Blood, was all that I saw, flashing lights every now and then, as my vision began to blur, I could hear the whirring’s of machines behind me, I tried to move but my body didn’t listen, as my grey and red fleshed arm grasped a pole, the sound of metal scrapped by the claws I had.

It was fun, having you partner……

Same…… it’s a pity, you couldn’t fulfil your promise.

I chuckled as my thoughts were replied, I looked over to see a huge energy reactor at the brink of overheating, I moved myself to get closer, the loud blaring alarms, lights turning into red with the sickening sound of flesh splattering with blood everywhere on the walls, I crawled to the reactor’s control panel, with red substance spewing from my legs.

It’s funny, to think that you would used to scream at the smallest sight of this, but now, it’s in your nature.

I was just naïve…… this hurts like hell though.

As my breathing began to get slower and weaker, I laid my back to the warm metal controller, I grasped a red lever and prepared to pull it, as the core of the reactor began to get more unstable, I coughed a spew of blood as I looked at my tattered and ripped vest, with a knife sticking into my chest, I looked at the pulsing core one last time as my vision started to get worse.

You should scream, that way it’s more comical.

Really?

I rolled my eyes at the comment of my partner, as I tried to activate the lever, it got stuck as sparks flew out of the lever’s holster, I gritted my teeth and felt power surging through my arm as I downed the pain in silent screams, as the handle was activated, I fell headfirst to the floor as a small impulse was delivered, I saw the reactor getting worse, and despite the fear inside of me, I smiled as I saw my glowing red arm.

Goodbye…… sorry Aliyah, I won’t be able to fulfil that promise…… at least… I tried…

I saw the blinding flash of light consuming me, as I felt the immense heat and energy eating my flesh, my atoms, bit by bit, I tried to scream, but nothing came out, as I saw the metal alloyed room getting whiter, my vision now was nothing but a white plane, I couldn’t help, but close my eyes, as I heard the voice of my companion fading away, I let myself be taken, by one thing such beautiful, and so, scary, death itself.

We’ll meet again…… I look forward to it……

“Come on Clark! You want to be a royal guard right!? So don’t whimper on an easy task such as this!”

I should’ve known what I gotten myself into, now I am standing in front of my red-haired sister with stunning crimson eyes, I struggled to carry a sack of, what ever contents it had, as I was walking frontwards and sweat dripping, I yelped as I felt pain on my ankle, making me stumble and fall, with the addition of the sack crushing me from the top, I peeked and saw my sister with a wooden long sword.

“Did you have to do that?”

I weakly asked my sister who chuckled as she lifted the sack and let a good thud as it landed on the dirt ground, she helped me up and formed a fire ball in her palms, she then lit the sack on fire as it burned to ashes, she sighed and threw her wooden sword for me to catch, as I did catch it sloppily, I was now greeted with a small training dummy in front of me.

“Now remember, you swing your weapon like---”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, swing it that way, this way, whatever, can’t I just get to the sword plays?”

I whimpered as I did a small series of swings at the dummy, but my sister just gave me a disappointed sigh as she grabbed the tip of the sword with her two fingers and pulled it out of my hands, I was about to complain but she swung the sword which damaged the dummy’s body, she then pointed the sword at me casually with a small fire on the tip.

“Sword play is just basically swings and stabs, so, get to swinging Clark!”

“*Sighs, fine…”

I held the swords handle and prepared a stance in front of the dummy, I swung diagonally, then a horizontal one, I did another diagonal from right to left, and was followed with a huge vertical swipe from the bottom, I looked back at my sister as I finished it with a huge down swipe.

“There, now can I learn more?”

“No, repeat that process over and over again!”

I groaned as I tried to come up with a rebuttal, although my sister just held a finger in front of my mouth and grabbed the sword as she lit it with her fire magic, she then prepared a striking stance and after a few seconds, a huge infinity symbol created by fire appeared and scorched the dummy which was followed a huge circle of flame appeared and surrounded the dummy’s chest.

