After receiving Law's message and time of arrival, Jordan fell into a frenzy of last-minute training. He barely slept or even ate, for over a full week before finally re-emerging from his proverbial hole two days before her expected arrival to share a meal with Gelos before allotting the next seventy-two hours of his time to recovery.
Surely, fourteen days after she'd departed, Jordan witnessed Law delving into the Domain Keeper zones on the Campaign feeds. And much to Jordan's surprise, he found Gelos waiting outside the door of his apartment, insisted on escorting him to the hangars; and even down to the surface after they'd arrived, before he opted to hold in the safe zones to watch Jordan's campaign unfold in some bar or restaurant.
[January 343rd, GPY 3. Safe-Zone VII, Ganymede. 1102. UGT.]
"You seem awfully quiet." Gelos' voice scratched across the radio, crudely interrupting the blissful silence.
"I'm always quiet." Jordan snorted.
"You know what I mean."
"Something seemed off about her message." Jordan sighed, turning away from the approaching launchpads to face Gelos. "I'm unsure of exactly how long her last tour in the Powers was, but it was certainly longer than a mere four weeks. Which tells me that someone up her chain knows that I have her spear."
"Scary." Gelos chuckled.
"Yeah." Jordan snorted as he pried the spear from his shoulder to study it under the faint light. "For her, definitely."
With a tap of the knuckles and a 'good luck' from Gelos, Jordan mounted the launch pads to be sent hurtling over the surface and into his blissful realm of temporary isolation.
After coming to a practiced landing, Jordan gathered his bearings and quickly scanned the horizon. Unlike his prior visits to the zone, the cragged, gray rocky-ice remained unlittered with the scattered fields of broken equipment and bodies. Only the light-blue aura of his own domain and the occasional colored shadows dancing across the horizon fell into his line of sight, none of them the violet hue he sought after.
After what felt like hours of hopping across the surface, evading other competitors and periodically halting in awe of the vistas of Ganymede, Jordan saw the faint wisps of the purple domain he'd been hunting for trailing across the southern horizon and hastily jumped after it.
A few hundred meters out, the knight evidently took notice of Jordan and began waving her arms like someone stranded and beckoning for help before, as expected, the request for a comms links fluttered into Jordan's field of view.
"Oh!" The Field Marshal exclaimed, mostly with her arms. "How relieved I am to see you in such a fine condition."
"Uh, thanks. I guess?" Jordan shook his head in confusion within his helmet as he settled to a halt.
"I was referring to Vel."
'Was she worried I'd lose it?' Jordan asked himself, gazing again at the spear in his hands.
"You have four weeks to win these challenges and return to me my weapon." Law began to explain without pause. "I-"
"I understand your intention in following Ganymedean customs." Jordan cut in. "But, that's the bit that bothers me, I'm from the Power of Europa. The land of gangs, where we strip our fallen opponents for trophies, instead of rewarding them for a good fight."
"Does me leaving my weapon in your hands frustrate you?" She amiably asked.
"It did, at first." Jordan nodded humbly inside his helmet before grinning. "After all this time using it however, I've grown quite fond of it. Now, I feel as if I may as well keep it."
"Huh." Law chuckled in evident surprise before she slowly shook her fist. "That simply cannot happen, Jordan."
"Well, why not?" Jordan shrugged. "You keep leaving it with me every time you slay me, as if you want me to keep it. Did you expect me to just return it to you because you assumed I'd follow the local customs? Or." He laughed. "Did you simply get caught by your boss and are no longer allowed to play these games with your unfortunate pawns?"
"Your intuition is correct, as is your logic." Law bowed. "In the event of your victory, you would have no reason to willingly return Vel to me. That being said, with your sudden proclamation, I find it exceedingly difficult for me to keep this duel fair." She rose from her bow and settled into her stance. "I only pray that your conviction doesn't wane until my plan comes to fruition."
"I don't care about your plans. This is a fight for keeps." Jordan scoffed before planting his feet and lunging forth with a strong thrust.
Seamlessly, Law ducked in place and without delay, Jordan held his left hand near the midpoint of the haft as he spun and bent the base to swing the blade around to smack on Law's shoulder and neck before she was able to continue dodging, her maneuvering thrusters firing dense clouds all around her to keep her pinned to the ground as she ducked into Jordan's range. Firing his own thrusters, Jordan lunged forward and pivoted on his foot as he swung the spear's pommel from underneath, up into the knight's belly before rebounding the blade around and down onto her back.
