Ninety Three: First Blood

Ninety Three: First Blood
Mara’s POV

“We’ll see, sister.”

The word barely left its mouth before it lunged.

I moved on instinct.

Claws black, jagged, wrong, sliced through the space where my throat had been a second ago. I twisted, barely dodging, but not fast enough.

Pain tore across my side.

I gasped as something hot spilled down my ribs. Blood. Mine.

The arena roared.

“Too slow,” the creature mocked, circling me again. “Is this what they feared?”

I staggered back a step, tightening my grip on the Silverfang blade. My breath came sharp, uneven. The wound burned like fire under my skin.

Focus, my wolf growled. Stop reacting. Hunt.

“I am trying,” I muttered under my breath.

The creature tilted its head, mimicking me. “Talking to yourself now?” it taunted. “Or is that the last voice of your dying bloodline?”

Rage flared, sharp, blinding.

I lunged.

Our blades met with a crack that echoed through the arena. Sparks burst between us, silver against shadow. I pushed harder, teeth clenched, forcing it back a step.

For a second..just a second, I had the upper hand.

Then it smiled.

And everything flipped.

Its knee slammed into my stomach. Air rushed out of me as I stumbled back, vision spinning. Before I could recover, its claws came again, fast, brutal, raking across my shoulder this time.

I cried out, dropping to one knee.

The ground hit hard beneath me. My fingers dug into the dirt, slick with blood.

The crowd was louder now.

They weren’t just watching.

They were waiting.

Waiting for me to fall.

Get up, my wolf snarled. We don’t kneel.

“I’m not” I coughed, tasting iron. “I’m not done.”

The creature stepped closer, dragging its claws along the ground like it was bored. “You’re bleeding out,” it said, almost conversational. “I can hear your heartbeat slowing.”

I forced myself up, legs shaking. “Then you’d better move faster.”

It laughed, my voice twisted into something cruel.

Then it attacked again.

This time, I didn’t dodge.

I met it head-on.

Steel clashed, our movements blurring under the Blood Moon’s glow. I blocked, twisted, struck,  faster now, sharper. Every hit sent shock through my arms, but I held on.

Yes, my wolf breathed. Now feel it.

The power pulsed beneath my skin,  faint at first, then stronger. Silver light flickered along the edge of my blade.

I felt it.

The Silverfang.

The thing they feared.

“No…” I whispered, faltering for half a second.

The creature saw it.

Its grin widened. “There it is,” it said softly. “That’s what they were afraid of.”

My grip tightened. “Shut up.”

“You feel it, don’t you?” it pressed, circling again. “That power isn’t just yours. It’s a weapon. A curse. The moment you unleash it”

“I said shut up!”

I lunged again, fury driving me forward.

But my mind wasn’t steady anymore.

Because it was right.

If I let it out…

If I gave in to that power…

I wouldn’t just be fighting for my life anymore.

I’d be proving them right.

That I was exactly what they feared.

The prophecy.

The end.

The next strike hit me hard. I barely blocked it, the force sending me skidding back again. My legs nearly gave out.

You’re hesitating, my wolf snapped. That’s why we’re losing.

“I’m trying not to become what they say I am!” I shot back.

You already are, she growled. The difference is whether you control it… or die denying it.

My breath hitched.

Another strike came. I barely raised my blade in time. The impact rang through my bones, dropping me back to one knee again.

The creature stepped in close, its face inches from mine. “You’re afraid,” it whispered. “Not of me. Of yourself.”

My chest heaved.

Because it wasn’t wrong.

I was afraid.

Afraid that if I let go…

I wouldn’t come back.

Afraid that Ronald would look at me and see a monster.

And then..

His voice cut through everything.

“Don’t hold back for me.”

My breath stilled.

The bond flared, stronger than the pain, stronger than the fear. I felt him…his rage, his desperation, his unshaken belief in me.

Not fear.

Not doubt.

Trust.

My fingers tightened around the blade.

“You hear that?” I whispered, my voice shaking but steadying.

The creature frowned. “Hear what?”

I smiled…small, but real. “The one thing you’ll never have.”

Before it could react, I moved.

This time, I didn’t hold back.

I let go.

The Silverfang blade flared..not faint, not flickering but blinding. Light burst from the steel, racing up my arm, burning through my veins.

I screamed as it hit, not pain, not exactly but power too big for my body to hold quietly.

The arena fell silent.

The creature staggered back, eyes widening. “No…”

Silver light exploded outward from me, rippling across the ground, shattering the dark energy clinging to the arena floor.

My wolf rose fully inside me, not separate, not restrained.

Whole.

Alive.

I stood slowly, the shaking gone, replaced with something stronger.

Something ancient.

The wound on my side still bled, but I barely felt it now. The power drowned everything else out.

The creature hissed, backing away. “What are you doing?”

I lifted the blade, its light reflecting in my eyes.

“Ending this,” I said quietly.

The Blood Moon burned brighter overhead.

And for the first time since this fight began…

I wasn’t surviving anymore.

I was becoming.