8. Never again!

[Diana]

The staff handed me a sword and a gun right before I entered the combat grounds. 

The gun had fake bullets that were capable enough to bruise the skin at most. The knights could fight with their swords only. They weren’t given guns. They weren’t allowed to transform into their wolf forms as well.

My goal of this combat was — to get out alive, the least hurt, and announce to the world that I was going to fight back harder this time.

The announcer announced me and Mes as we stood facing one another at a few hands’ distance.

His dark eyes bore daggers into me, and I glared back into his eyes. The first thing in a fight, never act scared and give an upper hand to your opponent.

Even if you are trembling with your whole body, look right into the opponent’s eyes and declare a silent warning that the win wouldn’t be easy for him.

I looked like an ant before him. I licked my lips and gulped. Mes smirked, and I felt a strangling fear burn my chest. The psychological fight had already begun.

He had nothing to fear. I was a girl, a princess upon that who was brought up in luxury and royalty. I was weak. That was public knowledge. 

I knew father and Willa were watching me from behind the huge black glassed windows around the private room. I had something very important to prove to both of them.

I want you to watch Willa… I want you to watch me and understand that whatever you plan to do to me, my father and my pack… this time it won’t work. I won’t let it.

I might not win, but I won’t lose either.

Bang!

The combat began with a gunshot.

I tightened my grip on my sword, taking the stance to lunge at Mes, but he disappeared from my sight.

He teleported behind me, seized my hand. Before I knew the sword flew far away from me and my face crashed against the ground. 

He kicked my stomach, knocking out the air from my lungs.

Rolling on the ground in dirt, my body hit the iron fences, creating a dent in them.

Iron fences stood around the perimeters of the elliptical fighting grounds in the middle of the stadium to keep the opponents within the perimeters. The referees stood outside, monitoring us from all sides.

Royal knights and soldiers stood at some distance from the fences, fully equipped.

The amount of security around the stadium clarified that things really could get ugly in these fights. Well, I could feel the ugly Janus talked about.

Mes wasn’t holding back at all.

Coughing and gasping, I tried to breathe, clenching my chest and stomach with my hands. His footsteps fell to the ground, creating tremors.

My neck jerked back and I rolled on my back. 

‘Paralyse her,’ an unknown memory popped into my head from my past.

I widened my eyes as a breath choked my throat.

The surroundings changed. I found myself lying in the forests, my body paralysed.

Paralyse?

The stuck breath jabbed through my throat to my mouth, and I was once again in the stadium.

Those visions were from the rogue attack from my previous life.

I looked at Mes.

It was the same as before. During that attack, I was instantly crushed to the ground. I still couldn’t remember the face of the attacker, but I remembered all the hits I took that day.

Every hit, every kick, every punch weakened my body and then my wolf. 

Panting, I raised my torso on my elbows above the ground. 

The next attack should come on my throat, I thought.

Mes towered before me, his eyes glowing. He lifted his leg, aiming to kick at my throat.

I jumped to my feet in time and dodged his kick.

He drew his sword and aimed towards my throat again, but I ducked and slid past the gap between his legs.

Taking out my gun, I shot at his lower ribs.

He turned back, glaring at me. 

Damn it!

Mes lunged at me again, and I kept dodging, ducking and sidestepping to avoid his attacks. He was desperate to hit my throat. 

I knew it. As soon as he crushed my face into the ground with a quick but subtle chop on my back, I was reminded of the rogue attack. He was following the same attacking pattern.

He punched my throat while I was distracted by my thoughts. 

Choking, I skidded back, holding my throat and the pain that rippled its way to my lungs. 

Now it should be my knees, I thought.

I shot at his lower ribs again, but to no avail. This giant wasn’t going down easily.

He scuttled and slashed his sword, aiming for my knees.

I jumped into the air, dodging his attack and then over him to land behind him. 

Before I could establish my footing on the ground, he slid, tackled my knees, making me fall face-down.

He grabbed me by my ponytail.

A kick in my guts, I predicted.

Mes kicked me exactly in my guts.

I went into a trance before the air in my lungs burst out through my mouth with blood. It was only after a few seconds did the pain needle into my body.

I fell to the ground, groaning. I clawed the ground into my fist, gritting my teeth.

I was shaking in pain and rage as I glared at the black window behind which Willa would probably be smiling seeing her plan work out again.

I screamed.

Blood streamed from between my teeth, dissolving a metallic taste in my mouth.

‘Whenever you feel you are helpless and defeated… allow your demons to control you, let your rage consume you. Incinerate everyone else around you…’ I heard my father’s voice in my head.

He mind-linked with me for the first time in two lives.

‘Get up, Diana, and look around and hear these voices. Let them drive you.’

I looked towards the black window, hiding my father behind them.

Behind those windows, if there was someone wanting to see me die and defeated, then there was also someone who wanted to see me win and go beyond my boundaries.

My heart pounded in my chest with a warm blaze as I looked around. 

“Get up! Princess!”

“You can do this!”

“You got this Princess!”

I wasn’t able to hear the crowd’s cheers until now, but now I hear them loud and clear cheering for me.

