Chapter 39: For survival
One after another one, Holbe parried each of Oppoa's attacks.
She was on the defence while he came after her, swinging his staff like a maniac yet his movements didn't have any unnecessary steps. He handled his staff like it was part of his body and only swung it to aim for Holbe's pivotal points.
It was a wooden staff and Holbe was sure she could cut it. As Oppoa jumped at her, he was briefly suspended in the air. His staff pointed straight at her, she dodged it and held her sword up to vertically slice the staff along the length in two.
Oppoa instantly retreated yet Holbe rushed up to him, kicked one of the staff's half out of his hand, spun it in the air to grab it only to stab it in his shoulder.
Both of them coughed blood. The second she reached for the staff and penetrated his skin, the second he took the other half and pierced it into her abdomen.
"Haha! This is great!" he grinned like a child who has tasted for the first time what it was like to be naughty.
"I don't have time for you," Holbe kicked her sword on the ground towards her and threw it at him.
But the moment, the sword was about to leave her hand, Oppoa jumped out, ripped out the staff in his shoulder and stabbed her palm with it.
The sword dropped to the floor and was kicked away by him.
"What's a swordsman without a sword?"
Holbe fell to the ground. She knew she had to leave the staff in her body to minimise blood loss, but it was impossible to move with the long thing stuck in her.
Instantly she pulled it out. But once again, she was stopped by Oppoa who stepped on the staff, causing a larger hole to rip in her stomach as the end of the pole in her tore upwards.
Holbe's blood dripped onto the ground. She started to get dizzy, but she couldn't afford to waste her power on healing herself.
She grabbed the staff with both hands and quickly pushed herself backwards. Her hands moved back on the wooden weapon as her wound constantly rubbed against it until she finally freed herself.
Now, the blood poured out in masses.
"This is a shame, I had thought the captain would be stronger than this. If you don't fight me with all you got, you won't even make it out alive to chase after the prince."
"Ha," Holbe spat out, "You didn't fight me seriously too."
"I can afford it," Oppoa shrugged his shoulder, "It's a shame it ends like this."
No, Holbe thought, if she was gone, no one could help Frozen Milk anymore.
She really was a disgrace as the captain. She wasn't even a match against a single opponent who wasn't using all of his strength.
She should stop getting distracted by Frozen Milk.
Focus everything on the fight before you, Holbe huffed out, it was naïve to think she could spare some of her power.
She held her hand over her wound and healed it on the surface, enough to stop the bleeding.
1, 2, 3-
She dashed towards Oppoa.
Focus, focus your power on the feet and hands, speed and strength were necessary. If I can't fight with my sword-
Once, twice, thrice-
Hit, kick, hit.
Both of them moved across the whole place. Holes were punched in the walls, on the ground, in the ceiling.
Holbe was never worked up like this. As Oppoa pressed her against the wall, she could clearly feel once again the insane amount of strength he possessed, despite his body looking like that of an average male.
She put one of her feet against the wall and with force used it as a springboard and tackled Oppoa to the ground.
Swiftly, she put her hand on his shoulder and the golden light appeared again, "I need you to be laying quietly for this to work."
With the other hand, she clenched his neck to stop him from moving.
"What... are you doing?" Oppoa rang for air.
"I'm healing you," Holbe could feel the exhaustion draining her consciousness.
"Healing me?" Oppoa was taken aback.
"Yes, however," she sped up the process, "As a result, it's inevitable that you'd pass out because your body needs to regenerate on your own."
"You- "
Healing was the most energy-consuming but Holbe knew she couldn't fight him any other way. In addition, she had to end the fight as quickly as possible.
"Haha, this might not be too bad..." Oppoa passed out and Holbe staggered to her feet and dragged her beaten up body down the hallway.
One after another step, she clung onto the wall to move forward. The sweat on her forehead rolled down her eyes and clouded her vision. The blood from her palm dripped and she couldn't move it anymore.
But none of it mattered as she prayed and hoped.
For what?
For survival.
His.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
MatchaMilk
MatchaMilk Frozen Milk: *tears up* I can't believe I've written so many badass characters.
Holbe:... Can you please worry about me being hurt?
Frozen Milk: Of course, of course! My holy beauty!
Prota: I'm also hurt! Frozen Milk! I'm also hurt!
Frozen Milk: You're not ignoring me anymore?
Prota: I was wrong *puppy eyes*
Frozen Milk: Ok, ok, I can't get mad at my precious protagonist.
Glimpse Water: What about me? Father? Father?
Glimpse Water: Father??? T.T
Glimpse Water: T.T
Glimpse Water: T.T
Frozen Milk: You too! You too! My son!
-------------
Uff this is still quite dark and kinda turns into another genre haha
Soon, soon we'll have light-hearted stuff again... hopefully?
Chapter 40: A true protagonist
It was an instant massacre. With not even much of an effort, both of the opponents were defeated. He was truly the protagonist, no one and nothing could stand in his way, except for the fated meeting between the villain and him.
Glimpse Water questioned why he himself was even needed in the story and he wondered if the protagonist was already this strong, how he could get captured and tortured?
The two opponents who seemed so sure of their powers and were confident to defeat Prota were taken out by just one punch of his.
