(I am going to play with writing in first person. They say that when you create a character it can begin to do its own thing. Well I guess Kygo wants first person.)
The violet flash of magic hurt my eyes despite my eyelids being tightly shut. The ground itself rolled, tossing me around as if dirt and stone had suddenly become deadly river rapids. A painful pressure slowly began crushing the air out of my lungs. I fought to push the rising panic away as my lungs tightened and I could hear my blood circulating around inside my body. I fell to the ground. I desperately tried to rise but found that my body wouldn't obey me.There was a painful stinging sensation trickling and wrapping around my brain. Every organ burned within me.
I felt so helpless. I was going to die before the fight even began.
Without warning everything ceased. I felt grateful that sand underneath. The only problem is that the sand invaded every orifice in my body. It was in my mouth my eyes, my clothing. My stomach heaved violently. I hadn't eaten breakfast so I puked out stomach acid and sand. "Thats blood in my mouth" I realized. My throat was so raw it had bled.
"Never again," I told myself. I Eventually I brought myself to my knees despite being extremely shaky. The air smelled like mildew and damp rot. There must have been water nearby. I craved the soothing relief it offered me. The sound of trickling streams drove me forward with desperation.
Crawling on my hands and knees, rough sand became uneven stone underneath me. The violet light left me half blind so I pulled myself forward slowly, hand over hand, and fell into the source of water quite unexpectedly. My mouth opened and began swallowing mouthfuls of the refreshing liquid. I could have been drowning in putrid cave water for all I cared.
However plunging a frozen river under the bridge where I used to live seemed easy now compared to willing myself to stay in this water. It felt like submerging myself in a lake of frozen hellfire. I rinsed the grime and grit out of my eyes and shook as much sand as possible out of my clothes.
When I climbed out I found myself in a small tunnel. It appeared to go on for quite a ways "This entire tunnel must have been hewn ages ago," I murmured half delirious.
"Yes it was."
I whirled around starled. It was the man who had teleported me. I had been so disorientated that I forgot completely about him.
"How long have you been standing there?" I started. He simply raised a hand as if to calm me down.
"I traveled beside you, remember? I landed with you. Take a moment. Certain magic messes with our physiology quite terribly."
I spit out a glob of blood that had risen in my throat. "No shit man, coulda given me a warning though," I managed in between fits of coughing and gasps for air. I slowly slid myself down until I sat on the floor and closed my eyes. "Are we underground?" I asked.
" Yes. You have five minutes of rest then walk down the tunnel. The fight will begin then." He was quite serious. "Good luck." He was gone when I opened my eyes again.
I struggled to keep my breathing even. I didn't want to be part of the program anymore, whatever that meant. Adrenaline still flowed through my veins and my vision dimmed, becoming cloudy. I rubbed my eyes. Colorful shapes swam around in front of me.
"Great! Now I'm hallucinating!" My voice echoed loudly startling me a bit.
Suddenly, I was staring at a copy of myself. I shook my head and blinked. What is going on. Out of nowhere, a freakishly sized steel hammer swung toward my other self. The other me ducked under the swing and threw himself to the side as another identical hammer smashed right where he was standing.
I shook my head and blinked trying to get the images to disappear. I couldn't believe what in front of my face. The other me crabwalked back until he was trapped by a wall. He was cornered. There was fear in his eyes and he looked straight at me. Fear rippled through ever fiber of my being as he spoke. It was my own voice talking back to me. "Don't let this happen to you."
Then his head exploded sending blood and bits of brain and skull skyward as a silver hammer smashed right down into his head.
I had so many questions. The tunnel appeared to be shaking around me but I realized it wasn't the tunnel. It was me. I had foreseen my death. A gruesome painful death.
I had to push it out of my mind for right now I told myself. Focusing on some death omen certainly wouldn't benefit me now. Slowly, I got to my feet and began making my way.
After a few moments the tunnel opened up into a enormous cavern. There were a few bodies laying in the sand ahead of me. I forced myself to keep moving past them. How much blood of people my own age had watered the gritty cold sand down here?
I glanced up as I walked, trying to fathom of how vast this arena was and yet existed entirely underground. Stalactites hung precariously from the ceiling of the cavern. One good hit might knock some down. Some had fallen long ago and jutted out of the ground like giant knives stuck in the earth. They gave me an idea. I could easily climb on those.
It wasn't just an arena, but a coliseum. Various people sat in the stands. No more than twenty or so. I didn't recognize most of their faces right offhand but I thought I caught a glimpse of the old man's beard. The thin faced man was there too. How could they be a part of this atrocity, this stage of barbaric prose?
A single man rose. He appeared to be in his mid forties. Slightly stringy curls of brown hair hung over his face and a thin silver band sat on his head. I looked closely at the woman sitting next to him. It was either his wife or the Queen. I couldn't tell from so far away.
