Damn, I zoned out for that last fight too.
Three fights have gone by since me and Tom’s match ended, all having been completely lopsided from the jump. Once the considerably stronger of any match used their best move, I practically disassociated.
All I needed was information on the victor, I don’t care for the highlights. Instead, I reflected on mine and Tom’s match, having made note of his clear progress throughout this tournament. One aspect of the fight had bothered me gravely, from the moment it happened until now.
Fuck, he actually hurt me.
Tom was many, many, many things, a decent student being among them. He took a special liking to his training, even when sometimes I utilized the opportunity to get off some moves I’d normally never attempt in a real fight. That, or someone at the same skill level as me.
This was by no means a jab at Tom, because I hit him with way more than he could handle on a regular basis. Every move he had in his bag coming into the Tournament was under my tutelage. His foundations that is, but we fundamentally differed in style.
He naturally gravitated to a water style, the most fucking annoying style man has ever conceived, and remains a stain on my pursuit of accepting the unfair bullshit I may encounter in life. Me, I liked a few different styles having played with air and earth based techniques. At my fundamental core however, and the style that had manifested into an affinity in the tournament, was fire. It just resonates with me at a spiritual level, much more than just an ‘I see red’ sort of deal. Much how Tom so crudely puts, the style and I just ‘fit’.
This is all to say, I knew Tom was going to be fine. Okay, I half-knew this...
Fine, I was confident there was a 40/60 split he was going to pull through. He’d been able to be annoyingly determined enough to get pretty decent sparring me. Granted, they were under certain self made handicaps for myself, but he had all the tools he’d need as far as I was concerned. For him to hit me wasn’t even that shocking, given the mind shattering nature of our new ‘reality’ or, whatever.
But for it to hurt? Okay, not like I haven’t been caught out before, shit happens. Twice?
Fucking alright. I get it, Tom, you’re trying real fucking hard, good for you.
That third time though. That fucking third time was too much. Either I messed around way too much with lesser opponents and got lazy, or he got better than I anticipated by a metric shitload. Which quite frankly doesn’t add up, considering he’d very recently hit a small ceiling in terms of skill development. his lesser body control had been holding back his minds’ commands more often than not.
By the end of the second finalist fight, I landed on the culprit of Tom’s marginal success last fight being a mixture of both. A grin formed across my face at the pride in having been right twice in one sitting. In fairness I’m sure he loathed having lost to me, though I’m not sure why he’s always so damn surprised. Thus far, barring the blonde lady with explosive hands, my priority 'numero uno' of possible threats had been checked off.
My second priority on the to-do list, at least until I can get back to my wife and daughter, is entertaining my Patron. Box checked once more. My Godly Friend Baloris found me decimating the poor souls who also chose his fire arena, and decided to message me around fight 22. It didn’t say who it was from, nor what they wanted, but just a blank page, with the text ‘nice’ at the center.
Unsure how Tom got texting to work, I brushed it off, and paid my visit to a few God’s a bit after. A couple were cool, at least in concept. One was all about war and shit, which is again very impressive and screams powerful ally but, I do enjoy a bit of joy every now and again. Didn’t feel like devoting my soul to an eternity of battle, I’m like 26.
I’m too old for that shit.
A few other gods were lame as fuck, talking about their ‘graciousness in inviting such a cocky, sniveling, back handed monster who had no reason to be as diabolically devious as they exhibited’. Old money, you know? Anyways, after like, 8 more fights, Baloris messaged me once more inviting me to meet. No name added, only a small image of a purple devil smiling.
“Ahh naw I’ve GOT to meet this guy.” I said aloud to absolutely no one in particular before accepting the offer.
The sounds of fire raging all around, the occasional whaling in terror, and odd little red demons floating about in a frantic manner felt like a warm blanket by the fire on a winter’s night. Along a stone pathway, with an endless pit of flames surrounding it flickering wildly, was open door that looked to lead directly into space.
“Welcome to my humble abode, Korbin.” A welcoming tone echoed through the fiery chamber, with a pressure in the anir alarming enough for me to whip around quickly in search of the source. At the end of the room sat a giant, scarlet skinned man in an untidy suit and tie. He held a flaming red cane, with a barbed pitchfork at the bottom. He had a long tail, with an arrow tipped shape at the end of it that waved in the air behind him. His head bore two long curved horns above his eyebrows. Balls of orange energy floating just an inch from the ends of each horn.
