AN: This must be the longest chapter so far! I hope you enjoy it enough to leave me a review hihi
HAVE FUN
Chapter 28
He didn't know what to feel. He felt anxious and scared, but also excited and happy to be finally able to kill The Bear. He felt so much, most of it he couldn't even describe. All of these mixed feelings, and he was nailed to the ground. He wanted to say something, but couldn't. He wanted to just run up to him and stab his knife between his ribs. It wasn't a good idea, though. So much could still go wrong from here on.
The Bear was standing a few metres in front of him, taunting him to come closer. He knew it was all just a way to achieve his goal: letting him get close and be able to get the upper hand. He had to play this smart. He had a bow with him, but his aiming still wasn't that good. And killing with a bow and arrow was just so unpersonal. He wanted to look him in the eyes, see his emotions in them and stab a knife in his chest or shoot an arrow through his heart.
The Bear looked fierce and ready to fight, but something was off about him. He also looked a bit resigned. Ready to accept every single outcome. That made Will feel small and weak. He came her to kill, he hadn't really thought about what would happen if he died. Was there an after-life? Was there even anything? Or would it just be a dark all-consuming nothing? It was weird to think about it, how he would spending his time after his death. He now knew why The Bear looked ready to live or die; there was nothing he could lose. He was the same. No friends or family, no one to live for. So dying wouldn't even be that bad, but he had to try and win.
He walked a few paces forward, ready to fight his former mentor. But the smile on his face made him stop in his tracks.
"053, I knew this day would come soon rather than later. I knew today was the day, so I cleared the whole area so we could have it for ourselves. Nobody to look and watch us fight till death takes one of us. Does that upset you? I know you've always liked to be the best and you liked the fame you had here. Out there, you're nothing. You could always come back here, you know? You still can. Just say the words and I'll be willing to take you back. Even though you've kind of screwed up." Will frowned, he screwed up?
"None of this would've happened if you had just trusted me. Then I'd be back a while ago and nothing would be different. But somehow you got the idea that I betrayed you, betrayed the Camp. So you send those amateurs to torture and kill me. You hurt my feelings by even thinking they were enough to kill me."
"Yes, perhaps I've been overconfident, but that stops now. I'm ready to ie if that's necessary, the true question is if you are, too?"
And that was an excellent question. Was he truly ready to die?
Halt was frustrated, he had found Will's tracks but it had took him forever. It was already past noon and he was just on his way. He didn't know how far The Camp still was, but if it was as close as he thought it would be, time wasn't in his favor.
Both Will and The Bear stood opposite each other. None of them talked, they just stood there while looking each other in the eye, daring the other to make the first move.
They knew it was just a matter of time before one of them was killed, preferably the other.
Will took a deep breath and moved forward. He was ready. Ready to die or live.
"Why don't we put our weapons aside and talk about this." Said The Bear. Will kept on walking and smiled.
"It's too late to talk now. Why don't we just get it over with?"
Without a response The Bear took his knife and readied himself. Will also took his own knife, similar to The Bear's, and also stood still. Ready to strike.
During the first blows, Will concentrated on his defense and let his muscles get used to the movements he made whilst defending himself against the fury attacks form The Bear. He hadn't really prepared himself for this, in the weeks he'd been at castle Redmont he had barely practiced and trained. His muscles had weakened and his skills were just a tiny bit rusty. He knew it'd get easier in a few minutes. But right now, he tried to get to know The Bear's rhythm and strategy, as well as his weak spots.
Surprisingly, whenever he trained with him, he never fought back. It was a purely defensive strategy. Will had to hit him, but The Bear never hit him. He never tried to. It was always just defensive, and defensive only.
After several minutes of his muscles were loosened and he made his counter attack. But The Bear knew how he fought. He knew every single one of his blows. That's where he had the advantage. So after another several minutes attempting to get past his defenses, Will lost his temper and began to stab wildly at him as if to cut him to pieces, like he was some sort of vegetable. He had expected to be fast in getting past his defenses, not an this opponent who apparently didn't get tired of defending himself and countering his blows, and his simmering anger about The Bear now boiled.
The Bear began to smile, angry cutting and stabbing would make him tired easily and then it was a guaranteed win. He hadn't expected him to lose his temper that easily. He'd thought he taught him better than this. He was happy about it, but also very disappointed. This meant that he wasn't as good as he thought he would be.
