“Fine!” Jaid’s line of clones rushed him and decked him in the jaw with a surprise uppercut—revenge for the earlier kick. While he was still staggered, another clone appeared behind her and swung her sword at Drim’s head. There was no chance he’d be able to dodge this. At least it was only the broadside of her sword, so it wouldn’t kill him, but it’d hurt like zjik once he woke up. That’s what he deserved for not taking her seriously.
But her swing stopped short. Jaid had to use all of her might, along with spawning another clone in order to stop the sword from making impact. Just before she was about to strike, a familiar furry face poked out of the side of Drim’s hood. The same side she was about to pummel.
“That’s just fighting dirty!” Jaid scorned him—honestly in disbelief that he’d resort to something so underhanded. It was low, even for him, but what should she expect from a Fiend and the biggest charlatan she knew.
“I didn’t know he was in there, I swear!” Drim looked just as surprised as she was. He took Pox and set him down on the ground, ushering him out of the room. The two watched in silence until they confirmed for themselves that he departed through one of the vents.
Just what is this fight?! A mockery, that’s what it is. Jaid had participated in a lot of honorable duels, and hell even a lot of underhanded blitzes, but nothing compared to the absurdity of how this was going. Could it even be called a fight? They were basically just two people roughhousing at best.
Jaid couldn’t kill him, so she had to pull her punches. Drim didn’t have to pull his punches, but he was acting more timid than she was. It was so frustrating. A fight with a so-called god shouldn’t be this. She should be fearing for her life and overcoming the struggle. Things might not be going her way, but not once did she have any concern over her safety.
Screw it. A being with the power over life shouldn’t die so easily, right? And the Central Peace never said he had to be delivered unharmed. Jaid wouldn’t suffer this lollygagging any further and would get the fight she deserved. Drim Drazah was long overdue for a proper beating. And if he wasn’t going to fight back, then he only had himself to blame.
Jaid stood in place and sent line after line of clones at him. The first two clashed with both of his blades and a third wrapped behind him, slicing at his exposed back. Drim pushed away from the front two and did an impressive backflip over his rear attacker.
But Jaid had been expecting that and had another line rushing towards him, jumping over the others and attacking from above. Meanwhile, another line spawned where he was going to land, swinging at him from below to pincer him.
Drim purposely let the blade coming from below hit his foot, angling it so that the metal slid into the crease of his boot without being able to cut through it. He then grabbed the blade swinging down at his head between his hands and used both slabs of metal to propel himself even higher into the air.
That only caused Jaid to smirk, since that’s exactly where she wanted him. All of her clones vanished from the room, save for the main body and two off to each side. The five of them were all aiming their railguns at the suspended boy with nowhere to flee. Now he’d have to use his Curse if he wanted to escape.
All five fired at once, and their bolts of lightning merged into one deadly spear of judgment. If he did nothing, this would at least maim him assuming it didn’t hit his heart. In that case, they really would have to dig Ahvra out of her hole to revive him.
But Drim didn’t move. He made no discernable attempt to escape at all. The boy just kept going as he was, mid-spin in the air. He didn’t even look phased as the reflection of the lightning twinkled in his eyes.
The only adjustment he made was his arms, reaching out towards the lightning. What he did only took a split-second. It couldn’t have taken any longer or he would have been fried. But Jaid watched it all happen as if time had slowed around her. The electricity struck Drim’s jutted-out blade like a lightning rod. But before it could pass all the way through the strip of metal, Drim had alreadywrapped his other arm behind him, bringing the blades together.
Sparks arced from one strip of metal to the other, and it continued its charge through the blade on his left. The lightning rushed from the back to the now jutted-out tip and the electricity launched forward. Since Drim had still been spinning the entire time, he ended up firing the shot back from whence it came before landing gracefully on his feet like nothing had happened.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Jaid didn’t have time. She didn’t have time to move, to make a line of clones to escape, to think about what to do. All she could do was slam down her sword on reflex and the other 4 clones did the same. They did their best to make a concave mirror with the flats of their blades, but it wasn’t perfect.
The swords repelled the bulk of electricity, but a few zaps still got through. Only Jaid’s gloves and boots were insulated, so her torso got the brunt of it with a few trickles biting their way up to her head. It was an unpleasant but manageable level of agony that still forced her to unsummon the rest of the clones. Thank Cosmos that her hair was tied up, or it’d be standing on end and frizzing like crazy.
