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The bell was rang over and over again as Hiro's arm was set ablaze, the Ethnic Engima screaming and yanking at his arm over and over as the flames ingulfed his gas-soaked arm and the ring surrounding him. The ref agaonized as security pulled fire extinguishers out from under the ring and started to spray Hiro and the canvas -- putting out the flames quickly but not changing the fact that Hiro's wound had just been disinfected by flames. The smell of burning flesh and the sound of Hiro's screams silenced the crowd as not even the ring announcer would immediately declare Salem the winner -- but as the ref rolled from the ring and let them know it was indeed all over, he turned his attention to Salem and screamed in his face that he'd gone too far, regardless of whatever his feelings were.

Hiro shook in place as the pain in his arm became unbareable, tears forming as the fire and infiltrated a wound and left him with more pain than he'd ever felt before. It was a shocking, horrific event that created an impact on him that would last the rest of his life. He would never again have the friendship he once had with Salem, but perhaps it was always destined to go that way -- though, in the last part of his brain that still had function through shock and a concussion, Hiro thought that at the very least he his sins of a decade prior had finally been atoned for. The medical staff entered the ring and began to wrap Hiro's arm up in bandages, throwing ice all over his body and checking him swiftly for a concussion that was, fairly clear to anyone paying attention, a bit severe. Salem's music began, and he and Apex celebrated a victory while Hiro was left to deal with an unbelievable amount of pain and a serious decision before Armageddon: would this be his final match...or would his BODY dictate this be his final match.

The only true point was this: Cartwright got everything he wanted. Salem nearly killed Hiro, and neither man was going to be 100% for quite some time. The fans started to cheer for Hiro as he was loaded on to a new stretcher, many of which were cheers of worry that this was the last time they would ever see him -- a feeling that had already been growing with each loss he sustained.