Beta || Iancorn (NaNoWriMo 2018)

Level Twenty-Five

She tossed Mari to the side, sending the woman flying once more. David watched with wide as eyes as the witch started waving her hands through the air, sending Mari crashing into the ground with each flick of her wrists. He didn't know what to do.

Well, he knew that he should help her. He just didn't know how. The witch had been less bothered by his sword than David felt bothered by a paper cut, and from how much she was moving to toss Mari around, he didn't have a clear chance to cut out her heart. It seemed hopeless to even try, and so he froze, trying to calculate the situation and coming up empty-handed.

"David! What the fuck are you doing!" Wes bellowed from behind him. The platinum-haired man was now submerged to his waist. "Help her!"

As soon as the words left his lips, Mari fell to the ground a few meters away. Her skin was covered in small cuts, and a few roses stuck to her by their thorns. Every breath she took made her wheeze.

"C'mon darling, get up!" the witch taunted. "You can do better than that!"

Mari got to her feet and staggered, as if she was about to fall over. A small trail of blood ran out of her mouth. "You don't know the half of it, lady."

Before the witch had time to raise her hands again, Mari charged her and tackled her to the ground. The two women started wrestling on the ground, scratching each other and pulling each other's hair as they did, as if they were animals. Eventually, Mari smashed her forehead into the witch's and managed to climb on top of her, before starting to pummel her face with punches.

David inched closer to her as Mari threw down hit after hit, turning the witch's face into a bloody mess. By the time she stopped, her knuckles bleeding heavily and her breathing haggard, the witch's face was unrecognizable. David extended his hand and helped her up, before positioning his sword over the green-skinned woman's chest to carve out her heart.

Before he got the chance, however, the witch started laughing. It was high-pitched and joyful, and didn't sound natural in the slightest. She laughed and laughed and laughed as blood started to flow out of every pore in her body, turning the grass underneath her crimson, until her skin was so pale it almost looked normal. Then the body turned to dust.

A clapping sound started. David and Mari instantly whirled around, only to see the witch standing right behind them, grinning.

"That's what I'm talking about!" the witch giggled. "Do it again!"

Mari screamed in anger and picked up her spear from the ground, which had been broken clean in half during one of her many falls. She threw it as hard as she could at the witch. The weapon buried itself underneath their opponent's shoulderblade, going clean through her body. The witch didn't even bother to pull it out, instead opting to flex over it.

That seemed to be all Mari had left. The purple-haired woman dropped to her knees and started to cough into her hand. When she looked up, David noticed that her fingers were covered in blood.

"Done so soon?" the witch pouted when Mari started to wobble. "That's disappointing. But if that's the way it's going to be..."

She pulled her knives back out of her pockets. "Then I'm going to finish this."

"No!" Wes screamed, struggling desperately against the concrete. "Don't touch her!"

All his pleading did was make the witch's smile grow as she stalked towards Mari, who was now on her hands and knees.

"David!" Wes yelled. Joven, Damien and Matthew's voices soon joined his, all of them screaming the same thing. "David! Help her!"

The witch noticed David looking at them. "Don't worry, boy. You'll get your turn next."

But he wouldn't. The second the witch killed Mari, the game would reset. David would be fine. And he'd have to spend the rest of his life knowing that he did nothing to save one of the few friends he'd ever had. The witch might be the one who would end Mari's life, but her blood would be on David's hands.