The Great

Lila Fairheart: The red hot flashes of several fireworks exploded in my face as I kept dodging and weaving attacks.This Crimson girl was the real deal…and not just some manic who threw bombs everywhere. She sommerslated onto the ground and threw two fireworks at me. I hardened my arms and tanked the two explosions head on. The force of the attack pushed me back and I saw Crimson dive towards me with a deadly smile. She flipped forward and wrapped her legs around my neck. I tried to get her off as I jumped up in the air and shook my body as hard as I could. She laughed and pulled out two of her fireworks. “Boom goes the pretty girl,” she giggled maniacally and I felt two red hot spikes get jammed into my insides. I heard a massive explosion as I was hurled to the floor. I felt my body skid and bounce on the hard stadium surface as I finally smashed into a piece of rubble. My head spun, my ears rang, and I coughed up a splatter of blood. I took a deep breath and I willed my body to slowly repair itself as I concentrated on my injuries. Blood slowly followed to my injuries, cells started to repair themselves, soothing recovery came to my muscles, and my head started to clear up again. Crimson landed in front of me with a loud boom. She always walked with a sort of skip and a hop–like she was walking along the sidewalk after a really good day. She spun a firework on her fingers and approached me. She spoke. “You’re very pretty Lila. How do you get your hair like that?” I smiled.

“I don’t know. I kind of just wash it and let it dry. I wish I had straighter hair.” Crimson laughed.

“I wish I had anything but straight hair, I guess we always want what we don’t have.” She threw her firework up and caught it in her hand.

“Goodbye Lila. Maybe we can’t meet and talk about this at a better time. For now, good night.” She smiled and she hurled her fireworks at me.

Now. I sprang up and crouched under the spiraling firework torpedo. I tipped it upwards and it went fizzing over my hair as it exploded the ruble behind me. Crimson looked shocked as I threw a straight right to her solar plexus, which connected. Her eyes went wide with pain as I combed it with an uppercut. Her body went flying backwards but she flicked a firework at me while she was in mid air. I spun and grabbed the firework and rammed it into her stomach as she went flying into a pile of rubble. I sprinted over to her, jumped into the air, and rammed my fist into the pile of rubble as I heard a large boom from the ensuing crash. As the smoke cleared I looked at my fist and saw that a red bracelet had been attached to it. No–not a bracelet–a string. My eyes went wide and I looked over to Crimson–who was battered and bruised but still standing. She smiled. “Pretty..girl..goes…boom.” She pulled the string attached to my wrist and I saw a faint red glow arise from under the rubble. A trap. I summoned all my strength and leapt off the boulder and landed on the ground with a somersault. I dashed towards Crimson as I flipped over another boulder and dove desperately towards her with a primed fist. She smiled and waved. “See ya.” I heard an insanely loud explosion detonate behind me and a wall of searing fire hit my back.

The force of the blast propelled me forward and I hardened and strengthened my body to prepare for the damage. The searing pain and impact force hit me like a raging bull as I smashed into the stadium wall and felt the brunt of the attack slice itself into my skin. I felt my body give up, give in, and my eyes slowly closed as I grew weaker and weaker. My mind wanted to keep going but my body said no. If I go out then we’re at a disadvantage….but…but…I want to sleep. I miss my friends. Where are they? Are they winning? I miss mom and dad…But I also want to win….I…I’m so tired….. I let myself slip into unconsciousness and drifted into sle—

“LILA!” I heard the piercing yell of Geon penetrate into my skull. “Lila get up! It’s going to get worse, get up!” I felt myself slowly starting to fade back into consciousness but I still felt like I was stuck in a pool of molasses. Let's put my training to the test… My eyes went wide and my body started to go into overdrive. I pushed myself up and I got to my knees. I saw Geon rush back into the smoke and occupy himself with his individual battle. I concentrated as hard as I could and I put all my power into healing my body. Every corner of my body, every cell, artery, muscle fiber, bone, and tissue felt alive and revamped as I saw Crimson land in front of me again.

She looked at me with caution. “You’ve changed.” I laughed.

My hair rose up and my eyes turned bright as a faint green aura arose around me. “I haven’t used this in a long time…I call it Overdrive. For five minutes and thirty four seconds I fully invest all my energy into healing my body. Every injury, every single bit of damage is automatically healed the second my body experiences harm.” Crimson spoke with a manic smile.

“So for five minutes and thirty four seconds, you’re immortal.”

