18. Wrestle Kingdom
18. Wrestle Kingdom
The Wolf took the emcee's place.
His face appeared on the screen.
"The second participant is me. Is my explanation really necessary?"
Before his words even ended, the audience's voting began.
The Wolf was assigned slot number 2—King Lion's first opponent.
He checked the voting results and pulled the corners of his mouth up in satisfaction.
"Good. That's how it should be."
He scraped his left prosthetic arm with the claws of his right hand.
In the midst of the metallic scraping sound, his muttering caught the microphone.
"An old wound is throbbing..."
Heh heh.
He let out a low laugh and displayed the next combatants on the screen.
"Arandolph... that whelp, is it. You've managed to stay alive, I see. You'll make good prey."
"Red Brawler. A violent barbarian warrior... how laughable. The killing intent in your eyes has dimmed, and you call that violence? I'll have to teach you all over again."
"Nick Cade, Nick Cade. Did you think that simply changing your name would let you escape the price of betraying me? There's no such thing. No such thing at all. I'm waiting for you, Jackal."
Unlike the middle-aged gentleman's, his emceeing was arrogant, frivolous, and rude.
Rather than listing and hyping his opponents' specs, his words cut them down and condemned them.
Yet the audience went wild for his hosting.
Big Evil Wolf.
He was the foundational villain of all foundational villains who had co-founded the Wrestling Association alongside King Lion, so people accepted him tearing down the other wrestlers.
That was his character from the start, the character he was supposed to be.
Before long, the match-ups for all the wrestlers up to #32 were decided.
Wolf descended from the ring and headed for the audience seats.
Then he handed the microphone he was holding to Nikolai, who was sitting in the VIP section.
"Huh? Why are you giving this to me?"
"I have to fight King now. Someone has to handle the hosting, don't they."
"That... I'm a spectator..."
"Are you gonna do it or not? Just answer that."
His eyes flared with blood-red light as he let out a low growl.
Nikolai, having audibly gulped loud enough for the mic to pick it up, answered in a trembling voice.
His trembling voice sounded frightened, but Celestia and Ailey, seated beside him, could see the flush spreading across his face.
"I'll... I'll do it."
"Good."
Smiling with satisfaction, Wolf hoisted Nikolai onto his shoulders, then set him on the commentators' table.
Then, bringing his hand to his own teeth —
Snap!
He pulled out one of his molars, wrapped it in cloth, and pressed it into Nikolai's hand.
"Do well, whelp."
This was why Wolf was so popular.
A guy with a rough mouth and violent actions, but when it came to fan service, he was absolutely reliable.
It was because he was a figure who faithfully stuck to the principle that a wrestler must only maintain their persona inside the ring.
Amid cheers laced with envy from the crowd, Nikolai read the script handed to him by the commentators and opened his mouth for the first time.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to the arena."
"Louder."
"Today's opening match is a blockbuster made possible by your support! For the first time in four years, a legendary battle will unfold here!! First, the blue corner!! The rightful ruler of Wrestle Kingdom! The King of Beasts! King—Lion!!!"
Boom-boom-bang!
Fireworks erupted from the blue corner as a lion beastkin appeared.
Draped in a luxurious silk cloak fit for a king, he strode toward the ring.
"How many reigns has King Lion been on now?"
"He reigned from Seasons 1 through 3, then wandered from the coup in Season 4 until Season 6. From Season 8 onward..."
For those visiting the arena for the first time, or for the viewers tuning into the broadcast for the first time, the commentators naturally recited King Lion's record.
Amid the enumeration of his accomplishments, King slowly removed his cloak and tossed it to his servant.
With a resounding lion's roar, he climbed into the ring and seized the microphone.
"We shall not surrender our kingdom to that wicked demon returned from hell. Rest easy, my subjects. I shall protect the peace of Wrestle Kingdom."
"Can the peace of Wrestle Kingdom truly be preserved? Or will a dictator once again rule the kingdom?"
"The red corner! Architect of the legendary Season 4 coup! Master of the Hundred Days of Nightmare! He whose name must not be spoken! The returned dictator of Wrestle Kingdom! Big—Evil—Wolf!!!"
With a thunderous howl, Wolf leaped high into the air.
Then he landed on all fours atop the ring post and looked down upon King.
It was King who spoke first.
"You have returned after all, my brother."
"I have returned from hell to hunt you."
While the war of nerves between the two played out, it was now Wolf's accomplishments that were listed off.
"In the end, the ghost of the past has clawed his way back."
"Indeed. He must be a painful subject for King. He helped found Wrestle Kingdom and was once a loyal retainer who vowed to live in the shadows for the kingdom. In the end, darkness consumed him and transformed him into that. Truly tragic."
"Still, you have to acknowledge his tenacity. He was imprisoned in purgatory, yet he's somehow clawed his way back alive."
