The clashing of steel echoed through the arena, breaking the silence.

After their tentative apologies, Adrian had chosen to simply bite the bullet and get to it. They had already stalled it as long as they could, trying to avoid this beyond this point was near impossible. The desperation had set in and was driving them both his first blow was sloppy and telegraphed, an overhead swing aimed at Avalina’s shoulder.

The smaller blonde woman almost dodged to the side, before realising just how fast a weapon was, her dexterity just allowing her wrist to turn fast enough to parry the incoming blow with the flat of her blade by accident. As the metal crashed against each other, she let out a painful wince, feeling the man’s superior strength put pressure on the wrist that she had used to block and quickly stepped back a few steps.

Her sharp blue eyes flashed upwards once, zeroing in on Adrian’s face before she bit her lower lip once more and stepped forward again, lunging at the man’s chest. Despite the manoeuvre being an offensive one, it was clear that her mind and soul weren’t quite behind the blow, which allowed Adrian to parry it to the side with a few panicked movements.

After their first exchange, the pair paused, their breathing ragged from the adrenaline and the fact that they were unused to these kinds of movements. It was amusing that the only reason they were properly fighting, was because neither of them knew how to wield a weapon. Clumsy and slow strikes that ended up being parried by even clumsier blocks and parries. As if two children were playing with sticks.

Still, as Avelina calmed her breathing again she struck forward once more. She didn’t quite know what to do, but she knew that she just had to stab the person with the pointy end of her weapon and that if there was a big piece of metal between them, that she’d be safer. So she once more lunged forward, something that was followed by a painful cry coming from Adrian’s lips.

“Fuck-”, he groaned out. He had messed up his block, causing Avelina’s weapon to be deflected into his own left shoulder, drawing blood.

The shock of the moment had been enough to make him drop his weapon as he started to cradle the wound that the blonde woman had caused him, leaving him perfectly open to being struck down. The moment that he realized that, his panicked eyes flashed towards Avelina and saw her trembling as she looked at the weapon in her own hands.

“I..-”, she couldn’t even muster the correct words. She had just stabbed a living person. And sure, she wasn’t shy of blood due to her education and some training in the field that she had and she wasn’t even shy of cutting into someone’s flesh, but that was to help them! Not to kill them. She hadn’t ever even thought of seriously stabbing someone beyond exaggerating.

It seemed that he had seen something amusing as he suddenly started to let out a strained round of laughter, breaking the silence that hung over the pair. Naturally laughing as such caused his wound to act up again, causing him to wince.

“You know, Avelina-”, He panted out between laboured breaths, “Normally the one getting stabbed should be looking that stupid.”

Somehow his laughter had the effect of snapping the blonde out of her conundrum as she lowered her sword and finally looked at the man once more. Despite his words, she could see it in his eyes. He was so afraid and so pale. The slightly tanned adonis that had walked in the arena had been replaced with a far more mortal man.

“And normally, shouldn’t you attack if your opponent is letting their guards down.”, She replied. She somehow knew that she didn’t look much better.

“Right back to you-”, He said, pointing at his sword on the ground.

“Touche.”, She glanced at his wound before taking a deep breath, “It didn’t seem as if I hit any important blood vessels, if you just apply pressure for a few minutes you should be fine. Avoid straining it for about five days and try to stitch it up if you can, don’t forget to change the bandages often and disinfect the needle with some alcohol before using it.”

“You don’t need to-”, As he started to interrupt her, Avelina shot him the nastiest of glares, “Yes, mom.”

“Just remember what I said. I don’t want you dying from blood loss or infections after you stab me to death-”, She laughed, trying to make a joke about the situation. Just a little bit of silly coping. She wished all of this was as easy as it always was in the movies. Maybe she just needed a gun to make it easier. Just point and shoot. No nasty stuff like cutting away at each other involved.

“You know-,” His shaking voice left his lips again before calming down, “I really hate you.”

Suddenly as he dropped such a bombshell he tried to shrug, before realizing that one of his hands was stamping the bleeding and that the one was a bit out of commission thanks to a stab wound.

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“I don’t like to admit it, but I read stories about this kind of stuff. Fantasised about how great I’d be and all of that-”, He shook his head, listlessly, “But then here I am and instead of being matched with some fat asshole, or someone I hated all my life I get you. A perfectly normal person who doesn’t want to be here either.”

“Adrian-”, This time it was Avelina who tried to interrupt him, only to then get shot down.

“No, let me finish.”, his breathing hitched. “Please.”

A slow nod was Avelina’s only response as she could feel her fingers tightened around the blade of her weapon.

