One Hell of a Bird
"Raven was getting tired of dying."
Raven coughed blood onto black sand as a giant of a man—er—a giant of a thing approached her.
She was leaning over an immense fissure, brown knuckles turned white as they feverishly gripped the side of the bridge she kneeled on. She was surprised the structure hadn’t fallen apart yet. Everything down here seemed like it was meant to kill you. The floor was glass, the rain was molten, and the air tasted like acid. Raven unconsciously brushed her finger over a golden pocket watch hanging from her belt. The watch glowed with a thin white aura, an aura that danced along Raven’s skin, making her glow.
Raven slowly got to her feet, wiping the blood from her mouth. The armored Creature waited for her.
“You will not reach him.”
Raven narrowed her eyes and flicked her hand. A long curving weapon that her father had called an urumi materialized within her grip. The implement was a whip sword, as sharp as any blade but moved and flexed like string. She had hoped the urumi would give her an advantage in this literally God-forsaken place—an unusual foreign blade with unusual foreign magic.
Raven dashed forward and slashed at the armored Knight. He stepped backward, perfectly moving out of the way of her arcing slash. He then lunged forward cutting at Raven’s neck.
She died.
There once was this emperor, and he asked the shepherd’s boy how many seconds were in eternity.
Raven awoke at the end of the bridge in a flash of light. She instinctively reached for her neck. Then she sighed.
Raven was getting tired of dying.
She raised up her pocket watch. It was warm. Raven examined the item’s face. The device's hands were frozen in the upwards position, with the thinnest hand sitting on the one second mark. She frowned at the watch face.
The shepherd’s boy says, "There’s this mountain of pure diamond."
Wingbeats.
Raven flipped back her ponytail, a long braid fitted with golden rings, as the armored Knight landed to block her path.
His armor was a beautiful silver, the plates near perfectly interlocked to best protect the Creature’s body. The pieces fit seamlessly together—no openings for any blade to find, no gap that could lead to vulnerability. The only hole was a near-imperceptible visor that masked the demon’s eyes. Raven supposed he had to see somehow.
His weapon was a giant golden greatsword. Despite its size and weight, he moved it around with as much ease as if it were a feather. The gold seemed to glow, glinting like a shard of the sun captured in metallic form. The only part of the Creature itself that Raven could see were his beautiful white wings. Had she not known where he was, she could have mistaken him for an angel. The wings were stretched out behind the Knight, several times as wide as Raven was tall.
"It is two miles and a half high, two miles and a half wide, and two miles and a half in depth," said the shepherd’s boy.
Raven had lost count of how many times she had died. This armored warrior was perfect—perfect in every strike, every dodge, every step. There was no imbalance, no disruption, no misstep Raven could exploit in his fight.
The few times she had managed to land a hit on him in some loop or another, her blade always glanced off, sending a shocking reverberation up her arm, stunning her and leaving her open to more attacks—strikes that she still felt in her mind, though her body forgot.
Still, Raven attacked. Her blade flowed in a ribbon of silver light. To a mortal her skill with it would be terrifying. But this Knight had been shaped in the oldest war. This level of skill was expected.
The Knight dodged Raven’s onslaught. She rolled as the demon smashed his greatsword into the floor. Raven flicked her urumi, but her strike was deflected by the Creature’s armor. The Knight threw a devastating punch.
Raven dropped her sword, and caught the Creature’s punch to its mild surprise. She pulled, throwing the monster off balance and then summoned her urumi back to her hand. Her whip sword lashed out like a snake. The Knight jumped away, but this time he was too slow. The blade nicked his wing.
A single feather, and a drop of golden blood, fell to the ground.
Raven barely had time to register this little victory, much less relish it, before the enraged Knight dashed forward with a previously unshown speed and stabbed Raven through the chest.
A flash of light, and Raven stood at the front of the bridge.
However, this time, she smiled instead of sighed. This Creature could bleed. This Creature could be killed.
Every hundred years, a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on the diamond mountain.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Flash.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Punch. Flash.
Wingbeats. Whip. Dodge. Parry. Flash.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Punch. Strike. Flash.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Punch. Strike. Parry. Flash.
Wingbeats. Twirl. Punch. Parry. Flash.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Punch. Strike. Parry. Duck. Flash.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Punch. Strike. Parry. Duck. Strike. Flash.
Wingbeats. Whip. Parry. Punch. Strike. Flash.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Punch. Strike. Parry. Duck. Strike. Punch. Flash.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Punch. Strike. Parry. Duck. Strike. Punch. Parry. Flash.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Punch. Strike. Parry. Duck. Strike. Punch. Parry. Drop. Flash.
Wingbeats. Slash. Parry. Punch. Strike. Parry. Duck. Strike. Punch. Parry. Drop. Catch.
When the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed.
Raven’s brain numbed in the loops that followed. She had but one purpose in her undeath—one thing she needed to destroy.
She ducked under the Knight’s blade, slashing at one of his wings. Instinctively, he dodged away, but at the last moment, she flicked her wrist, changing the direction of her whip blade. It was a painful maneuver—the whip hated being redirected once thrown—but it obeyed, curving around in one arcing motion. The blade wrapped around the head of the Creature's sword, and she wretched it from his hands.
The Knight didn’t miss a beat, and charged forward with a punch. Raven dropped her sword, caught his punch, and pulled him forward. She summoned her blade and slashed upwards severing the Creature's left wing.
The Creature froze, as he looked down at the pool of golden blood around the severed appendage. Raven lashed her whip sword around the Creature's hand, and flung him off the bridge into the endless void below. There was a small flash of fire in the distant dark.
Raven collapsed to the ground. The white glow around her was weak and fading. She could feel the glassy ground now, and the acid air burned her lungs. But she didn’t really care. She started laughing—not exactly a sane and stable laugh, but it was better than dying.
She slowly got to her feet and began limping across the bridge. She’d be back with him soon.
Then her blood went cold. The sound of wingbeats filled the air. Raven turned slowly as a large armored figure descended onto the bridge. His armor was black, but blacker than any black Raven had ever seen. His wings were purple, and little comets danced along them. He brandished a long silver spear toward Raven.
“You will not reach him.”
You may think that’s a hell of a long time.
Raven looked down at her pocket watch, it was cold to the touch. The thinnest hand had moved from the first second mark to the two-second mark. The timepiece glowed softly, almost taunting her. She gave a small, sad smile. Guess he’d have to wait a little longer.
She took a steadying breath and clicked a button on the top of her watch. She turned around and banished her whip blade towards the beast. The white glow on her skin flared to life.
Personally, I think that’s a hell of a bird.