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Guard Station

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“Zane, I’m really worried about Shay. He has been gone almost 40 minutes now.” Exclaimed Paul with a worrisome expression glowing on his face.

“Honestly...” Replied Zane. “ I’ve had this bad feeling for the past 20 minutes now, but we haven’t been able to get away from our superior, Gaze.”

“I know but…” Stuttered Paul, looking down trying to think of something to say.

Zane let out a big sigh on Pauls behalf. “Okay, let’s just go then. I can’t help but quench this overhanging feeling that something is wrong.”

Paul was taken aback for a second. “But- What if they sack us.” Asked Paul who was a little flustered at the idea despite being worried about Shay just a few seconds ago.

“It’s fine. It doesn’t matter.” Replied Zane with a serious; determined look on his face.

“Come on, let’s go.” He said while strolling away confidently, ignoring his superior.

Paul followed suit as Gaze just sat and watched in disarray as the two of them completely blanked him.

As they wandered through the streets, they heard screaming coming from a quite the distance away and perked up.

“That sounds like our best shot.” Yelled Zane who took off in an explosive dash towards the direction of the yelling.

“Hey! Wait up Zane!” Exclaimed Paul at the top of his lungs.

“Oh yeah, I forgot. Paul isn’t too good at running at this speed.” Zane said to himself slowing down to a more appropriate pace that Paul could keep up with.

The two ran in unison at a moderate pace towards the direction of the screaming.

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Shay vs Richard

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An Icey haze lay dormant around us, the air was so cold it felt like I was breathing in daggers. This cold stabbing pain in my side pulsed. My wound shouldn’t feel like this. I thought as I sat on my hands and knees against the hard ground, watching Richard take Amelia as his hostage.

I steadily stood up and as I did, I felt a tugging feeling where my wound was, the same I felt earlier when I attempted to dash towards him.

I stared at him, bearing the pain that slashed through me. I made up my mind to ignore it best I could.

Richard stood across from me, smiling viciously while holding Amelia with a sharp Ice blade across her neck. Amelia had her eyes shut, not wanting to be anywhere near here. A tear rolled down her cheek as she tried her best to keep calm.

I felt completely hopeless; I watched for what felt like an eternity as Richard cackled menacingly.

“What a face.” Said Richard as he gazed right at me. “You’re pathetic, you can’t even save one person. So much for being a guard. I thought you might have been something special since you accompanied Diablo, but I guess you are just his fucking dog.” Scoffed Richard who had completely lost it at this point.

I dropped to my knees with my head down feeling defeated, I stared into the ground asking myself what I was doing, why was I even a Guard, I obviously couldn’t handle this, It was beyond me, why did I decide to help protect the city if I can’t even protect one person. I sat and pondered to myself feeling like the world was against me.

Silence echoed around me as I sat in defeat…

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Shay Shuppet was brought up in the mountains by his grandfather, he lived with his sister, Serina and two brothers, Leo & Samuel. Shay and his siblings were taught about Magicka by their grandfather, it was there where Shay was forced into practicing Magicka from a young age along with Serina, Leo & Samuel. Shay, being the youngest, was also the worst out of his siblings at using Magicka. His sister had two affinities, one for the Ice element and another for the Electric element, his two brothers both shared an affinity for the Fire element.

At aged 6 Shay was believed to have no affinity for any of the elements, this caused his siblings to pick on him and call him weak, pathetic and useless. His brothers had managed to learn how to use the fire element at 6 years old, they had already mastered forming Plasma and were starting to practice Fire. But none of this compares to Serenia who, when she was 4, unlocked the Ice element. His sister was the oldest out of his siblings and was also the strongest, with two affinities, she could easily use both the Ice and Electric element by age 13.

Serenia tormented Shay the most, calling him all sorts of names day in and day out. He felt exiled by his siblings, but not his grandfather. His grandfather welcomed him and let him develop in his own time, he didn’t call him names, but he would tell him he would get it down eventually and he let him know that everyone develops in their own time.

