Darkness closed around Jake as he saw his friend hit the king.
Bang!
The ground around Jake erupted as the air around him filled with dust. A set of warm hands opened in the shape of a blooming flower with Jake and Five emerging from the centre as if they were reborn. As the dust began to settle, Jake was looking up at the queen, his eyes staring into her as if they were thousands of tiny daggers. She looked as though she had given up her everything with that last attack; her face, once full of life, was now a figment of its former self. The rest of her body was just skin and bone. Jake raised his pistol, but before he could fire, Eric was there, his hand grasping the end of Jake's pistol.
“I can't let you hurt them, sir.”
“They tried to kill me. Why shouldn't I kill them in kind?”
“Mercy, just look at the state she is in right now. Do you think killing her now would be a good end to this fight? When I stepped in to save Five, the true end to this fight was changed in favour of you.”
“So you're saying I should treat this fight as a loss, then?”
“No, I'm saying you should treat this fight as incomplete. It seemed you were being pushed quite hard by these two, so imagine what the fight will be like next time you meet them on the battlefield.”
“You're not going to move, are you?”
“No, sir, I cannot let the weak be hurt; it is my path.”
“Your path.” Jake sighed, then continued, “Okay, I will leave—” Jake looked over at the king lying on the ground with one of his legs blown off. “I'll leave them both to you while I go save Kiki.”
Eric dropped his hand and said to Jake to be careful and that the man that attacked him was very strong.
“Last chance, are you staying or not?” Jake said to Five.
“What benefit would there be in staying here? This man won't let anyone kill those with any tangible memories.”
“Fine, hold on tight; this is going to get rough.” Just as the end of the sentence finished, Jake teleported away, repeating the action again and again till Five just couldn't take it anymore. After heaving up what remained in the little fox's stomach and letting him clean himself up, Jake pointed in a direction and said, “She's over there.” The only thing that could be seen in that direction was a large airfield, once open but now covered in dense trees and long dead grass. The only other things that could just be seen over the grass were some rundown buildings. “Over there, in that clearly not a trap place. Come on, whoever set this up must be the dumbest person in the universe; who would be so stupid as to walk into that?” Five said as he climbed back up onto Jake's shoulder.
Gazing off into the distance for a minute, Jake turned his head to look at the little fox. “You don't have to come.”
“Don't be ridiculous; I really want to meet the man who is willing to go up against you. Plus, I really want his memories.”
“If it's the man I think it is, I have plenty of questions for him,” Jake said as he slowly looked back in the direction of the abandoned airport.
“So we're really going in there?” Five asked.
“Yeah.” Jake sighed at the end of his response. “Let's get this done and go home.” Jake lunged into a sprint, heading straight towards the old hangars. Moments later, explosions rang out from either side of him, the long grass erupting into an inferno, flames so large they blocked out the sky. Stepping forward, a path opened up.
“Looks like they want us to go that way.”
“You don't say. Shall we head deeper, or maybe there's a different path we can take?” Five said before looking at a spot in the flame wall that was slightly different from the rest.
“I think you might be right.” Jake walked over and punched the flame, his arm passing straight through the wall, his fist only stopping when it connected with the face of his enemy.
“Whoa, right in the face! Nice shot. Do you reckon she will get back up?”
“Probably. I didn't put much force into it. She should wake up soon,” Jake said as he tied the lady up.
“Did you know in the past, what you're doing to that lady could be seen as—”
“That's enough, Five. We're not doing this,” Jake said as he stood up after hog-tying the middle-aged lady. Leaving her behind, Jake walked at a predetermined pace towards the place he believed his enemy would be. As they approached the building, Jake looked behind him at the roaring fire.
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“Do you think they even know we're not in there?” Jake asked.
“Come on, they have to know by now, right? It's not like you were quiet when you were tying up that curly brunette back there. Why were you so grunty? She didn't seem that heavy to me.”
“That's enough already! I wasn't grunting or anything. Wait, you're just trying to get a rise out of me. You know—”
Jake jumped to the left just as a knife flew past his cheek, his hand reaching up as he felt a light trickle of blood drip down his neck.
“Where the fuck did that come from? It's like it just appeared out of nothing,” Five said.
“Jake Everval, it's been too long. I did hope you would come after me, especially since I stole all your stuff,” a distinctly American voice shouted.
“Mr Punchy Man, it's been so long. Oh, by the way, did you have a name? Ah, never mind, I just forgot; I don't really care. Are you coming out to play, or are you just going to try and hit me in the back of the head again like the coward you are?”
“I'm here to kill you, little boy. I let you live last time, but this time your life must end.”
