The Challenger

by Harlon Banks

  "Stay still, I'll make it quick and painless if you don't move." She said soft and hollow taking a step forward calmly. Jonath taking a step back in response and sucking his teeth as silver bangs brushed over his soft glowing pale eyes.

  "Like hell I will! You must really have a screw loose or something huh!?" He couldn't help but give a grim chuckle of disbelief at her actions, his tone showcasing his astonishment. "First you save me from those snakes and then just minutes later you're trying to kill me yourself? Why even help me back there? Why not just let the damned beasts kill me?" He asked raising his knife and getting into a defensive posture of his own for when she suddenly attacked.

  Despite his agitated tone and mind, Jonath's body remained calm and unmoved by the danger he were in now. This calmness in his body making him wonder if he'd felt this way before in the past.

  "It was an act of mercy, nothing more." Liariana replied with empty tone and glassy words. Her dark-colored combat boots echoing with every step she took closer to him at a calm pacing. Jonath taking a step back with every step she took forward, eyes watching the ninjato blade now held at her left side as she approached.

  "Dying to mere predators is a sad way to go; I did you a favor by killing them. Your death will hold more value dying by a person." She answered still approaching Jonath until the man found himself backed into a pillar. Sucking his teeth, eyes narrowing at her when she gripped her blade and raised it horizontal through the air before her face, the length of the weapon spanning across her features. Red eyes emanating a soft red light over the steel of the weapon as cold, lumimous crimson stare and slit pupils looked him in the eyes.

  "The Yelkath clan are well-known and feared throughout the far East for multiple reasons. One of those reasons is our skills with edged weapons such as swords and daggers." Her sudden exposition on her heritage confused Jonath even more, why was she telling him this now? Liariana meanwhile tossed her sword up into the air with a spiraling ascent catching Jonath's eyes momentarily from the sudden action. The man unknowingly falling right into her trap of drawing away his attention for what came next.

  "The Ono-ha Itto-ru style used by us focuses on killing with a single heavy blow inflicted on our opponents." Her words struck a cord in his psyche; the grey scaled vision of himself being slashed down the center with such inhuman force he died instantly flashing across his mind.

  "Sever." Liariana said as she caught the downwards spiraling ninjato in a reversed grip with her bandaged right hand right as Jonath pivoted around the pillar!

  A deep gash carved stone directly from the pillar where Jonath had stood mere seconds earlier. Air whistling as it were rended and a deep groove cut into the minerals, crumbling debris from shredded rock spilled on the ground as Liariana slightly tilted her head, curiously so. That curiosity twisting into wariness now as she swiped her blade through the air and twirled it through her fingers before sliding it back into the sheath on her lower back in one fluent action.

  "He dodged..." She mused silently in her mind, red eyes narrowing softly in thought. Something about the way he dodged made her feel a bit more on edge.

  Jonath meanwhile stayed hidden around the pillar, left hand holding his eyes in quiet disbelief. He shouldn't have been able to avoid that attack, it happened too fast for him to react. If he hadn't foreseen his death again he'd most definitely be...

  "No time to worry about that, she's really trying to kill me." He muttered to himself hearing her footsteps again and then they suddenly ceased. Everything quiet, eerily quiet. Jonath preparing to peek around the pillar to fi-

  Something flew past the pillar into view, his eyes looking upon a small red gem infused with magical energy and glowing brighter by the second Shock overcoming him when he realized what it was and he brought his arms up once again to shield his face!

  "Damn!" He cursed right as the crystals light reached peak luminosity and he were overtaken by its brilliance!

  Kaboom!

  A brilliant, white-hot inferno released from the exploding gem in a violent, and vibrant display of fiery colors. The sound alone so loud it shook the entire cathedral as pillars shivered and cracked and bright orange flames splattered all across the immediate vicinity. Jonath sent flying through the air backwards from the recoil alone with charred arms and burned flesh all across his exposed arms; the enchanted fabric of the clothing the only thing that kept his entire body from being cooked alive by the sheer heat of the explosion.

  He slammed back first into a broken statue of a knight near the edge of the wall, shattering the stone completely as the sculpture crumbled and then collapsed on top of him burying him beneath rubble. Liariana, having retreated a safe distance before igniting the fire crystal emerged from the sea of dying orange flames with a quiet walk unfazed by the heat around her. Stopping a meter or so from the broken pieces of stone pinning down Jonath beneath lying on his stomach; her red eyes looked apathetically upon his body. Watching closely to see the rising and falling of his chest to see if he were still breathing.

  Jonath coughed, answering her mental examination quite quickly. His fingers curling across the stone, burned skin and muscle spanning his arms, neck, and even portions of his face and singing his hair. Left hand still gripped tightly around the hilt of his combat dagger much to her subtle surprise. Nevertheless, she pulled her blade from its sheathe again with a reversed grip. The ominous sound of steel leaving sheath made Jonath twitch as he raised his head to look at her with burned facial features that slowly began to heal over with mystic energy. Hair strands repairing, flesh stitching back together and alleviating their burns and his breathing stabilizing as he laid lower half buried under heavy rocks. The two looking into each other's eyes once more, Jonath with anger and fury and Liariana with emptiness.

