Jack immediately dodged as a spiked whip lashed out, cruelly cutting the air where his face had been just a split second ago. He backed away several paces and summoned his shield with a mutter of his chosen trigger-word ‘Aegis’ just in time, as Izadora kipped up to her feet, made a few motions with her hands and sent a bolt of shadowstuff his way, smashing ineffectively against his shield as he quickly reholstered his gun for now. Sensing movement behind him, Jack retracted the shield and thrust back with a kick, his boot catching the unfortunate Prefect in the chest and shoving him back into his cohort.
Another Prefect rushed up to him from the side, and Jack wasted no time in meeting her charge, spinning to the side to avoid the attempted tackle and redirecting the momentum into another group of Prefects who were in a brawl with some other students. Spinning back around to the drow, he saw Izadora running away from him while her brother with the whips engaged several of the students chasing them.
“What’s the matter, bitch?!” Jack yelled. “I thought you wanted me dead?”
“YOUR DEATH WILL COME, MALE!” she screamed as she tried to fight her way towards the corridors. “MY HUNTERS WILL OBLITERATE YOU!”
“Not unless I kill you first!” Jack replied with a snarl, running forward and clotheslining another Prefect that tried to grab him.
“Jack!” he heard Alora yell in the background. “Where are you? Get to us if you can!”
Three more Prefects and a drone now blocked his path, and Jack quickly dodged back as one slashed at him with some sort of shock baton, countering with a quick punch to their face that knocked them back, ducking down as another slashed at him before he followed through on the third with a snap kick to the stomach of the avian before they could react, sending them to the floor in a howl of pain.
“GUNS AUTHORISED!” Izadora screamed to the other Prefects. “PUT THEM DOWN! PRIORITISE THE OUTSIDER!”
A few of the Prefects looked a little confused and apprehensive at that order. No shots had been fired up until that point, and they ideally wanted to de-escalate the situation...
But orders were orders.
Immediately, Jack dipped down and redrew his Dominator, taking out the drone with a quick burst and sweeping the legs out from the second Prefect with one of his feet, who crashed to the ground with a thump. He summoned his shield and leapt in front of two smaller students who had gotten caught in the melee as several laser shots pinged off of it. Jack considered returning fire, but although the Prefects were confirmed assholes and the medical bots patrolled school grounds to heal students and staff, he wasn’t keen on shooting his fellow students that were just trying to enforce the rules. The drow, on the other hand…
“When I move, get out of here!” Jack told the kids, who quickly nodded. He charged forwards, towards the shooters, slamming into them and opening an escape route for the other students that didn’t want to fight anymore, though many stood their ground, having relished the excuse to start a fight with the Prefects.
“Goooood morning Jack!” he heard the deep, rumbling voice of Plooderoo next to him, the octopus-like Plooth wailing away at several of the bots, with several grateful students taking refuge behind his bulk. “Nice to see yooooooou alive!”
“Back at you!” Jack grinned as he lashed out with a kick at a nearby Korrigan Prefect’s stomach who was trying to pin another student to the ground. “Glad we’re fighting together this time instead of against!”
“I’m on 4, ‘Ploo’!” The hyperactive voice of Kizzarith called out as he buzzed overhead to grab onto a flying drone with his pincers before crushing it. “Make that 5!”
“I’m already on 7!” Plooderoo roared with laughter. “Dooooo you need to take a break?”
“Fuck no big boy! Figured I’d give you a chance!” The beetle-like Lleethux chittered happily. “This is awesome, Jack! Way to pick a fight with these assholes! We’ve wanted to kick their asses for months!”
“Uh….” Jack replied, not really knowing what to say. “You’re welcome?”
“Kritch is right! You’d be perfect for the Deathball team!” The Lleethux grinned at Jack before he dashed off to look for more opponents.
“Jack!” he heard Nika call out from somewhere amid the crowd. “Wrap it up! Prefect reinforcements incoming!”
“Shit,” Jack muttered. “Where’s the drow?”
“Over there!” Plooderoo pointed a tentacle in the distance. “She’s casting! Feel free to kick her ass!”
“Thanks!” Jack hurriedly nodded before pushing his way towards her.
