Tomorrow's Battle

I

Eyes glowing red, staring directly into my soul. Sweat and saliva so heavily dripping on the floor that, if you'd wait long enough, it could make a hole straight to the center of the Earth. A heavy breath blowing my hair back every few seconds. It comes with a grunt and the horrible smell of rotting flesh and pure anxiety every time. I focus and show that I'm not afraid of the eye contact we've been having for a while now. He's so quiet, I have to convince myself I'm not deaf. I wait. So does he. I slowly start moving my hand to towards the big black belt I've got strung around my waist. As soon as my fingertips touch the handle and make a very quiet 'ting' sound, I hear a deafening growl and instead of staring into his eyes, I'm now looking at 3 rows of razorsharp yellow teeth. At the speed of light I grab the handle, pull out my sword and push it between the second and third upper row of teeth as hard as I can. And when I think it couldn't go in  any further, I give it an extra push so that the tip comes out again, blood red, between his eyes and nose. I can feel my hand and arm getting wet from all of his saliva, but I keep firmly holding on to my sword. His eyes have gone blank and the growling has turned into a submissive moan of pain and defeat. I pull my sword back out and watch him fall to the ground. I look down on him and look up again. There it is. Right behind him: the medal. It's floating in the middle of the air. Its red glow lights up a part of the cave as I walk straight towards it. I reach out my hand to grab it and feel the power coursing through my veins as I make contact. I grab hold of it, put it in one of the many pockets on my belt and turn my back on the, now very dark, cave. I slowly walk away with a feeling of power and victory. 'Well, Arya, you've done it again, gal', I think to myself as I mentally pat myself on the back.

'And? How did it go? Did you get it?'
I nod as I pull the medal out of my pocket. Her eyes widen and her mouth becomes the shape of an O. She rests her palms on her cheeks as she looks at the red glowing stone in the necklace.
'It's even better than the others!'
'What are you talking about, Styra? It's the exact same as all the others.'
'But this one is special. Because it means something to you.'
'It means just as much to me as the other 4 did.'
'But this is the last one you needed!'
'I know, but I also needed the 4 others to go through.'
'Just admit that this one is different though..'
'No, I'm not going to start picking favorites. They're all the same.'
'Urgh, fine.. Why do you have to be so incapable of outing your emotions though?'
'I'm not incapable, I just don't want to. Showing emotions and having relationships makes you weak.'
'You're lucky you're cute.'
'Piss off.'
I give her a teasing push on the shoulder, give her a smirk and head towards the main desk. The lady behind it looks at me and smiles.
'So, you finally did it?'
'I recon it was about time.'
'Are you ready for what's to come next?'
'Will I ever be?'
'Fair point. Can I have your medals, please?'
I reach into one of the pockets and pull out 4 red glowing medals, identical to the one I just captured. Styra places the fifth one on the desk as she stands next to me. I can tell, from the corner of my eye, that she's looking at me, worrying. I decide to not offer her a look back, as it would only trigger more emotions and drama at this moment. I can feel that she doesn't want me to do this. She doesn't think I'm ready yet, but she never says so. She doesn't have to. I can tell from the way she looks at me when we talk about it and the way she talks about how dangerous it is. The lady behind the desk takes the medals and places them neatly in their according holes in the wall behind her. The wall is devided in to 5 areas. Each of them representing a different level of my training and holding the medals I've collected during that level. On the wall there are 4 blue medals, 3 green ones, 2 yellow ones and 1 white one. They've all been placed onto that wall very neatly years ago, and now they're just sitting there. The lady places my new medals into their slots and takes a step back. A red glowing line runs through the wall, starting at the very top and connecting all 5 stones until it reaches the bottom of the wall. The stones start glowing as a sixth section on the wall appears with 6 empty slots. Level 6. It's the last level, and the hardest one. No one has ever finished level 6. A lot of people end their training after they've reached level 4 or 5, because they're too scared for what's coming next. 

But not me, I'm ready. I can feel it.
Bring it on.