SarthDarah faced down the silver horned Minotaur. Her glowing eyes tracking his movements, something she was just getting accustomed to. She forced herself to remain focused on his upper half, but sometimes seeing the naked lower parts was inevitable. She still cringed slightly each time she thought of what they wanted to do to her and her friends, and what that thing would have done to her.
The ice had almost completely melted away from the top of the ship already. There was a decent amount in the waters below, no doubt the only reason the ship wasn’t sinking just yet. Could they make a clean getaway out of a bloody massacre?
SarthDarah just hoped that she could take out this Minotaur and get back to Kuru. Her orders had been simple: get Kuru off this world safely. That wouldn’t happen if she died in the middle of an ocean to a bull monster.
The Minotaur let out a loud cry, it was long and throaty. SarthDarah took the chance to look at the front of the ship, her squad mates were already most of the way back to where Eldrin’s ice bridge remained a short distance from the bow of the ship. Hopefully they would all get off the ship safely. She looked over to where Edlrin stood, still muttering curse words towards her.
“You should’ve run with the others!”
“I could have said the same thing, but then you wouldn’t be here to cancel out my attacks again!” he spat back.
SarthDarah couldn’t even argue that point, she had done that. Eldrin though had interjected himself right when it was most crucial he didn’t. She hadn’t lost track of the second Minotaur, just needed to draw him out. The golden jacket was bait, a misdirection from what his power truly was.
The Minotaur had thought himself clever sliding along in the shadows. The only hint had been the small glints of light flashing from one area to another. SarthDarah had been trying to keep the silver horned Minotaur in line with his captain, but then decided the only way to draw him out was to let them surround her. It was risky, and that sword had almost gotten to her; but she had needed the golden jacketed Minotaur in the open, and right as it happened, so did Eldrin.
“Well at least I don’t swoop in to try and steal someone else’s kill. That’s grounds for a PvP duel in my mind.” She kept her voice level, letting some snark into it to help push the guy over the edge.
It worked, Eldrin didn’t respond with words, at least not out loud. His face was red and his jaw worked up and down for a few moments. The Minotaur had stopped bellowing out, the rain and sleet had intensified, and SarthDarah was once again getting that excited to be alive feeling in her stomach.
Any moment now the Minotaurs would attack, the silver horned one was flexing his muscles and making an effort to keep their attention on him. The ship was creaking ominously as it began to slowly creep downward again. The storm was beginning as well, streaks of rain pelted sideways as the wind raged on around them.
SarthDarah had to admit, starting a battle with a naked Minotaur atop a sinking ship in the middle of an ocean during a hurricane wasn’t something she had put on her bingo card. Sure, there had been some weird quests and monsters in other games, but this was real life. Having it be her here physically instead of inputting commands to a lifeless body on a screen made it so much different. SarthDarah was smiling despite the absurdity of it all.
“As the chosen leader of the squad, I’m telling you to stay back and don’t interfere. I won’t pull a punch if you get in my way.” SarthDarah let the command come out in a dark tone, hoping that Eldrin would take her seriously.
Eldrin was about to say something in response, but the sudden shift of the ship and swell of the ocean around them made him stop. They both turned to look over the side of the ship, where a giant wave had erupted and now joined the clouds in sending water washing over them. The silver horned Minotaur lunged, taking Eldrin by surprise. SarthDarah had kept her guard against him, never turning far enough to lose sight of him, but she wasn’t fast enough to stop the attack when it happened.
The Bull Rush ability didn’t just make the Minotaur faster, it added a magical barrier to his skin and made him impenetrable for a second or two. Eldrin would have been given praise for his reaction if it would have worked. The ice spear he managed to put in between himself and the charging minotaur shattered into thousands of tiny shards that began to steam from the heat put off from the silver horned Minotaur.
“Gah!” Eldrin’s scream was breathless, no more than a harsh guttural sound of immense pain.