Prota hurried down the hallway with Glimpse Water in tow. The bandages on Prota opened and his wounds started to bleed again as he rushed his body to move.
To move and move and move. Closer to Frozen Milk. Closer to rid this pain in his chest. All that was on his mind was to get Frozen Milk.
Go. Go. Go.
Prota and Glimpse Water finally arrived at the hallway Holbe was minutes ago.
"Damn, what the hell? So much blood," Glimpse Water walked after Prota who knelt down to examine the unconscious Oppoa. Prota slapped him on the cheek.
"What you doing?" Glimpse Water got curious and moved closer.
"Waking him up."
"Seriously?" Glimpse Water narrowed his eyes in disbelief, "He seems like an enemy but- "
"No wounds," Prota finished the sentence and continued slapping Oppoa like a fish on a cutting board. He gave up and saw the blood trail.
"Could be Holbe, ain't it? Wow, she finished him with one blow too? No wonder she's the captain."
Monsters, added Glimpse Water in his head.
However, he felt something wasn't right. There was too much blood for it to have been peaceful.
Glimpse Water couldn't help but ask, "Hey Prota, why were you captured... like that?"
Prota didn't stop walking, "Because they thought I was a water person."
"How did they realise? You ain't told them, ain't it?"
Prota remained silent.
"You really told them? What the hell? You ain't even a water person!"
"When they asked where I came from, I told them the water capital because that's where we've been..."
Naïve! Truly naïve! Yep, that was still their protagonist. Glimpse Water somehow sighed in relief.
"And then?"
"Well, the nature people seem to have a grudge against the water people, so they wanted to take it out on me. They especially didn't like the idea I wanted to join their prince's army."
"Ah yeah, that makes sense. We should've thought about it better," Glimpse Water had to admit their whole plan was full of plot holes and was rushed, poorly executed and just thought up on the spot.
As if an author really wanted to troll their readers and just went out of steam and started to write whatever the fuck they wanted. Glimpse Water was also an author, but he'd never write bullshit like this.
If there was really an author with such bad writing skills and storytelling and abrupt plot turns, they better hand themselves in and quit writing for the rest of their lives!
They walked for a while down this one endless, long hallway with no end in sight until at one point the blood vanished. Glimpse Water explored the path a bit further but there was no blood anymore. Everything was clean.
"There must be a shortcut," Glimpse Water thought. It was a problem since none of this was in the book Frozen Milk wrote.
"Ah damn not shortcut, I mean hidden passage."
"I agree," Prota started touching the surrounding walls. Glimpse Water followed suit but even after minutes, they found nothing.
"Maybe the ceiling?" Glimpse Water jumped up and touched the ceiling for a while.
"Nothing... Where could they've gone?" Glimpse Water had to be the brain here because the protagonist was indeed handsome and powerful but as for brains it was lacking, but Glimpse Water wasn't that much better off, though he didn't know that himself.
Prota and Glimpse Water went in circles until Glimpse Water finally noticed the abnormality in the blood trail.
Glimpse Water looked down and narrowed his eyes, "Wait."
He moved the spot where the blood ended.
"The blood here's thicker and more up until here," Glimpse Water turned around and moved about a short distance back the way they came from.
"The double amount of blood stops here. I see," he clapped his hands and pushed on the wall. He noticed a tiny blood print of a hand.
"See what?" Prota couldn't follow along.
"See the short part where the amount of blood seems to have increased? Holbe or whoever walked until there and saw they couldn't move further because they missed the hidden passage. So, they went back again and stopped here. Here's the entrance,"
Glimpse Water was proud of his deduction skills and pressed his hand on the blood print.
The stone wall moved back and opened a passage for them to enter. It led to another long and dreading hallway that seemed to go on endlessly. The wall behind them shut and Glimpse Water turned around to see Prota lean against it.
"You alright?" Glimpse Water was concerned.
Prota lost a lot of blood, "I'm fine, let's go."
Prota went ahead.
It was sheer garbage how long the hallway was, but Glimpse Water could guess in his little author's brain that this underground place did not only run underneath the arena but a good portion of the area. Did Frozen Milk know of this?
Was this one of his hidden plots later on in the book? Glimpse Water did manage to make Frozen Milk spit out the ending, everything he had planned of the book and when he realised what a badass but literally bad and ass character Frozen Milk made him, he started to reflect on himself a bit.
It was true he wanted to take the protagonist's spot but wasn't that just because he was following his fate- the plot Frozen Milk wrote for him? Wasn't he in the end just a puppet with no will?
At first, the thought of that made him resent Frozen Milk but later he came to realise that not everything was up to fate and he was able to change himself and this made him feel better upon realising he was just a character in a book.
At the end of the hallway was a single door and behind this door was a single magnificent room and, in this room, stood the villain with the holy beauty being strangled by him as Frozen Milk laid on the sofa, badly wounded.
Prota and Glimpse Water noticed the ripped dress of Holbe, the blood running down her bare skin forming a puddle on the ground, they noticed Frozen Milk unconscious with black threads surrounding him again and they noticed the villain.
The terrifying and intimidating villain whose dark eyes flickered to them and with his deep, threatening voice said,
"You're here? Good timing. You were able to beat some of my good fighters, so I'll reward you. You can either save her or him. Choose."
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