"I hope for your sake, no more people interfere, Dance Partner." Smiling Jhurack told me before a slice of the Sundial suddenly fell away when he brought his blade down to his side. But, curiously enough, as the swing ended, the damage he had caused decreased dramatically. Part of the landmark fell away, some dangled dangerously and the very fine last stretch was all just superficial damage. A mere albeit lengthy scratch.
"I hope so too." I answered back as he was my prize, this madman was mine to kill!
"Then I shall take us elsewhere!" he declared right before he suddenly appeared under me with his blade piercing right through me. The adrenaline rushing through me dulled the pain, but I still breathed the barest signs of a roar in response. And whilst I was reacting to the blow, he pulled out and suddenly twisted in the air so he could deliver a kick that sent me flying.
"NO!" I snapped as loudly as I could as I fell, but before I could fall too far, I lashed out at the Sundial with my magic. Latching onto a now exposed floor, I reeled myself towards the building with the aid of my magic rockets and I went far and wide under the building. Because I could both sense him and see him with the aid of my mask, I knew where I had to go and more and more force left and pushed me upwards. With a final roar, I then brought myself up and over and I flung myself towards him.
With a resounding crash, I struck against him as he ran to the very tip of the Sundial and we went overboard with my legs locked around him the moment they could. And while one claw held onto his sword-holding hand, I punched him again and again as hard as I could with the other. But he surprised me, for with each laugh that resounded from him, I found myself able to strike him harder. Then, after a fall that felt like an eternity, I felt my legs crater themselves into the street below and I stared at the quiet body ahead of me.
"I... I've done it?" I asked myself suddenly as I stared at the bleeding, still face as it lay against the once-hidden, deeper layers of the road. Sensing victory, I slowly backed away and crawled out of the hole and I looked around the street. These screens were still everywhere and they all showed the same thing, Smiling Jhurack was dead in that ditch. Then that meant I could...
Larishazza was safe now, so I could...!
"I'm coming!" I nearly cried before I suddenly stopped as a sword came through my back.
"Fooled you once." Smiling Jhurack cackled as his yellow-stained sword was slowly pulled out.
"You!" I snapped with rabid fury as I collapsed against the road.
"We still have yet to go somewhere private." he reminded me as he moved to stand over me with a raised blade. Then, with a seemingly dramatic series of swings, we found ourselves suddenly falling once again and the floors of the city went on by. We were going deeper into the city than I had ever been before and then we suddenly stopped. The stop, however, was not violent and destructive, it felt almost as if we had been cushioned.
"The depths of Thrurstradtur..." I let out uncomfortably before I quickly got back to my feet.
"The very bottom of the city indeed!" he told me with a pair of wide-swinging arms as construction workers around us retreated in horror.
"Now there's nowhere for you to hide." I reminded him as I powered through the pain to adopt my combat form once again.
"You mistake the lack of our usual alleys and high-rising towers for an open field, Dance Partner." he let out in disappointment as he began to circle me.
"It matters not." I told him before I charged him once again to strike him.
"Then let me show you where you are wrong!" he lets out as he lets himself be taken away by the force of the blow.
"Stop running!" I snapped before I reeled myself towards the exposed girders in an attempt to grab him once more. But like an agile rodent, he leapt away and began to swing through the girders with delighted cackles.
"When will you learn!?" he asked as he swung around one of the girders before he then dashed right past me with a lethal slash.
"Gah!" I let out as the blow forced me to the ground below.
He then swung back to the top of a horizontal girder and sheathed his blade, "Don't tell me you haven't actually learned anything these past five years, Dance Partner?"
"I've learned quite a bit." I spat out as I scraped away the pain coming from my side. Then, reeling my arm back once again, I sent another grappling spell out and I shot towards him as another set of spells built up. Unlike what he was predicting, however, I never made it towards him or his blade. Instead, rockets burst to life around me and the force that once guided me was cancelled out and I flew backwards with a trail of magic coming of my front.
"Is that all you can do, run?" Smiling Jhurack asked mockingly as he leaned down onto the side of the girder so he could launch himself from it.
"Doing jobs to pay for Lari's care has given me some insight into demolition work." I answered as I calmly waited for him to come at me.
"Useless information!" he snapped just before he bent the girder inwards with the force of his leap.
"Tell me afterwards." I replied with before I snapped my right claw's thumb and index to activate two spells. Suddenly, I was pulled away from his projected target by a series of magic pulleys that sent me ricocheting about as spots glowed and grew about him. In a sudden flash, they then all detonated and I came flipping out onto a far-off girder as a magic fireball filled the distant end of the city-wide borehole.
"Unimpressed." he told me as he clearly outlined and still amongst the arcane fire as it dissipated. Then, with slow, thoughtful steps, he walked towards me as his blade slashed away at the earth in front of him.
