Magnus Academy: The Cursed Blood

A Price That She Doesn't Mind

I often wonder if it would be selfish of me to wish her a life when she desires death instead.

As the sun settled at its highest peak, the dim skies began to brighten as though some sort of a supreme divinition, raining drops of sunlight upon these grassland. Though the heavy sound of the clashing metals; resounding through one another, the battle cries of men and women fighting for survival, and the traceless sight of blood littered almost everywhere, have enthroned the plains.

The surroundings were filled with people wearing different expressions, but I was certain we all felt that same rush of andrenaline threatening to escape our bodies, that same feeling of clinging to life for we weren't all that ready to dive right into death. It was fear. Yet despite that, it's strange how people always find the courage to face it.

My breathing was becoming ragged, it was getting heavier and difficult to breathe as seconds passed. My visions were narrowing, the corners were blackening, my whole body was screaming to stop, to stay still, and just rest. But I couldn't make myself do so. Acting oblivious of the blood flowing down my forehead, I ignored the scourging pain penetrating my systems.

The grip around my katana tightened, forcing myself to get back to my senses. I shifted my body around, slashing my weapon through the air, hitting the flesh of my attacker. Another one went behind me, dodging the incoming axe that could have had left me beheaded, I lifted my katana upward, spurting blood as the edge of my blade ripped his throat.

It was as though my mind and body had the life of their own that before I realized it, I was moving unconsciously, my feet stepping back and forth, sliding through the soil. My sweat blended with the scent of rotting bodies that could be seen wherever my sight could take me.

Glide. Step forward. Dodge. Slash. Backward. My patterns were constantly changing, there came times where I attack and times where I defend. But I wasn't invincible in battle as people think, ignoring the pain doesn't give me the ability to live.

Another sharp steel managed to hit my leg, another on my back, on the side of my face. But the attacks didn't stop there. Arrows came flying down from distances away as magic circles were casted on the air, blasting everything in sight.

The feeling of intense heat came shooting after, looking around, fire began to spread brought by roaring dragons enslaving the skies, making it once more, dim. Almost distracted by the sudden appearance of monsters running throughout the entire space, a warrior stepped beside me in a quick manner, his sword cutting deep into my flesh, only then I realized it had somehow reach my inner organ.

It was that exact moment I finally let my body do what it had been begging me for, to lay helplessly on the ground. As the grasses served as my death bed, the grip around my katana's handle loosened. The perpetrator neither had the look of remorse and apology, his eyes completely told me one thing; disdain.

Even when he lifted the sword just above my chest, I refused to close my eyes and instead of looking at him ending my pathetic state, I stared above with a frustrated sigh, wondering what could have been beyond those dim skies, would it still be blue even when the grounds they reflect on were an ocean of blood, or would it be as red as the liquid running through these veins?

Somehow, I then began seeing things in gray like the colour of sorrow, like the colour of my life, and everything went into a slow motion; the way it feels like the sword was going down slower, the way my killer twitch his lips into a grin, and the way my heart pounds.

Though as if the wind, she blew pass by too fast, and I could only watch as her figure beautifully filled my sight, blood dripped from her hand, pulling it back from the man's chest, as the latter fell, exhaling his last breath. Her eyes travelled down my body, they had that same look she would give at anyone; cold and emotionless. But I wonder if that's really the case.