Heh, ‘balls’.
“Sup.” I answered, throwing up a ‘peace sign’.
One of the winged goblin things floating by looked at me like I’d just told the hulk his dick was small, and turned his little head to observe his master's reaction. He grinned, at me at least. He noticed the little guy though, and addressed him differently.
“You’re mistaken, little gnat. Admiring your glorious master isn’t until 7:30.”
Removing his fist from under his chin, he pointed his palm at the creature while still sitting in his throne 15 feet away. Instantly, a beam of orange energy fired into the creature’s head as it began screaming a terrible screech, before flying over the fire pit. Its eyes bursting with fire before it exploded, revealing confetti instead of blood and organs.
My belly laugh was uncontainable. My knees almost gave out from how hilarious that exchange had been. After gathering myself, I stood straight from holding my knees bent over, and addressed the legend.
“That was priceless. In terms of first impressions, 11/10.”
The devil chuckled, carefully observing me the whole time.
“I’m glad you find my authority around here so amusing. If only these little idiots shared our humor.”
“I like your vibe man. What’s your name?” I asked, now too invested to fuck around before knowing.
“My name is Beloris, God of Chaos, and Infernal Flame. I am among the oldest Devil’s in all of the 9 Hell’s and…second, in command of all the realms of Hell.”
Ouch, that ‘second’ part’s a soft spot, SO noted.
“I see, God of Chaos you said? How’d you get that?”
His head bounced back a bit, looking pleasantly taken aback by the question, like he hadn’t heard it in some time.
“Why, by being the bane of all that is orderly. I simply hate the illusion of perfect order. Without chaos, how the fuck could you even define order? It’s all self serving bullshit people too afraid to accept the reality of life and death use to justify their boring existence.”
“I’m listening.” I said, nodding thoughtfully.
“…no that, that’s pretty much it. Just a lot of tangential adventures rooted in ‘why not’ until I’d stumbled upon bearing my own faction. Now, I run shit here, just so I can fuck shit up everywhere else more efficiently.”
“‘That’s about it’ he says, as he proceeds to prove it in fact wasn’t it.”
“Touché mortal. You must know why you’re here?”
Scrolling over his fine China sets that’s swirled with dark energies and beautiful weapons displays, I answered, now playing catch with a neat looking vase.
“I assume we’re going to be God and Chosen buds? Couple effigies, some ritualistic murder between friends in exchange for cool God shit. That sort of thing?”
He smiled as I spoke, and laughed as I finished my thought.
“Ahh, yeah, yeah pretty much. There is certainly more to it than that, and you will be responsible-ish for handling very important business for me relatively soon. For the most part though, I like your style, Korbin.”
Now twirling an antique staff with hundreds of etchings and runes covering it, I froze, returning my physical attention to Beloris.
“Well, if you like that, you should see me in a be-.”
“That’s alright, Korbin. If you accept, I may have no choice in that that discovery if I wish to check in on you.”
“Oh, okay. So do I sign somewhere or like?”
“N-no.” He sighed, rubbing between his eyes with his finger and thumb.
“Do you accept my offer to become my Chosen? We have infernal mischief to do around here, and we could use the extra hands. Besides, unlike the rest of the notable Patrons taking their pick of the litter, I’m hungry. And, well, rich. What’ll it be?”
Pretending to consider my options, I placed my gaze on a painting hung nearby. It depicted Beloris slaying a dragon with a dagger, while also loving on a demon lady. The color pallet choice was curious, as I’d never seen red and purple blended so expertly. You’d think it’d come out looking almost dirty, or childish. Yet the professionalism with every stroke wa-hehe, ‘stroke’. It’s funny, cause he’s clapping them demo-
snap snap snap
Beloris was snapping his fingers at me now, trying to get my attention.
“Yoo-hoo hey, space cadet. Welcome home! So like, about that highly prestigious offer of being my Chosen…”
“Hm? Oh, yeah I’m down.”
Beloris clapped his hands, holding them folded together.
“Excellent.”
Snapping once more, he disappeared in a trail of his oil paint trail of existence, only to reappear right in front of me with the same smoke trail around him.
“Shake my hand.”
Reaching my hand back, I shook this Demon Gods hand similarly to how I would Tom, slapping his hand before clasping, and finishing with a snap.