“Look closely Clark.”

A little longer and the circle expanded and collided into the chest, decapitating the body into two as she sliced through the neck of the dummy while simultaneously it’s body was sliced into a few more parts, I stared in awe as I saw my sister who faced me back.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“So Clark, what did you see?”

“Uh, just a clean swipe to the neck? Well, I know that the answer wasn’t so simple, but that’s kinda what I saw.”

She sighed as she did the same motion again, which she explained and she then gestured for me to follow her, I walked towards our little home I stumbled at the uneven road and cobblestone, we both went into a small and simple household, she opened the door before giving me the sword again.

“Listen, Clark, you know that I’ll be leaving away soon as I’m entering---.”

“Yeah, since you’re enrolling to the royal academy.”

I said as she entered the house, the clanking sounds of wood and bricks followed as I leaned to the door frame, I saw my sister grabbing a brown coat which was a bit worn down and wore it as she grabbed a real metal long sword, with a red gem implanted on it’s hilt centre, I looked back at the outside world to see a wasteland with no grass, as my sister walked towards a rose in the midst of the dirt.

“I only have a few more hours before a carriage from the capital comes to pick me up, and only that time is enough for me to train you.”

Sister replied to me as she looked unhappy leaving me, I went behind her and tried to sneak attack her neck but my sword got thrown away as my sister countered it with a slash aimed to displace my grasp, she just let out a smile at my, 15th attempt.

“Nice try Clark, but a royal guard doesn’t fight like that, once you’re finished with your daily chores, we can continue.”

“Yes sis.”

I sighed internally as I went to walk away from my sister who now had her hair into a ponytail, I grabbed an axe which was stuck on a tree stump and went to a small cluster of trees, I chopped the bark and looked back at my sister who was practicing different forms with flames dancing around her, a man with a huge build, red-brownish hair came with a cattle killed and was carried by his shoulder walked up to my sister who just responded with a smile, I watch my father praise her as I went back to chop down some trees.

It’s never fair, why didn’t I get a flame affinity, probably because I would suck at using it.

As I pushed down my feelings of jealousy, I continued to harvest some firewood, as I looked for a new tree, a small hole on the ground intrigued me, as I looked closer, it seemed, well, deeper, I put my finger through it but couldn’t reach the end, as if it was endless, I put my eye through the peep hole but saw nothing but darkness, I left it be as I walked to finish my chores.

I trekked back to my home as I settled the basket of wood by the workshop, my father saw me as he laughed heartily and patted my back, I saw my sister giggling as I fell by the overwhelming force to the ground, my dad grabbed half of the wood and went to sit.

“Alright Clark, Alessia says you’ll have one more round of training with her, here take this.”

My dad gestured at a small hilt of a sword on his table, I grabbed it and stared it in as it formed a sword blade with black materials, I looked back at my dad who has pride written on his face, I tried to swing it but the blade disappeared back into the hilt.

“*Laughs, not like that kid, use your magic on it.”

As I saw him taking a huge gulp out of a barrel cup, I focused on my magic flow and felt lots of empty rivers on the blade, I tried to concentrate my mana to fill the cracks but was snapped out of it as I heard a loud thud and saw my sister with an annoyed face as she had throwed the mug to the ground which had it’s contents spilled, I backed up as I saw my father raise an eyebrow.

“Dad, you already had your fair share of beer a few hours ago.”

“Come on sweetie, let daddy have a little more---”

“Mom would not appreciate that.”

I skedaddled away before the two would get into their normal argument, I went out to the training area again as I saw the broken dummy, and approached the area, it had no grass, with haybales surrounding the perimeter, a small pen for a horse and a cow, I felt the wind blow past me, I pulled the blade and concentrated, as I tried to fill it’s empty rivers with mana, as I did, I opened my eyes to see a beautiful pattern engraved on the blade, I sliced a nearby haybale as it left a white trace in the air then I heard a clap behind me and saw my sister, who now looked prepared to leave.

