There was a heavy bundle of severe feeling sensations flaring around every inch of me, some of which more painful than others, but there were none at all that did not afflict any sort of stinging, sharpness, aching, nor throbbing whatsoever.

It was like my entire body became a catalyst of pain - and Jay… grin-baring, light-bearing Jay was its wielder.

But if there was anything at all that I could say about the moment at hand… it'd be the fact that it was strangely familiar.

This pain, this predicament.

I distinctly remembered the last time I found myself forcefully pinned up against a concrete slab. How the hell could I ever forget? The way my sight blurred and unblurred, the feeling of every breath… like a cinderblock pressing heavily against my chest. How I squirmed and how I writhed. It wasn't exactly a memory you'd keep in a ditch somewhere in the short-term.

The only thing that tore the similarities of past and present asunder was the lack of touch - any way you look at it, there was nothing that kept me hovering inches from the ground, nothing that kept me pressed against the wall.

Unlike the iron-grip of jagged claws, unlike the bruteness of Amelia's approach, Jay hadn't the need to get up and close when it came to inflicting harm on others.

Yet somehow, his just felt a lot more personal.

I felt myself moving again, not of my own volition. My hands, legs, torso, everything, it felt as if invisible strings had been tethered to every single part of me and they were being pulled again - forcefully.

Jay pulled his arm back, and in turn, I was dragged along with it.

I was sent hurtling, like a speeding bullet expelled out the barrel of a gun, from one side of the room to the next, from one wall to the other. I didn't even know how fast I was going, where I was going, not until I heard… not until I felt the impact.

It sounded like a wet splat, felt like even more than that - the entirety of my left side bashing hard against concrete, and the entirety of my right meeting the sudden plummet, crushing empty cardboard boxes on the floor.

What was up, what was down, left, and right, I didn't know what was what. I just knew I had to get back up on my feet and fast and so I did. Regardless of the immobilizing twinging on my left shoulder, regardless of my legs so numb to the core.

Had this been two months earlier, had this been a two-month-ago-me, I highly doubt I'd even be standing as I was. That me would have been knocked ice-cold way back at the initial collision.

At this point, agonizing pain wasn't just some faraway prospect I cross my fingers to avoid. Now, after everything… to me, dealing with pain has become just another part and parcel of my ever topsy-turvy life.

Didn't mean it doesn't hurt like a fucking bitch though. The growing pounding in my battered skull can certainly vouch for me on that front.

Swaying, steps unbalanced, I spun around my garbled sights trying to focus it front and center onto the murky figure before me, echoing footsteps on steady approach.

Another impact like that and the janitor on duty will be scraping my brain matter off the walls all the way to next week, I just know it. I can't let that happen again.

I focused. Through soring lungs I breathed, determined. And through arms aching, outstretched, I steadied my intent.

Jay stopped at center stage of the room, peered over at me, and cracked another amused smirk.

"That stance," He remarked, blowing a breath to ringed lips. "Oh, that takes me way back. I remembered taking that same stance too. Young, naive, magical-less, me. Hey, indulge me for a sec - you haven't a fucking clue what you're doing, do you?"

A question asked meant an answer is to be given, but seriously I felt like if I open my mouth even at the slightest slit, the only thing I'll be giving away then would be yesterday's eggs and toast.

Needless to say, Jay did not hear a single peep from me. Not that it seemed to bother him all that much going by his widening smile.

"I sense some magic coming from you. That's promising. Can you use it though? Come on, use it. I wanna see."

Now he was just trying to rile me up - really, I much prefer him aggressive than patronizing, I really wish he'd just continue raising his hands against me instead of mockingly stretching them out wide on either side, surrendering all show of hostility.

"Come on, do it!" He goaded. "Something simple, something easy. Knock me over or something, you surely can do that much at least, right?"

There he was, adding literal insult to injury… but I wasn't going to let myself succumb to such underhanded tactics. I kept that focus, felt that whirring fan within me flowing through my veins. Everything was within, I just gotta get it out past the surface.

Focus, focus…

No subjugating… that's still beyond you for now. Do what he did… if you can do what he did, if you can just stall him… maybe you might just make it.

So do it… do it...

"DO IT!"