“And then I realized that I just can’t do it and realize all those stories are utter bullcrap. They always conveniently get someone they can kill without feeling bothered and easy into the whole bullcrap. And me? I get you! Scrawny, a general mess and girl, what are those bags under your eyes. You look pathetic enough that I always subconsciously offered my jacket to you-”, A faint smile formed on his lips.

“I get a half-decent person and then I realize I don’t want to step over others to survive. That even dreaming of it was so stupid.”, As he spoke he drew his second weapon, “And then there is this little voice in my head, telling me to just let you stab me and be over with it, but you know-”

“-I want to live.”, and his voice fully cracked.

As Avelina glanced up at the young man she realized that he was a better and more deserving person than her. She also didn’t want to be here, but she had laid herself done by the fact that one of them would have to die. She hadn’t even considered that she wanted to die here. If anything, her shock had come from the fact that she would have to bear the burden of having killed him here for the rest of her life.

The realization made her feel like crap.

“Yeah.”, She sighed, “I feel like I hate you too.”

The pair’s eyes met and without any warning signal, they both suddenly rushed forward, Adrian raising his weapon high for a strike downwards with one hand while Avelina once more relied on stabbing towards his chest. Two pieces of steel flashed underneath the false sun of the arene.

The sound of flesh tearing, faint as it was, was deafening.

Avelina could feel the blood slowly dripping down her chest, falling to the ground and staining the sand red. For a moment, she glanced down in panic, only to find that it wasn’t her own. Her sabre was firmly lodged inside the chest of Adrian, coming out from the other side stained with gore.

The man’s own weapon was stuck in her shoulder bone, having rend the flesh there and cracked the bone with his superior force. Still, at first glance, she could see that it wasn’t that major a wound.

“Ah, f-fuck.”, A spray of red ran down her back as Adrian coughed up some blood while resting his head against her shoulder for support. He had already dropped his weapon., “I should have done a stab.”

Avelina could feel something pounding inside of her mind that had gone perfectly blank as she could feel the heat leaving the body of the man in front of her. At the rate he was losing blood, he’d die from hemorrhagic shock rather quickly. She hated herself as she, out of habit, began to calculate his odds of survival and the number of minutes he had left.

“Ah, I really wish I could have hated you more”, she finally muttered, feeling something hot running down her cheeks.

And that is how they remained standing for a few moments. Augusta didn’t wish to be the one to pull her weapon back first and Adrian didn’t have the strength remaining for it anymore. It was horrifying in so many ways. She could feel his body getting colder. She could see his face getting paler and worst of all, she could feel his heartbeat getting weaker.

“I’m happy you didn’t-”, He finally replied, coughing up some more blood, “H-hey, A-ave? Could I call you Ave?”

“The full name is a mouthful, isn’t it?”, she repeated the joke from earlier with a strained smile as the nickname slammed into her mind, further breaking down her composure as she could feel him trying to laugh. She knew he couldn’t do it properly, not with a weapon lodged into his gut.

“Yeah-”, his voice trailed off, “C-could you tell m-my dad, he really was a sleazebag for sleeping with-”

A round of coughing interrupted his words. Still, Avelina remained silent for a few moments as she waited for him to finish his sentence. Her hands slammed against his chest had already told her what had happened, but she didn’t want to accept it.

He had died without leaving any proper final words.

Congratulations on surviving the Culling. Bonus experience awarded.

Ding.

Ding.

Reached Medic [Level 2]

[Unlocked Skill: Clean Cuts: Improves the cutting and piercing power of any weapon you wield, allowing for cleaner treating of wounds]

The notifications rang through her mind, but she paid them no heed. The only thing that she was focusing on now was the body slumped against her own. Carefully she pulled back and once she stopped serving as a support for Adrian she gently caught him and, against her better judgement still checked for any vital signs.

Stupid as she knew it was.

She had stabbed him. She didn’t have the right to then act as if she cared. She was just a selfish prick who had killed for her own sake. She should just drop this corpse, fix her shoulder up and get ready for the next fight.

Yet, she couldn’t.

She gently placed him on his back, fixed his clothing up and slowly removed the sabre from his chest, throwing it away as far she could. She didn’t want to have to look at that weapon ever again. After fixing his appearance for a few moments she closed his eyes and reached out for one of the buttons on the sleeve of his suit.

After a bit of wiggling, she removed his jacket and flung it across her own shoulders. It was too big for her. Still, even if it was stained with his blood she didn’t care, remembering his words from before.

Listlessly she grabbed the weapon that he had cut into her shoulder with and pushed herself back to her feet, shaky. Her blue eyes, dulled now, glanced up and noticed that an exit had opened and as she passed through it, she realized that-

-She most likely wasn’t waking up.