CHAPTER XIV: STRUGGLE
The feeling of change is different this time. Instead of tearing muscles and bones, I feel raw magic flow through my body in a surge with electrical current. I rise unsteadily to my feet from where I lay, leaning forward ferally and clenching my hands a few times. A green glow bathes the surroundings because everything seems to grow darker around me, my head craning upwards to the sky. The lazy white clouds are fleeing the scene to make way to dark ones as if the clouds respond to my attention. The dark clouds flash with thunderous booms and sparks of light, the sight inspiring yet dreadful. My breathing sounds loud in my chest, the air gusting in and out of my mouth as I feel arcs of power crawl across my flesh.
"Fine! You want to settle this like monsters!? We'll settle this like monsters!" Shalltear shouts as I snap my attention back to her, the hiss I produce causing my mane of brown hair to rise from electrical discharge. She summons something from a red box that appears near her right hand, a vial of crimson liquid entering her hand. In on fluid motion, she uncorks the vial and inhales the contents, her hand throwing the vial to the ground. The glass shatters on the sand as she forces herself to swallow the liquid, her breathing becoming irregular as she laughs darkly to herself. She shows me her stained teeth in a gallows smile before double over in pain, her body moving to all fours by some unknown force.
I thought I was above fearing her but her change into her monstrous form proves otherwise. Her pale skin grows corpse pale and becomes gaunt and emaciated. The regalness of her face is replaced with a hideous visage, her mouth becoming circular and filled with sharp teeth. A long tongue escapes the mouth and she stares at me with crazed eyes, her face set in a permanent rictus of hunger and anger. Harsh laughter barks from her, the words following tinted with her anger and hunger. "What's the matter? I thought you wanted to see me like this."
The brawl prior was far more elegant an exchange compared to what comes next. She lets out a roar into the air, the roar shaking the surroundings with her fury. I respond in kind and both of us charge at each other, claws extending from fingertips and feet kicking up plumes of sand. Our claws meet in a clash of sharpened chitin and unstable magic, the sound of impacts resonating around the arena as we unleash our fury. Though frenzied, we're evenly matched with neither set of claws landing purchase on anything vital. She shouts at me as she claws, "You accept the monster but you don't know what it's like to be hated for it!"
Her maw lunges at my arm, latching onto it before I can avoid her. Teeth punch through scales and flesh as I use my free hand to launch a fist at her head, the fist hammering her skull again and again but failing to dislodge her. Foreign flesh enters my arm, her tongue sucking the blood out of my arm and causing it to grow slowly limp. She unlatches from my arm when I grab her head and shove her away from me, her mouth releasing its hold as she flips backwards and comes to rest at a feral crouch. I hiss at her and use the energy coursing through my body to fix the damage, Shalltear hissing back at me before shouting, "Even your blood tastes corrupted in this form! Everything you are is corruption! How can you believe that no one hates you!? What can you claim to be!?"
"I claim nothing," I growl back as I launch myself at her claws first, Shalltear responding in kind with a feral leap of her own. We collide mid-air in a frenzy of slashing claws, both of us falling to the ground and quickly rising to slash at each other once more. She's faster and stronger upon absorbing my blood, her frenzy more erratic and her attacks getting past my guard little by little. Her claws rend my scales as if it were nothing, the wounds closing at an unnatural rate but the pain lingering as she reopens the wounds to maximize damage. Yet our clash ends as soon as it begins, my claws coming away from her unbloodied but her claws covered in dark brown blood. Her long tongue greedily sucks the blood off her claws, her head snapping to me as she raves, "And who are you!? Everything you have is a lie! Each truth you build can be undone! Every person you meet will pass on before you! What can you be on your own!?"
