Chapter 38

Now that Coa’s free, my full attention is on his brother who’s gone limp from Jay’s hand that’s wrapped around his neck. Since I've never learned how to use a weapon, I didn’t bother bringing one. I couldn’t risk someone taking it and then using it against me later. So, I charge.

When I’m inches from Koa and Jay, I wind back my fist before landing a punch against Jays temple. But other than blinking a few extra times and a small shake of his head, I don’t get another reaction.

He could have blocked that, in fact, that was my plan. I was hoping to shove the herb mix into his mouth once I had control of his other hand. But I can’t try again. Koa’s out of time.

I drop my body low to keep out of Jays grip and then wrap a hand around his wrist. My other hand clutches his bicep. Jay reaches for me likely realizing what I’m about to do. Or at least try, but he’s too slow.

Jumping up, I tuck my knees close to my chest and kick out. My feet make contact with his elbow and I force the joint to bend into his body. It’s only when I see bone sticking out that Jay finally, releases Koa.

I've never gone all out with my strength, even during times I wanted to, so my limits are about to tested. Jay for his part doesn’t seem to mind his broken arm as it hangs limply to his side. No, he just looks unamused.

Koa who has been balled up on the ground between us springs back to life. Jay makes a grab for him, but Koa reels back putting as much distance between Jay and himself as he can.

“Em?”

“Go get your brother.”

Koa’s eyes skate past me to his brother. Leaving me to fight Jay alone is the same as leaving me to die. But it’s better than both of us dying.

After a few more seconds of indecision, Koa rushes to his brother who was trying to fight off the approaching mallatee that seem willing to endure the light for the sake of food.

My eyes have never left Jay as I wait for his next move, but he just stands there. When I realize that he’s just giving his arm time to heal, I surge forward. As expected, this time Jay doesn't underestimate me. He avoids my first punch and counters my second. Not by blocking my hand, but by aiming his own fist right into my gut.

I’m not sure how strong Jay is, but I’m guessing that I shouldn’t find out this way. Choosing to protect my stomach with my arm, I absorb Jay’s blow that shatters my forearm.

Jay registers the herbs that I’m forced to drop from my broken arm and smirks. I make sure to stay on my feet, but I don’t go back in for another attempt.

“Poison. I admit, that was smart. Maybe you could have even won. Why didn’t you try using it instead of saving your friend?” His voice isn't patronizing, it's curious.

“Because it seems that no matter how sensible I try to be, I'm not you. If I had let either of them die, even if I lived, I couldn't face myself again?”

“As in, you want to die hero?”

“No. I just want to say that I’m still human when the Divinity of Death come to take me.”

“Mhh.” Jay circles me leaving cracks of lightening behind him with each step. “Can’t save everyone kid. I thought you learned that lesson from Onda.”

“What I learned from Onda, is that I should have killed trash like you before you the moment you touched him.”

The sky then lights up. I want to look up to see what’s happening, but Jay doesn’t give me a chance. I find myself rolling to my left as part of the skin on my left arm is charred after being electrocuted.

Now, both of my arms are in various stages of healing while Jay’s at full capacity.

“Guess the conversations over?”

Jay doesn't answer nor give me time to recover. His intention is to kill me, so I guess it’s nice that we’re on the same page.

The world slows down as I move at a speed I've never reached before. I’m dodging lightning strikes coming from the sky and ground while mallatee are clawing at my feet. They're not too hard to avoid, it's just annoying because there's a lot of them.

As the lightning targets me relentlessly, I catch sight of the twins out of my peripheral vision. The mallatee are overwhelming them. I thought there was a few hundred, but no. There’s over a thousand.

The lightening pattern I was get used to breaks when a spark of lightning thrown straight at me slams into my chest. Being electrocuted sucks, but it’s the force of the impact that knocks me off my feet.

My world goes blinding white as my body stops functioning. Right then, a single thought occurs to me. If I pass out, I'm dead.

