I struck the ground hard, taking a sharp gasp in as I heard-felt another part of my body break in the collision, sending the blazing fires of pain through my system yet again. The familiar coppery taste of blood filled the insides of my mouth. I groaned lowly in response. Wonderful. Actually, I’m quite surprised that I felt anything at all, after being thrown at the walls and the floor and through chairs and tables and the pillars and the windows and the roof and the door...Well let’s just say everything in the room.

Every single fibre of my being screamed for me to just lie still in the floor, to stay put. To give up, or it might give up soon. And I…I just felt so tired, so sore, so weak with all the blood loss. The hard ground never felt so comfortable in all my life, but I can’t give up. I can’t stop now. Not when I promised her that we would stay together not matter what…that I would protect her from all harm no matter how strong they were. Besides...I never ever break a promise. And with that, I allowed myself to motivate my mind and my body with the promise.

Using what little energy I had left, I began to move my arm, the one that wasn’t broken of course, curling my hand into a fist as I inched my limb down next to my chest. Breathing in as deep as I could and ignoring the shocks of agony coursing through my body, I shakily pushed myself up.

“What? Still getting up?” An amused, twisted voice mused just as I managed to catch myself just as I slipped on the blood that pooled beneath me. “My, you don’t know when to give up do you?”

I frowned and glared at the owner of the voice through my only functioning eye. Only one word came to mind as I saw the figure standing smugly in front of me. Ubris. Also another word but let’s just go with that for now. The confident-looking man, if he could even be called that, gazed down at me with those disturbing iris-less eyes of his. He looked as if he was winning, well actually he is seeing that I’m the one on the ground bleeding and all but I’m trying to be optimistic here, with his hands behind his back, a large smirk on his pale (ugly) face and his straight and overall arrogant posture. However I doubt he’d stay that way any longer with what I’m planning. Besides I was quite determined to wipe that smile off his face by the turning the tables around. Hopefully.

“Rhami!” A shrill but melodic voice called weakly. Trying not to wince, I shifted my gaze to the bound figure on the ground next to him. Gina. Her deep blue eyes stared back at my silver ones, helplessness dominating the expression on her face.

“What’s the matter? Have I roughened you up a little too much?” He laughed arrogantly. His voice rebounded hauntingly around the crack-decorated walls.

I looked back at him. Rising up to a sitting position, I spat the blood out of my mouth, wiped my lips and flashed my crimson-tainted teeth at my adversary.

“Of course not you idiot,” I replied, pleased at how strong my voice sounded despite my current condition, watching as the smile on his face turned upside-down immediately at my reply. Reaching to my quiver behind me, I grabbed one of the changed arrows I prepared for just the occasion. My fingertips grazed on a cold, smooth surface. With a small smirk, I immediately grabbed the steel arrow and brought it out. “I’m just getting started.”

And with that, I kicked off. Dust splaying into the air behind me as I ran with a new surge of adrenaline pumping through my veins.