“Oh, is that so? Who sent you? Was it by chance some fuckhead playing at being a god? You know the type—they sit in a room sticking crayons up their nose with one hand while the other one is throwing galactic-sized marbles around. Fucking dumb as shit.”
The air went silent for a bit, then Mr Punchy Man shouted in anger, “I was given this mission by the system itself.”
“No shit, but I think everyone got a message like that.”
“You don't know anything. The system spoke to me in person; she was more beautiful than the universe itself. I am the chosen one, the one that will bring you down, little boy.”
“So you were visited by one of the system's bitches. Now what? You bend over for that tosspot man-child that doesn't want others to get too close, so it gives you all wings of wax.”
Jake jumped to the left as a knife ripped through the air, lodging itself into the ground at Jake's feet.
“I was first wondering, did Mr. Punchy Man forgo his fists he was so proud of for these pissy little twigs? But now I know for sure you are a little system bitch, aren't you? Just bending right over for those system skills. What happened to your proud fists? Did you trade them in after what happened to you back then?”
“Talk now, little boy. Not much longer and I will have your head as a trophy.”
“Oi, Mr. Formally Punchy Man, do you know a young lady? Arr, what was her name again? I think it was Jess. I heard she was with the Americans. I was just wondering what might have happened to her.”
Another knife flew at Jake, but instead of dodging it, he grabbed the handle mid-flight and, in one fluid motion, launched it back with all his force, ripping past the man standing inside the building's entrance five hundred metres away.
“Do you think this man even has the guts to face you? Or is he going to keep throwing these stupid toy knives at you all day?” Five said.
“I don't know. Last time I met him he was a lot more willing to fight. I think he's actually trying to get me to teleport behind him; otherwise, why would he leave such an easy opening? I just don't know what he's planning.”
“So is that his trap or what? Arr, it doesn't make any sense to me. What's he got in there?” Five asked.
Jake's next step took him around one hundred metres closer to the entrance. The moment reaped from his dash, two unseen attackers fired on his position with what looked a lot like Jake's very own fireball skill. Jake ducked one, only to be hit square in the back with the other. The skill reactive mana barrier took the brunt of the attack, but unluckily for Jake, the impact sent him flying forward into the oncoming knives. Seeing this, Jake was forced to use another one of his skills, and one he had just now realised he never picked a name for, and for some reason, its name was now stuck with "insert name (rare)."
Self-made skill (insert name. Rare)
Change the former of any metal object, restricted to metal that has not been embedded with energy or has been soulbound.
The metal melted and fell to the ground all around him.
“I can't sense them at all.”
“Neither can I. It seems they are adept at hiding,” Jake said as he watched the two people shimmer and vanish with no trace of them ever being there to begin with. The skirmish ended just as quickly as it began, then the bantering started again with Mr Former Punchy Man blasting a few insults Jake's way.
Looking over at Five, Jake asked what he thought the two of them should do.
“I want to see this fucker dead.”
“That's a bit harsh, Arr, maybe not,” Jake said as a wall of projectiles was launched at him. He activated the skill insert name once again, cringing at the name as it flashed in his vision to verify that it had been activated.
“Next time I make a fucken skill, I'm going to pick a name straight away that notates what is happening,” Jake grunted out, reaching out his hand as the projectiles approached. Jake felt as if his body had been drenched in the remnants of that shit monster he fought back in the dungeon. He pushed forward with another dash only to be stopped fifty metres later by the same ninja-looking fucks that attacked him before; only this time, they had a friend with them, also a fucken wannabe ninja. Jake stopped and looked at the three.
“I'm going to fuck you all up,” Jake said as he began his assault on the three.Jake teleported behind one of them, and in one fluid motion, drove his dagger into the first enemy's spleen and twisted the blade, taking out some of his anger on the poor unsuspecting ninja. Only seconds later did Jake see what his dagger had hit; it was not the ninja, but a full-on anime log. Then the log began to shimmer, only for a jester's grinning face to appear as the other two ninjas vanished into a cloud of smoke.
“Fuck you,” Jake shouted. In a flash, he was now only fifty metres from the door when he erupted with power as Eyes of the Lost activated on the now five ninjas, followed by Demon Strike on the closest ninja, blowing the freak apart in one hit. It was no illusion this time; chunks of flesh and blood splattered over the four remaining ninjas. Jake then dashed left and right, tapping the remaining ninjas with his hand. With each tap, the skill Atomic Degradation activated. Jake then stood back with a sadistic grin as he watched the first ninja frantically try to stop his body from crumbling to ash, but his fight was futile; the only thing remaining of the man was blown away in the breeze.
“Run,” one of the ninjas shouted as his fingertips slowly turned black.
That first one must have been really weak, not even being able to withstand it for a second, but at least it put the fear in the rest of them, Jake thought as he patted Five on the head.