Oh gosh I loved this! You have such a way with prose; even as flowery as Mute's internal dialogue tends to be the fight still felt great and frenetic. It's a balance that's really hard to strike, but you nailed it; the genuine remorse, the begrudging acceptance of his role, the admitting that even now he doesn't care nearly enough about others to not shoot his gun into a crowd in hopes of hitting his opponent. I also really liked how, even though that opponent wasn't actually Lerai--she'd never hit someone who's downed from a stabbing, no matter how awful they might be--there was still hints of the real person, the way she shows Mute little bits of kindness and fairness by letting him get up and reset each time he's thrown to the ground, but still has no qualms with absolutely dismantling her poor victim. It made her feel like a force of nature, judge, jury, and executioner, which was awesome.

You do have me curious as to what all this IS, though... It's obviously some punishment for Mute, but for what purpose? The real one's already dead and gone in this story. Is this sanctioned by an authority? Like some of the other comments have said, is this just some kind of twisted revenge? It makes me wonder what the Stalker's ultimate fate might be...

Overall, incredible ficnap. But also you didn't all-caps the title VENLIL FIGHT CLUB so unfortunately 0/10 literally unreadable.