"Athena... What the Hellz was that?"
Her weakened body trembles, and her head lolls as if it weighs a hundred pounds as she sways in my arms.
She tilts her head back slowly and smiles up at me.
"Ma-ra-kai..."
She manages to say before she drifts off into a deep state of unconsciousness. I carried her over to the wall near the door that we had entered and lay her gently on the floor. I touch two fingers to her throat. Her pulse is faint yet present.
"Rest well... You saved my life... Now I must do my best to protect yours."
I turn and brace my spear, ready to take on anything that comes my way.
And then it comes.
I look around and get a very eerie feeling.
It was as if I was being watched...
The only sound I was picking up in my alert state was the clash and clang of swords coming from the battle that raged between Himora and Tein.
Their battle was amazing.
I had never seen Himora move so fast in my life.
The mental war that was being fought between them was probably ten times as harsh, but on the outside, one could never tell.
The lethal brothers dodged, sliced, and clocked, flipping and sliding around as if their fight was actually some strange ceremonial dance.
"Tein, stop this! You know, Dad wouldn't have wanted it this way!"
Tein snarls at his little brother and shoots back.
"DIDN'T YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID!? YOU are no kin to ME! My father was a warrior and a Master Swordsman... You could never compare, even now at your best!... You don't even come close. If he were here, he would cry for you... YOU. ARE. WEAK!"
Himora backs away, and the tip of his sword taps the soil beneath his feet.
His heart beats wildly in his chest, not from fighting, but from the emotional beating that his brother was giving him.
"You're right..."
Himora chuckles to himself.
"I am not related to you... At all. The brother I knew had once fought valiantly at my side when I needed him... He would never have raised a hand to me... I don't know who you are, but I know one thing... YOU WILL DIE BY MY SWORD, AND NONE OTHER!"
Tein seemed quite taken aback by the force of his brother's emotional conviction, but he shook it off and flew at Himora in an attempt to end this fight once and for all.
"I BEG TO DIFFER!"
He shouts as he cocks his sword back and flies at Himora full speed.
Himora's life seemed to move in slow motion as the next few events took place.
He knew in his heart that this monster was in fact his brother... But as much as he hated it, he also knew that it was up to him to destroy him.
Tein's sword came fast and hard.
He had put all of his strength into this last attack.
"DIE!!! HEEAAAAAAAAAAA!"
He swung his weapon, and it cut through the air like a bird in mid-flight, but just as it came within an inch of Himora's neck, a loud clang rang out as if some sort of shield had appeared at the last second.
"What the..."
Tein was in shock.
Himora had lifted his sword in the nick of time, blocking the attack before countering with a devastating strike of his own.
"I'm sorry things had to be like this... Brother, but as family, it is my duty to pull you from the grasp of evil... At any cost."
At this, Himora spins around and slices up and through his brother's upper body in one fatal stroke.
His blade swiveled several times on its way through, severing every possible organ he could find in that split second, assuring that the man's healing factor would have no time to compensate.
Tein, fastened to the very earth he stood on, could only utter a single broken word before his life faded away.
"Im...poss...ible."
At that, the upper half of Tein's body slid off with a sick, wet slurp and landed with a loud thud on the packed earth.
"I'm sorry... Brother."
Was all Himora could say, trying not to let the true sorrow he felt slip into his voice.
Meanwhile, I had been standing next to Athena, watching the entire episode.
Himora cleaned his brother's blood from his sword and stepped up to me, a distant look on his face.
"Two down... Three to go."
I look at him and see true pain and anger in his eyes.
"Let's go."
I say to him, gently placing my hand on her shoulder, not really knowing how else to comfort the warrior.
We turn to head into the forest, but Himora stops and turns to look at the prone, unconscious Athena.
"What happened to her?"
He asks, a puzzled look replacing the wariness on his face.
"Marakai's spirit is within her."
I spoke quietly.
"It'll take some time for her to heal; she'll be fine here."
"Well, if you say so."
Himora said.
We walked into the forest.
It was a lot bigger than I had thought.
Looking up, we could see the moon and too many stars to count.
It looked far too real.
"Do you think the ceiling over this part is open?"
I ask Himora, who seemed just as intrigued as I was.
"Yeah, we're on the top level. It was probably constructed this way in order to feed all of this plant life."
I suppose I hadn't thought about that.
"Good point."
I thought aloud.