She doesn't let me reply because she leaps at me with a feral roar. Her speed is incredible and I have no time to dodge as she latches onto me and drives me to the ground. I try to get her off me with punches and kicks but she pins my arms and legs with her limbs, her terrible strength further enhanced from my blood giving her unnatural power. Up close, I can feel the raw, unstable magic flowing out of her form like a lingering corruption, her face hissing into mine as she growls down at me, "Stop being like me! I hate seeing my mistakes repeat themselves! If I have to destroy you to make it stop, so be it!"
My anger fades at her words, my claws retracting into my fingertips without me realizing it. I stare up at the sky as I feel her bite down on my neck, her tongue entering my flesh to suck blood directly from my heart. I let it happen, closing my eyes and focusing on keeping myself alive as she pierces my heart with her tongue and violently sucks the blood out of my body. Time slows as I try to stay awake, all of my senses dulling in time with my slowing heartbeat. Magic surges through my body to regenerate what's being taken, my heart beating slowly but surely. Her tongue rests inside my heart as it stops beating and for a strange moment, I feel at ease by its presence.
I gasp in shock as she pulls her tongue free in a shower of blood, my senses hammering back into focus in a tide of raw sensation. Her teeth release from my neck and I see her gaunt, bloody face before she drunkenly staggers off me and falls with a thud. I can't move my head to follow her movements because of the wound on my neck but I can hear her vomit, my wounds slowly closing as I'm forced to listen to her misfortune. The magic slowly fades from my body once I'm healed and I groggily try to sit up, only getting halfway up before falling back to the ground.
I have enough stamina to look over at Shalltear who's still vomiting on the ground, blood and bile spraying from her maw as she purges her stomach contents. She ceases her purging eventually, a large pool of blood spreading out beneath her that she actively tries to avoid by crawling away from it. A groan escapes her as she lays down on her stomach, her face turning to me slowly as the pool of blood separates us. A mask of blood and sand coats her face, her expression pained and her eyes sad and unfocused. We stare at each other with similar, exhausted gazes but she quickly looks away and turns onto her left side. Her violent coughing follows, the sound muffled by her hand trying to cover the worst of her fit.
I flip myself onto my front and move towards her by dragging myself across the sand by my arms since my legs feel too numb to move. It's a painful trip, every muscle and bone protesting from the exertion and the scales on my skin screaming from the rough sand scraping against it. As I approach Shalltear after what feels like an age of crawling, she wheezes to me between coughs, "You knew...you knew how to stop me...I never...I never told you..."
"Aura did...once," I wheeze as I flop to the ground next to her, my face angled to the right so that I can see Shalltear's back. She starts to laugh lightly but devolves back into coughing, something wet coming out of her mouth judging by the sound. She switches the hand covering her mouth, her left hand covering the coughs as her right-hand tries to form gestures. Though she gestures, she can't manage to move her fingers correctly and wheezes to me after a few failed attempts, "Move...my fingers for me...I can't...I can't feel them...very well..."
I gasp in pain as I flip onto my left side, my body still protesting as I slowly drag myself closer to her. My right-hand moves over her shoulder to touch her right hand, our hands locking together as she instructs me what fingers to move to which positions. It's a painful process for both of us as I try to move her fingers into the right positions while trying to ignore the exhaustion of my limbs. She growls in pain at having her fingers moved but each gesture we complete forms an arcane circle of crimson around her hand, the circles forming into a more complex pattern.
The final gesture is completed, magic ripping from Shalltears tortured frame as she groans in pain. The blood around us floats into the air and forms into an orb of crimson above her, the orb spinning slowly on an abnormal axis. The blood condenses into a red light that slowly descends, the light entering Shalltears right hand and flowing through her in a pulse of magic. I don't know what the light does but Shalltear dismissively removes my hand as she pushes herself off the ground, her form having no trouble standing now. A few brushes of her hands dust off her dress and when she turns around, there's no evidence of weakness or grime from the previous conflict. I move to lay on my back as she looms over me, her face neutral as she wipes the corners of her mouth with the faces of her right hand.
