Aramas dove left when the arachnid mountain sprinted, avoiding the charge. He landed sideways on a building. The black widow turned quick. Glass and concrete broke as Aramas jumped up, shoulder slamming the creature.
The spider rolled; Vanessa flat on her stomach screaming. The black widow got up, backside facing Paige. A wall of web way too big to stop burst out. Aramas jumped avoiding the blast, Vanessa waited below.
Clever.
Paige transferred her goals into Aramas and undid her strings. Now like a surfer riding a massive wave, she bent her knees, spreading her arms wide.
The spider swung into a handstand, shooting a wall up. Aramas was hit but kept falling. Using what little movement he had he grabbed the beast.
Paige jumped, rocketing right onto Vanessa. Snapping all her strings.
They fell, fighting in the air.
Vanessa, at the least six to ten years older, was winning, hands wrapped around Paige's neck.
Her fingers turned red and burns formed. Paige could feel the heat sapping her consciousness. Fading fast, her shield in reserve, her eyes rolled when a familiar scent tickled her nostrils. Earth.
Crack!
She put her shield on max just in time. Vanessa crashed onto it bouncing and crashing to the ground.
Paige rubbed her neck, eyes shut, the fall rewound over and over against her will in her mind. Just how weak it must have looked. It was mortifying.
Miraculously, her opponent wasn't dead.
Letting the world's scents distract her, Paige sat up.
Vanessa in her own world, fought to stand.
It was… hi… larious…
Her legs and arms wobbled under her own weight.
Amazing to watch and yet disappointing to witness. The whole fight had lasted minutes. Vanessa spat blood coughing hard.
"[Ooof… that's a rib… a break and a punchta…]" Paige said, making a show of bouncing to her feet and stretching. "[Just breathe. Hopefully ya bro taught ya how to focus ya recovery, right? Ya not gonna fall asleep on my ass, right?]"
Her green eyes shimmered in the daylight at the taste of victory. Winning didn't have a scent so much as a texture. It was why being smug felt like savouring a mouthful of syrup. She waited and watched as Vanessa pulled herself together. Fear, weakness. She was rank with it, what else was there to do other than bask?
It was a beautiful day.
"[So, Vanessa, whatcha ya do now the game's ova' and I hold all the cards?]"
Paige's grin faltered, Vanessa was happy? Wheezing, blood dribbling off her bottom lip without the power to bring it to a stop and yet...
Paige walked right up to her with the curiosity of an eight-year-old, before grabbing a clump of her hair, yanking up.
Laughter?
"[I'd stop playing.]"
She spat blood in Paige's face.
Time froze.
Paige froze.
She simply stood. The cold, sticky crimson on her cheeks, on her lips! It was touching her forehead, her nose! Her hair!
It isolated every part it touched, her senses retreating, inadvertently painting circles around it, like a murder scene. Highlighting it!
Paige screamed slapping the blood off, she scrambled. Something exactly like a wall, hit her in the back and pushed. She barely got her shield up before hitting a real wall.
Thowmb!
It trembled.
======================================================================
Crushed. Outnumbered. Held by death itself. Paige has nothing left—except her spite. As new enemies close in and old wounds rip open, she claws her way back from the edge. Broken but breathing, she's not here to beg. She's here to burn.
Next episode: New blood. Old rage. One step from oblivion.