ZANE
My body surged with pounding energy. My hands shook, ears rang, and the taste of iron slowly filled my mouth. I could keep up with Xenon, but I knew my time would soon be cut short. "Shit," I thought as his blade made its way for my neck. The bastard had told me this was a spar, yet from the start all his hits were to kill.
His sword connected but froze on contact, reducing the force so much that it barely penetrated me. This man had hurt Tristan. He hurt the only person I had in my life. Sword after sword was materialized, but I froze each one before he could think of using them.
In this moment I made myself a promise. A promise that I would do anything in my power to prevent anything like this from happening again. Tristan was a prodigy for all I knew. All the things that happened to him recently were because of me. Hail continued to pour from the sky, drowning out the voices of the crowd.
This was the power of a boy who put his very life on the line for his friend. I now charged at the fool. He didn't avoid me, no, he set a lazy stance and materialized another sword. The bastard, his arrogance would be the end of him. Avoiding his sword, I grabbed his neck. With a pulse of energy through my body, he was frozen the next second.
I wasn't going to make the mistake I made before. I now knew how strong he was. The monster before me could survive being frozen, so I had to take it a step further. I adjusted my stance, aiming my blade for his neck. "I told you I'll kill you," I declared as I swung my sword.
The cold guided me as I made my way to his neck. It felt like eternity. It seems the aftereffect of this power boost was upon me. It didn't matter though. My blade was a few centimeters from his neck. In the next moment I would have shattered it.
Clang—the clash of steel cut through the air
"What?!" these words escaped my lips as a sword had just blocked the path to Xenon's neck. I looked to the side to see a girl standing there aloof. I swung at a different angle, but she blocked me again.
"Fuck off!" she ignored my words, instead staring at me detached, like I was some struggling animal. In the next moment, she guided my blade until it left my hand. "You're at your limit. Stand down." This bitch was wasting my time. Stretching out my hand, I called on my weapon once more.
It didn't move. What was happening? "I told you, you're at your wits' end," she said before turning her face to Xenon. "Shut up! You don't….don't…." I couldn't finish my sentence. I moved towards her, or rather, intended to do so, but my body didn't cooperate.
My vision blacked in and out. The world seemed to be shaking around me. Pain built up from my spine, spreading to the rest of my body in an instant. Why? Why did that girl have to step in now? Xenon was within my grasp, yet…
I tumbled to the ground as my vision slowly blackened. Dust was the last thing I smelt, brown boots the last thing I saw, and an annoying voice the last thing I heard.
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My body hurt. A foreign smell filled the air, it had a slight prickling effect in my nose. Muffled voices sounded everywhere as the ache in my body slowly died down. I couldn't open my eyes. The pain was gone, but I didn't have any strength to move. The voices slowly became clearer.
For now it was just me and my thoughts. I didn't know where I was, but I could imagine I was still in…I didn't even know what this place was. The last few days had been a nightmare. Tristan and I managed to escape the realm. Then we were arrested. I didn't know his current situation, but if it was anything like mine, I had nothing to worry about.
My thoughts veered back to when Tristan stole the realm key. The realm that was originally meant to be rank 5. Altera had intercepted us before we reached our original destination. Tristan had…died. Altera then educated me on some things. I paused on the last thought.
It was something I hadn't gone back to till now. The things she revealed were unexpected. There was so much more she had to tell me but she died before she could. I couldn't imagine why she chose me of all people to give her power, but I didn't have any intention of doing anything that would put Tristan and I in danger.
She said the gods were after her. GODS! What could I do against them? Why would they be after her? How important was a great mage? She told me not to disclose anything to anyone. That they were listening. What did she mean by that? There were churches that worshiped gods, I didn't really have any opinion on the matter, but now…
Were all the gods bad? If that was the case, why were they worshiped? "He should be waking up anytime soon," I barely made out these words. I couldn't tell if it was male or female. When I woke up, what would happen? I began whisking through possible questions that could be thrown at me.
None. When I wake up from this, I hope it would be one bad dream. Tristan would get some ingredients and I would cook as we usually did. The life was terrible, but…there were no buts, the life was terrible.
We had to steal to survive. Our house was just some empty space that we found a year ago. It was the fifth, or was it the tenth? We didn't have a permanent residence. Tristan still owed that stupid guy money—wait—how did those people know we stole the key? The fat fool must have turned us in. Whatever the case was, I was ready to wake up to eat some good dried bread.
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"Where's my dried bread?" Xenon stepped into the room as I asked the random woman this question for the third time. "What's going on?" he directed this question to her. She didn't respond, rather, she looked at me with confusion in her eyes.
"Where's my dried bread?" I muttered again, barely hearing myself. Maybe if I said it enough, I'd wake up at home. Maybe Tristan would laugh and tell me I burned it again.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I looked towards the red-haired fool that asked me that question. He was just a piece of my imagination. The last few days were tiring. Hopefully, I'd wake up from this dream soon.
"Shut up, you aren't real so just shut up," these words were directed at the same fool. He approached me with his irritating grin. Before I could chase him away, a pricking feeling permeated my body.
Ahh!
My body jerked in reaction and I fell to the floor. "Be careful, the medicine's very potent," the woman that hadn't said anything till now told me these things. Disposing her needle, she turned to Xenon. "I've confirmed, my earlier statement." What did she mean by this? Also, what kind of person injects another without warning?
As I gave it more thought, I realised her voice sounded similar to the one I heard while unconscious. Wait, what was it she just confirmed? She turned to me again, her expression now dire.
"Zane…" How did she know my name?
"When you fought Xenon, you had a boost of power…" Why was she reminding me of that nightmare? As if I wouldn't remember such a bad dream—
"That power boost shortened your life."
Whatever this nightmare was, it seemed it wouldn't end.