Legacy

eleven

The wind whistled around her as she fell, almost in slow motion as her arms flailed. The man on the forest floor grew closer and closer, though still not noticing her presence as she came from above. His back was turned away from her, his hands now clenched around a hunk of raw meat he had found in the bag. Alessa wished she could close her eyes, to pretend none of it was happening, but she forced them to stay open; she couldn't afford to miss.
The ground rushed to meet her and her body slammed into his with a painful thud, sending them both toppling over. The wind was immediately knocked from her lungs and she wheezed, the man momentarily freezing in shock before desperately scrambling, reaching for his sword. Left with no time to think, she shoved his head into the dirt, smashing his face and swiping his sword out of his grasp..
She curled her fingers into his hair and lifted his head, slamming it back into the ground. She knew she must have injured him by landing on top of him as he should have been able to stand up or shake her off at this point. She used this to her advantage, bending his arm behind his back while he yelled muffled curses into the dirt below. Releasing his arm, she kept his head pressed into the dirt with one hand and used her free hand to slide off her satchel half way, rooting around inside for the knife.
Unsure of how to kill a man with such a small, blunt knife, she did the only thing that seemed logical, launching the knife into the back of his neck, grimacing as she had to push deeper and deeper to get past the rings of muscle. He let out an inhuman shriek, wriggling his body wildly. She lost her grip on him and somehow got knocked off, tumbling into the dirt. She panicked, skittering away and reaching for his sword, holding it in front of her face with trembling hands. The man sat up and whirled around to face her, knife still wedged in the back of his neck.

"What in the name of Hades was that?" He snapped, "Who stabs someone with a blunt knife in the back of the Godsdamned neck? Do you want me to suffer?"

"I-I-"

"Now I have to yank this out and you get to watch me bleed out on this dirty forest floor."

Alessa couldn't help but snort, "Yeah, I'm not gonna do that."

"You stabbed me, you owe me that damned much!"

She lowered the sword, eyes darting between his indignant expression and the rusty knife still sticking out of the back of his neck. She sighed, folding her arms.

"Fine."

"Wow, so you do have a heart!"

"I'm just trying to survive! Like everyone else."

The man yanked the blade from his neck, gasping loudly as the knife fell from his grip. His hands, coated in blood, shook as he lowered himself against a nearby tree, eyes never leaving hers for a second. She expected him to lunge forward, slice through her with the rusty knife, but he simply sat back on the grass and allowed his blood to flow heavily from the wound.

"I likely don't have long. But I feel as though I should warn you."

"Why on earth would you do that? You're bleeding out because of me."

"Perhaps it will work in my favour for the afterlife." He shrugged, wincing at the pain the motion caused, "You need to watch your back."

"So everyone tells me." Alessa drew symbols in the dirt with her pointer finger.

The man nodded, "You're the prime target here. There's over two hundred men on this island and there's very few challenges that are individual locations. The odds of you running into someone at a challenge are extremely high, no matter what order you do them in. If they see you, they will not hesitate. I wouldn't have either."

"So why are you helping me now?"

He paused for a moment, surveying her carefully, "There is something about you. Though I can't tell what. I believe you may actually have a chance of surviving this."