Pirates

Control

Without warning, a foot smashed into my jaw. It sent me flying through the air, blood dripping from my mouth, and crashing into the far wall. They were harder than I remembered, and made the attack hurt even more. I fell to my knees, staring at the floor. Every breath caused an extreme amount of pain, so much I could barely think straight.

I managed to look upward at my assailant. He had a sick, Jin like grin on his face. He walked up to me, and kicked me in the face again. My head flew backwards into the wall. He then jumped on top of me, continually punching me in the face with bloody hands. I managed to lift a hand to block a punch, and twirl over to the side. His next punch smashed into the wall. It folded over, and trapped his hand in place. His grin didn’t even falter. He stood up and placed a foot on the wall, attempting to pull himself free.

I stood up myself and staggered toward the mirror. My jaw was shifted over to the side, the bone stuck through my skin. With a steady hand I shifted it back in place, screaming in agony. I focused healing energy into my hands and jaw, and held my hands over the broken skin and bone. It healed sooner than expected, and I could open my mouth without keeling over in pain.

Without really thinking about it, I took my field dagger out and began to cut pieces of the mirror off. I took them and scattered them throughout the room, in an intricate, symmetrical pattern. When I had placed the last mirror, the beast broke free. It was almost fully transformed. Its body was covered in shadow, with the exception of an incomplete tail. I hid behind one of the mirror pieces. My image reflected all throughout the room. The beast looked around, confused. It charged at a piece and smashed through it, only to come face to face with another. It bellowed in rage and rushed at mirror after mirror. To remain hidden, I had to keep switching my position.

Before long, I exhausted my hiding spots. He smashed through the mirror, sending me flying backwards. I flipped through the air and landed on my feet, crouched down toward the floor. With less than a second turn around time I launched myself at the beast, channeling as much energy as I could into my fist, I punched it in the face with all my might. It slid backwards on all fours before loosing its balance and toppling over. I picked up various shards of glass from the floor and threw them at him as hard as I could. They bounced harmlessly off the covering of shadow. I picked up a whole slab of mirror, spun around, and used the centrifugal force to launch it much harder than I could have normally. It connected with his face as he was getting up, knocking him back down and sending a small splatter of blood into the air. I took the opportunity to lunge at him with my dagger, stabbing as fast as I could at the exposed area. It turned out to be his eye, and he bellowed out in pain. He brushed me aside with his misshapen claw and stumbled around.

I stood up and walked around the drunken looking beast. I was standing in a position lower to the floor, holding out the bloodstained dagger in front of me. I diverted energy from my body and into the dagger. The blood quickly evaporated as small waves of power randomly discharged on the dagger’s blade. I ran at the beast with the dagger in hand, ready to try and finish the fight as soon as possible. When I got close, the beast caught me off guard and sent me flying into the wall with a powerful slap, causing me to drop the dagger. Seeing that I was momentarily unable to do any serious damage, the beast charged towards me at blinding speeds. Before I could figure out what was happening, it was on top of me, clawing at my face with all its might. I felt my heard bones crack, and felt my jaw shift back out of place. I knew that I was in trouble; if I didn’t do something soon I might just die. I tried to push it off of me but I couldn’t gather enough strength. I tried punching back but it seemed to have no effect. Nothing I did would get this beast off of me.

There were so many things I had left to do; so many things I wanted to do; I so much to live for. My mind wandered back to my first day at the school. “I didn’t choose to be here, I was chosen, so why should I worry about what’s ahead? I’ll make it through the night or I won’t, I’d be okay with either.” Hah. How foolish was I back then?

“I’m sorry,” I muttered through clenched teeth, “but it is not my time to die.”

The room began to tremble. The ceiling and floor began to stretch. Two masses formed on each surface. They stretched and pulled themselves into existence, as if struggling against an invisible force. The masses suddenly gained a burst of speed and lashed out at the beast. It was like watching a nest of snakes attack. They struck out at lightning speed, latching onto its arms and legs and completely enveloping them. They seemed to merge with the coat of shadow and pull themselves tight; there was no way it could move. The beast struggled, trying to break free from the restraints, but it was no use, they would not let go.

I stood up, and tried to shift my jaw back into place. The bone began to mend itself, exponentially reducing my pain. The beast stared at me, and I stared back with an intensity that was unmatched. The beast let out a howl and stopped moving. I raised my hand, and channeled all of the energy I had left into it. With my last burst of strength I ran at the beast, and stabbed my hand into its chest. At first, the beast defied me, concentrating the shadow in its body towards my hand. I gave up everything I had, forcing my hand through its body. The beast let out a great howl. The shadow on its body began to churn like the waves of the sea during a terrible storm. It migrated from its body to my arm, and soon, it completely surrounded me. I bathed in the defeat of the monster that had taken the life of Kiel and had harmed the woman I cared so much for.

The shadow began to sink into every pore on my body until it completely disappeared from view. Only, it didn’t because I could see it coursing through me. The floor beneath me became unstable, soft and spongy. I began to sink into the floor, and as I did I looked one last time at my reflection. It stared at me with weak eyes, but I could have sworn I saw it mouth out a final message.

