The blast shook the earth as almost all of the surrounding forest instantly burned to a crisp. An intense vibration reverberated through the earth as fissures and cracks started to appear everywhere in every single direction. The golden light faded and everything started to come back to normal as James was safely tucked behind his axe–which shielded him from most of the flying debris and the shockwaves. He stood up and readied himself,

“Get ready,” I heard a small snap of a twig to my left and instantly turned towards that direction. I held up my hands and let off another blast of incinerating golden light. A giant boom reverberated through the air as another section of the forest was cleared in an instant. James grabbed the very end of his axe and spun it around and around and around before throwing it with all of his might. The axe made a giant arc of wind and death all around the forest as it ripped through the tall trees and hard soil like it was nothing. My golden barrier shimmered into existence around me as debris and huge tree trunks were ripped out of the earth and tossed in every single direction. James held out his hand and the giant axe snapped back into his grasp in an instant as he steadied himself once again. “Nowhere to run now.” He kept his eyes on the battlefield and I tried my best to listen in on every little sound which flowed into my ears. Another twig snapped to my left and I raised my hand in order to deliver a giant blast but the older looking man flashed right in front of my face. He raised his hand and threw a massive overhand right which I saw coming from a mile away. I ducked under his shot and put my hand right on his lower ribs as I let the bomb of explosive golden light detonate at point blank distance. The world flashed gold again as I flipped backwards and regained my ground. I couldn’t see the man and I couldn’t see James or the other guy either. I floated off of the ground and hovered mid air as I searched with wide eyes,

“Come out motherfucker,” a giant explosion went off right to my left and I jerked my head towards it. James was barely pushing the younger looking warrior back as he used his axe to keep him at arm's reach. His face filled struggle as he looked towards me with panic on his face,

“EVAY, BEHIND YOU!” I felt a tingly sensation erupt on the back of my nape and I instinctively ducked as a giant black crystal soared above my head. It shot through the forest and seemed to pierce through the air itself as I leapt into the sky and flew backwards to try and spot my enemy. I turned upside down in mid-air and saw about twenty black crystal spears the size of my entire body come racing towards my head. I dove down and leaned left, barrel rolled to the right, and spun to my side as I weaved through the deathly shower of crystal spears. The older looking warrior had his feet glued to the ground as he seemed to be concentrating on controlling his crystal spears. I spun around and added some kick to my flight as a giant sonic boom rang out into the air. He turned his head and held out his hands towards me when I was about an arms length away from his face. Everything seemed to slow down as in that split second. I could see his face, the texture of his hands, his eyes, I could see the surrounding forest, I could feel the air, and I could feel the timing. An impossibly sharp spear of dark crystal shot out towards me as I stared the shadowy weapon of death in the face. The man laughed,

“Goodbye.”

Now.

I jumped off of the very air itself and flipped over my enemy so that I was upside down—staring down at his head. The crystal spear missed me and went flying off into the distance as I held out my right arm and grabbed my wrist with my left hand for support. My hand started to glow with gold as I felt the searing hot energy slowly start to seep its way from out of my soul and into my palms. He slowly looked up at me with surprise as I stared him in the eye. “I win.” I released the pent up energy in the palm of my hand all at once as my body was forced upwards into the sky from the recoil of the blast. A giant, bass-boosted, reverberated boom seemingly split the world in half as everything went bright white for a second and a mushroom-shaped smoke cloud erupted into the air. I felt myself free falling through the air as I shook my head to regain my consciousness. The ringing in my ears slowly faded away and I turned myself around and gently floated down to the ground as I took in my surroundings. A giant crater the size of our camp had appeared in the middle of the forest. The soil had tendrils of smoke coming off of it and small fires dotted the leftover bushes and dead trees. I touched down onto the ground and began to look around. My see through eyes couldn’t pick up anything unusual in our surrounding area and none of my other senses seemed to be going off either. I slowly shifted back into my fighting stance as I cautiously waited and looked for any signs of life. I felt a small rumble beneath my feet and my eyes went wide with surprise. Underground, fuck—