“N-no, no you have to actually shake my hand. But that was fun, what was that?”
“Just thought you needed daps. No worries though.” With that, I shook his hand the old fashioned way, and a rush of power came over my body, along with a notification offering I join. I accepted, where I received a tite.
New Title earned!
-> Chosen Of The Chaos Devil - The infamous God of mischief himself has spurned a sense of kinship in you, and has deemed you worthy of his path and partnership alike. User can imbue their body in chaotic infernal energy, raising strength, agility, endurance, and vitality by up to a quarter their original stat level value for the duration of the skills use. Boost and backlash varies based on time used and amount boosted.
“Oh, it’s like a skill.”
“Yeah, yeah it is. You will also be recognized as my Chosen now, so go fuck shit up.”
“Sounds good, I’ll see you around, Lori.”
I waved to Beloris and turned around, waiting to go back. After a few seconds, I turned back around to see him staring, his eyelids low in disappointment.
“You know I’m the one who sends you back, right?”
I shrugged, “figured you’d appreciate the theatrics. So-rry.” I said, my hands bent upward in a defensive gesture.
He laughed, snapped, and sent me back to slay out my competition for a while. It was cool, using the boosting skill lightly whenever I felt like being creative in a fight. Then, Tom decided to do some crazy Flow switching bullshit, and damn near knocked me unconscious. If he’d hit me with that again…well, he couldn’t. So it didn’t matter.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Still, he forced me to crank up the boost skill from my title a bit more. Tom’s vastly improved speed made me use some shit I never showed him because, well, situations like this where I need to know more than others are a possibility.
I just couldn’t believe it was him, and here, of all combinations of people and places. Still, the look on his face was pretty hilarious, and I’d never got to actually throw him into a guillotine before because, well, couldn’t really murder your buddy on any given Tuesday afternoon before could you?
It wasn’t much of a sweat after the boost, so all’s well in the world for the time being. The loud ticking of another match about to commence interrupted my thoughts, only after the incredibly underwhelming ‘beep’ sounded. Except, no one was teleported. Instead, the same soft female voice rang through the arena once more.
“Congratulations, you’ve made it to the final round of the Placement Tournament! For your final test, each of you will be relocated to the finalists arena, where all five challengers will fight to the death, proving your prowess in more than a simple duel! Good luck champions, and remember, we’re all watching!”
Everyone began looking at one another in confusion before the sensation of a cool breeze against the back of my neck took the place of their concerned mumblings. Surveying my new surroundings, the other 4 finalists stood all around one another, forming a circle. Behind us, incredibly rocky mountains erected in unnaturally even inclines, and waterfalls all flowing into a body of water that bordered the massive biome.
Beautiful greens and flowers I’ve never seen peppered the grounds, reminding me there was more to stand on in life than principles and marble floors, or whatever the fuck the arena surfaces before were made from. Glancing at the confused faces of the competitors, the familiar feminine voice echoed through the valley.
“This is your final battle arena, you may begin the match…Now.”
Ready, I darted towards the biggest threat I’d assessed before anyone else could process the suddenness of our match; the blonde. She’s the only other fighter I’ve seen that I left with more questions than certainties. Of course, this was the top 5, so I should’ve guessed I wasn’t the only one to surmise her as the largest threat.
What I hadn’t considered, was all 3 of the other contestants agreeing not only that the blonde was a danger, but me as well. Realization washed over me as the feeling of an arrow pierced my shoulder blade as I made my move.
Damnit, too hasty, Korbin.
Glancing over my shoulder, the archer in green had her bow knocked and aimed directly at my face from 8 feet away. Knowing fully and well what the real real danger was, I twisted and grabbed hold of the arrow, and threw it to the side while bracing my face for the next one.
The sound of bark creaking and shifting loudly exploded to my side. My timing tossing that arrow away couldn’t be better, as she’d intended on bluffing the next shot to tear me in two with an emerging tree right away. The loud pops were accompanied by a man’s yell undergoing the doppler effect. Before I could seek out the source, it invaded my eye-line instead as the Wind dude flew away from the impact of a tree growing and smacking him in the chest.
Turning to where she’d been, the blonde was halfway through a kip up from the ground. The trajectory of the wind mage implied I might’ve saved my only threat here from a disadvantageous position by tossing that arrow away, hitting the wind warrior by accident.
Fucking brilliant.
