Lucy's father had just died, and with him being the first loss of life they'd seen in their fight, even Ramona decided to join forces with them. It went as sort of an unspoken agreement, that all would work together.
Raiden bursted towards Arthur, extending his halberd out using the spear tip. It was an attack which Arthur could not so easily evade, and he was stabbed in the arm after he tried to block.
Then, he used tendrils, similar to what Hiein did. He created tendrils from blood absorbed from his cutlass, which wrapped around the halberd and kept it from being pulled back too quickly.
Using that, Arthur lunged forward, as the speed of Raiden's withdraw was reduced a fair amount, he raised his cutlass into the air and swung it down at Raiden's chest downwards, slicing him up.
Raiden had made the attempt to evade, but was unsuccessful, and it led to him being hurt quite badly. Blood leaked from him, but he quickly healed, letting go of his halberd and getting in close, shooting out a straight right at Arthur's nose.
The blow landed, and Arthur immediately felt funny, as his nose hurt in a manner which made his eyes water.
As the attack was a primarily snapping attack, unlike a hook, no such thing of "Arthur was launched back" applied, as the damage was dealt and quickly withdrawn, where pushing was not a central force.
The other three attempted to circle him, but to no avail, as Raiden quickly took his halberd and swung it around to create distance and prevent attacks. Everyone was able to dodge luckily, so he implanted it into the ground and began to work on Arthur, hitting him with a string of combos.
Arthur covered up and healed when he could, at the cost of stamina. Eventually, seeing as it was a fight in which his cutlass wasn't going to be too big of a factor, as his opponent wielded a much better weapon, he decided to use it.
His cutlass shattered to pieces, before rapidly clinging to his body, coating him in literal blood armor.
"Looking good, Dragon!" Raiden sincerely complimented, finding Arthur's new look of crimson red armor to be very lovely.
Arthur lunged forward, to which Raiden backed up, using his halberd as the spear it was, thrusting it at Arthur's body. To his surprise, it was actually quite effective at stopping his halberd, which he found interesting.
Arthur was able to reach him, as Raiden couldn't just keep backing up forever, eventually hitting a wall. Closing the distance, Arthur began to beat on Raiden with his punches.
Though, his body was fairly exhausted already, and he wasn't skilled enough to make good usage of the situation, so his punches missed, as Raiden slipped and ducked most of them.
The ones that did make it through, however, were very strong, since he'd made brass knuckles for his hands.
The others sat back, not wanting to get in the way of Arthur's punches. Arthur was exhausting himself, throwing a series of untrained punches, as he did not throw the only proper punches he'd ever learned.
Eventually, once he stopped to take a second to breathe, Raiden threw an uppercut to the armored jaw, knocking Arthur back some. However, Raiden immediately held his hand and bent down in pain.
"AH! Gosh, I shouldn't have punched armor, I shouldn't have punched armor, yeowch!"
Arthur used that as an opportunity, grabbing Raiden's halberd and swinging it down with intention to kill. Raiden evaded and rushed forward, saying "gotcha~" before wrapping his arms around Arthur's waist from the side, lifting his human bodyweight up before slamming him down onto the ground.
The attack didn't do too much damage, but it was a start to where Raiden ripped his halberd out of Arthur's hands, taking the spear point and jamming it through the eyes of Arthur's armor.
Arthur managed to turn his head at an angle to where it didn't hit his brain, but the left side of his left eye was punctured like a dart, taking off the left side of it entirely.
The others immediately sprung into action, which Raiden stopped with a swing from his weapon, allowing Arthur to get up and punch him in the stomach from the side.
As the blow was predominantly a haymaker, pushing force was used with no snap back, so Raiden's human bodyweight was taken off the ground and blown away.
Arthur stood, holding his hand over his armor's left eye, trying to cup his own blood into his palm.
…
It is easy to be happy when your body is well rested.
However, in the event of being exhausted, both as your body begins to get weaker, and it takes a lot of energy just to even breathe properly, it is not very easy to be happy. In fact, it could be considered quite difficult.
…
It was hard to breathe. His muscles were getting sore from the constant drain, and he didn't have enough stamina to heal them without worry of becoming helpless.
This wasn't the first time Arthur had been damaged this badly. Yet, it certainly didn't seem to get any easier.
"It gets better" was such a lie. Such, such a lie.
Because no. Things did not get better magically, and they never would. Feelings would not vanish if events did not take place.
His joints hurt considerably. Steroid use does impact your joints negatively, and it was quite a painful living.
'I'm sinking…'
Truly, Arthur felt as if he was sinking even further and further into despair. Sure, his new look of baldness and ridiculously red face was comical at first, but to Arthur, whose appearance had caused him a lot of despair, adding insult to injury was probably the worst thing possible.
He couldn't see his face, but he was certain he looked terribly gross and rotten as a person.
He saw Rachel, who was standing around, looking over at Raiden. The dragon who had stopped his launch and dug his feet into the ground to withstand it.
'If she saw what was underneath this helmet…'
Once more, the worry sprung into his heart, and he made sure to keep the helmet on. The entire world, existence itself, his own self, all of it was creating pain.
Over and over again, he went through terrible pain. But that isn't enough to save someone. Pain doesn't make you stronger on its own.
