The Retriever's Strike

--Sky's Perspective--

"To your right!" I heard a voice in my head and dodged quickly. My heart rate was calm, both of my eyes had switched to a weird version of The Eye of Providence, and I was left at my absolute strongest point as the black strands started to steal more and more of my power.

Cole couldn't land a single strike on me, missing everything, not even hitting me with the shockwave of some of his punches.

I was absolutely sound in my mind, the black water that I imagined to be my state of mind was clear and blue, as blue as the Isle's first glance into the ocean. He missed, over and over again, and during one of his misses, I summoned a black saber and swung it with such power that the dome was pierced just a millimeter with the strike I made and the force that came from it.

My muscles no longer used my stamina for exertion. I wasn't using stamina anymore, and instead using the strands to push that energy into another area... the very oxygen that we're breathing.

I might not be able to beat Cole and myself from four hundred years ago, and I knew that my lifespan would run out eventually... but by consuming the oxygen in an enclosed location such as this one, we would both eventually suffocate and die without it. It's all about saving the next generation... about breaking the cycle.

[CURRENT HEART RATE: 65]

I was no longer passing into a dangerous zone with the speed of my heart anymore. Albeit, I wasn't doing any more damage to Cole, I had a plain and simple goal in mind. Avie was idly watching by as I continued my attack, staying silent while I focused on the warnings the people beside me were giving.

They were able to use their battle experience, their prediction skills, and their fighting style to tell me where to go, what to do, and how to best him in combat.

"Somebody is getting a little cocky!" Cole shouted out. He held up his hand to shoot ice out at me, but before he could, the black strands swatted it away while I closed the distance again.

"I could say the same," I told him.

I slashed upward with the black saber, causing the ground to rupture underneath us and launching Cole about a hundred feet into the air.

I summoned Carl's gun again, shooting at the ground with an intense amount of power that was enough to launch me halfway to Cole's position.

With another shot, while flipping my body, I went even higher, now looking down at Cole while holding Red's Spear in my hands.

The weapon made of black strands sent itself at Cole, but not only did it move by itself, but it also created more copies. It created every weapon I've ever seen in a mass of weapons the size of a tree heading down straight for Cole.

It punctured his chest, pushing him even closer and closer to the ground. I took the opportunity to switch with Avie and move right below him before he hit while raising my white stone up to the mass of weapons.

They deflected, and it created such a loud noise that blood spurt out of my ears like popped balloons.

Cole's body was reduced to nothing but a few dropped limbs on the ground and puddles of blood from the explosion. I hit the ground lightly, not even having to bend my knees when I hit, and watched his slowly mangled body try to find the pieces I created.

I froze each one to the floor with Belle's ability, disregarding the text in my eye warning me how much life I had left, and surrounded the pieces in a mess of strands to compress them until they exploded.

From a small fragment of dust, strands recreated Cole's body, and he cracked his neck while a smile while walking toward me.

"I'm telling you, Sky, even an atom is enough for me to regenerate from... although, I don't technically call them atoms since I'm not organic material. I'm a Strand Entity, which is why I'm kicking your ass so hard," Cole clarified for me, pulling The Retriever over to his side.

"What's it like, being so hopeless in winning in a fight? I wouldn't know, since I don't lose," Cole told me. The Retriever primed itself while moving closer to his hip and hand, waiting to be used.

I just don't get it... there's a core part that I'm missing in Cole's body. Avie kicked him in the face so fast that he couldn't regenerate, and ended up dying. We should've killed Quake... she should've exploded every muscle fiber in my body, even if it was meant to kill me, just to take out Quake. It would've been the same result...

I've always known, ever since I first woke up on the Isle, I was meant to die. The White Stones were never meant to last, and it's remarkable that I've come this far. I just need to die...

Maybe I hand the reigns to Avie, and I'll let her take care of everything. I'll let her use my destroyed body to fight Cole, I'll let her ruin me, just so my friends can have a future.

It should've been me... I should've been ripped apart... I should've drowned... I should've been poisoned... why couldn't it have just been me?

Cole shot The Retriever at me, and it went right past my head. He didn't take it back either, just watching it fly over toward the end of the dome.

"Do you remember... the last person I hit with The Retriever? I told you what it does, right?" Cole asked me. I had no idea what he was talking about, considering I was the last one he hit with it.

Until Faith's body dropped right in front of me, hitting the ground, and causing her to lose the breath in her lungs right in front of me.