The Broken And The Battered

Syllian knew exactly who saved him, but this wasn't time for appreciation and respite.

This was the time for survival.

And killing...

Kicking the headless Mutant to the side, Syllian rushed as quickly as he could to fill the gap in the line of defences.

"Karak!" A Mutant hopped over onto the deck with a guttery sound crackling in the throat of its main head.

BOOM!

The sound of a bullet zipped through the air again, ripping holes in the rain one after another as the Captain unloaded his magazine into the losing sides.

Syllian didn't need to think to know what this meant.

He was the first one that needed help.

He was the weakest.

Screeching, the new Mutant jumped toward Lanner, and with its mouth open, it revealed the source of the guttery sound gurgling from its vocal cords.

A human intestine was stuck in its throat.

"Here!" Syllian screamed as loud as he could, wincing from the pain in his throat and abdomen.

"Karak?!"

The Mutant turned its head to him, pausing just long enough for Syllian to reach it.

Slicing horizontally at the Mutant, he hoped to rip off at least one of its arms.

Swish.

Air, he swung at air.

The Mutant distorted its limbs, agilely avoiding the slice and weaving through toward Syllian with its arms attacking from 3 separate angles.

BOOM!

Syllian held hope that this shot would be aimed at the Mutant, alas, it wasn't.

He had to deal with the threat before another Mutant made it up.

If he failed to do so, Lanner would die, then Allen would die, and finally, he would.

Squinting his eyes, Syllian thrust the shield to the left, his goal was the two hands stuck closer together rather than the final one that jaggedly grew from its shoulder blades.

'Suicidal! I'm crazy!'

That, he was.

Thud!

The impact was many times heavier than the ones from the other Mutants, this one was much stronger.

Syllian slid back from the impact, creating some distance between him and the Mutant.

The claws of the third arm slipped by his vitals; it left him alive for another moment.

Fwip-!

One of the Mutant's legs flashed from below his line of sight, whipping at his left thigh.

With no time to bash it with the shield, Syllian risked it all and swung at it with his sword, leaving the right side of his body completely open.

Squeezing the hilt of his sword, the short boy channelled every joint and muscle that had any strength, no matter how small, and plunged the sword as powerfully as he could.

Either it loses its leg and he loses his life, or he rips the piece of shit apart as fast as his mortal body could muster and protect himself in time.

There was no hesitation in his mind.

The droplets of rain splattered on the edge of his soaring blade, cleansing it with one swift motion.

And at the end of the motion...

Splurt!

A limb flew into the air with black blood ascending to the sky behind it.

Twisting his hip, Syllian moved his body to the left by a single centimetre.

Fwap-

The air to his right split apart with a miniature sonic boom, the source of the attack, the Mutant, had thousands of anger and grief-ridden faces plastered about its demented body.

Reversing the direction of his sword, he swung it mercilessly.

Slash...

Running into the sword, the Mutant made the slash easier for him to perform, allowing him to carve its head into two.

Syllian spared his great accomplishment no time as he ran to the line.

And he was just in time, the next Mutant was still a second or two away from breaching the line.

---

My lungs burn.

My heart hurts.

My arms are tired.

My legs are exhausted.

How many have I killed?

20?

25?

He lost count a little while ago.

At some point The Adler entered the vicinity of the whirlpool, increasing the difficulty of fighting on a constantly swaying ship.

On top of that, there was no end to the Mutants.

He was going to run out of energy, and if he did, then it was all over.

Even if he somehow survived this ordeal, it would still all be over.

Think about it.

Dozens of heavily armed crew members, weapons casually lying around everywhere, and the dense murderous intent spread through the deck.

It was the perfect atmosphere to incite a mutiny.

He had to leave his defence point and deal with the source while everyone was preoccupied with fighting.

There was no better time than now.

Sucking in a breath of bloody air, he gave Allen and Lanner who stood near him a glimpse.

If he left, they would die.

And Syllian had no issues with it.

This was a Trial.

They probably weren't real.

But.

The dreaded 'but'.

It was suffocating, drowning, ruining, him.

What, you might ask?

The frustration.