"Beric!" I hear a grating voice shout. My gaze is drawn towards the source, Cocytus standing proudly in the upper rafters of the Arena with something in his hand. That same hand is already winding back along with his entire body to throw whatever he's holding in my direction. With a single, fluid motion, he launches a sword at me point first, the blade surging towards us like a spear. I use the last of my strength to push myself off the ground, my body moving to a crouch before pushing off the ground towards the direction of the sword. Shalltear follows my movements as I spring over her in an acrobatic flip, our heads coming close to touching from the flight. My left-hand reaches out and snatches the hilt of the sword, my arm pulling hard to arrest the momentum of the weapon as my body prepares for a hard landing.
I adjust my grip mid-flight, angling the sword upwards and adding my other hand to the hilt. I land awkwardly because my right leg gives out, my body moving to a knee as I hold the sword with the point facing towards Shalltear. She quickly grows angry from my stance, saying in a mocking tone, "Typical. You get a new weapon in your hands and you're ready to use it without hesitation. Fine. I'll make this quick."
Shalltear extends her left hand, her lance surging grip first from where it lays so that she can hold onto it once more. She smoothly points the tip at me, smiling darkly as she sneers, "And I thought you were different. How foolish of me."
"Unlock the sword, Beric!" Cocytus shouts from above, my head snapping down to the sword in my hands as I quickly access the functions within. I have seconds at best to decipher the information presented but seconds is more than enough time. As I read onwards, I start to doubt what he wants me to do but the doubt only lasts a second as I spin the sword downwards and plunge the tip into the sand. I sync my magic with the sword, feeling it resonating from the absorption.
Shalltear thrusts at me, her lance tip reaching within centimetres of my face before a pressure wave projects from the sword to blasts her backwards. The wave is so strong that it sends her spinning away but despite the disorientation, she lands deftly a few metres from my position. The sword in my hand glows with brilliant white light, my eyes glancing down at the weapon before returning to the threat at hand. With as much confidence as I can muster with so much exhaustion, I state to her, "Shalltear Bloodfallen. Will you accept my oath of service?"
"What?" she says in confusion, her weapon casually tossed aside as she walks back towards me. One of her hands brings up a red box in front of her, the box scrolling with information that she quickly reads through. There's a look of incredulous on her face as she reads but as she reaches the bottom, she gasps and puts one hand over her mouth, her muffled voice saying in shocked surprise, "Is...is this-"
"The Sword of Matrimony, crafted by Takemikazuchi during his time in the New World. My father wanted to make something special for my mother when it was time but never worked up the courage to ask her in life. He went to the grave and I inherited what he made," I say with conviction, Shalltear looking up into the rafters with something akin to anger but coloured with irritation and amusement. She goes back into timid shock as she says to me, "But...but...this is so sudden! I tortured you! We're not even the same species! You're already committed! What about Aura and-"
The magical field starts to lose integrity and I push more of my bodies magic into it, the magical strain becoming so potent that my body starts shaking from exertion. In a pained voice, I say to Shalltear, "Choose...quickly...please...this is...painful...to maintain..."
She stands there for an unknown amount of time as I fight to maintain the swords field of power. I start to breathe hard and sweat from using so much of the magic I have left. I have to close my eyes to focus on the task, my senses slowly dulling until all I can feel is my heartbeat and the sword. My arms become numb but I tighten my grip on the hilt as much as I can, hoping that when my hands become numb, they will maintain their hold.
I was a fool to think she would bother. I'm just a brute to her.
Foreign magic surges through me, my eyes snapping open as the burden of magic is cut in half. I look up to see Shalltear above me, her left hand on top of the sword hilt as she smiles at me ruefully. She says to me in a sombre tone, "If you won't stop wasting your life, I'll have to make you stop...it's the least I can do...and in answer to your question...yes...I accept your oath of service..."
OATH ACCEPTED. COMMENCING MERGER.
"That sounds bad," Shalltear states sarcastically before both of our minds are sucked into the sword.