“Why won't you die already?!”

  He brings the blade down for the umpteenth time, adding yet another wound to the being beneath him, barely recognisable in the sea of red.

  He is granted no response other than a heavy cough, spraying more of the carnage on him. Enraged but exhausted, he steps back. He has failed again despite the immense effort put in.

  He orchestrated a battle where she would need to expend a great deal of life energy to allow her companions to remain fighting. He watched them go their separate ways after narrowly emerging victorious. He took her by surprise, leading to the present moment in which he stands over what should, by all metrics, be a corpse. One that he cannot seem to put down, despite his many attempts. He screams in frustration before yelling at her.

  “I'll be back. I will return, you hear me? You haven't won! I won. You lost. I just need to finish you off for good.”

  He cuts off a nearby tree branch, sharpens the end into a makeshift stake and drives it through what was once her torso, intending to pin her to the ground to prevent anything unexpected from happening. Curses are shouted as he takes heavy steps away.

  Five minutes pass and no change can be observed in the mess he left behind.

  Ten, fifteen, then twenty.

  After half an hour, it becomes truly noticeable. The crimson floor beneath the broken body is superseded by the formations of skin and flesh that once were, slowly forming the shape of a person.

  By the third hour, her form is still overtly ravaged but no longer indiscernible.

  By the tenth hour, all that remains visible is a number of gashes and cuts around her body, reflective of only a small number of stabbings. At this point, her brain has recovered enough to allow her consciousness. Her eyes open for the first time since they were destroyed, and the first thing she notices is the beautiful canopy above. The second is the overwhelming pain. She loses consciousness.

  Some time later, her eyes reopen. This time, however, she is prepared and avoids fainting once more. Looking around, she notes that Dolus has left her, just as he said. Realising that this implies he will return also, she resolves to leave before he does, not knowing how long it's been. The girl attempts to move, but two main problems are encountered.

  Her muscles are too damaged to support her weight. This means she cannot walk, but she might be able to crawl, at least if not for the other problem.

  She is pinned to the ground through her stomach by a large branch, one she has nowhere near the strength required to move currently.

  Yelling in a mix of pain and frustration, she closes her eyes and focuses intensely on directing her life energy to the most important parts, prioritising healing the muscles she needs to move over fixing some of the deeper internal injuries.

  As she is in a state of deep focus, hours pass until she finally regains enough strength to move. Weakly, she raises both arms to the branch pinning her to the ground and pulls it out with great effort. Blood, skin and a bit of stomach acid spray out as the branch dislodges, leaving a hole and bringing some of what has regenerated with it.

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  She shouts and drops the branch to the side, hurriedly sitting down and directing life energy to the wound, spending another while stabilising herself, realising that this may be the final barrier between her and leaving. As she finishes, she stands once more and begins stumbling in a random direction, finally free, until she hears a voice.

  “Where do you think you're going?”

  The smug, familiar voice she dreaded calls out from behind her. For the first time in a while, she utters a word, unadulterated spite palpable in her tone.

  “Brother.”

  “Yes, Astraea. I know you're happy to see me, my dear sister. Your tenacity is beyond anything I've ever seen before. It's no wonder our father thought you better than I. He always hated me, it seems. No matter, I've got more now than you and he could ever have offered. The Thanasians truly know how to treat someone important!”

  Astraea grits her teeth, responding coldly.

  “You're the scum of the earth. I will end you.”

  Dolus grins and chuckles at the threat, regarding Astraea's marred body. He simply walks up to her as she barely holds herself up. Seeing him stopped right in front of her, Astraea feebly attempts to grab his head. In response, Dolus leans back to dodge and kicks her to the ground with his hands behind his back.

  “You're in no condition to fight. Don't worry, yesterday's events won't be repeated. I know I'm not equipped to slay you.”

  Astraea narrows her eyes at him as he continues.

  “For this reason, I've brought a friend. Come on out!”

  From behind a tree, a tall, thin man emerges, clad in a large black robe. A low voice emanates from behind his mask.

  “...promised a good meal. Here?”

  Dolus nods ecstatically and watches as the disturbing figure takes a few deceptively long strides up to her. The man reaches out his long, sickly arm and puts his hand on Astraea's leg, holding her in place.

  For a second, nothing seems to happen, before Astraea begins to feel even more tired.

  At first, she thinks little of it, but as the exhaustion grows, so does her concern.

  In a short time, she realises what's going on: energy is being drained from her body.

  Too weak to even speak, she watches as her leg starts to wither. Then her other leg. Next, her arm.

  She attempts to mobilize her life energy to resist the flow, but the current leaving her body is too strong to fight.

  Her eyes shut against her will as exhaustion ravages what strength she has left, and she loses consciousness.

  Dolus claps with glee, seeing his sister faint.

  “Finally, oh, finally! I've waited too long for this moment! The final problem in my life snuffed out like a low-quality candle. Truly a fitting, undignified end for such a creature.”

  The man does not speak. He simply keeps absorbing. Time continues to pass and eventually he turns his head to face Dolus, and interrupts him as he giggles joyfully at his sister's apparent death.

  “Something's wrong. Too much life-”

  Dolus snaps back right away.

  “Don't ruin this for me. Just keep going.”

  The man sighs and stares for a second, before turning back to a sight he was unprepared for.

  The grassy patch directly surrounding Astraea has turned brown, and upon closer inspection, the area of wilting is slowly expanding. He increases his rate of absorption, which seems to increase the radius of dying grass. He lets go of Astraea's leg, stands up and steps back in a single motion as her eyes shoot open and she lurches up from the ground. He gasps in fright as a hand grasps his head faster than he can react.

  Dolus watches in horror as the man's long, bony fingers rip and tear at Astraea like claws. Every swipe tears off a large chunk of flesh, but they regenerate faster than he can create more injuries.

  Over the next ten seconds, the man’s attempts to escape are proven futile as his attacks become progressively slower. His body shrinks significantly, as if decomposing, until he finally goes limp.

  Astraea drops the husk that was once a person, remaining unmoving as Dolus screams in fear and flees.

  Minutes after he is long gone, Astraea finally moves. She looks at her right hand, then at the corpse it had grasped.

  Falling back onto the ground, she stares up at the sky, muttering introspectively.

  “I killed him. What did I just do?”