  "Just tell me one thing..." Jonath panted heavily between breaths and words, his stamina already gone from regeneration of such serious wounds. Liariana not attacking him, merely continuing to look down at him with an apathetic look to her features as black bangs clung to frame her face.

  "Why? Why are you trying to kill me?" He asked, coughing a bit and lowering his head in shame at how pathetic he was to get defeated so fucking easily again. The skill difference between him and this girl were oceans apart. He couldn't even compete. Damn it all...

  Fingers bled scraping the ground out of frustration at his own weakness...

  "I don't have a choice." Liariana's words made Jonath hitch a breath in his throat. Looking back up to her with shocked features as she met his gaze with one of emptiness.

  Finally, he finally saw it. Her eyes portraying no self conviction of her own accord in her actions. She didn't want to kill him, personally. However whoever had told her to kill him; their orders overrode her own thoughts on the matter. He could see it in her eyes, she was nothing but a puppet to them. This person who ordered her to kill him once they reached the treasure within the city. Jonath lowered his head again in silence, eyes staring at the ground blankly now as the Yelkath raised her sword to finish him off. The last of the burning embers surrounding them fading away into darkness again as the only light that remained were the hovering light gem around Liariana, Jonath's having been destroyed in the blast.

  "Tch, and I thought I was the pathetic one here." He chuckled exasperate and exhaled. Liariana pausing right as she prepared to swing, tilting her head and narrowing primordial red eyes at him as if what he just said bewildered her. Her lips twisting into a slight show of irritation at his words, grip tightening around the hilt of her ninjato. Jonath sucking his teeth and tightening his grip around his own knife while lying across the ground in silent rage at his situation.

  "Whether I'm pathetic for listening to those controlling my future, or pathetic for failing to kill you sooner, it makes no difference." She calmly said while raising her sword again to finish him off. Eyes void of any sympathy for him.

  "You will die here. May your soul find peace in the next world."

  As she swung that sw
ord down to carve out the back of his neck, severing the spinal cord and killing him. Jonath felt as if he were floating aimlessly through a void; lying on his back with numbed eyes looking out into the abyss. The image of that edged weapon killing him repeating itself time and time again as the real world felt time locked and trapped in stasis from the time ticking in his mind.

  Hopeless...

  Jonath's eyes started to glow, that ghastly pale hue transforming his eyes yet again as crescent-shaped pupils took form across pale Melissaes. The roots of his platinum silver hair turning black and creeping out from his scalp, his spiky hair growing more feral in appearance now, dyed in black roots with gleaming platinum endings. His body feeling ice-cold and light.

  Was he dead?

  Know thy name. Remember thyself.

  Chains began to appear across his limbs, from base of hand to tip of shoulders. Shackling him and weighing down his feather weight body... These chains then snapping, link by link as if freeing him of worldly ties. His eyes drunk off the aura energy infusing itself into them, hair of black and white shifting over his eyes when he twitched a bit from the numbness now becoming a tingling sensation to be felt in his bones.

  Know thy name. Remember thyself, Jonath.

  Who am I? I need answers.

  "Kelarin will be waiting for you when you come back!" Dal's words echoed through his fading mind. That's right...

  "You think I'm just gonna let you go and die after putting time into feeding you? I think not!" Jeremy chuckled in his memory...

  "I can't die here. I refuse, to die here..." His voice echoed through the abyss of black he floated in. Swirling black tattoos creeping across his left side now, originating from his glowing pale left eye. These markings tribal in origin, swirling across flesh in abysmal black coloration spanning all the visible skin on his left in fluid patterns. Left eye glowing brighter than the right as crescent-shaped pupil discharged raw energy.

  "I won't die here. I refuse to die here; you will not kill me." Jonath's words tremor with conviction. His body suddenly falling through the abyss into nothing as reality took hold again and time moved once more...

  Liariana's blade sparked against a vague haze of pale energy hovering right above Jonath's body. Her red eyes widening as she caught a breath in her throat from surprise. Jonath's left arm raised over his head, the transformation he'd undergone in his psyche materializing in the physical world as well. He was gripping something invisible in his hand that seemed to have halted the sword aimed to kill him. Right hand scraping across the ground as he grunted, and a powerful flare of supernatural energy pulsing outwards from his body that blew away the bangs from Liariana's face causing her to jump backwards and gain distance from Jonath.

  "I'm sorry..." Jonath's voice sounded extremely calm, collected, tranquil. The young man hoisting himself up, lower body phasing through the stones that trapped him as if he were a Spectre now. "I can't let you kill me, Izuna. Got too many things I need answered before I can just die like that." He grunted rearing up and raising his gaze to the ceiling with a long exhale and closed eyes. In his possession were two phantom crystalline daggers, one in each hand. These daggers crafted completely of supernatural energy, ghostly ethereal in form and transparency, emanating powerful aura in the form of a light pale glow that illuminated his figure in the darkness. The sound of chains rattling with them as well, yet said chains couldn't be seen to the naked eyes.

