A Memory. Home. A blank figure, speaking to the next generation. Father. I am front. Behind me, all my peers who lost. A Doctor tending to them one by one. Mother enters, I cannot see her. To my right. Beside me stands a girl like me. Small like all of us. Black hair, a white fish round her neck. Her face another blur, same as everyone else. Mother speaks. Words I cannot remember. The scene fades away. Back to The Forest.
The first lesson of training was two. One, we are Martial Artist. Not Strategist, leave thinking to the Scholars on the field of battle. Second, a lot of bad guys love blabbing on and on instead of fighting. Blabbing is simply asking to die. Thoughts should be replaced by action. It is time to talk when it is time to talk.
Cecil speaks, holding out a dagger pointed to me. "Listen, kid. I don't want to add you to my sins, but-" Cecil interrupted. I am behind her, a raging flame. Staff about to remove her head.
A Shield appears, I divert my strike into it, knocking both of us a distance back. The flames pass the shield, engulfing the arm of the armor. Mark's stance indicates bewilderment.
"Cecil, these flames are not magic, nor aura!" How can he tell the difference between fire? Special Armor?
"Shut up! I'm busy!" Cecil is focusing on dodging flames, parrying claw and fang. Z's fight is his own. It gets hotter. I hear hissing every breath I take. It looks like I'm exhaling steam. A streak of flame circles around mark before darting to his backside. Mark didn't turn fast enough, contact.
The contact is brief, a shimmering shield appears. expelling the flame. I am pushed back. Yet the strike worked, melting the metal it contacted. His stance indicates pain. It worked. Crimson forms a torrent and shoots forth. Flame against steel. Press my advantage, prevent the enemy from sound judgment.
"Shield Wall: Thorns!" Words? A shield appears in front of me, coated in spikes. Too fast to stop, too close to use the staff. Least valuable side is upper left. My vision blurs as the heat rises. Engulfed in a crimson flame. I block with my left arm and torso. Spikes imbedded. Shield destroyed. Momentum increased. Bordering on an inferno.
Mark raises his shield and charges forward. I can barely see it. My hair turns black. My heart beats too fast. Blood falls from my mouth. My ears are blinded by a constant ringing. All that is crimson envelops the staff as I strike in a crescent, I don't feel an impact. A wave of flame melts through all in its path, mimicking that of a sword slash across Mark, scaring some of the land behind him. The heat no more.
The shield is gone. Where did it go? My strike didn't connect. He threw the shield? His arm and a portion of the right side of his body have been severed. If he blocked, this wouldn't have happened. Why?
"Seems my sins have caught me. I shouldn't of chosen the easy path." Mark collapses. Those words, that tone. Abandoning the shield. Desperation. Not of the self, but for another. Cecil? No, not her. To save the shield? This, a story I couldn't know. The ringing stops. There is no sound. Was Z defeated? I cannot move fast enough. A sharp pain. A dagger through the back.
"Fuck you. Little alien. I-" I grab her arm, an eruption of crimson. She screams as I turn around, she has fallen back to the snow. The arm now ashes. My vision blurs. Blood flows from two places now. Breathing becomes forced, yet still calm.
"A Non-Lethal opening is not a opening. Does no one learn and train here?" Mother said that the greatest advantage I will have growing up is that I am small. There are few who've the will to take the killing blow on a child. I pull the dagger out and it melts to nothing in my grasp.
Cecil stands, a defensive stance. Gédǎng Jìfǎ. I need only follow the flow of the dance. I try to take a step and nearly fall. Using the staff to hold myself up. My hair is white again. Cecil didn't move. I look past her. A shield floating in the air, projecting a rectangle box onto the snow. Is Z in there? Anger prevails over calm. The flame becomes an inferno. Breathing becomes erratic, vision blurred. The sounds of screams echo in my ear.
"I have no idea what you're doing. Spirit doesn't work like that. Magic and Aura couldn't of done that to Mark's armor. But that's good! That probably means you've no fucking idea what I do either." Cecil then collapses into a pile of snow. Walking in from the tree line with the other girl. Both her arms intact, using one to have a dagger to the girls neck. Did she make a illusion before striking me?
"Whatever turned off the collar hasn't turned off this yet. I'll just not worry about it and assume it can't." Cecil holds out her free hand, the shield flies to it. The box lifts up and follows behind Cecil. "I'm gonna leave. Get Mako. And finish my fucking quest. You stay there and do whatever that is or this ward will become animal food."
She dare double down on her dishonor to that of The Garden? The clouds becomes pitch black. It begins raining crimson. Heavier than water. Does she not know who I am? Instinct takes over.
I hold my hand out, with my finger I draw a sigil in the air with the falling crimson. Spikes form from the rain and impale Cecil. Cecil shatters into glass-like illuminations. The girl she was holding starts crawling away. An illusion? She forms back from the snow, dagger racing towards my neck. This Cecil's arm is gone. I am still lacking, not enough action. It's too hot to move, trying to will the flame causes pain. The stream of blood flows faster.
"Gotcha~" Just before the blade would pierce my neck. She freezes. A look of horror reflected in her eyes. I try to move, I can't. I'm frozen. I do not fear, but all I am does not dare to move. The pressure is too great. As if an ocean was dropped onto The Garden. The shield has fallen, the box shattered. Z and the flower are like me and Cecil.
The world ripples. The same as when one steps across a puddle. These rings flow through the forest. It starts to hurt. The force is crushing. Color flows in. A Cobalt Abyss. I look to the side. Ball is standing beside me. Glaring at Cecil & I. I can tell. The void contains an emotion. Ball is angry.
The tides may crash. Unbowed. Indiscriminate.