The stench of burnt horse flesh invaded his nose, making his swollen lungs want to cough, but Aries did not yield his pummeling, not until the horse spun around. The ram's eyes grew wide it dawned on him. Khloros was lining up a kick. He spun to the side, trying to dodge, and in doing so, exposed his flank. It was a big mistake. The horse's powerful hooves cracked him in the chest. Aries bleated in surprise as he was sent flying, smashing into a wall of ice.

The impact sent him into a violent coughing fit, and every breath was agonizing. Unbeknownst to Aries, the kick was so strong, that it fractured a rib. He recoiled as he coughed up specks of blood onto the white ice. Aries clinched his teeth, grimacing as he gave Khloros a bleary-eyed glare. Foam and mucus drippled from the corners of his his mouth. He clumsily rose to his hooves, legs shaking from the illness that racked his body. Aries breathing was labored and shallow, yet his golden eyes blazed like an inferno.

Without warning, Aries lurched forward aiming his skull at the horse's diseased hide. With all his strength, aimed to ram him off the ice.

Only over his dead body would Khloros succeed with his heinous plan.

"speak!"

"Do you yield?!" The ram bellowed from above. He leap down to where the horse had fallen, and started to approach. He eyed the sickly horse with contempt, though a part of him ached when Khloros fell. For a moment he thought he killed him, but then the horse flailed his legs. Aries wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed. Murdering a fellow Gembound was very wrong, but what if could spare the caves from a disastrous fate? Aries had never experienced such inaction than at this moral crossroad.

Suddenly, another coughing fit stopped the ram in his tracks, this one more violent than the last. His cracked rib screamed and he winced in agony. Aries shriveled back, his muscles aching from the foreign fatigue that shackled his body as red sores formed around his mouth. Khloros concocted plague had found its way into him, swelling his lymph nodes. Though it barely gained footing, it gave him a taste of what was to come, if not purged.

I'll.... take that as a no.

He called forth his magicka, the heat, to congregate inside him and burn out this illness, but not magick came. It was like he hit a stone wall. Aries looked up at Khloros, eyes sunken from sickness, and scowled. He tried to stand tall, but that was hard to do with high fever that made his head spin.

"C-coward!" He growled, pausing to coughing up some mucus. "Too scared to.. cough, cough... face me as I am? You have to sicken me first? He managed a forced chuckled before wincing at the pain in his rib. Aries tried to hold his head high but found himself staggering. Khloros, you rat, have you no honor?

"speak!"

Suddenly, Khloros charged. Aries gaped and braced for impact, but the horse merely skidded on the ice, his hooves found no traction. Aries wasted no time. He was hurt, is strength was manning, but Khloros' mistake gave him a window of opportunity. Again he focused on his magick, this time calling it to his skin.

Thick, black smoke billowed from the ram's charred hide, obscuring him from view. As the smoke smothered the air in the tunnel, Aries took this moment to dig deep into his reserves, pushing the fatigue and pain to back of his mind. Quickly, he jumped up on the ledge's vertical face, as he planned his next attack.

"speak!"

Standing on the cracked, icy face, Aries mustered his remaining strength. When he felt the sickness strip away his will, it was at that moment he realized he was in a fight for his life. It was either him or Khloros, and the caves would wither and die if the diseased horse had his demented way. Aries could not let that happen. He had to stop Khloros, before his body expired.

The possibility of his own mortality rarely crossed his mind, but now as Khloros' deadly illness festered on his body, the image of the dying lessers flooded his mind. It chilled him to bone. He didn't want to die, not like this. But if this was to be his fate, then he had to make every second count.

Through the choking, charred clouds, he barreled through, smoke pluming from his blackened hide. The ram was wild-eyed, desperate, and he was coming straight for Khloros. He would slam his body against the equine, it did not matter if more contact made his ailing condition worse. He wasn't giving up, not now.

"speak!"

"You don't know that." The ram growled coldly. His golden eyes glinted hatred and desperation against his blackened hide. Aries knew he had to make every moment count. His strength was fading. It was either him, or Khloros.

Aries lowered his large, round horns, sickly, yellow mucus dripped from his nostril and mouth. He stumbled for a second as a bout of dizziness almost knocked him off his hooves, but Aries shook his head and began to back up. The dizziness did not go away. Suddenly, Khloros was everywhere. He stopped, confused, Aries looked back and forth between Khloros and his doubles. A surge of panic swelled up in the ram. Was this some kind of spell? He couldn't think straight.

Aries had no idea how fast he was deteriorating. He looked visablely ill, as if he was about to vomit all of his guts. Aries stumbled around drunkenly, still wanting to strike at Khloros, but not knowing where to aim. Which one was the real Khloros? He felt bile rise in throat.

Screw it, just pick one!

Aries gritted his teeth and grunted in frustration. "I will not be deceived by your cowardly tricks, horse!" He screamed at Khloros. Locked in plaguebringer's lantern green eyes he charged forward with all his might, fueled by pure, blind anger. Suddenly, Khloros vanished and a sudden, terrible realization struck Aries. He has flung himself off a ledge.

The ram fell from the steep incline, this time, his hooves did not catch him. His body slammed against the jagged ice with a sickening crack and tumbled helplessly down the crumbling path. Finally, the ram's body came to rest at the bottom. Laid out on his belly, with his legs mangled underneath him, Aries did not move.



"speak!"