“If you kill both of these children,” Morkai spoke to the boy across us. He gestured towards Thorstein and I. “You’ll be free to leave. Do you understand, boy?”

The boy nodded warily, before turning his gaze towards me. His eyes narrowed. I thought he would charge right at me then and there, but then... he didn’t. The boy shook his head and aimed his spear right at Morkai. I saw no fear in his eyes. There was some hesitation, however – a lot of it. Though I knew not why. When he spoke, he turned his gaze from me as though I was not a threat to him. “There is no honor in killing children. The Gods will frown upon me for the rest of my life. Is that what you’re playing at, Chosen?”

I gritted my teeth. So that’s how it was going to be is it? He didn’t think me a threat, because I was just a child? Well, that would be his undoing. I wasn’t going to fight fairly – no. The Gods, not even the Wolf, expected a fair fight; that was a fact. It didn’t matter how you one a battle, only that you did. It didn’t matter if I was planning to stab him in the back and bash his head in with the rock that was right next to him, because I knew the Gods would be proud of me, either way. The Wolf, after all, was a God of War, and war was not supposed to be fair; it was supposed to be won.

And I was going to win, no matter what.

So, I began strafing by the edge of the circle – the edge being the Warriors of Blood Hall, who were all too eager to watch the violence unfold. Somehow, Thorstein immediately caught on to what I was thinking and stayed in place. A glance over my shoulder was met with a curt nod. He was going to stay as bait – as a distraction. This would work.

Morkai chuckled. “First of all, boy, you dishonor these two by underestimating them; secondly, the Gods already frown upon you – or did you forget how you’re still alive?”

The boy gritted his teeth and snarled. “YOU LEFT ME WITH NO CHOICE! YOU FORCED ME TO KILL MY FATHER!”

As he roared, I found myself firmly behind him – a mere seven or six steps away. Thorstein had not left his spot, placing himself in front of the boy. The warriors around us snickered and laughed and I heard a few bets being placed among them – a lot were, strangely enough, betting on me to win. I grinned. It would not do at all if I disappointed both the Gods and their mortal servants.

I noted the boy’s hunched form and his strong legs. He was ready to charge Morkai and die in a blaze of glory. Fair enough, I supposed; but, unfortunately for him, I wasn’t about to let that happen. Glorious deaths were reserved for great warriors and devour followers of the Gods. He didn’t seem like a great warrior to me. And, if he truly was a devour follower, he would not have wasted his time with words. The boy was given a weapon; were I in his place, I would’ve already killed someone. He was a fool. And he would die a fool.

Morkai’s laughter was like a deep rumbling that came from the depths of the earth, like bones and stone grinding each other to dust. It was not a pleasant sound. He turned his blazing gaze towards me for a moment and I swore I could see a grin beneath the helmet. “You’re a fool, boy. Attack me if you dare, but that won’t end well for you. Then again, today won’t end well for you, regardless.”

The boy seethed and looked just about ready to charge when Thorstein roared and charged him, instead. The boy’s stance wavered, I noted immediately. Thorstein was not fast. In fact, he was slow. His grip on the spear was poor and his loud roar made obvious the fact that he was not used to fighting. I could probably kill him in two moves – maybe even less. And yet, Thorstein succeeded all the same in taking the boy’s attention into himself.

I took that moment to charge him as well, but I stayed quiet as I did, taking great care to ensure my footsteps were as quiet as they could be. His back was turned to me. He was vulnerable. Thorstein reached him first, but his spear was easily struck aside by the taller and older boy. Thorstein was thrown back when the boy kicked him on the chest, his charge broken as easily as one might break a stick. It didn’t matter, however, as I got behind him and plunged the blade of my spear into his exposed side. The boy screamed as the spearhead pierced through his flesh and out the other side, right through his belly. His head swung and he glanced at me with wide eyes – eyes full of hatred and surprise. There was no fear in them, however. Blood poured out of his mouth, streaming down his lips and onto his neck and chest. He reached out to grab me, but I let go of the spear and leapt back.

How was he still alive? Was he favored by the Whale?

Groaning in pain, the boy stood up, reached for the shaft of the spear I’d plunged into him, and slowly, agonizingly, began pulling it out. Unfortunately for him, I’d stuck it deep and the shaft was not so smooth as to easily slide from his flesh – soaked with blood or not.

He’s not dead. I snarled, bent down, and picked up a rock that was the size of an apple. The older boy was busy trying to remove the spear when I ran up to him and smashed the rock into his temple, sending him into the ground. From out of sight, Thorstein suddenly came and dropped a much bigger rock down on the boy’s head as well. The boy was still alive, despite that. He groaned in pain and confusion, but he was still very much alive and still desperately trying to move. He couldn’t fight back, however, as the spear that jutted out of his belly from his back made any winding movement difficult and unbalanced. Gritting my teeth, I grabbed the older boy’s spear from the ground, raised it high over my head, and brought it down over his heart.

He did not die.