  Liariana quietly stunned by what she were seeing, yet her features showed no despair or hesitation nor fear of what she'd seen before her. Crimson eyes only slightly curious once more at the eerie transformation of the man before her. Her blade resting calmly at her side as slit pupils looked upon the opposition. Her mind recalling the words Wren spoke, of Jonath having hidden potential. So this was it? She was finally seeing what had made her curious about him ever since those bandits in the forest.

  Her eyes darted to the phantom knives in his grip, the supernatural capacity of her vision seeing what normal eyes couldn't. Chains were strung around his arms and fastened to the ends of the blades, invisible to typical eyes but clearly seen by hers... The rattling sound from earlier making sense now. Chained blades were his weapons? Eyes now looking at his dual colored hair, the swirling black tattoos on his left, crescent-shaped glowing eyes and ominous aura energy. The more she stared at him, the more he felt like a reaper of some sorts. He wasn't normal, not even by Nightborn standards...

  "This Nightborn..." She quietly pondered who he was within her thoughts, but made no outward inquiry. Switching her blade back into the reversed grip she seemed to favor, she held it before her with blade facing perfectly down to the ground and a flare in the glow of her own crimson hues. Her own aura of black and silver tint swirling quietly around her feet, permeating the air around her and red eyes discharging a brief arc of raw energy.

  "I'll honor you with admiration for this awakening of yours. Your power now is vastly stronger than what you've shown prior to this point." She spoke with a respectful tone and serious gaze. Jonath switching his daggers into reversed grips as well and crouching to prepare an attack of his own. His eyes calm and focused, aura fuming off his body in a ghastly haze while his pale skin seemed to gleam under the light of his own energy. Another rattling of loose invisible chains echoing between words as Liariana stared at him not intimidated and unmoving in her own conviction to carry out Draven's sinister orders.

  "However the outcome of this encounter will not change. You will die here, I'm sorry." She said quietly. Jonath scoffing immediately after those words left her mouth and replying in a disgusted tone of his own.

  "Even with this strength, I doubt I can beat you. However I'm not trying to beat you, let alone kill you." His words made Liariana furrow a brow at him bewildered. Jonath was right however, though he felt a surge of strength within himself he still had zero experience with anything on this enhanced form of his. He could have all the strength in the world yet going up against someone as skilled as Liariana, one wrong move and she could end him with a simple stroke of her sword. Still...

  "It doesn't have to be this way, Izuna. We don't have to fight each other, whoever is telling you to do this doesn't control you. You aren't a puppet, nobody has to get hurt I don't want to fight you damn it!" He desperately tried to reason with her as they stared at one another. The tension in the air growing more palpable by the second as the Yelkath merely watched him with an unmoving gaze of red. Jonath didn't know why he were trying to reason with this woman. His body was telling him to fight her to the death if needed and just kill her and escape, but his mind couldn't focus on doing such an act. Why was he trying to reason with a woman as cold as her?

  As he looked into her eyes, that empty stare made him feel... Nothing but a body listening to orders like a dog. Her own emotions blotted out by a hollowness that stayed filled with something, something he couldn't understand...

  Did he, did he feel sorry for her? Was that why he tried to be friendly with her over just ignoring her this entire time? Why though? Why did he care? She was trying to kill him; so why did he care about how she felt? Or was this more so he didn't want to kill? He didn't know...

  He didn't know...

  "Enough." Liariana said curtly cutting off his thoughts and simultaneously rejecting his offer of peace. "The only outcome is either you die, or I do. Now, make your choice and live with whatever comes next." She said indifferent to whatever choice he made. Stand his ground and kill her or die here by her. The choice was his.

  With that said Liariana spun her ninjato through her fingers and rushed Jonath! The amnesic meeting her slash with the blade of his own dagger as sparks blasted outwards from the point of contact and glowing eyes of red and pale stared into one another mere inches apart. Liariana being the aggressor, Jonath holding off the sword from his face with reverse gripped dagger as both remained silent as the grave. No grunting, no straining, nothing at all but blades struggling to gain ground against one another and the rattli
ng of ethereal chains. Liariana's eyes and their gaze giving the impression she weren't looking at Jonath at all despite the two making eye contact.

  That empty gaze of hers...

  "Another sword style that predated the one I used earlier to try to kill you, favored blade locks like this one." Liariana said in a monotone expression as her right hand raised to place open palm against the spine of her ninjato applying slightly more pressure against his dagger. Jonath not saying a word, merely tensing the chained knife in his free right hand to retaliate if need be as he listened to her speak. Her red eyes focusing on him now, he could suddenly feel the silent, murderous intent in her eyes. She really did plan to kill him!

  Jonath raised his second knife preemptively to intervene before she could act! His eyes widening with revelation!

  "Shinkage-ryu." She said calmly.

  "Too late!" Jonath hitched a breath in his throat as he attacked her at the same time she acted!

  A blade hit the ground, followed by another splatter of blood...