Loving the leech (Guardians of Red Moon city #4)

Kaylin’s POV

It’s time, and I don’t know how to feel. I notice early when I walk through the corridor towards a smaller arena than the previous one I’ve been in that the council hasn’t released its fascination at having music to hype up the audience. I miss the suit I wore earlier; what I have now can hardly be considered clothes! A pair of very short shorts and a belly sweater in imitation leather, I hardly call clothes. I look gorgeous, absolutely! But these aren’t clothes. This time I have no axes; instead, a heavy gold sword hangs on my back and four throwing knives in one of my boots.

I wonder what William will think of my outfit; nothing positive, I guess. The announcer stands on some kind of balcony and addresses the public.

“Welcome everyone to the last battle! Kaylin was the one who got the highest score, and thus she had to go through one last fight before she can take home the win. Three challenges and potential tasks from the council members. Your first creature is a werewolf!” the announcer declares excitedly.

When I stand ready in defense, “21 Guns” by Green day echoes, and the audience roars with joy. The werewolf released from a giant cage is the same as those I met inside the big arena, a feral one who shows no compassion whatsoever. The wolf doesn’t hesitate to run towards me, and I can’t prepare for how much faster this one compares with the previous ones. My arm is in an iron grip in the wolf’s jaws, and I scream inside by the pain. I can’t free my arm without risking tearing it off; therefore, I use my right arm to dig up a knife and start wielding it.

The blade cuts into the flesh on the werewolf’s stomach, and it lets go of my arm by the injury. With my speed, I run in the opposite direction and create a plan in my head. The wolf is quick to react and follows me. Using the arena’s side, I use more speed, run upon it, make a reverse volt, and land right behind the werewolf. I swing a deadly blow with the sword in my hand and penetrate the neck of the animal, resulting in instant death. The jubilation around me indicates that I finished the first challenge, but it doesn’t help when I drop the sword and fall to the ground with my injured arm to my chest. Perfect!

The blood seeps out of my bite wound and flows down over my arm; I really don’t want to get up again. Dave’s words echo in my head and make me stand up even though my body is protesting. “Life is like a game; you either win, or you lose.” The audience is entirely wild, and when I look up at my clan, everyone cheers except William, who looks worried. I focus once again on the advertiser as he excites the crowd even more over my quick win.

“She’s amazing, isn’t she!?” he exclaims, and the roar becomes louder. “Okay, Kaylin. You’ve passed one challenge, the easy one. Now comes the next level, and you have to implement it without hearing!”

The easy level!? I was lucky that I managed to kill the werewolf quickly, and my energy is already beginning to seep out of me. The advertiser doesn’t tell me what kind of creature I’m facing now, making it harder to prepare my technique. Suddenly, I can’t hear anything anymore, and given how quickly it disappears, there has to be magic involved. I will thus fight a creature I can’t hear and know how it works because of my temporary lack of hearing; great! It may sound strange, but when you’re going to fight an unknown creature, you need all your senses to be able to attack correctly.

Now that I can’t hear, I don’t know how it moves or how close it is. I look around the arena carefully and try to get used to my deafness when something throws me several meters away. My head hits the ground, and everything is blurry for a few seconds before I see what it is I have in front of me; a banshee. Do you know what a banshee is? If not, I can explain it to you. A banshee is a form of an evil spirit that uses its cry to drive you crazy and make you commit suicide by, for example, hitting your own skull against a wall until you die.

They don’t walk on the ground, but just like an ordinary spirit, they move through the air; they can also camouflage themselves to blend into any environment and use telekinesis to throw someone or something long away; which I just got to experience. Now I understand why the council gave me the sword; even though it weighs incredibly much more than an ordinary metal sword, it’s necessary for this situation. It’s only a gold sword or dagger in the same material that can kill a banshee, and it must penetrate; it isn’t enough to cut a little in the skin.

You can’t grab a banshee either since it’s the same thing as trying to catch air. Banshees use their abnormally long tongue to eat up the brains of their victims; it’s specially shaped only for that purpose. They’re in the form of women with dark “liquid” hair and sunken eyes that can give the devil nightmares—in other words, terrifying! It throws itself at me, and I try to beware as best I can, but I don’t have much time before the woman stands in front of me with her tongue stretched out, ready to eat up my brain. She’s fucking creepy, but I can’t stop to be scared for a while; I have to keep going!

