And he took that personally.

"Pfff, eat my ass you shit-talking cow! I don't even need magic to drive you into the ground!" Melkor proclaimed jokingly, but also very vigorous. If you looked very closely, you could see a small flame flickering in his hazel eyes.
The minotaur now grabbed his club tighter than before, and his trademark creepy smile slid onto his face again.

'Man this dude has a weird thing going on with fighting, next thing I know is that he's gonna be rocking a full hard-on every time he fights.' Melkor shuddered at the thought, fighting was cool, yeah and it gave him a thrill as well, but the way War viewed it made him just a tiny bit concerned.

Without much time to think about it, War suddenly charged forward, breaking into a dead sprint and coming straight towards him. Suddenly Melkor lost that easiness he had before, the guy was faster than before and if that club did hit him, it would be a very short match. He braced himself and readied himself to strike or dodge, whichever was more appropriate
His sight became focused on his sparring partner.

War came closer and closer, Melkor barely had time to react, as the black minotaur swung his massive club at him from above, creating a loud noise as it pushed through the air. He sidestepped ever so slightly to the left and barely managed to dodge the club, which now hit the ground at full speed and collided with a loud thud, kicking up dust around the area of impact.

'He wasn't this fast last time' Melkor thought and swallowed hard before having to dodge another strike coming from his right, this one just as fast and strong as the first one. Jumping back, the human felt a breeze as the club swung past him.
His comrade had a look of pleasure on his face as he continued the onslaught, but never once did he seem unfocused or like he didn't put thought behind every movement.

'So this is what he is like when he gets serious, I need to be careful.' Before he finished his thought a swipe from below almost made him lose balance, and he had to catch his feet. The minotaurs gaze never left him, and he quickly rushed toward Melkor again, seemingly getting faster and faster.
The next swing came from Melkor's left, and the human ducked down quicker than he ever had to before, watching as the wild strike went above his head. Now was the time to move, so he used his momentum and stepped forward before rising from his lowered position and thrusting at War's head.

The minotaur saw it coming though and tilted his head to the side, avoiding the attack and bashing the wooden blade away from him with his other hand.
Melkor stumbled backward and breathed out heavily, this was going to be harder than he thought. This time, it was him that charged, always keeping an eye out for that oversized weapon.
He barely dodged another wild swing and slashed at the minotaur's chest this time. The blade hit with a small smack, but he was met with a lot of resistance because of the heavy armor.

"You call that a strike?" War asked in a mocking tone, and cocked an eyebrow, "Maybe you wanna use that magic after all." He smirked before bringing his fist towards Melkor, catching him by surprise and hitting him in the face, sending him flying backward in the process. He hit the ground hard, and his face was in a lot of pain, the saying of seeing stars when being hit very hard was very much true as the human found out.

He had no time to wail though, as the minotaur quickly followed up with another attack coming from above. Melkor's eyes went wide at the image, his instincts took over and he rolled to the side, again, narrowly avoiding the club. He tasted iron in his mouth, it seems that punch had caused him to bleed a bit. He took the opportunity of his opponent missing to quickly stand up.

"No way am I gonna use magic, it wouldn't be fun that way." He said that, but his sentence was also interrupted by a lot of short and exhausted breaths. He took on the same stance as before and wiped the blood from his mouth.

War smiled and attacked him again, this time Melkor didn't dodge but he used the lighter weight and quickness of his weapon to strike the arm which the club was held in, causing the minotaur to stop his attack and rebalance. He used this and quickly followed with another swing, this time going for the back of the knee, which was mostly unprotected.
The wooden sword cut through the air and hit its target with as much force as he could bring up.
The impact wasn't as strong as he would have liked but it was enough to throw war off balance for a bit and force him on one knee.

Melkor now smirked as he saw his chance, War swung his weapon again, but without the support from his legs, the swing was much slower, giving our hero enough time to kick at his arm and stop the attack again. The minotaur almost fell and needed to rebalance again, but Melkor didn't give him the time to recover. The wooden sword now aimed for the head and connected with another smack, the impact this time could not be denied as you could hear a slight crack underneath the protective helmet.

Melkor quickly jumped back, not wanting to risk getting too greedy. He was also very exhausted, breathing heavily and fast, sweat running down his face and into his eye. The burning feeling inside his mouth became stronger, and his body grew heavy.

