The spear sliced his cheek open, and would have pierced his skull if he hadn't jerked his head to the side. He activated his Freeze (Ranged) ability and took advantage of the slowed movements of his enemies to activate his sole ability in the element of Air, and made himself weigh very little while simultaneously launching himself backward with an earthen platform and his own leg strength.
Now with a bit of distance between him and his opponents, Shiv took a second to breathe… only to find Esmeralda already beside him leaning into a punch aimed at his stomach.
He watched as time seemed to slow down whilst her fist raced toward his stomach, apparently not even slightly impeded by his Ice-Element Ability.
'I won't do it.' The words ran through his mind… but his body reacted instinctively to activate the cursed skill. The Ability he'd sworn to never use: Metal Skin.
He unconsciously activated it and used his Air Ability to increase his weight substantially. The punch connected and he was sent flying. Even with his skin turned to metal, the priestess' fist had penetrated his stomach and the impact with the wall had jarred his internal organs and brain, causing massive amounts of pain to radiate through every fiber of his being while his eyes tried to see through the dizziness that was assaulting them.
"You probably see this as dishonorable, but I'm afraid you would be mistaken. We made an agreement that I would not pursue you so long as you had the princess." Esmeralda approached Shiv's coughing, kneeling form at a casual pace. "As you can clearly see, you do not have the princess any longer." She knelt beside Cain. "I could kill you in an instant with my earth magic. Instead, I am teaching you a lesson. One that you will not forget for the rest of your short, miserable life." She placed the blade of her spear a finger's width from his neck.
Shiv coughed a bit of blood up one last time before enacting one last, desperate plan.
He set his hand on fire and canceled the fire resistance his body had due to his fire skill, and as a result, his hand boiled with blisters. He quickly placed his hand on the hole in his stomach, cauterizing the wound while Esmerlada watched with an unamused expression.
With his guts no longer in danger of falling out, Shiv took a deep breath and winced from the extreme pain. His wince brought him in contact with the spear. He tried to use Earth Manipulation, but when that failed, activated his Imbue Ability. With his face pointed at the ground, a grim smile fought back the grimace and he used the ability to manipulate the end of the spear close to Esmeralda into a blade that bent and stabbed into her side.
Except… it didn't stab through. It seemed to hit an impenetrable wall when it touched her skin.
"You don't use my own weapons against me. Not that using a weapon of your own would have any other effect than what you see before you." Shiv decided that the woman's voice didn't sound so attractive anymore. It was too arrogant. Too lacking in every other emotion.
'That should have penetrated.' Was the only thought Shiv had time for before an electrified metal bar hit him in the forearm, crushing it.
'This shouldn't be happening.' Shiv reacted with astonishing speed again to roll to the side and to his feet with a roundhouse kick aimed at the spot he guessed Not Jaqueline was in. She was there, but she dodged it easily and Shiv was stabbed in the back by a sparkly green spear.
He increased his weight dramatically and had the ground suck him in and move him rapidly away from his two opponents as far as he could manage before Esmeralda shot him out again.
To his surprise, he landed next to the princess. Even more to his surprise, the princess threw herself on him. He initially tried to push her off, expecting an attack of some form, but all she did was wrap her arms around him and look desperately over at the zealots.
"What are you doing, Mad?" Not Jaqueline asked while slowly approaching. Esmeralda stayed where she was, in between Shiv and the exit his team had taken, and watched while biting her lip.
"He's my new friend's father, so I can't let you hurt him anymore! I'm sorry. I'll be back before nightfall. I promise." And with that, she began helping Shiv toward the exit.
His mind was muddled from all the pain he had endured, so all he could manage was to stumble along with the princess as a support.
"You do not know that girl, or this man. Do not trust them." The blonde Esmeralda warned, but the princess only set her jaw and continued trudging onward.
The powerful Warrior Priestess' face became dark, and the massive room they were all in trembled. Four giant emerald walls burst out of the ground around Shiv, cutting him and the princess off from any and all escape. The very ground below him was replaced with a dull green emerald.
