Playing the Game

Ann was trapped. She knew it and made no moves to flee the room.

She knew David would just use her back as target practice if she turned to him. So as he slowly rose to his feet, powers crackling about his body, she dropped her hands from her sleeves, and quickly threw every ounce of her energy and Will, out before her in an explosion of soundless fury.

The Aurora was not like Mana. It did not hurt her or burn her nerves. It simply engulfed her in a cocoon of solid determination and warmth. Her Will personified by the thoughts of her mind. Her need.

Her Aurora flashed into being, across her chest and thighs, shimmering like obsidian, sliced thin like a sheet of aluminum foil.

“Come now Ann.” David chuckled as the Aurora shimmered before her. “Are you really going to make me hit a woman?” he teases. His power pulsing

“I’m making you hit the woman who’s Mantel you hoped to steal with false kindness.” She softly bit back. And watched him as they circled each other, malice vibrated from him and she held her hands out to her sides, open and read for the coming attack. Sweat beaded at her back, and her mind began to travel down valleys of death and blood.

“So be it!” With a bellow, David rushed her, and with an upwards swoop of his arm, a giant, lethal swath of black energy slammed across the room, and cut into Ann’s body diagonally. The lash of burning Mana singed the breath from her lings so that Ann couldn’t even scream as she was thrown to the side, but the force and ferocity of the hit.

Ann put everything from her mind, except her fierce desire to protect herself. Her Aurora glimmered and then the Mana hit her. And she was terrified when she watched the shimmering shield before her, shatter all along the edges. Like a sheet of black glass, cracking all along the outer sides.

David rose his other arm, and with a furious downwards and upwards flurry, three more burning swath of pulsing power hit her at her chest, and temple. His movements were guided by a crude style of martial arts and boxing. His body moved in practiced confidence

Ann gasped as she was forced back a step, by his ferocious move. She screamed in horror and shock as she felt her Aurora, crack open, like an egg, beneath a hatchet. Black shattered tatters of her will, fell apart, then disappeared.

She felt the full brunt of the Mana bulldozing across her pelvis and core, before she slammed back into the ground, landing awkwardly on her left knee and right palm. Shuddering. Her Aurora broken. The pain was like having her heart stomped on by a hammer. Her chest seized, and her mind blanked for a moment. It was worse than death to have your Will broke so viciously....So thoroughly.

Hes so viscous with his Mana....? Will I die here?

Ann mused as she rose wobbly up to her feet, clutching her aching chest. Her ribs protested, but she ignored it. She focused on moving.

She had expected this. The moment Hovel had placed he into her new role as the Second in the Brother Hood...she had been holding her breath in anticipation of the attack.

Unable to catch her footing entirely Ann went to her right, and started to pull her Aurora back up, only for her to gag as a beefy leg, encased in black swirling energy collided with her lower stomach, and she was easily thrown to the floor, as if a bull had rammed into her side.

Barely breathing or able to see Ann scrambled over to her side, she threw her hands out to a wall she collided with, and clawed at the surface, as she tried her best to stand. To think. To orient her mind.

David didn’t give her the chance too. He hit her again, a shot to the body, that made her feel like liquid, then he sent a burst of Mana at her face, the power rattled her senses, and her teeth began to swim in a burst of blood.

A shadow, hovered over her as she scrambled to keep her feet, she sagged into herself. Somewhere before her, David grabbed her by the front of her robes and seemed to lament. 

“Would that you were as worthy as my fallen brother Ann, none of this would be necessary. Oh, It brings me no joy to do this...but you can rest easy knowing that once you surrender, one who is worthy will be in your place as the True Second. ”

"Ha...haha, so pathetic...." Mouth dripping in blood Ann cackled like a maniac. Her levity died swiftly as she gasped and clutched her heaving breast. 

“And YOU are more worthy then I!?” Ann gave him a hollow look over and laughed again in derision. “Eric was more powerful then you ever were David...and you damn sure can’t replace him!”

Brown eyes flashing with rage, David clasped her throbbing jaw in cruel fingers and pushed her back. Trapped between the hard man all Ann could do was focus on not shrinking in on herself. She refused to show fear. "You weak..."she choked in seething whisper.

