V2 Incline 21: Champion Nin

"No... You know what, let's just get this over with!" I bark impatiently as I fail to keep my attention off of the largest of the weights.

The Gilded-Bark looks at me with his same old, scornful face and he picks up another weight, "If you wish."

He flexes his aching arms and he starts to throw the ignored weights about to the edge of the valley. Shattering into showers of stone dust, iron shards and pale, wooden splinters, the way forward is cleared. The final set of immense weights is left alone in the wide valley. Reaching from one end of it to the other end...

I take the moment to rest and catch my breath, but it hurts to do so. Each intake and outward blow stokes the fire inside of me. I can't hold my breath to let my lungs rest because that just makes everything hurt. I force my way through the pain as my limbs grow weaker and the resistance within them grows stronger.

I think I can hear Undwote's Pack of Seven howling for me just by looking at the weights ahead of us...

"You will lift them alone, Failure." the Gilded-Bark remarks as he suddenly turns to leave.

"Where in the name of the gods do you think you're going, you sanctimonious, potential dropper!" I snap at him, but he just ignores me and he keeps on going towards the vast wall of aelenvari and chairs. I watch as he ascends to his little throne up by Rose-sweerui and everyone else vacates the valley. I am left on my own with everyone staring at me.

The Gilded-Bark has his lap covered by the lustful priestess as she gives me the cold shoulder. Blinking to myself, I start to wonder about why I am suddenly being treated like this. Being called a failure, someone who was previously kind if overwhelming is now distant... What did I do?

As my inaction grows, the cheering for the Gilded-Bark grows and Rose'lhia's behaviour is copied. People who once looked at me with eager passion start to boo me, they chastise me in their own way. Gentle, warm light becomes seizure-inducing and I back up towards the great weights. Not even Vapooliar is doing anything, she's just watching me with what looks like a blank face.

I think about everyone's words and frown, then I snarl as fists form. Growls start to leave me as I turn towards the large bar connecting the weights. Stepping under it, I face the army of disparaging, pretentious, stick-legged things. I'm a failure, huh?

Weak?

Pathetic?

Incapable?

I'm not weak... I'm not a failure... Not pathetic or incapable... In their eyes, by their words and actions, I am better than all of them!

I fought for days and nights on end in the deep, dark caves of that hive! Against bloody bugs possessing the bodies of my Undwote-taken countrymen! I beat down that monster with his army of stone worms with my bare hands after I clawed my way up to the surface! I did all of that, not so I would end up being looked at with scorn by everyone around me!

Not this this Ivy-Mother! Not this little, tatty, tailed slave who would be nothing more than that without my kindness! Not this failure of a husband who failed to protect his wife! His son!

None of you...

"DO YOU HEAR ME!? DO YOU ALL HEAR ME!? DO EACH OF YOU HEAR ME!?" I roar out in the open as the world around me seems to tear itself apart. Strange winds erupt from me and shred the ground and grass until only barren earth remains. With two, thunderous slaps onto the bar, I crush it to fit into my palms. It screams with metallic pain as the weights bend the bar up.

Fighting back against it, I keep the area near me relatively straight as the rest of it droops.

My knuckles turn white and my veins threaten to burst from me bloodily. Something pops from my nose as my teeth grind and push up and down against one another. But, for all I snap and roar and push up, I go up not one inch. No matter how tight my grip, no matter how much skin tears and blood sweats from me.

I can't get my wobbling legs and arms to move the bar up... It's not moving!

My throat hurts, it is sore from all the roars and screams I am letting out. I look down as my feet sink into the cracking, splitting earth. I flex my feet in the soil. Screaming with painful effort as the weight moves into the air, a fraction at a time. Bouncing between upwards and down, I decide it goes up!

I fight back as my back starts to feel increasing strain. I stop myself from leaning back and keep on pushing. The weights keep rising as I feel less of myself. But, I keep lowering.

My knees crack with air as I realise I am now squatting.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I roar defiantly as this strange feeling guides me upright. The great tower of heavy, dense iron and oak shoots into the immediate air. Compared to what Vapooliar did, it's pitiful. Completely pitiful.

A dark shadow covers me and I feel the rush of danger descend onto me. I fall to the ground as the last of my strength leaves me, as the strange winds leaving me suddenly die. A grand, solid-core bomb of fire-forged iron and world-surviving oak is falling towards me. And I am on the ground, struggling to breathe.

I'm so stiff right now, so unreactive...

The weight I threw up into the sky is coming back down to crush me. But, I can't say that I am scared, even as I cry against flattened, shredded grass. Vapooliar is here, she'll make sure I am safe. Just like before with the mountain...

Immense weight falls apart behind me and I bounce up as the earth trembles and the shockwaves rock into me. My eyes close steadily as I drop back to the ground, now somewhat facing the wall of chairs. A blurry image of blasting magical energy soars over me and the shadows vanish. Only green light surrounds me now.

I feel tired... I start to close my eyes for a little bit so the pain might go away.