SarthDarah was only able to watch as Eldrin was skewered on the silver horns. The two shakes it took for the minotaur to launch Eldrin off his head were sickening to watch, but SarthDarah couldn’t take her wide glowing eyes away. There was no gore, no blood, just Eldrin’s silent screaming. The horns had pierced into his chest and twisted to pick him up. A normal body would have had its lungs and several other vital organs shredded in a heartbeat of abuse like that.
Eldrin’s body fell with a loud crash that broke more of the deck floor. He didn’t move and the last few remaining chunks of ice around them vanished. Was that really it for him? SarthDarah felt her power generator humming faster and faster. The world around her suddenly got very narrow and she had to focus on breathing to stop the encroaching darkness.
Was she being swallowed up by something? Had the storm finally blotted out the entire sky, leaving no light left?
“You fight with great purpose. Your friend, he had weak purpose and no true conviction beyond his own self worth.”
SarthDarah didn’t turn her head, she was still looking at where Eldrin lay. The Minotaur in the golden jacket was standing inches away from her, whispering in her left ear. The jacket brushed against her, the long flowing material was surprisingly soft where it touched her bare skin. Her tattered robes made her look like a vagrant standing in the shadow of golden royalty.
“You’ll have time to mourn him, and the others on our way back to the labyrinth. Hell, a fighter like you, I won’t even chain you if you promise to behave.” He was sneering down at her.
SarthDarah felt the anger building, feeding her fire. She took a very long, deep breath. She held it in, feeling the wind energy intensify the heat building in her core. When she let it out, she activated Dragon’s Fury. Roaring reds and blinding whites came out in a large jet of flame. Both Minotaurs leapt away, staying well clear of the searing heat.
Rage overwhelmed her. It swept away all other feelings, leaving her alone on this shipwreck in the middle of the ocean. The darkness swelled around her again. She could feel herself bellowing flame, but she was losing sight of what she was fighting. The darkness suddenly began to feel like a cage, one she wouldn’t escape from.
Panic flooded her, mixing with the rage, sparking her desire for self preservation. She was still alive, still here, Kuru was there, she needed to focus.
You do need to focus, or you’ll kill everyone left. Your squad is still on that sinking ship. Quit raging and start fighting! Once again Kuru’s voice came into her head, clear and commanding.
The darkness faded slightly, easing the tension on her mind. Allowing her to spew out the rage and panic in a focused blast, rather than a random torrent.
A breath in, the flames stopped briefly extinguishing the light around them. The momentary pitch blackness was punctuated by a revival in intensity in the storm around them. The darkness at the edges of her vision finally went completely away. Now she was left in the normal dark of the storm at sea.
It was time to light it back up.
A quick mental stability check told her that she was still SarthDarah the badass, and this was her world to conquer. No low level slave trading bull was going to get the best of her.
“For the fool who tried to steal my kill.” She whispered, watching the silver horned Minotaur rush from her left.
She exhaled, this time the Dragon’s Fury came out in a sharp line, looking more like a laser of death than a gout of fire. The Minotaur took only one step farther, his silver horns scorched black. He tried to bellow out, but the hole in his stomach was large enough to have atomized his lungs and all the other important organs.
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The pounding rain mixed with the spurts of blood that came out. More than the hollow pit that wouldn’t refill after avenging her squad mate, SarthDarah felt a surge of nausea. The death she had witnessed so far hadn’t been nearly as realistic. The bodies of the players never seemed to have any sort of blood or gore. The plant matter didn’t count.
Had Queen bled when she hit her? Had she hit her hard enough to ever manage a wound that would bleed? Where were the captain and her followers now?
Now wasn’t the time for her to lose her mind. There was still one more Minotaur she needed to deal with. She also had to make sure the others got back to the other ship first. SarthDarah couldn’t help but shiver for a moment. Something wasn’t right with how this day had ended up, but her brain refused to put together something that she needed to make the situation make sense. The fighting was definitely making it even harder to concentrate on critical thoughts beyond punch, kick, dodge, repeat.
