The pirate's skill was undeniable. Now that the man was holding nothing back, it quickly became apparent just how unprepared I was for the battle. The man had to have decades of experience at least, and I could imagine that the life of a pirate was no easy one. Having survived so long under such harsh conditions, it would be a surprise if he hadn’t been moulded into a fierce warrior.
His every attack reflected that ferocity. His gauntlets packed immense power, and his fingers were like tiny daggers. Together, coupled with his own skill and strength, his every swipe became lethal. But thankfully, I wasn’t at a complete disadvantage.
My fire wasn’t a complete counter to his ice, but it did nullify it somewhat. He could definitely have moved faster normally, but under the oppressive heat that faced him, his movements were almost sluggish. Still, sluggish by his standards meant it was just barely manageable for me.
With him having abandoned his blade and my not knowing how to wield one, our fight quickly degraded into a slugfest. Within minutes, my Revive count had already hit half a dozen as I took countless sledgehammer-like hits to my body. Still, I made sure he wasn’t having a good time either. His clothes were singed at their edges and fist-sized holes pockmarked his shirt. He was sweating hard, with drops of the liquid falling from his forehead and into his eyes occasionally.
I also made sure to keep my surroundings in mind, to make sure that one of the other pirates didn’t decide to butt in again. But Ren seemed to have kicked it up a notch, since I didn’t suffer from any interruptions again.
At least, until a sound cut through the room. It was a shout, not unlike the one I made when I almost died. I instantly recognized the voice as Leonard’s, and almost instinctively turned my head to look over.
My searching eyes found Leonard in a corner of the room, his back facing me. Two gray blades had been impaled through him, poking out of his back. Scarlet coated the blades and Leonard’s shirt, and my heart leapt to my throat as I tried to determine if the blades had pierced his heart.
Before I could figure it out, however, a fist landed square on my stomach, hitting me so hard the air in my lungs rushed out of my mouth, along with a little blood.
I flew backward and landed in the embrace of a metal table, bending the steel in a little. Almost on instinct, I grit my teeth and let the Flux flow into me again, setting right all the broken bits.
“Looking away from me in the middle of the fight, girl?” the pirate's voice cut through the haze of the pain. “You’re either stupid, or you’re not taking me seriously. Either way, that’s a big mistake.”
I stared down the man as the fire around me flickered and dimmed. My chest heaved as my mind raced. Leonard needed urgent help, but I couldn’t do anything if I couldn’t break past the man in front of me. A feat that would be anything but easy.
On impulse, I wanted to curse myself for my weakness again, but I quickly put a muzzle on that voice. I’d had enough of that feeling, that horrible feeling of regret and inadequacy. I had been through that tirade against myself more than enough times, and things had changed now. I had been granted access to this new power, and I could tell that I still wasn’t using it to its fullest potential.
I didn’t understand much at all about the power – I barely grasped what little Leonard and Anabella had explained to me – but I didn’t need long-winded, almost scientific explanations for the fire. I had learned enough. I could find my way through the rest of it.
I realized that I had been limiting myself because I felt that I hadn’t learned enough, but that was only because I’d never been taught before. I’d gotten caught up in the joy of being taught, forgetting that for the majority of my life, I’d learned by pure trial and error.
The pirate was making his way over to me, taking his sweet time in a classic attempt at intimidation. I flashed him a mocking grin to let him know that it didn’t work, before bursting forward with newfound intensity.
My fist landed in the man’s gut before he realized what was happening. My crazed eyes met his for a second before he stumbled backward, gasping and spluttering.
Fire was all I had to rely on at the moment. I wasn’t suddenly going to become stronger or faster, even through Revives. The wall of strength I needed to scale was too steep for that; which meant that my fire was the only way to turn this situation around.
I hadn’t been taught enough to know how to use it properly, but I trusted myself to figure it out.
In the second I had while the man was distracted, I closed my eyes and breathed out. The first step was obvious. I was wasting far too much Flux keeping up an entire inferno around myself. I needed to focus it on my fists. The only question was how.
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First, I tried the most obvious method: funnelling the Flux in my body to my fists. My Flux reacted the way I wanted it to, but the fire around me stayed the same. The only effect it had was making my fists a little harder.
I furrowed my brow, trying to come up with a way to make the fire listen to me, when what felt like a sledgehammer rammed into my face.