"This is a small example of the power I wield. Know that I am letting you go only because the princess needs to learn a very specific lesson. Know also that if I have any reason to believe that you have harmed her in any way…"
"Yeah, yeah. We've already been over this. Now go-" Shiv doubled over with a coughing fit and was unable to finish his order.
Abruptly, the walls sank back into the ground and the princess began moving again, dragging the still-coughing Shiv along. They reached the tunnel without incident, and entered, though the floor was uneven, making their movement awkward and uncomfortable.
The trip through the tunnel was noisy with the sound of shuffling feet, dripping blood, growling stomachs, and pained coughs. But not a word was spoken.
When they reached the end of the tunnel, they found themselves in a back alley of the city. Mad tried to help Shiv sit down, saying something about finding his friends and bringing them to him, but he refused, and instead plowed on.
They traveled down the streets, earning many curious, strange, and downright horrified looks from random passersby, though nobody stopped to talk or tried to hinder them.
"Aha. There you are. I should have known you, being the idiotic oaf you are, would try to sneak away from the royals by limping down the middle of the main street." A familiar voice came from somewhere near the ground.
"Uriel, take me to the others." Shiv rasped out.
"Oh my. Since when did we become close enough to use each other's first names?" Uriel's voice took on a hard edge. "You've been in worse shape than this. What's gotten into you?"
"Uriel." Shiv rasped, then devolved into a coughing fit again.
The wolf didn't say anything further, only leading the two wounded humans toward the outskirts of the city, and eventually into a tavern. Inside the tavern, Shiv was tackled by a fiery-haired teary-eyed little girl and her flaming wolf. "Father! You said we weren't supposed to be separated anymore!" Shiv coughed yet again, and wished his vision wasn't so hazy. "Don't worry, we have a healer here. Come this way!" Shiv was pulled along by a little hand until a pair of big, heavy hands firmly grabbed his shoulders.
"Hold still." There was a long silence as Shiv felt his body knitting itself back together and his vision slowly cleared.
When he was satisfied, Shiv waved the healer away and searched the room for food, which he found on a plate in front of Duncan, who was sitting at the bar on the other side of the room. He started making his way slowly in that direction while Blaze hugged the princess and fussed over her, making sure she was OK.
Duncan saw Shiv's approach and quickly figured out his goal by following his eyes to the food they were locked on, and reacted by hopping over the bar and holding the food over his head. "It's mine, you scoundrel! You can't have it! Briggs is paying for it, so it's mine!"
Briggs muttered something about never agreeing to such a thing.
"I'm not in the mood, Duncan." Shiv growled.
"Father?" Something in Blaze's tone replaced his anger with fear and sadness. He stopped and turned to face her.
"Can we not destroy this city? I don't want my friend to get hurt, and it's really pretty and the food is really good and I know there are bad guys here and that nobody is a plant… but wait! Remember? When Mad and you fought, she used plants that came out of her body! So that makes her a plant, right?" Blaze spoke in a rush and finished with hope shining brightly in her eyes.
Shiv met her eyes, and something broke inside of him.
All of the air left his lungs, and he felt tired. So, so supremely tired. "Yeah." He whispered. Then again, this time louder. "Yeah. We'll spare this city."
Blaze's face lit up, and she hopped over to Mad to give her a big hug while the two of them giggled.
Duncan had stopped moving, and was now looking at Shiv with a serious expression.
"We'll spare the next city. And the next. And the next. You know what? Let's spare all the cities. We've done enough. I'm done. All of you…" Shiv looked from one face to the next. "Go do something more meaningful with your lives." He didn't feel hungry anymore, and didn't feel like engaging in any form of conversation, so he left the building.
When the door shut soundly behind him, he leaned back against it and took a deep breath.
The silence was broken by Duncan's incredulous voice. "What the hell is more meaningful than destroying the entire freaking world?"