Return to Kombat

Chapter 14 - A Pool Of Blood

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter but I think I'm close to finishing the story!

Thorne watched me with his cold, calculating eyes. I tried to watch his every move; if he blinked I saw, if he took a deeper breath I saw. I never liked throwing the first punch. It was a sign of weakness in my eyes; not being able to wait for them to move, wanting it to just be over with. I wanted this over with, but I also wanted to leave with as little damage as possible. I imagined my fight with Shao Kahn, when he stabbed me through the stomach. I physically flinched from the memory, terrified it might happened again. Thorne saw this, his eyes flickered, and he tensed up. Panic began to make my head swim. What if he hit me hard in the stomach? What if he stabs me, or something like that? How easy was it to have a miscarriage? Sweat beaded on my forehead. I shouldn’t have come today. I should have told someone about the message. I should have told Raiden when I had the chance. Why wasn’t he taking care of this guy? He’s a god – he could handle him. I looked over my shoulder, not thinking, to Raiden. For a split second I begged him with my eyes to help me; to stop all of this.

WHAM

I fell backwards as Thorne’s foot collided with my cheek. I grunted as I laid on the ground, rubbing the back of my head when it smacked the cobblestone. Quickly I rolled onto my side, seeing Thorne raise his foot to stomp on my head. I leapt to my feet and swung out my fist, hitting him in the nose. Blood gushed out of his nose, but he barely stumbled from the hit. I spun around on one heel and kicked out my other. The heel of my boot acted like a knife as it cut the side of his face. I could see the advantages of fighting in heels. And when I stumbled back a bit, unstable on my feet, I could see the downsides of it, too.

Thorne staggered backwards, holding his bloody face. Quickly I sent a strip of flames that acted like a whip in his direction. They licked at his shoulders as they grabbed him and burned into his shirt, into his skin. He cried out from the pain and shook them off, making me gulp in terror. He glowered at me, anger radiating from his body. I watched as he crouched down and whipped his body around in one fluid, snake-like movement. He held out his hands, like an open clam, and formed a gust of wind that knocked me onto my back. Pain shot through my chest and spine as I gasped for air. I couldn’t tell if the wind had just been knocked out of me or if he had done something. I whimpered in pain as I felt him kneel on my chest.

“God, could you at least be a challenge?” he hissed at me.

“Sure!” I grunted out. I reached to my thigh holster and grabbed one of my daggers. With all of my strength I sunk the blade into his stomach. He gasped in surprise and pain, allowing me to push him off of me and onto his back. As I leapt to my feet I took my dagger with me, causing him to yelp from the pain of the crooked blade pulling out of the wound.

Refusing to stay on the ground, he began to scramble back to his feet. I didn’t waste a moment as I flung several ice sickles at him. The ice cut his skin through his long sleeved shirt, making him hiss every time. He stood and refuted my moves with a wave of flames. I jumped back, nearly missing the orange glare. My back ached as I moved quickly, trying to avoid the waves he continued to send my way. Finally I sunk into the ground and instantly popped up behind him. I kicked out my heel and felt the stiletto pierce into the skin of his back. He cried out and buckled under the pain. I barely set my foot back on the ground when he whipped around and sent a firm, powerful kick to the middle of my torso, sending me flying.

The crowd gasped and several people called my name. Above all of it I heard Thorne cry out – like a war cry; a final blow cry. I gathered all of my power, all of my strength – both mentally and physically – and tried to think of something to do, something to stop all of this, to end all of this. I watched as he advanced towards me, holding my dagger that fell out of my hand above his head. A look of pure rage covered his face. My mind whirred as I watched him come closer and closer. Once he was close enough I swung out my legs and tripped him. He crashed to the ground and I grabbed my other dagger. I rolled onto my knees and kneeled on his chest before plunging the metal to the hilt into his chest, where his heart was.

A loud gasp erupted from his mouth as vibrant green blood seeped from the wound. It covered my hands and spilled onto the cobblestone. Everyone watched in both confusion and terror all around us. I just watched him, wondering if this was it… It couldn’t be this easy, could it?

A wide grin spread across Thorne’s face. A watery chuckle escaped his throat. “You think you won this?”

My brows knit together as I looked down at him. I refused to let my guard down.

“You’ll never win; you’ll never be more than a pawn in his game,” he hissed at me. “You’re just another soldier in his army.”

I frowned, “Whose army?”

The light began to fade in his eyes and his smile began to fade. “There’s so much you don’t know.” He croaked.

I watched, confused, as he took his last breath and the light faded from his eyes. Silence enveloped the area as everyone looked down at the two of us sitting in a pool of green blood. I looked around us, never having been so blinded by confusion and worry. What was he talking about? Whose army – whose soldier? Before I could do sum any of this up in my head I heard Raiden run into the middle of the crowd-made arena. “Zak! You did it!” he scooped me up, out of the blood, and pulled me away from Thorne’s body.

Quickly followed by Johnny and Mila and everyone else, I was soon surrounded by my friends and couldn’t see Thorne’s body anymore. I was forced onto a concrete ledge and sat down to be poked and prodded. They all asked if I was okay while the crowd cheered, finally realizing the fight was over. I was so overwhelmed by all of this; I didn’t know what to do. Do I celebrate? Do I cry?

“You did it!” Mila squeaked by my side. “You were so amazing! That fire thing? Oh and then the ice! Oh my God!” she rambled on and on, but I drowned her out.

“Zak,”

I looked up and was face to face with Liu. He was looking me over, concerned. “Are you okay?”

I didn’t know how to answer so I just sat there.

“We’ll talk about this later.” He promised. Or was it a threat?

I just nodded, numb. I wanted to go shower and think about what Thorne had said. I wanted to go lay down and maybe try to sleep. I wanted to cuddle Osamu and pretend the world didn’t exist. I pushed everyone a few inches away from me so I could stand up.

“I want to go lay down,” I mumbled.

As I staggered forward I heard them gasp. Mila grabbed my arm, “Sweetie, we need to take you to the hospital.”

I frowned, “Why?” I turned back and looked. Instantly I regretted the decision. There, where I was sitting, was a large blood stain. Oh no.