The two beasts snarled at each other.
As they slowly circled the ring, staring each other down, the referee stood trembling at the center as if frozen in fear.
With the referee in a state of panic and unable to ring the bell, Wolf, seemingly impatient, reached out to seize the referee by the throat.
"Lay not your hand upon my subject."
But before that hand could touch the throat, King snatched it.
Wolf, staring down at his captured hand, was expressionless, which made him all the more chilling.
Then he raised his head to face King, and with a sinister smile, whispered.
"Long live the king."
It sounded like a wish for the king's health, but upon hearing it, King's expression rapidly hardened.
In truth, it was the tribute given to the new king when the old king had died.
Before the words had even finished, Wolf's elbow smashed into King's jaw.
As King released Wolf's hand and staggered backward, the hunter did not miss the opening.
He charged straight in and drove another merciless knee into the same spot.
But King did not simply take the hit.
He absorbed the knee kick, and in exchange, he seized Wolf while he was airborne and flipped him upside down.
In that position, he soared high into the air, spun, and drove Wolf's head into the ground.
"Screw Piledriver!! It connected perfectly!"
Nikolai's voice, having somehow grown accustomed to commentary, echoed through the arena.
Whether he had put his full sincerity into driving Wolf down, an enormous crack split across the ring floor.
Wolf remained head-planted into the ground as if his body had gone rigid.
But that was the audience's misconception.
The legs of Wolf, who had been planted upside down, suddenly snatched King's head, and before he could even react, drove his head into the floor.
The impact was so fierce that the arena shook and the crack widened further.
"A Head Scissors Whip! To execute such a perfect move even from that position—Wolf never disappoints!"
The two rose from the ground at the same time, as if by unspoken agreement, and resumed their standoff.
Ptoo—
Wolf spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Let's leave the greetings at that. Come at me seriously from now on. Otherwise, I'll bite your throat out."
As Wolf's words ended, King's mane began to glow brighter and brighter.
When his mane had turned a brilliant gold, he opened his mouth.
"Very well. Let us settle this."
King vanished.
In an instant, King appeared before Wolf's eyes, and his lariat exploded against Wolf's face.
"It's out! Regulus Mode! King has three minutes left now! For three minutes, all of King's combat power doubles, but the moment the mode ends, his power is halved — a double-edged sword! Will he be able to take down Wolf within the time limit!"
Wolf did not simply take the hit either.
Right before the attack landed, he went completely limp and spun through the air. In that state, he seized one of King's arms and locked in a Flying Armbar just like that.
But techniques only mean anything between opponents of similar weight classes.
Against King, whose combat power had doubled, Wolf's techniques had no effect.
King simply lifted Wolf, who was clinging to his arm, and slammed him straight into the ground.
"Grand Slam!!"
He lifted Wolf, once again stunned from the impact, and delivered a second slam.
Once Wolf was completely incapacitated, King hoisted him onto his shoulder and flashed the sign of victory to the crowd.
Amid the roar of cheers, Wolf's body was hurled into the sky.
King caught Wolf, flying helplessly through the air, and drove him into the ground once more — and the ring, unable to withstand the shock, finally split in two.
From the ring's wreckage, cement dust swirling in the air, a lion beastman with a mane grown dull and brittle emerged alone.
The referee, bringing a doctor with him, entered the debris and checked on Wolf's condition.
The doctor took Wolf's pulse, confirmed his state, and nodded to the referee.
"Cardiac arrest."
"Winner! King—Lion."
He looked exhausted, but his face was still bright.
King struck a pose before the audience and savored his victory.
Crunch.
Boom.
At that moment, with the sound of bones snapping, two human corpses came flying at King.
Even in that brief instant, King recognized that the bodies belonged to the referee and the doctor, and he carefully caught them.
But as a result, both of his arms were now full.
Thwack—
Wolf, who had appeared right in front of King in an instant, drove a kick into his solar plexus.
Wolf looked down at King, who had dropped to his knees from the pain.
"Two minutes and fifty-five seconds. How far you have fallen, King. The once-great Regulus cannot even last three minutes, and that keen nose can no longer distinguish the scent of death. Did preaching peace and hypocrisy make you weak, or did arrogance make you neglect your training?"
"The heart... clearly stopped..."
"Ah, did you think I couldn't use Storm Rat's specialty? That stings. To think you've already forgotten who it was that taught the wrestlers when we built Wrestle Kingdom from the ground up."
Wolf lifted King.
Then he returned the very technique King had used to drive him into the ground.
Boom
With one slam, the arena floor cracked.
Boom
With the second slam, the floor split open.
Crash
On the third, he hurled King upward, caught him in midair, and drove him down — and the arena floor collapsed.
Beneath the collapsed floor, a new ring lay waiting.
