Mortal Magic: Broken

I waited patiently for my turn to fight, as I was sure that they would take advantage of my condition. Luckily for me they never called me before the moon came into view and I was relieved that I would actually have the chance to put my plat to motion. The moment the moon rose to the sky and turned red I felt its power on me, its pull on my ability to create mana forcing me to create mana faster and faster, and at the same time making me flinch from pain as my body was starting to fill with it. Soon I felt full, like I was about to explode from all the mana I had inside me. I was sweating and panting, bend in two and holding my stomach.

This time was different; I’ve never felt like this. I felt lightheaded and weak but I was sure I was in pain too. Not from my injury but from what was happening inside me. I was sure that it was the fact that I had too much mana stored inside me and that was straining my body even more than I had already. Yuto was beside me and he kept using the wet cloth to lower my temperature in vain. No matter how much he tried I was just getting hotter, and despite that I felt cold, everything felt cold. I knew I had to release some of the mana but I had to save it for what I was about to do, I needed as much as I could create to succeed.

When the guards came to take me to the arena and saw the state I was in one of them smirked in pleasure and the other cringed from the sight. The latter was actually one of the few people I liked enough to not want to kill in here. He was always kind enough to the prisoners and he tried to help them if they were injured. I was sure that Yuto had his help with what he did while I was sleeping.

I was trembling by the time I reached the door to the arena and my eyes where heavy from fatigue even though I had slept before this. The door opened and I walked through and found a whole team of magi waiting for me on the other side. They were making this my execution, making sure I had no chance of surviving this fight. Still keeping one hand on my aching stomach I walked forward to meet them. They were a team of five, three men and two women. They all looked alike mostly but their ages varied, one man and one woman were significantly older than the rest and the younger ones seemed to have some years between them. I supposed they were a family.

The older man was well built, definitely taller than me and his face was hard from the loss of expression, his hair a light brown and cut short. The woman I assumed was his wife was slender and she seemed exhausted. She had long orange hair and a sweet face even with the lines from the fearful expression, and she had a noticeable lump on her stomach. They brought her here? A pregnant woman in a place like this? I directed my attention to the younger ones and first of all to the woman among them. She had the same hair as the older woman and her face resembled the old man but her small nose was not like them with the perfect curve it had. Her body carried more muscle than the pregnant woman but she had the same height as her. The men on the other hand were almost identical if someone overlooked the age difference and the elder’s slightly more squared jaw. It was like looking at the same person through a window to the future, with the same bulky stature and their light brown hair that reached their neck and what seemed like a scars or birthmarks on their bare chests.

As soon as I came close enough for them to see me clearly they all gasped in surprise. I didn’t wear my shirt so my scars were all in plain sight for everyone to see, and I knew they looked painful to some. The young woman tried to come closer to me but the old man caught her hand and kept looking at me with suspicion and worry etched in his blue eyes. A few moments later the annotator did his job. “Tonight my friends we have a special treat for you. In this special night of the month where all magi are powerful, the undefeated champion of the arena will face a family of elemental magi, each member a master of a different element. And they are perfectly healthy while he is wounded and weak from his battles”. Every single person on the seats started laughing like it was the best joke they ever heard. We will see who’ll have the last laugh though. I still haven’t made my move yet, I need time and to make them believe I am losing.

“As for the family, at first we intended to pit those against each other, but that will happen after they this fight, with the ones who survive until there is only one left standing”. After these words were spoken the family as I had suspected before looked at each other terrified from the possibility of having to kill each other. Who wouldn’t be in their place? Being forced to fight your loved ones until you or they die is inhuman. We are inhuman.

I hadn’t finished my thought when the magical bang sounded the start of the death match. Being disoriented and confused they made no move towards me, they only looked at each other searching for advice where there was none. I was about to faint from the pain in my body. It was not that it was unbearable, but I was tired and I knew I was sick by now, and being in constant pain is not so helping to the situation. I had to act fast and I knew it.

