Daughters of the Moon Pt. 07

Christoph gave Gwen a worried look. "Watch yourself out there."

She gave him a feral smile in return, "Tell that to him."

Chrisoph shook his head and walked away, taking his place at the edge of the arena.

Will stared at her from twenty paces away.

"Proceed," said the arbiter.

Gwen pulled on her blood, infusing her body with the strength of her stolen lives, and called on the Moment. Time slowed to a crawl and when she looked up she saw a nightbird frozen in midair. She looked at Will, he had a blank, stupid look still on his face, and dashed up to him, unsheathing her sword in a smooth motion as she approached. Her first slash cut across both of his thighs, opening straight rents in his flesh with thigh bones peeking through, her next cut went across his chest opening his heart to the night air. She turned her back on him, took five steps and let time restart.

"I claim first blood," she said, as she heard Will collapse behind her as the crowd gasped. To everyone watching she had simply vanished and reappeared walking away from him, the cuts already there.

Her girls cheered wildly and it was quickly taken up by the crowd. She walked the regulation twenty paces and then turned back around. When she faced Will again he was already on his feet. The injuries healed.

"Proceed," said the arbiter.

This time Gwen only sped herself up a little. It took more blood to stop time that it had for Will to heal the wounds she caused. Her first strike had been a statement. Letting everyone know this fight was over when she wanted it to be over.

She moved towards Will faster than a racing hound, with the force of an avalanche, but ten paces away Will disappeared with the slight distortion that came from the Shroud. She skidded to a halt, dropping her speed and turning quickly, listening for the slightest sound. The arena had gone to a dull murmur that she strained to filter out. Then she heard a slight scuff of movement to her left. She turned and saw a small puff of dust on the ground.

She raced towards where Will had misstepped, making a series of strikes in the area, but none of them connected.

Wills hand closed around her wrist. Hey squeezed and twisted and she heard a popping grating noise. lances of agony shot up her arm as Will shattered every bone in her wrist and snapped her arm. Before she could gasp he brought his hammer down on her shoulder and she was slammed into the earth. She heard her collarbone snap and felt her ribs shatter. To her shame the cried out at the pain. She lay on the ground, unable to move as waves of pain radiated from her broken bones. She heard Will's footsteps as he walked away from her.

"I claim blood," she heard him say from the ground.

The stands were filled with shocked cries and worried mutters. Gwen poured blood into her wounds and felt her bones reknit. There were cracks that sounded terribly loud in her ears as her bones snapped back into place. Each crack was accompanied by a bright spike of agony shooting through her body, but she refused to cry out. She slowly got to her feet and picked up her sword.

"Proceed," said the arbiter.

Gwen burned more blood to slow time fully again, but Will was faster. He was already gone before she took five steps. She slowed down again and looked around wildly. She didn't have the Oracle, she couldn't pierce Will's Shroud. Sound wasn't enough. Will seemed to be able to project noise away from him.

Gwen paused, thinking for a second. She didn't have the Oracle, but Helena did. She looked over at Helena and saw she was staring at an empty spot to Gwen's right with a small smile on her face, Helena's gaze tracked the spot as it moved slowly toward Gwen.

Gwen heard a sound to her left but she ignored it, slicing at her best guess at where Helena was looking. There was a grunt and Will stumbled backwards, clutching at his stomach, silvery streamers drifting away from him as his Shroud disintegrated. The crowd erupted in cheers once again.

"I claim blood," said Gwen as she used a bit of the Painted Eyes to carry her voice over the crowd, and she shared the pride and the thrill of victory with them, their cheering redoubled.

The arbiter waited a moment for the cheering to die down, "Do the combatants wish to continue?"

"I do," said Will

"I do," said Gwen

"Proceed."

Gwen stalked toward Will slowly, sword up in a careful fighting stance, she wanted to get within ten paces so that he wouldn't have time to put up another Shroud before she struck. When she was fifteen paces away she felt the air go thick, as if she was walking through mud. Everything felt slow and her body felt like it belonged to someone else. She saw Will's eyes go black as he unleashed the Millstone. He opened his mouth and it kept opening, wider and wider until it was down to his chest. He screamed with a sound like tearing metal and a swarm of insects came pouring out of his mouth. Gwen had one moment to see the cloud moving forward, filling her vision, and then they surrounded her, enveloping her in a writhing, humming carpet.

