Chapter 24: A Hero’s Soul

“You can’t protect others if you’ve got nothing to lose yourself. A little vulnerability is good.”

-Knight Arlecht, 177 U.E.

Yin twisted. Squirmed. Her eyes were flooded with tears. Blinded. Nothing but bright smears in her vision. Aucom’s grip was like rock. She couldn’t let him get her in that chokehold. Seconds passed. Agony.

Yin tried a blind hook. Caught something—a soft temple. Aucom reeled. His grip lessened. She kicked, took him in the chest, sent him tumbling.

Yin backed away, stumbled over herself, fell. She scooted, violently rubbing at her eyes. She couldn’t see. Her breathing quickened. Too fast. She was panicking.

Calm down, Yin told herself. You need to let it fade. You don’t have your eyes right now, but you do have ears. Use them.

Yin stilled herself. She strained her hearing. There. Over the constant noise. Faint footsteps. The swish-swish-swish of sand being displaced.

He was coming.

Yin rose. She waited.

The footsteps were getting close. Then they stopped.

That was the right moment. She kicked off, flipped into the air. Grasping hands brushed her legs, closed on nothing. She vaulted over Aucom’s head and landed on the other side.

Her vision was returning just a little. She could see the faint outline of her hands. She needed more time.

“You sure are trying hard for someone who doesn’t even want to win,” Yin said.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about, child,” Aucom answered firmly, but the defensive edge in his voice told her that she was close.

“You’ve been holding back this entire time, I know that much.”

Footsteps. Heavier this time. Faster.

He was angry.

Yin smiled.

Good.

Sharp pain bloomed in her shoulder. A wicked edge slicing through the muscle. Snake scale. She flinched, struck out with a kick. Missed. She blinked furiously, working her vision back. Just enough to catch the silhouette towering over her.

Before Yin could think of a proper counter, a heavy fist knocked all the plans out of her.

“Thank you,” Aucom said. “For helping me find my resolve. By Valeria’s grace, take your final breath.”

Like a spider, he wrapped around her. Strong limbs interlocking. Arms pinned to her sides. Throat caught in a vice. Legs scrabbling uselessly. His elbows clicked as they locked into place.

She couldn’t breathe.

Yin was completely pinned down. There was no room for struggle. She strained her body to the limits of its enhanced strength, but it meant nothing. As her vision slowly returned, all she could do was glare up at the paladin.

Mad-eyed, teeth gnashing, he glared back.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said.

Yin did not waver. Her body grew faint, numbed from the lack of oxygen, but she kept her gaze on Aucom.

“Don’t look at me like that!”

“Uh oh, looks like our little Aqithi friend went and got herself grappled!” Darling called, voice reverberating through a farshout. “It seems like this match is just about over!”

A pair of his auto-eyes drifted lazily around the two fighters, catching every centimeter of Yin’s humiliating defeat.

But she kept staring. Wide-eyed. Unblinking. Defiance was all she had left.

“I said stop looking!” Aucom cried. His face screwed up with anguish.

When she once again refused to comply, his grip slackened. He pushed her away. Yin rolled onto her hands and knees. She coughed and hacked, struggled for air, throat constricted. She rubbed at it. Worked the breath back into her lungs.

“That, uh… sure is an interesting turn of events,” Darling said. “It looks like Acuom is toying with his opponent now.”

Yin rose. “We both know better than that, don’t we?” she said, facing her opponent.

Aucom said nothing. He scrambled to his feet, face stiff with barely repressed emotion. Yin recognized the look. The talk. The darkness in him. The way he tried to make himself look big and dangerous.

She recognized it in herself.

“What happened?” Yin asked. “What made you go from protector to killer?”

“Shut the fuck up!” Aucom shouted. He raised his arm. Skin rippled. Shimmered. Yin threw a hand over her face and screwed her eyes shut. A moment later, a stark flash of light burned through her eyelids. She ducked. A barrage of scales went over her head.

“You’re not even a paladin anymore,” Yin said. She opened her eyes, vision spared from the blinding light. “Darling didn’t let your magic slide on a technicality, did he? It’s not magic. It’s just another modification. You can change your skin to reflect the light, like a mirror.”

Aucom rushed her. He struck with a left jab, easily dodged. Then a right. Then another left. She grabbed one of his arms, twisted hard. Pulled it free of its socket. He screamed and stumbled back. She went after. Kicked him in the dick. He fell down, growling between gritted teeth.

“You don’t know… what they made us do,” Aucom hissed. “I believed, you know. In Valeria. I followed her orders because I thought that made me a hero.”

Yin put a foot on his throat, pinned him down. “And then?”

Aucom closed his eyes.

“Valeria took it all away from me. She sullied my soul. She’s not a god, you know. Just another creature, too old for her own good. Bitter and rotten.”

“She made you kill for her.”

A slow nod. “There was a small town. Erebius. Men. Women. Children. Infested with demonic activity, that’s what they said. Our orders were to purge them all. I tried to make it quick, but some of them fought back. The children died wailing for mothers that were soon to follow.”

“I understand now. You’re not using Valeria’s power as an advantage. You’re using her name to dirty her reputation. You want to make the world see what she put you through.”

Aucom nodded.

Yin let her foot off his throat. “Pathetic. You’re letting her win—you know that, right?”

The fallen paladin worked himself into a sitting position. “What does it matter? Dead, alive. Truth, lies. Right, wrong. Grind it down, it all turns into the same grey paste. I just want to give my story a little ironic twist before it ends. Maybe you’re the one to end it.” He looked up, fixed her gaze with his. Mad dog. Sad puppy. Something in between. “Would you do that for me, child? Can I trust you to end my suffering?”

Yin shook her head. “Nah. I want you to suffer a little longer.” She bent down. Placed her forehead against his. “You can still be a hero, you know.”

It was stupid, of course. Yin knew that. Aucom was already beaten. His spirit broken. She should have taken her win and moved on. But something about his pain moved her. Something about his situation rung true. She couldn’t let it slide.

Aucom caught her by the throat with an uninjured arm. He hoisted her into the air, cutting off airflow. “You’re wrong,” he said. “Can’t you see that? There are no heroes. We’re all villains. We live our short, meaningless lives, stealing all we can from the guy below, and then we die. That’s all there is. That’s all there will ever be. It’s better if you get rid of your delusions now, before the truth becomes too much of a disappointment.”

Yin sucked for air. She batted at Aucom’s arm, but it didn’t let up. Her face went hot, unbearably so, as her consciousness began to fade.

“Believe…” she worked out. “For once… in your miserable… fucking… life. Believe.”

They stared at one another. Yin’s eyelids flickered, threatened to fall shut. She gritted her teeth, ground them together, struggled to keep her eyes open just a moment longer.

Aucom let her go. She fell to the sand, rolled onto her back, and caught a breath.

The fallen paladin raised his hand, three fingers extended. “I forfeit,” he said.

And the crowd went wild.

END OF 'DARK DEEDS' ARC