I had only moments before the beast would be right before me, and I would be the one thrown into the mountains on the horizon. She was standing there, unflinching. I should''ve known she would do something like this, I ignored her because she sounded like some character from a fairy tale. Maybe that''s what she''s made herself.


    I stared at her in disbelief, hoping that she would come to save me at the last second, hoping that she would dive in and reveal that this was all some prank, all some sort of lesson that I needed to be taught about how I should never trust people or something like that. She didn''t give me any signs that she was going to intervene, instead, she just turned around and started walking away slowly.


    It became clear that all she would do when I''m ripped in half by the eikmar is laugh until she could no longer stand. I picked my blade up from it''s little spot in the ground and held it in the direction of the eikmar. What would I do?


    The eikmar was running straight at me, which meant that I could probably hit it in the jaw when it got close enough. I can''t knock it out in one hit though, which means that the hit needs to be light. The skull of the beast is already injured though, so if I hit it light enough to not knock it out it''ll just keep running at me and I''ll be flattened on the side of whatever mountain it knocks me into.


    How can I hit it several times without knocking it out or getting slaughtered? I didn''t have much time to come up with a solution, the eikmar was almost past the vast field of flowers and into the little area of grass and soon it would be right in front of me.


    I can''t use my sword. If I use my sword in any way then I''ll definitely kill it in one hit. I have to use my powers. I haven''t practiced at all! It doesn''t matter- but I could fail. I fail either way. There doesn''t seem to be a way to actually win, if only I hadn''t gotten mad at her. She manipulated me. She tricked me, she knew that I get mad when insulted and so she kept doing it, she knew that it''d happen at least more than one time which means that she knew she''d end up forcing me to do this.


    Why was she doing this? What reason did she have? I thought she hated him. I thought she didn''t like him in the same way that I didn''t like him. Was she just lying to me? Did the letter he sent to her actually ask her to have me killed, or at least taken someplace where I would never be found?


    Think, think! What can I do? The only thing that I''ve been able to do is make these pillars of rock come out of the ground, and even then I''ve only been able to do it vertically. If I wanted to hit this thing eight times, with eight pillars, I wouldn''t be able to do it if they were just coming straight up from the ground. I can''t control them either, they all just rise quickly, which means that if even one comes up from under the beast it''ll either do nothing or send it flying. Neither of those help me.


    I needed to arrange them so they were slanted, so they were diagonal. Four on each side, spread evenly. If I hit the beast from one side only, it''s the same situation of either doing nothing or ending it before eight hits. I needed to hit it from both sides at the same time. I have too many things that I need to do that I haven''t even thought of before, much less practiced.


    Why was she making me do this? Was she really waiting for the last moment? It doesn''t even matter. Even if she does dive in to save me she''ll just be disappointed, she''ll look at me with pity and think about how some other child that she met could beat a fully grown eikmar with ease. She''d take me back to the cottage and tell the teacher that he was right about me, and I''d have to sit in that house every day thinking about how I blew the one chance that I had to leave a good impression on the reason I chose to not throw myself off the city walls.


    It doesn''t matter. Thinking about this doesn''t matter. If I don''t do anything, I''ll die or I''ll want to die. It doesn''t matter.


    Three pillars from each side, placed where it will be in the time it takes for them to reach its body. Where will it be in those moments? If I''m off by even a bit, it''s over for me. I need to get this absolutely right.


    Three pillars. One near the neck, one in the middle, and one near the tail. Left and right, same position. Close to the eikmar, I have only a moment left, they must emerge quicker than it can send me flying. Three of them. Six of them. Three on each side. Three. Two. One.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    All of them emerged at the same time and jutted toward the beast. Had I got something wrong? It doesn''t matter. I''m in the middle of the motion, I need to complete it. I brought my hands together and with the the pillars dug into the eikmar. I held them together as hard as I could, my eyes were closed but I could hear the beast squirming, trying with all its might to break free. I heard its scream, I may go deaf.


