Create a New Forum Owner Login Contribute & Create Your Member account VoyUser Login (see contribute) VoyForums Directory/Categories No-ads: Completely remove ads from your forum VoyForums Homepage VoyForums News Help Desk VoyForums Exchange FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions Search VoyForums

I heard Natpea turn the table over, and send it crashing to the ground. He patiently walked behind me, using his foot to push me over onto my side. It was the only thing to wake me up out of my thoughts. I pulled myself along he floor, and used a chair to help me stand up again. I worked up enough energy to burst forth with a quick flurry of kicks and tried to catch him by surprise...but it was of no use. I was too hurt. Almost limping along in pain and fatigue. He blocked every shot, and with the silver spikes, he slashed at both of my sides, cut both sides of my face, and then kicked me backwards a few steps. I tried to catch my breath, but as he walked close, I had to keep fighting. I can't lose! I CAN'T! I'm the Mimic! I'm....I'm 'Superman'! I tried soooo hard to convince myself. So hard to believe that something, anything, was going to suddenly 'kick in' and save me. But Natpea was at a point where I must have looked like I was moving in slow motion to him, and my extras had momentarily worn themselves out. I struck out at him, but he grabbed my wrist, and with a few swift moves...he stabbed one of the silver shivs right through my forearm! Clear through to the other side! I screamed out in agony, my body trying to fight off the shock of being penetrated so brutally. He yanked the weapon out of my arm, and pushed me back as I grabbed a hold of the bleeding wound. He walked forward to stay within three steps of me at all times, not giving me a chance to breathe. He jerked a few times, making me flinch nervously, and when I struck out again, he ducked under it and stabbed me in the shoulder, and then again in the right thigh. I jumped back away from him, almost unable toput any weight at all on my right leg, and I held out a hand as though it would cause him to hesitate. He slapped my hand down, but I put it back up. He slapped it down again, and when I tried to get him to back off, he pierced my palm with the weapon, and then slit my wrist with the other spike. Blood began to spray out of me towards the floor. The blood of my last donor...being depleted right in front of me. And as the sight of it froze me in my place...Natpea kicked out at my sore leg, and I fell over onto my side, grabbing my thigh and sobbing uncontrollably. He never said a word...he just kept watching me. Shaking his head in disappointment, as though I weren't even giving him the satisfaction of dying with honor.

Deep in the center of me, I felt another jolt of pain coming from upstairs, and I knew that they were hurting Taryn on purpose. They were doing it to get to me. And I couldn't save him. I tried....but I just couldn't save him! I can't save anybody! He was COUNTING on me! They all were! And I failed, just like I knew I would. At that moment, laying there with my clothes soaked in blood...I contemplated the thought of giving up. Of allowing this pain to end and just...welcome death once and for all. If the prophecy was true, and Taryn was destined to die tonight, then I didn't want to be around to see it. I didn't want to have to suffer a single minute of that pain. I'd rather have him take me away from this place, and finally bring me peace. But...as Natpea twirled his twin blades once again in his fingers...a subtle grin crossing his lips for the first time since I first saw him in that fighting arena...I refused to do it. I won't let him have me. Not this easily. My own father couldn't break me down, and he tried for YEARS to kill everything I am. I didn't come this far to just 'let' this son of a bitch have what's left of my soul for free. I'm going to fight! I'm going to fight, and fight, and KEEP fighting, until he's so fucking TORN UP from the battle that he won't EVER be able to forget the day he took me on head to head! Win or lose...he's gonna forever remember my face!

It was at that moment...that something sparked inside of me. It was quiet, and soft, but a new awareness...something that I had been ignoring before...illuminated my vision. It was more than just a vague aura this time. It was a specific glow, a dedicated map of the person I was looking at. At first, I thought it was just me losing focus after suh a harsh beating...but it was more than that. And attached to the sensation, was a familiar essence. One of sweet young lady, who once confided a few great truths in me as she awaited the dawn on that beach. Tiana...a piece of her was with me. Something that I could use.

"I read your extra the second you met me. It's a little parlor trick I learned from Comicality." She told me.

"I was never really sure how he found me, or why..." She said. Did he know? Was she aware?

Tiana said, "Reading other people's extras was just one of those many tricks. Not as an 'invasion' mind you, but as a way of seeing people beyond the shield of who they think they are. Seeing the parts that they never explore, extras included." I could almost see her smile in my mind's eye. And looking at Natpea, something became clear to me. He was NOT as fast as he claimed to be. He wasn't just perfecting his technique to be invinceable. It wasn't just a matter of him being 'better' than me either. I could read it in his aura, clear as day. He was reading my mind. His abilities were made to detect my brain's commands, striking out at me before my muscles could even contract and strike out at him. He was swiftly predicting my moves before I made them, and it made him seem faster than he really was. I see it now! I can see it!

His extra was burning up energy fast, and it was practicaly radiating energy off of him, as I must have taxed it something awful during our match up. But the realzation that he was not as 'amazing' as he appeared seemed to renew my confidence, and my army of hidden extras followed that emotion...revitalizing me, re-energizing themselves. As I squinted my eyes and took a closer look at him, I knew that this fight was far from over. What was it that Com told me before? The battle is NOT won by the person who fights the hardest...but by the mind that better understands the inner workings of its opponent. He was right. I was doing exactly what Com told me I would. I was allowing him to force me into a corner. I was playing HIS game instead of forcing him to play mine. Now that I realize it...things are about to change up in this little game we're playing here.

My wounds, almost as if by magic, stopped bleeding. My wrist stopped spraying blood, like someone had turned off the faucet in order to give it the proper maintenance. Natpea watched me as I stood up straight, and arched my back, taking a deep breath so as to regain my strength. My bruises itched slightly as the dark marks on my flesh melted away, and the palms of my hands cleared up. My breathing returned to a somewhat normal pattern, and I could feel the wounds in my shoulder and leg getting better. It was almost like experiencing an entire sleep cycle's worth of repairs and rejuvenation in one standing moment. I don't think Natpea was prepared for that at all.

He wasn't prepared for a LOT of what I had planned.

He had worked so long to reach a level of perfection with his skill. But...as Comicality informed me...perfection cannot change. Perfection cannot learn. And as I reached deep down into the depths of my mind, and triggered Kid's extra...I saw a look of doubt cross his face for the first time. Where he had once found a blueprint for my every strike and movement...he now had only the sound of static, blocking him from it all.

Let's see how unbeatable you are when you're in a fair fight, asshole!

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]