The Air Out Of [Wattys2018 shortlist]

33

LEO WAS SHAKING. IT WAS AN IRRELEVANT PIECE OF INFORMATION, BUT THE ONLY TRUTH TO BE FOUND IN BETWEEN WHAT COULD BE THE MOST DISASTROUS WAR YET, worse than the one that had gotten Avine banished from Covia in the first place.

What would it be this time, Avine banished once more, lavine's dead, and what - martial law? Or, option two. It came with, Avine undefeated, taking the throne, royals dead, lavine's stuck and/or dead. And finally, the impossible option three of, somehow flipping the switch, and the lavine's bailing.

Leo shook his head as he recoiled from a punch he threw at a warriors abdomen. It was enough to distract the Avinian long enough for Leo to punch him in the head without any opposition. Slowly, he backed away as the warrior fell paralyzed towards the ground. He would live, just without a few bones.

That wasn't good.

Leo chose to retreat, moving his legs robotically towards the back. It went by unnoticed during the commotion. He wished that he could say that Ellie and Jess had managed to crawl back into Jett's office, but they were both being swallowed up. He ran over to them.

They were under what seemed like a mountain pile, them at the bottom with the warriors practically intentionally jumping on top of them. One by one, Leo grabbed them by the shoulder and pushed each aside.

"Are you okay?" He asked the flushed girls once they were no longer suffering from claustrophobia.

Jess slung her arm around Leo's shoulder and sighed, "Pretty sure I got shot somewhere." she sighed, "I'm not sure if it burst my artery, or anything that lethal. Still though, if that actually happened they won't be able to extract the bullet because of-"

"Okay, Jess. I paid attention in class too." He shook his head, smiling. "Because of the sepsis and gangrene."

She laughed quietly. While she leaned on the opposite wall adjacent from the general fight itself, she was cracking jokes about her injury, Leo, who was patching her wound only shook his head and continued, and although she could say whatever she wanted to at this moment, he doubted it was painless.

"We should go back." Leo and Jess jogged to the indoor war only to find the entire scene frozen. "...wait...what's happening?" he whispered. Then, he saw it. Over the corner to one side, Avine had managed to pin Aspyn while everybody else fought distractedly in the background. There was no way either Leo nor Jess could make it to Aspyn before Avine managed to choke her to death.

Fortunately, one of the members in Avine's trio council strode in, wearing a plush white robe that hung loosely around his shoulders. His sash of badges was neatly placed atop his chest in a military-like manner. However, he didn't look like he came straight out of a fight although the intent of his attire was to do so, "Avine." he paused, "We've found Luphoria."

Avine promptly let his iron grip loosen allowing Aspyn to take a fairly generous breath of air while backing away from him. She was running backward.

He paid her no attention and strode into the corridor. Apparently, Luphoria was now his priority. Slowly, he and Jess both made their way around the fighting, knocking out Avinians once in a while as they followed Avine.

Ellie, Scar, and Louis seemed to have the same idea and met them at the doorway Avine had gone through. "You know," Ellie said, "He's heading the right way."

"I think we all got that from 'Avine, we've found Luphoria."

"I know, but it was unrealistically hard to find the passageway even when you've got instructions on how to get there. Hell, even a full-on book wouldn't help. I got lost way too many times." She noted.