He didn't mind abandoning them. But he wasn't abandoning them out of free will, because he had the choice between abandoning them and another option.

Instead, it was because he had no choice.

Why? Why was the only choice available; made for him by his weakness, by his powerlessness?

That...

It frustrated him.

Living in the Outer District, Syllian was the same.

They wanted him to pay rent to live in their 'safe' spaces.

So he decisively left and found himself a little shack to sleep in outside of their circle of influence.

They tried to give him no choice, so he created the choice instead.

So.

If they were meant to die, then he wasn't going to let them die.

"Lanner! Allen!"

The two heard him. They didn't respond by speaking, no, they responded by viciously executing the incoming Mutants.

"Move!"

Speaking was difficult.

Being tasked with fighting the Mutant in front of him, keeping himself alive, and speaking didn't make it easy.

"To!"

Splash!

An agonised Mutant head rolled by his side.

"Stairs!"

Syllian gave them no opportunity to question his decision, he squeezed his shield and carved his way to Allen.

Bang!

Smashing the shield on the incoming Mutant, he gave Allen enough breathing room to move beside Lanner.

Allen gave him a worried look, bit his lips, and retreated.

By the time Allen made it next to Lanner, Syllian was surrounded by two Mutants.

One was the Mutant he was originally going to face, but the new one was Allen's.

'Come here you sack of ugly bastards!'

Rapidly running back, Syllian made sure to have them follow him through the deck.

His goal - the door to the innards of The Adler.

BOOM!

The Captain's revolver never stopped firing with weakened shots, Syllian couldn't look at him at this time, but he could sense the rush in his shots.

Looking around, Syllian found a few locations where the Mutants had breached, forcing the surviving crew to form different formations to hold off.

The sound of rainwater ripping apart arrived at the end of his thoughts.

Thwack!

His shield finally gave in; a small hole had smashed into the corner of the thing, leaving an obsidian claw hanging at the very tip aimed at his face.

Slipping his left hand out of the shield, Syllian raised his leg and kicked it as strong as possible.

Using the momentum to slide back, a gap had been created between the three of them.

One Mutant at the back, one in between, and Syllian closest to the pile of weaponry lying on the floor.

Sliding his hand into a new shield, Syllian raised it and blocked the next attack.

Syllian twisted to the left, and instead of holding onto this shield, he let it slip with the Mutant all the unaware from behind it.

Receiving an eyeful of ecstatic faces rush past him, Syllian dropped down, picked up the first weapon he lay his hands on, and-

Smack!

A kick landed on his stomach, thrusting its contents up his throat.

Dazed and confused, Syllian looked to the perpetrator and realised the problem.

A third one had joined the party.

Smashing into the ground, the boy rolled over, crushed a few flimsy boxes lying in the way, and slammed into the wall below the helm of the ship.

Everything in his stomach flew out of his mouth, painfully ripping a second hole through his sore throat.

At least that's what it felt like.

Pain repeatedly slammed up and down his spine, throwing the boy into a world of wild, fear-induced panic.

'Get up!'

His body didn't listen to him, but the Mutants didn't care whether or not his body listened.

They rushed over ready to shred him into pieces.

Out of the left corner of his eyes, Syllian caught a glimpse of flying metal.

It was like the world had slowed down, and Syllian could vividly capture what was happening.

The metal quickly revealed its full shape, a hammer.

It wasn't just a hammer, a mace also soon revealed itself.

Both travelling at insane speeds at two of the Mutants.

BANG!

Simultaneously, two of the Mutants smacked into the ground, blood oozing out of their skulls, but they weren't dead.

However, the sources of the twin attacks weren't done yet.

As the Mutants got back to their feet, they were met face-first with shields and screaming children.

Allen and Lanner.

Syllian cursed them and thanked them at the same time.

He just had to deal with the third new Mutant now.

With a final surge of adrenaline pumping through his fragile body, Syllian grabbed onto a nearby broken stool and pushed himself up.

He had no shield, just a bloodied sword that was rapidly cleansing beneath the rain and a small axe hammer in his left hand.

A maddened frenzy burst aflame in his eyes, licking his wet, chapped lips, Syllian lowered his centre of gravity.

