Chapter 95: Another Battle (Part 2)

Laurie: "U … ugh … ugh!"

Dragging her body towards a tree so she can pull herself up with its help, Laurie Brown continues to make inaudible but very angry threats at Sneha.

Sneha: "..."

Sneha, in turn, just merely stands at some distance waiting for her opponent to get back on her feet.

It's not overconfidence though, and it certainly isn't mockery either.

The reason why she doesn't attack while her opponent is vulnerable is simply that that goes against the code of Aurals, at least the code of the school of Aurals she belonged to.

Laurie: "U … aah … ugh!"

Blood spews from the Hellfire's mouth and all the broken parts of her body burn. Trying to endure all of it though, she continues to drag herself towards the tree.

But,

Laurie: "he … ugh!"

As soon as she grasps the tree with her misplaced fingers, the tree starts to fall.

It turns out the thing she had hoped would help her up was itself just holding on by sheer luck and now that it has gotten a little push, the balance of this broken tree is gone.

Sneha: "How unfortunate for you!"

The Aural comments, still waiting and doing nothing about her opponent.

Her opponent though takes it as a mockery of her.

She takes it to mean that the Aural thinks defeating her would be so easy that she doesn't even need to capitalize the chance she has.

So,

Laurie: "Ugh … due!"

She tries to scream as she makes the ground shake just like she had done before the battle in the hopes that the Aural would lose her balance because of the overly uncaring stature she seems to have taken.

However, it doesn't work.

Not only does the Aural not lose balance and stay where she is without a problem, but the Hellfire herself starts finding it difficult to hold on to her place.

Sneha: "At least heal yourself first."

Suggests her opponents, which she takes as even more mockery.

So, she drags herself to the next tree she could see. She drags herself just like before but this time faster, or rather, more rushed, with her wounds getting worse and worse.

And then, as soon as she reaches the tree, she holds onto it to pull herself up, only to find that this tree is the same as before.

Laurie: "Aagh!"

Irritation and a desperate need for vendetta take over her as she sees the tree falling and she holds onto the broken trunk, not caring that her hands are being ripped apart by the sharper edges, and pulls herself up as much as she could.

Unfortunately for her, all she manages to do is put her back to the trunk and no more than that.

Laurie: "..."

Sneha: "..."

The Aural has clearly done some heavy damage on her.

And, for every single moment that the Aural kept standing there as an onlooker, the damage could have been more.

So, it's obvious that the Hellfire is only still alive because the Aural has allowed her to live.

Laurie: "Aaaagh!"

And it's humiliating, to say the least.

To the Hellfire who has been favoured in every aspect of her life but never to the extent that she is spoiled, to the Hellfire who has been genuinely good at everything she tried to do but did earn most of her achievements by her work and not just the talent, to the Hellfire who worked as hard as she could to become as powerful as she is, this is humiliating as hell.

Sneha: "Seriously?"

The Aural asks as she sees her opponent trying to throw a fireball with her Pyrokinesis at her.

The fireball is big enough to destroy her leg but,

Sneha: "If you really want to fight,"

The Aural extinguishes the fire with the impact on air from a flick of her finger, making the attack null.

Sneha: "heal yourself first."

And she says so casually.

The Hellfire realizes that she is right, she realizes that she needs healing, but she won't do it.

She won't do it because it'd be humiliating to follow the opponent's advice.

Why would she do what someone else says, especially what her opponent says, when all her life she had gotten results all by herself?

She won't.

She will fight without healing, without listening to her opponent.

*******************************

Sona: "Well … that's … I don't know what to say."

I don't blame you, Sona, I don't know what to say either, though, I may be impressed by just the results and you by more than that.

Sona: "When did you learn to heal so well anyway? As far as I know, your healing abilities weren't this good back on the island."

She asks as she rubs her one hand over the other, probably to try and feel it as the other was not attached to her body till a moment ago,

Kais: "I guess I have been practising."

That's a lie.

The truth is, what I performed on myself to heal my broken legs as well as reattach her arm - it wasn't healing - it was something else, something more sinister.

And I realized how to do it when a particular 'God' tried to mess with a particular system back on the island.

Sona: "And well …"

She trails off as her eyes fall on the mess on the ground. The word 'mess' might be too cute to describe it though.

It's a bloody sight that would make a normal person puke just by looking at it. I and Sona obviously are not normal people.

But, even so, it still makes both of us pretty uncomfortable because - I made this sight.

Brutally killing Ross Green would have been one thing but to have created this sight of guts and intestines and bones and bile - there is something wrong with me.

I have suspected it before but seeing this sight confirms the fact that I have a screw loose. And it's really, really loose.

Sona: "Ha … oh well, I guess it just happened."

No, Sona, it did not 'just happen' and you know it better than I do. But still, if you think we should side-step the issue for now and meet back up with the others, I am fine with that.

But, I know now without a shred a doubt - I am an inhumane monster.

*******************************