Peculiar Stories and poems

Standoff

Petals gradually break from the branches and bit by bit their gravity leads them to lightly tap the ground. Slowly, a twig glides in the breeze till it drops to the ground.  There is a slight pause in the tree's movement then, a small gust whooshes in between the tree leaves and under its great pressure only the strong ones resist, the old ones leave happily to become one with the colorful deathbed covering the tree's roots.

In a sense the leaves or twigs that break off  experience a prolong amount of time while falling. And if we take this thought with us, that an elongated force applies to things that die we may understand the rest of this story. 

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Our protagonists are situated in front of the said tree quietly awaiting. There is an amateur and a master who are having a stand off.

With his prolonged and hard earned knowledge the master quickly assesses that he would only need a little bit of time to summon his weapon* and easily subdue the amateur. Being a master he recognizes that belief in 'time' is futile. Of course he can sweep away the amateur swiftly. He may be so sudden that the amateur who is lost in thought experiences a significant amount of time disguised as a mere second whilst being destroyed.

But that could also be as a result of the force 'time'.  When an attack is  launched be it on a large or small scale time seems to slow down for the person who is in the most danger. As death quickly approaches them memories or thoughts cloud their consciousness. It erases their present and eats away the time.

However, on this gusty evening the amateur has stood his ground for long. Longer than a second or a mere minute at least. Enough to make the master ponder if he has become subject to forces of time that hinder successful attacks.

For the amateur he reasons with himself; is there really a way to defeat the overpowering master. One might mistake his heavy ventilation as fear or his still body that acts equivalent to an animal playing possum as weak and broken. No, the heavy breathing is a thrill pulsating throughout his young body. But he knows that his body is at its limit and to summon another demon would be at the degradation of his limbs and only strike internal problems.

The two have been fighting since day break. The master challenged the youngster to see how long he would survive, he easily taunted him and it was clear to see that the amateur was no match. All of his previous demons were flung around, jumped upon, laughed at and were a total mockery to demons that were ever summoned. The master didn't finish him off sooner because he was surprised at the amount of demons the boy could summon to  defend himself. Still, this battle needed a climax and he was tired of playing around. This was the last standoff and attack.

The amateur intentionally falls upon one knee, his face glares at the ground and thick lines plunge out on his face. His demon begins to emerge out of his body. Red and purple lights emit from his thin structure in a spiky form then gathers as a dome hovering above his demon. The master stares in awe, never in his life has he seen a Crown demon*. Literally it is a Crown, its energy is much more unique than its appearance it is a small figure that has a striking and ominous radiance.

The Master has a demon in the shape of a lighting bolt. His summon is of low class only because he thought that was all he needed to finish off the amateur. His summon vanishes as the energy from the Crown demon overpowers it. And in his moment of wonder he is struck by a surge and falls to the ground squeezing his chest. As best as he can he tries to squeeze out some of the excruciating pressure but it keeps on pounding and scalding rapidly pulsating under his skin. His efforts are futile under such pressure his blood vessels burst and the heated blood finds a way to continue circulating unfortunately the bursts expand and the fiery blood oozes out of his nostrils and ears.

That's the other thing about time, it switches so fast when it decides its champion. 

One moment could be inevitable while  another moment could be unsteady. 

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*Weapons used in this chapter are in the form of 'demons' also known as specialized skills or performer enhancers. The skills appear as any image or being their owner wishes to display. 

* Crown demon, an ancient skill that can be summoned through a pact with a container (human) which allows half of its power to be used freely.