Ulrika is the first one to make a move on Garret. She strikes his shield with the right-handed sword. He deflects her arm out to create an opening to thrust his sword forward. With her left sword, she smacks it away from her stomach. It goes past her waist. They’re both in bad positions for a counterattack, so I come over to back her up. I activate my Delayed Gasm attack before reaching them. Once I’m a foot from her, it triggers, sending him through the crowd of the cultist. I catch her from the sudden backblast.
“Thanks,” Ulrika says, standing upright. “Goodness, you shredded his armor.”
“Hmm,” I say, looking at the metal pieces on the ground. “Weak armor.”
“Weak? I felt that power. You were aiming to kill him.” The circle of cultists starts moving in, but Garret commands them to fall back. Behind me, the fighting from my initial point reaches over to us in a wave of roaring violence.
“Damnit. Here we go again.” I scoot Ulrika past me to cover her flank.
“He’s coming! Watch out!” She tackles me to the ground before I can evade it on my own. Garret flies over us and instantly stops in mid-flight.
“Die!” He says in a low roar. I raise my sword to block his downward thrust aiming at my stomach. Lightning sparks off from his sword, shocking me, but I maintain defense as I stand to my feet. His helmet is gone, and parts of his chest armor are missing. Some of his bruised skin is showing through the holes in his shirt.
“Oh, that has got to hurt,” I jest.
“I’ll make you suffer for that!” I blast him again using one of my standard attacks. This time I aim for his stomach. He slides back about six feet hunched over, scraping the dirt underneath his heavy metal boots. Slowly, he straightens, laughing with a sinister wide grin.
“Crap! My manna is low!”
“Fallback! Let me wear him out,” Ulrika says.
“No. I can still fight.”
“Guys,” Haleema says, touching my shoulder. I can sense mana flowing down in the center part of my chest. She winks at me, then lets go of my shoulder. “We do this together.” I agree with a head nod. Ulrika does the same.
Garret lunges at us. Ulrika takes the lead to engage. They clash with such speed and violence; that I’m not sure when to jump in to offer my aid.
Damnit! Why am I so hesitant all of a sudden?
Haleema leaps into the action. Garret sees her coming, so he bashes Ulrika with his shield. She’s shoved to the ground. Haleema swings for his head with her stuff, but he ducks under it. I break out of my mental wall to gang up on him. She gets kicked in the stomach so hard it sends her flying into me. I manage to catch her without hurting too much myself.
“Ugh! That was force magic,” Haleema says. She retaliates using the same attack from her staff. He jumps over it, doing a side twirl, then fires lightning at us. I jump out of the way, but she absorbs it with a floating clear yellow tinted shield.
Ulrika kicks her legs up to stand on her feet. Garret’s shield fades away when he sees her. He blasts lightning from his fingers. She crosses her swords together, taking the brunt of the stream.
“Ulrika!” I say. The power of the electricity starts vaporizing her gloves and sleeves. I run to him with my sword aiming for his bare chest. The tip of my blade reaches about an inch from his skin, then I suddenly get shocked.
I instantly drop to my knees with my head facing the ground. My entire body is numbed from any pain. I’m out of breath and paralyzed.
“Kaioson!” Ulrika yells.
“You don’t look too good. I’m amazed you’re still alive after that,” Garret says.
“Kaio, get up!” The only thing I can move is my eyes. I view my hands to see what’s going on with me. They’re bruised with root-like markings that go up to my forearm.
“Stand! Fight through it,” Haleema says.
“Your partners are begging for your survival. This’ll be a sad sight for them in just a moment.” All I can do is listen to his crackling stream of lightning attack them. It’s all over for me.
“No!” Ulrika screams. I hear her rapidly approach, then she tackles him. “You will not take him away from me!” She hammers him with her fist. In the cover of the attack, Haleema grips my chest and zaps it with healing. The numbness in my body is gone, but it’s replaced with sharp stinging pain.
“Ugh,” I groan, clutching my chest and legs.
“Sorry, Kaio. I’m low on energy, but take all I have left,” Haleema says.
“Don’t waste it on me.”
“Sorry. I just did.” I look behind to find her smiling. Ulrika and Garrets grunting gets my attention. He rolls her on her back and tries punching her. I tackle him off, kick his face as hard as possible, and then wildly deliver blows packed with force to his face.
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“Get off of me!” Garret says. He tries using his power against me. It’s weak yet still packs a painful punch.
“This ends now,” I say. I power through the pain to continue trying to punch his face in. My pants, shirt, and sleeves start incinerating in the same fashion Ulrika’s clothing did. His power fades alongside his defense. I get to land more shots into his face, plunging it into a bloody mess.
“Hey, that’s enough,” Ulrika says. I quickly glance at her then stop when I see blood coming out of her nose.
“You made my wife bleed, you bastard!” My anger goes through the roof. I’m raging so hard that I choose to choke him instead of ravaging his face with my bloody knuckles. He cheap shots me a right hook, knocking me off balance, but I regain my hold over his throat. “Twice you’ve laid your hand upon my wife! I will fucking kill you!” His voice squeals as he tries to gasp for air.
“Kaioson, stop!” She pushes me off of him so hard that I slam my head on the ground. I’m momentarily dazed by it.
“Ulrika, what the hell was that for?” She kneels between us. I can faintly see what looks like lightning sparking around her. When my eyes focus back, it turns out to be true. Her eyes are glowing green like lamps. They dim when she rests her hand on my cheek. “You’re... When did you..?”
“Nevermind that. He cut open your lip pretty badly.” She moves directly in front of me, blocking my partial view of Garret.
“Is he dead?”
“Stop. You need medical attention.”
“No, I need to know if that asshole is gone.”
