Pain curled around me like a snake, curling and curling, tightening with every second that passed, with every strike that he made. It felt like I was going to die. I had no idea how I had managed to stand my ground for so long, no idea at all how I was even still standing at the moment. I had underestimated him—just as I had known that I would. I just hadn’t realised that it was to such a degree.
With every hit that I blocked, I only started feeling worse. It was as if his energy wasn’t depleting, as if he wasn’t getting tired. Where was he getting all of this energy? It felt like he had been trained even more intensely than I had been, because it actually felt like I was going to die—and he hadn’t even shifted yet. I knew that there would be no hope for me when it came to that.
“
