Alaris couldn’t die like that, there was no way.
He had to have been attacked on the way here, the flower was tinted with dark lines just like last time but it didn't die then.
Belladonna was robbed of her time of thinking, because just as quickly as the soldier vanished, she was surrounded.
It was an ambush.
She stumbled back, her hand tightening around the flower, her eyes dancing with fear, her lips trembling to call for help before the painful realization descended on her that she was alone.
Alone.
Her hand tightened even more around the flower.
ALONE!
She huffed, letting the crushed flower slip to the hard ground and reaching for her bottle of herbs instead, her eyes fixed on the warriors as they appeared even more from the shadows of the trees that surrounded her.
The beating of her heart slammed against one another recklessly, the bitter taste consuming her tongue, as she looked from one warrior to another, till one finally spoke - one that appeared to be their leader.
“The White King wants you alive,” he laughed. “But He doesn't.”
“We do what He says.”
Dogori. That bastard.
“Pretender!”
Immediately, fire unleashed on her from above.
WHOOSH!
Quickly, she stretched out her hands feeling the flames sweep past her fingers as she tried to recreate the lesson she had been taught only once. The images of Dogori’s training playing in her mind in quick successive frames.
Embers struggling against amateur attempts and draining power. One that was about to consume her whole as they grew bigger and closer in her eyes filled with panic. The time seemed to have slowed down as she watched her impending doom but at the last moment, the flames followed the guidance of her fingers and reverted back to its conjurer.
She let out a breath of relief, her eyes dancing with fear before she shook her head and frowned.
“Kill me then,” she let out the dare with a determined breath.
It was a moment of silence and shock, then… CHAOS!
Fire rained down upon her like a rageful rain, quick moves made of claws and swords that couldn’t reach her as they are met with the fire she pulled from anywhere she could get it, bending them into blades and sending them through the hearts, heads and any body part of her attackers that she could send them through.
At first they kept attacking her with fire because they kept underestimating her, till they quickly stopped but for them, that move was too late. That stupid halfblood had already ensured that three of the warriors she had killed were ablaze, a fire source for her!
Bastard Halfblood!
Dogori’s warriors had been part of those warriors that had been sent to the inn that night; they were supposed to ensure that she wouldn’t get to the castle alive - that she wouldn’t get to the castle at all!
She was an obstacle that kept wasting their precious time when they should be heading towards the battlefield to obtain victory.
Dogori had told them all about her, he just didn’t tell them that she was this good. Usingtheir own flames against them?
Halfblood Bastard!
Vengeful were their attacks, nothing but driven with angry madness!
Their attacks were matched with her equal insanity.
Belladonna could feel herself losing her mind, her strength draining from her and the power fading.
Fading? By Iganas, no!
There were still many warriors left. They would kill her!
She stumbled back, breathing heavily, the beating of her heart too loud for her to hear anything else.
They were noticing that she was getting weak.
They were laughing again. They were laughing at her. The laughter was too loud, as if it was right next to her. No, closer! Soft laugher as if it was… right in her mind!
Xinora.
The weaker she became the more she would lose her control and there was only one permanent solution.
She shook her head as she pulled flame from a burning body to strike against another warrior that attacked her.
Her hand trembled, heading towards her bottle to take the last herb but those words played in her mind again.
‘There is only one permanent solution!’ Her voice rang back to her, sounding broken in her head.
She frowned and changed her plans; with one hand, she pressed her blood dagger against the tree closest to with the embodiment that she needed and slammed the other through a sharp short branch of that tree, allowing it to drive through her palm like a nail. A hoarse cry of pain rang from the depth of her throat, agony consumed her whole as she felt her bones break at the sharp and sudden impact, blood oozing from the cut.
A warrior grabbed her the next second, wanting to see the light die in her eyes while he killed her but immediately, her blood dagger went through his heart from behind. The tree was now alive and she was fighting through it, while she stayed connected and gave it her blood, it would have life and couldn’t be cut down, she hoped.
And it worked!
The branches of the tree moved, stretching according to her desire and cutting the enemies down with her blood dagger.
Staying connected though was nothing but torture, and when the last of the warriors fell to the ground in death to join the rest of the lifeless bodies on the ground as the blood dagger was pulled out from his heart by the tree branch, she pulled her hand away too and fell to the ground with thud. The tree branch laid the blood dagger next to her and the tree withered away, starting from where her blood had touched it, till it became nothing but ashes next to her.
Droplets Of rain
fell from the sky as if weeping the loss of something, as unconsciousness stole her away.