"Come on!" Klarc urged the screeching creatures who had just gone silent again.
They were hunting...
And Klarc was their next prey.
It seemed so odd that the cliftolight I had faced in Abdera didn't show this level of intelligence that the cliftolights showed to the brothers here. They were calculating, moving together in a pack.
"Valin, where are you!" Klarc was aggravated now.
Something was thrown into the air.
It hit Klarc with such force that he was thrown aback. It was Valin.
Valin's lifeless body had been thrown on Klarc, the both of them hit the ground with an impact that echoed. Klarc coughed from the breath knocked out of him. He pushed his brother's body off and looked to see if Valin was still breathing, only to notice Valin’s eyes were torn out from his body along with his poor soft-spoken heart. His brothers were gone. The screeches and snarling started again. It was bone chilling. Arena warriors had stepped back now, not willing to offer help in exchange for their own death. The little boy who sat with his mother shouted to Klarc, "Call on for help!!"
The cliftolight who stared at Klarc, fisted and dropped Valin's heart to the ground. Klarc looked in my direction.
"You prideful fool," I muttered.
The prince's red eyes were trained on me, noticing Klarc’s gaze.
I turned to Klarc, urging him to call for help. But he uttered no words. He seemed to accept his fate. I bit my cheek and looked to Fala, she gave a slight nod. Dritan noticed and with reluctance, also gave me the go-ahead. I was about to go against arena laws.
The shadows in my body slammed into my rib cage, begging to be let out. Whispers flooded my mind. And power surged in me.
"Morana... come. Join us. Help us end him, lady death."
I heard the cliftolights in my mind before I could make my fall to the arena pit, landing with practised form, my fist stabilising me. I twirled my fire blade and swung.
"Fire," I breathed.
Flames grew and sparked with tempting power.
Chapter 16
Challenging the wicked
They say when you're about to do something fearful, something so important and heart wrenching. Adrenaline fills your body to the brim. But that wasn't the case today. My body knew what it had to do—what it was required to do. Something cruel and dark manifested inside me...
A loud piercing 'clank' came from Klarc's sword banging on a metal gate, drawing my attention.
The cliftolights on the other hand, had their attention on me. The dark matter of their face stretched into a deep grin with jagged razor-sharp teeth jutting out. I took position in first stance, it was the first lesson I had been taught when I could walk.
Readiness.
"Daughter of death."They hummed in unison.
I stalked around them, smirking at the blade I had struck near them, it illuminated enough light to track their movements. “Try putting that off.”I wanted to challenge. I picked up a sword by my feet, that must have belonged to either Braze or Valin.
"Mora—"
"Shut it." I grit my teeth and targeted my strike at the one closest. I sprinted and leapt to shove the sword into its spiked neck and unleashed my fire blade from my thigh to slash at its face repeatedly. I held onto one of its spikes for leverage, commanding fire without saying a word. Its black inky blood oozed and burned through the fabric of my tunic. I pulled onto its head with all the strength I had. Gurgling sounds mixed with a growl escaped from it before the cliftolight and I both slammed into the ground with its head out of its body. I wiped the muck from my cheek and eyed the last two cliftolights.
"My brothers! They need healers! Open the gates!" Klarc shouted.
The spectators gasped, and seemed to be in shock. And whether the prince and his guards were still spectating was a mystery to me, as no guard opened the gates for Klarc. I was beyond furious at the man who called himself a warrior.
The cliftolights screeched at the death of its fallen brother. And as unexpected as it was frustrating, armour shoved me into the ground. Armour that belonged to Klarc.