Now activating my boosting skill at about 10% it’s maximum ability, I turned my attention to the blonde once more. She’d hand-sprung back and into the air, now kicking into an approaching cloud of vapor that exploded just in front of her foot, igniting the steam before it ceased to exist.
Hoping to gain the numbers advantage, I turned to join the trident wielder. To my unpleasant shock, she whipped the butt end of her weapon at my jaw upon detecting me. With my hands glowing bright orange I caught it the tridents back end, and front kicked my grudge bearer in the chest while keeping her trident for myself.
Before I could launch it toward her neck while she was prone the mist shot out of her trident, curving directly for my hands. The mist felt like hot water, and I figured I’d pay no mind to some lame jacuzzi skills when I can become a fucking flame.
The scalding pain and blistering skin on my hands disproved that theory swiftly, and I dropped the stupid oversized fork. Patience waning, I abandoned my plan of focusing on the priority ‘problem’ and addressed all of them at once instead. With a flair, my hand grappled tightly on the green coated archer collar. She’d made the mistake of turning her back on me to fend off the returned wind warrior. He’d been smacked so far into the sky his outline had disappeared. Yet it only took him about a minute before he was back in the fray.
My hips slid under the archers as I leveraged my weight, torquing her arm over my shoulder while twisting my hips. Before she could tumble all the way over me, I pushed the boost up only slightly, adding enough juice to throw her 5 feet through the air into the rock face beside us. The back of her head clapped hard against the unnaturally cut rock wall.
Yeah, that was definitely well deserved jail time pre-integration.
Before I could capitalize, her prior attacker decided to follow suit of the steam lady and attack me instead of the incredibly vulnerable opponent downed and actively concussed. The wind warrior went on the attack being much more aggressive and copious flurry’s of strikes than the counter attacking approach he’d took in his last fight. Due to his speed, the timing required to parry his regular attacks with my sword while dodging their copycat swipes in the air gave little room for miscalculations.
His incessant jumping and flying about was frustrating to hit back, but not too difficult to handle. Clearly, this guy likes air so much, he’d rather be in it than grounded handling people problems, so I let him.
One more attack, and I’ll make my move.
He swiped twice from a sprinting stance after having bounced from rock wall to the ground.
I blocked one strike, and avoided the other ducking down to free my inertia for a sweep, using my sword hand to wedge his blade off center where he’d finished his second swipe. Stepping hard on his foot, met with the sensation of this spitfire trying to leap away, he pulled hard on my foot for a time as brief as it took for him to rubber band back down to the floor.
Swinging my other leg around, I kicked out the ankle of his planted foot as it fell to the ground, his body crashing to the floor after it. Yet again, my advantage would go to waste being forced to dodge away from a descending barrage of arrows. Blocking the many arrows as fast as my focus would allow, I continued backing up the inclined mountain.
The archer did her tree teleport thing after firing a series of arrows in rapid succession, but she wasn’t covered enough by the flash of attacks for me to miss it. Turning behind me, I assessed above where the many trees stood along the mountain face, only to be greeted by a trident hurtling towards my chest. Dropping my sword, I caught it by two prongs on the side instinctively.
I’d momentarily lost sight of the incoming trident, giving rise to a relieved ‘fhew’ from me audibly after the catch. My relief was quickly extinguished by an explosion that erupted from a few feet behind me. Twisting my neck, I found the blonde with her back to me now, a dozen or so arrows cracked or shattered around her, behind me.
“They’re cooperating too much, they must’ve talked amongst each other, or had their God’s set this up.” She hollered over her shoulder before pointing her first two fingers, serving now as a damn flamethrower. The wind warrior only appeared for a moment before launching back up in the air, his hanging body wrap’s charred as he burst back skyward.
Miss-mist had recovered her trident by now, and began sending her malevolent fog toward me.
“Fog 6 o’clock”, my informal acceptance of our temporary truce via a warning was met with flames firing from her hand over my shoulder. I began avoiding the mist that hovered a mere 3 feet away and approaching.
Knowing the outcome of fire hitting the mist, I channeled my boost into my calves and leapt after the flame. The mist ignited once more, the warmth of the fire mana blossoming its orange fiery pedals around me feeling like a wonderfully warm embrace.
Behind the flash stood the trident lady, her eyes bulging indicating she had no notion of a counter attack. Odd, she’s literally used one move, what do you expect? Anyways, my boot slammed into her in the chest, sending her flying down the slightly inclined mountain face. An arrow wizzed to my left, and I didn’t sit still to find its source.