“There he is!” he heard another voice call out from halfway up the entrance hall stairs. It was cruel sounding, with an upper crust pronunciation, and Jack turned to see the drow with whips engaged with three other students, cruelly slashing away and mocking them as they failed to get out of range. He was too far away to engage, so Jack quickly drew his gun and gave the students covering fire as they rallied to attack the drow again. While shooting, he pushed further forward towards the sounds of carnage coming from where the Drow Matriarch apparently was.
A bolt of shadowstuff lashed out and took out one of the students behind Jack as he dodged the attack. “PREFECTS! TO MY SIDE!” Izadora Mal’Kar snarled as Jack could see her about thirty metres away, students moving out of the way even as Prefects rushed to fill the gaps. “BRING HIM DOWN!” she yelled with a vicious smile before she began casting.
Jack grinned on seeing the odds.
“DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” he yelled in challenge to the approaching Prefects.
“I’M THE JUGGERNAUT, BITCH!” Jack snarled as he charged, blocking a swipe of the first guy’s baton with his forearm, barely registering the pain before he grabbed their striking arm and pulled them in for a throw to the side, grabbing the baton as he did.
Two more guys charged in to meet Jack, who quickly stuck first with the baton, smacking one on the top of their armoured head and parrying the other, countering with a snap kick. He then threw the baton at a third who was aiming his way with a laser rifle, staggering him just in time for Jack to jump in with a flying knee.
He was closer now, and Izadora Mal’Kar was panicking. Another Prefect roughly grabbed him from behind, only for Jack to smash his elbow back repeatedly into their torso to loosen their grip before elbowing them in the face, quickly bringing his axe to bear as a tentacle of shadow lashed out at him, chopping it in two as Izadora chanted more urgently, summoning more tentacles as Jack rushed in close, slashing at the drow’s head but being parried by her obsidian staff.
The Drow Matriarch tried muttering more words of power, but there was no way Jack was going to allow it as he pressed his attack, forcing Izadora to use all of her might to fend him off with her staff. She was far stronger than she looked, so it was obvious to Jack that she had augmented her physical strength with magic, but he was still stronger. Jack quickly unleashed a strong flurry of chops to get past her defences as she moved backwards, summoning more shadow tentacles as she did to try and put space between them.
But Jack’s onslaught was too fierce.
Izadora desperately changed tactics before her back hit the far wall, changing her momentum to try and counter with a swing of her staff at Jack’s head, which barely grazed his ear as he ducked. Remembering his karate training, he spun around with the dodge and kicked back with his foot, catching the drow off guard as it caught her in the chest, knocking her down to the ground at the same time as Jack followed through with an upward swing of his axe, feeling a slight resistance at its wicked edge sliced into flesh.
The drow let out a cry of pain as she smacked to the ground, barely having time to clutch at the blood on her face before Jack quickly holstered his axe and tackled her to the ground as she tried to get back up. Izadora barely got her arms up in time as Jack pulled out his knife from his belt and stabbed down, the blade stopping inches from her left eye as she was just able to block him with all of her remaining strength. Jack gave a primal roar as he pushed down on the knife with both hands, bringing it closer and closer to her eye as it widened in sheer terror at the realisation of what was about to happen!
“Jack!” he heard Nika call out, and on instinct he rolled to the side as something flew over his head with a violent snap that would have taken his head off had he stayed. He kicked up to his feet just in time to block a kick aimed for his head and moved back as the drow with the whip somehow changed the shape of his weapon, the dark metal retracting and solidifying the spiked chain into a pair of short swords, which he flourished with the confidence of practised skill.
“KILL HIM, SOREN!” he heard Izadora screech as she stumbled back, clutching her face where Jack had wounded her.
Jack got out his axe, and students and Prefects alike stopped their fighting to watch.
“You call those blades?” Jack taunted, “I call those dildos!”
