Crimson Stream [Has vs The vvitches Day 4]

[Noah Vau - D2 (Cato)]

Ubbe Hammerfell
cause you search for years
but you lose everything you find

A grin slowly spreads from ear to ear as the lady falls with a thud. This is what I've wanted. This is what I look for, but at the same time I don't know how to feel. All my life I've thought of this moment. I've watched my brothers kill people. I've watched them journey through this with what seems like ease, but now that I'm here, and now that I've watched someone die, I don't know how to feel. My stomach is churning, my heart is racing. All I've ever wanted is a chance to prove myself, and now I don't know if that's why I'm here. I volunteered for a reason, and I wanted to find myself in this. I never expected to care for someone I never met. Never thought I'd use someone to get me further in life, and here I am. I wish it all made sense, but I really don't know what to do or what to even think. I just have to keep moving. I have to focus on myself even if it means leaving behind all that I know. I am a career though. Right now I have to keep myself alive and keep going no matter what.

I fold in on myself when the guy attacks me. I don't even know his name, but he wants me dead. He wants to do to me what Sapphire did to nine. I wish it was easier. I wish I was more capable of staying alive all on my own, but I know that's not as simple as it seems. I'm already losing a lot of blood, and I need to patch myself up, yet these people aren't leaving me alone. They're still fighting. They're still pushing us on and making us turn into things we're not. I'm just a boy from two. A man trying to make my way in life. I have to be strong, and I watch as the others attack, and I barely step out of the way of another weapon coming at me. It's hard. It hurts. I just want them to leave me alone, but it's not going to happen unless one of them dies. Maybe that will show them. Maybe they'll see that it's best not to mess with me. I sigh readying my weapon once more as I listen to the conversations going on. It's important to listen. Important to learn, and that's what I'm here for.

I won't let my family down. I'm young to fight with every ounce of strength lingering inside. I am strong. Hammerfells don't back down, and I will stand and hold my own. All it takes is a little momentum. Just a push in the right direction. I'm not about to die. I've got my entire life ahead of me right now. I focus on my family. I did this for them. It's more than just proving a point. I want to have a family. I want to grow old and die happily. I want all these things, yet I chose this, and I don't understand. This must be what they felt. Ivar, Orion, Torka, all of them who decided its best to do this. I wish I didn't, but I can't fix what I've done. I can only live in this moment and work on making everyone proud.

Template by Anzie

Ubbe attacks Penelope | Spear

aqWNtmeIfCspear
3135 -- Miss -- 0.0 damage

Accuracy

spear
3172 -- Miss -- 0.0 damagespear·spear

[lance]

Slate from District Nine heeds your advice. She doesn't move.

But your hands shake all the same. And instead of cleanly splitting her skull, you shift a little too far to the left, and cleave straight through her arm instead.

It's not the first time you've cut through flesh and bone to deal damage to a foe. But as the lifeblood pulses from Slate's new amputation, you lock eyes with her for just a moment.

She wobbles on her feet, or perhaps that's simply your own nausea catching up with you. "Well...." the other manages.

And then she falls, like a puppet with her strings cut. And the cannon confirms what you had just done.

You close your eyes, willing glass to become steel, jelly to harden to stone. You just killed a girl. Sapphire DeCaria will forever be the name of someone who tore another life from the living in order to keep her own soul rooted in survival. You've done what every kid in One aspires to every time they meet in mortal combat, and every kid in Seven fears might happen when they swing their axes.

Your axe is not a tool used to chop down trees or slice up wood. Not anymore.

“Yes,” Vargen's voice is akin to a snake, hissing with laughter. “I will let you live, Sapphire. I will let you run. I will let you watch the others die and only when you and I are the two alive, I will kill you.”

You barely hear him, hear his admission that he'd agreed with what was meant to be a taunt to prod him into asking rashly. “You live and die, because of my mercy.”

Was it mercy? Deciding who lived and who died? Was it mercy, to strike down Slate, in her battered, broken state? Or was it something else, something more primal? More evil?

Was killing to survive a crime, or an act of liberation?

You're dimly aware of your district partner crossing over to Slate's broken form. He kneels, kisses her forehead, an act that had it been any other you would have attributed to comfort - but with Vargen Forrester, you can never truly know for certain.

Then he turns back to you.

"Do you feel it, Sapphire?" And you don't have to ask what he means - for you know all too well what he is implying. "How your heart beats after that."

Is he referring to your soul? Your strength? Your courage? Or to the beating organ pounding so hard against its cage of bone that you're not quite certain isn't trying to abandon ship and leave its poor mortal vessel behind?

