"Arrghhh"

One Thousand….

One Thousand One Hundred…

Two Thousand…

I ducked as a beam of energy flashed past the previous location of my head. I completely avoided the beam, but the heat radiating from the beam still caused 2nd degree burns to appear on my face.

Considering I was somewhat heat resistant from wielding my lightning ability, you could probably guess how hot that beam was to burn my face.

Sadly, this was not the first time I had to dodge friendly fire on the battlefield. There were only about a few hundred warriors left in the battle after so many days without rest.

A Mutated Tree-Monger leaped into the air, I waved my hands in a downward manner as a bolt of lightning struck the beast mid-air. Still, a Mutated Tree-Monger would not go down that easily.

*Boom*

The Abomination smashed into the ground a couple of feet away from me, and I immediately began bombarding the Abomination with lightning.

*Puchi*

I felt a piercing pain in my shoulder, no doubt I had been caught unaware by an enemy. My body flickered with lightning as I disappeared from my location and reappeared dozens of feet away.

I held my shoulder with my left hand as my right hand continued with smoother slicing motions. Decapitating Insectoids, Tree Mongers, and Mist Dweller alike.

Soon, my lightning spun out of control and began lashing out at anything near me. It was a subconscious action on my part.

But what could I do? I was scared beyond belief and pumped with so much adrenaline that a normal human would just roll over and die. My body scarred from the many attacks that had penetrated my defenses over the past six days.

Normally, I would heal at a rapid pace but my regeneration was waning. Wounds on top of wounds had accumulated since the battle started. Every movement would tear open old wounds that had already scabbed over.

I grabbed the small barb that was protruding from my shoulder.

"Fucking Blosu insectoids!" I cursed.

Blosu were insectoids, small as a soccer ball, but fast beyond belief. They had two sharp protrusions sticking from their heads, and they would launch themselves at any unsuspecting individual, killing that person immediately.

I tugged at the Blosu that had drilled itself into my shoulder. Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming feeling of dread. I allowed lightning to flood my body as my senses were kicked into overdrive.

The world I perceived became substantially slower, and I took a single step…

Then another step…

Soon, I was running as the ground shattered beneath my feet from my intense momentum.

Still, the feeling of dread still tickled the back of my neck. Remember what I said about 'tickles' in the Apocalypse?

*Shing*

A massive blade slid across my back, barely touching my skin, but a fountain of blood still gushed into the air. I rolled my body to disperse the momentum acquired from moving at such a high velocity.

Contrary to popular belief, running at super speed using lightning abilities was taxing. Making turns were difficult, foot positioning was difficult, stopping was difficult… everything was difficult.

Still, I had mastered super-speed a long time ago, but in my exhausted state, I could do nothing as I tumbled across the battlefield. Luckily, I managed to stop in a depression on the battlefield where the soil was relatively loose.

Several bones were probably broken but now was not the time to worry about such trifling matters. A warm liquid trickled through my fingers as I felt my back. What was it, if not blood?

"Ugggghhhh!" I groaned, threatening to pass out from the countless impacts it took to disperse my momentum.

The Attacker was no doubt a Mist Dweller. They were incredibly fast beings, and amongst the most mysterious in The New Era (The Apocalypse).

I was fast but there was always a mountain beyond a mountain. I solidified a thin layer of lightning onto my ring finger and thumb. It seems I was just in time.

The next moment a sharp silver blade slashed at my face. I charged my body with even more lightning, this time the lightning surrounding my body was red instead of blue.

The world slowed once more, but this time, I managed to see my attacker – Mist Dweller Phantom. I caught the blade between my fingers, twisted right, and the blade shattered.

Fragments of the blade shattered slowly before my eyes. Phantom blades were known to penetrate almost anything. Using that opportunity, I dipped below the shattering fragments.

One fragment managed to penetrate the Blosu drilled into my shoulder. The Abomination squealed as it was penetrated but I still had one more enemy to consider.

I grabbed the Blosu, concentrated all the red lightning on my body into the dying Abomination, and launched the Blosu spiraling at the Mutated Tree-Monger.

The moment the lightning left my body, everything was back to normal speed. The Mutated Tree-Monger fell, The Phantom disappeared, and The Blosu was embedded into the head of the Mutated Tree-Monger.

I tried to catch my breath but there was no rest for the wicked.

*Boom*

At the next moment, I found myself being launched into the air, propelled backward by a massive explosion. I directed lightning into my eyes, I watched as several warriors were turned into dust by the resulting explosion.

Vicious energy radiated outwards from the explosion, turning even those blasted away into dust. I watched as the energy slowly expanded to my spatial location, but something tugged at me the next moment.

I saw numerous copies of myself appearing near me in the air. They began pulling me in different directions to escape the vicious energy. Each time one of them would pull me away, they would die in my stead as the energy consumed them.

The last copy tossed me to a completely different section of the battlefield before he was too consumed by the energy.

I tumbled, rolled, and then jumped to my feet. The wound on my back had already been cauterized by the lightning present inside my body.

"Thanks, Kelly," I murmured to the red-head woman in front of me.

Kelly always had a knack for using her ability in creative ways.

"You're wel…"

*Puchi*

*Puchi*

Kelly could not finish her statement; the next moment we were both pierced by the same tentacle. An Abomination slowly crawled out of Kelly's shadow and I widened my eyes in amazement.

This was my first time seeing a Mutated Phantom; however, the Abomination obviously made a mistake revealing itself at this time. Kelly was pierced through the heart – she died instantly, but I was only pierced through the stomach.

There was no time to grieve, no time to think about what could be. This was the Apocalypse, when someone died you had to move on… and move on is what I did.

"Blue Jet!" I yelled with all my might.

The skies lit up with a purple radiance as what seemed to be a falling star came spiraling to the ground. But it was no falling star, it was a cone-shaped concentration of pure purple lightning.

The Mutated Abomination had no time to react.

*Booom*

*CCCrrrraaacccckkkkklllleeee*

*CCCrrrraaacccckkkkklllleeee*

When the smoke cleared, I was the only person standing within a one-mile radius of crystallized soil. The entire ground in a couple of miles had turned into glass from the heat of the lightning. Still, even if it was my attack, I didn't get away unscathed.

I had vile burns all across my half-naked body. Sparks danced on the tips of my fingers as I cauterized the wound on my stomach using the intense heat of my lightning.

I could not count the number of times I had been injured in this battle.

I was sure that everyone's healing factors were exhausted to the point of normalcy. Still, there was no time to be lax in The Last Battle.

Motes of lights gathered around my body, the next moment I found myself held by the scantily dressed, warworn figure of Camilla. I had not seen her in three days, but we shared a connection, so we would know if the other died.

The ground below my feet softened as Stephen kept rose out of the ground like he was on a sofa watching television. Despite his cool entrance, Stephen looked worse than Camilla and me combined.

Blue energy began twisting in the air creating a whirlpool-like image. Then Simon and the remaining warriors walked out of the portal created.

Simon was the most versatile amongst us given he could adequately use all our abilities.

"One last push?" Simon asked grimacing slightly.

I also grimaced, I felt my heart tighten as I squeezed Camilla's body closer to my own. The sudden impulse to run away swelled inside me, but I quickly quelled the eagerness. It was exactly this cowardice that led me to be disdained by my peers.

I barely managed a crooked smile and replied "One last push,"