First Blood

Vasai and Nolly rushed to meet their opponents, bringing the enemy's battle formation to a halt. Three of the students met Vasai and Nolly with stabs from spears, while the fourth student jumped backwards and pointed his palm towards one of his allies who suddenly seemed a little faster.

As a support, Kaos immediately knew what was going on.

"Target the guy in the back, he's buffing them!"

Gilt nodded, and sprung upwards, towards the top of the buildings, beginning to bounce hectically between the tops of the walls, out of reach of the spears.

Kaos readied his crossbow, but didn't have a clear angle. If he shot now, it would be a fifty-fifty gamble on either hitting Vasai or the spear-wielding girl he was fighting off.

"Guess it's just a game!" he chuckled under his breath and pulled the trigger.

The bolt slammed into the leg of the girl, who crumpled to the ground. Vasai jumped forwards to land a decisive strike, but the third spear wielder jumped forwards and fended him off. The girl who had been hit by the crossbow bolt shrunk behind her allies and began to get up.

Kaos stowed his crossbow and drew his shortsword, to join in the fray. It might have been either idiotic or tactical genius, but the thoughts of tactics weren't currently crossing his mind. He was feeling a strange surge of energy, maybe he was relaxed, or maybe he was keyed up. The difference between the two was strangely blurry but he wasn't really thinking about anything anyway.

He was swinging his short sword fast and haphazardly, he had arrived with such a wild ferocity that it had caught Nolly's opponent off guard, and forced him to play completely defensively. Nolly took advantage of this, and gripped the end of her halberd's handle, swinging powerfully at her opponent's head.

He raised his spear with both hands to block the attack, but it didn't matter. Nolly's halberd splintered through the middle of the spear, and found its way directly into the student's head, instantly turning him to sand.

Nolly flashed Kaos a wide smile, having finally taken down her first opponent in the scrimmages, but it was a short lived victory for her. The girl Kaos had injured earlier had recuperated enough to rejoin the battle, albeit with less mobility. Her spear lodged itself in Nolly's stomach, doing serious damage, but not instantly turning her to sand.

The spear thrust had been fast, Kaos thought to himself, faster than the girl was able to do earlier, then he remembered the support that Gilt had evidently still not taken care of.

"Do something!" He yelled upwards to the blurry form of Gilt who was still glamorously bouncing between the walls.

Gilt, clearly not a fan of the provocation, began another bounce towards the enemy support who had clearly been keeping an eye on his movements. Gilt's attack was swift, and deadly. Or at least it would have been if it wasn't so obvious. As soon as he leaped towards the support, his prey's hand flashed towards the short sword at his side, drawing it in the blink of an eye, but not even bothering to swing it.

The airborne Gilt had no way of avoiding the outstretched sword now that he had begun his attack. The short sword pierced through his chest and exited his back. Gilt's body melted into sand and fell to the ground. Even though he had been almost instantly killed, he had still somehow managed to leave a dagger in his opponent's shoulder.

Kaos blocked another attack from his wounded opponent's spear, taking the moment to steal a glance towards Nolly, only to find that she had also succumbed to her wound and turned to sand.

"Well that tracks!" He grunted, blocking another attack, and calling to his remaining ally, "Vasai, what's your status?"

"Dude I hate these spears" came Vasai's voice again, followed by a grunt of pain. "Nevermind! I got 'em!"

Kaos's previous luck with his short sword had obviously worn thin. He had managed to block or dodge each attack, but his opponent had forced him into a defensive position despite the wound on her leg. She feigned another stab, but then swung her spear sideways, sweeping Kaos's legs out from under him.

She wasted no time in stabbing downwards towards him, but her thrust was deflected to the side by Vasai's miniature lance. Kaos scrambled back to his feet, noticing a few light puncture wounds on Vasai's shoulders and chest. That spearman had been no joke, especially with the speed buff.

If he just used his wish on Vasai then they would win, he raised his hand instinctively, but paused just before activating his wish.

"YOU DON'T OWE HIM!" came the voice in his head.

"That's right." he mumbled to himself, "This fight is about me getting stronger, not being a first aid kit."

In Kaos's momentary pause, both Vasai and his opponent tumbled to the ground, mutually turning to sand and leaving him alone facing the enemy support.

"Well this is bad." laughed the enemy support, readying his short sword and wincing from the pain of the wound in his shoulder.

Kaos felt the need to beat this guy. Maybe he suddenly wanted to win again, or maybe it was because the guy reminded Kaos of himself, a supporter who couldn't do much to fight on his own. He had to turn this guy into sand.

"If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it right." Kaos called, flicking his wrist. Angel's Halo flashed around his enemy, surprising him enough to not realize his wound was healing. After noticing his improved physical state, he nodded to Kaos, who still hadn't ended the use of Angel's Halo.

"KILL! FIGHT! WIN!" came the sporadic voice in his head.

"Already on it."

He picked up Nolly's halberd, and had begun backing towards the bridge. All while his opponent was trying to figure out if there was some sort of hidden attack coming from Kaos's wish.

Kaos had made it halfway across the bridge before his opponent noticed his retreat. The winged support lurched forwards, suddenly realizing the speed the wings were granting him, and began traveling towards Kaos at an incredible pace.

Just before his enemy reached the bridge, Kaos had finished crossing to the other side, and brought Nolly's Halberd smashing into a thin supporting beam of sandstone, crumbling the bridge entirely.

His opponent was not so easily stopped though, with the power of Kaos's wings he leaped into the air and began soaring straight across the chasm, not noticing the twisted smile on Kaos's face.

"I'll be taking those back now." Kaos said softly, flicking his wrist above his head dramatically, causing both the halo and wings to vanish and leaving his opponent in a freefall.

"Well that was basically cheating, but it felt nice to win!" he laughed to himself as the golden sand began to circle his feet.

[WINNER]

The novelty of winning the game almost immediately wore off as he realized that this method of killing would most likely never be repeatable, but still something about how he ended the match brought a smile to his face.

"It's not repeatable, but I definitely did damage to somebody with my wish!"

He felt a little different somehow, not better or worse, just different. Maybe it was the strain of his mind lessening, or maybe it had finally begun to consume him.