Chapter 9 Part 2

Kiana gets irritated by her statement. After cutting the oversized vine she says, "So. Who did your brother kill? I felt it in his emotions."

"That is none of your business. Keep on about it and I swear to the gods I will beat you inches from the afterlife." Heather threatens.

"So he did kill someone. Interesting. Was it someone important? Is that why he got banished from Stocaea?" Kiana says.

Kiana's attempts to antagonise Heather worked, but to her own demise. She brings out Willow, full size, as well as Simon, grown to a similar size to the others.

All three of the soulustriosized entities charge at Kiana, leaving Heather exposed. Ivy uses a connection to Simon to share their senses and abilities, becoming a leopard snake hybrid thing.

Kiana manages to get a Pathokinesis spell off on Heather, sending her down to a knee. That unfortunately didn't stop the relentless attacks coming from Simon, Willow, and Ivy. In order to try and stop them, Kiana charges at her opponent, trying to get her in a choke hold. She didn't even get ten feet closer before Willow strikes her in the back of the head with several iron wood cones, knocking her to the floor, and releasing her hold on Heather.

"You're gonna have to do better than that Keyana." Heather says mockingly, intentionally mispronouncing her name.

"What the fuck did you say to me?" Kiana asks, steadily getting up.

As Kiana wipes the dirt away from her face Heather repeats the mocking of her name.

"Your going to fucking pay for that you bitch!" Kiana grabs her blade and charges at Heather wildly.

Heather points behind Kiana, behind her stands a snarling Simon with Ivy attached to his back and a growling Willow, their iron wook leaves aggressively vibrating. Ivy, like a hydra, strikes at Kiana with blurring speed.

Kiana yells, "Slow down." before Ivy could make contact. This slowed the movements of all of Heather's Soulustriousized pets to a crawl. She turns back to Heather, her grip on her Katana tight. "You rely on them too much. It's just you and me now. Your brother is gonna have to watch as I mutilate and humiliate you."

"Yeah, I don't think you will. You got a little too nosy and now you need to be punished for getting into people's personal lives." Heather throws a ton of seeds on the ground beneath her and suddenly disappears as she sinks into the floor. She pops out next to Simon and touches him. "Moss spores. Very useful if you want to quickly make a tunnel. Although I'm probably the only one who could do so."

Heather casts counter magic on Simon but all it did was speed him up. So much it was completely unnoticeable to the regular eye.

"Didn't I tell you, it's gonna be just you, and me." Kiana says, stabbing Heather in the hand. She bounces away as Heather tries to swipe at her.

"Son of a bitch that hurts." Heather mutters, pulling out the knife.

"You've never been hurt before have you?" Kiana judges.

Heather heals her hand with holy magic, sealing the hole and leaving no scar. "Bitch, I was kidnapped as a child to be brainwashed for the church. Just because I have perfect skin, doesn't mean I'm not scared. I trained just as hard as my brothers...I actually feel sorry for you. What's it like having a face full of acne?" she teases. "Those pimples look quite large too."

"I dont have acne. What the fuck are you talking about?" Kiana bites.

"Oh my. You've gaslighted yourself so much you can see your own flaws. How tragic." Heather mocks.

"You're starting to piss me off you bitch. You're never going to make any friends, the only people who are ever going to love you are those pets of yours. You gave them their lives so of course they worship you. It's all fabricated, a complete fallacy." Kiana says, inching closer to Heather.

"Take that back you gothic hag." Heather bites back, getting right up against her. "Or I'll rip out your throat." Heather crouches down to meet her at eye level, her child-like 5ft 1in stature making Heather look like a Giant. "Mommy is so disappointed in you." she finishes, nodding up and down slowly.

"Heh, it doesn't matter if I'm short. At least I have friends that I didn't create!" Kiana says, leaning in further.

"Ha. friends? Girl, with your personality, you have no friends. You're more toxic than Deadly Nightshade." Heather rebuttals.

"I guarantee I'm getting more D than you. You're more virgin than my Virgin Mary when I go out drinking." Kiana says.

"That aint no insult to me hoe, I'm a lesbian through and through. If you get that much, you ain't settling down, you got no chance cuz he dont want no loose pussy." Heather says.

(Narrator) Fucking hell Heather, you really went there? You are about to get slapped!

Kiana takes a step back from Heather, stupefied. After processing, Kiana slaps Heather hard.

(Narrator) Called it!

Heather stumbles slightly, her ear ringing, her jaw aching, and her cheek stinging. She gets back into Kiana's face and with no warning headbuts her. The sound from the impact could be heard from the back of the stadium.

"Heather fractured her skull." Beluf says.

"How do you know?" Heddwyn asks.

