The ground split under Amelia’s leap, stone spraying in a hundred fractals to join the rain. She closed in on Astra with three great bounds, each taking her yards and sending a grinding shudder through the earth.

A fist struck Astra’s arms like the prow of a boat, crushing muscle and sending pain to lash her very bones as she stumbled away. The struck limb faltered, numbed and enfeebled by agony even as Astra backed off. She didn’t manage even a single pace before another strike followed, this time bringing a shin to meet her thigh.

She gaped at the chilling pain of Amelia’s blow, stumbled and fell as her leg gave way entirely. Then let out a strangled gasp at the sensation of fingers closing tight around her throat, trapping air and blood. Astra clawed at the hand, finding the skin no easier to marr than steel as she was lifted upward one-armed.

Black eyes met Astra’s own as she was held there, kicking and flailing with lungs that blazed like fire. Her heart felt still at the sight of Amelia, and a terrible truth made itself known. There would be no glory found in fighting back against the girl’s best, no struggle to begin with.

Amelia and Astra had occupied different dimensions of strength from the start.

Unity screamed loud enough to drown out the wind and rain as he fought, punching every inch of enemy he could reach. The boy was stunned by the assault, surprise holding him still and inactive for precious moments as welts swelled and bruises darkened. Then he moved with urgency, snapping back to the focus of battle.

The boy’s wiry arms belied his strength, dragging Unity off with a single heave and sending him to roll in the puddles and filth caking the ground. He didn’t feel his raw flesh scraped again, didn’t even feel himself land. Just kept a cold thought tight on his magic, scrambled back up and closed in anew. Bim’s eyes widened as Unity pounced.

They rolled and fought, cursing and snarling like rats while dragging one another through the grime. Unity punched everywhere he could, scratched everywhere else. Pulled at hair, even gouged flesh with his teeth where there was no room to bring fingers to bear.

He barely registered the fight enough to taste blood as it drowned his tongue.

Bim’s hands seized him by both arms, holding them back and forcing an end to Unity’s assault. The boy heaved as he held him, straining to keep Unity at bay, veins marking the skin of his face and head.

For a moment they remained like that; each holding the other at a near equilibrium. Then Unity saw an opening, broke the stalemate as he stretched his neck and leaned forth. Bit down on the boy’s shoulder with every ounce of strength he could muster.

The hold broke, and Unity fell forwards to bite ever deeper. Skin, muscle and gristle all gave beneath the bladed intrusion of his teeth, head turning one way and the other to tear where resistance proved too strong for slicing.

A scream turned the air sharp in Unity’s ears, primal and raw as the torn skin on his own back. As much an animal’s as a man’s.

He ignored it, grinding his teeth ever deeper even while choking on blood.

Bim’s foot came to rest against Unity’s stomach, lashing out with fearsome strength and prying them apart- along with all the visceral tissue still holding strong in his mouth. Ichor trailed behind him as he flew, then stone drove the air from him.

Unity lay still for a moment as he waited the return of his breath. Panting, gasping. Face turned towards the sky, rain washing his maw of the sickening gore still filling it.

The magic had left him without his noticing, slipping from a distracted hold. He could feel scraps of flesh still stuck between his teeth as he reached back for it, running a tongue over the meat with disgusted fascination. More than that, he could feel his anger rousing anew. Given no more than a pause by his body’s surrender.

“Freak!” Came Bim’s voice. “Fucking monstrous freak!”

Rising, Unity looked up to see the boy already on his knees. One hand pressed tight against his ruined shoulder, blood streaming out from between meaty fingers to mingle with the sky’s tears.

He saw the hate burning in Bim’s eyes, unveiled fully at last. It stirred the coals of his own.

Crow rolled out from under Faroah, stood and ran. Got two paces before another tackle brought him down face-first. He lashed out blindly with an elbow, connecting with a wet crunch and driving the pressure from his back before scrambling free once more. He didn’t run a second time, turned instead to lash out with a boot and make certain his enemy would lie still.

It flattened the boy, bringing breathing room for him to sprint after the sphere. Crow closed in on it quickly. The prize seemed to have slown after first being caught.

He held it for only a moment before Faroah was on him again, striking from behind and lancing him with pain. Crow turned as the boy closed in, swung the sphere with all his strength and grinned as it glanced from his enemy’s temple. Faroah stumbled half to his back, helped down with another kick.

The sphere almost slipped from him at the movement, but Crow forced his grip still against the slick metal. A hand snagged his ankle while he focused, breaking his balance and leaving the prize to drop again as Faroah rose.

Crow punched, hissed as it met the boy’s lowered forehead and left knuckles groaning against skull. Faroah went low to take his legs again, then stumbled back as Crow’s knee met his face, curling up against his counters.

Fear bit into him as his enemy weathered the blows, flavoured by desperation. Every strike seemed another grain of sand gone from the hourglass.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Faroah faltered, falling from a kick to his side, and Crow turned without waiting to see how hurt the boy was. Enough time was lost already.

He ran, tumbled, turned, struck and wriggled free. Fended off his enemy with thrashing arms, slashed him with punches and kicks to stain the pooling rain with blood and left the boy coughing as he drove wind from him time and time again. Still Faroah didn’t relent, an unshakable certainty burning in his eyes. Tinged with madness.

Seconds turned to minutes as they fought without Crow finding his prize. He felt his frantic haste give way to a beaten weakness. Hope leaking from him to be replaced with acceptance.

