Battle Royale! Game Complete!

Originally posted on MSPA by Lankie.

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Zeke ran through the barren hallways of the base. Featureless concrete, lit dimly by the starlight seeping through the small windows. Zeke's steps were silent, following the dim heavy thuds of Whit's running, getting ever so louder a Zeke drew closer.

Whit ran into a large warehouse area, gasping for breath. Unlike the other areas, this place was extensively lit, the buzz of the halogen lights piercing the silence. There were lines of strange vehicles, bipedal machines which vaguely matched a human shape. Whit smirked, if he could handle that truck he could handle one of these. He clambered up some ladders, his Godgun clanking on the cold metal and into the cockpit of one of these fearsome suits of armour. The console lit up in front of him, Whit's smile grew broader.

Zeke ran through, into the warehouse. He slowed his pace to look at the huge mechs, its huge arms perfect for heavy lifting. One of them was missing. He slowed his pace once again to a readied walk, his arms up high ready to strike. The tell tale sign of a whirring engine pierced the air, from amongst the still machines one busted through, knocking the lifeless robots like dominos and sending its heavy, metal fist at Zeke.

Or at least where Zeke was, he had back flipped out of danger, leaving only a crater where he was. “Hiding behind more toys I see.” There was no response, only the mechanical clanking of its working mechanisms as it lurched back up. “Such a shame if something were to happen to them.” He sprinted towards the towering bot, swiftly sidestepping to avoid another huge smash into the ground; he clambered onto the bipedal machine, heading for the cockpit.

Zeke was met with a tight constraint round his ribs, the machine had intercepted the ninja and was proceeding to crush Zeke, and he let out a scream of pain. Whit grinned wildly as he began smashing him into the other dormant mechs, finally charging him to the wall the opposite side of the room. There was a crackle from the head of the mech, where Whit's voice came into hearing. “How does it feel? To have your life literally squeezed out of you? By the ‘fool' aye?” Zeke grimaced in pain as his bones cracked and snapped, “I… wouldn't know.”

Before Whit could respond, the head of his suit was smashed by a slow but heavy boulder. Whit's ramming of the wall had made it structurally weak, and a torrent of rubble began pouring onto the machine, Zeke squeezed out of Whit's grasp with a scream of agony, he leaped out of way and left Whit to be buried under concrete, until nothing but the head remained.

Whit clambered out, bruised and bloodied, his face plastered with that of annoyance. Zeke painfully brought his body into action lunging at the now vulnerable Whit. The gambler looked up and with an automatic movement brought his Godgun up and fired, launching Zeke across the room.

When Zeke crashed into the corner he felt a sharp pain in his stomach, he tentatively looked down to he had been impaled by a sharp piece of pipe, straight through his gut. Whit once again smiled proudly, he began walking toward Zeke with a limp, pulling out his pistol in the process. Zeke pulled his broken body of the pipe and collapsed on the floor, his arms trying to prop himself up. “Not now…I can't die now…”, He clumsily got up, only to meet a bullet straight into his chest. Zeke lurched backwards but remained on his feet. Whit shot again and again, emptying an entire clip on him “Why, won't, you, DIE!?”, Zeke dropped to his knees, his cheats pure red with blood and littered with holes. “I…will not yield…I will…not die…not now…not…”

Zeke's life flashed across his eyes. A montage of hate and death besieged his vision, but among it all, among all the people he has killed, the black knight, the Battle Royale…small flashes of his life, where he was genuinely happy. A vision that he had long since forgot. “Zeke.” A female voice inside of his head spoke, a voice he thought he would never hear again. “Let it go.”

“It's time.” Zeke removed his gauntlets and his mask. Dumping them on the floor. “I have lived in death…for too long now.” Light began to seep from Zeke's wounds, an aurora swept across the room. “W-what is this? What are you doing?”
“Whit, you can not kill me, because I am already dead.
But it doesn't matter, I am so tired of this hate, I am tired of all this fighting.”
The light intensified and Zeke began to fade away.

“It is time. To let go.”

And with that. The Ninja faded into nothing. His gauntlets and mask, shone in the blood.

SpoilerShow

Wait, Zeke was dead the entire time?!

Yep, he was basically a kind of undead this entire time. I had always planned to reveal this when he died.
It certainly explains his super resistance to damage, borderline super strength and crap personality.

Why did I hide it? Or even make a passing remark about it?

Thing is, I always wanted Zeke to always emphasise how he is ‘only human' amongst all these powerful opponents, using only his training and no technology/ special gifts. Basically Zeke was living (if you could call it that) a lie, by always mentioning how human he was he could forget that he was dead in the first place.

So what was Zeke exactly?

Not a zombie. More like a vengeful spirit given form, when his village was burned down he wasn't ‘chosen by Alexander to be his apprentice' instead he was killed by him. But Zeke's will and hate was strong, so he came back as an undead. Zeke still feels pain, he had a choice to remove this from himself but he kept it as his own inflicted punishment.

Wait; does that technically make Zeke an invincible character?

...Technically yes. This is part of the reason why I didn't mention it. Basically Zeke can die but only when he finally lets go of all the hate he has. Which he just did by remembering this mystery female character I won't go into detail in.

few… anyway it was a lot of fun, I'm genuinely surprised I got this far, I wish Myifan and Drakenforge the best of luck!

also, yes I am fully aware how similar Zeke is to Auron, now shush. ^^