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Pain. Sharp pain. Right in the center of my head. Annoying. I hear a pathetic groan from somewhere, might be me. I try to sit up, but a heavy weight keeps me from rising. Opening my eyes, I see a horrible, crooked grin. Looming over me is a filthy and overweight man, wearing only tatters.

“Well, well, well, boys! Lookie here! We found ourselves some good money right here!” The man lets out a guffaw, which is soon followed by more from outside my line of sight. Trying to move, I struggle against the man’s foot. The man glares at my movements before returning to his oily grin.

“Uh-uh, pretty boy! You lay right there!” The pressure on my chest quickly becomes pain. I cough in response, my eyes watering.

“Leave him alone!” says a woman’s voice. I can’t see her. Turning my head to one side, my view is nothing but small stones on a flat section of dirt. “What do you even want from us?” the same voice yells out again.

Her cries met with a chorus of laughter from around me. Looking back up at the man, I see a cruel glint in his eyes as he looks to the distance. “What do we want? I’d think that be obvious, girly…” His eyes gleam with malice. “We’s gonna tie the three of ya up, and find some rich noble who wants to buy a girl and two pretty boys. Shouldn’t be so hard.” He drops the fake smile, looking away from her. “Tie those two up!” The man gestures to the left, towards the woman’s voice.

Shuffling sounds come from all around as the man turns his attention down, towards me. I shoot the filth with a death glare. Unamused, the man’s face twists into a frown. “Ey! I don’t like your look, boy!” He reaches his hand behind him before grinning, the harsh light in his eyes again. “I can fix that though."

My mind is overwhelmed by a white-hot pain in my left eye. Distantly I hear the man laughing, and a woman screaming… something. Above all that is the pain, somehow louder than anything. Thankfully I’m able to cover my face and curl up defensively, since the man removed his foot from my chest.

As I try to get my mind together, a horrible sound tears out of me. A wail that shakes my bones rips from my mouth, carrying the numbing pain. The laughter stops, a strange whispering sound replacing it.

Something cold… freezing, starts spreading out from my heart. The strange chill feels… calming, instead of awful. It slowly worms its way through my veins, and makes its way to my head. A gentle presence fills my mind as the cold reaches it. Soon the pain in my eye fades away.

I stare at the wretched man with my good eye, and smile at him. The friendly presence in my mind squirms excitedly. As soon as it settles, mist starts to rise off my skin. The ugly bastard makes his way over to me, and before I can really defend myself, he kicks me.

His blow hits my gut, sending me spinning away from him. After tumbling for a while, I come to a painful stop. Well… it should be painful, but instead I just feel cold. I smile as the soothing chill pulses through me.

Before I can get kicked again, I stumble onto my feet. The man stares at me, fury in his eyes. I guess I wasn’t supposed to get back up. White mist floats off my skin, my body, everywhere it meets the air. After drifting to the ground, it swirls around my legs angrily, but slowly.

As the filth locks eyes with me, I feel the pleasant being in my mind rile aggressively. It wants me to attack. For some reason, I feel confident, despite being barely able to stand. Listening to the strange thing in me, I start to run at the guy.

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I stumble like a baby deer as I make my way to him, but I start building up speed despite it. The white mist follows me, instead behind like mist should. It keeps to my legs, clinging to them possessively. I duck as the would-be slaver makes a swing for my head. As the thick limb passes over me, I coil the muscles of my arm and throw my fist at his chin.

As I unleash my weak attack, the mist around me jumps to the scrawny arm. It gets thicker, taking on the shape of the arm of a much larger man, as I make contact with the bandit’s face. The ghostly limb slams into the man’s chin, making a loud crunching noise as it does.

The man falls backwards from the hit, as I fumble my landing. Both of us get to our feet at the same time, hate burning in our stares. Something mean wells up in me, and I decide to open my mouth.

“Wow, Mr. Bandit’s getting his ass kicked by some little kid?” My voice is hoarse and quiet. I’m unsure whether he even heard me, until anger flares in his eyes.

He snarls at me. “I was just gonna sell ya, but now…” He makes a cutting motion over his throat. “You die, brat.”

I smile back at the man, unafraid. I know I should be, but the chill inside me is just so… calming. It makes me feel unbeatable.

I hear a commotion coming from behind my opponent, and I see flashes of light. Sparing a glance, I see two almost identical people fighting back to back. The two of them are taking on the other bandits, and somehow doing okay.

My enemy doesn’t let the opening pass him by, and launches himself at me while I’m distracted. He moves much faster than before, and since we’re so much closer, he quickly closes the gap. I barely have time to raise my arms before he’s on me.

Something pierces my arm, it doesn’t hurt, but I can feel the foreign body in there. The man had at some point pulled his knife and I accidently blocked it with my arms. His face twists in a nasty smile as he sees my blood start falling from the wound.

Then, I do something very foolish. I, as a teenage boy, decide it is wise to use a headbutt on my opponent, a full grown man. The crashing of our skulls together definitely hurts him, since he staggers away from me, but I also hear my nose break. As he falls away from me, his grip on the dagger slips and it clatters away.

Not wanting to let him regain his weapon, I charge at the bandit. With the small amount of speed I manage to get from the distance between us, I tackle him. I manage to knock him backwards, since he’s still off balance, but he wraps his arms around me as he does. The two of us fall together, with me falling on top of him. Something sharp stabs into my back. He had a second knife.

I feel the cold inside me fighting off the pain that’s radiating from my back. The man smiles up at me with a shit eating grin. My strength is slowly slipping away from me, even with the cold doing its work. I’m on a timer, and this guy is going to die with me.

His arm is still wrapped around me, holding the dagger in my back. Not knowing what else to do, I open my mouth wide. I reach my head over, and as I clamp down, the mist once again solidifies. This time forming small sharp points on my teeth. My mouth bites into the man’s arm, and a disgusting warmth fills it.

He jerks back his arm, his second dagger falling to his side. I quickly reach over and grab the weapon, and raise it above the man’s chest. Fear flashes into his eyes as I swing the dagger down and into his chest.

With my job done, I fall sideways off the corpse, my back hitting the ground. The cold that helped me so much slowly fades away, and I feel the pain start to return. It feels like my entire body is dipped in lava. Like pain had replaced my skin.

Footsteps walk over to me as I start to fade out, and a face appears above me, blocking the view of the sky. A beautiful lady with black hair, looks down at me with a frown.

“Kid, hold on, okay?” Her eyes are filled with tears. “What… What’s your name?”

I want to tell her, say that it’s Iota, but I black out before I can.