'Fuck this piece of shit armor, I hate it. I hate the SUN.'

As his opponent got up again, he noticed that there were a few minotaurs standing on the balconies of the building, watching and drinking all sorts of alcoholic beverages before noon.
'Seems like watching duels is a pass time here, figures. What do I expect from barbarians who eat sprouts'

His focus quickly returned to War, however, as he did not even need a full second to get back on his feet. The bull now grinned even wider, and in his eyes, there was a faint glow. Melkor didn't know how long he could do this anymore, he tried to read his opponent to see what he will do next, what he didn't expect, however, was for his opponent to throw his club at him.

Melkor didn't have time to dodge so he tried to block it off with his sword as best as he possibly could, there was a loud clank as the club hit his relatively small sword. The defense did not hold up well, as the impact still reached his chest, knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to take a few steps back. Before even processing what had just happened, a blunt impact hit his stomach area. He never saw War sprinting towards him as his eyes were on the club, so he had no time to react to the punch that was now sending him flying backward again.

He gained quite the amount of airtime, as War finished his uppercut. The human landed hard on his back, leaving him lying in the dust, snapping for air.

The small crowd that had gathered now began to cheer and drink more violently, as this match seemed to be over.
The minotaur clad in armor looked down and his heavy breathing friend, perhaps he had overdone it, after all the lad barely had any muscles on him.

'Fuck this hurts, I'm gonna throw up. No, don't, keep it in. What the hell happened? I didn't see a thing'
His vision was blurred and his hearing was like being underwater, this clearly left a number on him.

'This asshole, did he have to go that far? Fuck him, fuck this shit! I need to get stronger, I need to fight!' His mind started to race again, this time with violent and furious thoughts. Time seemed to slow down as his thought process became faster.
Pain, embarrassment, humiliation, and weakness were things that ran through his head at the time. He couldn't focus on one thought as they all shot through his head and took turns being dominant. They had one thing in common though, they fueled his anger, seeping into his brain and unconsciously activating the seal that lay dormant in his body. It starts with a tingling in the head, then it goes through his limbs, the sensation getting more intense by the second, it felt weird but good.

The more he thought, the angrier he became, soon his blood started to boil and his breath became hot. His skin again took on the red hue and steam soon started to rise as the fury magic covered his whole body.
He began to twitch, as jolts of electricity shot through his body, making him assume weird poses on the ground before they clear his thoughts and he regains his focus. He was in control now, this happened before, this was nothing new, but every time felt so alien to him.

He rose to his feet slowly, his head hanging low until his body was upwards. With a quick motion, he now stared at War again, who had picked dusted himself off and picked up his club by now. It was an intense stare, one that would have little children scream for their mom. War returned with a stare of his own that he directed at the human, his eyes sparkling with joy. A feeling of excitement washed over him as he sensed the new threat of an angry Melkor.
He hadn't seen this sort of magic before, and would most likely frighten him if he wasn't so damn excited to throw hands with the human.

"Looks like you finally realized you won't come far without your rage." The minotaur gave a hearty laugh and smiled at his now literally fuming friend.

"Shut up." Melkor didn't say much, he didn't need to. His actions would talk louder than any words he could possibly think of.
The crowd had grown quite silent, you could cut the tension with a knife so to speak. If there was popcorn around here, I'm pretty sure it would be eaten by these guys by now.
The human leaped forward, creating a small shockwave and a large foot imprint on the ground that he launched from.
He was fast, much faster than before but that was a given in his current state.

War prepared to swing his club as Melkor flew straight at him with a cocked back arm.
He swang the mighty wooden tool with as much force as he could muster, reaching a speed that could barely be seen by the naked eye.

The human swung his fist equally fast and the two objects collided with amazing force, creating a loud bang in the action.
Splinters flew through the air, and both Melkor and War had been knocked back from the impact.
War barely managed to catch himself before falling by driving his free hand into the ground. His opponent had been knocked on his back again, but he quickly kicked himself up, before pausing and looking a bit dumbfounded.

"I did not know I could do that-" He said, pretty baffled. It's something he always wanted to do, he would definitely do that again when he had the chance.

BACK TO THE ACTION

Melkor scoffed and frowned at the realization of just how much that armor impended his movement, so he grabbed it in the middle and ripped it apart, and took off the helmet leaving him bare-chested. He took a deep breath and cracked his neck loudly.