As the family was conversing silently I moved to the center of the arena and that caught their attention. However they were no point of interest anymore. They would not be able to create the distraction I had in mind for the job, so I would have to do without it. It was more dangerous but it was now or never. Giving them one last look I gave them my warning. “Don’t die”. After that I focused on the massive reserves of mana I had accumulated since the moon has risen. Tugging on the steady flow of mana from my core I gathered enough to start what could be considered as a suicide magic arte, the amount was enough to fuel the most draining high tier magic for hours, and is still had more than twice that amount left. I visualized all the swords, daggers, knives, spears, axes, hammers, poles, and other weaponry I have seen in my life and created the first wave of projections in circles above the arena covering the entirety of the space. Holding the purple shining weapons suspended in the air I stretched my arms and opened my palms before calling the name of this arte in a low and weak voice for the first time, and hopefully not my last. “Mana Overdrive”.

At my command the weapons fell from the sky in a like a storm of blades smiting anything they are pointed to, and I had no control over them, any one of the blades could pierce my chest or my head and I would be done for. Before all the blades fell to the ground I had already projected another wave, then another, and another, each wave taking all the excess mana I stored inside me and making a blood bath with it. Within moments many of the magi that came to watch today were dead in an instant, others were severely injured by a weapon, or more that found its way into their bodies, and most of them were trying to flee in vain. There was no escape from this, my projections will even pierce the walls and break them to find more victims if they have to, I can make enough to make this happen. But I would really like to do this without killing the prisoners or that guard.

But as it turned out the spectators were not smart enough to flee inside the structure, they just tried to run away in no particular direction. One by one they fell as I kept making more projections and letting them take their own directions like they had a mind of their own.

I had already conjured 5 waves of weapons when the guards emerged from the corridors and attempted to strike me down. I was not going to give this satisfaction to them though, not to them, and certainly not to Lars when I finally find him. With just a little effort I was able to direct some of the projections ready to be deployed to the guards, and they hit the mark despite the fact that I gave a general direction. However there was an unexpected turn of events that I had hoped would not happen in the first place. As I focused on directing some of the weapons many of them went off course and found their way to the corridors and some attacked the family trying to stay alive from my attacks. They managed to shield themselves with walls of stone from the arena, no doubt the ability of one of the members. But I was not left unscathed myself. Two of my swords came soaring through the air from the sky and barely missed enough to not stab me, they did cut me lightly though. But even that was enough for me.

I felt the pain on my left leg as the first sword cut on my calf just enough to draw blood and then came the pain from the right side of my waist, this wound more serious than the first. While it was not fatal it was deep enough to prove deadly if left unattended. Carefully as to not deepen the wounds I dropped to my knees and closed my eyes weakly. I had no idea how many waves I created but I could discern that I was now exhausted beyond saving from all this. I had little mana left and my body still struggled to create more due to the moon that was basking everything in its red light. The blades had stopped falling a few moments ago and the remaining projections on the ground turned to smoke and dust as they disappeared into the air. The metallic smell of blood and death enveloped me as I raised my head slowly and looked at the aftermath of my actions.

The sight of all these people, lying dead, mutilated and torn from my actions, right in front of my eyes, and the blood that kept dripping from the seats to the walls and then the arena floor was making me sick to my stomach. I was never bothered by blood, and I had learned to not flinch from the sight of a dead body, but this was different. This was carnage, a blood bath, and I was the one who caused it. I killed all these people like they were nothing more than pigs going to the slaughter. They were monsters who relished in watching others cower in fear and cry in agony as they faced their gruesome, slow death. But their lives were not mine to take. I had no right to kill them like they had us kill each other. In the end I must be even worse than them.

I killed to survive in here. I killed whenever they told me without trying to find another way and provided them with the sick, twisted and perverted entertainment they sought. And then I killed them the same way I would have killed for them if I had to. And I wanted to kill again, even if I only wanted to kill just one person specifically.

I was getting my emotions under control when I heard footsteps coming my way from the corridors. I saw Yuto emerging from the gate with all the other prisoners and when he saw me he hurried to my side. I was still panting and breathing heavily after my little suicide act and he tried to get me back on my feet. I was barely able to stand and he knew it so he took my right arm and hooked it behind his head to better manage my weigh. He didn’t utter a word and I was relieved about it. I wasn’t ready to talk about this. And I would never be able to forgive myself for what I did.

He half-carried half-dragged me to one of the walls since we were oblivious to where the exit was. I was about to ask him what he was doing when I realized his intentions. “No… don’t”. He looked at me with a puzzled expression waiting to hear why I was stopping him. “Don’t draw on the mana around you, it will weaken you more than usual. Use mine instead, it’s safer. I produce too much and I can’t expel enough without magic”. Locking my gaze to his I pleaded him to hear me and not ignore what I was telling him. “I am too spent to cast”.