“Zjik, Jaid. I’m sorry!” Drim rushed over to check on her without hesitation the minute his feet hit the ground. “I promise I wasn’t aiming for you. It just—”
“Shut up!” Jaid hissed at him through gritted teeth. “You of all people don’t get to be sorry for me!” A new wall of clones spawned in a half circle around Drim, all of them spiking their swords down at his legs, forcing him to jump backwards.
“You said you’d use your Curse, and yet you continue to mock me instead.” Another wave of clones appeared and blasted a sparking shower in his direction, forcing him to retreat further as she pressed forward.
“From the moment I got here, you haven’t been taking this fight seriously. You haven’t taken me seriously! This is nothing to you. You’ve been treating me like a plaything to toss around, and I won’t tolerate it any further.”
A ring of clones surrounded Drim. All their railguns were charging to fire. She was more liable to hit herself, but as long as she hit him too, that’s all that mattered. Her fury was insatiable and would stand for nothing less than to see this boy brought down a peg. If she couldn’t get him to use his Curse, then she wanted to see him bleed, to see him in just as much agony as she was.
“I promise you, Jaid. I’m fighting for my life here.” Drim finally used his Curse, summoning a giant, hollow tree stump around him to block the lightning. The wood absorbed it all but it didn’t go unscathed. It was now smoldering—some places actively burning—with a plume of smoke rising in the thankfully well-ventilated room.
“See, that right there, that was terrifying. You were genuinely trying to kill me just now, and yourself too by the looks of it. I’m not so arrogant and careless that I wouldn’t care for my own life.” His words sounded convincing, but his face didn’t match it at all—still stoic as always.
“Would it kill you to show it?!” That’s what pissed Jaid most of all. Her circle of clones vanished, replaced with an army of shorter ones that went for Drim’s legs.
“Never once have I seen you bothered by anything.” When Drim jumped into the air, she had a burly clone waiting, swinging her sword at his stomach to gut him. Drim summoned more wood to block the impact but it still sent him flying backwards, so he sprouted a cloud of vines to catch him when he slammed into the wall.
“Unphased, unfettered, and perfectly calm.” Jaid shouted from across the room before she sprinted through a line of clones towards the boy still pulling himself out of his vines. Drim had to duck at the last second to prevent himself from being decapitated by the swinging sword.
“When was the last time you laughed, the last time you cried?” Jaid asked while Drim shot a vine across the room to reel himself away and escape.
“How many months have gone by since your friends have seen real emotion on your face? The last time you showed any vulnerability?!” She dashed ahead of him, slicing the vine and stopping him in his tracks.
“Do you even think you have an ounce of humanity left? Do you even understand the struggles of those around you anymore? How much pain you’re causing them when they look up to you and get nothing in return?” While Jaid distracted him with her soliloquies, another rushed from behind and booted him in the back.
Drim went stumbling forward. A small child-like clone ran under him before he could catch himself, and then a much bigger clone spawned from her, headbutting him in the legs and flinging him forward further. He tumbled into the wall, landing on his neck, then quickly scrambled up into a defensive stance to try and prepare himself for whatever was next.
But Jaid didn’t pursue him right away. Only now could Drim see the hundreds of clones that had just bullied him from one end of the room to the other. Jaid recalled them all and only summoned one exact clone of herself. They both sheathed their swords and grabbed each other’s hands.
The two started to spin around in a circle until they built enough momentum. Then, one of the two dug in their heels, lifting the other into the air as they continued to gain speed. The spinning clone vanished and Jaid went flying. She zoomed across the room and unsheathed her sword, slamming it into the wall barely an inch from Drim’s head. Her own body stopped just dead-short of his, pinning him with nowhere to run.
“Show me the real you!” She practically spat directly into his face. “Are my words even getting through to you?! Or are you so dead inside that you have to play at being a benevolent god to pretend you’re not a monster?”
She slammed her other hand on the other side of his head and stared into his eyes with her own burning passion. Her resolve would not be outdone by his. “Since you won’t show me an ounce of emotion, I guess it’s up to me to remind you what it’s like to feel something, even if it’s only pain. Time for therapy, Drim Drazah.”
“Army of One,” Jaid suddenly spouted the name of her Curse as she took a step back. “Soldier of Ruin.”