The Battle Game

1. Battle Scars

A girl runs while dodging trees as they zoom past her face, dimly she can see the sun setting in front of her as she gets to an opening. There in front of her is a wide open cliff edge with the sun setting in front. As she skids to a stop, she calms her breathing. Then walks over to the edge of the cliff. There is a game going on just down near the bottom of the cliff, she sighs as she jumps off the cliff and skids down the side of it. 

When she gets to the bottom, she leaps off the side and lands in a crouch. “Where have you been?” She looks over at the person walking towards her, then rolls her eyes as she takes off her black mask she had covering her mouth.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t go far.” She crosses her arms as she stuffs her mask in her pocket, the guy grabs her arm and gently pulls her towards the game.

“Yeah, well the game is about to start. They need you out there.” She sighs again in annoyance.

“I know, they always need me.” She says annoyed, the guy stops and crouches down to her height. 

“Look, I’m sorry. But, we just can’t afford to lose anyone else because of these games.” She looks down as she remembers all those who had fallen because of these games. 

“Alright,” She then turns to walk towards the games area, there seven people stand from the other side. Six have already been chosen and are all waiting for her. As she walks, she slowly takes out her mask and puts it on. 

“The Reaper is here, let us continue.” That’s her name, they gave it to her because of her skill. A Reaper takes lives, that’s what she does. The area around her is like a camp, there are no houses or buildings around. There is a platform on the ground, where all fourteen people stand. Each with a weapon. Each awaiting the battle that could end their lives. This is how life is for them. They battle with each other, kill each other. Just to survive. 

At the sound of a bell, they start fighting. Reaper takes out her dagger and cuts across her enemies neck. Then turns to one of her teammates having trouble and runs over. Unlucky, her teammates had no way to fight or protect themselves. Which got them all killed, all but one. Reaper kicks the guy off her teammate and stabs him in the stomach. She helps him up, for a second her attention drifts over to her trainer. But it is brought back when someone punches her in the face, causing her to stumble sideways. Her black long hair is getting in her face, so when she turns back around she fails to see the dagger coming at her head. She barely manages to move to the side as it cuts a deep scar across her cheek. 

Blood trickles down her cheek but she gets back up, lately she hasn’t been able to focus which is strange for her. A low growl is heard which frightens the others. She takes out her dagger which is still stained with blood from her last victim, then runs at the closest guy and tackles him to the ground. Her teammate grabs his sword and slashes it across one of the guys chest, then pushes it through another’s. Reaper stabs the dagger into a girl's chest a few times, then stands up and dodges a punch from another girl and stabs her dagger into the girl's chest. While Reaper is distracted with her, a guy comes up behind her and stabs her in the back. Her teammate comes up behind her and stabs his blade through the guys back killing him immediately. This is one of the deepest injuries she has gotten, most aren’t as deep as these. 

The sound of a bell is rung meaning the battle is over, “Reaper, you need to be more careful!” Her trainer shouts at her.

“I’m sorry Athal!” She growls as she is still angry from the fight, before she can storm off in anger, he grabs her arm and brings her over to sit somewhere. “Let me go!” He just forces her to sit down, then sighs.

“Reaper, calm down. I could tell out there, you weren’t focused. You could have taken them all out quickly. But, you couldn’t focus.” Reaper sighs, then starts to calm down. All the while, Athal helps her to take off her black leather jacket so he can see the cut on her back. When it is off, Athal starts to stitch it up. Once that is done, he does the same to the cut on her cheek. “You’re getting better at fighting, you just need to focus.” She looks down after he cuts the string on the stitches. “Be careful for now, which means, no training.” She groans. She gets up and walks out of the camp, Athal doesn’t complain since he knows where she is going. 

Reaper sighs as she walks through the woods, once she stops, she is at an opening. This one is different, because it is in the middle of the forest. There is nothing around for miles besides the camp. Carefully, she removes her jacket, under it she has a black ripped up tank top on. She also has a pair of black ripped jeans with silver chains on her sides. She is also wearing a pair of black combat boots. There are some scars that are visible, they are mainly from the games. But, some of them are from before she met Athal. There is one scar that was given to her for her first game. It symbolizes her name. Reaper. Scar. It is partially how she got the name Reaper. It is located on her back, in the top right. 

Reaper drops her jacket on the autumn colored ground, warm brown, orange, red, and yellow leaves litter the ground as the trees are bare. She walks to the center of the clearing, there lies a tomb. Not any tomb, but her best friend's tomb. Elex. He, unfortunately, was chosen for the opposite team. It was either he dies, or she dies. In the end, Elex took his own life so she didn’t have to. Reaper crouches down to the tomb, tears stream down her face in sadness. 

“I miss you already Elex.” Of course Reaper isn’t her real name, but the only person to ever know it was Elex. Not even Athal knows her real name. No one does. “Why, why did it have to be you?” More tears stream down her face as she sits on her knees in front of the tomb stone. 

After a few minutes, she manages to calm herself down. Just in time for someone to walk up to her, they walk over and crouch down next to her. “I heard what he did, he took his own life so you could live.” She looked over to see the teammate from before. “My name is Melix Kaija.” She looks over at him, he is wearing a brown jacket with black jeans and brown boots. There seems to still be blood on his jacket just like hers. Reaper sighs as she looks into his deep brown eyes. 

“Reaper.” He smiles as he looks into her shallow blue eyes. 

“Thanks Reaper, you saved my life.” She smiled slightly at him, who knows. Maybe she won’t be alone forever. Elex may be gone, but that doesn’t mean she has to be alone forever. She doesn't want to. She stands up with Melix, then they both start to walk back to the camp. She normally doesn't talk so much about herself so she was quiet. Melix seems to trust her alot. 

“I will always have your back Melix.” He wraps an arm around her shoulder and she chuckles, her past wasn’t good. Although, that doesn’t matter. Elex is gone, but he would want her to live on. Therefore, she will. Melix is her friend now, and she definitely won’t let anything bad ever happen to him. She swore by it. Athal is her trainer, he may be the old champion, but now he is her friend. They will always be her friends.

“And I will always be here to protect you Reaper.” Reaper grabs her jacket on the way as they walk, he notices her scars. “What happened?” She looked over at him. Then sighs.

“A lot. But that doesn't matter now, I have you. And that’s what matters.” He smiles at her. “Maybe one day, maybe.” He wraps his arm around her shoulder, “But for now, those are just my battle scars.” Reaper chuckles as they walk through the woods. She loves her friends. New, and old.