Chereads / SYNTHESIS / Chapter 2 - Agony

Chapter 2 - Agony

Sergeant Blake scans us and rests his gaze on Grant "You" Blake points "Grab a weapon and ready yourself"

Sergeant Blake scans us and rests his gaze on Grant "You" Blake points "Grab a weapon and ready yourself"

Hesitantly, Grant slowly steps out of line and walks to an enormous pile of wooden weapons. After searching Grant pulls out a huge wooden great sword from the pile and walks onto the sand, brandishing the sword and readying himself for battle.

"You" He points at a silver-haired girl from the crowd.

Pulling out a wooden greataxe she stands across from Grant. "BEGIN" For a while they just stand there, staring at each other, like they were contemplating what to do, "I SAID BEGIN." The girl rushes forwards with her axe held above her head, bringing it down on Grant's head. Right before the axe can connect Grant quickly disarms her and hits her in the stomach with the sword, knocking the wind out of her, "You're done"

"Hunter," Blake said, breaking the silence, "Let's see what you've got."

Pulling a long warpick from the pile, stepping into the circle. For a moment the two do nothing, stare at each other, size each other up.

BANG

The sounds of their weapons colliding sounds ring out through the courtyard like a chorus of blades. Their weapons are a blur, I can't even see the end of his war pick as he gyroscopes, throwing long all-encompassing swings one after another. Each swing of the long war pick was expertly parried by grant, and every blow evaded by Hunter's spinning. With every swing, they were getting faster and faster, until all of their movements are just a streak of light. Suddenly their blows clash, holding in a standoff. After a brief moment, Grant pushes Hunter's pick down, sending the smaller man flying into the air. Landing on his feet, Grant charges forward, but suddenly, Hunter turns, and before Grant can react, he is already upon him. Grant holds his greatsword above his head, swinging down and catching hunter on the jaw with a vicious hit. Hunter's wooden warpick splinters into a million pieces from the blow. As Hunter's eyes lose focus, his grip on the broken warpick weakens and it slips from his grasp, falling to the ground. Grant wastes no time, he immediately kicks hunter in the stomach, sending him flying to the ground. Hunter's jaw was split open, and he was now groaning in pain, clutching his stomach.

"Hunter, you're done. Medics!"

"Grant, you're done. Medics!"

"Hunter, you're done. Medics!"

Grant stands there, triumphant.

Tired and panting, Grant stood in the middle of the circle, using his greatsword to steady himself, sweat pouring off him as he stood.

"NEXT!"

…everyone just stood there, silently. Blake furiously whipped his head around scanning the crowd for someone, his gaze settling on a person among the crowd.

"I said NEXT"

Blake throws him into the ring. Grant, wheezing just stares at the kid,

He's Avani's youngest brother. I think his name was Sanjay.

Sanjay just balls up his fist and runs towards Grant. Struggling to heave his giant greatsword grant swings.

all you could hear was a crack of sanjay's skull

all the cadets gasped, as Sanjay's blood sprayed all over Grant's face. His greatsword slipped from his hands, landing on the sand with a thud. Grant looked around, bewildered.

A scream came from the cadets as Avani ran over to the boy, kneeling down next to him and cradling his body,

"Sanjay" She shook his brother's shoulder. "No, no, no."

Sanjay coughed and spluttered. "It's okay, I'm here." Avani whispered.

"Mom?" His eyes slowly began to open, "No its me, Avani" He breathed, "It hurts, it hurts so much."

"Hold on, youre gonna be okay." Avani said. She kissed Sanjay on the forehead as tears of blood streaked down his face.

"Oh, god" She cried, "Please don't die, please don't die"

"Mom?"

"I'm sorry"

"It's okay, everything's gonna be alright."

sanjay went limp.

"no! no, no, no!"

Avani shot up, screaming, breathing heavily, looking around frantically, and set her eyes on grant Grant just stares at his hands, the blood freckling his palms, shaking. Everyone stood in shock until a single cry broke the silence. The horrified look on her face changed to one of rage, a guttural roar escaped from her lips. As she stood up, the air and ground around her seemed to shake violently,as if they were boiling, every muscle in her body seemed to ripple and flex as her teeth grew longer, and her fists hardened and calcified. I darted my head towards Blake.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw that sick bastard… grinning ear to ear. Just then, Avani began to walk forward, flexing her hand over and over again. Grant just stood there, shaking. Suddenly she rushed ahead dealing body shot after body shot to Grant, every hit of her hardened fists caused a gash to form on Grant. She kept on pushing, tearing up his body. Grant fell on the floor, flaps of his skin hanging off of his stomach and frame. Standing over him with vacant eyes, Avani opened her mouth wide, tearing her cheeks and exposing the tendons in her mouth. Slowly she moved closer to Grant, looming over him with her massive frame, bending over as she looked Grant straight in the eyes, biting down into the flesh of Grant's face. I could feel my legs rooted to the floor at the sight, blood and flesh were spilled onto the sand of the circle as Grant's face was slowly devoured, the only thing I could still look at were Grant's limbs, flailing in the air.

Finally, Grant fell to the floor, whimpering and crawling towards Blake with large chunks bitten out of his face, you could see muscle fibers exposed in grant's face, and his bone bare of flesh and skin, blood dripped from every part of his body as he dragged himself along the sand, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.

*Gulp*

Avani's entire body tensed up, and the entire area began to shake as every vein in Avani's body seemed to pulse with power. Blake pulled Grant to his feet

"You'll be fine"

he looks around at all of us

"In my absence, you will continue."

As he searched the crowd, Blake settled his gaze on one person, me.

"You're next."

I couldn't move, my feet just stayed rooted in place, Blake grabbed me by the shoulders and stared me in my eyes, everything in me screamed as he pushed me into the ring. Looking up from the sand Avani stood, she just cocked her head and disappeared, everything went black.