Jack prepared for the worst. What was an Akaluma doing here?

Actually, he answered it right away. Forests were thick with threats, Aldarians loved killing monsters. In fact, Jack should have counted himself lucky that there wasn’t a whole damn party.

But for now, the threat at hand.

The guy approached closer. Jack literally saw him, but for some reason, he didn’t see him. He had dyed hair that fell over one eye. His armor had cylinders all over. He wore a coat over it with an emblem with wings on it.

The ditch.

His shovel basically saved him from being caught.

But not for much longer.

“The fuck…?”

Now.

He sprouted up, yelling a battle cry. He swung his shovel, which formed a blade. It slammed into the hero, sending him flying into the bushes.

He got up, glaring at Jack.

“Who the hell are you?”

He didn’t appear to be that badly injured. He focused his glare on the shovel. “And the hell is that thing? Never seen anything like that.”

Jack frowned, relaxing his fighting stance slightly. He appeared to be talking to himself almost…

Without much of a warning, the guy lifted his hand quickly, somehow, creating a blast of air. Jack felt himself being lifted and thrown as if he were a small child. He yelped in surprise.

Jack’s plummeted, only cushioned by tree branches. He hit the ground hard, most certainly breaking one of his ribs.

“Not fun is it?” The guy was right next to Jack now, a gust of wind blew against his hair. “Let’s see how you like this!”

The guy kicked Jack, somehow, with another blast of air. Jack's ears popped as he soared, narrowly missing trees.

The guy bounded forward, his feet barely touching the ground as he approached Jack rapidly. Jack got back into the fighting position, the guy drew his sword.

“That was fun wasn’t it?” The guy laughed. “I just really needed someone to throw around.”

He refocused on Jack. “Now, why don’t you tell me what that is, you got there?”

Jack lifted the shovel. “This?”

The guy shrugged. “You probably have no idea what you’re-”

He stopped. “Wait, are you…”

“A hero?” Jack asked. “Well, no one asked me that, so I’m glad you did.”

The guy didn’t say anything. Jack read his nametag, which manifested above the head of a hero, unless they chose it to be hidden.

His name was Leand.

Leand laughed. “You have a good sense of humor, I'll give you that. So why don’t you give me a bit of compensation for wasting my time, and you can be on your merry way.”

Jack pulled out a single coin and tossed it onto the floor. Leand walked forward to pick it up.

“I am not one of you, by the way.” Jack sneered.

Leand lifted his head. But it was too late.

Jack slammed his shovel into his head, sending out a clang that echoed through the forest. Leand flew back.

Leand hit a tree nearby. He got up, this time with an angry look on his face. “So what the hell are you then?”

He seemed almost completely unharmed.

Maybe I need to hit harder. Jack thought.

“Why don’t you take a guess?” He responded.

“Noooo, you ain’t. You can’t be. Even stupid Anviors know not to fuck around with Aldarians .”

Jack spread out his hands.

“It doesn’t matter what I am.” Jack said, smirking.

He roared and lunged at him, kicking him in the stomach directly this time. He slammed into a tree and almost blacked out.

“Hey, Lyla! I caught this dude snooping around.”

A woman, in a black coat with a red shirt underneath approached. “Why are you here?” She asked, as she pulled out her metal club.

He smirked at her. He knew that no matter what answer he gave, they were going to kill him.

“I’m looking for Miss Boneh, I brought along such a lovely rope to hang her with.”

Lyla looked visibly disturbed. It only made him happier.

“Hey, at least he didn’t call her princess.” Leand butted in.

Lyla gave a horrified look to Leand. “Are you on drugs or is this just the way you are?”

Leand whistled. “I dunno, I’ve been taking them so long, maybe its fucked with my brain a little bit.”

“I’m on a tight schedule, you know. So hurry up will you?” Jack said innocently.

“Shut up!” Lyla yelled, but her voice was weak, Jack could tell.

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Leand flicked a booger. “Couldn’t give less of a damn about your schedule, especially if it involves killing the brat. Honestly, I thought there would be a lot more of you.”

Jack smirked again.

“Well, things are done better when you do it yourself.”

And at the moment, he flipped onto his stomach and used the shovel to expand under him like a bubble, sending him flying backward. He smashed the back of his head into Leands face, breaking his nose audibly.

But Lyla was too quick. She swung her club, smashing it into his side. His abdomen exploded into pain. The barbs dug into his stomach, scraping his ribs, which also broke more.

“Klomo, dranox, prazu!” He shouted.

The blood clotted and formed a scab.

“Shit, I didn’t know you could do spells n’ shit. That’s cute.”

Jack got up and pulled out his shovel. Lyla swung again, and he blocked. But Leand threw an air blast, sending Jack tumbling head over heels yet again. He got up, cursing.

Jack immediately sprinted towards Leand, leveling his barbarian sword. As he was right about to bring his blade down, leand gave him a smile and sent him flying again.

He rolled across the ground, but not before Lyla smashed the club into him yet again.

“We don’t have to do this!” Shouted Lyla, trying to reason with Jack.

Leand gave her a concerned look. “The fuck you mean bitch?”

Jack elbowed Lyla in the face, giving her a bloody nose, and most certainly breaking his elbow. She managed to grab him though, with a surprisingly strong grip too. Getting manhandled by a woman was an interesting, nevertheless, painful experience.

Suddenly an arrow hit a tree right next to them. Some yelling. Keywark guards came running up.

Jack coughed. “You aren’t special, none of us are. I figured that out the hard way, you don’t do your bloody job!”

“Ok, I’ve had enough. Lyla, give him here.” Leand motioned for her to come over.