Kicking the fallen King, Wolf spoke.
"You wouldn't know. The bloodbaths I've fought through beneath here... just to claw my way back from hell."
As if to prove those words, piles of bones surrounded the underground ring.
Wolf approached the fallen King and began trampling him without mercy.
Then King used his wits, grabbed Wolf's ankle, and rolled his body to trip him.
And he folded that leg into a figure-four shape and locked in the hold.
Since no wrestler had ever escaped this figure-four leglock, the people once again grew certain of King's victory.
But Wolf was laughing even amidst the pain of his leg being bent.
"You fool. You made my name taboo, so you've forgotten even my power."
Wolf's prosthetic arm glowed red.
Sizzle.
Along with the sound of searing flesh, King writhed in agony and released the lock.
"Isn't that a foul!?"
Celestia, who had become absorbed in the wrestling before she knew it, denounced Wolf.
But there was no referee here to stop him.
"Ahh. Wolf's foul-dealing prosthetic arm has activated. But no one can stop him!"
"He is cunning. That's why he always made sure to dispose of the referee before using that arm!"
Even if a referee had still been present, Wolf wouldn't have been disqualified.
A flaming prosthetic arm was simply too damn cool.
Anyway, it wasn't for nothing that the announcers and referees feared him.
A villain who would gladly kill anyone—not just wrestlers—to win.
A wolf who employed every technique and every means, then ultimately tore his opponent apart with inexhaustible stamina.
That was Wolf.
"No sooner do those words end than Wolf removes the chain from his waist! It seems he intends to use THAT!"
He unwrapped the chain from his waist, coiled it around King's waist, and welded the chain with the heat of his prosthetic arm so it couldn't be removed.
Then he anchored other chains to the floor in four directions, restraining King in the very center of the ring.
As Wolf walked to the edge of the ring and leaned against the ropes, black smoke rose from the skulls piled around, and the arena lights focused on King at the center of the ring.
"Ahh! At last, it begins—the 'Hunting Night'!"
Black-clad figures who had appeared from somewhere rang a bell.
At this signal, the band played Wolf's signature music, and a full moon created by illusions rose above the arena.
Awooooo!!
Within the darkness where nothing could be seen, Wolf's blood-red eyes and his glowing-red prosthetic leg and arm moved.
A lariat that instantly struck using the rebound of the ropes.
King's body bent backward, but the chains that held him refused to let him fall.
Wolf didn't stop. He reached the opposite ropes and once again used the rebound to rush King.
Under the consecutive tackles, King dropped to his knees.
Elbow, uppercut, knee kick.
The people could only see Wolf in the moments he burst into the light where King stood; when Wolf hid his body back in the darkness, they could only perceive him by that crimson glow.
Red footprints dotted the path he took, and those dots gathered to draw lines.
The lines gathered to form irregular shapes, and soon, tangled like a skein of thread, they created a perfect sphere. Beneath the arena, a blazing moon was formed.
When the crimson-burning moon was complete, the wolf climbed atop the ring post.
Using the flames rising from below him as a light, a chilling grin was etched across his face.
He leaped straight into the dim darkness and launched a dropkick onto King's head.
"Wolf launches a dropkick! But King anticipated it and catches his leg!"
"He knew Wolf always finished after creating the full moon with a dropkick."
King smiled with confidence.
And Wolf smiled the same smile.
With one leg caught, Wolf twisted his body in midair and kicked King in the back of the head.
"Ahh!! Wolf counters with a medulla cut, as if he'd been waiting for this! King has fallen beautifully for the mind game!"
"It seems he's been sharpening the blade of his revenge quite diligently over the past three years. He's now about to unveil a new finisher!"
King's head snapped forward, and he released Wolf.
Wolf immediately righted his stance and, with both hands staggering, struck down upon the staggering King's head.
Wolf slipped an arm beneath King's lowered shoulder, locked his upper body, and began spinning him around.
Clang!
The chains that had anchored King snapped, and King spun around, dangling from Wolf.
"It's the Giant Swing! A flame tornado is building around Wolf!"
Just when the two figures could no longer be seen within the inferno, King Lion was hurled out through the flame storm.
Wolf chased right after him.
In midair, Wolf seized King's face with his superheated prosthetic arm and let out a howl.
Gyaaarrrgh!!
Along with a terrible, scream-laced howl as if tearing into prey, he slammed King to the floor.
Kwaang!
A gigantic pillar of fire shot up, centered on the blazing moon.
"Wolf's new finisher, the Hell Buster!"
"The most powerful and brutal move in Wrestle Kingdom history!"
Wolf's followers, who had somehow procured them by now, donned wolf masks and roared in cheers.
In contrast, the mood among those who had cheered for King was practically a funeral.
Was the dictatorship about to begin again?