“Interesting choice of words, Outsider,” Soren purred, oozing with contempt and confidence as he and Jack circled one another, “considering what I’ll do to you!” He lunged forward as he finished his sentence, trying to catch Jack off guard. The human leapt to the side on reflex, dodging the stab, and slashed with his axe to try and catch the drow mid-movement. Soren quickly fell to his knees and skidded under the attack, swiftly changing position and kicking towards Jack’s right arm, throwing off his aim with his Dominator pistol and sending his burst fire to tear several chunks in the ground as Soren rolled with the kick to keep his distance.
The drow kicked up quickly, morphing his weapon back into the spiked whip as he lashed out, wrapping it around Jack’s guard as the human tried to aim his gun. With a muttering of a magic word from the drow noble, the whip suddenly grew hot as a sensation of pain lanced out throughout Jack’s body where metal contacted skin.
“That’s it!” Soren snarled, narrowing his eyes as he focused all of his malice and hate into his torture spell. “I will break you, Outsider! Scream for me!”
But Jack didn’t scream. His eyes were wide open as the sensation of agony washed all over his body, before he fought through the pain, putting it to one side in his mind. His spirit would never be broken! He growled. A deep, roaring growl of defiance and hatred, as he focused his will and his inner fire.
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Soren’s eyes widened in shock for just an instant as Jack yanked on the whip, sending the drow flying right into Jack’s kick, clobbering Soren in the face, crunching his nose and knocking him down, slackening the cord enough for Jack to get his hands free by letting go of his weapons. Soren rolled to the side to avoid Jack’s stomp, which barely missed his head as he handsprung to his feet then quickly charged at Jack, who reflexively used his momentum against the drow by throwing him over his head to once again hit the ground, though Soren snapped his leg up, catching Jack in the mouth and giving the slippery drow another opportunity to dip away.
Jack grabbed his weapons as Soren spoke a command word, sending his whip flying to his hand before snapping it in an air of defiance, the look of contempt now replaced with confident anger. Jack raised his gun to fire as Soren muttered a word of power to counter…
Before a wall of bright red hellfire burst forth between them, separating the fighters.
“That is enough,” Jack heard a calm, cold voice reverberate in the entrance hall. He turned, not immediately recognising the voice before he saw the yellow, fox-like form of Rena, the Prefect that had stopped their very brief previous fight with the drow. Next to her Jack could see Nya, her eyes glowing red as she maintained the summoned wall.
“Thank you for your help, Nya,” Rena quietly acknowledged to her friend before walking forward to address everybody. “The Morning Announcements are due to begin soon, and homeroom class soon after that. I suggest you do not loiter here.”
The crowd began to disperse, some with a few groans but others chatting excitedly, some obviously looking especially to Jack, Soren and the wounded Izadora, though others gave glances at some of the other notable combatants in the melee that had kicked ass. Jack just stayed there, still in a fight-or-flight mentality, before the others came up to him to shake him out of it. The drow were quick to teleport out without even acknowledging everybody else, to the visible annoyance of Rena, though that only presented itself as a slight twitch of the mouth that only Jack saw.
“I guess that’s it then.” Jack sighed, turning away from the Prefect towards the corridor leading to the lifts.
“Halt,” the cool voice replied. Jack had no doubt what kind of expression the back of his head was receiving.
“Oh?” Jack spoke in mock questioning. “You told us to disperse?”
“I would speak to you first.”
“What about the drow? They fucked off pretty quick,” Jack replied casually, turning around and bracing himself for whatever consequence was about to come his way.
“They are Prefects; however, we do have a complaints process,” Rena replied in that same, cold tone.
“Oh thank god for that!” Jack sarcastically replied. “A bunch of people tried to kill me over the weekend because that drow bitch put a bounty on me, and now I have Devil’s Daughter herself wanting to crawl up my ass and kill me, but that’s ok because you have a fucking complaints process.” He looked Rena in the eye, ready for another fight. “What the hell is there to talk about?”
“Though you were within your rights to defend your interests,” Rena began, “starting brawls in the Entrance Hall before lessons begin is against the rules. You should know that the corridors are more appropriate for such actions during the day, and restrictions are lifted after the school day ends. Your uniform is also now untidy and no longer meets regulation standards. As a result, I will be giving you an official reprimand.”
Jack just stood there dumbfounded for a moment before he fully absorbed those words.