"Hey, those are expensive!" Yelled someone from the crowd, breaking the silence.

"Sorry, I'll cover it!" Melkor responded, grimacing as he remembered he was pretty much broke after buying that sword.
He got back into position and started sprinting at his opponent, who had also regained his balance by now.
The minotaur also began sprinting, and they both clashed in the middle, the club was pretty damaged from before, so Melkor's first swing at it broke it in half completely, leaving War without a weapon now. He did not seem to mind though, as he immediately swung his fist at Melkor, hitting him in the chest. The punch had more force than the ones before, and even though he was amped up, hurt the nimble human quite a bit.

"You were still holding back before you bastard." He glared at his friend who was chuckling to himself at the moment.

"Of course, I didn't want this to be over too soon." He gave the biggest shit-eating grin ever to be seen by anyone and went for another punch, this time directed at the face.
His fist was met by that of Melkor, who by now wore a grin of his own.
War and Melkor then engaged in a flurry of blows to one another, their fists often colliding with audible smacks and crunches, seemingly increasing with speed and power as time went on. It was quite a spectacle to those who watched, both were very fast and left almost no opening to the other,

The crowd was now full-on cheering and excited, there were people making bets, and as I foretold it some had brought snacks to nibble on as they watched the two go at it.

A punch of Melkor managed to bypass War's defense and hit him straight in the liver, sending him flying into a part of the arena fence. The large bull smashed through the barricade, but even after that, he managed to pick himself up.
He was hurt badly of course, but it was in situations like this that he felt true happiness and ecstasy so you won't hear him complaining.
Melkor continued to sprint towards him, but War managed to dodge his first punch and countered by using the momentum to grab his arm and throwing him into the ground.

The human gasped as he collided with the hard arena floor, a widespread pain shooting through his back. He hit the ground so hard he even bounced a bit before falling down again. There was dirt in his eyes, and he was beginning to feel tired again, he had to make this quick now. He struggled to get up and looked at his opponent who was clutching the spot where he had hit him before. The guy was obviously hurt and didn't have that much fight in him left either.

He used the last of his strength to run at Raging War one last time, kicking up dust and sand with every step. The bull got into a fighting stance and swung a left hook at his assailant, who took the hit but didn't stop his charge.
Melkor's face exploded in pain as he was hit, but he powered through it, he could do it.
Using the speed he had built up, the charged-up man now plunged his elbow deeply into the abdomen of the Bull, knocking him back and causing him to spit up a bit of blood.
Melkor then prepared to deliver a finishing blow to his now-flying opponent. He jumped up so that he was above the minotaur and twisted his body, creating the right position for a well-placed roundhouse kick.

The kick shot downwards at high speed, hitting War in the chest and knocking him into the ground with impressive speed. There was a loud crack and a huge cloud of dust sprang up as he made contact with the floor. He was very lucky to be wearing that soft padded armor.

Melkor didn't have the time to land gracefully so he fell and hit his shoulder, again knocking the wind out of him. He now realized that he had spent all of his energy and the magic again drained from his body. There was as per usual, a lot of pain, but this was not even comparable to the last incident. He didn't scream but there was a fair share of groans and pained breathing. But all of those noises were drowned out by the crowd having the time of their life and going wild over the match.

The human took quite a while before he could stand up again. Looking at War confirmed that he was still conscious and laughing his ass off like there had been a good joke.

"I gotta tell you, that was amazing Mel!" He groaned once in a while between laughs, but it was clear that he enjoyed this more than the pain hurt him.
He stood up and sat down next to his friend, who was still on the ground and breathing like a dog.

"How.... are..... you still this talkative?" He coughed a few times, and tried to regain his breath, "I just slammed you into da ground, my guy..... you went all boom!" As hurt as he may be, Melkor has still got energy for jokes.

"Oh no I definitely felt that, and I gotta say you pack a mean punch. The armor did help to absorb the impact though...if I didn't have that, things would be worse for me." He then coughed up a bit of blood, which landed on the ground before the human. "Just ignore that. I'll say we call it a draw" he smiled at the human and extended a hand to him.

"No way man, I beat your ass! You ain't got.... nothing on me...." His sentence was followed by a lot of coughing and reeling in pain.
"Alright fine, draw." That got a chuckle out of his friend, who now helped him stand up.