"Tch." was all I could let out as I began to pull myself to the safety of the higher girders. But, met and checked me halfway up and I was forced to slide away as he joined me on that same girder.
"There are many secrets throughout the stage, Dance Partner. Some, you might only learn through practice, ceaseless practice. But, as your teacher, it is my job to guide you to them." he explained in the prelude to a portal being slashed open within the moment. Wherever it lead, I could clearly hear what was going beyond it and I could see it too. Bullets, it sounded and looked like a hail of bullets.
"All you ever do is run..." I muttered before I followed him through the portal and into some kind of hallway.
"I will be going back on my word now, Dance Partner." he admitted as the room began to twist and turn. The sudden change in gravity dragged and dropped me initially, but I got a hold of myself and moved in time with the rotation. Yet, as I did that, he had already made his way to the other side of a lengthy chamber that had now become a sharp drop.
"This gap will not keep you safe." I told him as he danced across the slowly moving bullets that zipped on by. And looking up, I could clearly see the target that they were actually intended for.
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"Show me how much you have paid attention!" he demanded before I leapt after him on this field of exceedingly small platforms. With careful steps and grips, I made my way around the slowly reacting bullets as they burst apart just as I touched them. Then, when he was just close enough I struck out at him and traded punches and blocks with him as we adjusted our footing continuously. But fighting like this was tedious, so I prepared a kick that would put us back onto truly solid ground.
Yet, when I did so we suddenly found ourselves outside once again.
"Are you prepared to finally watch her die?" he asked me with a cold, cruel tone as he paced the tight gap we had appeared in.
"I am prepared to die, yes." I answered as I met his fist in the pitch-black back alley.
"Heh, keep up, then." he suddenly told me with a smirk as he turned and ran up a tower.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" I roared as I called upon my magic once again so I could rocket past him and force him back. And while he simply ran up the solid stone frame of the building, I animalistically charged at him as if I were crawling. But no matter how fast I went, no matter how many thrusters and magic rockets I made to boost myself along... He kept his distance!
The hotel was coming into view and I was only losing ground as this went on. I needed something that could make me go faster, I needed to go as fast as I possibly could. Lari's life and her safety depended on it but I couldn't find it within me to keep up with him. I couldn't let despair slow me down but it was becoming increasingly prominent.
So I just focused on my anger and my fury as much as I could so I could in turn break myself in order to hunt him down!
"DO YOU HEAR ME YOU FOUL, DAMNADABLE BASTARD! YOU EVIL SHIT!" I roared as all of my magical reserves were burned away behind me so I could get that extra speed. Thanks to that, I was able to bring myself closer and closer to him, but the hotel was getting closer, too!
"You've nearly lost!" Smiling Jhurack cackled as he elegantly fell down the side of a building so I would overshoot him. All I could respond with, however, was a bloodthirsty roar as I forcibly redirected myself. This position in the air didn't last long, and I was soon smashing through buildings just to get to him.
Yet, when I was finally within reach of him, he twisted his body and slashed my front with a paralyzing blow!
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" I howled again and again from the crater I had suddenly found myself in as he disappeared into the black sky.
"If you have any magic left in you, latch onto my airship!" Inerish suddenly told me through the mask's new systems as I forced my way up back to my feet.
"JUST HURRY UP!" I roared in the hopes she could hear me and to my despair, I didn't have the magic left to do what she suggested. I had burnt so much of it trying to chase Smiling Jhurack just now that my body needed a moment to recover before I even tried again. More so given that he had just knocked me straight out of the spell I was just casting!
"Hurry onboard!" Inerish ordered as the small airship landed in front of me. With some aid from the men onboard, I was then pulled onto it and we instantly went into the air. From there, I could see how airships of the city-guard had begun to open fire on Smiling Jhurack as he headed towards the tower. But he dodged, blocked or deflected anything that came close to maybe even hurting him.
"Keep your men away from him." I let out quietly before I intentionally fell from the airship once we had reached the sky above the hotel. With the wind then suddenly blasting at my face, I tried to use my cloak to slow my descent as my magic couldn't help. But the result stayed the same despite my efforts, and I crashed through the penthouse's roof and onto some furniture.
And when I got up, though, I found Smiling Jhurack waiting for me with his blade at the ready. But, his smile was gone and his face was blank...
"And so, you arrive here." Jhurghdak remarked as he walked through the darkened penthouse. To my surprise as well, there wasn't a single instrument out despite his earlier promise of a performance.
"What is going on?" I asked as I slowly got up despite the threat posed by Smiling Jhurack. Whatever was going on, however, didn't matter, Lari was just one floor down and I could not let anything happen to her. I needed to kill the monster before me now!
"My final performance." Jhurghdak answered as a small selection of instruments suddenly glowed green.