He nodded silently and waited as I let the mana that was already pooling inside me free. I felt him pull on what I was giving away and the mana gathered on the hand he was holding my arm with. He placed it on the wall and I felt heat radiating from it, too much heat. Then I heard his voice as he said the name of the arte. “Cor Ignis”. At his words the heat I’d felt pilling under his palm created an explosion that blew a hole through several walls and then the exterior one. Just like that he made a door for himself, and he only needed the mana I used for Mana Burst for a few moments. And I was certain he was holding much back.

When all the dust subsided the prisoners started shouting happily and made a run for the exit. What they did not do though was be discreet and that would be their undoing. Everyone who was here for more than a few days knew that the arena was built at the center of a big city, and that city had many guards specializing in different kinds of magic.

Yuto and I crept in the shadows as we made our way through the passageway and when we reached the exit we saw the prisoners running in all directions. Not losing so much as a moment he guided me to a dark alley where we would not be seen like the others. I tried my best to help him carry me by making sure that I was not letting myself get dragged but I was walking in a way with him. We reached the alley unnoticed and even then we did not stop. We walked until we reached the other end of the alley and found ourselves in some sort of market district.

Empty benches in various sizes decorated the street. It never noticed before since we got out but the buildings were made from stone and only a few seemed to have fallen victims to time. Every single one of them was substantially big and they had wooden casement windows that were now all closed and barred from the inside most likely. The street was clean and the earth was still somewhat moist under my bare feet from the rain while I was sleeping.

Yuto was searching for something that I was not aware and when he decided to move he directed us to another small alley. We kept walking for quite some time before we saw a difference in the buildings. Before they were new and big and in remarkable condition. Now they were mostly made from wood and in need of repairs. Many of them were little more than old wooden ruins but that was to be expected. In big cities there are always the wealthy and the poor, here it just seemed like the discrimination was more evident.

We stopped in a back road that lead to a dead end and then Yuto put me down gently with my back on the wall. I estimated that we now were an hour away from the arena building, at most, and soon the guards were going to start looking for the escapees. And we had no chance of staying hidden like this. “You need to rest. I can’t say if you will be able to stay awake for too long”.

As much as I wanted to rest I knew that if I did I would not wake up for too long. “You need to leave. If you stay they will find you too. The only way to escape is to get out of the city, and I cannot do that in this shape”. Raising my head and letting it rest on the wall like the rest of my body I looked at him trying to seem determined. “You have better chances on your own”.

He shook his head and then disappeared from my line of sight. I hoped he listened to me, he still had a family to wait for him to go back to, and he had a home. I had nothing left. I scanned my surroundings to see where I was and figured it wasn’t the worst place to die. The road ended with a high fence and all around me were planks of wood, broken and scattered like they were useless. If only people knew how many things they could do with them. That thought brought an exhausted smile on my lips I closed my eyes and started coughing.

Sometime later I heard footsteps and prepared myself to be found when I realized that the sound was not coming from an armor-clad guard. Opening my eyes with much difficulty I turned my head to find Yuto coming my way holding what looked like part of a fence under each of his arms. He placed them on the wall carefully and then he came to move me to the fence blocking the way to the road. “What are you doing”? His answer never came as he moved away and grabbed one of the pieces he brought with him. He came back and after adjusting me a bit he placed the fence piece in a way that it was leaning on the bigger fence with me under it, hiding me in the process. Then he left only to come back to do the same thing with the other piece before seeing if there was enough space and crawled under with me. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m hiding us of course”.

I wanted to argue with him but I was already lost in sleep when he was here before, now I was barely able to keep myself from closing my eyes completely. Getting a little closer he checked the cut on my waist and cupped it with his hand as I felt the heat of his powers seeping into my skin. I assumed he was using the mana I was emitting constantly to the air around me to close the wound by burning the flesh and sealing it so that the blood would stay inside me. I knew he was doing it but I felt nothing, like he was just holding his hand there for a bit. Still the thought that he might actually be doing that made my face heat up and I was sure I blushed.

Noticing my reaction he slowly retracted his hand and rested his head on the fence himself letting a small chuckle just loud enough for me to hear. “Don’t worry about anything, just get some rest. We will see what we’ll do when you wake up”. That was the last thing I remember him saying before drifting to the realm of dreams.