Hatchling

Fire vs. Fire

She released a slow breath. She looked the pink-haired man dead in the eyes and the confusion in them only excited her further. Another hook was aimed at her jaw but she simply side-stepped it once more. This time frustration was reflected in his eyes and he aimed another hit at Terry, this one coming at her quicker than the previous one. Again, she merely sprang out of the way.

He kept aiming hits and blows at her form and she kept dodging and weaving with liquid-like fluidity. His irritation was showing in the way that his attack speed was increasing. Her eyes flashed with a slightly unnerving excitement yet her facial expression was blank.

The next hit collided. Technoblade's left hand was gripped tightly in Theresa's and she only looked at it with slight interest for a split second before dragging said hand closer towards herself. She twisted herself around so they were both facing the same way and grabbed his upper arm in a vice-like grip. She slipped her shoulder under his arm and in a quick move, his world shifted upside down and the ground rushed up to meet him.

Technoblade's mind was screaming at him in confusion, Thersa's cried out in exhilaration. He scrambled to his feet and was unfazed as he aimed for another hit.

Terry dodged the obvious strike to her head but didn't anticipate the sudden dig to the diaphragm. Her lungs spasmed and she found it hard to breathe, her lungs refusing to inflate and take in oxygen. She stumbled back and her mind was singing out for her to 'mess him up' and to 'show him chaos in its rawest form'.

She ducked down and swept his legs under him and he jumped up to dodge it. She kicked up her legs and righted herself, slamming her metal-plated sandals into his nose in the process. He staggered back and almost fell over his feet. He stood still for a moment, swaying slightly.

They stared at each other. Terry slightly hunched over, breathing heavily and Techno, eyes watering and his hand covering his nose, numbly rooted to the ground.

Terry stared deeply into those deep red orbs and the pain that shone from them made her heart clench in her chest. That look wasn't the look of physical pain: it was one of emotional suffering. An expression of losing something that you hold more dear than your own life and morals. He was barely holding himself together and Terry understood. She understood the worry of a parent.

She was forced back to the present as the gold-adorned man charged toward her like a severely unstable ravager. She prepared to move out of the way but was left dumbfounded as he rushed past her. He slammed his hands against the outer fence to stop himself from toppling over it and a sword, made of a smooth dark material, seemingly jumped into his hands, begging to be used.

He turned back to Terry and he swung furiously at her. She leaned back and her world turned upside down before righting itself as she cartwheeled gracefully out of range. The harsh blade cut through the air and the indigo glow emanated off the cold metal that came dangerously close to her face.

She stepped back slightly. 'That quick?' her mind questioned her, referring to the early use of a weapon. 'Is that even allowed?', 'Bit early for that, innit?' and requests for 'Violence?' reverbed in her head but most Voices were demanding that she 'Call Atlan!' and proclamations of 'Fork time!' with such excitement it almost caused her to burst out laughing.

Terry beckoned to, seemingly, no one. Her hand was outstretched, for a friend or maybe trying to convince an enemy that they could change for the better, and Techno charged for Terry again. A sharp whistle tore through the air, the war god stopped abruptly and ducked down as a blur of gold streaked past where his head was previously positioned.

Terry grasped the golden streak easily as it hurtled toward her. The gleaming trident was beautiful yet exuded a graceful power, which could only be mimicked, and the runes that floated over the polished surface caused a shiver to make its way up the pink-haired man's spine. She spun the trident lazily in one hand, the minimal amount of sun reflected off the surface and cast flecks of light into his deep red eyes. He couldn't take his eyes off it.

He ran up and tried to cut at her side but a resonant clang informed him that the trident had gotten in his way. He was pushed back and his vision was cut abruptly to the sky. He felt his back hit the ground and a deep red ruby stared him in the eye before descending quickly on him, he rolled over to the side and kicked himself upright as the polished ruby slammed into the ground, sending bits of the slightly damp earth flying.

He scrambled up and steadied himself on his feet. This fight wasn't going well for him. Terry angled the Trident at his head and launched it at an inhuman speed. The atmosphere around it protested as it tore through the air and he rolled over to evade it, his shoulder digging into the dirt and staining the white crumpled shirt with an earthy colour.

He took in uneven breaths as he was perched on one knee, his mind was racing as his mind screamed and wailed at him. 'How?' s ringing in his head, some screamed in pure rage and some muttered in genuine confusion. He didn't know. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he felt something solid slam into the back of his head and he saw stars.

Technoblade could smell the wet earth. He had been beaten down by some suspiciously familiar woman in a random village and he closed his eyes, dismissing the dark shadows that probably sat underneath. His mind was buzzing and he wished desperately for a moment of silence. 'How will you find Vorp now?', 'Lamenting, No mini-Blade' and reminders of how 'hopeless' the situation seemed.

I know! He wanted to scream but the fact that it was him that his daughter was running from broke his stone-cold heart, one which the very same daughter had melted. She had grown from a flower and he didn't forget the shock when a petite little girl had just popped out of the oversized flora. He didn't forget the innate emotion inside him that compelled him to keep her, to care for her as a father would.

Yet he had failed miserably. Here he was face down, looking like a mess with his shirt crumpled and stained by mud, his hair falling out of its braid and the jewellery hanging from his hair seemed duller, mimicking the shade of brass.

He had failed, the same way he had failed his brother and he didn't even know where the lanky blonde had gone. He hoped the ground would swallow him whole with how hopeless he felt.

While the pink-haired male was wallowing in his self-pity face-down on the grass, Terry mercilessly kicked him in the side and onto his back. She kept her impassive face and a single twitch of the edge of her mouth exposed her mirth completely. Techno looked up at her with a blank stare and her mirth faltered. Suddenly her brother looked older and more lethargic than what was expected.

She extended a hand out toward him and she let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding when he accepted her hand. She pulled him up and a small smile graced her countenance. Techno sighed and ran a hand down his face. He leant down to pick up the dark sword that had fallen out of his hand when Terry's trident hit him in the back of the head. He let the sword hang limply in his hand as he looked back at Terry.

She held out her hand for him and he looked down at it for a second before taking it. She closed her other hand around his and shook them earnestly.

She looked into his eyes and smiled again a subtle warmth sneaking into them. "Thank you,"

His eyebrow twitched slightly and his confusion was aggravated. 'Why?', 'For what?'. For once he and his inner turmoil were in sync, agreeing unanimously that this woman was strange.

"I haven't had to try so hard in a fight in so long. Again, thank you,"

"No problem," he responds dryly and the look in her eyes betrays the fact that she wasn't fazed by his attitude. 'Weird' his mind registered. It was as if she had expected it.

She smiled at him before turning around and heading to the fence. He squinted at the blonde's retreating figure watching as she hopped over the waist-high fence, her foot got caught on the edge and panicked as she fumbled to stop herself from falling flat on her face.

She laughed at herself as a couple of other people made their way toward her. He recognised the weird doctor that seemed to be compelled to give a complete physical observation of potential patients. The said doctor threw a concerned glance toward Phil who was waving him down from the other side of the closure. Dropping his curiosity he walked back over to his group and hopped over the fence.