Medio: Even you can fight, with the correct motivation

The enormous beast punched down, ready to strike down Ases. For the monster, it was almost like a dream came true, its head in the clouds from the excitement. He swung down its fist, but for some reason, he was not moving. The cloudy sensation in its mind did not remit, if anything it started to become stronger. What was going on?

The telchine suddenly felt as if its entire body had suddenly become jelly, its mind fighting to maintain consciousness, in what now seemed like a losing battle. Ases was planning to try and run between its legs at the last moment, but now could only see as the monster started collapsing under its own weight.

“You could not let your little assistant fight his own battle by himself, could you, my child?” Said Halia, sighing with resignation, not letting Mors go.

Mors was still unable to move, but she unleashed all her power on the beast before it could attack Ases. Both the death and the sleepiness fell down on the creature simultaneously, in a combination that promised a sleep from which it would never wake up.

A sleep in which the creature still refused to fall in.

Under the weight of its own quickly aging body and the heaviness of its own dazed mind, the enormous telchine rose back into its feet, slowly, but certainly. Its enormous lifespan and endless stamina gave it enough strength to bear the curse of death and still continue to fight.

If that was the only way it could be, then there was no way around it.

Ases finally found a moment to let Herm into the ground, far from the beast and from Halia. Near an empty alleyway he trusted to be able to escape into with Herm if needed, he let him down and started to warm up his arms.

When the beast rose back to its feet, there was Ases, looking at it, his own two meters and half of height dwarfed against the seven meters of the monstrous telchine. They looked at each other, as if measuring their opponent, until suddenly, both snapped.

The beast tried to punch down Ases to crush him into the ground, but he had launched himself to attack the beast's legs. The telchine was slow due to Mors interference and was unable to stop Ases from punching its knee, shattering it in a single hit.

The beast almost collapsed, but it refused to go down without a fight. Now that Ases was just at his side, the beast grabbed him, pinning his arms to his sides so he would not be able to defend himself.

Putting its hands together, the telchine squeezed with all the strength it could still summon. A couple of cracks could be heard as Ases' bones slowly collapsed under the pressure. The beast could barely keep itself awake, its own strength diminishing every second, but its primordial, subconscious mind was still able to keep the fight going. A full minute went by with Ases trapped on the creature's hands.

But, somehow, instead of fully collapsing, he withstood. Not a single sound came out from his body again, as slowly, he started to open his arms and beat the creature’s grip.

The beast knew it was useless and instead pushed Ases into the ground. For good measure, it started hitting again and again, tiredness assaulting the creature as it was unable to keep the pressure with every passing moment.

When the creature’s hands were no longer strong enough to contain him, Ases freed himself from its grip and grabbed the telchine’s fingers with his own hands. Just like he had done before, he crushed them, this time separating them from the claw completely.

The beast wanted to scream in pain, but was no longer capable of doing so. It was also unable to scream as Ases, as if he had suffered no damage at all, started pummeling it into the ground.

A barrage of punches threw the creature against the stone tiles of the floor. When in it, Ases climbed the telchine’s body and started hitting its head with its fists. He was not strong enough to break through the monster’s skin again, but the repeated assault was enough to fully make it lose consciousness.

Tired, in pain due to his broken ribs, and just as dazed as the telchine was before, Ases climbed down from the creature and started walking towards Halia.

“Stop right there, hero. I have seen enough. If you take another step, I’ll break Mors neck, don’t test my patience.” Said Halia, with the most neutral tone of voice she could muster.

Ases stopped, several meters apart from her. Weighing his options, he decided it would be better to listen, at least while he figured out how to separate her from Mors.

“I don’t really care anymore about what you do, and I have had enough of this girl for the rest of my life, I think. If we were to see each other again, I have no doubts that she would try to kill me, so I’ll let you go with her, no strings attached. Extremely kind on my part, I must say.” Continued Halia, moving Mors from her position on her arms and instead carrying her with a single arm.

Ases continued listening, his body was now fully healed from the battle with the beast. Maybe if Mors weakened Halia, just as she had done with the monster…

“And I can see that you still want to fight, even with my generous offer, so I’ll make things this simple. Once I let her go, I’ll run down this entire city, not a single building nor a single brick of the walls will stay in its place. Even if you try to kill me, I promise you, it will be too late to prevent the disaster.”

The storm over them became stronger, hail started falling down. Ases remembered the state he found Sueño in, and instantly recognized that she was not bluffing.

“Now, if I were you, I would cut my losses, grab this girl and your dear brother, and run out of here before the avalanche buries all of you away. Does that work for you?”

Ases looked at her, fully alert, unsure of how to rescue his brother and Mors at the same time, when Mors was still on the telchine’s hands.

“Well then, good luck. I hope we never see each other again.”

Halia threw Mors at Ases and immediately raised her hands to the sky. The storm worsened and the hail that fell from the sky was thick enough to fill a person’s hand. Ases was surprised, but managed to grab Mors in midair and in a couple of seconds reached Herm from the entrance of the alleway. Carrying one on each shoulder, he started running down the alleyway, as the walls gave protection, but at the same time started to fall apart under the wind, the rain and the hail.

Ases jumped, over the debris, over the hole in the wall, and in less than half a minute, he was now far from the city, sprinting away as far as he could. In his rush, he could not see how an avalanche came down from the mountain, burying the entire city, pushing everything in its way down the cliff until no trace of its existence remained.