“OH NO!” Jack replied, keeping up the sass. “Fuck me, that won’t go on my permanent record, will it?”
“It will be for that backtalk,” Rena replied, narrowing her eyes. “You may be a new student, but you are expected to conduct yourself with decorum.”
Alora cut in before Jack could unleash his verbal assault and make things worse. “He understands, Rena. Hopefully this will not happen again, though considering the actions of the Mal’Kar students both last week and today, I would expect that you understand his motivations.”
“Motivations or not, rules are rules,” Rena replied without emotion. “And you are all expected to follow them irrespective of how Prefects conduct themselves.”
“Very well.” Alora nodded as she tried her best to placate Jack with a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“I must attend class now. Nya, I will meet up with you later, thank you for your assistance,” Rena dismissed as she walked away.
Alora waited for the group to turn the corner before annoyedly rounding on Jack as she led them to the elevator chambers. “Jack! What the hell was that all about?”
Jack for his part raised his eyebrows. “She put a bounty on me, Alora, and you should be happy I got her after what happened with you last week! What did you expect me to do? Not immediately kick her ass on sight?”
“Not by charging in like a complete maniac right in front of everybody!” Alora argued. “I’m not impressed!”
“Really? He must have taken out twenty Prefects!” Sephy argued. “It was kinda impressive!”
“And completely humiliated the drow in the process!” Nika added.
Izadora’s aura showed me just how terrified she was as well! Chiyo pointed out.
Alora turned to look at her three friends, with a look that immediately shut them up. “I’m not impressed, Jack, because you didn’t say anything to us before you did it. Stuff like that can get us killed on a run,” she cautioned. “Yes, we did well over the weekend despite everything thrown at us, but that doesn’t mean we should be so callous! Now the drow are going to seek revenge and probably increase your bounty, or try to kill you themselves!”
“Alright!” Jack conceded with a sigh. “But it was like the moment I saw her I got angry, and before I knew it I was charging at her without a real plan. I guess I figured it was the best shot at stopping this whole thing if I either killed them and stopped them being brought back or convinced them that I’m not to be fucked with.”
“That’s a dumb plan!” Alora replied with eyebrows raised. “Avoiding them would probably make their bounty placement go away with time.”
“Sure, if they didn’t just double down!” Jack retorted. “The hacker added funds to the pot the same time as they did. That’s a statement of intent right there! They’re not backing down!”
“Yes, but there are better ways of finding out instead of just battering the first drow you see!” Alora sighed. “We’ll have to see what happens, but they’re not gonna take this lying down. I’m glad you’re ok.”
“Honestly, the drow would have probably attacked anyway,” Nika pointed out. “Never seen Izadora take the Entrance Hall before today - it’s likely she and Soren were scouting for us and probably had the other two take the side entrances.”
“Well either way, Rena’s a bitch for stopping it.” Sephy shrugged. “What?” She looked at Nya who had given her a questioning look for insulting her friend. “I know she takes the teachings of Tyrus seriously and all that, but If Devil's Daughter was wanting to kill me I’d want to put an end to the bounty at any cost so she would no longer have any reason to.”
“You think Devil’s Daughter wants to kill you?” Nya questioned Jack as she spoke up for the first time.
“Yeah,” Jack replied with a deep sigh. “Last night she put her Hunter’s Mark on me. That seems to have scared most people off the bounty apart from two others, but I saw what she could do when the Killer Klown attacked. Long story short, I’m probably fucked if I can’t shake her off or kill her first.”
“That’s unusual,” Nya replied in confusion. “Devil’s Daughter only kills the worst of the worst, and that isn’t you. Maybe it’s something else?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Jack countered as they got to the Elevator Chamber, deciding not to mention the magical attack from that morning. “Either way, she put a mark on me so I’m shooting her on sight.”
*****
“Did Jack actually kick Izadora Mal’Kar’s ass?” Vanya excitedly asked the group as they went through their lockers. “Everyone is saying he took on like 50 Prefects all on his own and Rena had to talk him down from ripping her head off!”
