Of Angels and Demons

Rose: The Mark

Rose laughs and walks toward me as I slowly back up. "This is easy for me." Rose says as she vanishes. She appears right at me and grabs the collar of my shirt with her left hand. She quickly pulls her right hand up and digs her nails into my neck. "Gah!" I yell out in pain as her nails dig deeper and deeper into my skin. I feel my blood rushing out of the wound. My eyesight starts getting dim as she digs her nails deeper and deeper. I feel a sudden burst of energy before I fall back. After a few seconds on the ground everything goes blurry then black. I quickly sit up in my bed gasping for air. I look around. Was that just a dream? I think as I wipe sweat off my forehead and lay back down. After a few minutes of laying down staring at the ceiling I stand up and walk out of my room. As I walk out of my room I see I'm in Rose's hallway. "Maybe it was a dream." I mumble as I walk downstairs and see Rose sitting on the couch. I walk up behind her and she looks over her shoulder and smiles. I notice she's wearing black pants and a white shirt. "Well, nice to see your awake." She says as she stands up. "So are we gonna train today?" I ask. She smiles. "Yea, but how are you feeling?" She asks with a grin. I close my eyes and rub the back of my neck. "I feel pretty good. Got a good nights sleep." I say thinking back to the dream I had. "Oh? A good nights sleep?" She says. "Yea, I slept good." I reply. "You've been asleep for a most 2 months." She says as she walks into the kitchen. "I've been asleep 2 months!?" I yell as I realize that what I remember wasn't a dream. She walks back in holding Nirioki. "I fused some of my energy into you so you would have a marked release instead of your previous whole body release." Rose says as she hands me Nirioki. I grab my sword and look at her. "Now, let's see if you can his me with your sword any easier." Rose says as she walks out the front door. I follow behind her. After a few minutes of walking we arrive at a small concrete wall with a door. I walk up and look behind the wall, there's nothing there. Rose suddenly walks up and opens the door. She walks through it and vanishes. I quickly follow and a flash of white light blinds me as I enter the door. As I regain my sight I look around and see I'm inside a large arena. I look around and see empty seats. "This is the battle ground. It used to be a area for sparing and where people could settle a vendetta or anything of the like. These rock walls were ment to survive blows from God and satan themselves." Rose says as she summons a metal sword to her hand from nowhere. I quickly pull Nirioki out if my pocket and summon it to its full form. Rose smiles. "Now, let's see how strong you are with a marked release." Rose says as I see energy forming around her. The energy is dark pink and black. "Ok Rose, let's go." I say as I try to go into my first release. My energy won't come forth like it does in a release. Rose puts her sword in the ground and sighs. "Try channeling your energy to the spot of your mark." Rose says. I stare at her for a moment. "Where is my mark?" I ask. She sighs even louder. "It's on your neck." She says as she pulls her sword out of the ground. I close my eyes and focus my energy on my neck. Suddenly I feel energy leaking out of my neck and covering my body. As I open my eyes I see red and black energy swirling around me. As my energy forms around me a shocked look forms on roses face. "N-no way." Rose says as she readies her sword. "What's wrong?" I ask. She takes a step back and grits her teeth. "I didn't know how much power a hybrid had until now. This much power is overwhelming." Rose says as she vanishes and appears at me. As she swings it looks like she's hardly moving. I kick her in the stomach and jump back. I suddenly feel a sharp pain through my eyes as Rose gets kicked back to the rock wall several hundred feet away. As I open my eyes everything is blurry. Rose suddenly appears at me and kicks me in my knee. I go down to one knee as she punches me in the face and drives her sword through my left shoulder. I feel a sharp pain in my left shoulder and my eyes as my body begins to feel warm. I close my eyes. "Don't worry, I'll pull some of my energy back so you don't die." I hear a voice say as I open my eyes and see Rose a few feet back staring at me. "Come on, get up." She says as she runs toward me and swings her sword. I quickly grab her blade with my hand and stand up. Her blade cuts my hand slightly as I slide my hand up her blade and grab her wrist. I quickly move my blade and lay it on her shoulder. She smiles as she enters her second release. The Thorn tattoos move all over her body as her energy thickens. She grabs the edge of my blade and kicks me back to the wall 100 feet away. As I hit the wall I look at the hand that was cut by her sword and see it healing. I look up as Rose gets to me and swings her blade at my neck. I raise my sword and block her sword as I kick her in the stomach. When she gets about halfway across the arena from my kick she sticks her sword un the ground and stops herself. She pulls her sword out of the ground and smiles. I quickly grit my teeth and surge energy to my neck as red and black energy swirl around me. I feel energy all around me as my sword doesn't change as it normally does. Rose suddenly appears at me and swings her blade. I easily block it and punch her in the face. The force of my punch launches her back into the far wall. The impact of her body hitting the wall cracks the wall. She stands up and smiles. "Your family history has some of the strongest fighters. But you don't know much about your family." Rose says as I stare at her.