As I was climbing up the hills towards my friends, I was leaving a trail of blood drops behind me. The events from today were quickly passing through my mind. The whole encounter with the Darkness, the way I escaped Jack's factory, and even the fight with the Gunslinger. I was on my feet all this time, running either from or to something. After everything that had happened, I could feel my strength slowly leaving me. Hard to say whether that was because of blood loss or simply fatigue. My wounds weren't deep, but there were quite a lot of them. I tried to take off my shirt and use it as a makeshift bandage, but there was no way I could cover all the tiny cuts on my body. So in the end, I focused on patching up at least the most serious gunshot wound on my arm. Never would I imagine that getting shot would be so painful, yet so... disappointing. I expected myself to die sooner or pass out because of shock or pain, but both of those were keeping themselves at reasonable levels. Whether it was because of Divine Creativity or something else, I couldn't tell. The important thing was that I was still alive, and there was one more person I had to kill. No time to rest yet.

In the meantime, the Deaths were having a much worse time than me. Jack was missing an arm now, but that seemed to make him even more dangerous. With one quick snap of his fingers, he managed to stop the time around his shoulder, keeping the blood from spilling all over the ground. Then, with a swift and seemingly effortless wave of his arm, he shook the whole mountain. Tiny pebbles started flying out of the earth and headed towards Beast and Chester. Before they could hit them, however, black vines erupted from the ground and weaved themselves into a barricade, blocking the path of all the incoming projectiles. Judging by the damage they did to the plants, it was safe to assume that rocks flying at such a speed could've been lethal. White and Garry used the time when Jack wasn't looking at them and retreated back into the portals of light. One could only stay inside for about five minutes before they'd be forcibly thrown out into the outside world again. For two people, the time was halved.

"That worked!" Garry exclaimed as soon as they were safe inside his little dimension.

"Worked? He cut his own arm off just to survive! I mean... who does that?" White wasn't seeing the situation as optimistically as her friend. She didn't have to use her abilities all that much, but every time she did, it was a one-hit kill. Nobody ever managed to outsmart her powers up to this point. The fact that Jack did, scared her more than she was willing to admit.

"Don't worry, we can take him down! Just be ready to jump out when the time is right!" With that, the Death in colorful clothes opened another portal and climbed out of it, leaving White behind, waiting for her time to strike. He exited his realm right next to his other two comrades, who were defending themselves against more and more incoming rocks of gradually increasing sizes. The whole place was slowly losing its smooth surface and started looking more like a proper battlefield with piles of rubble and craters left where Jack ripped the stones out of the earth.

"Keep me safe and get ready!" Garry called out to the others and spread his arms as far as he could. Several glowing projectiles jumped out of the shining holes in his skin. As they approached Jack, the man didn't do anything but smile. Something about him changed completely. Before, his movements were smooth, calculated, and elegant for the most part. But right now, he was moving a lot more aggressively, like a savage warrior, rather than a noble knight. It was almost as if the injury woke up something that was slumbering deep inside him up until this point.

Garry expected him to block all the projectiles at once, which would create an opening in his defenses. One that White could use to finish him off. But it was different. Instead of using one big blast of force as he did before, he started punching and kicking the glowing bullets, using only enough of his power to nullify their effect.

"Keep firing! He must have a weakness!" Beast encouraged his friend and his black fireballs soon joined the offensive. But even after a while of continuous shooting, they still failed to even scratch Jack. He was different now. Faster, stronger, and even predicting the paths of all the magic that could hurt him.

But this mess was a perfect opportunity for Chester. While the Deaths were attacking, he was observing his enemy's movements, trying to find any pattern he could exploit. And after a while, he found one. All this time, the man was on his defensive. Fighting off the magic of two Deaths and attacking at the same time seemed too much even for him. On one side, it seemed like a good situation for the party of four, but that couldn't have been further from the truth. Jack's protective "dance" between the bullets seemed to cost him little to no stamina, while Beast and Garry were starting to look tired already after about two minutes. That's when Vincent decided to attack. All he needed was to break the man's rhythm. And what better way to do it than to take the solid ground from underneath his feet.

