A Shattered Life

[Sky]

laqueum 21, 1592, Midafternoon
Celestial Arena, Celestial City, Saecula

Max Juliet Sky stepped out onto he arena floor and looked around at the packed arena. She was nervous, over the past few years she had gained the reputation of being impossible to hit. Something about today said otherwise. Why do I feel like I am going to lose this thing? Or at least something will happen? She sighed and looked across the arena at the boy standing there.

His name was Josh, and that's all Max knew other than the fact that he liked fighting with a knife. He looked to stand over six feet tall, towering over her slim five foot five frame. She was a little intimidated by this boy, she had never fought someone who used weapons, usually just a magic user like herself. If he got close she was screwed unless she learned close quarters combat quickly.

The kalahati sighed and sent a slight jolt through her fingers and watched it arch towards the ground. This was the biggest fight for her yet, and if she lost this one she may end up dead.

She heard the bell to start and instantly concentrated her energy into firing off a large stream of lightning, just trying to keep the larger boy as far away as possible. The young kalahati darted to the side, laughing a little as she saw the boy pressed against the ground to dodge the incoming attacks. "And I was worried about fighting you!"

Maybe he isn't as tough as I thought. Max slid to a stop, letting the boy get up if he chose to, and giving him a chance to surrender if he also chose to. She may fight to win, but she knew that stuff like this got boring really fast, and she did not like to have a boring fight.

She frowned as she saw the boy stand up. Maybe he wasn't going to surrender so easily. Max jumped back in surprise when he darted forward and tried to hit her in the stomach, he was a lot faster than she had expected. She jumped back and from side to side, avoiding all of his attacks easily due to her agility and quickness on her feet.

At this rate the fight will be decided on whoever tires first.

[Holly]

Why Aria sent her to do these things, Holly wasn't precisely sure. The Mystic answered with something along the lines of "I'm too busy" or "This will help you in the long run", but she had this feeling that the real reason was "I'm too lazy, Holly you go handle it". Either way, the apprentice was never really thrilled to travel all the way to the Celestial City just to see a fight. She would go willingly to visit the Church, but not willingly for some battle.

She had made it there in the middle of the fight, knowing that there wasn't going to be anything spectacular in the first few minutes. The guards determining who would get through the front gates and who didn't allowed her through easily, recognizing her as Aria's apprentice in a second. She was pretty unique for someone from Pertinax.

Holly jogged down the stairs to the front row and sat down, awaiting for someone to lose. It was a pretty morbid thought, but she just wanted to get out of there and back to the comfort of shadows in Verfall. And she didn't like fighting.

"Oh, Max is fighting today," She muttered to herself, no one able to hear her thanks to the roar of the crowd. Absentmindedly, the olisthir made a small fire float around her finger. "Should have placed bets this time. Then I might have been able to buy something afterwords. I guess I still can. I still need a gift for Roxanna's birthday..."

[Sky]

After about fifteen or twenty minutes of the dodging and weaving she saw that the boy was beginning to tire, and felt it herself. Max dashed away as quickly as she could and spun around, seeing the boy running at her, though now with a knife. She darted around the arena, faking towards him with an avoidance maneuver at the last second, this is what she was good at, toying with whoever she was fighting that day.

She jumped back at the last second in one move and nearly met with the knife, but sent a jolt of electricity into Josh's stomach to unbalance him before darting off. He was going to tire out before her, she had no doubt in her mind about that. She was well known for her amazing endurance.

She dashed around at a full sprint and smiled when she ended up behind the boy. This is my chance! She dashed forward just as the boy started to turn around. She didn't see the knife come up before it was too late, and she didn't even feel it because of the adrenalin pumping through her veins. The knife cut into her arm like a knife through butter. it easily made it halfway through Max's hollow bone before Max threw her punch around, electrified it just enough, and knocked Josh out cold.

She stood there for a moment before she started to feel the pain and felt the knife slip out of her arm. The kalahati looked down, expecting it not to be deep, and cried out in pain and shock. She collapsed to her knees and quickly tore off part of her shirt, wrapping her hand as she felt the world around her start to spin. The last thing she heard was a rushing of feet and the last thing she remembered thinking was, Am I going to die? I don't want to die!

She collapsed to the ground, her world around her swirled to black and the sounds around her faded away to nothing.

[Holly]

When the show was actually over, it was the Mystic's show time. She didn't like clean up. What were the point of these fights anyway?

Holly was up as soon as Josh was knocked out. Without hesitation, she leapt off the wall and went landed down in the arena with a roll to soften the force. Josh was first out, so she checked him first, feeling for a pulse and major injuries. He was fine, just shocked up a little. Electricity was a cheap shot in her opinion. There was such a fine line between how much a person could take of it. Some people didn't take so much and this boy could have died if he had gotten even a little more. She hated using electricity, no matter how useful it was in battle.

Next was Max, who had gained a fairly bad wound from the knife Josh had brought to the fight. She didn't want to close up the wound yet, however, because of the damage to the hollow bone the Kalahati had. Why in the world is this girl fighting if she has hollow bones? Is she truly that foolish? Holly thought to herself, using conjuration to make bandages appear. She gently wrapped up the wound, then instructed a guard to take her off the field and to the dragon waiting to bring her back to Acerbus Umbra.

---

"She thought she was going to die from that wound. Her thoughts were in my head before I could do anything," Holly explained to Aria about what had happened at the battle. "Her mental stability isn't the greatest either, so those could have been caused by an anxiety attack, as well as the fainting. Lack of breathing and everything." Her voice was light, as if she were merely talking about something as innocent as the weather. Concern was definitely mixed into her tone as well, but the Mystic didn't seem to feel as much as she should have.

"I think you were right about the fact that she shouldn't have been fighting in first place. There was just too high a possibility for her to get critically injured. One day, she was going to find someone who was faster and stronger than her and she wouldn't have been able to defend herself well enough. She should feel lucky," Aria's voice was much more harsh and firm when it came to talking about injuries, motherly.

They sat in the infirmary, conversing in quiet voices about Max and whatever topic decided to pop up. Aria looked very casual in her royal blue Mystic robes while Holly was looking much more professional in a sleek black jacket, crimson skirt, and a dark silver cloak that could only belong to someone of lesser nobility or higher.

"Lets face it. She's never going to be able to fight again with that injury. Her arm would never take it," Aria let out a heavy sigh that could be translated as 'that poor thing'.

[Sky]

Max awoke with a start, sitting straight up in the bed she was in. She gasped as a searing pain ripped across her body. What happened? There was a fight and then, she looked to be winning, and then what happened? She looked down at her arm, her eyes widened in shock at the sight. the bandages on her arm had spots of blood on them, the memories flooded back at the sight of it.

She had been hit with the knife, she had won but she had been wounded. The young kalahati looked around the room, it was unfamiliar and cold inside of it. The image she was getting was a little ominous. She winced, every second the pain in her arm seemed to worsen, and she didn't know what to do about it. She would have to do something to get the pain to go away, but what?

As far as she knew she was alone. Even more alone than she felt the day he was murdered. Will I always be alone? Will I always be left to fend for myself? She sighed a little, finding that her throat felt a little dry. How long had she been out? A few days, maybe longer. Couldn't have been too long because then she wouldn't still be here.

"Well.....now what do I do?" she whispered to herself, her voice raspy from the days of disuse and dry throat. She looked around the room again, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She looked down at the bandaged arm again, the pain still seeming to increase. She held back the tears from the pain as a thought shot through her mind, Will I ever be able to fight again?