As he spoke, his voice echoed loudly amplifying itself several times louder. The entire arena seemed to vibrate with an strange energy, down to the foundation of the cave. itself. "I, Damon, house of Crysom do declare this fight to begin."
So even the royals themselves had blood on their hands. Typical.
But his words brought me back to reality. Across the sands I saw my opponent was already charging across the sand and was attempting to run me down. His arms were the size of small tree trunks. Each massive fist held a weapon. The guy duel-wielded the steel hammers. My heart sank. The premonition had some accuracy after all.
"So much for double knife defense." I thought as I fell into my stance. "You must stay light on your feet." Abraxos had said once.
I pulled my blades out as fluidly as possible and shifted my weight to the balls of my feet. My opponent continued charging me. His speed caught me off guard. He was so massive.
We locked eyes for a brief moment and I knew that my eyes must have been reflecting the same fear and terror I saw reflected in his.
Finally he got in range and I had to dive under his first mighty swing. Each of us barely trained in combat now preparing to slaughter the other for survival. Sliding under his swing, I let my saxe blade slice through his side.
It was enough to weaken him with some blood loss nothing more. To be honest I didn't want to hurt him. I backed off watching the brute carefully and noticed myy hands were shaking.
What was I doing? The world must have gone to hell without me noticing in order for gladiatorial combat between kids to become necessary. I certainly didn't wish to kill him.
Abraxos's voice spoke in my mind again. "Turn your body to the side when you can. You become a smaller target."
I turned my body to the side and slowly began circling sideways. My body already ached from all the abuse it had been subjected in simply getting here, but I knew I couldn't focus on the pain. When it came down to it, survival was all that mattered. In that moment, it became clear that only one of us was getting out of here alive. I fully intended for it to be me despite the reluctance I felt.
He came in slower this time making sure to watch for my reaction as he moved towards me. His arm drew back to throw a hammer at me, but I leapt out of the way and it sailed by me harmlessly and hit one of the cave formations behind me.
I retreated and climbed the fallen stalactites putting space between me and him. The old man emphasized the importance of control the high ground during training.
The boy stood below me waiting for me to make a move. Blood continued to flow from the gash in his side. The loss made his skin pale.
I leaped. His eyes filled with with terror as I descended upon him. He threw himself to the left.
Time slowed. He left a trail of blood in the sand as he rolled. A ghost image of my arm appeared in my mind. I copied the movement and felt the cold steel of a throwing knife leave my fingertips.
The heavy handle drove the blade point first into his stomach. It wasn't a lethal throw but it would slow him down a tremendous amount.
He stagged at the blow but simply ripped the blade out of his stomach and tossed it to the side. Blood flowed freely from the hole in his stomach.
There were a few members in the stands above us now, watching us very intently. Others whispered among themselves. Maybe some instructors were impressed by my throw or by my opponents ability to rip the blade out and keep fighting. I could not believe it myself.
A second later, I fell back and gave ground.
His hammers whirled so fast I couldn't keep up and as I tried to back off, I tripped and fell. Everything from the premonition was in place. He brought his hammer down towards my head and in desperation I threw myself to the side. Miliseconds slower and he would have smashed through my ribs. I crab walked back, scrambling to dodge his strikes. This time he hit me. The hammer slammed into my foot crushing it to a bloody pulp. A scream erupted from my throat. Bone and cartilage hung off my leg. My foot hung on to my leg by the tiniest strips of skin. The pain was unimaginable. My mind went blank.
My back collided with the freezing stone. This was it. I tossed my blade down. We both stared for a second as it stuck out in the sand, blade pointed to the ceiling. "Lucky toss," I said weakly. "No mercy," he spat back.
Everything slowed as he brought his hammer careening towards my skull. What made me think that simply tossing my blade aside would save me? I closed my eye and threw out my hands to ward off the blow.
I didnt expect a large blast of wind to erupt from my palm. It slammed into his feet knocking him off his legs. I opened my eyes and watched as he impaled himself through his skull on my blade.
I continued to lay where I was, staring at my opponent. The blade had pierced right through the soft flesh on the underside of his chin and gone straight up through his brain. The momentum of his fall left his neck twisted at a impossible angle.
I did not even try to stop myself from vomiting. Blood continued to pour, pooling around his head mixing with my vomit and my blood.
It hit me like a ton of bricks. I killed him. This ...boy.... was dead because of me.
No. I shook the thought out of my head as well as I could. This boy was dead because the kingdom pitted teenagers to fight to the death.
Two pairs of strong arms hooked underneath my arms and lifted me out of the sand and dragged me away from the carnage. I couldn't handle the pain anymore and mercifully blacked out.
*****
Hey sorry this chapter took so long to write. Billions of edits. I wanted to get the combat right. plus I haven't had alot of time while working 55 hours a week.
Please get vote with those stones on this book if you want it more. I'm looking to find a connection that could help me with some digital art. More on that soon. Leave your thoughts and comments.
I'll try to respond with anyone who leaves a comment. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to share if you enjoy!