"Soul Manipulators like us can never live a normal life, Ryker. We are like snakes in a house. No one wants us. We are like a curse to the Elves. Don't you remember how they treated my parents after they knew that they were Soul Manipulators.  How my parents were shot for a murder they never committed. We can't live like this Ryker. It is better to die than to live the way our kind does..." He added, his voice trembling a bit. I knew his pain. I had witnessed it through my own eyes. That was the winter when our world shattered. When his parents were shot, when Aven chose the path of violence and revenge.

"How is that life different from what you are living now?" I questioned.

"Because I am not trying to be someone I am not. This is the real me!!" He said. He was standing in front of me now. His eyes directly glaring at me.

"But..this is not you." I said helplessly. He gave me his bitter smile again.

"What makes you think that you know at all? You really haven't changed at all, Ryker..You are still that fearful, timid kid who always believed that running away was the best option. You know what people like you are called. Cowards!!" He almost spat on me in hate.

I could only stare at him, blankly because what he had said now hit me like a huge wave of despair. Is this what I was? A Coward? Who always ran away? Maybe....maybe I was one. This is the reason that I had let this happen. This is the reason why our world crumbled. This is the reason why I had let Aven become an assassin. All because I was a Coward.

I wanted to tell him that it was not the truth. I wanted to just hug him and never let him go. I wanted to tell him that I loved him and will continue to, till the end of time. But I couldn't and you know why....because I was a Coward!! I felt a lump in my throat, a heavy rock placed over my heart, something squeezing me.

Aven gave me a pitiful sigh and put on his white mask again. He turned his back on me and started walking away from me. No!! I can't let this end here not, not like this.

[Soul Manipulation: Blood Style - Blood threads!!]

I opened my fingers and let the blood from them escape in thin yet strong threads. The threads were shot like arrows, wrapping themselves around branches or stems and finally to my target- Aven. The threads tied themselves  around his arms and legs, preventing him from moving. This technique wasn't that of a deadly move in battle but it could be enough to immobilise your enemy and, for my case, my love.

"I can't let you leave like this...even if I have to use force to prevent you from going back, I will." I declared.

"You think you can stop me with this!!" He declared without even turning.

[Soul Manipulation: Skeletal Style - Spikes!!]

And just like that all my blood threads were sliced within seconds by those Spiney blades that emerged from his body. 

But I didn't have time to waste.

[Soul Manipulation: Blood Style - Acid ball]

I created a ball of blood from the veins I had ruptured in my wrist and threw it towards the sky. Usually, an Acid Ball should be shot towards your enemy directly to cause maximum damage but, then again, I wasn't fighting an enemy here.

[Soul Manipulation: Skeletal Style - Cartilage Cover]

A thick membrane of soft bones enveloped Aven's visible body, preventing him from any kind of contact with the skin-burning acid. 

"Shit! He has a technique to counteract all my move." I whispered as I bit my tongue in frustration. I think I need to use my last move.

[Soul Manipulation: Blood Style - Blood rush!!]

A sudden surge of power engulfed my senses. This technique lets me level up my metabolic stamina to imagined heights by doubling my blood circulation. My strength and speed gets a boost for a certain amount of time. I hope this time is enough to stop Aven.

I ran with lightning speed in a circle to hit Aven's head from behind. Getting him unconscious for the time being....

I ran and ran closing in the distance between us to four metres....two metres....one metre.

[Soul Manipulation: Skeletal Style - Bone blade!!]

Aven turned in a second, no, a split-second. His deadly green eyes met mine for those moments. A sharp bone-sword grew from Aven's right hand, cutting on the edge of my abdomen from the right side. Blood fizzed out of my abdomen like a shaken drink from a bottle. The speed of the escaping blood was doubled due to the Blood Rush.

Blood was sputtered out from my mouth. I came to my knees, my body feeling weaker. But I wouldn't die. Aven knew this. Blood Style users like me can never die from a blood loss like this but it can surely exhaust me, especially after using Blood rush. Even this ability felt like a curse now.

I should have been agonising with pain now but instead, I was smiling. Smiling like an idiot when everything I had left with me was slipping away like sand. This fight reminded me of the small fights we used to conduct in these same forests as teens to test our powers. And just like then I still lost. Maybe, few things remain the same after all. I looked up at Aven. Through the peeks, the expressionless mask offered, I could see tears in Aven's eyes. Shit !! I really hated his tears.

"This is the only way, Ryker. To be free..." He said pretending to be unaffected. But he was still too naive to hide his emotions from me. He jumped back to one of the branches of the pines and  left the place leaping on those trees.

And I was left alone here, with fluttering of leaves, sweet notes of the breeze and a weeping heart.