“Drop it.” I try to get up, but she slams me down to the ground. “Kaioson, that’s enough!” She lays her hand on my chest. I try to resist her but stop entirely after exhausting all my strength.
“Let me have at him.”
“No,” she whimpers in a soft shout, shaking her head.
“Ulrika, get... off... of... me.”
“You won. You defended my honor. Now please, settle down. Your anger is frightening me.” She’s intent on not letting me go. I’m pinned under her weight and restraint. “Come on, Kaio. Stop forcing me to do this.” I take a moment to induce calmness by closing my eyes and taking a single deep breath. It doesn’t work.
“I give up.”
“Don’t say that.” She moves her weight to my lap. I sit back on my elbows to see what’s going on around me. All I see is a sea of Paladins subduing the remainder of the cultist.
“Did we win?”
“Mhmm.” Ulrika sits beside me to blow the blood out of her nose. I refrain from touching my cut lip to avoid staining my fingers from my blood. Haleema knees over me with her thumb under my chin. She lifts it, examining my injury closely, then checks my bruised arms.
“You guys need a healer, but more so you, Kaioson. Your hands and arms are severely bruised.” Haleema says.
“I’m sure it’s bad all around,” I say, chuckling in pain.
“You bonehead,” Ulrika comments. She smirks, which is a relieving sight.
“I might have a tiny bit of energy to stop the bleeding in you two.”
“After we’re patched up, we need to have a talk. Haleema, help me pick him up.”
When Haleema stops the bleeding from our wounds, they bring me to my feet with my arms around their shoulders. We slowly stagger out through the battlefield as the Paladins cut down the cultist. They navigate around torn-up corpses of humans, elves, and orcs.
“Gods,” I say.
“I’m right there with you. It’s always hard to fathom the aftermath of any battle,” Ulrika says.
“Agreed. Events like this will follow us until the world purges Nite,” Haleema says. It saddens me to hear that. I’m not looking forward to this war.
“Woe is me,” I say.
“Stay strong, Kaioson.”
“Yeah. We’ll get through this,” Ulrika says. I don’t have any words to say to help bring myself up. Today I have seen the worst of me take over and the heightened horrors of an actual battle. “Kaio, talk to me. Your silence is troubling.”
“I need to lay down,” I say.
----------------------------------------
Haleema sets me in a field tent that has minor wounded soldiers in it. I’m lying on an elevated bed far in the back in my underwear. She and Ulrika tend to my bruised-up body from the electrocution I sustained. My lip is fixed, but I have a scar on both of my lips. Ulrika says it’s an excellent addition to my overall face. It’s something she’ll kiss just to remind me of what I did for her. I’m not too keen on seeing how it looks since I’m tired and want to sleep more than anything.
“Okay, I’ve removed all the bruising. Thank the gods they have elixirs. How do you feel now?” Haleema says.
“I’m okay. I’m tired, though,” I say.
“Alright. I’ll leave you to slumber. I need to find out what’s going on in the world. I wonder how the other nations faired,” Haleema says.
“Tell me what you’ve discovered later.”
“I will.” Once she exits the tent, Ulrika lays a blanket on me. “So...”
“Give me a moment,” Ulrika says. She crosses her arms and closes her eyes with her head down. “You lied to me and left to go fight Garret by yourself. That was stupid.”
“It was.”
“Kaioson, you could’ve died. You’ve never been in a fight like this.” I remain silent and look away to avoid enraging her. “Your anger needs to be controlled in situations like this.”
“So what would you call it when Rhyndac took those cuffs off?”
“That was different.”
“How so?”
“We were isolated from any trouble. I had to show that bitch that what she did is unacceptable.” I sit up, keeping my eyes on her. She squints for a slight moment.
“I had to show the same anger.”
“But you could have done it in a safer environment, Kaioson! Not on the fucking battlefield where these cultists could’ve jumped you!” I scoff at her. She gasps then punches me in the arm.
“Ouch! Damnit, Ulrika. I get it. I’m sorry for abandoning you and how I behaved, but let this be clear. I will not let anyone lay hands or insult you go unscathed. You are precious to me.” I have to look away to prevent some tears from building up. “You’re precious... Unique... The love of my life. I just couldn’t let that go.” She hugs me close from my side. I keep my arms where they are, but I’m thrilled to have this.
“Don’t you ever leave me like that ever again, understand?”
“You have my word.”
“And keep your anger in control.” She gently caresses my left cheek while tickling the other with her nose. “You’re scary when you are enraged.”
“I’m so sorry you saw that.”
“Hey, we’re even. You saw me, and I saw you. What an intense couple we are.” I lay back on the bed. She fixes the cover to stop right under my neck, then faces the wall with her hands in her lap. Her reposition reminds me of my alternate way of meditating when I don’t want to sit with my legs crossed. Is she going to meditate when I’m sleeping? “Rest up, my love. I’ll be right here till you wake.”
“Right there? Like that?”
“Mhmm.” I’m kind of impressed she’s attempting this again. Maybe in thirty minutes, she’ll give up. I’ll be surprised if she remains here until I awake. The only problem I can see is her shoulders are tense.
“Loosen your shoulders.”
“Sleep,” she whispers with one eye on me. Her shoulders come down in a more natural posture.
“Alright, alright.”
Gosh... I’m glad today’s clash ended with us making it out okay. Our unavoidable fate is looking grimmer, judging by how desperate Nite wants to take over the world in the name of Zadione. Damn, with the way this is going, she might be already resurrected.
“Shit,” I blurt out through my teeth.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was thinking about how this massive attack could have made Zadione stronger.”
“Let’s hope that’s not the case. I absolutely don’t want some crazed crybaby bitch ruling over us.”
“Yeah... Let’s hope...”