"My ears are very sensitive, just after impact I heard a crack."

"Fucking hell, how hard was that headbutt!" Christopher says.

Heather staggers back, barely able to stay on her feet. Simon stands next to her, giving her something to hold onto, she looks up at her magnified leopard. "How are you moving?"

Ivy, still attached to Simon, points to Kiana. Heather looks back with blurred vision to see Kiana KO'd on the ground. A medic/ref rushes over to confirm and they give the MC the confirmation.

"Heather.. WIIIIINS!" The crowd's chants Heather's name once more as one of the healing mages checks to see if she is ok to walk out on her own.

They verdict that Heather should be taken to the recovery room just in case, her vision and unstable footing concerning the medic.

"Looks like it's going to be the battle of the Longstaff's." Ibun says.

"Yeah, and we aint going easy on one another either. That's not how we do things. Right dad?" Haider says.

"I'm still going to kill you for booping me cub. You're not winning this. Just like how you are 0 and 34 right now." Heddwyn mocks. He gets up to go through the portal and asks Beluf to see if Heather is ok.

Haider slowly gets up and faces Hayle. "You're going to need to help me. My father is a force to be reckoned with. That means, BOTH of us need to be fighting him." Hayle replies with a grunt and a nod.

"Good luck kiddo. I'll be cheering for you." Ibun says, giving him a wink.

Christopher calls Haider's name and he looks back. "I don't see anything you can exploit. I would rely on Hayle's protection as much as you can. I feel he's going to be pivotal to you winning this bro. Good luck."

Haider gives a soft nod and heads through the gate. With everyone else gone, Ibun sits next to Christopher to watch the match.

"It's already the final match of the semi finals. Who will join Heather in the final match and win the cash prize? You'll just have to wait to find out. Will it be Haider? Heather's twin brother, who showed a staggering amount of ability against a corrupted Dryad in his last match? Or will it be Heddwyn? Heather's adopted father? In his last match he conquered a Wolfman Alpha, in more ways than one!" the MC says.

Heddwyn walks out into the arena. "Lord above. Of course they know." he mutters.

Haider runs out, knowing the match has already started, two sabre's in hand with the mountainous Hayle, backing him up. He strikes a distracted Heddwyn and almost hits him for the first time. Heddwyn narrowly dodges the blades and erases his presence.

"Crap! Hayle. Can you do anything?" Haider asks.

"Too late." Heddwyn's voice calls out.

Hayle immediately covers Haider with his body. Not long later Heddwyn's black spear takes a chip off of Hayle, making a grating high pitched screech.

Hayle tries to grab the spear, but Heddwyn is already somewhere else.

"I'm over here." Heddwyn whispers.

Hayle tries to swat where the noise came from and connects with nothing but the wind.

"Try again." Heddwyn whispers again. Once again met with no contact. "You may be able to act on your own. But that doesn't mean shit if you can't touch me. I know exactly who, and what you are." his voice appearing everywhere this time. "If you try to influence my cubs actions in any way, Hayle, I will turn you into a delicious lemon snow cone."

"Shush. Neko. You'll. Anger. Your cub." Hayle says, noticing Haider's growing frustration.

"Good, at least then he will stop cowering under you like when I rescued him as a toddler." Heddwyn's words were harsh, and cut deeply into Haider.

Haider whispers something to Hayle that I couldn't quite hear...to be real, I hear everything people say. It's just better for anticipation. At least, that's my opinion.

"You. Sure?" Hayle asks. Haider gives the confirmation.

"What are you plotting cub? Anything you've tried in the past has failed. What makes you think this one will work?" Heddwyn's relentless degradation and insults hurt Haider to the core. Knowing that his father is likely correct.

"My. Entire. Life. The whole thing, you were there. But for a large part as far as I'm concerned, I've been treated like a runt. Something to kick around like your plaything father!" Haider says with a scowl, separating from Hayle's protection, tears trickling down his face.

"But I persist. Through all of it. Because I want you to see me. I want you to acknowledge me for once. But no! Christopher has always been your little star, your sweet angel...Look at how much that worked. He's broken, completely. Do you know how hard it is to watch him, everyday? He spends an hour, twice everyday, meditating with Hilda's recipe box." he screams to the air, not knowing where Heddwyn is.

"You want to say all of this hurtful stuff about me? Great. Just add to the pile of reasons why I will beat you one of these days. You are a great parent. Let's not get anything twisted. But the only person you ever showed serious concern to is Christopher. Why? Because he's unstable? Because of some, Hilda's death? Sure, we were all devastated about her passing. But my entire childhood, I've been training. For what? To surpass your legacy? To achieve my dreams? No. to finally hear the words, I am proud of you Haider."