Planting hard, I channeled my boost all into a single calf, and exploded with a mana concentrated jump up the mountain, the sound of rocks crumbling under my foot and arrows littering the ground behind me, followed by some familiar loud wooden creeks. Having glanced up, the blondes hands appeared full handling the wind warrior again, only 10 feet up the mountain from me.
Psh, she’s got it.
Turning back, my vision was blocked by a jumble of tall willow trees. They kept sprouting, and I questioned what quiver could hold all of these damn arrows. That was, until my vision spotted movement atop one of the myriad of branches. She placed her hand on the tree, then removed it pinching her fingers. An arrow revealed arrow tip-first coming out of the tree.
“Hey! Just so you know, that’s some bullshit!” I said through cupped hands directly at her. Her face was priceless realizing I was looking right at her in her little shade spot. My smile dropped to genuinely confusion at seeing her shoot an arrow at her tree from point blank.
Why would yo-..SHIT!
The memory of her torturing that narcissistic prince flashed just in time as I leaned my head, the wind of her arrow having flown out of a tree beside me. If she’d had one behind me, I’d be dead. Luckily, she chose my peripherals to attack from. Looking back upwards, she had vanished, however the popping of wood gave her plan away.
Using the loud thumps of her approaching footsteps, I timed dropping my hip closest to her, using my rear hand to catch her wrist that flew toward my neck holding an arrow. Twisting her hand in my grip, I contorted her arm up and away from me to disarm the arrow, and used my nearest leg to wrap behind her knee. Quickly transferring the boost to my hand holding her wrist away, I let go of it while dropping an elbow down on her face. My hamstrings flexed hard pulling her leg out with mine simultaneously.
Her head repulsed violently from the first hit, and bounced hard off the ground after. Yet, she didn’t disappear.
How resilient.
The loud crunches of now fallen dead leaves gave away my flanker, allowing me time to face the oncoming trident headed for my chest.
Ugh, how annoying.
Not wanting to waste any more time, I declined her lazy, horseless jousting form, and kicked up some leaves in the air in front of me. Side stepping, I timed her entering the mini leave storm and side kicked her ribs as she charged through, sending her careening into a tree with a loud ‘ah-fucker!’, rousing a giggle out of me as I ascended towards the blonde and wind warrior.
If we can make this a 2 on 2, this stalemate will break before I tucker out too fast.
Constantly boosting bore little effect up to this point, except for the fight with Tom where I went a lot harder on it. The sluggishness of my muscles kicked in the moment I’d sent him spinning, making me take a moment to assess before the guillotine hold. Meaning, if I wanted to use that on the blonde, I’d need to preserve until my chance came.
So, naturally, I decided we’d jump the shit out of their best fighter; the wind warrior.
They had taken their fight much further up the near-evenly sloped mountain, now nearing the top where its inclined sharpened. The wind warrior was mid-swiping at air towards the floor once as I arrived within earshot, the blonde glancing at me before returning her attention to her original focus.
She’d looked completely clean, as if she hadn’t even taken a tumble though she very much had.
An overwhelming urge to stab her in the back came over me before she leaped flipping up in the air, her reasoning unclear at first. The sound of wind whirling at me from my right only gave time to brace my stance, preparing to parry as the wind warrior appeared above me where I’d turned.
Before the wind warrior could send out a swipe, however, a bright explosion shot out behind him as his chest exploded into chunks towards me, a boot just barely visible before I shielded my eyes from the mixture of organs and bone ricocheting off me.
The wind warrior disappeared, along with his innards, and the blonde's feet clapped beside me as she landed.
“Nice distraction, let’s clean this up quickly.” She said, before turning towards the other two who now ascended at a slower pace than any other attack thus far.
Apprehension? Cunning but so, so disappointing.
“Thanks, totally did that on purpose, now you take the mist bitch I-.”
“No.” She interjected in a monotone, before leaping towards the archer, swinging a heel kick to destroy an arrow before blocking the other, a giant tree sprouted sideways onto the angled mountain beside them.
“Or fuck it, I will, BREAK.” I said aloud while clapping to no one.
The mist lady was now just 8 feet from me below the mountain, her face contorted in confusion at my solo huddle.
“You’re fucking weird, you know that?” She snapped, in a condescending tone.
