NOIXES - Away (ESL One Mumbai Soundtrack)

"Are you sure?" Armelius asks me as I watch Lyco Suilius choose the wolves who'll be going with us.

"Yes," I mutter coldly. My hands clench in fists behind my back while I grind my teeth in anger. Rey is feeling disruptive inside me. Both of us couldn't believe that she did it. She ran away with... Nadal.

That bastard!

"How do you know? And what if she is not there?" Armelius asks me in panic while I feel my anger rising in me slowly and steadily. My blood is turning cold. The killer in me is waking from slumber and slowly becoming conscious of the surroundings.

If I snap now, I can harm my own men and it won't be the first time for me to do so. I have done many dark things in the past and here I am, on the verge to repeat my actions again and about to become the man I thought I had left in the distant past.

It's all because of her. She made me forget of the sins I am capable of committing and now, when she's gone, I am the old me. I am the Lonely God, who painted his past with blood and is about to paint his present with the same.

"I know. She is my mate. I know everything," My voice continues to grow deeper with each word. Armelius grows quiet beside me, sensing the rage in me. No one would dare to cross me now. Even Haestus and Archander have their mouth shut as they stand behind me and listen to our conversation.

"ARE WE READY YET?" I roar at Lyco Suilius and he stops counting before his head drops, his eyes lowered in respect for my wolf. Submitting.

"Yes, your highness," He answers sternly with his eyes still lowered.

~

I take a deep breath and clutch my sword harder. My shield is up, ready to put itself between me and her. Everybody in the room is silent, watching us while holding their breath.

Who'll strike first?

Ishtar's calculative eyes sweep over me. The corner of her lips twitches up into a small smirk as she underestimates my skills under the rusted metal.

She moves, stepping at her right while I do the same instinctively, stepping to my left. We're slowly circling inside the emblem, maintaining eye contact. We're watching each other like a hawk, calculating each other's next move.

It's awfully silent except the murmur of my rusted armor and our footsteps. I realize that I have been staring at her without blinking for long.

I take the chance.

I blink.

Suddenly, she is in front of me with her sword raised above her head, about to hit me. A gasp leaves my mouth as I am taken off guard. I squeeze my eyes shut as the hand with my shield moves up to protect me before a loud thud is heard. Her sharp sword crashing against my rusted armor.

I am considerably pushed back by the impact. The soles of my shoes grind against the marble floor while I feel this surge of vibration run through my body, emanating from the point of impact. I open my eyes and lower my shield to find Ishtar standing in front of me with glee on her face.

Suddenly, it clicks and I look down to find myself standing outside the emblem. I look back at her to find a huge smile on her face as the helmet on my head turns into black sand and falls over me.

"So, weak." She mutters making me clench my teeth with enough force to snap my jaw. I step inside the emblem contemplating her action. She moved in a blink.

One moment she was on the opposite side of the emblem, the other, she was in front of me, ready to attack. I take multiple deep breaths as I take my stance and as soon as I am ready, she comes charging at me again.

She moves with so much speed that all I get to see is a blur. This time she tries again to hit me but I move away in time, my rusted armor cranking in the effort. She continues to attack me and I continue to dodge.

Twice she hits me, her sword cuts off one-third of my shield like a hot knife through butter. I am short on my breath but I have to keep moving. My armor is creaking and I could feel that it's going to fall off anyway.

I play defensive for most of the part. Our swords clash quite sometimes. The sound emanating from the crash is a disturbing high pitch that makes the armor shiver on my body. She grows more aggressive soon. Her strikes become deadlier.

I am on toes most of the time. As she starts to get frustrated, her strikes become more frequent. My shield is up most of the time, taking the effect of her sharp sword. At one moment, it breaks into pieces and I left with nothing.

A growl escapes my mouth as she continues attacking. I bring my sword up, clashing it with hers.

"AGHHHHH!" she screams angrily as she raises her sword high up in the air and delivers a deadly blow on me. I swing my sword with great momentum. A sleek ringing echoes in the courtroom as our swords crash before mine slides off against hers. The impact is greater this time and both of us are thrown back, out of the emblem.

I am up on my feet soon with my sword while I watch her get to her feet. Her helmet turns into sand and slides off her red hair while my chest cover turns into black sand and falls off before collecting at my feet.

I look at my sword and I am surprised to find that it has started to shine. I can almost see my face in it. I run my finger along its edge to find that it has grown way sharper than before. I could feel my confidence coming back.

"I won't let you win," I snap out of my thoughts as Ishtar speaks. She is back into the emblem waiting for me. I could feel the corner of my lips twitching up into a smile as I walk into the emblem. I am done defending myself. It's my time to attack now and since the upper part of my armor is gone, I feel much free to move now.

"Ah, and I forgot to mention," She speaks as I walk into the emblem, "This emblem gets smaller and smaller every moment."

"Just like your dignity?"

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" She launches herself on me again.

I could feel the rage coming off her in big surges before washing over me. She wants to hurt me and even if I can move much more freely without half the armor, I am very vulnerable to her because it won't take her sword to even touch my skin to cut through it.

