True chaos is weird to experience. Everything feels both slow and incredibly fast at the same time. There’s no time to plan, and often the only way through is reactionary.

Dirt sprayed into the air as explosion after explosion rocked the landscape. The horses dragging my carriage screamed as they were blown off their feet, causing the vehicle to careen sideways and crash into the ground. The impact kicked a heavy cloud of dirt into the air, which I proceeded to violently choke on as I gasped for air.

I spat my impromptu meal on the ground as Kavon cursed heavily on the other side of the bars. He had been thrown from his chair and was scrabbling back towards me.

“Ambush! Hold a fucking perimeter and follow me!” He shouted towards the crowd of dazed soldiers. They snapped out of their funk and scrambled to follow orders. One man started walking towards Kavon in reaction before reality caught up with him. He fell to the ground screaming once he realized his entire right arm was missing.

“Get me out of here! I’m no use to you dead!” I said to Kavon.

He hesitated before reluctantly nodding and ripping the keys from his belt, jamming them into the lock of my cage. The door swung open, and he loosened his chain from my lower body.

“One wrong move and I’m knocking you out and dragging you through the mud behind me,” he said.

“Understood.”

With that he turned around and began shouting orders again, rallying the soldiers around him into some semblance of order before marching towards where the general rode. We were separated by a few hundred paces before the attack, but who knew where our two groups were now.

I noted the explosions had become less frequent as I swept my gaze to take in my surroundings. A thick cloud of dirt swirled through the air, limiting visibility to only a few feet in any direction. Distant sounds of battle carried across the sparsely wooded land we found ourselves in.

It was a perfect spot for an ambush. Rising hills lay on either side of where the column used to be marching, leaving us in a depressed funnel.

An arrow erupted from the soldier’s throat directly in front of me, causing him to ragdoll at my feet. My momentum carried me into his body, tripping me to crash into the ground.

“Get up!” Kavon said as he jerked the chain connecting us.

I snarled as I was jolted to my feet. “Maybe if my hands were free I wouldn’t be tripping over your dead soldiers.”

“Keep dreaming,” he responded.

There was nothing to do but stumble along behind my captor as I waited for an opportunity. Normally battle stoked flames to rage throughout my body, but they stayed silent because of Kavon’s damn chains. The past couple weeks had made me feel powerful, but I now realized that was just an illusion. There were still people like Kavon who could walk all over me, snuffing me out with a thought.

More arrows cut through the air, embedding themselves in soldiers around me. Men crumbled to the ground as the clash of metal grew closer. A new explosion threw me into the air, sending me crashing bodily into a tree.

I groaned as I pushed myself to my feet. Pushed myself? My eyes widened looking down at my hands. They were unbound.

Kavon lay in a heap a few paces away, already beginning to stir. My energy was returning, trickling into my system now that those limiting chains were gone.

I had to escape. There would be no finding the general in this mess to exact revenge.

I darted behind the tree at my back as I felt something move through the air. A gleaming chain whipped into the tree I was just in front of, sending bark flying through the air.

“Get back here!” Kavon’s voice filtered towards me.

I stayed silent, peeking around my tree trunk to see Kavon running towards me. I turned to run away, sending a pitiful spurt of flame towards him in the process. There was no way it would do more than make him blink.

Two men appeared in front of me during my mad dash. One in the classic black of the Jihadian army, the other wearing nondescript armor. They were locked in a fierce battle, the ambusher jabbing his spear at the Jihad.

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I came barreling into the melee, knocking the Jihadian soldier to the ground from behind. I proceeded to send a flaming stomp at his head, caving in his skull before he could turn to see me.

As I stooped to grab his sword, keeping a wary eye on the new faction, he spoke. “Are you Wrath’s?”

I just looked at him in confusion, already turning to keep moving when he spoke again. “Nevermind. We are here for you. Come!”

He turned to the direction I was planning on running towards when his head exploded. Gore splashed across my face as the links of chain retracted through the air. This time, Kavon had no words to say.

Neither did I. He whirled his unconventional weapon in a circle above his head for a moment before sending it flying towards me. It moved with a speed unexpected for how hard he seemed to throw it, splitting the air like an arrow.

I dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the projectile as it cracked in the air like a whip beside my head. My flames danced powerfully inside of me, but I kept them restrained, using them only to enhance my body for utmost speed.

Kavon had captured me before by snuffing my flames and limiting my movement. I would not make the same overextension again. He marched towards me and readied another blow as I shuffled backwards, keeping a wary eye on his weapon.

It snapped through the air. I pivoted to the side, making myself a smaller target as it whistled past me. Still I didn’t engage, eyeing his movements intently.

Common soldiers hollered and did battle around us, but my world narrowed to only include the knight set to chain me again. I would never go back to that cage, where my energy was drained and I was powerless. Powerless like I had been when those soldiers cut my family apart.

Kavon’s shoulder twitched forwards. There! I darted forwards and to the left as his chain narrowly missed me once again. Only this time I wasn’t retreating.

His eyes widened in surprise as I closed the distance with a diagonal slash. He raised a gauntlet to intercept the blow, sending my blade sparking from his armor. I followed up with a quick gout of flame towards his eyes, which he flinched back from. My boot found his chest to send him crashing into a tree.

I pressed my advantage, flames beginning to twist from my body. Keep them controlled, I told myself.

He bounced from the tree back towards me as I thrusted my stolen blade in a stab through his visor. His chain somehow returned to his hands, and he snapped it between them like in the general’s tent.

My sword halted in mid air, like it had suddenly been encased in rock. Any flames outside my body were smothered immediately as a shockwave burst from his chain. I felt an icy chill begin to creep through my skin, dousing any energy it encountered.

He returned my kick with one of his own, driving the breath from my lungs and sending me crashing to the ground.

“You will be still,” he commanded as he thundered towards me.

My mother’s face replaced Kavon’s as he started twirling his chain once more. She looked on in horror at the blade slicing through the air to take her life. I was silent, unmoving just as I had been then, energy draining from my system and leaving only an empty pit.

Mom’s gaze turned to look me dead in the eyes. Her look of terror morphing into one of cruel amusement.

“What will you do?” She said.

“Will you be still?”

I felt an ember at my core spark, yet to be consumed by the creeping ice in my veins. That ember grew. It consumed anything around it to become stronger, to become everything. That ember was rage. It was Wrath.

I let a feral scream boom from my throat as my entire being was doused in molten heat. The ice evaporated from my veins and I surged to my feet. I focused all the energy coursing through me into my skin and muscles, packing it into every fiber. That flame condensed, it hardened into lava.

I sidestepped the gleaming chain as it whipped towards me, watching it pass beside my body as if in slow motion. My hand grabbed the chain. I pulled.

Kavon let out a gasp as he was wrenched from his feet to come hurtling to me. I burst from my feet, raising my knee as I met him in the air.

Metal dented under my kneecap as I connected with his breastplate. I felt ribs crunch as Kavon exploded away from me, disappearing into the whirling cloud of dirt that surrounded everything.

A deep thud echoed back towards me as his body slammed into something. I went to pursue, fire streaming from my eyes.

“Wow, ain’t you something huh,” a bubbly voice called out to me from behind.

I turned without thought, readying a blast of flame to silence the voice.

“Aw, don’t look at me like that. Ain’t the time or place to be getting me all hot down there,” she said with a laugh. I had to double take, snapping out of my animalistic focus. A girl stood before me rhythmically tossing and catching a throwing knife. She had to be around my age, and was wearing a skirt dress of all things. Entirely out of place on the battlefield.

“Well if you won’t do the talking, I guess I will,” she said and skipped towards me.

“Names Jasmine!” She said as she bent over to offer me her hand. Proffering her knuckles like she wanted me to kiss them.

“I’m Saigon,” I responded automatically as I eyed her hand. I readied myself. “Now what are you doing here?”

A Jihadian soldier stumbled into our little clearing away from the clash of battle. She flicked her throwing knife at him with a smile. He blew apart, an explosion sending pieces of him spraying in all directions.

“Well Saigon. We’re to be allies!” She cheered.