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“WHY WON’T YOU DIE?!” I screamed as I pulled the spear from his chest, raised it, and brought it down again and again and again and again, until my arms screamed in pain and protest, exhausted as they were. All the while, Thorstein kept bashing the older boy’s head with a rock, until all the blood and gore made his face unrecognizable. A full minute must’ve passed, though I could not be certain of the passage of time. All I knew was that I wanted the boy dead. Despite that, I heard him groan – weakened and injured, but still very much alive. Thorstein let out a tired sigh as he took several steps back and dropped the rock he’d been holding. I felt the same. The spear in my hand, whose tip was still buried in the older boy’s chest, felt a thousand times heavier than when I’d held it fresh.

Sweat and blood trailed down my forehead and into my face as I glanced down at the bloodied form of my enemy. Blood streamed from the numerous holes I’d punctured into his chest and his stomach and even his throat. His face was an unrecognizable mess of crushed flesh and bone and blood. His teeth had long since been scattered with Thorstein’s relentless assault. The sort of injuries he carried were enough to kill at least twenty men. And yet...

He was still alive.

He was still conscious.

I breathed in and sighed and took several steps back, my heart pounding in my chest and breaths quick and shallow. I turned to Morkai, who nodded at me. “Your enemy is a Favored of the Whale, born beneath its sign. This shitstain is imbued with unnatural resilience; how will you kill him?”

I breathed in and sighed. The older boy, who now looked closer to chunks of butchered meat than an actual human, began pushing himself up. Before he could, I rushed towards him, regardless of my exhaustion, and bashed another rock on his head. He fell back down, groaning. I breathed in and forced him down by stepping on his chest. The older boy struggled, but he didn’t have the strength left to fight back. Annoyingly, he was still alive, even when his blood drenched the forest floor. “Can I set him on fire?”

Morkai hummed. “It might work or it might not. Fire easily burns itself out, depending on the fuel. You could pour a bucket of leviathan oil over the lad, but where would you find such a thing in a real fight? Think.”

The older boy tried pushing himself up again. I threw the rock on his forehead and sent him crashing back down. “Can I cut his head off?”

“The Favored of the Whale are able to continue fighting for a time, even without their heads, which they can easily pickup and reattach if given the chance.” Morkai answered. “It’s not a bad method, but it’s not the most effective.”

I hated thinking too hard! “Gah! Drown him?”

Weirdly enough, Morkai nodded. “Good. Their bodies are unnaturally resilient to an almost ridiculous degree; they can survive wounds that would kill even the Chosen of the other gods. However, the Favored of the Whale drown easily; alternatively, you can choke them until they run out of air and die. They’re not as resilient as their Chosen counterparts.”

“How’s that any different from decapitation?” I asked.

At that, Morkai merely shrugged. “I can only speak from my experience. I agree, however, that it does not make sense, but the gifts of the Gods owe us no explanation. They simply are.”

I nodded and glanced down at the bloody and heavily injured boy on the ground. Morkai’s words made sense, I supposed. I was capable of surviving a blood-freezing blizzard without any clothes on and yet a mountain goat could probably kill me if it gored my stomach. The powers granted to us by the Gods were under no obligation to make sense; the Gods offered us whatever they wished.

So, I simply nodded and accepted it as it was. And the fact was that my enemy would sooner die to suffocation than decapitation – strange, but not unfounded.

Thorstein approached me. His breaths were quick and light and shallow. “There’s a stream near here; we can drown him there. He’s weakened now and can’t fight back. I think we can just push his face into the water.”

I nodded. I probably couldn’t drag the older boy’s body by myself with how exhausted I was, but it was doable if both Thorstein and I worked together. Huh, the both of us are... functional as a team. Is that why Morkai let him live?

I glanced back down at our downed foe, the older boy still struggling to stand and free himself to no avail. I offered a brief prayer for his sake; may he find rest in the bosom of the Gods. If not... well – not my problem. I turned to Thorstein. “We should drop another rock on his head, just in case – a much bigger one, this time.”

Thorstein nodded in agreement. There were numerous rocks and pebbles around us of varying sizes; very few were large enough and heavy enough to be used as a weapon. We found one, however, when one of the surrounding warriors kicked it towards us – a rock that was the size of a man’s head, filled with sharp ridges and pores. It was heavy – a good bludgeoning weapon that should be enough to kill anyone or else seriously injure them to the point of near-death. I knew for a fact, however, that this wouldn’t kill the Whale’s Favored.

Thorstein and I raised the rock high and slammed it right on the teen’s already bloody face with a sickening crack that sent blood and bits of bone splattering everywhere. The older boy stopped moving. But I knew he was still alive.

The rock rolled off his gored face. I moved to grab him by his legs. Thorstein grabbed his arms. I noted that the warriors were still gathered around us as though they were waiting for something. I also noted that the Gods still hadn’t declared this a successful challenge, even after Thorstein and I incapacitated the older boy.

And then, the older boy’s body writhed. Tendrils emerged from his wounds, alongside fleshy bulbs and growths and spikes of bone and sinew. Thorstein and I immediately took several steps away as the Whale’s Favored pushed himself up, tendrils snaking his form. He was growing in size and mass. His muscles bulged and his skin ripped. A mass of tiny, slithering feelers and tentacles began covering his face. My eyes widened. What was going on?!

Morkai laughed. “Prepare for the fight of your life, girl; you’re about to face an Entropic Abomination. This... is what happens when you fail the Gods too many times.”

The monster before me bent down and unleashed a screeching roar that shook the trees.

And then, the battle for my life began.