It was only habit that drove his fight, for he soon realised it was lost.

Fear set Bim’s eyes alight as Unity attacked, his block wavering with it. Body flattening as if he might lean back through the ground itself to escape.

Unity paid no heed to it, found himself aware of his enemy’s condition only as a distant detail in his rage-addled mind. Cared about it no more than the weather. He just struck again and again, even as his hands grew numb and pained. Seeking to break down the defence and turn his blows upon unprotected flesh.

The boy bucked beneath him, stealing Unity’s balance and sending him tumbling free before rising himself. A blow caught his face from the side, snapping his head back among a sea of stars and leaving the legs that held him weak.

Unity ignored the triviality, resumed his attack. Felt fists grind meat once, twice, a half dozen times. Bim was fleeing from him in moments.

He chased the boy, following him with strikes as he ran. Drove him atop uneven stones and watched his footing slip and break, then bowled him over with another tackle, crawling atop him before the mystic could shake free again.

Bim stared where he lay, eyes wide and fearful, one hand pressed tightly against the weeping ravine in his shoulder. The wound was bigger than his fingers could fully cover, streaming blood even while he tried to pinch it shut. Filling Unity with delight.

His enemy said something, but Unity was past caring. Past even hearing. Bim wasn’t there anymore, his words couldn’t reach him. In his place stood every hateful stare Unity had ever received, every dark impulse he’d ever caved into. His own anathema.

And he was far from finished with the wretch.

Astra was thrown back and forth, up and down. Breaking rocks against her body, feeling flesh scraped crimson as it ground stone down like an aeon of tides. Every inch of her a palace of bruises, exhaustion and weakness growing by the moment.

There was no defending herself, not from Amelia. Not from whatever creature wore the skin of a Sieve’s contestant. She was too strong to guard, too fast to predict. Too unrelenting to weather.

All Astra could do was keep herself curled up and hope the assault stopped soon.

Blood filled her mouth from burst lips, then the world was tilted as a kick to the arm sent her spinning. The limb numbed instantly, falling slack beside her and remaining useless as she rolled to a stop.

Amelia was on her almost before she could blink, one hand seizing Astra by the throat and pinning her with a strength that left no room for struggling. The other remaining curled and tight by the girl’s side, like a cocked pistol.

Black eyes were wide and sharp with glee as they stared into Astra’s. Still Amelia’s grin didn’t falter.

“I won’t break any bones or kill you. But I do need to win, sorry.” The girl muttered, words barely reaching Astra as she gasped and flailed for air.

Her guts churned as she was dragged upward again, then down. Eyes flooding at the wind’s kiss before she struck the ground back-first.

Breath taken, head spinning, she could do no more than lie still and marvel at the strength of her enemy. Astra didn’t even notice the magic slipping from her grip.

Then Amelia’s face reemerged, a fist coming down hard into her side, moments too early to hit mundane flesh in place of magical, but nonetheless burying the world beneath an avalanche of pain.

Bim struck Unity with the fury unique to mad and dying men, his fist hard as an anvil, arm strong as a constrictor. Every blow sent him stumbling, rage failing to give resilience where it had strength. Unity ignored the pain, ignored the confusion. Focused only on hurting the boy.

He lowered his face to meet a punch forehead first, grinning at the feeling of bones straining against his, then lunged before the enemy even had time to cry out, raking his nails across flesh and feeling one snag on the globe of an eye as it dipped between lids.

A scream came quickly from that, like an animal tossed into flame.

It wetted Unity’s appetite, fed the hate in his gut, drove him to act ever swifter as he attacked, pummelling the creature while he flailed in his blindness.

Strong hands seized Unity by the throat as his enemy leapt forth, knocking him down and pinning him beneath the bigger boy’s bulk. He tried to wrestle free, tried to break the hold with strikes, tried to bite into him as he had before but failed. Such grappling was a test of strength alone. Unity’s had always been pitiful.

The world turned black and quiet, with only the pumping of hot blood in his ears to give it presence. He stared into his enemy’s hateful face, felt his own fury rouse from the sight.

Reached up for the creature’s own throat to strangle him back, not noticing the lightning coiling about his hands until he’d already made contact.

Crow elbowed Faroah, then ran for the sphere as he hadn’t before. Felt the world begin to shift just as he came within arms’ reach. Colours bled while the vertigo struck, rain’s roar growing quiet in his ears and panic rising to a crescendo.

This is it. He realised. I’ve failed.

By the time he’d taken another step, the stage was already bleeding out of existence.

Astra almost wept as she felt herself taken by the Sieve’s magic, fear finally abated by its touch. Her body finally beyond the monstrous enemy’s grasp.

Unity’s mind made contact with the enemy before he could do anything. Thoughts seeping into his flesh reflexively, wrapping around every cell with a practiced haste and coiling tight and unshakable in their grip. He drew them back quickly, trying to break the contact before it could settle.

Realised too late what he’d done.

Bim’s skin fell apart first, growing tight and dry while it split to ten thousand pieces, then fluttered out into the air like autumn leaves. The meat beneath came next, churning and grinding into sludge.

Veins split, nerves frayed, skeleton became fractals, chips and dust. The boy’s organs were destroyed most completely, not even recognisable amid the visceral mess. Unity stared as his face came apart, seeming to collapse bonelessly under its own weight.

Then the boy ruptured as if a grenado had met flame in his gut, spreading what was left of him out in all directions.