Her thoughts wandered to him as she stared at the beast standing before her.
"Michael..."
His name escaped her lips in a quiet murmur.
Elizabeth understood how he viewed the world. She knew how deeply his experiences had shaped him, how distorted his perception of humanity had become and how easily he could lose himself in his own thoughts. Without her, she sometimes wondered what he would become.
Something unrecognisable, perhaps.
She didn't want to leave him alone for too long.
Despite his unpredictable nature, Michael was entertaining. Infuriating, certainly, but entertaining nonetheless. There was something strangely amusing about the way he approached life, as though every unfortunate situation was an opportunity to complain, provoke someone or do something utterly ridiculous.
"It's truly fun," she whispered to herself, a faint smile appearing on her face.
That was why she intended to overcome this challenge.
Not because she particularly enjoyed fighting, nor because she wanted to prove anything to anyone. She simply wanted to find Michael.
Unfortunately, the creature before her seemed determined to make that rather difficult.
It resembled a grotesque fusion of a lion and a crocodile. Its muscular body was covered in rough scales, its jaws lined with enormous teeth. It lowered its head, fixed its gaze upon Elizabeth and began advancing.
Elizabeth remained still.
Unlike Michael, whose approach to enemies often involved reckless improvisation and an apparent disregard for his own life, she preferred a more controlled method.
She was a Hybrid, possessing the abilities of both a Mourner and a Relier.
Her power was rooted in something far more personal.
As the beast suddenly charged, Elizabeth began muttering beneath her breath. The surrounding air shifted. A gentle breeze stirred the leaves before rapidly intensifying, swirling around her body.
Her eyes slowly opened.
Behind them lay a resolve hardened by past suffering, by memories and secrets she had never shared with anyone.
She raised her gaze towards the approaching creature.
"Confinement."
The word left her lips.
"As my secrets are confined and held within my heart, so shall you be held in confinement."
The beast was almost upon her.
A fraction of a second separated its jaws from her body.
Then everything stopped.
An invisible force descended upon the creature.
Its enormous body was suddenly flattened against the ground, as though an immense weight had been placed upon it. The earth beneath it cracked, and the surrounding vegetation bent beneath the pressure.
There was no visible cage, no physical structure to contain it.
Yet the confinement was absolute.
Elizabeth's gravity manipulation had manifested as an invisible box, a prison formed from the weight of the secrets and suffering she kept locked within herself.
The beast struggled.
Its claws scraped against the earth, but the pressure refused to release it.
Elizabeth watched for a moment before wiping the droplets of blood from her brow.
Then she looked around.
"Where is that beans lover?"
Her expression changed.
Towering trees surrounded her in every direction. The waterfall was nowhere to be seen, and the unfamiliar landscape offered little indication of where she was supposed to go.
She was lost.
Wonderful.
Elizabeth examined her surroundings, attempting to determine which direction would be best to take. She was intelligent, certainly, but intelligence and practical survival experience were two very different things.
She had grown up in a life of privilege, where survival had never been a daily concern. She wasn't accustomed to wandering through unfamiliar forests, searching for food or worrying about whether something would emerge from the trees and attempt to eat her.
After a moment, she lowered herself onto the leafy ground.
A frown creased her forehead.
"I can't endanger myself for Michael. He'll be fine."
She said it as though convincing herself.
But that was precisely where the difference between them lay.
Michael would risk his life for her without a second thought.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, was beginning to question whether she should do the same.
Perhaps that was simply how the world worked. People had different priorities, different limits and different ways of expressing their attachment to others.
Besides, she had her own problems.
"I can't start yapping when I'm about to either kill or be killed by a nine-foot snake."
Meanwhile, Michael was still hurtling towards the beast.
His body spun through the air like a blade, his remaining knife positioned to strike. A strange, almost manic laughter escaped his mouth.
"HAHAHAHA!"
His eyes were fixed on the creature.
"I WANT TO DIEEEEE! HAAAA!"
There was something deeply unsettling about the enthusiasm in his voice.
Most people would have been terrified in his position. A creature several times stronger than him had already demonstrated that it could send him flying with a single strike.
Michael, however, seemed almost delighted.
Just before impact, he tucked his legs towards his body, drawing his upper half backwards. Then, with a sudden release of tension, he propelled his upper body forward like a catapult.
His entire momentum concentrated into the strike.
The knife plunged towards the beast's head.
CRACK!
The blade penetrated its tough outer skin, but the force proved too much for the weapon.
It shattered.
The impact sent fragments scattering through the air, while the creature let out an enraged screech. Its body twisted violently in mid-air, performing a complete 360-degree rotation as it attempted to retaliate.
Its enormous tail swung around.
The target was Michael.
He saw it coming.
There was barely enough time to react, but he had already begun preparing something.
He bit down hard on the inside of his mouth.
The pressure tore into his gum, drawing blood. He spat out a dark substance, a black powder that scattered across the creature's tail.
Then the tail struck.
BOOM!
Michael was smashed towards the ground.
His body absorbed the impact, and agony surged through his spine. But even as the force drove him downwards, his hands remained occupied.
He grabbed the two broken pieces of his knife.
With whatever strength he had left, he brought the fragments together and forced them against each other.
A spark emerged.
For one brief instant, everything seemed to slow.
Then came the explosion.
KABOOOOOM!
The blast engulfed the creature.
Its body ruptured, sending blue blood spraying through the air. The explosion swallowed Michael as well, enveloping him in the creature's blood and the force of the detonation.
He hadn't escaped the consequences of his own attack.
His vision blurred.
His head throbbed, and the impact had left him concussed. His spine screamed in agony, while his dislocated limbs made even the smallest movement excruciating.
For a moment, he could barely understand what had happened.
But he was still conscious.
Somehow, impossibly, he was still conscious.
He struggled to rise, blood pouring from his mouth. His body trembled beneath him, and his breathing came in uneven bursts.
Yet, despite everything, a grin slowly spread across his face.
He looked towards the creature, his vision swimming.
"Well, Death..."
He coughed, blood escaping between his lips.
"...you lost again."