“Kick his ass, princess!”

I punched the ground and got back on my feet.

“Hey! What’s your name?” I yelled at Mes, wiping off the blood from my lips on the cuff of my shirt.

“Don’t you know talking to your opponent is not intelligent during a combat?” Mes said, lunging at me.

I kept jumping back and dodging his slashes while keeping an eye on my sword that was beyond him. I had to get to my sword somehow and as soon as I could.

“Yeah! I know, but you are a powerful lad and I could probably use you to pull my princess carriages into my tea parties,” I smirked at him. “Haha. What do you say?”

Rage flared into his eyes. He snarled at me with a roar slashed at me. Even though I tried to dodge it, he stabbed my skin in the ribs. But I continued.

“I heard you are the next gamma in line. What a waste. You are all muscles and bones, but no brains,” I smirked.

I could hear him grit his teeth. His attacks got faster, stronger, and uncoordinated.

At least I had broken the pattern of attack he was hitting me with. Whatever that attack pattern was for.

Now, he was attacking me randomly and not aiming at specific body parts at a time. When he hit my ribs, he was supposed to go for my arms.

‘He is provoked easily, his only flaw. He has no self-control when he is angry. He takes pride in being called the next gamma in line.’ This was what Janus told me earlier, before the fight.

“You know what, I will keep you as a carrier man. To carry my stuff around the palace, because that’s the maximum you can do with that fucking bulk on your body. Haha. Gamma? You? Makes me puke!”

I acted as if I would actually puke while I laughed and jumped closer and closer to my sword.

‘He has recently been in a fight with Dante, the second in line for the gamma’s rank. His lower ribs are still not healed properly. That’s his weak spot.’ Janus added while I was on my way to the ground.

“You know who should be the gamma of our pack. Dante, of course. I don’t know him personally, but at least he wouldn’t have an empty skull like yours,” I said.

“STOP YAMMERING!” 

“Why, your puny brain can’t handle the truth?” 

His slash aimed at my feet. I jumped to dodge it when his punch on my chest sent me flying towards the fences again.

He was about to stab the sword in my head when I rolled and he stabbed the ground instead. I kept rolling on the ground and dodging his stabs. I was near my sword. 

Just a little closer.

He straddled my hips, and I was locked. I couldn’t move.

Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

“The plan was to paralyse you, but no… you need to die here…” he mumbled as if he was talking to himself.

I widened my eyes, seeing the tip of his sword reflect in my eyes as it approached me.

“NO!” I growled and kicked balls.

He stood frozen for sometime then a loud agonising groan left his chest. 

I crawled my way out, got to my feet, and dashed to my sword. Without giving him a chance to recover, I stabbed his lower ribs on both sides with a shrill cry.

He screeched, getting to his knees.

Every bone and muscle in my body was aching. I could barely stand, but I wanted to win. I wanted to take him down at all costs, in every way.

I slashed at him, brandishing my sword as his words kept repeating in my head.

‘The plan was to paralyse you…’

Rage burnt in my chest, fuelling my body.

Paralyse me?

You will paralyse me?

You fucking shit!

Garbage!

I hit his shoulder and my sword got stuck in his bone. It wouldn’t come out, so I kicked his face, and he fell on his back on the ground. Body slamming him, I cracked his ribs even more.

Sitting astride him, I pummeled his face. 

Blood hazed my eyes, his blood was spurting everywhere. On my face, my clothes, my knuckles were hurt, skin torn, but I kept punching.

“Paralyse me? You fucking bastard! You think you can paralyse me?” My voice was hoarse and echoey.

I joined my hands and trashed his chest, groaning and crying.

My body was eighty percent working on its own.

I didn’t know where that strength and rage was coming from. But I had felt the same power before my wolf was permanently weakened during the rogue attack.  

It was back again, but it was different.

No one was taking away my wolf from me this time, no one was paralysing me this time. I wasn’t selling my body to survive again… I wasn’t going to BE WEAK AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN!

Janus was right, the only way to not get killed was to kill, and I wanted to kill him.

Kill him...

Kill him.

Kill him!

There was an alarm and the gamma, royal knights and referees, rushed into the ground and tore me away from Mes.

I kept throwing my arms and feet, growling and snarling at Mes.

“Princess, please calm down!” Lyvia’s voice reached my ear.

“Prepare the tranquilliser, NOW!” someone yelled.

I scratched a few people around me. I don’t know who, but I was berserk, completely out of my control.

I don’t want to die; I don’t want to live like shit so…

He has to die.

I have to kill him before he kills me.

I kept mumbling those things in my mind and out loud.

“Kill him. Kill him. KILL HIM!”

I felt a needle sting my neck. I gradually lost consciousness as everything turned black from blood red.

But before losing my consciousness completely, amidst the crowd, I saw those eyes again. Those light grey eyes behind the mask.

Alpha Tyrant? 

How is this possible?

No, it couldn't be him.

It has to be an illusion.

I wasn’t sure if he was real or my hallucination, but… his glimpse surged… something unfathomable deep inside me.

My heart roared in my chest before everything went silent.