/\Areiya & The -Invasion- Of Zanathis/\

/\Chapter 17-- I Am A Warrior/\

I stood still for a moment, going over my options on whether I should just allow him to treat me and stop being stubborn or not. With a roll of my eyes, I allowed my gaze to drift towards his and saw that he was once again studying me as if he were trying to figure me out. I put up my walls and forced my voice to remain steady as I told him that my rib was also injured.

He hurriedly pulled out some more gauze but paused when he turned back to me. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that he was blushing for some reason. Not in the mood to figure out what he was on about, I stared at him impatiently. When he did nothing, I decided to speak.

“What are you waiting for? I thought you were the one who wanted to treat me to begin with?” I said this with annoyance, but he turned his face away when I spoke and uttered something I couldn’t quite catch. “What?” I asked. He turned back towards me, seeming to have pulled himself together before he spoke louder this time.

“I said that you need to remove your top so that I can wrap the gauze securely.” My eyes widened slightly at his words, knowing why he had seemed so phased. I scoffed, trying to act as if it were a normal occurrence and then forced myself to remain in control and nonchalant as I began lifting my shirt above my head. I had forgotten how much pain I was in though, and hissed, pausing from taking my shirt off. Trying not to show how embarrassed I was, I turned towards Zeth. His eyes were focused on my stomach though. Following his gaze, I saw a gigantic bruise covering my whole stomach.

“Shit!” I heard him murmur as he took in the damage he had dealt to my body. I knew then that I was not going to ask him to help me remove my shirt because I was in too much pain. I was a warrior. I was supposed to embrace pain no matter how much was dealt towards me. Swallowing my pain, I finished removing my top and waited for Zeth to notice that he could go ahead and wrap the gauze now.

He seemed to be in a trance though. I wasn’t even sure what he was looking at anymore because his eyes were no longer resting on my stomach injury. I snapped my fingers, not really caring what he was looking at, but just eager to get this finished with so that I could clothe myself again. That seemed to pull him from his daze and this time I could tell he was blushing. I cocked an eyebrow in question, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze.

He slowly moved towards me and began wrapping me. He was careful not to touch my skin, as if I were too delicate to touch. I would have spoke up about him thinking me delicate and fragile, but I decided against it and just allowed him to work on wrapping the gauze. When he was finished, he seemed to have frozen, not moving away from me so I could clothe myself.

“What are you doing now?” I asked in exasperation. He seemed to be debating about something once again that I couldn’t comprehend, but he briefly met my gaze, letting me know that he had heard me. I was confused when he still hadn’t moved away from me and went to push him away. But before I could touch him, he suddenly jerked away from me, as if afraid of my touch. I raised an eyebrow at his behavior, wondering what his problem was. I just shook my head though and grabbed my shirt.

Just as the shirt was halfway on, we heard another crash and I went to hurry towards the door, but this was when Zeth decided it was okay to touch me. He grabbed a hold of my wrist, but let go just as quickly, as if my skin had scorched his hand. I turned towards him in aggravation.

“Okay, there is something seriously wrong with you. What the hell is your problem?!” I had finally lost it. He cleared his throat though, as if uncomfortable.

“Your shirt, Areiya.” was all he had to say for me to understand why he had stopped me. I was about to throw open the door and it would not look right if I barely had my shirt on. I held back a blush and proceeded to pull the shirt on the rest of the way. I muttered a gruff “thanks” and then threw open the door to see that they had finally captured Erick.

I shut the door quickly, not wanting Zeth to figure out what had just happened, but as I turned to see what he was doing, I ran into his chest. He had seen. His body was tense, as if he were about to go into battle. I bit my lip, trying to think up something to keep him in here and not fight them at the moment. I knew that they were almost on empty as well and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I allowed them to also fight the battle that I had been adamant about fighting. I cursed myself once again for being weak.

I looked up to see Zeth’s fierce gaze locked on the closed door. I tried to get a feel to see if I were ready to fight again, but I knew that my body still wasn’t entirely up to it yet. I had to stall him somehow though. He went to take a step towards the door and I shoved him back with most of the strength I had left. He seemed to remember my presence then and frowned. I didn’t care at the moment though. I refused to allow him to get passed me. I dropped into my fighting stance once more. His frown only deepened though.

Frustration started to flood through me when I realized that he didn’t see me as a threat. Taking deep, steady breaths, I threw my fist back and aimed for his face. He easily saw that attack coming and went to grab for my fist, but as I was throwing a punch, I had also threw my foot up and managed to kick him right in the face as he caught my foot. Taken my surprise, he flew back a couple feet from the impact. His lip was busted and it pissed me off that a part of me felt bad for damaging such a beautiful face.

“Are you sure you want to continue this fight right now? Both of us know that you’re at your limit, Areiya.” He said, seeming to be amused at me trying to fight him. But I could also see that he was a little wary. Just a moment ago, I could barely walk or stand and I was now throwing punches and kicks that had enough forced to push him back a couple feet. I was just as surprised, though I kept the surprise off my face.

“I won’t allow you to get out of this room. I told you before Zeth. It’ll be over my dead body that you escape this room.” His frustration was beginning to rise as well.

“Look, I know that you’re trying to protect your friends and all, but I’m trying to protect Erick and just because you’re my soon to be ‘Queen’, does not mean that I shall go easy on you because of it.” I cocked my head to the side, letting amusement slip onto my face.

“Good. I’m tired of being treated like a fragile little girl. Remember Zeth, I am a warrior. It doesn’t matter whether I am weakened. I will die a warriors death if I shall die at all.” With renewed determination, I lunged towards me, circling him as I ran. His careful eyes followed my movements, trying to find an opening. I wouldn’t allow for him to though, this had to end now. I sped up, moving so fast that he was unable to see for just a moment and that’s all I needed. I got beneath him and kicked upwards, sending him up into the air. I hadn’t used this technique in such a long time that I hadn’t even thought to use it earlier while fighting him.

I jumped gracefully into the air then, making myself fly over his ascending body and then slammed my body into his. This knocked the breath out of him and he had no reaction time before we were both crashing onto the ground, knocking the both of us unconscious. I looked down at my handy work and feeling accomplished at seeing him passed out, I allow my body to finally rest.