As I feared, it happened. In a blur of moments, she catches me off guard and manages to cut through my stomach. I stumble back and a searing pain spreads over my lower abdomen as blood gushes out of the huge wound.

"Serves you right," I hear her mutter as I look at the blood coming out but without giving me any time to recover, she comes at me again. But soon, I see the emblem shrink. I am standing outside but she steps back in the right moment, saving herself from losing another part of her armor. That's when I notice it.

Her armor is enchanted. It's giving her the power to move quicker. Way quicker than my werewolf and hybrid powers would ever allow me to. As the armor around my legs turns into black sand and fall to my knees, leaving behind the only boots, I walk into the emblem.

My wound is taking some to time to close but I don't have any more time to spare. As she stands on the other end of the emblem with a satisfied smile, I feel the circle shrink around us. With a deep breath and ignoring the pain in my lower abdomen, I charge towards her. I attack her with everything in me. I continue striking at her. She has her shield up but I could feel her stepping back.

This is what I want.

I grow more aggressive and frequent with my hits. The emblem shrinks and she steps back at the same time. Suddenly, she moves her shield and is about to attack me when the realization dawns upon her that she has stepped outside the emblem.

As the upper part of her armor turns into sand, I could feel a smile growing on my face. Several gasps are heard around us. Ishtar looks shocked for a second before she comes in terms with reality.

"HOW DARE YOU!" She charges at me again and this time I play defensive but at the same time but make sure that my sword rubs against the sharper side of hers. After several hits with unsuccessful results, I could feel her attacks getting random and uncalculated.

She is getting impatient and desperate to hurt me and in the process, her swings are turning heftier. Her moves are not clearly thought. She isn't concentrating on her moves but rather concentrating on hurting me in some way or the other. It's getting easier for me to predict her moves slowly.

Since she lost almost half of her armor, the enchantment seems to have gone with it. When she grows impatient enough, I know that she'll go for my abdomen where she wounded earlier. Her shield is down on the other hand. Since she is playing in attack mode, she is not using it much and hence I can have a good chance at her if I manage to take her by surprise.

Looking for a clear sign as she tries to reach for my wounded abdomen with her shield lowered, I swing my sword at her chest, cutting open a huge wound. She lets out a painful cry before she stumbles back and looks down at her wound.

Dark red blood gushes down from her wound. I look at her with a satisfied smirk on my face. I wipe the blood away from my sword, realizing that it has grown very sharp now. She glares at me meanwhile and I see her wound close up. A look of surprise washes over her face as she looks at my now sharp and well-balanced sword as I swing it in the air, warming up my limbs.

"You won't get away with any of this!" She says through her clenched teeth while the emblem shrinks around us.

"Come at me with everything you've got. It won't matter to me. I have skills to sharpen my blunt sword, while your pride is turning your sharp sword blunt," I tell her while pointing to her sword. That's when she looks at it and a gasp leaves her mouth.

Her sword looks old, unlike mine.

~

We're enveloped in darkness as we watch the Goatmen patrolling the way to Ishtar's palace. Those half-human, half goat-like creatures are Ishtar's devotees. I remember the night when Ishtar sent them to kill Nefret. It boils my blood. I saved her all the time and now she is here, to be killed on her own.

My blood sped up with rage flowing through my veins feels like lava. I want to end this soon. It's been long since we've been playing hide and seek. Ishtar and I shall face each other soon and as for Nefret, I don't know what I'd do to her if she comes in front of me. Losing control is the last thing on my mind.

We're hidden in the dark and quiet like a stone. Rey is growing impatient inside me but we can't rush here otherwise we would have to deal with uninvited problems which would delay us even more.

I want to reach to her sooner and to do that we have to wait now. There seems to be some sort of rotation going on between the creatures before we see a new and stronger batch take the guard while the previous one leaves.

Lyco is positioned beside me with Haestus and Archander while the other wolves are hidden behind us, ready to attack on command.

We watch them for more moments and when observe that they're at their most vulnerable, Lyco commands the wolves through the mind link. In a blur, I and all the wolves are out, attacking the goatmen.

As soon as we take the patrolling batch down, the reinforcement greets us with a greater number of goatmen, equipped with deadly weapons. We expected them but we weren't expecting such a fast reaction out of them. Turns out Ishtar have been spending a good lot on her small army.

We are surrounded by more and more reinforcements. Each of my wolves is fighting multiple goatmen along with me. There's black blood around us with grunts of pain and the sound of metal against flesh with the rusty smell of blood.

Rey is impatient inside me. He wants to be done with this soon and go find our mate who started all of this in the first place. In some moments, I get the clearance from Lyco to thread towards the palace. This makes Rey exited before I slay three goatmen at once and run towards the palace, leaving my men behind.

It has started to rain as I run through the empty field alone towards the towering palace in front of me. Don't know why but memories of her when I first saw her keeps flashing in front of my eyes, breaking my concentration. We might end tonight for all I know. I don't know what's going inside the palace but I wish that whatever is happening there, it doesn't make me regret being late.

I already hate myself enough. I don't know if I could hate myself more but I am not eager to find out.

They say I have the power to change the inescapable destiny of man. Let's find out tonight if I am capable of changing mine.