Jordan saw Law's legs buckle from the dull impact just before she lunged towards Jordan, who was already lunging forth himself with his knee outstretched towards her helmet. With a modestly loud crack, Jordan's knee Law's helmet met and subsequently pushed through the force of Jordan's blow. With a vice grip, Law to latched onto Jordan's leg and body, awkwardly pinning his knee to his chest from the grip of her seatbelt hold. Planting her feet; with her maneuvering thrusters firing wildly, Law pushed off the surface at a slight angle relative to Jordan to wheel herself and Jordan halfway around in place before digging her heels into the ground and violently thrashing her torso to the side to fling Jordan across the ice.
Jordan saw his vision lurch violently and begin churning for a nigh-endless moment before his body folded upon itself with a wet crunch. Somewhat more slowly, Jordan continued flailing about in the sky, his maneuvering thrusters struggling to kill his rotation, while Law steadily rotated in and out of his field of view, looming closer with each pass.
Only meters above the surface, Jordan began throwing thrust after thrust and swing after swing, imparting more and more rotation unto himself until he finally came to a landing and, once barely settled, began using the haft the spear and his elbows to deflect the oncoming rush as best as he could. Despite her apparent fondness of the weapon, Law's drive to end Jordan remained undeterred, regardless if the treasured weapon managed to find its way in the path of her gauntlets, the thunderous energy of each of her strikes resonated throughout the weapon and Jordan's arms as as much of the energy of her forward momentum that she could transfer was sent over to Jordan. Continuously driving Jordan back.
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Seeing Law clench her fist before raising her arm overhead, Jordan dug the hilt of the spear into the ice behind his feet to halt his motion before he pushed off of the weapon with the aid of his legs, pivoted on his foot, and erupted with his heel as he rotated around to drive his boot square into Law's sternum. Thus flinging her backwards and diverting her punch to Jordan's ankle.
With his leg being forcefully slammed down from Law's blow, Jordan keeled over to his side and began keeling faster after reflexively retracting his now throbbing foot. By the time he'd rotated a quarter of a turn to be 'laying' horizontally across the surface, Law had returned, towering in place before the crown of his helmet with her fist raised once again before it quickly slammed down onto the ear of Jordan's helmet, plaguing his otherwise silent realm with the dizzying toils of reverberating metal and causing him to rotate even more violently above the surface.
Fighting through the vertigo of his churning vision, Jordan felt dense pockets of pain blooming across his body as Law kicked and punched at Jordan's body, slowing his spin with each blow until she reached out to grip the spear in both hands. With a sharp tug, Law began rotating the spear about itself, coiling and twisting Jordan's arms around each other until a violent spin was once again imparted on his body. After her release of the spear, Jordan reeled back to prepare a haphazard slash and was subsequently interrupted by a thrust-assisted front kick from Law to the stomach.
Jordan felt his grip from the spear weaken for just a moment as the well of pain overflowed within his body and after a sudden lurch, felt the subtle warmth of its haft fade from his senses entirely before he was lazily flung apart from Law.
Without delay, Jordan clawed and kicked against the ice to reverse his motion and, after once again creeping within range, dove for the knight's ankles. Law took a cautionary step backwards in response and seemingly halted in place as Jordan continued rotating forward until his palms slapped against the ice. Wheeling his body around, Jordan swung his feet upwards, backwards over his head and wheeled around to hook his knees around the knight's shoulders. After securing his hold around her body, Jordan curled his body tightly to increase the rate of his rotation, pulling Law backwards off of her feet as Jordan turned into his second somersault,
With her helm clenched between his knees, Jordan reached out with his left hand to palm the face of Law's helmet. With his thumb hooked tightly under the jawline, Jordan wrenched her head back to expose her neck before unleashing a barrage of punches to her neck and fleeting gauntlets, feebly flailing about in attempted blocks and parries before Jordan's legs loosened just moments before completing their rotation, sending law plummeting face first into a jagged; albeit shallow ridge of ice and subsequently back upwards towards Jordan from the rebound.
Approaching feet-first, Jordan wrapped his legs around Law's waist after colliding back into each other, effectively placing him in a guard. While he immediately clenched and began throwing jabs and hammerfists; the pistons within his fists hissing loudly with each thunderous blow, Law held fast against the barrage in order to grip the spear around the center of the hilt in her right hand before sharply thrusting it between herself and Jordan. Seamlessly, she reached in with her free hand to grip the edge of the blade and Law pull the weapon entirely between their bodies before horizontally gripping the haft in both hands and lurching forward to thrust the haft into Jordan's throat, prying his grip from the plates of Law's armor and forcing their torso's apart. With both hands still gripped on the haft, Law swept the spear to the side, caving the pommel into Jordan's ribs before she followed through with a pair of pommel thrust to the underside of Jordan's chin, further releasing the grip of Jordan's legs from around Law's waist before she spun the weapon around in-hand to drive the shaft and a portion of the blade deep into Jordan's ribs, ripping him entirely from his guard and sending him on a slow hurtle towards the ice.