The one good thing about this fight is that it’s not on the water. My hand presses against the ground and I use it as a springboard to push myself up. My eyesight still isn't repaird, but I can see to know that Jay was a few feet from me ready to land the final blow.

And this time, it’s not just the lightning that’s coming at me but Jay too. The problem is I'm out of ideas.

The hand that I used as a springboard, it the one that had the last of the herbs. Also, my hopes of the twins running away has longed vanished. Instead, they chose to stay to try and to thin out the mallatees’ numbers.

My foot touches the ground and I slip. There’s no time for me to recover as Jay strikes with a gleaming blade aimed at my neck. So, I use my last option. I pray.

Something. Give me something. Please?

What responds to my plea isn’t the Divinities or the voice. From and one moment from the next, Jay's movements falter when a rat as big as his head jumps on his face.

It scratches and bites with a fury that makes me wonder if it has some type of disease. The screeches the rat produces are warlike as its nails dig into Jay's skin, refusing to let go despite the hits or the lightning being thrown at it.

I don't have enough time to think about what's happening as I get behind Jay and imagine a fan. The red mist in the palm of my hand forms the fan not how I saw it, but how I imagined it looked like.

It’s the one from the armory with Onda. I’m not sure why I picked this weapon, but I don’t hesitate as I jump on Jay’s back. His muscles tense when he realizes that I’m there but even as lightning strikes me, my movements remain steady.

My hand grips his chin in a bruising grip, forcing his chin to tilt up. Taking full use of the blades attached to the fan, I slide it along his neck until I hear a gurgling sound and watch as Jay’s arms fall.

When I jump away, Jays body sways, before collapsing to the ground. The rat’s body hits the ground, and I watch as it takes its last breath. Thanks to the rat that seemed to have a personal vendetta against Jay, I won.

I was worried that since Jay was mythic, the fan wouldn’t be enough to kill him. But it was, and I…I won.

With a few precious moments of breathing room, my eyes scan the forest as I register what's happening. There's only a few mallatee that are still alive as they run in chaotic circles around their tree that’s now burning.

Kael and Ivan are long since gone along with Lieutenant Tallmaul. Not good.

“Em? How bad are your injuries?”

Koa bends down next to me checking me over. My skin is singed from the lightning and I'm covered in blood. But it’s nothing I can’t handle.

Koa doesn't look much better. Though he’s less singed, his clothes and skin are cut up from the mallatees. When I glance behind him at his brother who's limping towards us clutching a shoulder that has been shredded by claws, I wince.

“I think…your…worse off…than—" I am trying my best to talk, but it feels like my throat has been burnt. Each word is a struggle, and my lungs can't keep up.

My body goes slack as I curl up in a ball and cough out blood. With the adrenaline leaving my system, the pain intensifies. I'm not sure if it's because I overused my powers, or if it's because I got hurt.

I’m hoping the pain is from the wounds I got during the fight. If it is, then it shouldn’t take me too long to heal. If it's not, then my blurring vision is a sign that I'm about to pass out. And I don't know when or if I'm waking up.

Koa is saying something next to me to either me or his brother, but I don't register the words. My only focus is on breathing through the pain and trying to stay conscious.

I think back to every single time that I mended infinite cloth. Closing my eyes, I imagine fabric with shredded fibers. I mend one thread, then another. It takes considerable effort to get rid of the leftover lightning without using my hands, but I manage to push it into the ground using the earth as a sort of conductor.

The fibers that I'm imagining knit back together with a precision that even I’m impressed at. When my lungs are healed, I focus on my throat since being able to breathe normally will make this process considerably easier.

As I heal my air passageways, I’m simultaneously repairing the skin that's been singed. Arms, back, legs, head. There isn’t a part of my body that wasn’t touched by lightning, but luckily, healing skin is easy.

When I hear the voice of someone I'm not expecting, I've healed enough to be able to sit up and watch her sauntering over.

How did she even get here?