Her brain suddenly felt on fire, worse than any migraine she had ever had before. Pain shot so severely that SarthDarah was forced to take a knee, holding her head with both hands. The sharp ringing tones that pierced her thoughts drove free everything but the pain it was causing. She shut her eyes tight, trying to force out the pain.
The ship rocked, lurching to the side. SarthDarah rolled over onto her side, panicking all over again. The situation was changing so fast, she was incapacitated with her brain screaming out in pain. The movement of her body wasn’t natural, and it wasn’t her own doing. She contorted outwards, spreading each of her limbs as far apart as possible.
“Gaahhh!!!” Her scream was followed by a crack of lighting and rolling thunder.
The Minotaur laughing was drowned out by her continued screams. The storm was starting to cause larger and larger swells in the water. As it continued to sway on the waves, the buoyancy of a ruined ship wasn’t going to stay afloat long in these waters. SarthDarah couldn’t make two thoughts string together, and she wasn’t able to move as the Minotaur stalked up to her convulsing body.
“I won’t bother saving you…”
This was it, SarthDarah was about to feel the end and she was too busy trying to stop her body from convulsing to do anything about it. Her eyes flew open just as the fist came down.
The Minotaur landed a blow straight into her head. Lights flashed, was it lightning? She felt the ship give way under her, the falling was sudden but abruptly stopped by the floor underneath. Water lapped up and around her as SarthDarah began to regain her senses.
Several intense seconds of pain had seemingly shorted out her brain for a moment. SarthDarah felt the intense wave flood her entire body. She would've screamed, but no air was left in her lungs. The only sound she emitted was the soft whir of the power generator working in overdrive to try and keep her alive. Never before had she had this feeling, one of complete terror and understanding of her own mortality.
This wasn’t a game, she knew deep down that she was about to die. How had she ever thought she could be the unstoppable badass? She wasn’t going to conquer anything the way she was going now. She was going to die if he hit her again.
SarthDarah looked up, feeling a sudden rush of calm as that thought entered her head. She was about to die, this was the end of everything she was. The shadow of the Minotaur flashed above her head, disappearing into the dark corners of the insides of the ship.
“Death… is here for you girl.” The deep voice boomed and echoed from all around her.
Her head began pulsing in pain all over again, but she kept her eyes open, a small spark of flame flaring up at the edges. She was about to scream, the terror and image of not being able to move as she was skewered came clear in her mind. Then the flash of the nightmarish prison that Kuru had walked her through interrupted it.
“Would you rather be here?” Kuru spoke in her mind.
“NO!”
“Then FIGHT!”
The Minotaur’s fist caused an explosion of wood as it crashed down next to her. She had been able to roll away at the last second, dodging a blow that would easily have sent her to the bottom of the sea. Kuru’s words spurring her spirit into action.
SarthDarah could feel the damage to her physical body, but her soul felt more alive than it ever had. She was resonating with her energy core, the generator humming a pleasant tune to her. Each time Kuru reminded her to fight felt like a boost to her self confidence. And that confidence told her she was SarthDarah the badass, she wouldn’t lose until she disintegrated into atoms.
“Force Fire!” The Minotaur roared as three beams shot out from his hand.
SarthDarah stopped the disintegration thoughts immediately and jumped. She was quick enough to dodge the first, but the second beam hit her with the weight of a speeding truck and the heat of a blazing bonfire. Her own flames hadn't burned her, but as the third beam impacted her chest, she realized that these flames grew as they made contact with her.
“Gah! No!” SarthDarah ripped the rest of her robe off and tossed it away.
The fire had scorched her skin in several spots. The seams that criss crossed her torso and arms were lost under the charred skin and soot. Parts of her robe had melted and stuck to her, leaving odd spots of fabric that still smoldered. SarthDarah wasn’t about to give into the fear all over again.
Her eyes lit in a ferocious flash. Her fists swung one after another, unleashing waves of heat and wind. When she made her first step towards the Minotaur, he flinched. The waves of highly compressed heat seemed to be getting through his defense. SarthDarah saw her chance to finish this fight. She rushed in, launching a kick and a punch to follow.
