Part Two - 11 | Kill Me Slowly

. . .

She's faster than before.

In a flurry, Linia rips through the moonlight. So fast that you see nothing but the sparkling lunar glare in her place. Like she has vanished, only still air remains where she once stood, and you quickly summon a hot ring of fire around your torso to keep her at bay — wherever she is.

This method of self defense proves useless. Linia appears again but you cannot see her in her entirety, for she has launched herself into the air above you. You gasp, your flames illuminating the toe of her boot as it materializes before your very eyes, threatening to strike you head-on.

Shit! Too fast!

Your mana flow wavers, your body now running on a dwindling supply of energy. Despite the heavy weight pressing on your lungs and the weakness in your arms as your stamina quickly depletes, you manage to cast a spell quick enough as to prevent Linia's foot from nailing you in the face.

A rocky jagged spike protrudes from the soil, rising so high and so fast that it comes only inches from impaling the girl's exposed calf. Lucky for her and equally as unfortunate for you, the beast-girl is so nimble that it breaks nary a single bead of sweat from her brow for her to twirl in mid-air, seamlessly avoiding your magic. She spins, her tail pirouetting alongside her as she stamps her shin clean into the back of your head.

Thud.

You're given no time to react, and much less time to recover with how low your mana count is. Although you've barely moved, you still feel every ounce of breath and stamina being sucked from your body, your legs now struggling to stay upright and the nerves on the back of your head screaming for mercy.

When you try to turn and face the girl to block a follow-up attack, you find yourself sorely mistaken for thinking you can save your own skin. With little resistance, your knee pops and sends you to the ground, giving Linia ample time to come at you with her knee extended. Being hit would mean a mouth dripping blood and a few teeth gone. You aren't ready to be beaten by her, as you had been every time before now — your spirit now steeled and resilient.

With a gasp, you cast another spell off of your minuscule amount of mana. A faint blast of fire erupts before you, blowing Linia out of the air.

She goes sliding hard into the dirt, her lips pressed on cold soil and grass. Normally, this would mean an open opportunity to subdue her. However you are wiped. You can hardly move and your arms ache and a warm rush of drowsiness crawls deep through you, even as your mind is set intently on this brawl. The best you can do is stand there, pant like a sweaty dog, chide yourself for not being able to heal your pain and exhaustion.

Linia carefully gets to her feet and bends over to dust her knees off. Black ashes spawned from your blast of flame had amassed on her skin, but the girl wipes it all away with ease. Swiping a hand over her leg makes her suck her teeth when she hits a spot where a burn mark lies, peeling through a thin layer of skin.

She then looks over at you, probably pitying you for how empty you look. Her ears and tail twitch in trepidation and her narrowed eyes are glaring through your vulnerable frame.

"This won't be much of a fight when your mana's all gone." The girl walks so easily toward you, acknowledging the weak state you are in. "I'll feel satisfied when your face is all red and bloody. But I ain't stopping until then. Even if you scream."

You can't even form words. There's a dirty taste in your mouth and your body feels exceptionally cold — both symptoms of your mana being drained to zero. You try to summon a wooden tentacle like you had done with Pursena, but there is nothing. You try to conjure small sparks in your hand, but there is nothing. Your magic is unresponsive.

Linia watches you desperately try your silent magic, her eyes glistening in amusement. "So then," she says, "you're all empty. That just makes this a whole lot easier for me."

Before she vanishes under the harsh gleam of moonlight once more, you catch sight of the emotion brimming in her eyes. It is a pure, unbridled rage leaking through the red of her irises. Rage that you needn't question the existence of, because the girl made it abundantly clear to you that she doesn't trust you. That you will soon become a traitor and leave her and her sister to rot.

Linia darts into the air again, bringing her knee up against your jaw. Your hands helplessly rise up in front of you, though unable to stop the girl's relentless flow. A painful crack sounds somewhere from within your jawbones, pain overwhelming your senses, and you go falling to your back onto the grass.

You stop and try to take a breath despite your lack of stamina and mana feeling like it's suffocating you. Not even your throat can swallow down that vile taste in your mouth easily. It's like your body is completely shutting down, like you're a machine and your power source has finally been cut off. Your eyes wander to Linia's legs. She stomps over to you, not giving you a chance to resist before she presses all her weight into your stomach with a single foot, forcing out more air that your body doesn't have.

You feel yourself gag, choking on a merciless fit of asphyxiation. One breath, just one breath is all you need.

"To think you actually cared about us, even in the slightest," she shouts. "In the end, I know you're just gonna let us go and be merrily on your way back to that school while I'm forgotten and Pursena is turned into a slave."

"That's not true," you barely speak, your voice labored.