An uppercut from the deepest depths of hades hit my chin as everything went dark for a split second. I felt blood splatter out of my nose and jaw as I was tossed up into the air from the force of the strike. I tried to fly but a strong hand grabbed my ankle and everything scrambled into a mess of colours as I felt my body slam into the cold, hard soil. My ribs cracked, my eyes went everywhere, and my head seemed to split open as I finally regained my vision. The man’s face had severe burn marks on it and a big cut opened up near the top of his eye as he raised up his fists and spoke, “I can’t let you fly—otherwise you have the advantage.” I raised up my hands to protect myself but he slammed two spikes into both of my palms and pinned them to the ground. I grit my teeth with pain as he slammed his fists into my face. Huge amounts of blood splattered onto the soil as my vision went dark again, and again, and again every time his fist connected with my face. I saw blood splatter left and right and fly above my head as I tried to keep my eyes open. His hands viscously tore at my eyes, nose, and jaw as I tried to fight back. He held up both of his hands and summoned a giant crystal spear with an especially sharp end. He smiled as he grabbed his instrument of death, “Let me clip your wings for you.” He slammed the spear into me as I felt my lungs, chest, and ribs all shatter from the force. The spear pierced through my entire being and punctured through my back and into the soil beneath me. I tried to grab at the spear but my hands were still pinned to the ground. The man let out a laugh, “I am Levensk, of house Carrie and I have been a warrior since my youth. I remember being just like you—being so scared and helpless and yet so confident in my own abilities. Do you feel it? It’s what everyone feels in their first fight? Do you feel the fear penetrating your lungs? Do you feel the dread seeping into your veins? Are you scared? Scared that you are going to die.” A switch suddenly flipped in my head.

Anger, anger so strong and intense that it physically hurt my being started to boil up inside of me. This guy was just another noble. He was a strong man who pushed down the weak, a man who gloated over the dying, a sick man who tortured people for fun. He was a warrior and someone who had been strong for their entire life. He was no different from the nobles we had here—he was the same thing just with a different flag strapped to him. He was humiliating me, he was killing me, he was beating me, he was killing me…. I hated him, I hated him, I hated him, I hated him….. He needed to die, he needed to suffer, he needed to suffer my pain—all of my pain. Fear? Fear of death? What did he know about me? I had felt this feeling for my entire existence and that was because of people like him. Fear? Nah—I was angry. Too angry to die.

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I grit my teeth as I let out an inhuman scream. He laughed and grabbed my hair, “Cry, cry, cry you little animal! Suffer and die and go back to deathl you demon child.” His two fingers turned into crystal spear tips as he slowly went to pierce my eyes. I let out another inhuman scream as I ripped my hands free from the crystal spears pinning them to the ground. My hands came out a wrangled, mauled, and bloody mess as blood painted the ground like water on a rainy day. Levensk’s eyes went wide with shock as I pushed off of the ground with my elbows and slowly de-skewered myself. A sickening squelch sound rang out into the air as I freed myself from being impaled to the dirt and grabbed Levensk’s head with my mangled hands. I girt my teeth and looked at him with immense hatred,

“Fuck you.”

I head butted him with all of my might as he reeled backwards from the pain. I flipped forwards into the air and slammed both of my legs into his chest as blood flew out of his mouth and splattered onto my robes. He looked at me with hatred and he shot two crystal spears at me but I slipped both and I stomped on his face. I kept stomping and stomping and stomping as his bones cracked and blood poured out onto the earth like water from a fountain. He held out his hand as he used a sharp crystal tip in order to slice my achilles tendon. I unknowingly fell on one knee as he spun around on the ground and kicked me in the jaw. I took it on the chin and Levensk tried to get away while I was stunned but I slammed my sharp, exposed, protruding wrist bone into his ankle as he looked back at me with anger. I raised him into the air and spun him around like a sack of flour as I took off into the air. I shot up at blinding speeds as I threw him into the open sky. I shot past him and gained the high ground. I put both of my mangled, non-existent hands together and slammed them down into Levensk’s flailing body. He rocketed towards the earth and landed with an unimaginably loud crash as I dove down head-first towards him in order to finish the kill. A giant flower petal made of pure dark crystals suddenly erupted into existence as the entire ground was now covered with Levensk’s creation. I landed onto the crystal surface and immediately felt something pierce my feet. Two barbed tips sunk into the soles of my feet as crystal vines with metallic thorns suddenly lashed at me like magical tentacles. I held up my arms and enveloped myself in a golden barrier as the tentacles slammed into my golden energy shield with viscous force. They kept banging in and banging and bagging on my shield as cracks started to form and the barrier started to give. My eyes dashed around the surrounding area as I searched for Levensk with all of my senses. Left, right, centre, up? Where the fuck is he? Above? Under—wait…. Under…

I took a deep breath and shook off the blood soaked into my hair as I concentrated with all of my being. I felt the rumble in the soles of my feet, the vibrations underneath the soil, and the sound of tunnelling beneath me. One, two, three.

