Cipher Code {complete}

Chapter Twenty Eight: A Golden Defeat •EDITED•

Corey aggressively swiped at the red that trickled past his jaw.

He blocked out the screaming audience in the background and solidified his stance. He was sure that soldiers had forgotten that five years ago he and Gideon had fought-a bitter, bloody fight-for the seat of minister and he had won.

They had forgotten that he had beaten this general and many others in his quest for power. He had made them forget. Instead all they remembered was a feeble coward-it was the safest image he could allow. It had kept him alive for this long.

It had kept everyone he held dear out of harm's way.

Because he had been so weak, North had become a safer place. All his enemies were too scared of Gideon to do anything and they all thought that a spineless leader like him wasn't worth the effort anyway. They thought his presence made North a weaker nation, and that was a good thing for them.

But he was tired, tired of the ridicule, silent insults and overall feeling of inadequacy. He could hear voices at the back of his mind, Dawn, Kathryn, Priscilla-warnings. Alarms of danger rang loudly in his head but the danger wasn't anywhere around him. It wasn't from Gideon and his axe, it was from deep within himself.

Corey felt everything in him snap, five years of restraint broken on a whim. His only conscious thought afterwards was that Dawn wouldn't be here to stop him.

He let out a careful breath and flexed his fingers. This is it. This is the end of hiding. His voice of reason was gone.

His voice of reason had disappeared when she left the mountain and vanished from the capital.

This is it. He strode towards Gideon without hesitation. More tangible blades of strength flew at him but he didn't care, everything was so slow now.

So. Very. Slow.

He reached out with his left hand and crushed the blade in front of him. It shattered like glass, like it never existed, and the rest of the wind attacks barely touched him.

He felt invincible.

Corey felt power flow through his veins like liquid energy and he almost didn't know what to do with it.

Almost.

His fist shot at Gideon's face just as the golden axe came bearing down on him. Corey paid no heed to the attack, instead he sent his right leg crashing into the general's side.

The blade of the axe grazed Corey's sleeve as Gideon jumped back in retreat, but the minister didn't relent. He sent another punch towards the General's face.

Gideon scowled and hacked down at Corey's arm. Again, the younger man didn't seem bothered by the attack, he only raised his leg and kneed the vice minister in the chest.

The move sent the vice minister stumbling away.

The general shot back a couple steps before he stabilized. "Impressive, Roya."

Corey stretched his fingers and said nothing, he kept his gaze fixed on his opponent then cracked his knuckles. At this point everyone else had faded away, the only thing that filled his vision was Gideon and his axe.

I have to defeat him now. He was well aware that the thirty minute deadline for the end of the match was closing in. If he didn't knock Gideon out or get him to surrender by that time then the winner would be decided by the number of points accumulated-and right now it was two to five.