Beyond the Rabbit Hole

A Cure to Boredom

Asael took a slight step backward, shifted the angle of his foot, and leaned forward, raising his blade to the side. With a flick of his blade, he launched hundreds of blood droplets toward Alyss.

Alyss jumped backward, but the droplets froze in mid-air, and as her feet touched the ground, they extended—thinned into hundreds of tight lines of blood all thrust toward her at once.

Startled, she raised her scythe, but even with its immaculate size, the blood overwhelmed her. The droplets, thinned, like blades pierced at her from every angle, blocked her vision and broke on her skin. If not for her defenses, she would've been skewered by hundreds of needle-fine blades. She swept her scythe with great strength, shattering the hardened blood and knocking the pieces aside. Her eyes widened. She shot her head to the side, half-turning her body to meet the bloodthirsty gaze of the dreadknight who crouched only a foot behind her.

Asael had dashed behind her in that moment, tucking his blades in preparation, now coated in gleaming blood. And as the massive scythe began to change its direction, he lunged forward, swiping one blade at the reaper's throat.

Alyss bent backward, dodging the strike by a sliver, but before she could catch her breath, her head lurched forward against her will as a rope of blood hardened around her neck, pulling her into the second blade that crashed into her throat.

Asael pulled Alyss downward with one blade, twisted his body to strike with the other, then broke free from the leash and rolled forward. He swept his blades along the ground, the red coating extending down to touch the shattered remains of his previous attack. Pulling the blood like a magnet, the needles liquified as they rejoined the rest of the blood coagulating around his blades before hardening again.

Alyss coughed as the blood tightened around her throat. She grabbed the collar of blood the dreadknight left behind and yanked it off her, tossing the shards of hardened blood aside before turning back to the enemy, preparing for his next attack.

Asael crossed his weapons as the blood formed into long, thin blades extending to sizes akin to Alyss's scythe. He swept them both at once in a crosscut as two thick strands of blood wrapped around Alyss's head, aiming another collar for her throat.

Alyss took a heavy step forward, shaking the very ground. She breathed in deeply. I will shatter it all! She felt a force expel from every inch of her body at once, breaking up the blood and scattering it before it could envelop her, and without skipping a beat, she swung her scythe with speeds anathema to a weapon of such heft.

Asael leaned backward, dodging the slash with a flip and sliding several yards away, leaving a thin string of blood snaking across the ground to collect the blood Alyss scattered. With his other blade, he unleashed a thin whip of blood at the reaper.

Alyss ducked under the first strike, stepped forward, and jumped over the second. But as she tried to dash, she stumbled to the ground, a thin leash of blood hardening around her ankle. With a click of her tongue, she fought the instinct to look back at her feet, instead moving her free leg up to a kneel.

And when the dreadknight seized the opportunity with a falling crosscut on her neck, Alyss swung her scythe with one hand, deflecting the blow while her free hand reached back to break the string of blood.

But the blood would not break.

Alyss's gaze shot to her ankle as the blood liquified in her hand, and stiffened slightly around it, but never hardened. She pulled and yanked, but every bit of force she used was futile; the blood shifted its state instantaneously. One moment it was solid, a leash choking her feet, then the next it was liquid, allowing her hands to pass through it unhindered before solidifying again.