The ground beneath my feet erupted as a fist coated in dark crystal armour slowly approached my chin. I dropped my barrier and relaxed my entire body as the giant crystal petal on the floor closed in on itself in an instant. The various sharp tentacles started to whip and thrash at me and Levensk’s bloody and mangled face stared at me with fury, “Die.” I smiled and looked at him with a animal-like smile,

“Boo!” My beautifully decorated, ivory white spear flashed into existence inside my hand. Levensk’s face went wide with shock as his head slowly moved up and his fist got closer to my chin. He stood helpless—almost trapped in time—as his chin slowly rammed itself into the tip of my spear as I sat and looked on with a deep smile. “Thank you for doing me the favour.” A sickening crunch and squelch rang into the air as my spear went through Levensk’s chin and came back out at the top of his skull. The giant crystal petals of death and the deathly sharp tentacles all froze in place as Levensk’s body went limp. I lifted up my spear and held his body in the air like a giant, bloody, human piñata. I floated up into the air and flew out of the mess of sharp crystal weapons. I landed on normal soil and took a good look at Levensk’s face. It was hardly recognizable as a human face. One of his eyes was missing since the tip of my spear was poking out of where it should’ve been. His entire face was scarred and drenched with blood, his nose was mangled and broken, the flesh around his lips was torn off so that his teeth were visible, and most of his jaw was broken or missing. My spear was still shoved through his entire head as I tried my best to speak with all of the blood in my mouth, “Am I afraid to die? Nah, not really. I bet you are through. Aren’t you? Don’t lie—you are afraid aren’t you?” I shook my spear as he tried to grab the shaft. I shoved his hands away and laughed, “Pathetic. So pathetic,” I laughed loudly, “how many people have you killed? How many people have you taunted before they died? You’ve killed so many people without a second thought and you’re asking me to spare you? Fuck off.” I pulled Levensk closer and delivered a bone-crushing strike to his torso. My fist went through his body as blood poured onto the soil behind him like a horrific miniature waterfall. Blood poured out of his disfigured mouth as I kicked his dangling legs out from under him. My shins sliced through his thighs and knees as his legs went flying off into the forest. I smiled, “Look at me—hey! Look at me,” I grabbed his one good eye, “Die and do not come back.” I crushed his eye as he let out a miserable cry of pain. I laughed maniacally as I waved around his mangled body, “HA, what did you say to me? Cry, was it? Yeah it was. Who’s crying now? Cry you fucking animal.” My spear began to glow with golden energy as Levensk’s bloody skull began to glow. “I hate you—I will always hate you. Die noble, die and do not come back.” A flash of golden light illuminated the air as I fired off a golden blast into Levensk’s skull through the tip of my spear. His skull exploded into a million pieces and blood splattered onto my entire body and face as my hair, eyes, and nose were all covered with Levensk’s blood. His legless body dropped to the floor and splattered onto the ground—lifeless and motionless. I felt something tingle on the back of my neck and I immediately turned around. James’s axe came soaring at me like a giant boomerang of death as he crashed into the ground—holding his opponent by the collar. He had a huge cut on his face and his clothes were all torn but his opponent seemed to be in much worse shape. The younger warrior had an eye missing and one arm entirely cut off. James repeatedly slammed his opponent’s head into the ground as he dragged his body through the earth. I quickly grabbed the flying axe in mid air and spun around once before chucking it back at James. The axe spun gracefully through the sky as James grabbed it without even looking and he raised it high into the air. He brought down the axe with all his might as the blade seemingly connected with his opponent’s body. A huge cloud of dust filled the sky and the ground shook with fury as I covered my eyes to avoid any damage.

The dust slowly started to clear as I tried my best to make out what was happening. James’s axe was fully impaled into the ground and massive amounts of fresh blood coated the stainless steel as his opponent’s body was entirely bisected. His upper body sat lifeless as blood gently dropped out of his mouth. His lower body sat slightly below him and the axe acted as the divider—forever separating the two halves from meeting again. James stood above him and raised up his foot, “May mercy be upon your soul.” He stomped hard on his opponent’s face as his head was crushed from the impact. He looked towards me and his face filled with shock, “Evay—what the fuck? How are you still alive? We have to get you back to camp. Did you find you where Zia is? Never mind that actually, how are you standing?” I smiled as I began to stumble.

“I’m fine! Really good actually! I took that fucker out and made him pay! I made him…. I made him…” I looked down at the massive hole in my body which was seeping with blood. Both of my hands were gone, one of my arms was entirely broken, and I just realized that my left leg had been completely shattered from the knee down. It all started to come to me as I gave James one last smile, “I’ll make them pay. I promise.” My body involuntarily dropped to the floor as I saw the world one last time.