“That’s the thrill of a kill, the ecstasy of murder. It liberates you.” And there's a certain pride in Vargen's voice, one you had never heard before. Far from feeling rage at your act of striking down his ally, he seems almost pleased at the result.

"Perhaps we are alike after all.”

Torren's words from the days prior ring through your head. This doesn't define you, Sapphire. But it turns out that such things are easier heard than believed.

An axe flashes past you, finding a new home in Ubbe's stomach. A few feet away, Reyes tears into the girl from Five's leg, while Rhodes and Twelve chip in blows of their own. One death has been decided in this game of bones, and yet no one seems eager to end the conflict.

So fight on you will.

With every ounce of nerve you can manage, your raise your chin high in the direction of your district partner. "Was I supposed to feel something, killing your monster?" you ask, any waver your voice may have once had drowned by a rapidly encroaching hollow. "Hm. Guess I missed the memo."

You turn towards the girl from Five, fighting desperately sans both of her hands. A reminder of yours and Reyes' work. Another soul to put out of their misery.

You heft your axe, ignoring the steady dripping of crimson from the blade. This doesn't define you, you think.

But what you say is "Guess I'll just have to try again."

sapphire attacks penelope; axe

DNb8_9Wox4axe

11161 -- Deep Gash on Left Bicep -- 8.0 damage

axe

[napoleon, d2m ₊⊹ 🐁 ɢʀɪғғɪɴ.]

I could see feel Death’s gaze upon me, cold and penetrating, stripping me down to bone. He’d claimed Slate into his kingdom and now he watched, scythe in hand, face the hue of an elephant’s husk. More, he pleaded with his ravening mouth, more, more, more.

The Forrester were taught from a young age that Death was insatiable, his heart fat with greed, and always demanding, always feasting, because that was what he was born to be. Life birthed things; Death gobbled them up—and I would be the delicate hand that fed Him, the fingers that set the food upon His unhinged jaws.

When Reggie began to quiver like a bowstring, I let my hand rest on his shoulder-blade and grasp the muscles there, nails like steel talons. “Focus,” I hissed, through gritted teeth; I had already lost one of them—I couldn’t lose never, not yet. “Slate is dead.” My chin nodded at her curled form, a broken thing near the river’s edge, waiting to be washed away by its current. “So, if you don’t want to be like her, fight.”

The wolves should never lose their wildness and animosity; the monsters should never be anything other than dreadful and frightening. Creatures that stayed true to their primal natures, I found, were the most effortless ones to slaughter.

“Was I supposed to feel something, killing your monster?” Sapphire's words were supposed to be a taunt, a blade of sound to my heart, but the fury never came—only a twisted, grotesque pride.

To be the hand that slit a throat, was merciful. To be the fingers that stopped a breath, was honor. To be a sacrifice was to offer the beating pulse of your life for a better glory, a better existence where pain was a mere, distant memory in the back of your head and there was no blood for you to bleed under your sun-soaked skin.

“I know you felt something, the killing always comes with a sensation.” A rampage in the heart, a clench in the stomach. “And for now, I want to feel euphoric.” I turned to the boy beside her, the one whose eyes burned with determination, his face stone-hewn.

He looked as though he would be the hero of this story, so I let the spear soar at him as a way of saying that I was the blood-soaked villain, the one crowned with bones, the one who was a hero in his own macabre tale.

( Vargen attacks ❛ Ubbe ❜ | Javelin 2/2 )

SmUDjqLNWxjavelin

15031 -- SHALLOW CUT ON BACK -- 4.0 damage (Javelin)

javelin

[d6a georgie cham 🍓🐢 frankel]

It is never ending. No matter how many buckets of blood I draw, no other follows the fate of the District Nine they call Slate and this drama has no end. Chapter after chapter with nonsense painted all over it. My energy is really fading. How I can even lift this heavy brute of a blade with a fracture and muscles thinner than hair particles, it is a fucking mystery. There are no battle cries but exchanges of lethal verbs, none toxic enough to instantly end the life of those that are crawling to the pearly gates.

No limbs perish against my blade, except I leave a big enough gaping hole on Penelope’s leg, Rhodes tries her best to slice through the other calf but barely kisses the skin. ”You will be a fine joke for me to tell when I get out of here. The girl whose hands went flying.” I may as well duplicate the insults as this is clearly not just a physical battle amongst these established foes.

Before I can plan the next strike, career boy and Sapphire are quick to scoop up the girl from Five, clearly both eager to take the I killed someone medal. I shake my head as I step back, every fresh wound and scar on the girl is by my own effort, how rude of them to sign her death certificate. ”Hey Sapphire, remember I loosened the lid on that one.”