The ringing in his ears from the battle against Hiein, the guilt of killing a family, the loss of humanity from fighting the Assas family, the raging fire that assaulted his flesh and body against those who started it, and now here, with his left eye damaged to the point of no longer working, with aching joints, weary muscles and an exhausted state against a very mighty opponent, it was all so painful.
That woman, Rachel. She'd been introduced for just a brief moment, but she was enough to make him fall for her. And that love—or perhaps lust—which he felt for her had cleared his heart enough to make him happy for a brief moment.
In that prison, on that drive—he could forget about things, and simply enjoy her presence.
But as he began to do worse and worse, those feelings returned. He'd been nearly knocked out, he'd been unable to stop Raiden from killing someone, and now, he was most likely going to fail in protecting her sisters as well: the one thing she asked from him.
All of it, all of those moments, all of those experiences; those feelings, this situation, this feeling—it all brought him to the same conclusion.
——Nothing had changed.
He was roleplaying as someone capable. Even though he abused steroids to get to this level of strength, even if he killed many dragons and took all of their blood, it wasn't enough.
From this moment, all the way back to when one of the only people that ever cared for him was killed because he was too weak, nothing had really changed.
The problem was within himself. It was himself. He was the problem.
'I really am the worst.'
So, he silently gave up.
Arthur looked down, stood up and put in his passcode on his phone. He looked at Rachel, who looked back, and went over to her, handing it over.
"What? What are you doing?" She asked with both worry and preparation. If Arthur was going to do something big, then she wanted to be willing to follow along.
"Take that, and leave. My passcode is 3091, put it on a document and run."
She looked at his face, and though the armor prevented it from being seen, the tone in his voice was enough to bring chills down her spine. It gave her the impression of visiting a terminally ill loved one.
"Arthur, what is it you intend on doing…?" She wondered, to which she received no response. His breathing was frequent but quiet, and she took Ramona, beginning to leave before turning to look at him.
While she held no romantic interest towards him, he had saved her from surely dying. Her situation was not like his own, she wouldn't die in a month.
Due to him being there, she was allowed to live the rest of her life, and even now, he was presumably going to risk his life fighting Raiden off to protect her.
He'd given her a shower, some food, and brought her home. Which is why—,
"I can't just leave you so easily. I may not be able to do anything special, but I can try to fight him off while you—"
"Shut up. Seriously, just shut up."
He looked at her through the helmet, and she saw the eyehole in the armor. In that hole, a wide eye was staring at her with streaks of red along it, either from blood or strain.
"Hm. I told you, did I not? Your insolence would be forgiven just once. There would be no second time. Take this," she mumbled, trying to remain lighthearted before reeling her fist back and punching his armor softly.
"..."
She pulled her fist back, and looked him up and down.
"Good luck," she muttered under her breath, before she promptly left the scene, collecting her sisters and Lucy, taking them away from the fight.
Arthur exhaled and healed his eye, taking even more stamina. His armor shattered to bits, and his true, ugly self was revealed to Raiden once more. Arthur fell to his hands and knees, breathing heavily as he clutched that lonely cutlass once more in his right hand.
"I couldn't imagine them forcing me beyond my limits, so I let them go," Raiden said. "So it's just me and you, Dragon. But you ain't looking too hot, are you?"
Arthur's body felt as if… no, maybe it truly was falling apart as they spoke. His blood pressure was very high, and with that came terrible effects.
Though he grew in strength just to even be able to compete with other dragons who were naturally more gifted, such strength came at the cost of his looks, his health, and perhaps even his sanity.
What was insanity anyways? He wasn't laughing maniacally and being creepy like in the movies, at least not right now.
Regardless, he was completely miserable.
Arthur looked up from the ground, his hands and knees still glued to the stone. Raiden seemed a little disappointed, as he swung his halberd over his shoulder where it rested.
"You seemed so interesting a couple days ago too. The heck happened, man?" Raiden put out as a question without a true answer.
"Well, whatevs. If you don't get up and fight, I've got no problem lopping off your head. I'm a true warrior, but I'm not against killing those who refuse to fight back."
Arthur slowly stood with rugged, bony movements as he forced himself up. He swayed gently, looking at Raiden with a lifeless stare.
"I miss…"
"Hm?"
"I miss when I was happy."
Arthur looked at his cutlass, keeping his eyes on the sword which he'd used for a majority of his slaughters.
It was the weapon that David had used while fighting against him in that game. A memory of happier times.
"What'cha getting so sentimental, or nostalgic for? We're fighting, man… Well, I guess no true warrior wouldn't respect his opponent enough to listen."
Just as his hormonal imbalance would lead to swings of rage, so too would they lead to swings of terrible sorrow.
Arthur covered his left eye, the one that produced tears, hiding it from Raiden.
"Are you… Dude…"
"I've lived such a miserable life. I've never experienced a single moment of happiness. But then, I made friends for the first time, I—"
"Okay, if it's getting like this, then I'll put a stop to it. I suspect you're trying to regain your stamina—if so, just tell me. I'm fine with waiting to fight you at your strongest," Raiden scoffed, pretty annoyed at his opponent's unprofessionalism.
"That's fair," Arthur said. "All I ever do is complain, whine, moan and groan, scream and agonize, cry and cut, laugh and stab."
'There's no way out. I can't become someone better, I can't do anything right. I'm stuck as this ugly, worthless entity. I just want it all to end already.'
Arthur regained a fair amount of stamina, looking down and hunching his neck, like the corpse of a suicide.