“Something like that.” Jack shrugged distractedly. He had received a lot of mail and was trying to sort through it all. From pictures of random girls to poorly written notes asking him to join their groups to job offers, there was a lot of junk mail he couldn’t really store anywhere. He was just in the middle of looking at one envelope addressed to ‘The Enigmatic Outsider’ in red inked cursive when Nika just sighed and took the wad out of his arms.
“Permission to get rid of all of this junk mail, Jack? There’s nothing of value in them, those go to the bottom drawer, and if your mailbox gets too full you get fined for it.”
Jack nodded, not bothered by it, being too focused on getting his books in order. There was a school assembly, art, chemistry, sports and cyber class today, which he had to prepare for, so he wasn’t concerned when Nika blasted the letters apart with her shotgun, though Nya looked absolutely horrified at the display, as did many of the other onlookers not-so-subtly looking their way.
“So, any good stories you got for me from your weekend away?” Vanya asked the group.
“A few,” Alora chimed in before the others could answer. “Can’t tell you here, that’s for sure!”
“Oh nice! Those kind of stories!” The rabbit-like Chuna perked up. “Drinks are on me after school if you let me do an interview! I already know what happened to Zhal-Han at Gladespring, that was amazing Nika!”
“Couldn’t let the opportunity go to waste! He was coming after Jack anyway,” the Kizun replied. “Is he actually dead?”
“Looks like it from early accounts, it was the Skinsaw Slasher that got to him as well! Hell of a way to go, apparently there was barely enough left of him to recognise from the videos, but clearly someone did!” Vanya leaned in to whisper a question to Jack. “It wasn’t you was it?”
“Wasn’t me!” Jack instantly shot back with an amused snort, seeing Vanya’s joking smirk. “He was barely a threat anyway.”
“Well, maybe an inquisitor or two might try and ask you a few questions,” he heard another voice call from behind him which made him subconsciously put his hand over his gun. “The Church of Siros want the killer because of a likely link to the Cult of the Destroyer.”
“Hey Svaarti!” Alora called out with a smile, echoed by the others.
“Hello everyone!” Svaarti shyly smiled at them as she sidled up to Vanya, though she must have noticed the nervous look on Jack’s face as she added. “I’m really, really, really sorry Jack, I didn't know Svaartal was going to attack you! I asked him not to and to drop it but he just told me he was going to do some bounty work while I stayed with Vanya to help with a few articles!”
“Hey, it’s alright!” Jack quickly placated the frightened Nirah, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder as she shook in nervousness. “What articles do you work on?” he added, trying to distract the poor girl.
“She helps me with all the magical stuff!” Vanya happily replied. “She writes about possible origins of magic artefacts, the nature of spells, even a few techniques! And she’s the best when we’re investigating in the field!”
That reminds me. Chiyo spoke up with a smile. Would you be willing to take a look at a few photos, Svaarti? We’ve come across an artefact that might be related to Nekdon, and we want to know a little bit more before we take it to the Church of Siros.
“Sure!” the snake-girl replied happily as Chiyo showed her several pictures of certain points on the ‘Gloom Cauldron’. She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. “Hmm… at a glance, it’s definitely involved in ritual summoning of some kind, there’s a bunch of focusing runes to anchor spells cast within a specific framework, though the rest of the symbols don’t make much sense to me. My brother may know more though! Maybe you can patch things up…”
“Not an option,” Nika replied coldly.
“We will think of something,” Alora gracefully interrupted as the bell for morning announcements began. “Thank you, Svaarti! We’d better get to Homeroom!”
“See you later!” Vanya called, as everyone got to their classrooms.
Jack had been expecting it, but he still tensed up as he entered the room to see Svaartal at the far end, back against the wall and burning gaze fixed on the door. He had been wondering all day what he would do on seeing the Nirah again. Izadora Mal’Kar, being the one who had put the hit out on him was an easy split second decision. Svaartal on the other hand…
Though they were both eying each other up, neither made an immediate hostile move. They had fought one another to the best of their ability the previous day, and either boy could have won that engagement.
And he respected Svaartal for it. Enough not to immediately want to take a huge risk and come to blows at least, as Alora gave him a nudge and led the group to their seats.
He didn’t know how long that mutual, grudging respect would last.
But he would take it for now, as the school day began.