He looked at the two black daggers in his hands, then at the old elf crumpled against the wall.
’Yeah, that felt really good.’
She wasn’t moving. He could just walk over, stick these daggers in her, and be done with it. No more tests, no more being looked at like he was dirt. It would be so easy.
Serian had asked him why he was even trying, why he’d co with them so easily. He rembered telling her he was tired of being alone, that he wanted to see what it was like to not push everyone away.
What a joke.
He had tried. He had actually tried to play along, to be the ’guest’, to see if maybe these elves were different from the humans back ho. But they weren’t. They looked at him with the sa disgust, spat on the ground where he walked, and called him filth. It was the sa old crap, just with pointy ears this ti.
’Pathetic loser, scared of change.’ He could still hear Ava’s voice in his head. Maybe she was right. Maybe this whole experint in not being a loner was just a stupid waste of ti because people were all the sa. They just found soone to pick on, soone to hate, and it didn’t matter if you were human or elf.
The daggers in his hands felt solid and real. This was the only thing that made sense. Power. The ability to make it all stop.
Fena pushed herself up from the floor, one hand pressed against the wall for support. There was a thin trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth, and her eyes were wide, not with pain, but with a kind of shock he’d never seen before. She looked at him like he was so impossible puzzle.
"You..." she started, her voice a low, raspy whisper. "You dare strike ?"
He let the daggers dissolve into black smoke, his hands now empty. "You were in the way."
The anger in her eyes was almost a physical force. "I am the Elder of this forest. I am the voice of the trees. And you, a human whelp, a child of a lesser race, struck ."
"Yeah, and I’ll do it again," he said. He was so tired of this. Tired of being tested, tired of being judged. The anger that had been simring all day was finally boiling over. He felt a twitch in his hands, a deep need to just hit sothing until it broke.
"I tried, you know," he said, the words just started coming out, fueled by pure frustration. "I really did. I ca here, to your stupid forest, and I thought, ’okay, let’s see what happens’. I was told I was a coward who pushed everyone away, so I figured I’d try not pushing." He let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "And what do I get? The sa old shit. You all treat like garbage, just like everyone else."
He started pacing in front of the dead fire pit, too agitated to stand still. "You think you’re better than humans? You’re not. You’re just as bad, with your sneering and your stupid pride." He stopped and pointed a finger at her. "I’m so sick of it. I’m sick of holding back, sick of trying to be sothing I’m not."
His voice got louder, bouncing off the walls. "I just want to hit sothing! I want to break sothing! I want to let all this out on soone who can actually take it!"
He jabbed his thumb at his own chest, his eyes burning with a hot, reckless light. "So fight ! Stop with the tests and the talking and the ’I’m so much better than you’ crap and just fight !" He was yelling now, the words scraping out of his throat. "Co on, Elder! Let’s see what you’ve really got!"
Fena stared at him. The shock on her face slowly lted away, replaced by sothing else. It wasn’t just anger. It was a cold, dangerous curiosity. She wiped the blood from her lip with the back of her hand and stood up straight, her posture regaining all of its earlier authority.
"You challenge , child?" she asked, her voice dangerously calm. "You, who knows nothing of real power? You wish to dance with ?"
"I don’t want to dance," he snarled. "I want to break your face."
A slow, chilling smile spread across her lips. It was the first ti he’d seen her smile, and it was not a pleasant sight. "Very well, human. You wish to vent your childish frustrations? You wish to see true power?" She took a deliberate step away from the wall, into the center of the room. "Then you shall have your wish. But not here."
She walked to the door and threw it open. "We will go to the Proving Ground. And I will teach you the difference between a tantrum and a battle."
---
This was a stupid idea and he knew it, but he didn’t care anymore.
He walked into the clearing, the ground hard under his boots. The other elves started showing up, their faces all looking the sa, angry. He saw Liesa being helped by her sister, la. She just glared at him, her face still pale from their fight.
la brought Serian to the edge of the clearing. she looked really worried, leaning on a branch for support. He could feel her staring at him, but he didn’t look back.
The god chat went nuts, a bunch of new nas popping up.
[Hades, God of the Underworld] A mortal child challenging an Elder who commands the lifeblood of a forest? This is not a battle. This is a sacrifice.
[Athena, Goddess of Wisdom & Strategy] The boy is emotionally compromised. He is fighting from a place of rage, not tactics. A fatal error.
[Auraelia, Goddess of Resilient Sparks] NOX! PLEASE DON’T! SHE’S TOO STRONG! YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS! 😭
He ignored them. He was so sick of their voices. Then a different blue screen appeared.
[Main Mission Issued!]
[Objective: Land one clean hit on Elder Fena.]
[Reward: 2 Level, 50 Stat Points, 1x Legendary Skill Box.]
[Failure: Severe Injury or Death.]
’Just one hit, huh?’ The system must know he couldn’t actually win. ’Fifty stat points for one punch. I can do that.’
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