The world blacked out for a moment, only to flood back in as I hit the table behind me. My vision blurred as my eyes filled with water, my broken nose howling with pain. A breath later, Flux from the air around me burst into my body, setting right the burst blood vessels and broken nose. My face scrunched up against the pain, but I didn’t let myself make a noise. Instead, I focused on the Flux as it entered my body. I’d never given it much thought, since the experience would always be accompanied by an insane amount of pain, but now that I did, I realized how strange it was. How was it that I could never sense the Flux around me until my body would suck it in? And, more importantly, was there a way to activate the sense on command, without having to go through a Revive?
Suddenly, an idea struck, hitting my brain like a strike of lightning. And then, just after the idea struck, I felt a burning cold hand grip my shirt and pull me up. I opened my eyes to find the pirate’s face unnervingly close to mine, his pungent breath almost worse than the punch to the face.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to suffer his horrible hygiene for too long, as another punch to the side of my face sent me flying away. I stopped only when I hit the wall of the room, crumpling down to the floor as I waited for my brain to stop rattling.
I grinned to myself as I Revived again, my lips twisted by pain and sick gratification.
The man appeared before me within seconds, lifting me up to my feet by my hair.
“So you’re done taking your sweet time?” I asked, my eyes still closed and my voice strained. “I think I preferred that-”
I’m rudely interrupted by a fist to the gut, at least five of my ribs breaking immediately under the force. Almost simultaneously, I sucked in the Flux around me again, righting the bones almost as soon as they broke.
I could feel the waves of pain pressing on my sanity, threatening to drive me over the edge, but I refused to fall, grinning wide as I looked at the man in front of me, my eyes shimmering with maddened mirth.
“Did your mother never teach you manners?” I asked, as if unfazed by his earlier punch. “Interrupting people in the middle of their sentence, really? That’s just ru-”
Once again, I was interrupted as the man’s fist rammed into me, driving me deeper into the metal wall behind. Already, it'd been warped inward roughly in the shape of a person, which in any other circumstance would’ve made me laugh.
Instead, I sucked in a deep breath as I battled my way through another horrendous Revive, fighting to stay conscious against the mental exhaustion that’s begun to weigh on me. “You did it again!” I exclaim in mock disappointment, my acting undercut by my now raspy and breathless voice.
“What is wrong with you?” the pirate finally answered, his voice comically confused – if I didn’t know any better, I would have even said there was borderline genuine concern in his voice.
“Oh, come on,” I complained. “I almost had it. Come on, do it again.”
The man looked at me like I was insane – which, admittedly, was a fair assumption, and something I was wondering myself – but thankfully, he obliged.
Unfortunately, however, he decided to aim for the head instead.
His fist crashed into my forehead like a truck, burying my head into the metal like a hammer hitting a nail. Had I not gone through as many Revives as I’d had in my life, I was sure my skull would’ve been ground to dust under the immense force.
That wasn’t to say, however, that the blow didn’t almost kill me. I couldn’t even begin to detail the kind of injury his punch caused, largely because the pain was so intense that for what felt like an eternity, I was hardly able to cobble together a single, coherent thought in my own head. But undoubtedly, it was the closest I came to death since that rock that had bashed my head in.
I had thought that there would be some kind of limit to the amount of pain I could feel; in fact, I had been banking on it. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. When the Revive hit, it hit like no other had in a long time. The pain was a physical thing, almost living, and it clawed at me from inside.
But in the midst of that pain, in a moment of almost divine enlightenment, the revelation I was looking for finally descended. It clicked in my head in a way I would never be able to explain, nor even understand myself. All I knew was that it made sense now.
As the pain abated, I was left heaving and panting, my head hung as my hair fell like a bloody curtain around it. Blood dripped from my lips, painting them a deep, stunning scarlet.
Slowly, I moved my head up, my hair parting enough to let one eye meet the pirate’s.
Something almost akin to respect glowed within them.
“Not many people can come back from an injury like that,” he said, his voice low. “That’s a feat you should be proud of.” He put an icy hand to his chest, palm over his heart. “Rest assured, little girl. Your tale will live on after you. I will tell of your courage, of your tenacity. I will remember this.”
I smiled at him, the cruel curve of my blood-stained lips painting a perfect picture of insanity.
“You will not live to.”