Disclaimer: I don't own Elsword.

I changed some things, like at what point Elesis becomes Crimson Avenger. Her personality may be kind of off too, same with Ain. Also I read somewhere on Elwiki that Ain doesn't call anyone by their name except for Elsword, so look out for that.


BY MY BLOOD

Hamel isn't a pleasant experience. But they didn't expect anything else when all there is to look forward to are endless battles, and all they have in the present are tired limbs, weary souls, and more injuries.

They accumulate, the wounds. Scars on top of scars, new blood to wash away the old.

Hamel is routine.

There are the demons, and there is them. The demons must be eliminated, and that is what they do.

They come out of Hamel injured, but alive, though in some ways, Ms. Knight Captain doesn't come back at all.


The thirst for battle is like this.

While in a battle, there is blood. There is your enemy's, and there is yours. There is life in your veins that cries its presence to the the world in the form of your blade. I'm alive, it screams, dim light glancing off of cold metal warm with red. I'm alive, it says, carving a path through the air into yet another body. (I'm alive I'm alive I'm alive I'm alive and the subtly implied you're not.)

But it's not about killing. The killing is only a side condition set by circumstance.

It's about taking.

You take their name and it defines you. Strength doesn't speak to others without stolen names in its dictionary. You take their essence, as it pours into the world and their weapon and their movement. It's their story, their will, their conviction, and you try and take it all because you believe that yours is the right one instead.

It's about giving.

You give your life to the battle. It may or may not be taken, but the offering must be made.

It's about living and dying. It's about being. It's about feeling.

When does the battle start? From first sight? From first breath, first shot, first swing, first word?

It starts when it does. You know it by your blood. It quickens, it burns. It's unbearable, nearly. It kills you, breathes life into you again, and the whole time it just burns like something fierce and wild in the best way. Try and resist it and fight with your mind instead but it never works. So you let the bloodflow take over and you ride it out.

You are the blood, the sword that dances, the adrenaline high, all inhibitions abandoned somewhere near one of the firsts of the battle.

To fight is to feel. To feel more alive, to feel the danger sinking teeth into your heart, and to feel memories of love in the face of death. To feel the wind rushing through your hair, the clash of steel in your palms.

The battlefield is where Elesis is lives and dies over and over again, and she loves it too much. (She misses it so much.)

In this way, she's different from her brother.

He fights with his duties and morals, and so does Elesis, but sometimes all she wants is to cast them aside and block out the noise and just feel.

She can't.

She can't, though she wants to and maybe that's why she purposefully bites off much more than she can swallow, and when the demons surround her and she's got a hole in her side plus a twisted ankle and the metaphorical noose finally tightens around her cold neck and she hears the dark El sing it's soft promises into her stagnant blood, she accepts.


Her eyes shine orange now, not red.

If Ain had to name a favorite color, it would be red. (Red like Elsword. It fits him well. Passionate, full of love, and drawing the eyes and hearts of all those around him.) So he's mildly disappointed to see her red go.

She loses her personality. The abundant supply of smiles dries up and the casual touches are nonexistent. Elsword looks pained. While Ain can't relate, he imagines Elsword feels like he's lost his sister all over again, except this time, she's nowhere to be found.

At their next battle, she slinks forward without regard for anything, and after it, the search party gathers around a campfire, except for two people.

Ain finds her silhouetted against the dusk sun. Clouds prowl over distant mountains, and the breeze is bitter with a hint of fall. The dried out summer grasses rustle by their ankles. Come winter, the rains will wash away the dust and bring them back to a green carpet. She looks at a point on the horizon, and though her face is blank, there is so much raw emotion in it that Ain thinks for a heartbeat that Ms. Knight Captain has been restored. But then the demon beneath her foot gurgles, and she stomps down on its horns. They shatter like glass. She crouches down and digs out the eyes slowly, meticulously carves a word with the tip of her sword deep into each of its cheeks. A gruesome sneer splits open her face. She looks at Ain with that expression, then walks off into the shadows, leaving behind the still living demon.

The stench of the dark el is overpowering. Ain is disgusted.


(Elesis knows perfectly well how Ain feels, because in truth, she feels the same.)


A/N: why am I starting another story!
I don't know. I really don't know. I'm sorry my other stories.
I had a really hard time describing how liking fighting feels like because I honestly have no idea.
Classes: Arme Thaumaturgy (Richter later) and Crimson Avenger (Bloody Queen later)

Thanks for reading!