"Fawn Landings and Rune Merseth versus Augustus: the General."
"Shit," Fawn mutters.
"I felt this coming," Rune sighs, trotting into the arena.
"Good luck!" Maude yells after them.
Fawn turns around before she opens the gate and shoots a thumbs up. The pair steps on the arena floor, Marzipan nods at Raven and adjusts the scenery accordingly. The the arena becomes white. Strict, clean, pure white tiles line floor to ceiling. Rows upon rows of soldiers line up. At the end of about fifty some soldiers sits a plush, blood red throne. Sitting upon it, is Augustus. He lays over the throne with his feet kicked up. He yawns, takes a sip of wine, and orders:
"All soldiers assemble and kill!"
Fawn leans over and whispers in Rune's ear. He nods. Fawn undoes her hair, retracts her claws, snarls her fangs. Fawn is a champion at hand-to-hand combat. She blows through multiple soldiers at once. She swipes her paw at them, clawing streaks of red blood down their bodies.
Rune slithers to an invisible silhouette, crawling in between soldiers. He knocks a few dead, he chokes a few that don't expect it. Multiple of them are stabbed. But, I can tell his primary goal isn't the soldiers, but Augustus.
Fawn becomes surrounded by a circle of men. They point their weapons at her.
"Full Moon: Beast Mode!" Fawn says and lets her claws grow out another few inches. The hair on her neck grows, her fangs hang over her lips, and her eyes glower a neon brown. They etch around the edges as she slices her hand against the pure face of a soldier. Red blood splatters against the white tiles. The blood is a bright red, unlike the blood of humans. When it splashes, it sprays like water from a hose. The blood that humans obtain is sticky, like sap. If a human was to bleed, their blood would cake against the tile and freeze somewhere in the path it drips down. But, the soldiers blood is runny.
"Ack!" Fawn gasps, becoming out of breath as she rips another soldier. One stands behind her, cocking his gun. He fixes his eye in the scope, laying his pointer finger on the trigger.
Click.
Boom.
Fawn's eyes boggle. Her lip cough up blood. A bullet rests in the back of her neck. She lays on the ground, sputtering and spazzing. Her claws wither to dust, her fur disappears from her neck. Her eyes become their natural color.
Rune looks back, losing his concentration and his camouflage. He runs down to her, "Fawn!" Rune collapses to the ground as a bullet shoves into his leg. Augustus claps his hands together. He decides he doesn't need his soldiers, after his win, so he breaks them away. The bodies disappear, turning into dust as they go.
Raven claps over the balcony, the opaque sunglasses rest over her eyes, "Marzipan. Declare the victor."
"I would, but a supplementary member of Rave Tempest has entered the arena," she hesitates.
Raven peers around the arena, sighs, and sits back down. I look around me. I didn't notice any member enter the arena.
In the stark white, drenched with the splattered blood, Maude stands. Her knees tremble together, but she readjusts, lengthening out. Her fists clench, she sniffles the tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Ha, a child," Augustus chuckles.
"You took them away," Maude sniffles.
Augustus snaps his fingers together, two more soldiers poof next to him. "Then kill her, too." They load her guns, pointing at her heart. Maude extends her fist toward the soldiers. She shuts one eye and peels open her fingers. A stream of grey magic exhausts from her palm.
"Time Send Me: Their Death!" The soldiers explode, spraying their watery blood and guts over Maude's skin. She wipes the area around her eyes clean. Tears cut through the layer of blood. Augustus readjusts in his throne. He cocks his brow.
"Saturn, reaper of time, may you pass judgement this man," she growls, Augustus chokes on his own breath. His skin turns purple as he passes out in his plush chair. Maude drops to her knees in front of his corpse. She slams her forehead onto the ground, weeping a puddle around her.
Marzipan clears her throat, "The victor is Rave Tempest."
Maude picks her head up, she runs around frantic, "We didn't win!" She stumbles in front of Rune and Fawn. "They're dying! How the hell is that a win?" She pounds on their bodies. "Saturn, reaper of time, may judgement pass on these people!" She rips the hair on her scalp. "Please!"
"This is too much," Simon cries, placing his face in his hands. Tears slip in between the cracks of his fingers. Rave Tempest sits awkward in the bleachers.
"Don't you guys care!" Maude cries to us, "someone do something!"
The gate to the arena swings open.
Maia crouches behind Maude, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Maude, you did good."
"No, I didn't."
"Are you upset because you couldn't save your mother?" Maia asks, shedding light on a necessary subject.
"I miss her."
"I know, but look at Fawn and Rune," Maia says, then her voice becomes a command, "stop crying and look at them."
"Okay."
"Look at their wounds." Maia places Fawn's head in her hands.
"I can't, there is so much blood."
"You used your magic just in the nick of time." Maia brushes the hair from the back of Fawn's neck. The bullet is gone. The small imprint of a clock is branded onto her skin. "You saved them, Maude."
"I saved them," she laughs through a heap of tears.
"We'll treat their wounds tonight. By tomorrow morning, they'll be up and moving to shower you with love and thanks."
"I saved them." A tear rolls into her smile.
--
"Celestia." Someone stirs me in my sleeps. My palms rub against my eyes, my retinas strain to readjust to the light. A fleck of white hair splatters in the darkness.
"Marzipan?" I croak.
"Shh!" she hisses, "don't say my name."
"Okay," I agree.
"Raven can't know I'm here," she whispers.
"Huh?"
"You need to win tomorrow and, no offence, your wizards can't defeat the next Column without my help."
"Marzipan, it's dark out. I'm not awake, yet," I complain.
"Don't say my name!" she repeats, harsher.
"Sorry."
"I brought you something," she tells me.
"Is it cheating if I use it?"
"Yes."
"I don't want it, then. Raven would skin me if she caught us cheating."
"Lain and Ophelia will die without it," she warns.
"You know who's fighting tomorrow?"
"Yes, I've known the pairs since last week. They were preplanned."
"Why?"
"Raven wanted to pair people who were used to each other working together," she explains.
"I don't understand why she's so nice about some things," I shake my head.
"She wants it to be fair," Marzipan states, "but, you're straying off topic."
"Huh? Oh, sorry."
"Listen, give this to everyone tomorrow morning." Marzipan shoves a bottle of pills into my palms. "There should be enough pills for everyone. They'll protect against Zade's magic."
"Oh, uh, thank you," I spit out.
"I was not here, understand?" she hisses in between clenched teeth.
"Understood," I reply and blink. Once I open my eyes, she has disappeared.