“Be silent bitch! I respected Eric, but I was always twice the Mana user he was Ann! He is a disgrace to us all, just as his Uncle was!! He died a worms death at the hands of a beast not fit to carry even our filth. And soon enough the Master will know my greatness....and so will you. Now, concede the Mantle to me and be done with this sordid affair!”

She didn’t care about his fingers gripping her chin so tightly that she feared her jaw bone would snap. She didn’t care about his engorged sex grinding against her hips as the man muscled her into the wall. 

He was taking pleasure from her struggle, aroused by her pain. The thought of all the ways he could violate her did not escape her,  But it was the insult more to the memory of a man she had always respected that made her want to win this fight. Anger, blind rage coursed through her and Ann nearly shuttered inside at the veracity of her desire to draw the jackal’s blood.

Ann sneered back, and just looked at him. She prayed, she hoped that her act would enrage him. Make him sloppy. She knew her chance would come if she did something he wasn’t expecting

David smiled back at her, then he spat in her face. Spittle dripped down her cheek and David laughed as she lunged at him, she wrapped her fists in Mana and surged at his throat, but she also sent a solitary tendril of Mana down into her leg.

Her fists slammed into David’s body, and a shimmering wall of black light rebuffed her, hot air, clashed like the sound of boulders snapping. David laughed and rushed her. Totally unaffected by her attack. His Aurora more solid then before. His Will was to great for her to break.

Tucking her hand up in defense of her face, Ann, slammed her foot into the floor, and with a singular force of thought, she sent the Mana out of the tip of her leg, and up into a crescent , so that it would cut across the back of David’s hip. 

Her sense of time slowed for a moment as she watched the haphazard attack, glance off of David’s lower back leg, slicing shallowly into the side of his robes, catching nothing but the material.

Got you!

Ann thought, and it was at that moment that something cracked across her forearms and tossed her backwards, a viscous shot of Mana slammed into her nose as her guard was blown open. Like a cement brick to her face the pain was electrifying.

There was a solid second where she lost her eye sight, before she was jerked and slammed back into the wall, so hard that she felt her teeth rattle and blood gush down her nose as it started to bleed heavily.

David, snarling in her face, clutched her by the front of her face, ignoring the blood running from her nostrils in waves. “Are you stupid woman!?” He shouted over her. “Did you think I would be easy to take down alone!? You could never hope to break my Aurora, Ann. And if you keep pushing me? I will Ward you!”

Not needing to pretend panic, Ann struggled to push him off as she choked past the blood filling her throat. “Don’t...don’t please!” she faked a sob.

She knew when to beg. She knew begging could buy her time and that if he put a Ward upon her she would be wholly defeated. His Will was stronger than hers, and even if she did try to deflect the Ward, David would simply break her Will, and put a Ward upon her anyway. Then both her Will and her Mana would be locked away. He could then do as he wished with her....and a part of her knew that he was probably going to torture her, if he didn't rape her out right first.

“Listen, I can make this easy for you Ann...” David suddenly and sweetly began. He leaned in close to her and slowly pressed his lips against her ear. Ann tried not to tremble as his pelvis ground harshly against her belly, hurting her and immobilizing her as he whispered in her nape. His hot organ pressed into her stomach, as he stood almost between her legs made her feel sick.

“I can also make this very very hard. I could strip you bare, have my sweet way with you, beat you and drag you by your throat back into that Sanctum so that everyone can watch your pitiful surrender at my hand! Maybe youll die being passed around and fucked to death by the Brothers and Sisters?” David bit her on the neck so hard that she screamed and tears gathered in her eyes. She didn’t let them fall.

He wanted to intimidate her physically, show her how he could dominate her, sexually if he chose to go so far. “I won’t kill you, but you will wish I had...you’ll wish you had given in to me!!” David continued and slammed a knee into her belly. 

Ann gagged and would have collapsed if he didn’t have her in his clutches. Ann swallowed bile, and tried to appear limp and weak. She did not wish to provoke him in his threat of a Ward. If she attempted to lash out at him with her own Mana head on he would have her Warded before she could pull up her Aurora and block him.

 Ann was trapped and the promise of death sat thick in the air...but in that moment, the small light in her seemed to flicker and thoughts of her death, of her loss....the promise of this Brother breaking her spirit more then it already was...insulted her very soul.