127
127
Ashley's POV:
Anger was filling me, and anger was my drive. Ever since, it had been depression and frustration and also anxiety. But somehow, they had all given way to this wrath that came from the depths of my soul, merged with my energy, and transformed into something that I didn't know I possessed.
The method I used to push him back, to strike out at him and send him meters away crashing on the floor, was something that I didn't know where it came from. The knowledge to use such a technique on him was unprecedented. It wasn't me, but it had happened all the same. And now with his body right under my feet, right under my foot, I felt victorious, but still I wasn't satisfied.
I was glaring at him now as I made to blast him again with my energy, but this time around he seemed to have finally realized that a confrontation was unappreciable, and that even trying tricks over and over again was not going to help him out. He retaliated with a fireball of his own, and the clash in the middle sent me back a couple of steps while he managed to stand up from the floor.
"You are completely detestable," he spat out at me, words that didn't make any sense at all because honestly, when I compared the both of us, he was as dark as the night and shady in all his dealings while I had simply done what I needed to do to survive. I even gave him the opportunity when I got the chance that he should join us and leave his former life behind. I gave him the chance, but he had decided against it. Sure, I had deceived him a couple of times, I had gone against him when I agreed not to, but then again it was necessary then, and it was the only way I could keep myself and the children alive. On his part, he didn't even need to do what he did for survival; he simply chose to be a traitor, chose to be the one who broke my heart and to be the one who took everything from me. If he thought that he was going to get away with this easily, if he thought that he was still going to get his reward from his boss, if he thought that he would live to tell that story, then he was mistaken because I would make sure that he didn't.
The next couple of seconds were spent in a brutal exchange between us. His fire brought the heat, of course, but I countered with a chilly ice, transforming my own magic into elemental at some point and not even knowing how I managed it. That was an advanced technique, one that couldn't be done without a lengthy spell, but I did it all of a sudden and I did it perfectly. His eyes widened seeing how I fought against him, completely neutralizing his powers.
Sure, maybe I would soon reach burnout, and I had been exerting myself very much now, but somehow I couldn't really care, and somehow I felt as if my energy was boundless right at this moment. I didn't know if emotion could bring this about because they had literally been with me all this while but not able to trigger such a reaction, such strength from me. I knew my heritage. I wasn't born with this kind of power. It was unprecedented in my entire family. But here it was, and here I was doing things that I couldn't afford to do previously.
However, I didn't let anything get into my head. These thoughts only stayed flitting at one little hidden corner in my mind while for the rest of the time, I spent my time thinking about how to end him and also thinking of strategies for this battle because as much as I hated to admit it, we were more or less evenly matched.
He started losing, and losing brutally at that. I punched him on his jaw, sending him flying, and got up to him to punch him once again. The movements were getting more and more routine. Somehow I was suddenly thrashing him, but I didn't stop to think. I didn't think of why, I didn't think of how I was able to do it. But I did it all the same, making up my mind that I would end him as soon as possible. He was still putting up defenses, but they were all weak, and I knew that soon enough he wouldn't be able to raise a hand in defense against me any longer. That was when the victory would be secure. But as for now, I simply needed to keep on striking him down.
I took it all out on him - all my emotions, the frustration of before, the anger of just now, the depression and anxiety of days that felt like years because of how I spent them with him and how I had been worried sick throughout the journey with him. I took them all out on him and let them come out from me in brutal punches that I couldn't hold back. I kicked and punched and cast spells at intervals. I even managed to do one to lift him up and pin him in place in the sky, allowing me to punch him on all parts of his body until he was able to burn his way out of the magical grip I used to hold him in place, to use him as a punching bag.
"I think I'll kill you," I breathed. "I'll wipe you off from the face of the earth," I continued, and they were unprecedented threats. I could see it happening already, and I was not going to hesitate if the opportunity presented itself. No, I shouldn't kill him yet - I should keep him captive and take him back with me, or if I wasn't able to go back again after betraying the trust of the queen, I would take him with me into exile and torture him for the rest of his days. My life would be spent slowly degrading him into a pathetic animal and then cleaning him off in the end. Those were my thoughts now. He wanted me to be a sex slave; I would make him more than that. I would turn him into a toy.
Even now I was already doing that as I punched him right in his middle and got a scream of pain and terror from him. I drew another scream and choking sounds when I beat my teeth into his neck and sucked deeply on the blood. I was thrashing him so badly that he was starting to feel like a ragdoll in my hands, useless and powerless against me. His magic seemed to be getting weaker and weaker, and the fire right now that he used to defend himself was nothing more than a flicker of a flame. It was nothing more than a little warm breath against my skin as I elbowed him and kicked him and used my knees and all of my body in general simply to beat him into a pulp and worse than a pulp.
However, suddenly, after punching him into a hill that I had somehow come to, I saw a slight smile on his face. I frowned, wondering what the hell he was smiling about. I took a step forward, but this time he picked himself up quicker than before. He was obviously weak after the beating, but he seemed to have suddenly gained courage to fight me while weakened. I raised an eyebrow as I looked at him. If he thought that it was now that he could get serious in the fight, then he was mistaken. Of course, previously I noticed how he suddenly wasn't able to keep up with my attacks and how he seemed to have given up. If this was a tactic that he had used and it was now he wanted to get serious, then it was a big mistake because he was already damaged to the point that he couldn't possibly harm me any longer, and he had already pretty much lost this battle before it started.
He laughed a little, taking another step forward. "I hope you enjoyed that," he continued. He started wheezing in pain. I shook my head at him. I wasn't able to bring myself to laugh, so the sound came out as a guttural growl. "And I hope you suffered brutally," I said in response, spitting at his feet. He looked up at me and laughed once again, the sound maniacal in my ears.
"Still, you are," he said, "and very angry. I hope you can keep up with that," he continued. I frowned at him. I had noticed his lack of strength before, but I had simply ignored it and used the opportunity to beat him down to make him weak to his current state. If he thought that he actually had the power to fight against me, if he thought that he could turn this around right now, what on earth was he up to?
He gave a shout, something that sounded like a spell because of the way I was unable to translate the words, and all of a sudden I heard footsteps. I heard the marching. I heard an entire army coming out from wherever the hell they had been - maybe they were just arriving. My eyes were in shock. What was going on? How did he suddenly have so many people to join him?
I backed away, not wanting to be surrounded or ambushed. My one thought now was "how," but my second thought was to get to the children as quickly as possible. I had fought so hard, I had gotten so far away from them now, but if only I could turn and retrace my steps and get them, I wouldn't care at all if I lost this battle to him, if in the end he escaped, because it was only now that I was going to focus more on my primary goal: to let the children leave and take them away with me back to their mother and safety.