“You…interfered”

I found myself crouching down on the floor, behind a gigantic pile of rubble. I looked down, to find my body completely covered in shadow. Under closer inspection, I looked exactly like the beast from my mind. Except, my eyes were completely red and enlarged.

“I know you’re back. Just come out.” It was Jin’s voice.

Something about it just made me so angry, I couldn’t control it. I crashed straight through the debris. Large chunks of cement scattered before my barreling form. I locked onto Jin, standing out in the open, and rushed right at him. He shot a huge stream of fire directly at me, but I easily maneuvered around it. This body I had now was remarkable. I was moving so fast, Jin seemed to barely be moving. I rushed around behind him, twisting my body in mid air, and swung at him, crushing the back of his head. He sprawled forward, gripping his wound.

“What the hell… stop.”

I didn’t listen, more like I couldn’t listen. I crashed into him from behind. I grabbed his bleeding skull with one hand and jumped into the air. I flung my hand downwards, which smashed Jin’s body into the floor. He struggled to his knees. His body began shooting off waves of smoke.

“Fine… let’s do this.”

His body exploded in fire. The heat and force of the blast flung me from the floor and through the wall. The people in the sparring room next to us had cleared out long ago. This room was bigger than room five, but the ceiling was lower to the floor. I crashed back in through the wall, right into another gigantic ball of fire. I ran through it, not even paying attention to the shadow that dissolved off of my body. The gap quickly closed itself, not slowing me down a bit. My claw stabbed into his lower body. The flames started to sear through the shadow as I pushed as hard as I could. Jin resisted against me, and spit a plume of flames into my face. I roared out in pain. With my free hand I gripped my seared eyes; with the other I tightened my grip. Jin’s blood spilled out into my hand before it evaporated in the heat.

Jin grabbed my arm and clutched with all his strength. The flame from his body began eating away at my coat of shadow, trying to burrow through toward my skin. I took my other hand away from my face and smashed it into his forehead. That extra force was enough to knock him slightly off balance, which I promptly took advantage of. I dashed forward; his torso impaled on my claw, and smashed him through wall after wall. After the fourth one, he started to struggle. He swung at me with the hand his adept ring was on. It easily burrowed through the shadow and connected with my face, drawing blood. The warm, crimson liquid spilled down my coat and splattered on the floor. I stopped running and threw my arm out away from me, tossing Jin into a far wall like a rag doll… a rag doll that can make a crater large enough to fit at least ten men. He slumped to the floor, the fire gone from his body. I gripped my wound, running my finger along it. Strangely enough, the cut didn’t heal, or the shadow didn’t repair itself.

I paced the room on all fours, never keeping my eyes off Jin. He stared back at me, holding a small orb of fire in his hand. He jumped up suddenly, and rushed at me. I wasn’t prepared to let him go far. I charged back at him, baring my teeth and snarling. Before we impacted, he dropped to the floor, and slammed the orb directly into my chest. I was expecting a momentary burst of heat, but it was so much more than that. The fire reached all the way to my skin, easily pealing through the first, second and third layers. He slid out from under my massive form. The wound wouldn’t stop hurting. At first it just felt like a severe burn. But after a while, the pain mimicked that of being electrocuted from the inside out.

I crumpled to the floor, gripping my chest in pain. Slowly but surely, all the shadow melted off of my body and into its normal position. The only thing remaining was my necklace, jammed into the wound I was desperately trying to heal.

“Damn… how the hell did you do that?”

I was too weak to pull the pendant out of my chest. The red glow surrounding the rock faded and the stone returned to normal. Instantly, it freed itself from the wound and relocated itself around my neck, as if nothing has happened. Jin’s wounds were almost healed; however, he was clearly out of energy, lying on the floor face down.

I stumbled to my feet and staggered over towards Jin.

“Need a hand?”

I extended my hand down to him. He propped himself up on his elbow, reeled backwards, and punched me right in the face, sending me flying back into a wall. I got back up to my feet and massaged my jaw.

“I deserved that.”

Jin was sitting upright by now.

“Yeah, you did… asshole.”

I walked back over to him and pulled him to his feet. He was still pretty battered, blood leaked from a few open wounds.

“Want me to take you to a cleric?” Jin scoffed.

“Like I need a nurse. I’m chillin’ here.”

He laid down and stared at the ceiling, before drifting off to sleep. It was kind of a weird ending to such an epic fight, but who was I to complain. I was dead tired, and definitely not in the mood for more conflict. I walked out of the partially destroyed room and into the hall. I planned on going to see Reina. I figured that it had been a while since I started fighting with Jin, perhaps she was better by now.

I didn’t get very far before a blinding light appeared out of no where, blocking my path. Hans emerged, with a very solemn look on his face.

“Come with me.”

“But,” I protested, “I was just about to…”

Hans reached out with lightning speed and slapped me. It was so unexpected I stumbled backwards and fell down.

“Don’t argue with me.” With that he stepped towards me, touched my shoulder, and teleported both of us to an undisclosed location.