    After the tension stopped, I brought two more pillars forward, both of them larger than the other ones. They both were aimed at the beast''s head, and just like before I had swiftly brought my hands together, with the pillars following my lead. What followed then was a splatter of beast blood all over me, and when I was able to open my eyes again and the pillars had been released, I saw the husk of an eikmar without a head fall on its side, only to never move again.


    When I looked to my left, I saw that she was standing almost right next to me, with her blade prepared at her slide.


    So she was coming to save me.


    I fell backwards into a deep sleep, and even as my head slammed into the ground I could not care about the pain I felt, I could not care about anything.


    When I woke up I was back in the carriage, and my clothes had fully dried though they had been stained a dark purple from the blood of the eikmar. I sat up and did not see her sitting in front of me. My body was not in pain but my head was spinning. I brought my hand to my mouth and felt blood on my lips. I saw a bit of my reflection in the mirror and saw that I was bleeding from my nose.


    I wiped the blood off my nose and ignored it as I brought myself to stand up and walk out of the carriage. I was incredibly dizzy, and right when I opened the doors I fell facefirst onto the ground. Somehow I caught myself before falling asleep again, and when I brought my head up I saw her staring at the beast. I barely managed to bring myself to my feet and limped over to where she was.


    When I got close to her she turned around, and I tripped over my own feet. Just as I was about to fall to the ground for the third time she caught me in her arms and made sure I was sat down gently on the ground so I wouldn''t fall over again. I looked up at her and she was just staring at me. The sun was right behind her head so I couldn''t see what kind of face she was making but I knew that she was staring at me.


    "That was two hits, was it not?"


    I struggled through the urge to fall asleep again just to respond with a few words.


    "Eight pillars. Eight hits."


    I had to hold myself up with my elbows now. She sighed before speaking again.


    "You''re crazy.  I was going to take the opportunity to show off how I could wait until the very last moment and still save you from unquestionable death, and use that moment to teach you some sort of lesson, but you ended up teaching me one. That just doesn''t seem right."


    "I taught you a lesson?"


    "Maybe ''lesson'' is the wrong word. You certainly removed any doubts I had held about your abilities."


    "You didn''t think I could do it?"


    "There is no sane man across the entire continent who would look at a stubborn adolescent and believe even in the slightest that said adolescent would be able to hold his own against an adult eikmar."


    "Why''d you say all that stuff about how I''d regret getting mad at you."


    "Did I really seem that cruel?"


    "You still sound like a noble."


    My voice was getting quieter with each sentence, words were being replaced with air slowly but surely. She looked at me and shook her head, I still couldn''t see her face.


    "Now''s the time where I extend my sincere apology to you."


    "What did I just say?"


    She paused and spoke again differently.


    "Alright, kid. I''m sorry for gettin'' you into that. I expected that you''d freeze, or something else would ''appen and you''d just end up being saved by me. If I''d even known that you were half-capable of taking that thing down I would''ve never put you in a situation like that."


    "Why not? I took it down, didn''t I?"


    I flashed a smile at her, but I could tell she wasn''t doing the same for me.


    "Look at ya, kid. You overworked yourself, and now I don''t know how long you''ll be out of commission. How am I gonna return ya to him?"


    Something sounded off. It sounded like-


    "You''re forcing yourself to speak that way, aren''t you?"


    She didn''t respond, and instead just stared at me for a bit, we both waited there in silence staring at each other.


    "You''re right."


    "Why won''t you just speak normally to me? Haven''t I earned it?"


    She didn''t respond again. The sun had moved a bit and when I saw her face again she was sort of smiling. She wasn''t happy, this wasn''t some good reaction to what I said, more like she was smiling because she had to. Once again I swore I saw tears in her eyes, but every time I blinked they''d be gone.


    "Some annoying asshole once told me that no matter how close you think you are to someone, there will always be a situation that will lead them to break your trust. Unfortunately, some part of me I''m unable to kill still believes him."


    She started walking toward me, picked me up and carried me like I was some princess. I saw her face. There were no tears, but she had that same odd smile.


    "Now, let''s get back to bastards one and two, shall we?