Thanks to his grandfather’s motivation, Shay would sneak out of his bedroom window at night and practice for hours at a time, leaving him tired in the mornings and struggling to get up in time for morning practice. His siblings called him lazy and pathetic for it, saying that he was a failure and that grandfather would never accept him.

A now 7-year-old Shay would spend his free time after training crying in a small cave that he found in the mountains near his house. Here he felt that his brothers and sister couldn’t shut him down. He done this for months on end, feeling betrayed by people who were supposed to comfort him.

One day, a family came hiking up into the mountains, a father and a mother, two children; a brother and a sister, accompanied by a dog. Shay watched the children play with the dog from the front porch of his grand-fathers house, his face lit up wanting his own family to be like that.

His grandfather saw that seeing a family like that made Shay happy, so he ventured down to the city and purchased a dog for Shay. His grandfather felt like the children’s constant displeasure was due to them not having real parents and so he took it out on himself. He wanted to make Shay happy and let him have as close to a normal and happy family life as possible, gifting Shay a dog was all he could do. It was a small and cute puppy, no older than 13 weeks. It had short golden fur and a long tail that wagged equally as fast as Shay’s heartbeat when he saw it. 10-year-old Shay could hardly contain his excitement at the sight of his new beloved pet. Shay took the liberty of naming the dog Archie after his father who he learned the name of through stories from his grandfather.

Archie was purchased while Shay’s siblings were out on a 3-day mission given to them by the city. Shay’s sister, Serina, was 14 and his two brothers were 11 and 12, Shay only being 10 years old at the time of getting his beloved puppy, made him much younger than them.

Shay spent day in and day out with Archie, he slept with him in his bed and fed him and took him on walks through the forest covered mountains. Shay played with Archie almost all day and it was the happiest his grandfather had ever seen him. His grandfather watched Shay play with Archie in front of the house and shed a tear of happiness as he watched Shay smile and laugh.

3 Days had now passed since Shay was given his dog and the next day was his grandfather’s birthday, as well as the day his brothers and sister returned from their mission.

Shay wanted to make his birthday special and give back to him for gifting him the greatest present he could have asked for. So, he took all the money he had been saving his whole life and snuck out to the city and purchased a dark oak wall clock. It cost Shay all his money that he had been saving his entire life. Shay returned and hid the clock under his bed and waited for the next day to come.

Shay awoke with a smile on his face and got up and ate breakfast with his grandfather like he had done the past few days. Archie ran around with Shay and they played through the day waiting for Shay’s brothers and sister to return home.

Shay wanted to wait until everyone was home to give grandfather his present as he wanted to share his happiness with his whole family. Shay believed Archie could bring them closer together, just as Archie brought him closer to his dream.

Shay sat in his room with his new dog as he heard his siblings come through the door, he sprung open his door and came running out with a smile on his face, ready to greet his siblings return and celebrate his grandfather’s birthday, his dog yapping and wagging its tail in excitement while it ran in and out Shay’s feet.

Shay yelled “Welcome home!” Only to see his Sister standing in front of his grandfather with her hand on her sword ready to unsheathe it. She turned sharply to glare at Shay and Archie.

His sister peered over in Shay’s direction. “Who let a rat in the house!” She scoffed irritated by the dogs high pitched excited barking.

Shay stopped running and his smile was wiped off his face in an instant.

His sister then turned fiercely and slashed the puppy, knocking it into the wall as it yelped in pain, it bled out quickly and died in front of Shay. His sister stood tall with a toneless expression calling it an indecent rodent in a disgusted voice.

Tears filled Shay’s eyes and rage overcame him. It was the first time he had attacked his sister. The happy family Shay had always dreamt of was beginning to form and his sister had just demolished it. Crushing his dream in front of his eyes.

