There was no time to waste now in case Pierre and Cole weren’t up to the task of protecting their flags. Jason motioned for them to move in and sprinted forward launching their attack.
Jason hadn’t really bothered to participate in their training sessions, at least, not since she’d joined them. It was now clear why not – he hadn’t needed the additional practice. Jason moved with fluid grace. Every motion, every action was both neat and deadly. Before she even had time to move he’d already slammed Celo to the ground.
Rosalie was only a step behind Jason, taking up a position to face George, but her overeager anger made her careless. Her furious attacks left her defenses open, and George effortlessly swept her feet out from under her, before delivering a crunching blow to her head. Rosalie dropped away in a dead faint, crumbling to the ground.
Despite Jason’s initial advantage, Celo was still putting up a fight, shrugging off most of Jason’s blows. Jamie had replaced Rosalie to engage George and by contrast, his attack was controlled and efficient but no less deadly.
Lara was still hanging back as instructed, which meant that Allyra would have to face David alone.
David was a massive mountain of a man, his chocolate brown eyes lit up with glee, as he looked her over. To him she must’ve appeared to the weakest link.
Allyra could hear Alex’s voice in her head, instructing her to use David’s weight against him. She stood her ground as David barreled down on her, waiting until the last second before side stepping lightly out of his way, ducking under the hand he threw out in an attempt to grab her.
Grabbing his arm as he moved past, Allyra used it as leverage to climb up his back, swinging her whole body around his neck with enough momentum to bring him down. He crashed to the ground like a ton of bricks, with about as much grace as a stumbling donkey. She landed above him ready to deliver a final blow and this time she wouldn’t hesitate.
It was at this point that she heard Lara’s yell. Eva had split her forces, but it wasn’t to attack the Gold base as they’d expected. Instead she’d held back, waiting until the Gold offensive team was distracted before ambushing them with the rest of her team.
It was an inspired move – the numbers were now significantly against the Gold team.
With significant effort and not without damage to himself, Jason had managed to dispatch Celo. But with Rosalie out of commission, it still meant that the three of them were up against five of the White team, and four of them were Terras.
Allyra paused over David, distracted by Eva stalking up behind Jason, wielding a vicious looking stake. Seeing the murderous intent in Eva’s eyes, Allyra tried to scream out a warning, but David, taking advantage of the diversion, grabbed her by the throat and choked it off.
Grappling with David, Allyra saw, out of the corner of her eye, Jason turning, just in time that Eva’s stake ran through his shoulder rather than squarely through the center of his back.
There was madness in Eva’s eyes, suggesting that winning the game was no longer foremost in her mind. For whatever reason, Eva clearly wanted to hurt Jason, badly.
With David doing his best to choke the life out of her, she didn’t have time to contemplate Eva’s motives, or whether Jason would survive the attack. Still having the advantage of being above David, Allyra maneuvered herself to twist his arm to the side, using her legs and body to yank on his arm, dislocating his elbow with a pop.
David bellowed in pain, sounding less like a man and more like a bull. He broke his grip on her throat and Allyra finally delivered the crushing blow she’d prepared to do earlier. She smashed her fist into the side of his head, knocking him out.
Adrenaline pounded through her veins, thundering a drumbeat pulse in her ears. She struggled to catch her breath, feeling decidedly queasy as she thought about the crunching noise her fist had made against David’s skull. Taking a couple of deep breaths to calm herself, she tried to take in the situation.
Jamie was holding his own, keeping both George and Faith at bay. But Jason, despite all his deadly ability was now at a disadvantage, his left arm hanging by his side, blood streaming from the wound in his shoulder as he tried to take on both Eva and Joe.
It wasn’t her proudest moment, but she hesitated. Jason was obviously her toughest competition and if she allowed Eva to do more damage – it would put Jason at a disadvantage in the Trials going forward, or perhaps take him out of it altogether.
But her hesitation was momentary – she wanted to win, she needed to win. Her freedom was at stake, but she hadn’t changed so much that she was willing to stand by and watch her opponent be destroyed. Especially since he hadn’t taken the opportunity to do the same to her when it had presented itself.
And judging by the hate written so clearly on Eva’s face, she meant to do real harm to Jason. Even if Allyra didn’t understand Eva’s motives, she didn’t want to be a spectator to her friend turning into a murderer.
Leaping up, Allyra managed to grab Joe’s arm just before he connected with Jason’s ribs. She was too late to do much more than deflect the blow and Jason grunted painfully as his breath was knocked out of him.
Joe lifted his other arm and she wasn’t quite quick enough to dance out of the way to avoid his fist slamming into her own ribs. She muttered a silent thank you for her Elemental Gift that allowed her to absorb the hit, but the blow was still enough to send