“Negative!” Corporal Vicker shouted. “Do not disobey a direct order! He is in our custody now.”

Leand approached him. He smirked. “Can you repeat that please? I didn’t hear.”

“You… you are disobeying a direct order.” His voice faded as Leand approached. He took a cautious step back.

Leand raised his hands. “So I guess I got front row seats to the biggest shitshow in town. Tell me, what are you going to do with him if you don't kill him? You have a jail here? Yeah, I didn't think so. So I guess he’ll be princess Boneh’s roomie-”

He stopped.

“Fuck.” He muttered.

“Unauthorized disclosure!” The Corporal shouted, his voice squeaking.

Leand threw up his hands. “Oh please! He already knows that she's here. I mean, she’s got a fuckin’ mansion as a safe house!”

“Unauthorized disclosure, second offense!” Vicker shouted again. “You’ll get a trial with the king about this afterward, Leand.”

Jack looked at the Corporal then at Leand.

“Fuzi guzuza falti, tafranu bizi, barofu, sulanu, murzi zoziru.” He whispered.

He jerked his body right at that moment. The archers, who had been aimed squarely at his chest, fired. He twisted his shovel, It did what it was made for, digging deep into the soil they stood on, he turned with all his might, lifting Lyla and re-locating her.

Most of the arrows that had been fired, buried themselves in her chest.

She let out a short shriek, followed by what could only be described as the sound of lungs popping, then she collapsed.

Jack grinded his teeth in pain, two arrows dug into his shoulder. The shield had slowed them from fatally harming him, but there was only so much it could do against point blank shots.

He tumbled down for what hoped would be the final time, then he ran through the bushes. The blue phantom armor around him crackled and flickered. He ran his hands across it. He was absolutely shocked by it. The armor faded from visibility as he relaxed, but as he ran his hands across it, it showed. He pulled the arrows out. They weren’t that deep.

But he was more worried about the blood clotting, he felt sick to the stomach.

The guards gave chase, and were about to close in.

Lyla laid on the ground, she wasn’t dead, at least not as far as Leand was concerned. He shoved some soldiers out of the way to get her. He knelt over her, with a healing potion. But right as he was about to pour it he stopped.

She took a raspy breath, staring at him into his eyes. Her labored breaths met with momentary silence.

Leand looked down at her. “I ought to save myself a chestful.”

He saw the horror in her eyes as he quietly tucked the potion back into his pouch.

“She’s beyond saving.” He addressed the soldiers gathered around her, including the medic. They knew otherwise, but didn’t say anything. All they could do was watch life slowly drain from her eyes, as Leand’s lie, in fact, became the truth.

He wiped his nose, which he didn’t realize had been bleeding until now. “Go, get that prick!” He shouted.

The soldiers did nothing. Corporal Vicker approached.

“Disobedience of direct orders, unauthorized disclosure, treason.” His voice cracked on the last one.

“The fuck you gonna do about it?” Leand said. He leaned forward and casually wiped his bloody hand on the Corporal's shoulder, creating a dark red mark on his shirt.

Vicker said nothing, because Leand was right. What could he do about it?

“We have a threat on the loose… t-thanks to you.”

“Lemme tell you something, the fucker got away because your men fired their damn bows, which didn’t do shit by the way, because the little Turmina knows how to cast spells apparently.”

The Corporal frowned, momentarily distracted by a question he had on his mind.

“You said he’s a-a Maldiva?”

Well, yeah. I mean, the hell else would he be? I mean I guess we can get a little pissy sometimes. But I wouldn’t kill Boneh… I don’t know anyone who would get their hands dirty like that, even for me. I’m not a fan of the brat, but I wouldn’t just take a life because I have a chip on my shoulder.”

But you’d let someone die. Thought the Corporal. “Didn’t he- didn’t he beat you?”

“What?” Leand asked, raising his voice.

The Corporal raised his chin. Maybe Leand had some sort of restraint. “I might have achieved less than you, but I am, quite frankly, a soldier. What you did was not fighting, it was fumbling.”

Leand took a step towards the Corporal, who in response, took a step back.

“If I wanted to kill the poor bastard, I would have done it already. I’m a fucking Wind Wizard. The guy had no chance, I could have killed him in so many ways!”

“Then why didn’t you?” Vicker shouted.

Leand rubbed his hair, which was already messy. “I-I’d never seen him do that. Like, criminals and shit, they never used spells or anything. And it surprised me because, well don’t fuckin people like him not have any mana? Like, how the fuck did he do it?”

The Corporal said nothing, he just gave Leand a sad confused look, which deeply enraged him. He had disappointed someone he wasn’t even trying to impress. And that about being surprised at Jack for holding his against both Leand and Lyla’s combined efforts, well maybe just his, for all he knew Lyla had given it her all, didn’t really bother him. If anything it gave him a small amount of respect when he pulled the move on Lyla. Leand, unlike most Aldarians , wasn't really bothered by harder battles. But there was a time and place for everything, and his job was no exception.

Leand didn’t realize he was sweating.

“Are you alright?” Vicker asked half-heartedly.

Anywho, Leand was not telling the entire truth. For it was the shovel that shocked him the most. It caused him to forcibly laugh and pretend like he wasn’t uncomfortable, while it deeply disturbed him. It was like the shovel instilled some sort of primal fear that he didn’t even know he had. For those brief moments, he felt weak, mortal.

“I’m fuckin’ fine!” Leand shouted. “Worry about yourself next time!” He stormed off. “Oh yeah, and one more thing, tell your men to get ready to track down that son a bitch!”

“No! We must protect the Princess, for if anything happens to her, we’ll all be hanged!”

Leand stopped, and turned around. He smirked.

“Not me, corporal. Not me.”