I swing the sword and manage to hurt her arm; she screams, and it’s clear even though I can’t hear it. All others present must also have the same magical means as me; something else would be absurd. Not that I instantly have any time to look, but the innocent crowd isn’t the ones challenging a banshee. I am. For a moment, I think I have a hefty concussion, considering that suddenly two banshees float above me. However, I quickly realize that it’s just one screaming, which means I’m no longer fighting one but two. For the sake of clarity, I call them one and two.

Two don’t attack immediately but disappear suddenly, and I know I’m in even more danger now that I can’t see the creature. I have no time to react this time either when I get attacked, and I begin to get annoyed. An invisible force throws me through the arena, and I slam into the wall on the other side. My spine creaks and I can temporarily not move without everything spinning. Am I paralyzed? Both move towards me at the same time and use different tactics to get closer. I tear the neck of one with the sword until it stops moving from the injury.

Number one disappears into thin air and dies when I throw down the sword’s blade in the throat of it, while number two becomes more ferocious. The attacks are increasing all the time, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep going. My body is screaming for rest, and my brain is desperately trying to figure out how I should do to survive. The damage in my arm from the werewolf bite is pulsating, and I have a hard time keeping my eyes open; I should’ve waited until tomorrow to do this instead. Stupid stubbornness!

When William’s eyes meet mine, I gain a new power within me that quickly turns into anger. I have no idea if there are more banshees or not, but I’m going to kill as many as it takes to win this. In order to spend the rest of my life with my beloved, I need to put up with this, and it’s for him that I continue to fight. I jump high into the air and smile to myself as my sword penetrates the last banshee from above as I land. Without lying, I feel like a warrior princess right now! Xena, throw yourself in the wall because here I come! If this happened under other conditions, I would think this is funny, but it’s the exact opposite, given that I can die.

The crowd roars yet again, and Salazar gives me a discreet smile of pride. I stand up and breathe heavily, watching the big tv in the middle of the arena acting like a “kiss cam.” The camera zooms in on William, who smiles big at me and sends off a kiss with his hand from his mouth. I get embarrassed, and the audience gives away an “aw” sound that makes the situation even worse than it already is.

“Kaylin, you’ve fought through two tasks and have one left. How does it feel so far?” the advertiser asks.

“I’m proud to stand here today; even though I’m injured and in pain, it’s ultimately worth it. As long as I get to go home with my beloved today, I’m happy,” I reply, breathless with a smile, and meet my beloved’s gaze, who smiles big back.

“You’re sweet, Kaylin! Now, for your final challenge, it’s your vision that disappears, and just like with the banshee’s, you don’t get to know in advance what kind of creature it is!” the announcer exclaims just before a blindfold obscures my view.

The audience is silent, and I try to listen without finding anything out of the ordinary, at least until something thunders at me and makes me fall forward. My back hurts from the impact, and I’m trying to figure out what kind of creature it is. It breathes heavily, and growl-like sounds are coming from it. I go through all the knowledge I have about mythological beings and conclude that it can be any of them. Something sharp and hard penetrates my thigh, and I groan from the pain. As I try to get out of it, I take the opportunity to feel the creature and realize quite quickly that it’s a Nian.

A Nian is a mythological creature from Chinese culture. It’s a lion-headed creature with two thick and sharp horns; in addition to that, the animal also has many sharp teeth that can bite through stones. What the hell am I supposed to do!?

William’s POV

Kaylin, why do you always do this!? I can understand why she feels the need to finish this today, but at the same time, I think it’s idiotic. All the events inside the arena and what happened before she ended up there must be challenging to process. But to plunge into a new “project” before settling with what has occurred is never a good idea. We’re lucky if Kaylin gets out of this with her psyche intact, while it’s doubtful she’ll be the same as before. No one goes through such terrible experiences without being influenced by them, human or supernatural; in that case, it doesn’t matter.

The thought that I might not be able to be there for her and help her is what scares me the most. No one knows how it’ll go in the battle inside the new arena, and in a couple of hours, she may be dead. Damn it! I growl and mumble to myself while we walk to the place my beloved will fight yet again; this isn’t what I call date night. I’ll be sure to change it when I see her again if I see her again. Every day I’ll show my Kaylin that she’s all I ever wanted, asking for her forgiveness and working extra hard to be the man she deserves. Maybe you think she’s overdramatic- don’t feel like that.

There aren’t many who can go through what Kaylin experienced and still stand on their legs. You must remember that just a few weeks ago, Kaylin lived a quiet life as a human being, unaware of all the supernatural beings moving in the shadows. Now she suddenly finds herself in a world that partly belongs to her fate through her mother, which is also something entirely new for her. How do you think you would react and handle the situation? I personally would probably run for my life and never look behind myself again, go underground and live like a mole to avoid having to see or be with the creatures that created chaos in my life.

