Page 95 of Raze
“Ruin. Call me Ruin.”
Kellan’s eyebrows pop up, and I shake my head. I’ll tell him about Kit and the moniker he dubbed me with at another time.
The emcee cackles. “Alright, Dragon and Ruin. I’ll call you out when it’s your turn to fight. Now let me take care of this line behind you of new contenders so I can redo all the match-ups.” He waves us away, and Kellan loops his arm around my shoulders to keep me close while leading us through the throng of people to the cage.
It’s large enough that we find an open spot against it. The ring is empty, probably while that guy York rearranges the fights, and I turn out of Kellan’s hold and grip the unzipped sides of his leather jacketin each hand.
“Are you going to tell me what exactly you’ve gotten me into,Dragon?” I tease with an arched brow.
Kellan gives me a wolfish grin and crowds me back against the cage. His fingers grasp the metal on either side of me as he hunches over me. “A gifted fight.”
My eyes widen. Did he say gifted?
“Yup. This isn’t your regular pack of ragtag thugs and fighters here. Everyone here has a gift and uses it in the fight.”
Shit. He couldn’t start me with some normal fight club to see how far I’ve come? We didn’t train with gifts.
“If you want to face GE, then this is how you train. I can train you with your gift if you’ll let me, but the only way you’ll be able to practice against others who have gifts is going to be here.”
I bite my lip. “But Kell, I can’t use my gift in there. What if I kill someone by accident?”
He’s so close now that the heat from his body instantly warms me as I draw in a breath of his musk and motor oil scent.
“Then don’t,” he replies simply with a quirk of his lips.
“Gee, thanks,” I snark back at his lack of help.
Kellan angles my face to look at him. “Not today, but wewillstart training with your gift, so you aren’t afraid of it anymore. And then you’ll find a way where you can use it that won’t be just for killing.”
York’s voice blares through the speakers overhead as he calls out the next contenders before I can say anything back to him. My gift does nothing but kill. There’s no other way for me to use it, not like how Jackson can do so many amazing things with his, or Aiden.I’m a one-trick pony. Death and destruction.
“Just watch.” He spins me around to face the cage, and his body tucks in behind me. The first two in the ring, or dome really, are a girl who’s smaller than me and a guy around my height. They’re both lean and look nimble rather than strong, and I find myself pressing my nose between the cage bars in anticipation of their gifts.
A horn sounds, and they immediately move. The girl jumps back but lands on air a few feet up. She keeps hopping up some invisible steps until she’s above the guy. If I squint and angle my head, I can see the faintest shimmer in the air.
“She can solidify air,” Kellan murmurs, his facial hair tickling my skin and sending a rush of heat through me.
I watch as she jumps around the dome, and now I can see why they needed a cage all the way around and so high. It gives her far more room to move in instead of just the platform.
Her competitor seems unphased and jumps onto one of her air platforms, beginning his ascent after her by following the same path she took. His head rears back when he gets closer, and then something flies from his mouth at her.
She dodges, but whatever liquid he expelled is aimed at her feet and hits the air she’d hardened instead. The girl drops, but she catches herself with another translucent circle of air before she hits the ground.
“He can create all types of acids and poisons in his body,” Kellan explains while I look on in awe.
The guy shoots acid in rapid fire at her, and she creates a shield of air that blocks it, but disintegrates almost as quickly as she’s able tothrow it up. I realize then that they are relying primarily on their gifts for this fight rather than hand-to-hand. He works best at a distance, firing off his acid where she can’t touch him.
She, on the other hand, keeps trying to find an opening to reach him. The girl jumps from one platform to the next. Then, from behind him, she flips upside down for her feet to plant on a platform above his head. She launches herself down at him, and he turns in time to spit acid at her, but she conjures a shield in seconds. It melts away, and her body crashes down on his, and the impact knocks him out.
The bell rings and York’s voice carries over the crowd’s hollers. “Float wins by knockout!”
The girl raises her arms up to her fans and grins when their cheers heighten. Someone enters the cage and presses two fingers to her contender’s forehead, and he groans and pushes himself up. They all leave the cage, and York calls out the next match.
I watch fight after fight of people using their gifts with their fighting skills. It’s amazing to see just how different some gifts are while also seeing some familiar ones as well. The fight is won by either a knockout or yielding, and there’s a healer just outside of the door to take care of any serious injuries or wake up those who are knocked out.
After what feels like a lifetime, I hear my name being called.
“Next up! Knight versus a brand-new, first-time fighter…Ruin! Don’t let her inexperience fool you, though! She came hand-picked by our very own Dragon.”
