Aziz opens their mouth, red eyes glowing through Ryu's animated façade.
"Do you think you can stop me, mortal?"
Blood sinks through the mirror's glass reflection. Skeletal, ash-gray arms with webbed fingers claw their way to the surface; the ghūls draw their first, rasping breath. Snarling. Rolling eyes latching onto their meaty victims. Kane smirks. Alef whimpers, holding their arms in front of them as they crouch low to the ground.
"Witch! Witch! I should've killed you." Alef screams at me, near bawling.
"Shut up, fool." I point towards Alef, and my ghūls crawl towards them. When I whip my head back around, Kane is already at Aziz's side, pinning their arms down.
Red eyes glowing, lips pulled back in laughter. Aziz kisses Kane's neck. "Silly Kane," there's a sing-song edge to their words, a silver tongue, "did you forget? Cato's the strong one. He's the one you should pin down. But me? Should've gone for the jugular, my dear."
Kane roars as Aziz begins to sing, his grip slipping as he falls to the ground in pain.
"Listen to the Beloved's song," Aziz twirls in dance, now free of Kane's grasp. I fall to the ground, hearing the music, feeling the music as it shakes me to my core, paralyzes, burns, and twists the flesh holding my body together. Pain, unforgiving pain rips through me, pain that makes you want to give up and die. Pain that...that...
"Kill me," Alef's body turns in agitation, "kill me!"
I choke on my own vomit, shuddering on the ground, struggling to reach Aziz's poisonous mouth. Struggling to...
To...
Another twirl. My vision goes bright white. It hurts so much.
"Kill me. Kill me." Alef sobs.
"Shut..." I shudder, look to my feet. I've vomited blood. "Shut up!"
"Hear me 'ere the day comes long. Hear me as a lover's call. Hear me make the mighty fall!" The bastard laughs, running their thin fingers through Kane's silver hair. "Hear me, darlings, hear me cry. I'm laughing, darlings, to hear you die!"
I begin crawling, like a mere animal, on the floor. Another note rips from Aziz's throat. Another spike of pain goes through me. Vision out of focus. My fingers latch onto Aziz's sandal. They laugh at me as I clutch at their knees, struggle to pull myself upwards.
"Hear me, darlings, hear me, Kane..."
"Hear this, bastard," I spit, the words slurring more than they probably should, "hear your pain!"
I pull myself to my feet, leaning heavily on Aziz's body, swaying like a drunkard.
Aziz keeps singing. Smiling, so confident I'll fall back down again. More pain rips through me. I've gone virtually blind from pain.
I rear back, driving my full weight forwards, aiming the hard part of my skull towards what appears to be Ryu's jawline.
Crack!
Aziz's eyes dim a little bit in the shock of it all, Ryu's body clutches at their throat, a gurgling, choking sound. I fall onto my knees, hitting my head against the ground. My vision returns. I'm not sure how long I've been out.
I swivel my head to one side, see Ryu.
I swivel my head to the other side...
...and see Ryu.
Fake Ryus stand everywhere. Smiling at me. Mocking me.
***
Hey Champions,
The battle begins!
Wow, guys, we got up to #36! You're all amazing! I couldn't do any of this without you guys. :) How've all your weekends been so far?
-Sophia