"So... Your brother... What happened?"
I looked at Himora, not really wanting to bring up the topic, but seeing it as important.
His silence led me to change the subject.
"Well, that big guy really packed a nice punch-"
But he cut me off at that.
Apparently, he didn't mind talking about it as much as I had assumed.
"I mean... That guy WAS my brother, but something wasn't right about him... He fought with anger and rage. Such rage that can only be brought out by an enemy."
I kind of understood what he meant, but still, I had to ask.
"What do you mean by that?"
I said.
"I am family... Amir are known for their ferocity in battle, but we are also known for our sacred family bonds. Over countless generations, we have all fought side by side as family, and even if a member of the family angers us, we never raise a hand nor sword to them... Never."
I could understand why Himora thought that this guy wasn't his brother.
The way he fought was truly like that of a madman.
"I see what you mean."
I say to him and mean it.
"The way he scolded you made me think and question him from the first words he spoke... I think the Shicato are behind all this."
I continue, drawing Himora's eye.
"Why do you say this?"
He looked at me, slightly confused.
"Remember, Nathanial?"
I ask.
His eyes flash.
"Yes, what about him?"
He asks in return.
"He wasn't evil, he was just being paid... A lot. Money can make almost anyone go evil if they need enough of it and desperately enough. Maybe your brother was being paid to fight for the queen. I don't mean that she is to blame, but money, combined with the feeling or thought of being betrayed, can turn one against even their best friends... Even family."
Himora's eyes ventured from me to the lethal sword that he had strapped to his hip.
"I see... Well, the worst of it is done. Let's finish this and leave this island."
We walked on in silence for a moment, but this silence didn't last long.
I suddenly hear a slight whisp in the air and turn just in time to dodge the second arrow.
The first had flown past my head and lodged itself into a nearby tree.
"OKAY! I AM TIRED OF PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK!"
I yell as I leap in the direction from which the arrows had come.
"BACK, YOU FIEND!"
A voice came from the canopies atop the trees as several arrows flew my way. I wove in and out of the trees, using them as shields. I managed to focus enough to manipulate several branches in passing, using them as I would my own arms to slap away the arrows that I could not dodge in time as their shooter came into sight.
"Impossible..."
I hear him mumble as I come into sight.
He is several yards ahead of me, nestled among the branches.
"A Snipper?"
Himora's voice pops into my head.
Unfortunately, it is not just any Snipper; it is Ti-Kup.
"Yeah, not a problem!"
I think back.
The man (A Solithian at closer inspection) was trying desperately to shoot me down as I closed the distance between us, bouncing from branch to branch, easily dodging and deflecting his arrows with my spear.
"ENOUGH!"
I yell at him as I flip over elegantly in the air and launch my spear. The attack wasn't meant to be lethal, and so it wasn't.
My weapon flew past and through his barrage of arrows, piercing his shoulder just above his armpit, and pinning him to the trunk of the huge tree behind him.
"AAAUGH!"
He exclaimed as he dropped his bow and reached up and tried to pull my spear from his joint.
"YOU-YOU BLOODY BASTARD! YOU'VE RUINED ME! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIGHT IF MY ARROW ARM IS RUINED!?"
I stand balanced on the end of a branch that was just to the side of the one that he was on, doing a horrible job at suppressing my chuckles.
"You're seriously still worried about trying to fight me? Wow... If you weren't objectively evil, I'd have you join my team."
I was not serious in the least.
At this, he spits at me, missing me by a long shot.
"I'd rather lose my head than join such a pathetic team... You only made it this far by luck, and believe me... Malie will destroy you before you make it to the throne room..."
He closed his eyes, and his breathing slowed considerably.
He was dying from blood loss.
"Man, I feel sorry for you... But you chose darkness, thus sealing your own fate. May God have mercy on your soul for all of the lives you have taken..."
I step closer to him as I transfer myself to his branch and maintain my balance on his softly swaying branch.
"Have a nice fall."
I say.
He opens his mouth to protest, but just as his teeth part, I pull my spear free from the tree.
"What?... but it's summer! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The man screams up at me, flailing helplessly as he plummets to his death.
What a fall it was.
As he descended from the top of the canopy where he had been stationed, his nearly lifeless body was being finished off by numerous branches that seemed to reach out as he fell past.
I winced at each impact.
Even as he fell, he somehow managed to maintain his grip on his bow.
