Quickly checking our surroundings we run to the nearest, not yet broken, building. Nearing the entrance to the building, I put my hand around her shoulder, trying not to fall to my knees. After going inside and checking the surrounding rooms, we release a sigh of relief when we dont find anything inside. We are in no possiosion to fight anything.

Not able to take it anymore my knees start to give out and I sit on a floor. "It's really bad this time, El" I let out through my clenched teeth. I see panic in her hazel eyes as she rushes to my side. "Don't say that, you can heal. We'll pull through this" she says as she cuts off what remains of my tattered top with the small knife she keeps on her belt.

I can see her eyes begin to redden as she looks at the wounds on my stomach and chest. A gaping hole could be seen on the left side of my stomach with another, smaller hole being above it. On my chest and stomach are a lot of smaller puncture wounds and a few cuts. "We'll survive, we'll kill them, yeah?" I hear Noel say, I fell like it's more for her than for me. "HEY, look at me!" My eyes, struggling to stay open now that the adrenaline is starting to leave, meet hers. I can see some tears on the edges of them. I cant remember the last time I saw her cry.

I'd like to tese her for crying, I probably would have tesed her any other time. But right now I cant bring myself to do that. "You should run north" I struggle to get those words out. I know we said we would never separate, but I also know we can't escape together. "I will run south, they will most likely follow after me. You will be able to kill the few that they release to go after you" I cough, blood running down the side of my mouth. I really messed up this time.

Seeing my bleeding wounds, Noel wipes her eyes. "I have to stop the bleeding" I hear her softly say, her hands placed a few centimeters above my injury. Knowing what is comming I clench my teeth in anticipation. Not a second later a layer of ice is starting to cover my deepest wound. My whole body feels like it's on fire. A few minutes I feel a soft cloth wraping around my chest and stomach.

I can see that she has no intension to leave. I can't say that I'm not happy that she is here with me. But... "My wounds are too deep to heal in time. They will find us soon." I take a deep breath, my whole chest burning. "I want, no, I need you to run. I can give you at least a minute more to escape" I manage to get out. I feel stupid, I could have waited. I should have waited.

"What are you trying to say?" Noel says, checking me for any injury that she hasn't covered up yet. I can hear a quiver in her voice. "You kno.." I get cut off mid sentence by her. "We got so far being together. I'm not leaving, not now, not ever!" I can see tears starting to form again.

In my mind surfaces a distant, but still clear memory. I could see a smaller, almost too diferent to recognize, version of Noel with tears in her eyes. We were standing in a half broken house, not too disimilar to the one we are at now. In the room were also three other people, well corpses to be exact. On them could be seen patches of frozen skin around puncture wounds and burn marks anywhere else. I can still vividly remember the smell of burning flesh. Those were the first lives that fell before us.

I could still remember Noel holding on to my arm, shaking. Mustering up all my courage and strength I led her to the other side of the room, careful to avoid steping on the corpses. After opening the door of the room we ran away as fast and far as our bodies alowed. Stoping in an emty alley we tried to catch our breath. I can still clearly remember the promise we made then and there. No matter what we promised to allways stay together and protect each other. I can't remember a time after that when we weren't together.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

My attention snaped back to the present. In the distance I could hear footsteps aproching. Lifting up my arm, I wipe away the tears that have started to fall down Noels face. It seems that Noel also hears those footsteps, because she quicly stands up. I take her outstreched hand as I stand up. I can feel my body losing strenght with every big movement I make.

I try to form a smile on my face as I say to her "Then we will die as we lived, Noel, together". I would give her a hug, but my injuries are already critical. "Together" Noel repeats, once again wiping her tears away. As if fliping a switch, I see her eyes harden as we start to approach the broken down window. Looking out of the window we can see two humanoid creatures, followed by five dog like beasts.

Keteron, the tall, gray-ish blue, humanoids, lift their hands and poit at us. They release a low growl-like sound and the beasts start to run at us. Noel seeing them started to form a spear made of ice so by the time the beasts started to run at us she was already halfway complete. I'm unable to form my usual weapons as most of my energy is going to my wounds and keeping me alive. I only make a few balls of fire and throw them at the aproching beasts, hoping to slow them enough to give time for Noel to finish.

Three beasts running in the front get hit by my fire, slowing down for a few seconds, but they resume running as if nothing happened. Seeing the damage, I can't help but curse myself. I should have waited until Noel and I were better prepared. I can't belive my stupidity, more like I don't want to accept that I refused to wait a few months for our powers to get a qualitative improvement in power

As we step out of the building, I ready another, stronger fireball to fire at the beasts. In that time Noel finishes her ice spear. I can see that the spear isn't as good as it usually is, I can somewhat see through it, meaning she isn't putting as many layers of ice as she can. I know that she needs more time to add and copress the ice to make her spear sharper and stronger, but in my condition I am unable to give her that needed time.

I launch the stronger fireball at the closest beast, knocking it back and leaving a heavy burn mark on its snout and neck area. I can see purplish red blood pooling in the spot it feel. Before I can fully conjure another flame, the other four beasts close in on us. Noel, not waisting any time, gets in front of me and prepares to fight.

I see Noel thrusting her spear in the neck of the beast, killing it in one hit. In that time I conjure another fire ball hitting the beast on the left of Noel that tried to jump at her. Quickly pulling out her spear Noel stabs the beast on her right and instantly rolling to the left. The last beast jumped, landing in the spot Noel stood just seconds ago. In a smooth motion Noel stabs the last beast.

As I use what remains of my energy to launch a fireball at the Keteron, I see one of them oh their knees, summoning more beasts. Both I and Noel are exausted, we have fought with them for what feels like days, but I know that it has only been an hour our two. I see the other one easily deflecting the fireball I launched.

My heart grows cold as I see black dots forming in front of the Keteron that blocked my fireball. I use all of the remnaining strength in my body to run to Noel. I'm almost there as I feel the agonizing pain for the second time today. The only diferance beeing that this time i wasn't able to protect Noel.

My vison begins to darken as I and Noel fall to the ground, I can see giant holes in her chest. With the remaining strength, I grab Noels hand for the last time. I squeeze in with all the power I can. I hope she knows just how sorry I am for getting us here. I feel the guilt pool in my heart and not long after I can feel razor sharp teeth sink in my neck.