It was just a pathetic move.
As the tracks began to look fresher he began to have hope. He probably was just about an hour behind Will. Perhaps he would even catch him before he reached The Camp.
But well, maybe The Camp was days away and then all of this wouldn't have mattered. But his gut said it was close by, very close by. He urged Abelard to go faster, and the horse obeyed in an instance.
He was closing in on him.
The air rang with the clinging noise of blades clattering against the other, both trying to thrust their knife into the others ribcage. The air was filled with tension and the hoarse rasp of both fighters' breathes was clearly hearable.
Will's weapon slipped past his defenses and slashed toward his throat. The Bear dodged, laughing as if having a marvelous time. He praised loudly,
"A wonderful strategy you got there!"
When The Bear slashed backhanded in a return blow, Will thrust his blade vertically and caught it before it drove in his side.
"Excellent, 053! Excellent. I see you remember SOME of the lessons I gave you!" It was all very patronizing and it made Will think. Some of his lessons were just for defense, others clearly designed for attacking. But The Bear always had some points where he needed to train on. Sometimes it had to do with wanting to go too fast, others about needing to control his temper. And he remembered them now.
While he was trying to make Will even angrier and forgetting to defend himself to his full capability, he had made him remember to stay calm and focused. And it made him smile, laugh even. He laughed like some sort of maniac, making The Bear losing confidence. He laughed like he just won this fight.
Will blinked as if coming out of a daze but continued to go for blood. Nothing in his strategy had changed, so it couldn't be something major he was worried about. It was probably just the tension he released. He did just survive an attack designed to kill. They continued their fight, but very subtly Will's attack began to ease in its brutality. Their weapons caught each other, somewhere between them, and they stood face to face. Neither of them moving, but just looking each other in the eye.
The Bear whispered, "What the hell are you doing?"
"Dying is a messy, bloody, ugly thing. Knives are also designed to cut, slice open and thrust it in someone. That doesn't make it any less bloodier than it already would be. Their wounds can be subtle and barely make a scratch, others can be deep and very painful. I think we both know why we decided on the knife. We want to see the other bleed."
And that being said, Will pushed The Bear away. Listening intently to what Will had been saying, he was distracted for a second. That second was all it took for Will to push him backwards and letting him lose his balance, that would create another distraction for The Bear to worry about.
He drove his knife in The Bear's arm, what would make him let go of his knife and getting a hold of his profusely bleeding wound with his other hand. Will, having predicted this, kicked him in the shines and stabbed him in the shoulder.
The Bear knew this was it. He had no way of holding, let alone moving, his knife with his wounds. He breathed heavily while sitting on his knees, looking up to Will.
"Okay, you've won. I know you're mad at me for ordering the others to torture you, but try standing in my shoes! What should I have thought then? You didn't send any messages nor did you came back. A spy saw you running freely around messing with those children. You would have thought the same. I didn't have a choice!"
Will grimaced, "There's always a choice. You just made the wrong one."
Shaking his head in defeat, The Bear answered. "You were like a son to me. I didn't want to believe it, boy. But I honestly didn't have a choice. The others would have doubted my ability to lead."
Will stepped close to him, "You're lying. I never was like a son to you, because you aren't able to feel emotions. You're a sociopath and a liar. You believed I had betrayed you from the beginning. You're nothing more than a lying, paranoid little man who is unable to feel any loyalty or trust."
The Bear felt goosebumps forming on his skin from the tone in which Will spoke, and the way he looked so emotionless in his eyes.
"Any last words?"
The Bear smiled, feeling pride again.
"You really were like a son to me, 053."
"My name is Will." And with that being said, he slid his throat. He saw The Bear falling to the ground and drowning in his own blood. He saw the life flowing out of his eyes when his attempts to stop the bleeding became less and less and in the end, he just stopped moving. His dead eyes looking at Will in panic.
He had been the one who wasn't truly ready to die. And he felt relief. The lives of so many children would be better now. He had made them better now. He exhaled and fell to the ground. Only now feeling his exhaust to its full content. He just wanted to rest for a moment and catch his breath.
He knew he wasn't able to do that when he heard Halt's voice.