This combination of weaponry...

He liked it.

It was simple but brutal.

Either he kills the fucker, or he gets killed by the fucker.

No other way around it.

Syllian felt crazy.

He had no clue what was wrong with him at that moment, but something inside of him had shattered apart in the recent fights.

Maybe it was his sanity, or maybe it was his hidden potential!

Yeah, it was probably his sanity.

"Come!"

Syllian was at a complete disadvantage.

He didn't know how to use these weapons, he was tired, he was weak, he was battered, and he was bruised.

But life or death combat didn't care about any of that.

It only cared for the winner.

Instead of stepping toward the Mutant, Syllian took a step back, almost clinching the wall behind him.

Ahead of him, the screeching Mutant bent its legs and dashed at him, cracking the floor beneath its feet.

Its arms aimed at his head, chest, and right arm.

Side-stepping the attack to the left, Syllian tensed the muscles in his right arm and swung at where the Mutant was inevitably going to arrive.

Crack!

The wood splintered with 9 claws entrenched in its skin, and the unfathomable number of faces on the mutant's body glared about and then stuck their gazes on his cold, pale face.

It wasn't willing to go down that easily, however.

Rippings its claws through the wall, the shimmering obsidian reflected into Syllian's eyes as they clashed with his sword just in time to stop his attack.

But his sword was only enough to stop 6 claws.

The final three from the irregular arm flashed to his head, ready to decapitate him.

Instead, they were met with the blunt end of an axe hammer.

An instant passed by at that moment, with the Mutant and boy pulling out every stunt in the books they could conjure up for their next clash.

After that instant, the clash continued.

One slash exchanged with another.

One bruise with another.

Cut after cut piled up on Syllian's body, but the Mutant wasn't scot-free either.

Syllian charged through the exchange, ignoring the pain in his abdomen, the pain on his face, the one on his chest, and every other injury.

But ignoring wasn't the right word.

He was enduring.

And as a weak, physically-stunted, human boy at the tender age of 16, he couldn't endure for much longer.

Syllian was losing, and he was losing quickly.

His concentration was running out, and most of their exchanges were just a trade of wound for wound.

It wasn't sophisticated combat with advanced techniques and a cool move set woven in between.

It was a barbaric fight between a weak human and a weak Mutant.

And soon, Syllian slipped up.

His axe hammer wasn't quick enough to block the claws of the irregular arm.

The gleeful obsidian sliced through the rain with droplets of human blood washing off the end of it.

Swoosh...

The sound of the rain finally entered Syllian's ears again, and with it, so did all the pain and suffering he had endured.

His exhaustion caught up, and so did the reality of his failure.

Syllian burnt those crimson eyes into his soul, even in death he would not stop cursing the Mutant.

Click.

A flash of light surged above him.

BOOM!

Black blood exploded into the starless night.

But it wasn't the Mutant in front of him, it was another.

Squelch...

The claws entrenched themselves into human flesh, a splurge of red blood squirting out as the life drained out of his battered and broken eyes.

Out of Lanner's brown eyes.

Syllian's hammer, however, didn't compute what occurred in front of him.

It continued flying ahead, smashing into the Mutant's skull, ending its life.

But Syllian, on the other hand, didn't compute the Mutant's death.

Thud.

Lanner dropped to his knees with blood squeezing out of his chest, his shaky, empty hands rose, attempting to plug the wound.

The child looked down at his leaking body mindlessly with tears dripping down his eyes.

Splat.

Losing strength in his upper body, he rolled back, dropping onto the drenched, cold, blood-stained ground.

His mouth opened up in an attempt to speak.

However, only blood spewed out, clogging up his throat as he began drowning in his blood.

Syllian looked down at the boy, the axe hammer and sword slipping through his wet, burnt fingers.

Lanner's dimming brown eyes looked at Syllian, and within them, was the soul of a dying child.

And it was screaming at him-

'...Help.'

'...Help.'

'...Someone...'

'...Please...'

'...Help.'

He begged.

He screamed.

He wanted to live.

But...

His mouth opened one last time and with a spurt of blood gurgling out...

He mouthed with his final breath...

"Mommy..."

"I want mommy..."