Tossed

Asuren blacked out as he felt a sharp agony in his stomach followed by flashes of blurry memories. When he came around, he was back at the prison cell of his mind, tightly chained against the wall, unable to move. The Evil Witch made sure that, aside from his eyes, the freezing spell had been successfully cast on the rest of his body before he could regain consciousness.

Asuren calmed his pounding heart. That was not the first time he had been frozen by the Evil Witch. He could break that spell and toss her out of his body. He closed his eyes and tried to clench his fists. He had to act quickly before the Evil Witch kills his friends.

^############^

Thea refused to surrender Asuren to the Evil Witch. She contained his body with powerful wind gusts but, unlike the last time he was possessed, his body was nearly at its best condition despite crossing the deadly barrier. The Evil Witch had easily shattered the wind gusts and attacked. Thea dodged and trapped Asuren one more time.

"How about this? I will return Lilia unharmed if you succeed on killing this puppet," she glanced at Calix.

"Don't listen to her," Thea tightened the wind gusts constricting Asuren. "She's lying."

"Will you risk your sister's life?" The Evil Witch raised an eyebrow and then shifted her gaze to Sel. "How about that child named Greyleaf? He is not the only innocent life this puppet had taken. This is your chance to give them justice."

"No need for that," Sel summoned a frost dagger. "All I want is to avenge Greyleaf."

^##########^

With his unyielding persistence, Asuren finally closed his hands into fists and moved the chains a tiny bit.

"A little more…" he muttered to himself and realized that he could finally move his mouth. "A little more…"

He gathered more strength in his hands to break the chains binding his wrists. As he sensed them crack, his chest had bled. He blinked and noticed a hole in there.

"I like your new friend," the silhouette of the Evil Witch in front of him had smiled with satisfaction. She did not notice the crack on the chains because she was too absorbed with controlling his body and somewhat delighted by the bleeding wound on his chest. "I might recruit her to join my elite warriors."

Asuren closed his eyes and focused his remaining energy on breaking the chains.

"Was it painful?" the Evil Witch knelt in front of him and pierced the hole in his chest with her bare hands.

Asuren bit his lips and endured the excruciating pain. He could feel the chains on his left wrist loosening a bit.

"Getting stabbed by fairies you call friends?" she tried to crush his heart but her hands had only been pushed out of his chest.

"LEAVE!!!" Asuren had finally shattered the chain in his left wrist, immediately summoned a wind blade, and severed the hand that pierced his chest.

"You disgusting puppet!!!" the Evil Witch angrily bellowed and raised her uninjured hand to grab his neck but Asuren already summoned a powerful wind gust that hurled her out of his body.

He tried to shatter the remaining chains binding his body but his strength had been completely depleted and he had once again fainted.

^##########^

Thea was shocked when Sel stabbed Asuren in the heart without any hesitation. She was mad at her friend who could not let go of her grudges but she also had to admit that the wound had helped subdue their possessed comrade.

Asuren stopped moving and before his eyes had closed, they turned back to green. Thea had quickly freed him from the wind gusts. Sel had pulled the frost dagger from his chest and Calix caught their unconscious friend, carried him in his arms, and then spread his wings.

"Let's go back to the cabin," he said before soaring back to the house in the middle of a vast marshland.

"I'll stop the bleeding," Gia had offered after Calix had put Asuren on the bed.

"I'll light the fireplace," Calix used his flaming fists to set the firewood ablaze and kept the cabin warm.

Thea was hesitant to leave Asuren in the hands of Gia but her friend had already stopped the bleeding by covering the stab wound with ice.

"This will not last," Gia admitted. "You need to find medicine and bandages."

"I'm on it," Calix hurriedly moved around the cabin.

"I can heal him," Gia promised Thea. She looked serious but not remorseful.

"Don't you want him dead?" Thea carefully observed her friend.

"I don't," Gia confessed with a sigh. "All I want is to help him toss away the Evil Witch."

"You stabbed his heart."

"The last time he won over the Evil Witch, his body was just recovering from a near death experience. I thought, experiencing the same thing will help him. It did, right? He is now free from that possessive witch."

"What if you killed him?"

"The Evil Witch is a powerful fairy, right? But for some reason, she could not kill Asuren. When I stabbed his heart, my dagger failed to pierce his heart. Something powerful is protecting his heart, Thea. He is a difficult fairy to kill."

"Here," Calix returned from a room not far from the fireplace with a box filled with jars, herbs, and bandages.

"Are you aware of your friend's incredible ability?" Gia asked after melting the ice covering the stab wound of Asuren.

"Incredible ability?" Calix seemed confused.

"The Evil Witch could not kill him. Do you know the reason she fails every time?" Gia stopped the bleeding with some herbs and medicine from the jars.

"I wish I know the answer to that," Calix stared seriously at his unconscious friend. "I once assumed that the Evil Witch only wants to see him suffer for all eternity but Asuren's wounds were mostly fatal. Most would have died but he always survives."

"See?" Gia glanced at Thea after wrapping the stab wound with bandages. "Asuren is a hard fairy to kill. I think he is aware of his incredible ability. That must be the reason he acts recklessly most of the time. He could get wounded but not die."

^############^