With my mom feeling better, I felt as if a great weight had been lifted from my heart. I was finally able to relax, but after everything I had just seen, sleep was impossible.

The sun had not risen yet, and the world was still dark. The faint silver light that kept out the mist was all that illuminated the barren fields that stretched in every direction. The cold chill in the air made me wish there was a fire for me to huddle up to, but without anything to burn, it was nothing more than a dream.

My mom and Charly had long since fallen asleep. There was only so long they could be amazed by everything that had happened, and there were still hours until sunrise. My mom wanted to be fully rested before the day began, and Charly had not slept since learning Mom was sick.

Afraid of waking the two sleeping beauties, I ventured away from the wagon in an attempt to stretch my legs. For the second night in a row, I moved past the sleeping soldiers. I was starting to worry that I would become nocturnal.

There was nothing much to look at in the camp’s center, so I decided to move towards the perimeter. Taunting Irene into doing something stupid could be a fun way to pass the time.

I kicked a loose rock as I moved away from the sleeping soldiers. The clatter echoed loudly in the silence of the night, but as I got closer to the guards awake on night watch, I heard another sound. It was hard to recognize at first, but after listening for a bit I realized what it was and walked towards the familiar sound of wooden swords striking each other.

In the dim silver light, I was able to make out the shadows of four figures. Three were large, but one was much shorter than the others. As I got closer, I recognized the smaller shadow as Donte. The boy was already sweating profusely as his wooden blade clashed with another one held by one of the soldiers.

Curious, I approached silently and sat on a large stone nearby to watch. Donte moved quickly, dodging blows from the soldier, but his opponent was no rookie. I could tell from his swordsmanship and how he attacked that the soldier had survived countless battles on the front line. There was a ferocity in survivors like them that could not be imitated with training.

I watched as Donte tried to copy one of the techniques I had used on him earlier that day, but the grizzled soldier saw an opening at that moment. The wooden sword struck Donte’s side, sending him sprawling to the ground. With some difficulty, Donte picked himself up from the ground. He had a big smile on his face as he raised his sword again.

The soldier gave a hearty laugh as the two clashed again. After some time, Donte once again tried the same move, and once again he was sent sprawling to the dirt. I did notice though that the opening from the first time had disappeared. The soldier had used a different tactic to counter Donte this time, and on his neck was a small cut from Donte’s wooden blade.

The grizzled soldier rubbed his neck with a big smile as he handed his wooden sword to one of the cheering spectators. As the new contestant faced off against Donte, the Grizzled soldier noticed me sitting nearby.

He had a big grin on his face as he spoke with a booming voice, “Donte, it looks like your little girlfriend has come to watch the entertainment! You better not slip up this time, or she might see it.”

I felt the blood rush to my cheeks as I fidgeted restlessly. Donte looked over at me with surprise, nearly dropping his sword as our eyes locked.

“Wren! What are you doing here?” he shouted.

“I could not sleep so I decided to go for a walk. The real question though is, what are you doing here so early in the morning?”

Donte looked down at his feet and even in the dim light, I could see a blush on his face. “A few of the soldiers offered to help me train… so I came out here to practice.”

The grizzled soldier patted Donte on the back with a heavy slap that almost knocked him off his feet. “The boy has been coming here every morning since we left Nebula Tower. He has only missed one day so far when he was passed out after his duel.”

My eyes widened in surprise as I stared at Donte. “You are telling me; he trains with you guys for hours every day before training with me every morning… How much stamina do you have? I can barely move after our morning training sessions. How do you make it through the day?”

Donte shuffled nervously as he spoke, “I recover really fast… I think it has something to do with my innate talent. Lately, whenever I breathe deeply, I feel like my body is filled with energy. It has gotten even worse the past few days, and makes it hard to sleep for more than a couple hours… so I decided to spend my extra time training.”

The Grizzled soldier laughed. “Donte here found us roughhousing while we were on watch and asked if we could help him practice. There is nothing else to do out here in this barren wasteland so we agreed to help. He kept talking about wanting to beat up some little girl. It was something about getting payback.”

“I did not say that!” Donte shouted, a hint of panic in his voice.

I grinned as I stood up, walking towards Donte with slow measured steps. “Oh, really? He said that?”

“Wren… he… he is lying! Do not listen to him!” Donte stumbled backwards as he stuttered his words, not sounding very convincing at all.

I held out my hand to the soldier holding the wooden sword, and he handed it to me with a mischievous grin. I tested the sword with a few practice swings, and without warning, pounced at Donte.

For the next hour, I gave the soldiers a show as the two of us sparred. I used more than a few insidious tricks that I mixed into my swordsmanship for the sole purpose of catching Donte unprepared. More than once, I had him tripping over his own feet to the wild applause and cheers of the soldiers.

Unfortunately, I noticed very quickly that without him already being exhausted by the soldiers before our fight, I was the one in trouble. I could beat him easily in any even fight, but as time dragged on, he continued just as strong and fast as before while my movements became sluggish and forced. Eventually, I was forced to surrender just because I could not lift my sword anymore.

I collapsed to the ground with my lungs burning. My arms felt like unresponsive logs, and even moving my fingers hurt.

I gave Donte my best evil glare as he stood over me with a proud grin. His breath was ragged and he looked nearly as exhausted as me, but this time he was the one still standing in the end.

“I… still… won…. more,” I said, gasping for breath.

“It is only a matter of time before that changes.” Donte laughed as he collapsed next to me. The two of us stared up at the silver dome above us. Nearby, I saw the soldiers passing coins between each other, not even hiding the fact that they were betting on us. The grizzled soldier had earned the lion’s share of the bets on who would win, earning plenty of complaints from the other soldiers.