She felt the solid impact as her fist made contact with the Minotaur's chest. Then she felt the ship lurch again. Water began rushing up around them. Even as she found her drive to continue fighting, the world around her tried to drag her down.
“This is your last chance girl. Our ship sinks, this dance is concluding. My master comes from below, ready to feast upon the capital city nestled in the mountains.” The Minotaur was taunting her, taking the attacks she rained upon him without pausing. “Become our slave, we could use a fighting champion to appease us. I’ll take you with me on the ship, and when we blow your friends out of the water, perhaps I’ll allow you to convince me to save one of them.”
SarthDarah practically felt the sneer and wanted to hit him even harder. She felt like she was giving it everything she had before, back when she had been unstoppable. It wasn’t the same.
“Never!” SarthDarah cried out, trying to muster the strength to activate an ability, but it didn't work.
Her generator sparked, causing her to feel like her heart had just stopped for a few breaths. The minotaur did not miss the opening, he rushed in and dropped his elbow heavily on SarthDarah’s exposed back. She fell hard, collapsing to the floor gasping for air.
“Then perhaps I’ll leave you to drown.” The Minotaur began walking away. “You can’t even judge your own exhaustion until the tidal wave of death looms above you. All I need to do to win this fight, is to just let you wear yourself down. You burnt out all your energy fighting earlier, then went berserk and drained any reserves or chance of rebuilding your stamina that you had.”
SarthDarah felt his words like a slap to the face. She hadn’t thought of her energy levels. The extra boosts that she had been given had kept up with her so far, but she had finally gone too far for them to keep up. Her body was so heavy she couldn’t stand.
The water was already coming up to swallow her.
A few hard steps let SarthDarah know that the Minotaur was going up the stairs. Keeping true to his promise to leave her to drown. How could this be her end? She couldn’t even go down fighting. This was more tragic to her than losing a fair fight. SarthDarah had never died because she ran out of energy before.
What would it be like? The water lapped up into her face, her ears now below the water line. She had given up on fighting, Kuru could rage and try to force her, but it was too late. She had tried, but it hadn’t been enough. SarthDarah had lost her fight.
She felt a sudden weight in her torn waistband.
“I forgot I had this…” She tried to grab the handgun Kuru had given her.
She fumbled with it, her fingers not wanting to work properly anymore. She felt the smooth handle as it slid free from her waistband. Kuru told her that it would use her soul force to fire an attack. Would it still work?
It tumbled down into the water at her side. SarthDarah cried out in frustration. Tears flowed down her cheek, mingling with the water rising ever closer to the top of her face.
“You better not ask me to go farther than this. This is everything my soul is worth!” Her cry was echoed by the rejuvenated roar of her generator.
She sat up, reached down and grasped the pistol in her right hand and pulled it up to aim. The Minotaur couldn’t have gotten far yet. She pulled the trigger.
“YES!!” Kuru’s voice rang out in her head as the shot fired off from her soul.
SarthDarah felt her energy spool and gather into her palm and fire down the barrel. It was quick, no more than a mere millisecond; but it was way longer in her mind. SarthDarah’s soul felt the release like it was a hot shower at the end of a long day.
All of her pain drained in one pull of the trigger. When she felt time return to normal, the open sky was above her. The boards she floated on used to be below decks, now, there was just open wreckage around her and one ship sailing straight for her. Looking around, she saw a second sailing away not too far off, and in the opposite direction a third farther in the distance.
She had made it? Right? It seemed so, she didn’t see the Minotaur. The ship Kuru had taken was coming alongside her bit of driftwood. It had only been moments, but her exhaustion was overtaking her. She saw Anunt and Kuru standing at the side of the ship, Jorn was next to them holding the rope that dangled down towards her.
Reaching for it seemed to drain the burst of energy she had just had. Her arms fell and she collapsed backwards onto the planks. She thought she heard a female scream as she blacked out. Who would scream for her?