"You lied to me." I let out as I considered how Smiling Jhurack was paying attention to anything Jhurghdak gestured for him to do. Then, the now stoic killer came back with a box and he opened it before me.
"I did lie to you, I have lied to all of you." he explained as lights from nearby airships began to fill the penthouse.
"Whatever, then, I am here for him..." I growled as my attempt to reach for the usually smiling, laughing killer was stopped by a sudden, piercing blade in my wrist.
"If you want him, you will play along." Jhurghdak sighed as his magic grasped one of the items from the box. It was a pistol, they both were, and now I remembered what they were specifically.
Duelling pistols was what he said long ago when I first met him.
"Pick it up." Jhurghdak ordered he used his magic to start playing a tense symphony from the edge of the room. With some reluctance, I then did as he asked and I awkwardly picked up the gun as the sword was removed from my wrist. Smiling Jhurack then went to the edge of the room and took up a position against me.
Did that mean I had to fight both of them?
"Get to the point of this..." I growled as I desperately tried to control my weakening grip so that the gun would not fall away.
"I eluded to something dark earlier, how the world will be confused in how it chose to remember me. Now, either that is because the world will see from your lens that I am the reason so many have died. Or, they'll know me as the man who killed Thrurstradtur's only hope."
"Then I best kill you now." I let out before my other arm heaved up the gun-holding one towards him.
"In alignment with a duelling tradition from the wiped-out nation of Letellzte, we shall count down from ten, then fire. Either I and my mirage here will kill you, or we won't and it will all end."
"Fine, ten!" I snapped as I looked around at what I was dealing with.
"Nine." Jhurghdak said as he began to fiddle with the small, ornate gun.
"Eight!" I snapped as I took into account that Smiling Jhurack was going to be involved.
"Seven." Jhurghdak said as he popped what must've been the bullet into the chamber.
"Six!" I snapped as I maintained my tight grip on the gun-holding arm.
"Five." Jhurghdak said as he pointed the gun in turn at me.
"Four!" I snapped as my gaze began to focus exclusively on the swordsman I had been hunting for so long.
"Three." Jhurghdak said as he had his instruments pick up the pace as my nerves quaked.
"Two!"
"One." he said before he pulled the trigger and I failed to pull mine. The bullet then tore through my side and I backpedalled with it as I focused on Smiling Jhurack as he charged with his blade.
"My heart was already cut out by you!" I snapped at the killer as his blade just barely missed my heart. Then, using the arm I had used to hold the other one up with, I restrained him as much as I could with a tight, compressive lock around his neck. With one final, anguished roar, I then shot Jhurghdak through the head and I watched him collapse as Smiling Jhurack tried to correct his blow.
He then suddenly fizzled out of existence and reappeared away from me!?
"Come." he told me as he refilled my body with magic and healed me.
"Don't you run now!" I called out as I tested this renewed strength briefly.
Chasing after him once again, I used my newfound power to grab onto him from a distance and I reeled myself in. With a potent spell building up in my free claw, I prepared to take his life but a bright light then flashed from him and my spell hit something else entirely. Rather than his body, it had hit a giant cog that was but one amidst an even greater set of them. I was left baffled and I tore my mask off as distorted words began to assault my ears.
"Now it comes to an end." the stoic, warping figure that was once Smiling Jhurack told me as he gestured to something stuck on one of the smaller cogs.
"This is the real you?" I questioned as I watched the stuck item disappear and then reappear again and again.
"You killed the real me just now, all I am is a-"
"I don't care, if I take this and destroy it, you will disappear? You will die?"
"I will." the increasingly warped individual answered before I leapt up for the strange item. Carefully and quickly, I then pulled it off of the cog and dropped it down to the ground with it in my claws. It was an ornate, bright and shining feather on a simple, gold-like string. I easily sensed the power of it, and it reminded me of a scared little boy...
"Ihtuntar." I breathed as I tried to consider how this worked at all. If this was a fanciful illusion of some kind, then shouldn't this have been Jaadagoren's artefact? But why is such an artefact in the hands of a cruel thing like Smiling Jhurack?
Had I offended the small god or the deceptive goddess, what had I done wrong to offend them?
"Wear it now, please." what was once Smiling Jhurack begged.
"With pleasure." I answered as I put it over my head before I guided it down to my shoulders. Then, just like that, he started to vanish out of existence as if he was never a thing at all.
"Thank you." he told me just before he disappeared completely.
"How am I supposed to get out of here?" I then asked myself as I felt relief fill my body in a way I did not know how to describe. However, it might be best described, though, all I could say with certainty is that it made me feel... Bubbly, happy. I had finally done it, I had saved Lari's life and now, she was just a small trip away...
I would finally be able to speak to her again!
"I'm coming, Lari, wait for me!" I laughed and cried with joy as I desperately ran about to try and find a way out of this place.