I closed my eyes, thinking that the ground would make a fine bed since I could not move when my peace was interrupted by the clanking of metal. My eyes shot open to see a large number of soldiers approaching us. There had to be at least one hundred of them, all shining with a familiar blue glow that I had often seen used by Avari soldiers at the beginning of this trip into the blood mist.

As the soldiers approached, my first thought was that the Avari had decided to send an advanced group to the edge of the mist before the main army arrived. Those thoughts were dashed to pieces though when I saw the man leading the Avari. It was the pompous noble that had challenged Donte to a duel the other day.

I forced my tired body to stand as the noble and his soldiers approached. My hands shaking from exhaustion, I drew the dagger I kept on my belt as I glared at the noble. Their eyes were locked onto Donte, completely ignoring me.

The noble spoke as his man began to surround Donte and me. “Boy, it is time you paid for your crime against the Avari.

I cannot return without you. Surrender peacefully, and I will deliver your entire body, not just your head.”

Donte stood straight as he pointed his wooden blade towards the noble, and I realized he did not have his actual sword here only the wooden training blade. Despite this disadvantage, Donte did not back down. His eyes glowed as he spoke to the noble. “I won our duel. You have no right to arrest me.”

“You think the royal family cares about some duel?” the noble replied with a laugh.

“If I go back without your head, it will be me in the gallows instead of you. I cannot allow that. Surrender, you cannot fight us all.”

“But I can kill you,” Donte said with a growl. The wind around us began to pick up speed as he spoke.

“I think not,” the noble said with a snap of his fingers. A large soldier that stood head and shoulders taller than all the others moved to stand in front of the noble. His eyes glowed brightly as a translucent yellow barrier surrounded both the noble and him.

My eyes darted from side to side as I tried to think of a solution. I kept Naga close by in case Irene attacked, but it would still take her several minutes before she could arrive. Nox was incapacitated. Dad was gone.

My heart started to sink as I realized Donte and I were on our own for this one.

To my surprise though, the three soldiers Donte had been training with moved to stand in front of us with their weapons drawn.

The grizzled soldier spoke with a booming voice that echoed through the entire camp. “If you gutless Avari want to kidnap this child, you will have to kill us first!”

The Noble cursed as the sleeping soldiers in the camp sprung up in response to the shout. “Grab him! Now!”

I used the power in my right eye on the giant guard protecting the noble. His innate talent was deactivated as he collapsed to the ground, screaming in hysterics. Donte did not miss this opportunity as the wind picked up and started gathering around his wooden sword.

The noble screamed in panic as he watched his bodyguard collapse uselessly to the ground and Donte raised his blade to attack. Scrambling in pure terror, he leapt behind a nearby soldier as Donte swung his sword.

Donte had taken my advice to heart. This wind blade was much weaker than the first one he used, so he would not pass out after a single attack, but this time my advice had a detrimental effect. Because Donte held back, his wind blade sliced into the hapless soldier, but did not have enough force to cut all the way through and hit the noble hiding behind him.

I heard Donte swear as he readied his attack again, but the noble had already scampered backwards. There were now more than a dozen soldiers between Donte and his target. All of them were closing in fast.

“No one will take him!” I shouted furiously as one of the soldiers attacked Donte with his blade.

Desperate, I activated all the power I had in my right eye, forcing it more than I ever had before. I immediately felt a terrible pain splitting my head open, but I ignored it. More than twenty soldiers immediately collapsed into various states of hysterics. Some screamed in terror, while others became heaps of sobbing tears.

I wobbled, unsteady as I nearly collapsed from the searing pain in my head. I could feel the world growing dim, but the bright green flames burning in my chest kept me focused.

Some of the soldiers had paused after my wide sweeping attack, but many still charged forward. The gem on my dagger glowed as I sliced through one soldier and stabbed another. My dagger sunk into his chest. The soldier went pale as his life slipped away, but before he faded completely, he reached out with his arms, wrapping them around me in one final death grip. Another soldier saw me struggling to free myself and attacked, I was barely able to raise my dagger as the blade came crashing down. Too exhausted, and unable to move, I was not able to block properly. My dagger was easily flung from my hand as it clattered uselessly to the ground.

Even without a weapon, I did not give up. I leapt at the attacking soldier like a beast and clamped my hand over his mouth. My flames ignited, tangible and searing as I burned the soldier from the inside out. My vision faded as that single move drained nearly all the flames in my body.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Donte swing his blade again. Five soldiers were instantly bisected as his power shredded their bodies.

The friendly soldiers held their own, but even after we had taken out dozens of our enemies, there were just too many of them. I forced myself free of the tangle of dead soldiers that surrounded me. My chest burned with every breath, and I could barely feel my fingers as I tried to reach for my dagger.

It was then that I saw another soldier pounce at Donte, his blade was a blur as it sliced clean through the wooden training sword. Donte stumbled backwards, dropping the useless hilt. He looked around desperately for a weapon he could use, but before he could find one, the soldier attacked again. Donte barely managed to leap out of the way as the blade nearly cut straight through him.

My eye felt like it was being stabbed as I forced the talent one more time. I smiled weakly as the soldier crumpled, screaming in terror. My head felt like it was being split open as my vision blurred. My legs gave out from under me as I collapsed into the dirt.

There were tears in my eyes as the remaining soldiers closed in. We had taken out more than half of them, but there were just too many. In the distance, I could hear the yells from approaching soldiers, but they would not make it in time. My vision had almost completely faded when I saw Donte use his ability one final time before he stumbled and fell to the ground, just as spent as I was.

As the world was submerged in shadow, the final thing I saw was Donte being dragged away by the soldiers and that accursed noble. I fell unconscious, unable to do anything to stop them.

Deep inside the darkness, a fury burned. A bright green flame spread, devouring everything.

‘They took what was mine. For that, each and every one of them would burn!’