"That's what I wanted to hear! So, how about I treat you to a drink?"

"Sure, that sounds grea-" His sentence was cut off by the sound of a lot of minotaurs going to one knee. Looking up he realized they were all bowing, sure the fight was great but he didn't expect this kind of response from the audience. His thoughts were then interrupted by War following the example and going down to a knee. Melkor was confused, what was happening?
He looked around and saw that a large double door leading into the training grounds had just opened. And something was coming out, something big and lizard-like.

The creature looked almost like a komodo dragon but with yellow color and black spots all over its body. It was also much larger, and by that, I mean really huge, maybe twice the size of a saltwater crocodile. The thing had six legs and horns on its head, Melkor almost would have freaked out if he hadn't remembered that such things were probably common around here.
He just continued to watch in awe as the thing slowly crept towards his and War's position, almost carrying itself with a form of dignity.

As it came close, he noticed a relatively small figure on its back, clothed in fine blue robes and all sorts of medals around the neck. A hood covered their face so he couldn't make out more detailed features.
Melkor felt chilly, the air around him almost seemed to grow colder by the second, he dismissed the thought, thinking that it was just him being nervous, who wouldn't be?
He swallowed hard, why was everyone bowing? Is this a bad thing? Is something bad happening right now?

The lizard stopped to a halt a few meters before him, and the figure climbed off. They were quite small, about the size of a cat person he had met, so they reached his chest area. As they got closer, he noticed that he was not just nervous, the air was indeed getting colder, he no longer felt the sun burn his skin, rather, he felt actually cold.

The figure took off the hood, shedding light on the mystery of who it was that the minotaurs bowed to.
The hood gave way to light grey fur and piercing purple eyes before him stood a delicate female minotaur, smaller than any he had met, but also with an aura that would make someone feel uneasy if they were in the same room as them.
She had a pretty stern look on her face, but in all honesty, Melkor couldn't take her that seriously, she looked like a child compared to the others, he would even go so far as to call her 'cute'.

"Is it not custom to bow before one's superior in Menkaind?" She asked with a certain coolness in her voice, she seemed calm, relaxed almost. Melkor had now finally grasped that this was not a random child but probably an important person around here, so he blushed and mentally slapped himself for being an idiot.
He now bent the knee like his fellow brethren did, looking towards the ground, and trying to hide his shame.

"I am deeply sorry milady, I did not wish to offend you in any way." Nice, he worded that in the most pretentious way possible, if he was not a manchild cracking jokes, he was a bootleg knight.

"Milady?" She then chuckled for a bit. Her voice was actually quite nice and calming, not at all like the gruff and booming voices of his co-workers he had become accustomed to.
"No one has ever addressed me like that. Everyone calls me boss, you will do so too, of course."

'Of couuuurse she is the boss! Sure a noble lady or an aristocrat or something, but the boss of this band of cheese dicks, really?'

Melkor couldn't help but wonder how someone so small and delicate could actually be the leader of a hardened Warband, but he dared not ask, this chick gave him the heebie jeebies.

"Of course boss, I will do as you ask." He kept his head lowered, not daring to look her in the eye. He knew a mistake or one wrong move could end with him being 'human flambee' by the end of today.

"Good, at least you seem to possess a tad of intelligence. Your name was Melkor right?" She lifted his head up with a gloved hand, and then looked straight into his eyes. He didn't manage to croak a word out, as his heart was pumping really fast and for the first time in a long while, he was actually nervous. Instead, he decided to nod.

"What an interesting thing you are...." She almost seemed to trail off, looking deeply into his eyes and looking at the rest of his body. "But that is not the reason I am here, you have received my favor. I trust you know what this means?" She asked smoothly, her voice caressing his ears in an unnatural way. This was all kinds of wrong, this girl gave him all the wrong vibes.

"O-of course boss.." The nervous human managed to croak out, "You will give me a task, and I will complete it." He managed to say his last sentence with a bit more confidence, not sounding like a total fool this time.

She finally let go of his chin and began to smile.

"Good boy, I have the perfect job for you."

'Oh fuck'

Author's Note

My longest chapter yet, and I'm pretty satisfied with it, I have found new inspiration and now actually know where I want to take this story.

I really wanted to do a rematch between Mel and War, without the latter holding back. Let me know what you think in the comments