A small black vine dug through the ground and tilted one of the rocks Jack was standing on. Because of all the fighting, the whole area was full of rubble, so it wasn't hard to use the instability of the surface underneath them against their enemy. As soon as the terrain began to shift, Jack noticed the difference, but it was too late. The sudden loss of balance caused him to drop his defenses for a second. To keep himself from getting hit by the projectiles, he destroyed them by waving his hand around and creating one big pressure wave. And here it was. Before he could do something like that again, he'd have to wait for a second or two. That was all the Deaths needed. The moment he released his attack, everyone started moving. It was time to finish the fight. Garry created two portals around Jack. The first was in front of him and Beast was the one who used it. His idea was that if he makes it seem like he's the one attacking him, the man would mess up and won't notice the second portal behind his back, which was used by White to exit Garry's pocket dimension. And to top it all off, Chester made his vines erupt out of the ground around Jack, making it impossible for him to escape the Deaths' range. Three simultaneous attacks.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

White could see her hand approaching her target. Just a little further. A few centimeters was all she needed. A single touch and it would all be over. Suddenly, she felt something hit her. An invisible wall that punched her in the stomach and knocked the wind out of her. At first, she didn't know what happened. Without any warning, her body was being pushed back, further and further away from her target and the sharp pain nearly made her pass out. As she flew away, White could see Beast running into the same problem. Somehow, Jack managed to launch another one of his pressure waves. It was faster than before. The Deaths weren't the ones who made him mess up. It was the other way around. The vines around them cracked and snapped as Jack's attack tore them to pieces, and the wave of pressure then scattered them into the wind. Both of the Deaths hit the ground soon afterward. But only White had trouble getting up. The fact that she suddenly couldn't breathe made her panic and she lost her focus.

Chester saw how Jack's eyes landed on the weakened reaper. His pupils widened. It was clear that he saw an opportunity to kill the white death right there and then before she could fight back. Garry wasn't looking very good either. Unlike the other Deaths, he's been slacking off when it came to training, and using so many portals and bullets with his magic made him feel exhausted. The plant mage could see him breathing heavily and slouching a bit. That was a clear sign it was just about time to wrap up the fight.

Vincent reached to the sky with his right hand. The torn pieces of his black vines suddenly stopped falling so graciously from the sky. Their form quickly took a new shape. Instead of tiny chunks of dark flora, they were now sharp needles pointing toward Jack.

"This ends right here!" Chester thought and made a fist. The projectiles flew right at their target. There was that slight worry inside Vincent's head. What if Jack's just gonna use that pressure wave again? But even if he did, it wouldn't matter. All he needed was to stall him long enough for White to catch her breath and retreat a bit. He was capable of doing at least that much. But to his surprise, the man's reaction was far different than what he expected. As the needles flew at him, he just raised his arm and let them stab him. He scrunched up his face for a moment as the sharp pain shot through his body, but a mischievous and evil smile quickly replaced his previous expression. Only now did Chester notice what was going on.

Above Jack's head were still five of the black needles. They were floating there, surrounded by a strangely distorted, but still mostly transparent aura. It was the time-controlling magic. He was using it again.

For Jack, it was impossible to control the time of living things or big objects with only one hand, but when it came to tiny needles, all he'd need were his fingers.

With a swift motion, he waved toward White, who was still lying on the ground, writhing in pain. The needles quickly flew right at her. Their speed was at least twice as much as before when Chester used them. That caught everyone by surprise. Nobody was fast enough to stop such an attack. Well, almost nobody. Garry's portals were incredibly fast, as long as he was transporting something from near him further away, but taking something that was far and bringing it closer would require more time than they had.

And so the laidback Death stepped through his own portal. Within a split second, he was at White's side. There was no time to think or apologize, he needed to get her away from the needles. And so he quickly pushed her with his foot, causing her to roll out of the way. It appeared that the slight pain she felt because of the "kick" was enough to wake her up from the shock. She took a deep breath and looked up. Her friend was standing there, smiling at her.

"Hi," Garry said and closed his eyes.

In the next second, the needles flew right through him, each leaving a hole at least five centimeters wide in his body. One of the projectiles went right through his head. It was never Jack's plan to aim at White. His goal was the one with annoying portals. Everything up until this point was exactly as the man predicted, with only a few exceptions in his plan.

The white death caught her friend as he fell lifeless to the ground. Tears flooded her eyes and she screamed out his name. She sat there, crying and hugging his dead body. There was no way he could've survived it. The attack was precisely aimed at the most vital spots. Lungs, brain, kidneys, all that was completely obliterated.

Jack wanted to move his arm again, finishing off even the grieving White, but something stopped him. The air suddenly felt hotter than ever before. It was as if somebody just turned on the oven. Even the summer in Sunwalley wasn't so hot. When he turned around, he saw Beast. There was black flame obstructing his face and most of his body. The air around him looked distorted from the immense heat. A few words escaped the Death's mouth: "Chester... If you value your own life, step aside."