Raised on Legends

Who Am I?

Her sword pierced the ground and kept her wounded body from collapsing.

Each breath burned her throat. Her muscles screamed.

The abomination towered over her armoured form.

Misshapen and ghastly, the abomination was a cursed being that warped the world around it. It had no name. It was a force of nature. A twisted heap of malice and despair. An enemy to all life.

Its mere presence threatened to send her toppling into insanity.

That was the crisis she faced.

So why?

Why wasn't she running?

Why wasn't she giving up?

A pillar made of shadow and bone shot out from the abomination. She desperately ignored the numbness in her arm and deflected the attack. And the next one. And the next.

With every blow, her resolve faded. Steadily, leisurely, the abomination wore her down.

'Yield, weakling. There is no glory for you here. Only failure.'

Her sword shattered. The shadows sent her sprawling across the ground.

Stifling a pain-filled cry, she stood again. She took a sword from a nearby corpse - one of the many others who challenged the monstrosity before her--and charged.

Its laughter was a repulsive sound that made her steps falter.

'Did you think you were unique? That you were gifted? Did you truly believe your adventure would have a happy ending?'

Those venom drenched words burrowed into her but she did her best to ignore them. Black thorns burst from the ground to block her but she did not retreat.

As she leapt over each thorn, hope blossomed in her heart. She could do this. She could win!

'Not good enough.'

A colossal thorn found her side, pierced her armour and struck her into the air.

The grey clouds and blood-blackened ground swapped places before her eyes as she fell.

The sound of her armour colliding with the earth was pleasing to the abomination's ears.

'Who are you to stand before me? Who are you to challenge me?'

In her dazed, dying, state the abomination's words looped in her mind.

Who am I?

The answer to that wasn't particularly deep. Her story could be found anywhere. A child raised on fairy-tales. Inspired by heroes and heroines, she took up her sword and fought.

She was ordinary.

Who was she to hope for greatness?

Who was she to succeed where better people had failed?

She had done enough. Wasn't it already amazing she hadn't died instantly? Wasn't it great that she had put up a struggle? So, it was fine to rest.

A massive pillar of shadow rose up as if to grant that wish. And then it began to fall.

She could pass on without any regrets now. She had done more than enough.

'I won't accept that.' Those words left her lips in a whisper.

A flash of steel.

The shrill sound of metal grinding against metal filled the air.

She blinked the blood out of her eyes and was surprised to find that he had stood up at some point. She glanced at her sword an realised she had cut through the attack.

She felt...refreshed. The world felt so much bigger.

The pain in every inch of her body was still there but now all that she thought about it was "It stings a bit".

'Impossible,' the abomination muttered. 'You were defeated. You were broken!'

But its words couldn't reach her now. "I've done enough." Had those thoughts really crossed her mind? How embarrassing.

She grabbed another sword with her free hand. It was good. Nicely balanced.

Yes, her story could be found anywhere. Yes, she was ordinary. But her story wasn't over yet.

'You intend to fight me? In that state? Have you gone mad?' the abomination sneered.

The earth trembled as hundreds of thorns broke the soil and rocketed towards her.

I can reach them, she thought, blades spitting sparks as they parried the projectiles.

Enraged, the abomination sent more thorns. Fangs of darkness filled the sky and rained down on her. But still, her dual blades flashed, shattering them all. Bit by bit, she advanced.

Those mystical figures. Those superhuman heroes. I can reach them. I will reach them.

Her steps became strides. Those strides became a sprint. And that sprint produced a storm with her as the centre. She tore through the
shadows. She banished darkness. A violent maelstrom of blades. She was unstoppable.

And then I'll surpass them. I'll soar higher. I'll shine brighter. That's my job after all. I'll leave an excellent story behind. For the ones that will come after me.

The abomination shuddered. For the first time, it felt fear. Instinctive, primal terror filled its core and it wondered: "How am I supposed to fight this?". This woman was an aberrant. An irregular. An unfair existence that disrupted the world.

Because I defy logic.

She was beyond reason.

I reject fate.

She forged her own destiny.

I stand at the peak.

She was...without equal.

I am-

She was-


...A legend.