I smiled and got ready to pounce. “Yes, and in that five minutes and thirty four seconds, I will defeat you.”

A searing red hot missile came towards my face but I didn’t care. I headbutted the firework which tore and burned my flesh but the injuries instantly healed as I charged at Crimson. She smiled manically and I threw a strong right hand strike at her body. She jumped back and flipped backwards, kicking up in the process. The kick connected with my chin as I flipped backwards from the momentum of the strike. I quickly got back up and I opened my eyes to the prettiest fireworks show I had ever seen in my life. The beautiful green and gold fireworks formed magnificent dragons–with huge soaring wings and ruby red eyes. Clouds of ruby red and emerald-green arrows soared through the air as explosions of blue and gold went off in the distance. It reminded me of the fireworks shows held at the capital on independence day or after a major victory during times of war. The only difference being that these fireworks were about to smite me to ash. I leapt back and slid under a tunnel of rubble as I heard the earth-shattering bombs rumble the ground. I speared my hand through a slab of marble rubble and held it over my head as a shield as I ventured out into the explosion-filled death-zone. A seemingly endless stream of raining fireworks created a fiery ring of death and destruction–a radius of searing heat so large that I couldn’t escape it.

I slid out from under the tunnel and my little rubble shield immediately disintegrated. I felt the extreme heat of the exploding firework shower rain onto my body as my flesh melted off my bones. The urge to scream and crawl into a hole and die overtook my body as Crimson sprinted towards me through the heat and fire. She laughed maniacally as she flew towards me and hit me with a strong kick to the stomach. “I DON’T BURN IN HERE DID YOU KNOW THAT?” She screamed and laughed like a madman as she hit me with a left-hook to the body and another one immediately to the chin. “MY FIREWORKS DON’T HATE ME, THEY DON’T HURT ME! ISN’T THAT WONDERFUl?”The damage being done to me was instantly being healed but the searing pain still perforated all through my body. My vision went blurry and my mind went blank as my very nerves were torn from my body. Crimson threw a high-arching kick right to my face as I felt my body give up on me once again. Everything hurts. It all hurts. It’s all so hot, seraing hot, the world is red and yellow, it’s all…..so ... .hot. As Crimson’s strike approached my face I closed my eyes, my arms went limp, and I took a deep breath. It’s cool, we’ll win, I’ll trust my teammates. I’ll be fine. I smiled as I felt strangely relaxed. For the first time in a while, my body wasn’t on edge. All the things that had happened in the last couple days, months, years….What happened to my sister, the tournament, all the fights….they had made me so tense all the time. Maybe it’s because I felt like I was on the edge of death but I finally felt like I could let it all go for a little bit…..I could rest. But my body just moved on its own.

I dropped down to the floor and spun around as I swept Crimson off her feat. I fought through my pain as I let out a blood-curdling scream. My smile widened as the flesh on my face repeatedly melted and regenerated in the span of seconds. For the first time in this fight, Crimson wasn’t smiling. Her face quickly filled with panic as she tried to get back up but I stomped on her neck and quickly pounced on her body. I let out my own maniacal laugh as I looked down on her panic-stricken face. “Hey, Crimson. Don’t squirm too much now.” I raised my fist as I tried to land my final strike. Crimson’s eyes filled with intense desperation as she let out an immense cry,

“YUDRA, SHOW YOURSELF.” The intense heat and fire around me instantly vanished as the world reverted back to its usual colors. I felt an immense surge of relief and all the pain in my body suddenly vanished as the cool blue sky appeared above me for the first time in what felt like years. I looked down on Crimson and she smiled up at me. “Times up, Lila.” The bright green aura that had surrounded my body faded away as Overdrive abruptly ended. All the strength in my body left me in a flash and Crimson slipped out from under me and kicked my chest with both of her legs as I flew backwards into a pile of rubble. A loud crunch sounded about the arena as I felt immense pain fill my body again–except this time–the injuries weren’t instantly healed. I felt the world once again fade into black as I looked up and saw a boy with messy blue and black hair peer over me. So he’s Yudra.

He smiled and raised up his fist, “Too bad she did most of the work. You looked like an excellent fighter.” He struck so fast I couldn’t even react and I heard my liquor screen shatter. I heard my blood splatter onto the ground and I hit my head on the hard marble floor. Yudra laughed and he whispered into my ear, “Goodbye Lila, for real this time.” I couldn’t form a response as I felt the last of my strength flee from my body and the world fade to black.