“Well, you can’t just use that beauty sloppily, now let’s get to your training.”

“*Sighs, fine, which haybale am I carrying?”

“Not that training, get to your stance, I’m teaching you basics of the sword.”

“Again?”

I asked although I couldn’t hid the excitement in my voice, I prepared myself as my sister unsheathed her wooden sword and made a stance which I was asked to replicate, as I was done, she began to strike me slowly, I dodged a few and parried some as I tried to swing downwards with huge force, my sister countered with a sideways right to left swipe which threw me out of balance as she continued with a lunge which just stopped barely a few centimetres away from my neck, I fell onto my butt as my new sword flew of my hands.

“You improved since last time, now let’s try to fix what you got wrong, any thoughts?”

I sighed and tried to find my sword as I replied, “I created a huge opening during my large swing, I thought that I would’ve dealt you a huge blow.”

“Excellent, you know what you did wrong, now how do you think you can---”

My sister was interrupted as loud sounds of a carriage  came into both of our ears, I saw a huge carriage appear in my sights, as it stopped in front of us, dad came to greet a butler and a man in full knight armour, he took off his helmet, revealing a blonde man with sideburns, scruffy hair as his green eyes locked onto the sight of my sister, with his well-kept beard he walked up to approach Alessia.

“You’re Alessia right?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Hmm, well then, I see you’ve prepared for this, go inside the carriage, your start in the academy awaits you.”

The knight said as his big body build turned away to open the carriage’s door, my sister gave me one last hug before walking up to the carriage’s open door, I saw my dad pat me on the shoulder as the knight closed the door and went to put his helmet back on as he grabbed the reigns and drove the carriage away, with my sister waving goodbye and a smile which I returned as dust and dirt was thrown into the wind by the galloping horses.

“Well kid, what are you going to do until summer break?”

“Uhh, I don’t know? Everyday things?”

My father replied it with a laugh as I heard him mutter something under his breath about freedom of drinking as I sweat-dropped remembering now that I’ll be the one having to keep his addiction in place, I went back to finding my sword as I saw my dad went in his workshop, as I walked out of the training area I found the same small hole again, but this time, it was a little bigger, I went to inspect it, it was big enough for me to stick my hand into.

Ugh, I hope my sword isn’t ruined

I prayed in my head as I reached in, surprisingly the insides felt something similar to flesh, as I whisked my hand around a smirked as I felt a sword hilt, I pulled it out and saw it had a few dangling bits, I squirmed in disgust as I shook it, throwing the strings of grey flesh away.

*Sigh, looks like I need to clean it up.

I thought as I saw something move in the small rivers of the sword but shrugged it off, as I walked back to my home as I saw my father who had two plates in his hands.

“Come on! It’s your favourite!”

I couldn’t help but smile as I saw honey glazed steak on the platter and I sat with a smile although I could still see a little sadness on my dad’s face.

As I tried to cheer my dad up, and after our little dinner, I went into my room as I laid on the bed, with my sword now hanged on the wall with my decent crafting skills, I saw the night sky outside the window, with the creaky wooden interiors, I could hear some monster shrieks as I saw my dad in the background swinging his axe.

Sometimes, I wonder, is there anything I could’ve done? To help my family……… other than freeloading…

I thought as I laid down and tried to sleep, with imaginations of how my next days are going to go without my sister, I tossed and tumbled as I tried to sleep, although a creak which was unusually audible came into my ears, I sat up and right as I blinked.

“Hello young one.”

With a huge mass of what it seems to be flesh, grey and red, with no limbs, just a mass of weird something, with it’s six purplish red eyes, as it’s snake like body slithered closing to me, with multiple parts of its body shifting as it moved revealing strands of flesh and visible black bones.

So I, Clark, did what any normal person would do, scream.