The mood grew even heavier when Wolf made his victory declaration with a self-assured expression.
At that moment, King's mane shone once more from within the smoke.
Before the panicked Wolf could even square his stance, King, wreathed in flames in the shape of a lion, seized Wolf by the waist.
The flame lion became King's third hand and bit into Wolf's nape.
Unable to check King while grappling with the lion's fangs, Wolf was dragged high into the sky by him.
King, who had soared beyond the underground and back up to the surface, threw Wolf's body toward the ground in midair.
The lion's flame that King had conjured, still biting Wolf's nape, slammed him all the way back underground.
While a gigantic firestorm swept through the underground as Wolf and the lion crashed into the ground, King pointed his elbow downward in midair.
And as he plunged into the storm in that very posture, an explosion that shook the entire arena erupted.
Just five seconds.
The audience realized the meaning of the five seconds of Regulus Mode King had suddenly risen to display.
The king had regained his prime.
When the smoke cleared, Wolf was nowhere to be seen, and at King's feet only what had once been Wolf's prosthetic arm remained.
"Wrestle Kingdom shall endure forever!!"
Though panting, King raised his arm with his index finger held high, as if signifying number one.
The audience, who had been dumbfounded.
Nikolai, who had even forgotten his commentary from tension.
Celestia, who had become absorbed before she knew it.
All offered boundless praise to the two legends who had shown them the greatest match.
*
"Wow. Today's match was an all-time classic."
"After watching that match, even I understand why humans go wild for professional wrestling."
After the match ended, Nikolai rejoined the party.
The three people lavished unstinting praise on the match they'd seen today.
But their tour was not over yet.
They still had to enjoy the greatest VIP privilege: getting the wrestlers' autographs.
When they headed to the fan-signing booth, King and Wolf, the stars of today's match, were sitting side by side signing for people.
The two, having perhaps recovered quickly despite the fierce battle they'd just waged, were signing for people with perfectly fine appearances.
But a closer look revealed that they had not recovered.
Drenched in sweat and occasionally flinching from muscle pain that surged in waves, they continued their fan service.
Even after the match, their rivalry continued. They bickered, but treated every fan kindly.
- Rather than getting a signature from a villain like that, get it from me. I doubt a bastard like that could even give a proper signature anyway.
- If you get a signature from that weakling hypocrite, you'll become just as weak. If you're a real man, get it from me.
That was what they said, but fans could actually receive both signatures.
Sometimes, when children or the elderly came, Wolf would pull out his chain or one of his fangs to give them, and King would give away his cloak or an ornament.
Children were understandable, but the question naturally arose: why the elderly?
Wolf gave a curt answer to this.
- If the old farts think highly of our show, the business lasts longer, doesn't it?
That's what he said, but no matter what kind of elderly person came, the tsundere wolf always bowed a full ninety degrees, and no one took his words at face value.
Presently, Nikolai's turn for a signature arrived.
King, having recognized Nikolai, gestured with his hand.
"What could it be?"
"My conversation with your friend is finished. I will share the result of that talk in my office, so please go wait there."
King pulled out an access crystal for authorized personnel and handed it to Nikolai.
"Keuheok...!!"
"Are you... alright?"
"I'm fine! I'm absolutely fine! I have to be fine! Yes, I'll go right away and wait!"
With his breathing difficulties—he'd lost count of how many times today—Nikolai headed for the locker room.
Ailey and Celestia chased after him as he bolted.
*
As Nikolai's party waited in the office, it wasn't long before the owner of the room opened the door and entered.
Stripped of his avatar, King was a middle-aged man—without the lush lion's mane he had in the ring, but with lion ears and a thick, mane-like beard.
Nikolai immediately rose from his seat to greet King.
"Good day!! It is an honor to meet you!"
"Sit. I'm the one who invited you, so don't feel pressured. And, this is just how I normally speak, so don't be burdened by that either."
But how could a fan meeting his absolute favorite possibly calm down?
Nikolai reluctantly sat, but still fidgeted restlessly.
Just then, a sound came from outside the office door.
Clank. Clank.
The familiar sound of steel prosthetics walking across the floor approached.
'Could it be Wolf too...?'
Beyond the semi-translucent frosted glass, a familiar silhouette appeared.
The doorknob clicked and turned, and Nikolai stared at the door, his heart a mix of anticipation and trembling.
And the figure revealed as the door opened was...
"Uncle, sorry. I'm a little late—had to get the avatar release processed."
It was Allen, wearing Wolf's prosthetic arm and prosthetic leg.
While everyone in the room except King was sporting question marks above their heads, Allen, having surveyed the room, quickly grasped the situation.
He flashed a meaningful smile and activated the choker-style mic at his neck.
- Awooooooo!!!
Nikolai foamed at the mouth and fainted.