Two minutes…
Two minutes…
BANG!!
Shadowed flesh struck against jagged steel and splintered edges, spiraling across cratered floors. The beast planted a foot while large claws carved across the mangled ground, grinding it to a slow halt as the floor rose once more, the pieces accessible to the phantasmal strings raising themselves. Crusch's mana supply's catered for the less draining of spells, the phantasmal amethyst strings were a lower class of basic charm magic, as for its use real use and exactly why it was classified as a charm and Crusch shuddered while laughing at the thoughts that assailed her the first time she'd encountered it.
'This is beyond reckless master!!'
The cacophony of Beryl and Abssynia's words muddled conscious thoughts but fell on deaf ears, two minutes, that was the allotted time frame in which she was banking on. Thousands of other voices not belonging to her companions shouted words of retaliation with them, it was idiotic, realistically suicidal. The pieces of debris shot forward, blurring past her view as the beast grunted with an annoyance groomed from the skills incessant use as the shadows of its body twisted and churned, emitting a subtle blue haze that grew in intensity.
GRAWRRRR
The air shook and bursted with a shockwave of sharp winds, the debris bellowed back, showering her vision ahead while others shattered to bits faster than Crusch's spell could fire them back. The shockwave sent her body piercing through timber as the beast blurred forward, visceral jaws opened wide like a deathly maw faster than her thoughts could process an appropriate response.
BANG!
Smashing against the surprisingly hard framing of a locked door, the glistening white jaws were painted red, clamping deep into the skin of her shoulders to stomach. The pain that followed was bone crushingly dull, blunt as though being bludgeoned by a hammer sadistically made for torture. It pinned her there as the teeth pierced deeper, she screamed.
'A spell, the wood splinters!' Her rational thoughts commanded, muffled under the pain.
"Could you even achieve it?" Crusch paused, "Do you see yourself worth that much now?"
The beast's shadowed fur churned and hot was the blood that covered her body that grew further in heat from the breath that touched her torn skin, "You've grown arrogant"
Her eyes widened, the voice drew itself not from her thoughts, not from her imagination but the beast whose jaws sat clamped over her body.
"Disgusting, pathetic" the pain was numbed now, "Quick to raise yourself beyond heights never yours, you don't belong"
The response was naught that escaped her lips, what riddled her face was shock and…fear.
"You don't know what you're talking about"
The beast laughed in mockery, "I know your na—"
'FEAR!!' A voice rattled her thoughts, 'It's using fear dear owner, it's a nightmare beast!!!'
Crusch's brow's furrowed then widened, the wand in her hand setting itself ablaze as it grew sword-like, slashing at the wolf's jaw. A gutteral cry broke itself from her body as she hunched forward, clutching herself as her hands grew covered in crimson blood. It was an unsettling sight, her vision doubling as she panted.
"Haa, haa" her breathing grew erratic and pained but the growl ahead drew her from her state of shock and anxiety to fear.
In over your own head…
The beast's jaw bled with a viscous pool of sapphire blue, although an injury however did it only serve in intensifying its terrifying features. The teeth were still painted in the red of her own blood and its lips spread as though grinning or perhaps it was, her heartbeat stiffened at the thought.
"I…"
'One minute master! One minute left!' Beryl shouted.
'One minute?' She thought, the dread settling in faster, all this pain in the feeble fleeting moments of a minute?
Pathetic…
What had she been thinking? She'd fended it off once, barely so and thought it right to face the damn thing? A mirthless chuckle breached past her lips, her gaze distraught and confused, distracted that it was maniacal.
The beast words reverberated in her thoughts, "Quick to raise yourself beyond heights never yours, you don't belong".
She didn't, this wasn't even her own body to begin with. Ludmilla? A noble lovingly cared for by a present mother and father, a sister who cherished her deeply? That wasn't her's, THIS, wasn't her's.
Disgusting…
You're Crusch, the unfortunate, helpless little woman who's parents visited so sparsely that you struggled to make a coherent image of what they looked like.
They did it for me…
Dumped you at your aunt's living just as bad, left you as quickly when you graduated.
I..
You drown yourself in fantasies, lived a life secluded. You? Crusch? Do these descriptions meet the standards you've started to place upon yourself?
…..
Threw your life away and was tossed a bone, you're a pest more than a protagonist.
'Whatever it's making you hear dear owner is not true!!'
Crusch didn't answer, her gaze was distant, "I'm not meant for this…"
'You've prepared more than enough master! Whatever it's making you hear lies on the ignorance having never witnessed your efforts!'