“You spit mist out of a fork and I’ve only kicked your ass, I’ll take weird over weak and one dimensional anyday, babydoll.” I retorted, before clicking twice my tongue while pointing with a wink.
She did not like that.
Pointing her stupid fork again wearing the ugliest angry face, she fired a stream of mist, only it didn’t expand into a cloud per-usual. Instead, it stayed tightly packed as it whipped forward, creating a small water shard. I barely had time to react as it rocketed at me, my sword sheathing the water shard off its blade. Continuing my forward motion, I side stepped her jabbing prongs, throwing my sword up as she tracked it with her eyes.
Grasping her trident under where the prongs split, I twisted while pushing off of it with my hand outward. Feeling the sword fall into my hand, I jammed it into her throat. Problem was, my grip was opposite what I’d assumed, meaning my pommel had punctured through her throat, collapsing her trachea as she fell wriggling, gasping for air while gagging on her own blood.
“Really? You let me do that twice? That’s on you honestly, that’s ridiculous. Nice water move though.” I said, before she shakily flipped me the bird and disappeared.
“So, we’re going to pretend like you meant to not stab her?” An effeminate voice sounded behind me, my stance now facing the blonde.
“Archers done?” I asked.
“Been done, I’ve been watching for a little. Brutal quip at the end by the way.”
“Maybe, but she struck me as practical enough to know what I said was helpful, considering she’ll live to learn the lesson.”
She grinned at my response.
“I didn’t take you for the ‘mentor’ type of guy, Korbin.”
Yeah, she definitely never got close enough to hear my name.
“Maybe you didn’t do your homework…Carey.”
“Not my name.”
“Could be, if I imagine hard enough. Now are you done flexing you got intel on me, or are we doing this?”
Her smile remained, but her eyes narrowed.
“Yeah, alright. Make this interesting for me, would you, doll?
Hey? I wanted the last qui-
Fire replaced my view, forcing me to retreat to maintain a visual. Of course, she’d stolen my move and followed her fire burst, a heel flying towards my chin. My lead hand raised her ankle just in time as the air above my head exploded, my ears throbbing as it’s filled with a deafening ringing tone.
FINALLY.
Thoroughly pissed, I ignited my boosting skill to 85% its maximum while spin kicking her back as she contorted trying to land gracefully. Her body shot forward, tumbling at an angle down the slight sloped mountain. Her arms extended, her legs twirling as she flew to her feet. Before resuming our fight, she winced, looking stiff for a moment.
Pfft, liar.
Not falling for it, my body illuminated with energy as I launched towards the blonde, maintaining my balance in case she reacted quick enough. She did, only to be met with an elbow into her forearm, flopping down as my sword extended toward her stomach. We were close, as in hugging range close, which is why her midsection twisting around the blade as she hooked me in the jaw stunned me a moment.
My face didn’t even move thanks to my boosted toughness, however her hand anppeared to suffer some damage bouncing off my face with a yelp. Shaking her hand, the blonde hand-sprung back with her sword hand. Not willing to let this quickly accumulating fatigue catch up to me, I pressed forward. Before finishing her flip from the floor, the hand she’d hurt previously appeared to hold a grip of sand she promptly chucked into my eyes as I approached her landing zone. I tried to close my eyes in time, but it felt like the sand had wormed under my eyelids.
Half blind, the foot hurdling for my face barely missed as I ducked instinctively, nearly falling head first into her sword, now wedged between two rocks.
How the fuc-
Thoughts cut short by the feeling of her shin hitting my ribcage, followed by a fist to the side of my head.
Vision blurred a moment before she greedily pushed again, just as one of my eyes cleared a bit. Flaring my boost to its maximum capacity, I gripped her by her throat, cutting her next head kick short as I smothered her space. Feeling her throat crumbling in my hand, I focused my energy into my forearm muscles. She didn’t panic, she merely closed her eyes while her face quickly reddened. Before I could wring the life from this monster of a woman, my grip loosened slightly, and her eyes lit up with a grin.
Shit.
A rush of exhaustion took over my body, her feet finding the ground once more. Her hand appeared to accrue a small amount of sand-like powder that moved to line her fists, before appearing quickly in my view. When I opened my eyes again, I was in a white room full of people, a lot of them I recognized from absolutely stomping the floor wi-…
Oh fuck…I lost?