Shay charged his sister at full force, however, the difference in skill was made apparent immediately as Shay’s sister pelted him full power with her leg. The blow sent Shay flying through his bedroom door, smashing it to pieces as he bolted through it like a cannon ball and into the back wall of his room, severely winding him.

Shay lay on the floor and watched as Serenia took her sword and mercilessly murdered his grandfather in cold blood.

Shay screamed at the top of his lungs as he sobbed and wept uncontrollably. His sister stood and watched her grandfather fall to the ground with an emotionless expression.

“Why.” Shay muttered quietly as air escaped his lungs. His sister completely blanking him and turning to walk out the door without even batting an eye to him or showing any remorse for the atrocious act she just committed.

Shay crawled over to his grandfather as he howled in tears.

All Shay wanted was a perfect happy family, he just wanted to celebrate his grandfather’s birthday, so why? Why did this happen, he thought as his grandfather turned and looked in Shay’s direction giving him one last smile before closing his eyes and leaving Shay on his own to grieve.

Shay curled up in a ball and thought about all his happy memories, trying to forget his wicked sisters act of merciless macabre.

Shay lay there for days with no food or water until he mustered up the courage to leave his house, still heartbroken and bearing the weight of his grandfathers’ death. He made a decision… He would find and kill his sister.

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Present Day

I stood with my head down. Recalling why I took on becoming a Guard. After thinking about it I just felt worse about my current situation. I haven’t improved, it’s been 6 years and I’m the same weak and defenceless idiot I was before. It’s all the same, the situation… hasn’t changed at all. All these thoughts flew through my head when suddenly, my attention was diverted to Richard and Amelia. I heard a loud grunt from Richard, I peered up quickly to see that Amelia had elbowed Richard in the stomach and had fled forward, trying to escape his grasp.

I was in a state of shock. I stood and watched, hesitating on making a move. My mouth was wide open, watching as Amelia fell forward and was slashed across her back by Richard.

Amelia hit the floor and I could see her wound through her cut clothes. Her blood began to pour out and immediately began to freeze, the blood from her wound was freezing at a rapid rate.

In that moment I realised what his ability was. He controls the air around us and cools it down immensely, then he slashes us, and the cold air freezes the blood from our wounds, making movement difficult since it requires us to stretch and break the ice, essentially slowing us down. It was a way for him to easily slow our movements without using too much Magicka.

In that moment my spark came back and I burst forward in anger. Richard was caught off guard by a millisecond and I slashed him across the chest with my sword. Richard fell back onto the pavement. Now his wound began to freeze.

“Tch, an ability that works for and against the user.” I said as I watched Richard stand up and ready himself for my next attack.

I lunged forward, slashing upwards at him with my right arm, he barely dodged my first swing, Richard lost his balance while dodging, seemingly affected by his own ability, I took this window of opportunity to jump forward and knee him in the chest with my left leg, sending him flying back off the pavement and onto the road at the corner of the street.

I took no time in recovering from my attack and began lunging forward towards him again, Richard got up quickly after calling his ability off and tried slashing me with his dense Ice sword. I readied myself to block his incoming attack with my sword to then go in for a counterattack.

Just as his sword hit mine, my sword shattered into a million pieces. Shock exploded all over my face. It must have been from when that demon attacked me on my last mission, and I blocked it with my sword! Richard managed to cut across my right cheek as I dodged reflexively. I took no time in dropping my now broken sword on the ground and quickly countering Richards attack with a powerful blow to the left side of his head with my right fist.

Richard was sent straight into the concrete, knocking him out cold.

I stood their panting excessively, unable to control my breathing. I began to feel dazed and felt my muscles becoming weak, unable to support me. I heard the sound of Zane and Paul shouting my name from the corner of the street.

“It’ll be okay now then…” I said to myself as I fell forward into the ground with a smile on my face as Zane and Paul approached quickly.

Zane looked around at Amelia who was on the floor seemingly passed out with icicles sticking out her back, a man in white who was lying on the ground also passed out and of course Shay who was also lying passed out.

“W- What the hell happened…”