203 Winner

Doevm took a deep breath and ran forward. Frey waited for Doevm, his spear overhead and ready to throw. Thirty feet, twenty feet, ten. Doevm rolled out of its path, but the spear never left Frey's hand. He instead drove the back of it into the ground and used like a pole-vault.

Doevm, still scrambling to his feet, couldn't roll out of the way. Frey reeled his shield back and bashed into Doevm with his full bodyweight. The smack of Doevm's skull against a pillar was all he needed to hear, but the sound never came. Frey's momentum halted.

Cracks reached his ears, but it wasn't that of a person, but of metal groaning under a tremendous amount of force. Frey pulled back and put a dozen feet of space between them. There stood Doevm but with a cracked skull mask. A single blue flame burned on one side. The other half of his face had a red, slitted eye. He stood taller than before, as tall as an adult. 'What was the crack,' Frey thought. He looked at the front of his shield and found finger-sized holes in its metal frame. He willed it and the shield put itself back together, a bit slower than usual.

The echoes of their weapons scraping past against each other filled the rapidly darkening room. Whenever one of them were thrown into a pillar, dozens of light crystals smashed into both them and the ground around them. Every now and again, a light crystal would fly past them, turning for a split-second, their dark silhouetted body into a sweaty mess of bloodied, scratched armor.

Doevm pulled out a healing potion and gripped it so hard that it cracked. He didn't break it completely however, stopping just before it shattered. Frey narrowed his eyes and waited for Doevm to charge in again.

Doevm never charged, opting to instead circle around while occasionally throwing in some feints. 'What is he planning?' Frey thought. 'Why isn't he attacking?' He had to suppress the urge to look around as that might have been Doevm's plan. He found that he couldn't take his eyes off the healing potion. 'If he wants to heal, I'll charge at him, but why crack it?' They circled each other another time. 'Then again, I never know what he's planning. All I need to do is use strength to overcome it.'

Frey charged forward and Doevm chucked the bottle at his shield. The shattered bits hadn't even touched the ground before Doevm stabbed at him. The attack, however, might as well have been slow motion to Frey, who went to counter with a shield-bash. His arm, tired from the many fights over the day, screamed at him and forced his speed down to a crawl. He groaned, the salty sweat dripping into the many cuts of his aching limbs. Doevm stepped back from the incoming shield just as slow. His heavy breaths fogged up cracked front. More cuts appeared on their skin. That type of wound was negligible. The cuts' locations, however, were always close to a vital spot.

Doevm went for another jab at Frey, who grabbed him by the arm, pulled him in, and drove his fist into swelling face. A tooth clattered into the mess of shards below their feet.

Doevm's wrist, slick with sweat, slipped out of Frey's grasp. He turned his arm and rang Frey's helm like a bell with his elbow, reinforced with a thin layer of life essence. Frey shambled back into a heavily cracked pillar, leaning on it for support. They stood there for a few moments, taking deep breaths, within a dozen feet of each other.

Frey could only see a blurry, blue flame and a red aura in the dark chamber.

Blood dripped out of shards of light crystal imbedded in Doevm face but he could still see Frey because of the light layer of white aura surrounding him.

Frey took another deep breath, deeper than he thought his lungs could handle: "Enough of this!" He bellowed. The layer of white energy solidified and brightened. He pushed off the column and took a jab. Doevm stepped back, falling for the feint. Then came the real strike, a sloppy side swipe with his shield. Doevm tried to roll, but his already damaged ankle wouldn't bend. It caught him in the chest. Frey crunched shards of light crystals and broken glass as he shambled forward. Doevm held his arms out to block. Frey kicked right through it, knocking him into a pillar.

Doevm tried to push off the pillar to get some space, for his ankle wouldn't bend anymore, but his sweaty hands couldn't get any friction. Frey drew his Kopis.

Doevm was staring at him with that flaming eye of his, now reduced to cinders. With that look, he didn't plead for mercy. That eye was analyzing him, waiting for some kind of hesitation. Frey's Kopis hacked at Doevm's chest. Something cracked but Frey couldn't see what it was as Doevm was just an outline to him now.

Doevm bounced off the pillar and crumpled to the ground, spreading blood on the shards now stabbing into his back. Frey fell to a knee, not by choice. He reached over and pulled Doevm up by his collar, his shield still held between them. He couldn't take any chances. "Why," he paused for a breath. "Can't you just fucking tell me you…piece of shit?"

"Because," Doevm wheezed before continuing in dry voice. "If I did, then Hopi died for nothing," He winced when Frey dragged him across the floor a couple of feet, more shards going into his back.

"You won't die from this will you?" Doevm shook his head. "Good." Frey sighed. "I just…I know you should have a reason. You always have a reason. Tell me, just me. No one else."

Doevm's eyes started to roll back but Frey shook him back to consciousness. "Ok I'll tell you," he coughed twice and said something but Frey couldn't make it out so he leaned closer. Doevm smiled: "I trust you. Even from the start of this fight, I've trusted you. That's how…" He took a few breaths and a fit of coughing rocked his frail body. "I knew you'd win."

Life essence gathered around Doevm's chest. Blood shot from the wounds on his face and into Frey's eyes. As Frey wiped it away, Doevm reeled back with life essence around his arm.

Doevm's eyes regained their focus as the healing elixir that had wet the many shards of light crystal and glass on the ground, circulated through his body. Doevm punched a hole through the already-cracked shield. Just before his fist reached Frey's face however, it halted. "But don't worry, I'll reveal everything soon." A magic circle appeared. Frey's world went white.

Before the giant fell onto the shards, Doevm caught him. With his limbs feeling as though they had caught fire, Doevm carried him over to a pillar, and leaned him against it. He pulled the sweaty mask off his face and the single flame extinguished itself. His red eyes returned to their usual black. He turned the cracked mask around so he could gaze at its single, empty eye socket. 'I'm doing it again,' he thought. 'Manipulation. No matter how great the reason behind it, I cannot allow myself to continue with it. Even if it is the best move for me to erase him memories right now, I just…' he held the sides of his aching head. 'I can't bring myself to do it. If I did, I'd be no different from Gwenivier. He's innocent. This isn't his burden.'

One century ago…