"Don't lie to me." Linia presses down harder on your stomach, eliciting a painful breathless moan out of you. "If that guy got her, you'd turn a blind eye real fast."

"That's... not true."

"Starved, beaten, raped, repeat. That would be her life. That's going to be her life when he gets her."

You throw out your hand and cast yet another blast of fire. A hot red flame slices sharp through the air, punching into the girl's torso. She is forced to get off of you, jumping back and patting the fire out of her uniform.

She looks over at you, her tail swishing to and fro in high alert. "The hell? I thought you were empty."

So did you. When a person's mana runs thin, they'll become weak, weary, exhausted. All your life you've been careful as to never drop too low. But tonight does not garner the chance to play it safe.

You stand up and hold your stomach tight, tasting a metallic warmth in your mouth.

You've tapped into a mana overdrive, something you've never done. Though your vision falters and you are still as weak as before, you are ready to continue fighting.

Coughing up blood doesn't slow you down. You stare down at how the puddle of crimson spilling over the dry grass glows under the moon, and you know this will only get worse the harder you push yourself. There will be more blood. But...

Her.

You glare at Linia who is still cautiously watching your every move. No more holding back. You throw your hand out once more, a wave of flames spiraling out of your fingertips. It is a wide blast, one that would typically drain a good chunk of mana from you, but in this state? The price you pay for standing your ground is your blood.

Linia meows loudly, ducking out of the line of fire. Immediately after rolling to the side, she taps out of the maneuver, breaking into a sprint headed in your direction. She's fast, so fast. But you can be faster.

Just a little more...

Your arms are encapsulated by pillars of flame. They materialize overtop your skin, growing evermore hot and bright by the second, then discharge into a hurricane of fire at the girl.

You shout as you feel your lungs pulsate and squeeze with every used portion of mana that you don't truly have. Your every move breaks down your body, sending heaps of hot blood up your throat. You're gagging, spitting it all out onto the grass whilst barely able to watch Linia get seared by your flames and still manage to carry on.

More...

Even your mind fails to function.

One... more...

You're losing yourself without even realizing it.

Linia pushes on, closing the gap between you with haste and swinging a fist at you. You catch it, hold her wrist, then watch as she tries bringing her other fist up to your face. You catch that one as well. Here you hold her, staring deep into her eyes, those red orbs full of hatred and distrust for you.

"You're desperate, ain't you?" she yells, unable to pry her wrists away from you but that doesn't stop her from thrashing about. "Desperate! Coward! I'd like to see you fight this hard if Pursena gets taken — but I know you won't! You fucking coward!!"

You keep a tight grip on her wrists but her constant flailing is causing your fingers to slip.

"You... you know I'm on your damn side!" you shout in her face. "Why are you fighting—"

Blood. It runs all down your chin and your shirt. You can't finish sentences. Not without a wet, bloody cough seizing control of your lips.

"Look at you." Linia breaks free when you start coughing up even more blood. In quick succession she lands a right hook on the side of your face. Then a left, then a right, and a hard kick to your chin to take you back down to the grass.

"Traitor! Liar!"

With every hit you took, more blood seeped out of your lungs and splashed from your mouth. Only now do you feel like your life is fading away, as soft and slow as a candle wick burns. You lay there on the grass in excruciating pain, your severe lack of energy preventing you from screaming.

Linia doesn't stop.

After bringing you down to the ground, she gets on top of you, pinning you to the ground. The rest is a painless blur to you. Painless — because you don't think your nerves work anymore. In one way or another, part of you has just died.

"Coward! Coward!"

She sits on your chest and lands punch after punch after punch on your face, staying true to her word.

"I'll feel satisfied when your face is all red and bloody. But I ain't stopping until then. Even if you scream."

You can't scream. You can't resist. You can't cry or twitch a finger or look directly at her. As she pounds on your face with her bare bloody knuckles, you lay there and take it. Every single punch, until your face is bloodied and you can't see through your blurry tears.

"COWARD!"

She hits you a final time. One last punch for good measure. And although you can't see her clearly, you feel her lean forward and start punching your chest gently.

Gently...

Linia breaks into sobs, pounding softly on your chest. You blink the tears in your eyes away, trying to see her face. It's hard but you can barely make out tears of her own gliding down her flushed cheeks. She wails into the still night air that was just turned chaotic and fiery beneath the embers of your magic and your blood, and she goes at this for a while. Crying, sobbing, hitting your chest, saying something you can't make out.

"Don't... don't..."

Your ears slowly come back to their senses, granting you the chance to hear her clearly before you lose your last shreds of consciousness.

"Don't do it... just don't. Don't leave me. Don't leave us..."

. . .

"I need you, Boss..."

Then there is silence as you feel yourself slipping out of a conscious state.