“I SAID NO!”
Kalis braced himself as he was blown out of the room, into the hallway and through the door opposite. He had clearly struck a nerve, but he didn’t think Arkay would lash out like that. With a snarl, and ignoring the fact that he had just accidentally broken into Litvir’s room, Kalis picked himself up, extending his golden claws.
“I was just asking a fucking question, you asshole!”
“Why do you keep on fucking asking me then?” Arkay shouted from his own room, shimmering with both anger and white sparkles. “I don’t want to do anything romantic with you! I don’t want to sleep with you! I DON’T!”
“You didn’t have to fucking attack me!” Kalis snapped back. “You’re just as bad as the rest of them! Maybe I shouldn’t fucking listen to you and just take what I want!”
“Don’t you fucking dare!”
Arkay let loose a small ball of bright energy, that pushed Kalis even further away from him. Kalis did not like this one bit. Still ignoring the fact that he was in Litvir’s room, Kalis grabbed the first thing he could lay his hands on, then chucked it at Arkay. As Arkay moved to his left to dodge the thrown object, Kalis proceeded to teleport by his side and claw Arkay across the arm.
“I’ll fucking have you.”
“I’ll fucking kill you!”
Rather than cry out in pain, Arkay extended his own claws, slicing at Kalis the same way Kalis had clawed him, before angrily throwing Kalis out of his room again. Arkay then ripped his bedroom door off his hedges and thwacked Kalis over the head, turned the door around and thrust the corner into Kalis’s stomach.
“You are not allowed to touch me!”
Kalis stumbled backwards, catching his breath briefly. This time, he noticed more of what was going on around him. Litvir had fled from his room and run off to grab the other Decay Lords. That was perfectly fine by him. Meant he had more time to grab Arkay and escape. With a smile, Kalis opened up his claws, turning his fingers into long, golden tendrils. He thrust these at Arkay, causing them to wrap around him, then used his tail to smash a hole in the ceiling above them.
Swiftly realising what Kalis was trying to do, Arkay hissed and snarled, his skin crystallizing into sharp diamond. After creating himself a bit of wriggle room, Arkay’s claws also sharpened up, slicing through the tendrils Kalis had created. Creating a field of protective energy around himself, Arkay pushed Kalis away once more, then leaped through the hole Kalis had made, trying to make some space for himself.
“GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE COWARD!” Kalis shouted after Arkay, climbing up through the hole, only to be greeted by a burst of energy slapping him across the face.
“GO FUCK YOURSELF ON A RUSTY SPIKE, YOU ASSHOLE!”
Arkay found himself running towards the front of the ship. Or rather, slowly crawling. The ship was still moving, so Arkay grew his foot claws out, embedding them in the ship’s metallic coat. His plan was to get to the cockpit and lock himself in there, but clearly his plan wasn’t working.
Quickly recovering, Kalis summoned more tendrils, this time not from his hands, but by melting the metal around Arkay. In swift response, Arkay created a burst of nitrogen liquid, re-sealing the metal back in place, then used the swiftly evaporating nitrogen cloud to block Kalis’s vision.
“ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS SAY YOU’D THINK ABOUT IT!” Kalis roared, swinging wildly, heating the air around him. Once his vision cleared, Kalis clawed at his back, revealing a large pair of gold, blood-stained wings. He used these to throw himself forward in Arkay’s direction.
Arkay ducked out of Kalis’s path, only taking minor injuries along his back from Kalis’s claws. But Kalis was now blocking his escape route.
“All you had to do was say you’d think about it! We have so much in common! We’re perfect for each other! Yet all you do is say no to everything!”
“Have you considered WHY I say no?”Arkay hissed, flinging a series of thorned chains at Kalis, tying his wings together.
“Because you’re scared!” Kalis snarled back, tearing off the chains, before whipping his tail forward, catching it around Arkay’s leg. He pulled his tail back, ripping Arkay off his feet and tumbling towards him. If it wasn’t for the protective shield around Arkay, he would have been in Kalis’s grip now. “You’re a fucking coward, unwilling to extend your horizons! You want this! You want me! Yet you deny yourself! Could have had a nice, fun time with me, but no, you stand there, wholly on your own, unwilling to do ANYTHING! You’re gonna die, cold and alone, wondering what the fuck you did with your life!”
Arkay tutted, slicing through Kalis’s tail. Not that it mattered to Kalis, he instantly grew himself another tail. Arkay sliced through that as well. Kalis grew yet more tails, using them to encircle Arkay, trapping himself within the sphere of spiked tendrils. Satisfied, Kalis made a hole directly beneath him, then dragged both himself and Arkay back into the ship’s interior, into the cockpit.
With a wave of dark energy, Kalis threw whoever was in there out of the room and locked the door behind him, sealing Arkay inside the cockpit with him. But before Kalis could do anything else, a golden burst of energy blinded him, followed by a ripple of flames. The flames quickly burnt away Kalis’s tails, searing the wounds.
“You think I don’t fucking know that?” Arkay shouted, ripping off the nearby seat and repeatedly bashing Kalis’s head, knocking his parallel to the ground. He then proceeded to lower the room’s temperature and summoned a bubble of liquid nitrogen around Kalis’s limbs, freezing Kalis in place.
“Do you? Do you know that, Arkay?” There was drowsiness in Kalis’s voice. “You’re so… eternally alone. Unadventurous. Unwilling to open up.”
Arkay sighed, making sure that Kalis was properly pinned down. Behind him, the door was slowly being broken open. “I know. I fucking know. I’m a miserable, boring waste of space, too terrified to move a millimetre from my comfort zone. I almost certainly will spend eternity unloved and unwilling to love back. But I choose to do this. And I won’t let you take that decision away from me.”
“Why though? You could be so happy otherwise? Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed you, but you might not ever be happy if someone doesn’t force you to be happy.”
“That… that is probably true… You forcing me to be happy though just defeats the point.”
Kalis gave up, letting the cold embrace him. “Your loss, I guess. And you were the one saying I deserved better…”
“Yeah, my loss…” Arkay whispered as he teleported away. “Not like I’m good at taking my own advice…”