But you’re not Kaylin, and neither am I. That’s why neither you nor I know how she handles what she’s going through. Sadly, I don’t feel my beloved basically; hence I don’t see how she works either. I don’t know how she functioned as a human being, and I haven’t been around her as a vampire long enough to get to know her. You’ve been with us on the journey yourself. Can you say with a clear conscience that it has gone flawlessly? No, I didn’t think so either. My mother leads me to our seats, and I sit down with a thud.

The audience is excited to see Kaylin fight for her life once more, and their behavior disgusts me. How can anyone find this entertaining?

“I’m nervous,” mom says, looking out at the sandy arena. “But it must be worse for you.”

She turns to me and looks anxiously. I sigh and nod slowly, unable to speak because, in the end, my words don’t matter anyway. The rest of the family sits on the same line as us, and none of them look excited to see Kaylin in this situation again. I listen to the advertiser announcing that my beloved’s first challenge is a werewolf. My heart is pounding hard, mainly because I realize what a significant threat it is for little Kaylin, but primarily because of my knowledge of the breed. A werewolf bite is dangerous for a vampire, and a feral such that she meets now doesn’t care about anything; hence it won’t end until one of them is dead.

Thankfully, she kills the werewolf fast, and the crowd roars with excitement. I’m impressed when I look at the watch and realize that she killed it in just a few minutes while worrying when I see the injury on her arm. If she doesn’t get out of the arena within two hours, she’ll be dead because the poison will spread, especially when she strains her body and the adrenaline flows. The blood in her veins will contribute to faster action, and it worries me colossally. The anxiety doesn’t ease directly when the advertiser announces that the next challenge implements without hearing, and I know why already when my own hearing temporarily disappears.

Kaylin will meet at least one banshee; there’s no other explanation as no different sound is as dangerous as theirs. As I thought, my beloved starts fighting one, and she fights bravely, but it doesn’t get any easier when another one shows up. Her gaze meets mine, and it’s as if she gets new power from it, given that she kills both of them shortly after that. I don’t care that others can see me when I send a kiss away to Kaylin, and given the “aw” sound that’s spreading, I guess no one thinks it’s disparaging by a clan leader to show their beloved that kind of dedication.

Her words warm my heart and make it beat harder than before. It’s now I realize she’s not fighting for her survival; she’s fighting for me. However, the warming feeling disappears as quickly as it comes when I see the creature that she’s going to fight against, without sight—a Nian. Nians are unusual, and there are only a few left out in the world. It isn’t real, just like the other creatures, given that a witch controls all this with magic. But regardless of whether it’s real or not, it doesn’t make it less dangerous. They’re violent animals, and I know how to stop them, but I also have knowledge of all the different supernatural animals in the world that she has yet to learn.

I can do nothing but hope that she studied thoroughly during her training at the council. Otherwise, she’s as good as dead. The nian bites her thigh, and I’m surprised when she doesn’t scream in pain. A nian’s bite is nothing you want to experience, and it can easily make a grown man cry. Kaylin manages to get loose and runs fast towards the east of the stadium. If I weren’t a vampire, I’d be sure I’d have aged a thousand years just by watching her run aimlessly. She drops her sword when the Nian attacks her, and from her facial expression to judge, she has immense pain at the moment.

Instead of running, she stops and presses the wound on her arm, resulting in blood flowing. The Nian looks at her bothered, and she growls soundly, causing it to react like a frightened dog. Now there are changing roles between them. Kaylin chases it around the arena until it disappears into thin air. Kaylin breathes heavily and stands still, ready in case it recurs. I smile because I realize that she found out that a Nian is afraid of loud sounds and red. It seems that my beloved has more knowledge than I first thought, and I can’t be more proud of her!

The audience begins to roar, and at the exact moment the blindfold disappears from her eyes, she falls to her knees.

“You’ve done it, Kaylin!” the announcer roars. “You won!”

I thank you, God, or whoever is listening. Thank you for saving my love!

A/N:

Hello dear readers!

It’s nerve-wracking, isn’t it? The three challenges are finished, but can she truly relax?

❀ Do you think any of the council members will challenge her?

✿ How do you think Kaylin is feeling and thinking at the moment?

❀ Will she survive without problems?

Please let me know your thoughts since they help me develop in my creative process! Thank you for reading, lots of love.<3