After several seconds of watching, I started my own descent in a far less painful manner.
I shot a quick thought towards Himora.
"Heading down now."
I say as I step from the first branch.
Meanwhile.
Himora sat at the bottom of the large tree and watched as I stood alongside the pinned man.
He cupped his hands and shouted up to me, but his voice faded before it could reach my ears.
"KILL HIM ALREADY SO WE CAN FACE MALIE! I'M BORED!"
At this, he hears a loud scream and looks up, dodging to his right just as the falling Solithian comes crashing to the ground.
"Ouch... That had to hurt."
Himora thinks.
"Yeah... A 300-foot free fall probably wouldn't feel very good. Especially if you use the ground to stop."
I say as I land off to the side of Himora.
We both look at each other and laugh, turning from the dead body and heading in Athena's direction, but as we grow further from the presumed dead body, Himora turns and draws his sword just in time to block a final arrow from the bow of the legendary fiend.
"Why won't you just give up!?"
I yell at him in utter amazement and annoyance.
But before I could act, the broken and bleeding archer was slowly and painfully drawing a second arrow. Just as the man's hand brought the arrow up to meet the bow's string, Himora rushed forward and sliced cleanly through the arrow, the string, and Ti-Kup's head.
The now completely lifeless body slumped over, and as it hit the ground, the top portion of the man's head rolled away, revealing half of a brain.
"Oh, god, that's disgusting!"
I spin and face the new voice, but it was only Athena, and she was looking more alert and lively than ever.
"You both just couldn't save me any, could you?"
She said as she folded her arms over her chest.
"Now look at that! Malie is dead, and I didn't even get to land a single blow!"
As we stand and look at the clearly angry Athena, the same exact thought flashes through both Himora's head and mine.
"Man, she is cute when she is angry."
Then, remembering that we could all hear each other's thoughts, we both turn away from one another and hide our faces in embarrassment.
"I don't think she heard us."
I shot at him on what I thought was a single track to his head.
"Yeah, I did."
She says with a huge grin on her face.
Himora and I just kind of stand still, too embarrassed to move or say a word.
"So... What do the two of you have to say for yourselves, huh? You didn't even bother to wake me up!"
I interrupted her before she could work herself up for no reason.
"Athena!"
She stops and looks at me, startled but focused.
"That isn't Malie, that was Ti-Kup."
Athena takes a closer look and then rocks back on her heels, her hands interlaced behind her back as she blushes a bright hue of red.
"I...I knew that!"
She stammers as her head slinks forward.
"I find it funny how you don't even know who is who when it comes to the men who are defending YOUR castle...:
Himora says as he cleans and puts away his sword.
I step in to defuse the awkward tension in the air.
"We should move on..."
I say, and we ready ourselves to do so.
I make sure to clean the blood from my spear (I hate blood), then we turn and continue on into the forest.
"So, how did you find him?"
Athena finally speaks after we had been walking in silence for a few moments.
"I knew that he was an archer, so close range combat wouldn't be his style... He was up in the trees, wasn't he?"
Athena smiles at me. It seems as if she was very amused with my victory over him.
"It wasn't simple, but at the same time, he didn't pose as much of a challenge as I had imagined he would, you know?"
I explained.
"I watched the direction of his arrows, then followed them until I found him. He did put up a fight, but I eventually overcame him and knocked him from the tree he was in. Well, after pinning him to said tree, that is.
Athena smiled once more and patted me on the back.
"You are truly remarkable."
She says.
I noticed then that her hand was strangely strong, and remembered the events from earlier. Suddenly, I missed Moshido more than ever, yet somehow I could feel his presence in her.
We walked on for about ten minutes. At every turn of the trail, I grew more and more amazed at all of the work that as put into the building of this room.
"Man, it's crazy how this area was built to help the battle styles of those warriors, yet we have already overcome three of them."
This came from Himora, and he was right.
We had three down, which meant two to go.
"Well, maybe they thought we would need a lot of room to fight them?"
Athena was saying this, but a swift interruption came from somewhere nearby.
"No, you wouldn't."
Athena shouts in alarm as we spin to face our newest adversary.
Perched up in a tree several yards away is Tie-Chun-Kep.
"YOU!"
Athena exclaims as she braces her axes for battle.
The woman's face was smeared with a sly snare.
"You shouldn't need more than a few feet!"
With that, she leaped from the tree, and the battle was on.