What Follows Lightning

'Tiam, Tiam!' Leo screamed. He wanted to let the overwhelming feeling of terror take over. His legs felt like they were about to buckle, to fail him and throw him to the dirt. Maybe there was no point to all this, and maybe he would never make it to the end. The demons who made this game were as cruel as mankind imagined them on Earth, and likely crueller still. They made the perfect place of torture, where one could make friends and lose them when the best feelings were about to develop. What was the point of this?

Leo clutched his sword and gathered lightning around it that spread into the shapes of halos. Each blue fizzling ring sparked in turn, as he dove for the woman covered in plates of rock. It didn't occur to him until he made impact that lightning was not the best element to be slinging at someone covered in mismatched stone. As he lodged his blade into her side, the woman shrugged him off, spinning on her heel. Tiam fell off her blade, their body rolling to the side.

'Tiam!' Leo felt hot liquid rolling down his cheeks that fizzled out on his skin. Something primordial bubbled beneath the surface, like the lightning he channelled was gathering to destroy everything at once. Nothing came of it.

'Idiot.' The woman turned, barely a small crack between the stone armour revealing her eyes. She flicked her blades, one splattering red across the dirt. 'This loud person was way stronger than you, and look at them.' She turned her swords on Leo, pointing them as was apparently her trademark move. One foot slid back, kicking up dirt, and she leaned toward Leo. She snorted, then charged with a roar more frightening than any beast could muster.

A hundred strategies and plans tried to run through Leo's mind, all half-baked and illogical. His panic turned to acceptance, moments before he was struck. One blade scraped his front, the other cutting his back. Neither managed a deep cut, which surprised him. He looked to the ground, and it was twisting like a whirlpool. The woman rammed into Leo, throwing him to the ground.

'Spectacular.' Tiam lay with their head and a hand raised, turning as the earth beneath Leo swirled. They fell back again, breathing heavily and clutching their bleeding wound.

'You're alive!?' The woman turned her blades back to Tiam, charging for them with little preparation. Every footfall split the earth beneath her feet, creating a trail of broken ground that promised Tiam what their future would look like.

Leo needed to think his way out of this one, but nothing came to him. The despair returned, daring to be a worse foe than this rock armoured woman. Maybe he could beg to be her follower? No, that would dishonour Tiam. A gruesome end looked like the only future.

'Leo,' a smooth voice whispered. He knew that voice more than any other he'd known in life or in Heaven. How could he mistake his own wife's voice?

'Hazel?' he croaked. No response came but the image of her suffering in that pit. He'd felt so powerless then. He was unable to tamper with the evil system Hell devised. If only he could break it all apart. If only he could shatter that place and break Hazel free. The woman's earth splitting footsteps caught his attention again.

Break.

Shatter.

Ruh.

Maybe he'd been too focused on copying Tiam in training. It looked like Leo wasn't going to be floating anytime soon, but maybe he could demolish the darkness that stood in the way of his goals. There was a buzz around him, like he was sensing something beyond the material. A force reached out to him, or maybe it was always there. Nevertheless, Leo reached back. It filled him like a burst of new energy.

Rather than focus on breaking that stone armour from the outside, it was possible he could destroy it from within. He rolled onto his stomach, and plunged his sparking blade into the ground. He channeled this new feeling through it, like it was extending from his palm. The ground split with a rumble that belonged in dark thunderclouds. The seam met the woman's foot as she took a step headed for Tiam's chest. Her armour cracked. Pieces sloughed off in tiny stone slivers. The woman roared, and brought her weapons down on Tiam, but she missed. Leo created a seam that her foot fell into and threw her off balance.

'What!?' She flailed and tried to pull herself free.

Tiam smiled at Leo, their grin crumpling their cheeks. With that, Leo felt that surge of dramaticism again.

'Most people are more afraid of the sound of thunder than the lightning it follows, do you know why?' Leo wasn't sure this was actually a fact, but it sounded cool. He got to his feet and made a wild dash for the woman. 'Because they can use it to tell how close the lightning is. How close is mine?' He charged his blade with lightning that sparked from between the prongs like the roots of a tree, and sunk it into the back of the woman, breaking through the last pieces of her armour like it was paper. He released one last jolt from the weapon, before she fell limp with a look of rage still fixed on her face.

'Well, I never.' Tiam rolled onto their side, face straining a smile to hide their pain. 'You're such an interesting person. Shattering Ruh? I would have guessed compacting for sure.' They tried to sit upright, but fell under their own weight.

'Woah!' Leo fell to his knees and scooped them up. His mind flashed back to Prim, and her lifeless head on his knees. He was grateful that this time, the person he had made friends with was alive.

A voice echoed out from above, bellowing and commanding. 'Attention competitors of survival ring E11, you have been reduced to the final two combatants. I repeat, you have been reduced to two combatants.'

No.

No, it couldn't be. It was like everything was timed to make things hurt Leo. This really was a cruel place.

Tiam smiled at Leo. 'Well, only one thing we can do.' They clutched their cutlass lying nearby.

'I can't do this.' Leo's voice wavered and cracked. 'Tiam, I won't kill you. It's not fair and I just don't want to.'

'Hm?' Tiam grinned like an amused hyena. 'Oh no, I wouldn't do that to you, friend. We're not putting a blade near one another.' They stabbed their blade into the earth and cried out, 'referees, I forfeit the match!'

'Oh.' Leo's cheeks flushed red. He now knew he could do that, if he wanted.

'Leo, darling.' Tiam patted Leo's shoulder. 'Could you do your friend a favour and take them somewhere they can rest?'