Heaven's Light (Book 1)

Chapter 5 - Ashura

I had finally regained full consciousness right before I felt a huge shove from behind. A grunt escaped my lips and I crumpled to the cold, stony floor, grimacing. I tried to push myself off of the floor, but found my wrists bound together behind my back. A lot of pain suddenly exploded from my left arm. I groaned in the agony of what felt like a firestorm within my arm's veins. It wasn't pain from the push, but different. Somehow, it was more excruciating and internally steadfast. It felt like a thousand tiny needles were being poked and dragged through my arm, tearing it to shreds.

This was a horrible thing to wake up to.

"You," a massively deep voice rumbled from within the shadows. Everything around me was pitch black, blacker than the night itself. I tried to blink my eyes open, as if that would rid the darkness around me, but it wasn't my eyelids providing the darkness.

"Who are you?" I asked through clenched teeth. My arm began to tremble from the pain that erupted, my eye twitching from the effort of suppressing the cries that arose.

"I'm just a man," the voice answered. "I'm a man with a mission."

I opened my mouth to speak, but ended up spluttering a series of coughs and spit. I wasn't sure I had felt anything this painful in my entire life. It was consistent in its volatility, persistent in its hatred.

"What exactly is your mission?" I wheezed.

Out of nowhere, I felt a huge hand clamp down on my neck and raise me off of the cold ground, my feet dangling in the air. I desperately clawed at the strong grip, trying to catch any breath I could, but it was no use; he had closed off my throat. I could only hang there in his invisible grasp and cringe from the severity of my affliction.

"My mission is to exterminate you," he roared. I felt my body sway to the right, then, flesh jutted into my throat, and I felt the hand release its hold, as if he had thrown me. I sailed through the air a moment before my back connected with a jagged rock surface; I presumed it to be a wall. A small scream secreted from my lips as I felt an edge of the rock cut under my cloak and straight through my back, the exact spot I was shoved before. Following my back's impact, my left arm slammed against the same rock surface and multiplied the stabbing pain that emanated there. There was so much cumulative pain, my body slumped against the rock and my eyelids grew heavy. I was barely holding on.

The voice scoffed at me. "Pathetic. I thought you would actually put up a fight, considering you were raised by the all-powerful dragon."

The mention of dragon panged my heart. I gritted my teeth and pulled my body through the pain, away from the rock, out of my gut. I felt the jagged point slowly leave the pierced area of skin, trying my best to suppress the scream that was building up in my throat as I fell face first onto the stone ground. I was panting heavily, resting on my right side, hands still cuffed behind my back, arm still burning with agony.

"I see. You aren't particularly fond of the topic of dragons, are you?" the voice remarked. "That'll make killing you a little more fun."

I moaned as I used all the strength I could muster to sit back on my knees, struggling and trembling. I tried calling upon the winds to help me regain my balance to stand, but it was no use. No help came from my magic.

The voice laughed menacingly from a distance. "Perhaps, I should mention, those cuffs I had put on your wrists, they suppress magic output. You're helpless."

Finally, I had righted myself on my knees manually. Now, all I had to do was free my wrists in order to be able to use magic again. I wasn't sure I could handle more physical torture.