Shadow Slave: Riftwalker

Oh... Shit! Aeona panicked, then—with all her might—she barrel-rolled, using momentum to throw her opponent off. Unfortunately, the treacherous man gripped her with his sharpened nails. Fortunately, he no longer held leverage over her, leaving her in a position suitable for counter movements.

Running low on time, she clutched the Grounded Counter's palm and manually chipped three of his fingernails. Blood trailed from his fingertips to his knuckles, visible unease reflecting from his expression. She didn't stop there, however. Twisting his wrist, she pulled him closer and prepared for the most devilish move of all...

...the nutcracker.

When her opponent instinctively countered, she crouched beneath and jabbed his genitalia with a balled fist. What she didn't expect was the lack of a reaction. In fact, rather than hurt, he seemed to feel quite dishonored. His eyebrows furrowed, focusing his attention on Aeona's weak points, and since Aeona's attack didn't work as she expected, he was able to capitalize.

He threw a dual-fingered-jab towards Aeona's midface from above. She shrieked and stepped back, but unfortunately, she was unable to escape. The best she could do was ever-so-slightly tilt her head, avoiding half of the attack. Even with this, she knew very well how much pain she was about to feel.

As expected, there was pain—quite a lot actually. Aeona felt a strange, but sloshy poke in her left eye socket. Every moment that passed brought more and more negativity, as if gradually stabbing more and more microscopic needles into her head. This was until the man's sharp nails were fully lodged behind her eyes.

Tears fell, drowning her cheek skin like a waterfall. "A...ah...aa...!"

Even before the attack was completed, Aeona screeched in horror. Her sight lost focus, and her mouth fell loose as she was forced to make a quick decision amidst the agony. She was forced to either lose an eye or perish a few seconds later. This was because the Grounded Counter's sharp nails were reaching even beyond her eye—specifically, her brain.

Gulping, she pushed herself away with the combined effort of both legs, using her opponent's core as a launch-pad. In doing so, the finger that lay behind her eye was forced back out...

...and the eye came with it.

Gaining distance, she crouched, covering her left eye with the palm of her left hand. She felt a strange gag reflex, not from anguish, but from disgust. With her right eye, she saw an expression she never expected from the 'Grounded' man. It was ridiculing, he was smiling—smirking even. He dangled her eye by the optic nerve like a pendulum, rocking it back and forth.

For the first time, somebody, and it wasn't Aeona. "Your eye..." He trailed off, his tone insulting. "...want it back?" Before Aeona could answer, the man threw it. While the velocity wasn't high, Aeona was in a sensitive state and was more or less frozen in place.

Splat!

It made contact on her upper frontal lobe area before gradually coursing itself down the poor girl's face. It squelched, sliding down the waterslide of her tears. It dripped off her chin before landing in her pocket. What was up with that!? What a nasty coincidence!

Aeona was stunned. Watching a detached part of her own body was repugnant, once again, her nausea grew. "You bastard...!" She stood up, her head uneven, but before falling into the pit of rage, she took a breather. "...hahh, it's just the price of my selfishness."

She was committed to get a good assessment from the Spell, but this was a cruel reality check. It was like a reminder, that if she wasn't ready to lose parts of herself, that she couldn't achieve her goals. "How tormenting..." She shook her head and grabbed the bandit's body from the ground. 

In order to win, she couldn't fight fair, and it was blindly obvious. Her opponent was an Awakened, and while he didn't have a combat-related aspect, his body wasn't far inferior to her own due to her opponent's core. 

After lifting the body, she ripped a long strip of fabric from his shirt and—while maintaining her distance—she tied it across her forehead in a diagonal manner.

Now that her eye was covered, she had another use for the bandit, and this one was morally questionable. Ah, whatever, it's a Nightmare, they aren't real... She mused, striking the bandit's malnourished shoulder repeatedly. 

Seeing as she wasn't focused on the fight, the Grounded Counter capitalized and made a strategic run. As he approached her, he decided on a more passive approach. Feigning a high kick and using that rotational energy for a low sweep.

"Idiot." 

Aeona merely grabbed the bandit's body and shielded herself from the sweep, then, without a moment's notice, she pushed the body onto her opponent, then kicked the bandit's back as hard as she could. Through a double-linked kinetic energy transfer of brute force, the opposing gladiator felt a strange ache from his muscles. His chest wore an indent, and his facial expression was tighter—on edge, if you will.

While Aeona remained on the losing side, the field was more level. Or perhaps it was not, because once again, Aeona underestimated her opponents pain resistance. Perhaps she expected him to back off. Regardless, she was met with a second aggravated assault.

Choke!

Throughout the battle, they wandered from the center of the Pristine Colosseum to around the area of her own station. That being said, she appeared to be quite unlucky, being strangled immediately after ever-so-slightly changing the tides.

Her head was eventually pressed against the hard-warm walls while her throat was clenched by sharp nails and tough hands. Her current Aspect made her multiple times stronger than an average human, but an Awakened? No, as stated before, the power difference between the two gladiators was relative. This was exactly what proved to be despairing. She could hardly breathe, hardly focus; her mind was partly—if not entirely—out of it.

The sky... that's all her vision held.

She saw the Master. He gazed down on the fight with a bright smile, entertained like a rich man playing with the poor. Even above the Ascended was a gathering of clouds, and clouds were water—albeit a few other compounds.

She was thirsty, the battle, from the beginning until her chokehold, had taken quite a toll on her stamina. The heat wasn't exactly refreshing either.

While Aeona could move her limbs, she had no momentum... no power behind her attacks. The impacts of her half-assed kicks were akin to an empty cardboard box.

What could she even do? Her arteries were blocked, and while—as a carrier of the Nightmare Spell—she would last longer, that could only amount to so much. Her opponent was calm, but confident. Confident in his victory. Confident with his minor injuries. 

He was rightfully confident.

...

Aeona remembered. She remembered the battle humanity fought against the Spell... and against corruption. She recalled how the world sheltered her, how her family guarded her, how her life was in the hands of others. 

She remembered that if she were alone...

...or if people weren't willing to protect her...

...that ruthless abominations would have devoured her long before she had the chance to challenge this forsaken Nightmare. She spent the second half of her life appalled by her lack of self-sufficiency, with a strict hunger to achieve it. She wanted the Spell to infect her, but how come she faltered in the presence of hopelessness?

Protected by others? Sheltered by others?

Disgusting... Her mentality was hideous, she extended her arms for the best but her own will to fight held her back. She was choked, but was the fight was over? Had she done everything in her power to win? Was she truly out of cards to deal?

No, thinking back, she wasn't out of options. Perhaps it was her brain's last attempt at taking the easy way out, but that was it. She wouldn't settle for an ending as sickening as this, she wouldn't settle for a will as stomach-churning as this.

Living was a requirement, even if it meant becoming a vile creature worse than the abominations she feared...

Aeona reached into her pocket, revolted by the action.

She couldn't be pathetic, at least not anymore; after all, the world wouldn't allow that version of her to exist.

---> Feedback Please! <---

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Authors Note: 

- I changed the cover of the fanfic because it didn't represent what I wanted the main character to look like.

- If this chapter was too fast paced or terrible to read, please let me know so I can fix it.

Now, pick between the two options below (Respond with a comment):

1: Create my own universe, which holds its own Dream Realm named locations and characters.

2: Remain in the original universe and have the main character eventually interact with the main cohort of Shadow Slave.

- Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! I was tired today which might have affected the quality.