Chapter 13: Rage Can Become Fear
Something had changed. Lokk didn't know what Mill had done, but whatever it was had changed him. "Is this your real ability, boy? I guess that someone like you would need something like this if you wanted to defeat me." Lokk felt the temperature rise again as Mill looked even angrier than before. "I'm sick of you talking to me like you're better. Just shut up and die!" Mill lifted Lokk higher and started to create a ball of flames in his opposite hand and aimed it at Lokk's head. "Get burned, fuckface!" Just as Mill went to release the wave of flames Lokk quickly grabbed his arm and activated his ability causing Mill's arm to begin to shake violently and blood started to burst out of his arm. To Lokk's surprise Mill didn't drop him, in fact, Mill's grip on his strengthened and Mill was able to release a powerful wave of fire straight at Lokk. Mill didn't let up on the fire and continued to strengthen his grip on Lokk crushing the armor more and more.
"BURN BURN BURN! Burn away you worthless ingrate!!" Mill started to cackle madly as his flames continued to burn through the knight's armor, burn something didn't feel right. Why isn't he screaming? He should be squealing from the pain of his own metal armor melting and burning his skin severely, so why wasn't he? It was then that Mill realized that he could no longer feel Lokk in his grip. In fact, he couldn't feel his right arm at all. It was at this point that he noticed that his right arm had been destroyed and, though it was extended outward, was completely unusable. Mill stopped the fire and dropped Lokk to take a closer look at his arm and now could see that the hand that had been holding Lokk up had been completely burned so much that it looked like it would blow away if there were any wind in this room.
"Well, that sucks. Guess that means that I'm not immune to my own fire or to damage. If my hand is like this, then I can only imagine what happened to that dumb knight." Mill looked at the unmoving remains of Lokk on the floor and moved closer to analyze it. "I guess that knights have quite the grit to be able to withstand being burned to a crisp and not even letting out a scream." Mill knocked on the armor and heard a hard metal bang resounding across the room every time that he hit it. It resounded really loudly almost as if the suit were-
Mill suddenly heard footsteps fast approaching behind him and turned around only to get stabbed through his chest by a burned and armorless Sir Lokk. "You shouldn't get so full of yourself, boy. The fact that you didn't even realize that I had abandoned my suit goes to show that you truly are just an arrogant, no name amateur." Mill grabbed the blade of the sword and tried to remove it, but to no avail as he, for some reason, could not find his footing and ended up falling on the ground. "H-How did you get out? I had you. I know I did!" A light chuckle was released from Lokk as he continued to push the sword further into Mill. "My ability allows me to harness the mana in the air to vibrate anything that I am touching or just my own body. I simply vibrated fast enough that I was able to fall out of my armor. You were so focused on burning the armor that you didn't even notice that it had gotten lighter, so I say again, you are arrogant, boy." Mill felt the sword begin to vibrate and push further into his chest.
He didn't know what to do. If this continued, he would die. He couldn't die. Not yet, I mean he hadn't even completed the test yet. He hadn't become an adventurer. Mill's skin started to return to its original complexion and his hair became its natural shade once again. Mill was no longer angry. How could he be in this situation, he was about to die. All that he could feel was fear and an extreme amount of it at that. 'I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die.' This one phrase ran through Mill's head at a million miles a minute. Darkness surrounded him and Lokk. A viscous darkness that seemed to appear from thin air embraced the frightened boy. A pair of dark tendrils extended from Mill and latched onto Lokk. "What the-" He felt any strength that he had left begin to leave him as the darkness then started to pull him into Mill. "Wait, stop! That's not where I belong. That's not my master's home!"
Lokk couldn't do anything. As much as he had acted like he could take Mill he had already used up most of his strength getting out of his suit of armor, so he barely had enough left to attack Mill and now even that was leaving him. He sank deeper into the darkness and could do nothing more that hopelessly attempt to struggle. The last thing that he saw was a pool of darkness and not even a single sign of the boy that he had almost killed. "How? This is impossible! I'm the Grand Knight Ian Lokk! I cannot go down like this. At least have the decency to show me your face as I die, coward! That's all that you are and all that you will ever be! A weak and worthless coward that uses underhanded tactics to defeat his opponents!"
Mill heard all of Lokk's insults and even saw the face that the man was making as he was dragged into the darkness. After all, Mill was still currently under the man and hadn't even moved in the slightest. Mill had no idea why the man couldn't see him but all that he knew was that he had somehow survived.
"We will make it stop. Do not worry." A soft voice rang in Mill's head. He was sure that he had never heard the voice and yet there was a vague sense of familiarity that he could feel. "Who are you?" There was complete silence as the voice seemed to have completely disappeared. Mill watched as Lokk was pulled deeper into the darkness with hatred being the only thing on his face. "A coward like you has no purpose in this wo-"
With that Lokk had vanished with the darkness and Mill was left alone. He stayed laying in the floor even after he heard some sort of mechanical movement that he assumed was the exit opening.
Mill felt his fast-beating heart finally slowing down and the intense pain from his arm would kick in at any moment now that his adrenalin had run out. Before that could happen though, Mill lost consciousness.