FIREWORKS

Chapter 3.

It's the next morning, Diana was woken up to the sound of footsteps next to her.

"Good morning, Punz."

Much to the girl's surprise, the footsteps shuffle away from her, before coming to a halt to turn the lights on.

"Morning, Diana."

The girl gets up, ignoring the pain in her stomach.

"Follow me."

Diana does as she gets told to, following closely behind Punz, who leads her to an enchanted forest.

"Good luck."

Punz quickly disappears into the woods, leaving Diana all alone in front of a big forest without any instructions.

The girl wanders through the forest, a bit hesitant, trying to take in every step she takes, praying that she won't get lost here.

After a while of wandering around, Diana sees a paper hanging on a tree. She decides to run towards it, deviating from the path.

"Make it out of here."

The vulnerable girl rips off the paper, causing a map to fall down. Attached to the tree by means of a piece of tape there is also a knife and, desperate for any clues, she removes the piece of tape and holds the knife in her hand, testing it for balance.

She then takes the map and inspects it. There aren't many landmarks, but there are many trees though. That's not what caught her eye, the empty clearing in the middle of the forest is what did.

After about half an hour she finally makes it to the empty clearing, assuming that's where she has to be. The central area of it is cornered off with rope, she could see Dream, Punz and Sapnap standing by the trees on the other side.

"This task is rather straightforward - you'll be fighting against George."

Once again, Dream's voice sounded deformed, but Diana didn't pay much attention to it, as it was only then that she had noticed George, who was standing in the middle of the cleared area.

Her eyes drift off to George's hands, he's got a hatchet.

"I shall just say one more thing. The task is to test resilience, not strength."

George was waiting for Diana with a tilted head, the girl takes a deep breath and joins him.

"Remember what this task is for, you may begin."

George grins, seemingly enjoying the thought of a real fight.

"Are you ready," he asks.

The girl nods in reply, waiting for George to make his first move.

The two go from standing opposite sides of each other to locked in a battle in the blink of an eye, both grappling for the upper hand.

It starts off rather slow, both trying to get a feel of te strength and speed of each other, but soon they're going at each other full force, neither holding back at all.

George swings the hatchet at the other's leg, who dodges the weapon by stepping backwards, managing to blow a hit to his head with the handle of her knife. The black-haired man falters a bit but recovers in a split second and barranges her with attacks, causing Diana to stumble back slightly.

One of George's blows scrapes the girl's injured side, causing her to wince in pain. Diana grits her teeth and bears it, she's not going to give in that easily!

This goes on, George attacking the girl and her dodging his attempts, desperately trying to find an opening.

It's hard - he has a large hatchet whilst all she's fighting with is a knife, so the male has much more going for him.

Still, Diana fights fiercely, delivering cuts and jabs wherever she can.

It's obvious that George has been doing this for a while - some of his movements seem instinctual, and he often changes his attack last minute, leaving the girl he's up against not quite sure of where his next blow will land.

Soon that girl is covered in bruises, blood dripping from a split lip and there's a cut on her forehead.

Still, the pair dance around each other and when George attacks once again, Diana manages to stab her knife into his arm. He pulls back and grabs his arm, it doesn't take long before he steps forwards again though, leaving the girl thinking about how she'd ever be able to beat him like that.

It's then that Dream's words hit Diana again, it's not about strength but about resilience. 

Surely George will eventually get tired, she just has to hang in there. With renewed vigour the girl starts attacking George again and, she notices that, bit by bit, his movements become just a touch slower, just a tad more clumsy.

Either the blood loss from his stab wound is weakening him slightly, or she's managing to tire him just a bit, at least.

Giving him a few more injuries - a deep cut to the leg, a blow on the head, the girl watches as George starts to falter significantly more. 

Diana gets distracted for a split second when she glances to Dream however, allowing George to gain the upper hand.

Grabbing the arm holding her knife, the taller sweeps her feet from under her and, before she knows it Diana's on the ground with a hatchet coming straight for her head.

In a haze of panic, the girl grabs George's wrist to stop it, closing her eyes shut.

"Enough!"

Sighing in relief, Diana lets her head fall back onto the cold grass, trying to gain back the control over her breathing.

After a few moments, the girl finally gets up, smiling softly as she looks at George, who smiles back at her.