Riven

Rynin clenched his teeth, and his stance shifted. His body was shaking, but not from the pain. Denial. His ego would not, could not take this.

With a sharp inhalation, his muscles tensed. He was quick, but calculated. Even as he was reeling from my hits, he readjusted, seeking an opening.

Then, he found it.

In one motion, he dashed. He was contorting his whole body in a wild, reckless, full-bodied attack. There was no grace to it, just pure force intended directly into my center. The kind of takedown that will snap bone and crush muscle-ending the fight in an instant.

There was something very different in this attack.

This time I didn’t have a simple and easy dodge, no possible sidestep or pivot. Just impact.

He was making me take the bait.

And in that instant, just like earlier, I felt myself get slammed. I had a decision to make. Dodge, which would be hard with his speed, or take him on, which would be an issue due to his strength advantage.

In a split second, I made a choice.

I met him head-on.

No more dodging. No more slipping through his grasp. If he wanted to throw everything into one final gamble, then I'd crush it.

His momentum was wild, reckless, but mine wasn't. I braced, feet steady against the slick stone, and at the last possible second, I twisted into him.

Our bodies collided.

The force should’ve flung me flat, but I was already moving, I already saw how to use it. My shoulder drove into his chest, his weight redirected just that fraction off-center. His footing faltered. That was all I needed.

He barely had time to react before I stepped back, cocked my leg, and swung.

My right kick landed right into his ribs.

The sound was brutal. A sickening crack split through the air.

Rynin's body launched sideways, completely out of his control. He hit the slick stone once, twice, and then slammed into the arena wall with such force the ground shuddered.

The crowd fell eerily silent.

He simply sat there, slumped against the cracked surface, his chest rising and falling in ragged, uneven breaths. Rain streaked down his face, mixing with blood from his nose and a fresh wound along his left temple.  

His fingers against the stone twitched suddenly. He struggled to move and tried to rise. 

But he couldn't.

I stepped forward, my own breath steady, controlled. The arena’s lanterns cast my shadow long across the wet ground. Rynin's gaze dragged up to meet mine, and in his eyes, I saw it-

Not defiance. Not rage.

Fear.

Rynin had never been in this position during any fight. He had always dominated these fights, kept the pace, and pressed his opponent for submission before killing them. Now, though, everything was different, and he knew that.

I stood over him, rain sliding along my skin. The nape of my neck, which had previously tingled, was now burning.

I could finish this right now.

The thought hit me hard. This was an Assignment. There were no second chances, no mercy accorded. I had to kill him.

Rynin knew it, too. His chest rose and fell in short, rapid breaths. His lips parted, but no words came out.

I had expected him to beg.

He didn't.

Instead, his head cocked slightly, and through the haze of pain clouding his features, a faint, exhausted grin stretched across his face.

"You gonna do it?" His voice was hoarse, barely audible over the rain.

Although he was smiling, his eyes were full of fear. The look in his eyes. It was just like Liv’s.

I stared at him.

The crowd was waiting. 

But I already knew my answer.

I let my breath out slowly, the fists still clenched at my sides. My body was alive with energy, with purpose, but something in me held it back.

Rynin watched me closely, his grin faltering. 

I had seen it, the world where I had killed him, the way his body slumped, the way Rynin’s shirt would get drenched in blood, the way the fight would end, decisive and absolute.

I stepped back.

Hundreds of eyes were pinned on me, creating a thick tension. Assignments didn't end this way. There's always a winner. And a dead body. I always killed my opponent. But that look in his eyes… And the way the life in his eyes vanished… I couldn’t.

Rynin blinked, his beat body unable to move. "What…?"

I turned from him, toward the chamber doors. Rain continued to fall, mingling with the blood that stained the stone. My blood and his.

“Wait!” Rynin called out, his voice strained. “You won! Get back here and finish me, before they kill me… and you!”

I knew that I had painted a huge target on my back.

The rain began to thin out. The heavy downpour turned to a drizzle, and then to nothing at all.

The sky that had been a continuous sheet of deep gray lightened just the tiniest bit, like the storm itself was watching the fight. Droplets clung to the broken stone, sparkling in the light from the lanterns around the arena, but the weight had gone.

Behind me, Rynin hadn't budged. The crowd still waited, hushed and undecided.

I pushed through the arena door from which I had come. My body began to ache and my ribs and chest burned from the fight as my adrenaline wore off.

Then, something shifted.

A presence.

A tug at the edge of my awareness, threading through the tension. It was something that sent a tingle down my spine.

For a fraction of a second, I felt like someone in the crowd was watching me differently than the others. Not with awe, not with fear, but with something else. Understanding. Recognition.

I spun around.

Faces upon faces. Spectators were still in stunned silence, some whispered, others stared. But no one was out of place. No one who stood out.

Whoever it was… They were already gone.