Jay roared. He swiped an arm, instantly, no chance to elude, he whirled a thick book towards me, a hard edge striking the side of my head with no chance to elude, before it went slumping down with a thud at my feet.

"DO IT!"

He swiped again. An overfilled box.

"DO IT!"

Again. A cracked monitor tossed, crumbling to pieces onto a blood-stained floor.

"FUCKING DO IT."

Another. Missing only by inches. An entire aluminum shelf smashing, breaking, into the wall, dismantled into clattering, rolling chunks of metal.

No more jeers, gone with the mockery - his rage returned with a burning vengeance, and he seethed and fumed, staring at me with a fury like nothing else. I've never seen so much hate in a person. So much disdain focused towards me.

I never thought I'd end up being an object of hatred.

"You? You! Holding the loyalty and trust of the most powerful Elf-Knight in Asteria?! Someone like you - powerless, useless - her Master? It's a joke. IT'S A FUCKING JOKE!"

His left foot thundered against the concrete, fracturing into fissures and cracks surrounding the impact.

"You don't deserve her! You didn't deserve her! You never will!" Another stomp, his right, splintered even more. "Took her! Stole her! I was the one - she was supposed to - YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!"

Jay's voice was growing hoarse, every shout seemed to just add fuel to already blazing flames. I couldn't stand still, not when his hands, his fingertips were twitching the way they were.

Because something tells me, that next time he swung again… bruised and bleeding as I was… he won't be swinging to miss.

He'll kill me.

I wanted to say, wanted to point it out to him that he just might - but the glint in his eyes, the gritting of his teeth - there wasn't a single sliver of rationality left in that enraged expression.

Needed to move.

"Give her back," He lifted an arm, hovering those same jagged chunks of metal laying sprawled by the wall. "SAY YOU'LL GIVE HER BACK!"

I lunged myself off to the side, barely feeling a sharp whistling wind graze the back of my head. Landed in a pile, and as I did, my eyes fell, and found the serrated remains of that aluminum shelf burrowed deep into the concrete.

Three pieces stuck on that. I counted seven that hovered… Jay still had four more at his command. I couldn't stay there, I spurred, weaving around and scattering rubbish into the air as I did.

"Now you're gonna run," He muttered in dismay. "See? Can't do anything. What happened to magic? What happened to fighting me, huh? What happened to your FOCUS?!"

Another two impelled straight towards me, narrowly eluded, by throwing my entire weight down - it saved me, but it just added to my agony, everything was bleeding, aching… and I just winded myself.

I got up, straining, grunting - mustering all effort I had.

His voice again. "Where's the determination?!"

Another shrill whistling piercing through the empty air - I wasn't up yet. I jerked, impelling a throbbing leg forward… sending me just a little bit more forward.

Wasn't far enough.

The throbbing turned to searing, as the metal sliced at my calve, gouging open a gash that instantly spurted blood. That was it. I couldn't get up, sit up… I can't stand up anymore.

It's always the leg, why is it always the leg?!

Can't give in, I can't let it end here. One arm over the other, one hand then the next… haul yourself, drag yourself!

I chanced a glance at Jay, the desperation in my eyes meeting the insanity in his. I wanted to plead, scream at him to stop. But it was no use, words couldn't anything more.

He spoke again, his arm swinging… and the one last hunk of metal darted straight for my head.

"Where is your - !"

I didn't get to hear the last of his sentence. I braced myself, clasped my eyes shut, holding in a breath for that swift moment of collision. I didn't feel it happened - I thought it was because I was dead.

I wasn't.

A clangor rang aloud. The deep ear-piercing reverberation of metal against metal echoed and echoed.

My eyes fluttered open. The first thing I saw was that same hunk of metal split thoroughly in two by the middle on the floor just mere inches away from me. A glinting then caught my eye, a blinding shimmer… a glistening tip… of a sword…

I felt my heart skip a beat, as the rest of the scene swiftly began to assemble itself.

Those long locks of white hair were no longer still and unmoving, those steady hands squeezed the hilt of the sword, wielding in a way that always seemed like second nature.

She was moving again - Ash somehow was moving again… and in the blink of an eye, she came to my rescue. So fast, not even Jay had seen her.

He stood there, I saw his face so ridden with disbelief, as Ash spoke out to him again, her voice dripping with more venom than I could ever imagine.

"Intent?"