Gwen had seen Will do this just a few days ago, but and it had looked like a cheap carnival trick. Some two bit hedge magic from a traveling illusionist that put on penny shows. But his power hadn't been directed at her that time. This time the bugs were horribly solid. They didn't just look real, she could feel them, the pointy little legs on her skin, the hum of their wings, their rustles as they moved over each other as they moved over her. It never quite got to the level of pain, but she could feel them clinging to her skin, ten thousand pin pricks as they used her body as a meeting place.

But she was a knight of house Mircalla, she had taken two musket balls at the battle of Kirkfall and kept charging with shattered ribs, she had faced one of the Good King's Grail Knights and taken his head even as the burning light of his divinity stripped away her skin. She had run through a field of spellfire and carnage at Coloven to rescue her battle sisters as her flesh smoked and melted. A few bugs were nothing to her. So she ran forward, directly towards the source of the swarm. As she ran, the bugs moved over her and across her, forced their way into her ears and down her throat. They crawled beneath her clothes and into the cracks and crevices of her body, but she didn't slow, she refused to give in. She ran until she crashed into Will and they tumbled to the ground. They snapped at each other, snarling like animals, his fangs grazed her cheek but she got her arm under his chin, pushing his head up. Then her fangs found his forearm. She tore a chunk of flesh from him and he howled. As he did the bugs vanished.

"Cease!" shouted the arbiter, and they both stiffened as he used the Scepter, driving them apart with the power of his will.

Gwen got to her feet. She still felt the ghosts of the bugs, a thousand pinpricks across her skin, but she was otherwise unharmed. She picked up her sword and walked back twenty paces. When she turned Will was still on his knees clutching his arm and looking at the ground. His arm was angry and black and there was a crescent of bile across it where her fangs had taken flesh.

"Do the combatants wish to continue?"

"I do," said Gwen.

Will didn't respond.

"Come on guys this is nuts. That's enough," shouted Christoph.

The crowd began shouting, demanding the fight continue.

"The onlookers will be silent," said the arbiter and the crowd gradually died down, "does the combatant wish to continue?"

Will stood, "I do," he said.

Gwen could tell Will was low on blood. That he was on his last reserves. His face was pale and drawn. The skin tight across his skull, She realized it was the same for her, the hunger was a sharp, painful ball of spiked metal in her stomach, rolling around and tearing at her, and roiling arousal was twisting below it, demanding satisfaction. Gwen decided this was it. She would end things here and quench her thirst on her prizes.

"Proceed,"

Gwen burned most of what she had left, slowing the world to a crawl. Tired as Will was, she knew she was fast enough to take his arms before he could react. She began sprinting toward him. She looked to the crowd one more time, saw her battle sisters cheering, saw Abby with her hands over her mouth.

When she looked back to Will, her husband was there instead.

She skidded to a stop, her sword tinged against the ground as her arms went to her sides. The world took on an uncanny quality, the crowd died out, the wind ceased blowing, everything felt slow, but for the first time she felt even slower than the world around her.

"No. No, you died."

"I know," said her husband. He started walking towards her.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do it."

"I know you didn't, but that doesn't matter. It just matters that you did it," he said.

He was getting closer. She could see the wound on his neck, the one she had put there.

"I still miss you."

"And you always will. You can try to replace me but it will always be hollow. Because you're hollow now. You're a shell of what you were when you were alive."

He was just a few steps away.

"I loved you so much," she said.

Gwen felt tears streaming down her face. The blood covering her cheeks.

"I loved you too," he said.

He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her into the air. Her sword clattered to the ground as her hands stayed limp at her sides. They felt impossibly heavy. Like they were encased in lead.

"And that's why I died. You destroy everything you love. Abby, Elaine, even Carla. You'll kill them all in time. You'll always be alone."

Then her husband's mouth opened and it was full of teeth. They were serrated and needle sharp and stuck out in every direction. His mouth kept opening, wider than a mouth should, until her world was full of teeth. She closed her eyes.

He brought her down to him and his mouth closed around her throat. There was only a slight tug as he tore it out, and then there was pain.

He dropped her to the ground and she heard him walking away.

"I claim blood," said Will.

Blood was pouring out of her neck. She instinctively tried to close the wound but there wasn't enough left in her to do it fully. The blood kept coming and she felt the hunger growing, rising in her body until it was everywhere in her. Until it was everything she was.

In the distance she heard Christoph shout.

"I concede on behalf of my primary."

Gwen closed her eyes. She was so tired. She couldn't remember ever being this tired. She hugged herself, curled into a ball and let her body relax, feeling calm for the first time in a long time, and drifted off.