HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Arena fight

She came at me again, gripping the shaft of the spear so hard that her knuckles turned the color of her hair, and this time, she didn't swing the spear. She just thrust it at me, and she caught me right on the edge of my shoulder. Pain rocketed through my arm, and I fell back, trying to retreat to gain my footing. But, that was just what Botan wanted. She wanted me to fall back so that she could press the attack, and that's exactly what she did as she came back at me with a horrifying expression on her face. I blocked another strike from the spear, and I pressed an attack of my own, swiping my sword in front of her, and I caught her hair with the sword, slicing a good four or so inches of her hair off. She growled again, but I didn't let her regain her footing and go on the attack again. This time, I gave her a hard shove of my own, and I swung the sword again, catching her in the collar and cutting her flesh wide open.
"AHHHHHH!!!!!" She screamed.
She lifted her leg, then tried to plant another kick to my stomach, but now, since I saw through her weak defense, all I had to do was press an attack, and I could defeat her. I grabbed her ankle as she tried to kick me, and I shoved her leg away, sending her away from me. The moment she was out of spear-me-through-the-chest range, I ran up to her, bracing myself, and I rammed her with my shoulder, sending her down in the dirt. She slammed down in the dirt, spraying the soil all over her, and I immediately jumped on her, grabbed her by the neck, and held her down, choking her against the ground. I forced my muscles to squeeze her on the neck, my fingers curling around the flesh of her neck and choking her as she sputtered and gasped for breath.
"STOP!"
The thunderous voice came from above, and both Botan and I looked up at Fauna, who had stood up and was now looking over the railing of the Arena.
"An excellent fight. SeaBoy, you are the first to best Botan."
As she said that, she reached down, and she tossed me a dagger, which I caught out of midair. The dagger was stained with old blood, and the hilt was sticky, which grossed me out.
"And you will be the last. Kill her."
For some reason, that last line hit me like a cannonball. I stared at the knife, then looked down at Botan, and for the first time, she didn't have that mean and fierce expression on her face. Instead, fear was shining in her eyes.
"You're scared of death, aren't you?" I whispered.
She gave me the slightest of nods, and in that moment, as my hand was still around her neck from me choking her, I felt the blood pulsing in her neck, along with the beating of her heart, which was growing more and more rapid by the second. I held the dagger close to her neck, then pressed the tip of the blade against her flesh. With a single press, I could end the fight, and her life. But the feel of the blood pulsing under her flesh, combined with the warmth of her flesh under my fingers and the fear in her eyes, it all had an effect on me that basically boiled down to pity. I just couldn't kill her. I leaned down to her fluffy ear, and the moment I did, she gave me a confused look.
"When I give you the signal, you run."
She gave me a gulp, which I felt against the palm of my hand, and I finally let go and stood up.
"What are you doing, SeaBoy?!" Fauna yelled from the throne.
I flipped the knife over in my hand, and as I held the blade in my hand, I looked up at Fauna, who was holding the golden apple in her hand. I turned around and looked at the cell where my friends were being held, and all of them were by the door of the cell, crowding around Jansen as he twisted a dagger inside of the lock, picking it. I looked back at the knife in my hands, and I looked right up at Fauna.
"I won the fight. Let me and my friends go."
"You have not won, she is not dead." She replied, pointing at Botan.
"I refuse to kill her."
"Then you will never win, and you will never leave."
In that very moment, the rage swelled up inside me, and I hurled the knife at her in a flash. The knife flew through the air, and it plunged itself deep in Fauna's shoulder, slicing her open and spraying blood on her face. As she screamed, the injury forced her to drop the apple. I reached out quickly, and I grabbed the apple out of it's free fall, and then, I turned to Botan and everyone in the cell.
"FUCKING RUN!!!"
And with that, we all bolted right out of the Arena, even though Botan still seemed a little bit shell shocked over the entire event and her close-death encounter. As we raced out of the Arena, all of the animals screamed and started jumping over the edge of the Arena's walls, attempting to run us down.
"GET THEM!!!" I heard Fauna shriek. "KILL THEM!!!"
Botan passed me up, running through the city, and we got to the edge of the ravine, where I saw the cave system that extended to under the walls of the ravine.
"If we take that, we can get back to your ship the fastest way, I promise." Botan yelled over the screaming of the animal people.
"Okay, lets go!" I huffed, my arms and legs pumping wildly to get away from the screaming mob of death.
"Wait I can't swim!" She replied.
"Oh that's just perfect!" The Storyteller yelled. "What are we gonna do?!?!?"
"I, uhhh, just hold onto me, okay!!" I yelled to her.
"Sounds good!"
We finally got to the edge of the city, and we stopped, overlooking the underwater cave system.
"Alright, on the count of three, we jump!"
We all grabbed each other's hands, and Botan grabbed onto my shoulders.
"One, two, three! JUMP!!!"
We all jumped from the platform, and the moment the water encased Botan and I, she wrapped her arms around me, digging her nails into my chest. I bit through the pain, then began to swim for my life, paddling my self through the water and underneath the rock formation, where I was encased in darkness. I pushed and pushed, searching for any sign of light, but so far, there was just utter and crushing darkness, all the way through the cave. Botan's grip on me tightened, and suddenly, she slapped me on the chest. When I looked over at her barely visible face, she pointed upward, and I saw points of light coming from the ceiling, along with an air pocket. I swam upward, still holding both the apple and Botan, but as I was going along, trying to swim to the surface, my lungs began to cave in on themselves, spazzing and squeezing in their futile attempt to find air. I paddled and swam my way upward, but the farther I got, the farther away the light and air pocket seemed, and Botan and the apple weren't getting any lighter. Finally, after what felt like a thousand years of swimming, I finally broke the surface of the water, and I gasped, sucking in a massive amount of air. I choked and gasped again, paddling to keep myself afloat, and I felt Botan let go of me as she grabbed onto the walls of the cave. As I watched her climb the walls of the air pocket, I saw that at the tips of her fingers were these one inch claws that she was using to climb her way up. At the very top of the air pocket, there were these plants that were anchored to the rocks at the top of the cave, and the very tips of the plants glowed with a very faint blue light.
Suddenly, the Storyteller surfaced right next to me, coughing and sputtering, and there was Noel, gasping in air, finally followed by Jansen, who wasn't having any trouble at all, being half Siren. All of us looked at each other, and Jansen was the first one to speak.
"Everyone still in one piece?"
"For now." I said, then looked up at Botan. "So what do we do?"
"Well, the cave system gets dry about halfway through, and we can take that to the lagoon, and then from there we can book it to your ship."
"Wait a minute, 'we'?" Jansen said. "Oh I don't think so. You almost killed Micheal."
Botan looked at me for backup, and in that moment, I couldn't really think of an actual reason to bring her aboard. So instead, I just grabbed Jansen and dragged him through the water.
"Lay off, Jansen. We lost like ten crewmembers. We're bringing both of them with us, you got it?"
"I'm fine with Noel, but man, she tried to KILL you! Do you not remember that?"
"I know dude. I know she did. But, I mean, think about it. If she almost killed me, then she has to be a least a decent fighter."
Jansen considered that, then looked back at me.
"Alright, fine."
He turned to Botan who was still hanging on the ceiling, and they locked eyes for just a second.
"Okay, where do we go, Mrs Guide?"
She ignored the last part with a sigh, and she pointed at a dark part of the water.
"Down there, its a long swim, and then the cave opens up. The plants on the walls are lit up, so use those to guide your way."