It will be no easy reach for me to strike my sword once more at the Five, not now that the beast of District Two is blocking my way. I stand by poor Rhodes, her condition nearly matching that of the Hammerfell. Yesterday’s theme was protecting allies, I may as well drag this girl to another day. ”Twelve, can I make you run faster than what you did in the bloodbath? Don’t think that you can hide in the shadows.”

I pull down the hood from my skull, my brow is a swamp of sweat, fatigue as clear as the day. All I desire is to hear that canon sound, the sweet cue of the curtains drawing on exhaustion.

Reyes attacks Reggie with Sword

XAr2OjTtB_sword

[1101 -- Shallow Cut on Left Hip -- 3.5 damage]

sword

[Knuckles]

Asari Rhodes

Ubbe slowly inches closer to death, and for the first time since they met, Asari is genuinely worried for him. Despite not being the nicest person around, he's stood by her side through most of this adventure. They shared nights together, yet it's all about to become a distant memory. At the beginning, she swore to never attach herself to someone, but having a friend during those lonely nights made all the difference, and now he's in danger, and she's failing at saving him.

It's a punch to the gut, but she knows he has to die in order for her to survive. This isn't the time, though. So many others are still alive, and this makeshift alliance may not even last long after this. They simply ran into one another realizing the army that came was more than two could handle. Perhaps that's the first mistake of it all.

Leaving mistakes behind is important. Learning and moving forward and figuring out where to go next makes each move extremely difficult. All she wants is a reason to prove she's worth fighting for. She wants to show her brother that despite all the mistakes she's made in the past, that she's here doing her best to succeed. Most importantly, she wants to leave behind a reason to be missed.

Right now her life is bleak, and showering others with kindness isn't helping, and it just occurred to her that stepping up her game will make this easier. It's wrong being tossed into a word of kill or be killed. It's wrong taking the life of another, but is it wrong if they start it all?

No.

Self defense comes into play, and Asari wants to build on it. Yes, her allies started the war in general, but all she did was follow. Being a follower instead of a leader is tough in this world. Leaders die from jumping without thinking.

Yet she stands watching more attacks rain in, and she watches as Reyes jumps from one person to another threatening him. A silent sigh leaves her chest, and her breaths crystalize before her eyes. Someone's messing with the temperatures in this place, but it doesn't matter. All she knows is to follow Reyes once more.

Victor's blood flows through her veins, and maybe channeling that can make the difference here. Closing her eyes, a sense of calm sweeps over her as she simply becomes one with the wind.

Seventeen | District Eleven | Female

[googlefont="Oswald:400"]

Asari attacks Reggie with pitchfork

uds0v4ThTfspear


{ 3051 -- Shallow Cut on Chest -- 4.0 damage }

spear

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

✦

New monsters come — but the blood never dries, and the wounds never close. Death is a nameless, endless thing. And it doesn't matter that I know this girl, or that this boy is a stranger; it doesn't take away the pain. I am still dying. And I fall to my knees, pressing my cheek to the earth and screaming. I am graceless.

I am trying to survive.

So I pull myself to my feet, spitting out the taste of rust and raising my axes. I cannot feel the clouds in my hands, never again, but I am Atlas. The sky is on my shoulders, my legs are buckling under the pressure, and I am here. I have come to die — and that means I have come to live. "Shut up," I bark at the boy from Eight, voice breaking.

I don't care anymore.

I fractured long before this ;

no one expects me to be whole.

"You're a pathetic little man. And you won't be the one to kill me." I smile at him, then — from a safe distance, with another tribute's blade at my throat. If I die, I will spite him. I will deny him the satisfaction of taking my life. "You'll die, and no one will remember you. Who would want to?"

I chuckle to myself, short and rough — and then I turn to Sapphire, to the tribute by her side. "Finish it. Because I—" I falter, breath shaking. "I can't give up. I'll never give up." I move forward, and all of my gentleness fades. "If you want to live, then end this. Because I'll kill all of you if it means I get to live."

And they can't fault me for that.

They cannot shame me for my hunger ;

not with their teeth
tearing through my throat.

( penelope attacks ubbe ; axe )
3Gew0r49T9axe
( Deep Gash on Back of Head -- 9.0 damage | +1 strength )

axe

[sidney]

welp!!! 

don’t hate me 😘 i’m in class so this is a filler for now

reggie flees

[lance]

hewwo fiwwer fwee uwu

[napoleon, d2m ₊⊹ 🐁 ɢʀɪғғɪɴ.]

Filler !

( Vargen flees )

[d6a georgie cham 🍓🐢 frankel]

Famous friday filler flee!

[Reyes flees]

[Knuckles]

Filler


Asari flees

[eulalie blake 1a 🍒 tris]

✦

filler ♥

( penelope flees )