As I lay there, defeated, realising the magnitude of my weakness, of my defeat, and what it would mean for my family, he spoke.
'You still seem to be under the impression that you are in the right. That you are the hero and I the villain.' he sighed, seemingly saddened. 'There could be no greater misunderstanding of the events which have led me to this point.'
At my exhausted silence he continued, 'Your family, the ... heroes' he spat 'How do you think they have come to wield such influence, such power in a world like ours, one where the strong rein and weakness is discarded.
'"A good bloodline" you might say. "We're the lucky hero family who fights for the good of man and have been blessed with talented fighters in every new generation."' He mocked.
'For your entire life, you have been led to believe that your strength and talent came from hard work and your family bloodline. Raised like a prize bull, with an empty head, fed by the best resources your family could offer you, and directed at targets needing to be put down.'
'And those resources you were given, they must be miraculous! Your family must be wondrous researchers to have found the key to unlocking their bloodline and fostering such a powerful new talent such as yourself.' He gestured with his arms wide, seeming to mock the naivety of such thoughts.
'Have you ever heard of something called Soul Ripping.' He questioned 'Terrifying name, I know. Who would ever give a technique such a heinous name.'
'To this I would say... the name doesn't do it justice.' he spoke solemnly.
'Soul Ripping, involves bringing an individual to the brink of death, and keeping them there for a prolonged period. This often involves tremendous amounts of controlled torture and pain performed within the vicinity of a soul mage.
'Sometimes minutes, rarely hours and almost never does someone last a full day, as all it takes is one slip of concentration, one lapse of consciousness. Whatever the case, this state is maintained until a soul mage can literally see a soul partly leaving the body it resides in.
'At which point they rip the soul from the body and capture it.'
'" How could anyone do something like that" I hear you ask. "Maybe that's how he's beaten me... using some heinous soul magic" you might even delude yourself.' He imitated again, mocking me even after my defeat.
'But I'm afraid in our vicinity there is only one beneficiary of harvested souls, one boy who was given a tremendous boost to his talent at a very young age, and it isn't me.' At this he turned to me and despite how weak I felt right now I jolted.
'Lies...' I croaked, words catching in my tired and bloody throat.
At my words he turned to me rage colouring his eyes and face, rage that I had never seen in him previously.
'My family was butchered! Harvested by your hero family so that it's new generations would have a leg up on the competition.' He enunciated through gritted teeth now holding his face much closer to mine as he spoke. 'My 8 year old brothers soul was ripped from his body to feed the insatiable greed your family has for power!'
'How dare you call me a liar when I witnessed it myself...' At this he seemed to collapse in on himself, and if I hadn't already been lying down, I would've been floored by this display of emotion from the cold robot that I had fought against for the past few years. 'I was so weak then, so helpless against them.'
'I could barely summon the will to keep my eyes open, to stop my soul from exposing itself.' He narrated all emotion seemingly fled from him as a single tear slid down his cheek. 'He was so strong. He never screamed and even at the end I saw he had fight in his eyes.'
'He would've been a wondrous fighter.' He chuckled looking happy for possibly the first time in years. ' You know, even at 8 he showed signs of outperforming me. I have no doubt that he would've become the strongest fighter this world has ever seen... But, I guess we'll never know.'
At this he sighed and stood straight again, wiping any emotion from his face and with one hand the tear from his cheek and turned to me. He brought his spear to my temple and looked me straight in the eyes. 'Honestly even now I do not hate you, you are simply a blunt object to your family. You only had the best intentions even as you hounded me on their orders. Unfortunately, I cannot allow you to be used any longer, so... this will be goodbye.' and with that he pushed and everything went black.
Standing over an ashen field and the hero's corpse stood the villain. He withdrew his spear and took a long deep breath as both his and the world's perspective seemed to shift.
I looked down at my hands, skin hardened from gruelling training and clenched my fist over the shaft of my spear.
I swivelled on my foot and sped of into the surrounding treeline.