Her lungs burned with each breath. Her heart wouldn’t stop pounding in her chest. Her fists ached; her muscles cried out from exhaustion.

But still she stood. The last line of defense against the innumerable horde. Her eyes blazed with passion and life. If this were her time, she would die fighting, desperately beating back the darkness with her two fists and her indominable will, no matter how futile her efforts seemed.

She wiped a trickle of blood from her eye and stared down the dark orc nearest her. He approached slowly and deliberately, roaring in triumph he had not yet attained. He raised his mighty battle axe, chipped and scarred and dulled from innumerable battles before, above his head. Jasmine crossed her forearms above her head to block, hoping her gauntlets and body would at least grant her one last defense.

As her enemy’s axe begun its terrible descent, time itself seemed to dilate, stretching an instant into ages.

Jasmine looked up and saw the axe that meant to strike her down was barely moving. Her eyes, tired they may be, darted around the battlefield. Everything had slowed. Everything and everyone. Everything but her. She could move and perceive the battlefield that surrounded her as normal.

But in that moment, she looked around herself and saw the dirt and dust begin to rise. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Then her head, then her arms. She looked at herself. Goosebumps covered the exposed flesh of her upper arms.

Suddenly, she felt a tingle at the base of her spine.  Just as she noticed its presence, the tingle shot upward, like lightning, in reverse. She was compelled to look up as it rose. Directly above her was a dark cloud, flashing within from electrical charges surging through it. Her eyes widened as she saw that the charges inside the cloud were converging upon a central point, directly above her. She instinctively crossed her arms above her head again and closed her eyes to the bolt of lightning bearing down upon her.

The lightning struck her gauntlets, arcing into the orc’s axe, the energy coursing through her spine met with the lightning, channeling its destructive power throughout Jasmine’s body, revitalizing her. She lowered her arms and opened her eyes, which crackled with bluish electricity.

She smiled, unable to suppress the electric, thrilling joy that flooded her being, that rushed through her veins with every beat of her heart.