Chapter Text
It was well known that Gunther was a perfectionist, tough and demanding with his subordinates, but with Kaiser he was straight up cruel.
Der Ringgeneral was one of the most brutal wrestlers in the company. He defeated rival after rival, no matter how big and strong, he would come on top. Being part of his glorious reign was a privilege earned with hard work, sweat, and blood.
Imperium was not for the weak.
Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser should be an extension of Gunther’s dominance. He demanded perfection from them, but, for some reason, Kaiser’s mistakes infuriated Gunther more than anything else and he got the short end of the stick.
The youngest member usually got blamed for the mistakes of the whole faction.
In fact, there were times in which the tag team had lost because of Vinci, but Kaiser was the one yelled at and punished. “You should have intervened earlier.” was the reasoning before a chop impacted the chest of the blonde boy from Imperium.
This time the tag team came out victorious after defeating a very strong rival, so they should be celebrating. Instead, Gunther was berating Kaiser.
The boy didn’t really understand. He was trying to focus on what his general was saying but his mind just went over the fact that he had done his best and they won.
What else would his superior possibly want? Was he missing something? He hated himself for being too stupid to understand.
When Kaiser focused again his general was yelling, “Stop relying on your cheap tricks, and use the submission hold I keep teaching you.”
Kaiser didn’t know what possessed him to respond but his mouth was moving before he could register. “Sir…I didn’t mean to. I was not strong enough to hold the submission lock, so I changed positions.”
The way Gunther looked at him made him shiver. He should just have kept his mouth shut and might have gotten one chop, but now he was a dead man.
“What do you mean you were not strong enough?” The General eyed his subordinate up and down with disgust. “So, you are not capable…This body of yours is the problem, isn’t it?”
Ludwig felt exposed when the spectator’s eyes also fell on him as Gunther kept talking. “Weak, inadequate…a walking failure.” He gestured with contempt. “You don’t train hard enough, you are a lazy, careless, sorry excuse for a wrestler!”
His words cut so deep. Ludwig had some issues with his body in the past; he simply was not as bulky as others. But still worked very hard to become a wrestler. He really did! This was his passion and his dream. But he was never good enough.
Vinci finally intervened; he didn’t care if he got chopped ten times by his leader, he couldn’t just stand there. “That’s enough, Gunther! We won. And with all due respect he does what works for him.”
“He does what works? Let’s see.” Gunther removed his coat.
Vinci should have seen this coming, he was the one antagonizing the General, but Kaiser was taking the fall. Gunther dragged Kaiser to the performance center’s ring and before all the observers taunted Ludwig, “Your tricks are good enough, show me.”
The calmness of his voice was terrifying; they all knew what was coming.
Gunther launched himself with full force and Kaiser’s wind was knocked out of his lungs. The boy could barely register what was happening, he didn’t really want to fight. He knew that if there was any indication that he succeeded in blocking the General’s attacks the bigger man would be even more angry.
Vinci wanted to intervene again but knew that it would get worse for his teammate. But it wasn’t a fair fight. They just had a tough fight earlier and they were exhausted already.
Gunter was exploiting Kaiser’s existing injuries to hurt him further. Like a wolf ripping apart his prey from its joints.
Devouring limb by limb and drinking its blood until the last drop.
It was painful to watch but ended quickly, well, not quickly enough in Vinci’s opinion.
Gunther stood over Ludwig, his boot over his throat. “You are an embarrassment”. He spat. “You father would be so ashamed of you if he saw what you had become.” added before walking off.
There was a moment of silence before the whispering and chuckles from the observers started.
To Vinci, Gunter had acted like a school yard bully. He wanted to force the smaller man to fight with techniques that only benefited heavy weight fighters and threw a tantrum when his methods didn’t work.
He checked on his partner and helped him to get to the locker room. They were silent the whole time.
This is how their big win became a painful and quiet night.