Before he'd even halted, Law had again bounded to Jordan right side, her spear already charged overhead and on a mad descent towards Jordan's stomach. Hastily, Jordan pulled his left arm across his body and felt a wet, viscous cough squeeze his torso painfully as the blade slipped past his block. Without pause, Jordan snatched out his hands to grip the blade tightly to his body; keeping Law pinned in immediate vicinity as he kicked out his legs beneath him and pulled himself to his feet.
Tugging on the spear with his right hand to force her towards him, Jordan outstretched his left arm and swung wide to impact his forearm into Law's throat. Upon impact, her upper body almost comically rocked backwards before Jordan tugged on the spear again, rocking Law's torso back forward and exposing the back of her head to Jordan. After transferring the spear to his left hand, Jordan pivoted and leaned his mass into a downward punch aimed at Law's nape. With a small echoing boom, each of the four pistons in Jordan's helmet erupted, digging deep into the seams of Law's helmet and knocking her head forward just as much as Jordan's arm had been blown backwards.
With both of their grips still held tightly onto the spear, Jordan used the weapon as a lever and wheeled Law around in place until her back was facing him, then quickly released the haft in order to bring his hand up from beneath her arm and around her neck to secure her in a one-armed nelson hold. After wrenching Law's helmet to the side, Jordan began raining hammerfists and punches down onto Law's neck, collarbone and the base of her helmet, sending a cacophony of dull quakes and booms to begin propagating through their combined mass.
After perhaps the fifth or sixth blow, Jordan felt the billowing sensation of air brushing against his legs. He hesitated in place; if only for a moment, as he stared, wide eyed at the spear, cartwheeling above them, twisting about on itself violently from the influence of the thick, conical clouds blooming all around it as it faced its point towards Jordan.
Without warning, a light as bright as the Sun suddenly bloomed from the pommel before the spear seemingly disappeared from view.
As if smited by the hands an ancient deity, an electric bolt seemed to slam into Jordan's body, immediately clouding his senses in a pulsing daze of pain and confusion. He felt his body snap still in an instance, and within his blurred sight, he saw Law, casually peeling herself from Jordan's grip before turn to face him unguarded.
Trying to raise his own guard, Jordan only felt a stiff resistance within him, blocking his movements as if a ridgid growth of bone had sprouted within his body in an instant.
Suddenly, a wet mass coughed it way from Jordan's lungs, bringing with it the nostalgic sensation of warm, viscous fluid splattering around the inside his helmet, a sensation that seemed to awaken his mind and bring about the deafening pain pulsing within his body, First from the right side of his jaw, down through the throat and neck and out of his chest at the left side.
Before Law, still standing idly before Jordan, stood an digital, wiry outline of Jordan's body, highlighting his heart, spleen and a portion of the liver in a crimson red hue.
[Warning! Flatline!]
[You have been impaled: -100 Points.]
[Merit: 685.]
Still, through the power of his respirocytes, Jordan remained conscious, and more so, was able to move. If only after forcing his will to overcome the pain for the few moments before his body began to shut itself down. Being not yet ready to be slain, he tightly grasped the spear, just above his hip and began pushing while ignoring the gruesome gags that quickly began pooling from his mouth, soaking the innards of his helmet with spit, blood and mucus as he painfully twisted to adjust his grip and pull himself free from his skewer. Finding himself thankful, for the first time in his life, for low gravity, Jordan painfully twisted his body to adjust his grip and; possibly unwisely, un-impaled himself from the weapon, gasping and choking ever louder as the bulbous pommel of the weapon shifted his organs and bones around until he was free to drift helplessly down onto the ice. Queasing and quivering as he vacantly stared at the blood and viscera caked spear implanted into the ice beside him, the crimson material quickly freezing or subliming in the frigid void of space.
Slotfully, Jordan pulled himself back to his feet and took a quick glance at the spear, entrenched firmly into the ice. Acting quickly through his flickering vision and the blossoming pain, Jordan skipped forward towards Law, his ribs convulsing as he rotated his hips to throw out a strained jab towards Law, who casually parried it before smacking Jordan in the crook of the neck with the blade of her hand, sending even hotter flashes to rush throughout his body and invoking a wave of darkness to begin permeating his vision.
With another focused, yet desperate attempt, Jordan swung out a hook towards Law's helmet, who again, countered with a knee to Jordan's diaphragm, causing him to keeled over onto her shoulder from his leftover momentum. His vision was now a singular mass of darkness, illuminated only by the persistent warnings of his failing body. Yet, he still clawed and fought against his now invisible opponent until his consciousness quickly faded into darkness
[You have been slain: -200 Points.]