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Nikos bounded across the forest, chasing the Bird as she ran a few paces ahead of him. He almost had her. They both were down to their last lives, and Scott was a few paces behind him. They were going to make sure she would pay for her many, many, transgressions against him and his allies. The deaths the Feather Holders’ had caused were too many not to go unpunished, and the time for that punishment had come. They were approaching the water, so this would be the end for her very soon.
There were only a few of the twelve remaining. He had to bury Shelby earlier this week after she was murdered while completely unaware. They took advantage of her blindness and not even the blessing of luck could have saved her. He hated those who fought dishonorably.
As Nikos started gaining on her, the Bird shouted, “Now!”
Nikos looked up to see Pearl descending from a cliff above, striking Scott with an axe. Scott pulls out his own and starts defending himself, but he’s at a disadvantage. Nikos stopped abruptly at seeing the dark one there. He thought they were allies. Were the nights they shared a ruse? Did she laugh in his company and share his wine just to stab him in the back? Did she tell her allies the secrets and intimacies of his heart? No, NO! This wasn’t happening to him again. Not after what happened to his other allies. Not after what happened to Katissa. Nikos threw a lightning bolt to where the dark one was standing, but at the last second she pushed Scott, his Pretty One, into the direction of the bolt.
Scott fell backwards and Nikos caught him. He was dazed for a moment before a sword pierced right through his lover’s chest as he was holding him. Scott let out a strangled cry as his knees buckled beneath him and his body turned into the wind. He left no remains. At least he was able to bury Katisa. At least he could make her close her eyes and seem serene as he put her body in the ground. But this Monster made it so that wasn’t happening.
“Aww, no hard feelings, mate! We all knew it was coming to this. Look, if it’ll make you feel any better we can fight in the arena just us two, yeah? I know you were askin’ to the other day, and I’d love to really see what you’re made of!” the Monster laughed.
How dare she. How fucking dare she! This Monster held no respect for loss, for grief, for love and pain and life! Nikos could feel small sparks coming off of him in waves. She just stood there with that smile. That godsdamned smile was going to be gone from her face.
Nikos lunged with a guttural growl, arms outstretched to tackle that Monster to the ground. Clouds started to roll in from above at a pace that could only be from the divine. The Monster wasn’t going down without a fight, though. She pushed back against Nikos, rolling to try and push him off. The ground quickly became slick with water as dirt turned to mud. The Monster pushed herself up for a moment before being struck down by a lightning bolt.
“How DARE you do this! You lying scum! At least I am honorable enough to say when I lie, but you… you betray me and don’t even have the wits to attack me! You go for the weaker of us because all you care about is your good time and not the life of another living, breathing, being!”
While her body was still recovering from that hit, Nikos dragged her roughly to the water, her face scraping the unearthed stones on the ground. The Monster’s face is littered with scratches as her body jolts from the shocks. She looks up at Nikos to smile at him in the same way she always does. He was enraged even further. She doesn’t even value her own life in the face of this danger!
The electricity brewing inside Nikos used the water to shock her body again and again as he hit her with bolts again and again. Nikos kept a firm grip on her wrist, so even when she turned invisible in desperation, she couldn’t escape. Oh, now she wanted to go? When she realized hope was lost and Nikos wasn’t being rough for fun? What a shame for her.
“I hope you end up in Tartarus with your goddess because if I ever find you by the Styx, I will give you an afterlife worse than the monsters that dwell there,” Nikos whispered into her ear.
His voice was filled with rage and venom. The water started to turn dark as the Monster used her ability to slow and weaken Nikos, but he held strong. He gripped her wrist harder and continued shocking her until he ran out of bolts. Then, he started to slash at her with a sword.
At some point, she stopped fighting back and her body went limp, but Nikos didn’t stop. Only after the dead bodies of fish floated to the top of the water, due to the amount of electricity in it, did he let her body fall. Then it dissolved into darkness, very similar to how his lover was taken by the wind.
That is when Nikos saw himself in the rippled water, tears streamed down his face steadily, stained gold to remind him who gave him his blessings that allowed him to take revenge. He cried out a sound so broken, so grief-filled the cries of ghosts could not compare. He knew the gods were watching. He knew he had not disappointed with his show. And Nikos would make sure Cleo’s wish would be the one to come true. Even though he hated the Bird, he could admit that all the champions’ problems had come from the same thing: Those. Damned. Gods.