Wrong, Crusch shook her head, the words reverberating louder than the voices shouting at her that it wasn't true.
Pest
Pathetic
Helpless
On the basis of which she'd lived her life was it not fitting? Was it not true? She was thrown a bone having failed to finish the last, she wallowed in her own self pity's and drowned it with the fanatical. Crusch, Crusch, Crusch, aren't you ashamed?
"I stole it from her, I stole it from her!!" This body wasn't her's, this life, the family she had now.
I should be ashamed!!
Ashamed!!
She clutched her head in dismay, the wand tightly in her grasp crackling with vibrant amethyst sparks as her body staggered back while the beast glared and an ember gaze glared back, shielded through round spectacles.
"Ashamed, ashamed that I allowed her to be embarrassed like this"
Debris smashed across the wolf's side, piercing and pinning its body to the wall as Crusch threw its body forward, smashing it onto the hallways forked pathways. She panted and staggered to the side, the blood loss was exhausting her rapidly.
'Owne—'
'Two minutes! It has to have been time by now!' She interjected, "I'm making my way back whether she likes it or not!!"
The beast roared once more, its gaze set ablaze in a fury of anger as amethyst strings gripped onto the various breaches through the hotels structure and flung her forward, dodging a blurring blow just moments before it connected. She staggered into the splintered and mangled hallway floor, the beast on the other end, glaring.
BANG!!
A shockwave of air followed, her reactions slowed from the blood loss and her exhausting mana pool but Beryl and Abssynia's reactions greatly made up for this. The beast met tight strings and hard floor, flung across the room with a strength brought by a vengeance.
Could you even achieve it?
The wand twirled in her grasp and the floor shuddered and creaked, the sound of wood slowly readying to snap. She envisioned the burning star in her heart, the residual mana and willed as much of what her fogged mind could bring into its grasp as the walls, regardless that they hadn't been damaged or left shattered, splintered into pieces aimed straight ahead. The room became clouded under floating debris, the floor stripped to its bare bases far from fit to bare the eyes of its owner. The beast staggered to its feet, stubborn that it was insufferably annoying that her heart beat with a burning passion, a conviction to at least cripple the thing.
You've grown arrogant
"HAAAAAA" The spell shot forward, the speed blinding, a shockwave of air following behind. The beast's vision ahead, clouded under a sea of splinters, metals that its gaze shrunk in shock.
BOOM!!!
An earth shattering bang ensued from the impact, Crusch was flown back by a few meters as the ground shook in thumping heart beats, dust and smoke blowing back at her as she shielded her eyes from view.
BOOM!!.
BANG!!
The ground continued to shudder even harder as the flouring beneath her creaked and Crusch could hear he unmistakable sound of snapping, her gaze widened again. Of course the flour wouldn't handle it any longer, the place had been stripped Irreplaceably, even if magic charmed the place, there was nothing to help hold up if all of that was gone. It was caving in on itself rapidly, parts of the floor having already caved to the floor beneath them.
'Get up! Come on!!' She attempted reeling herself from the ground, mustering whatever kind of strength she had left to pick herself up but the action was meant with failure.
'Get up!!' Her body rose a meter and fell, her vision blurring, 'We got this far…'
But the strength had left her completely, her hands slumped and images became indiscernible coloured blurs, darkening as she slowly lost conscious. The pain was resurfacing again and she felt her body's injuries make themselves known again, torturous that it came at a time when all she could do was endure with no distractions.
Pathetic….
This isn't your life…
'Get up…' Her body refused, the world nearly darkened completely, what was only visible now was a sapphire haze, 'Please…'
"Ludmilla!!!"
Her eyes fluttered open again, she was still on the floor but a hand had grasped at her crimson hands tightly, pulling her from the floor and tightly into someone's embrace.
"The door, I found it!" The haze of blue shouted at her in excitement, using its strength to throw her arm over itself, "Come on, there's still time!"
The floor was unstable, unkindly so at this point that their every step was met with a painful shudder that it could fall at any moment. Crusch's mind however could barely let out a thought, concentrated over only the slow movement of her body ahead and the blue haze carrying her forward.
"I…Won…" Her tired lips managed to articulate, she could feel the haze's gaze on her then felt warmth.
"I expected no less" Her body was beyond exhausted, she couldn't move herself if she wanted, she couldn't understand how she was even still conscious but still managed to muster strengths to let out a small smile, the words that had assailed her, the beast's mockery now fading to the background.