Written By: Epicstu Wyyvernwriter

Inside the spacious metal box well lit via illuminations running along its edges and corners there was no visible door nor explanation as to how they got there. They did not know how they would move forward after, but they knew he would have to die for them to even try. Every movement, every stroke he made with his ax was flawless and meant to kill, yet every time he was about to finish one of them off, the other would intervene. Maggie blocked his ax as it came down upon her and grabbed hold of its shaft, so Aleister flung her against a wall and brought his ax’s blade down upon her again. Sliding to intercept, Noah blocked the falling polearm, his knife’s blade caught under one of its triggers. Aleister adjusted his grip closer to his ax’s blade, pulling Noah to him. Then, putting his foot to Noah’s shoulder, he unsheathed his six-inch retractable toe-claws and, with a flip, flung him against a wall. “Father!” Maggie screamed.

“I’m alright,” Noah gripped his shoulder as blood soaked his shirt.

“I have killed entire armies,” Aleister sheathed his claws and aloud his ax’s shaft to slide through his hand until its blade bit the ground. “I murdered the Devil so my brother could sit upon his throne,” he pulled one of the triggers along his ax’s shaft and a firearm’s barrel slid out of it. “I am what mortals fear in the dark,” he pulled his ax’s blade from the ground and smiled as he aimed its, now underslung, barrel at Noah. “It was good to finally have a challenge worthy of my skill. I am sorry I was not skilled enough to prevent you from suffering and I vow to train harder so no one else ever does.” Then his ear twitched and his head moved, ever so slightly, to the side as he watched Maggie’s damascus Nekolich forged combat knife fly past. Using the distraction, Noah grabbed hold of the ax and flung his body’s full mass over and into it. The blade anchored to the ground and the shaft snapped under his weight. “No…” Having witnessed the destruction of something he had poured blood, sweat, and tears into perfecting his entire life, Aleister fell to his knees. Taking hold of the large weighted rings pierced along Aleister’s ears, Maggie pulled his head back and into her knee.

“Maggie!” Noah tossed her the severed ax blade. Catching it as she leaped over to Aleister’s front, Maggie shoved the blade into his chest and held and twisted it there as she watched to ensure the life had left his sapphire eyes. Realising how cold blooded she had just been, she ripped the blade from the dead Fennec’s chest and threw it to the ground. “Maggie.”

She heard her father and ran to him, having remembered his grievous wound. “Dad…”

“I am fine, ugh…” Noah fell back on his ass as he tried to stand.

“No you are not,” Maggie tore off his shirt and wrapped it tight around his injury.

“Ugh, hey,” Noah grunted in pain.

“Well, I’m not taking off my shirt,” Maggie rebutted before her father could argue and slung his arm over her shoulder. “Three, two, one,” she helped her father to his feet. “There we are. Now, come on, old man. We have a Mountain to kill.”

An opening in the wall appeared before them followed by the greeting of a slow clap and a maniacal chuckle, “well done.”