Chapter 67 – Phase Two

Jack attacked Onem head on, confidence radiating through his body as he gripped his daggers and lashed out at the draugr. He let himself fall into [Storm Stance] and dished out strikes that Onem could no longer keep up with.

Each exchange was a flurry of arms and daggers that left Onem with a deeply confused look. Jack could understand why. His body hurt like hell and he was technically getting slower with each exchange, but his strikes were ringing true. Considering he went from manic sociopath getting tossed around like a rag doll to controlled sociopath that was slowly turning him into shredded paper, that would be confusing for anyone to deal with.

Jack reveled in Onem’s confusion as he pushed the draugr.. He lashed out with erratic, unpredictable strikes pushing his speed to its upper limits. Onem was in a slow retreat having taken to backpedaling and launching deadly black bars of energy that cut through most of the surrounding forest. Jack simply walked Onem down, pushing him out of the encampment, past the forest, and into a small clearing nearby.

Jack followed him out of the trees, falling into a relaxed stance with a lazy smile on his face.

This is actually starting to get pretty fun, Jack mused to himself.

Something flashed out of the corner of his eyes and he glanced over to see the weird bird angel people… What were they called again? Valerie's? Velveeta's?

Then he saw Hannah with them.

Fuck yes, Hannah’s back! He thought. Things just got a whole lot easier for me.

Jack launched himself at Onem again, his steps suddenly a little lighter. He knew he could kill the draugr, now with Hannah here it was guaranteed. Onem deflected his daggers this time with a massive backhand, swinging in with his staff in a powerful sweep. Jack ducked under the blow, lashing out at Onem’s legs before working his way up the draugr’s body.

He grimaced in annoyance as shadowy armor appeared just in time to block the shallow blows, letting Onem focus his attention on dodging or deflecting anything more dangerous.

I wonder how it does that. Jack thought offhandedly between strikes. It’s like the armor has a mind of its own.

Onem thrusted out with his staff and Jack jumped backwards to avoid it, but Onem already had another blast of shadow energy ready to take Jack’s head off. Jack tilted his head just in time, feeling the deadly black bar of destruction scorch out at the side of his face. Jack would have liked to dodge it better, but he needed every ounce of stamina he could save.

Jack continued his lazy walk forward, trying to steady his breath and recover as much energy as possible for his next assault. He was reaching that point where eventually his body would stop reacting to his commands. It was already moving much slower than he would have preferred. Not to mention his ribs still felt pretty broken. Jack reached down into his void sack and grimaced, he was out of health potions.

Maybe I can get one from Hannah real quick, he thought, glancing over in her direction.

“Shit,” He said to himself as he spotted her again.

Hannah was forming a [Charge Shot] and had it aimed directly at Onem.

On instinct that comes from knowing your partner for years, Jack launched himself forward at Onem. If he and Hannah could get the timing right, they could end this now. His daggers lashed out at Onem’s throat, then his legs, his kidneys, his heart. They were all deflected or blocked by his shadow armor. That didn’t matter though, Jack just needed to draw his attention so Hannah’s arrow could land. Then he would finish Onem off.

He struck out in a pattern that he knew Hannah would recognize, they had done this move a hundred times back on Earth. It would draw Onem’s attention while also forcing him to turn his back to Hannah giving her the perfect opening.

The arrow never came.

Jack looked over just in time to see the arrow disappear halfway across the clearing, Halldis having blocked its path.

Is it too much to ask for a haphazard plan made in-the-moment to go right? Jack whined to himself.

In that moment of distraction, Onem took the opportunity to deliver a punch to his gut which Jack absorbed just in time for it only to hurt a shit ton, as opposed to the metric fuck ton that was initially planned.

Jack grit his teeth in pain as he lashed out again putting Onem back on the defensive and saving himself from another attack. In the same slow and steady pace Jack continued to push on Onem, always applying pressure, always on the attack. Their fight continued to push out of the clearing and carried on back into the surrounding forest.

Jack ran through everything he knew about Onem in his head. He could seemingly heal any shallow wound; so fatal attacks only. He had that weird responsive shadow armor that would intercept about half of his attacks. He could shoot powerful beams of black energy that cut through anything. Aside from that, Onem didn’t seem to have much. He was of course fast and strong and had handily beaten Jack in every fight, but overall, Jack had been unimpressed with the draugr thus far.

Over the dozens of fights and duels some part of Jack had always been watching. Studying. Now that he was fighting as one Jack, the experience and knowledge from those fights started to flow through him. Jack felt like a different beast entirely now, someone Onem hadn’t fought before.

Jack was more in tune with himself now, literally. He could utilize the ferocity of Killer Jack, but had the measured restraint and self-preservation of Happy Jack to back him up. Jack was able to blend that bloodlust and self-preservation into a perfect control over himself that proved far more lethal than anything he had been before.

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It was like a game now, really. He would duck and dodge and weave through Onem’s attack, all while waiting for the perfect moment to release a flurry of strikes. Rodeo had always taught him to be unrelenting, to launch a never-ending assault, but that always came at a price. Jack would always lose himself in the bloodlust. He would become more and more unhinged as he pressed his attacks, never giving an inch.

What he was learning now is that giving the enemy an inch allowed him to turn it around and take miles from them. That’s what a careful, defensive, measured Jack brought to the table.

At least that’s what he thought was supposed to happen. Onem was being real fucking annoying about giving any ground. He seemed content to hunker down and let Jack wear himself out completely. Despite his best efforts to mask it, he was getting tired.

“Tell me…” Onem said after another exchange of blows, “Why don’t you use any of your abilities? You’ve certainly had more than enough time to draw in mana? Now that I know all your tricks, I’ve been hoping to test my might against your full power.”

Jack stared at him for a moment, caught off guard by the question. Jack wondered if this was why Onem had been fighting with what seemed like reservation. had he just been waiting for Jack to use one of his abilities?

“It’s not that. I just feel like it would be far more embarrassing for you if I kicked your ass without using mana.” Jack lied.

Onem scoffed at him, falling back into a stance, staff held under his arm at the ready.

Jack had enough. It was time to end this.

He took a deep breath, shoving down the pain of his beaten and broken body as he let Killer Jack flow through him. Not taking over, just letting his bloodlust seep into every cell in his body. He felt as his heart steadied and his body hummed with killing intent; he hunched forward into a relaxed stance, bringing forth every ounce of focus he had into a final killing blow.

He had no mana to use, and little energy left to draw from - but his heart was steady, his mind was focused, and he steadied his breathing. He was in complete control. With that, he let himself fall into the deep battle trance of the [Storm Stance], searching for the answer to his problems.

Mastery Upgrade

[Storm Stance of the Lightning Centipede]

Novice-High 🡪 Apprentice-Low

Jack let out a small smile as he felt a wealth of information unlock and run rampant throughout his body. His [Storm Stance] had been a true enigma of an ability since he had first gotten it and the upgrade only served to confuse him further.

He had been in dozens of harrowing fights since unlocking the ability where he relied on the stance heavily to save him. He had thought he would have flown through the upgrades, especially considering how much he relied on it as Killer Jack. Countless time he had resonated with the ability, felt it flow through him; Killer Jacks’ need for an unrelenting assault and the Storm Stances desire to strike out endlessly. He had thought the stance found value in that but it didn’t upgrade once.

Now that he was in control, the stance seemed to finally respond. It was as if it wanted someone who could control it. Not just ride out the fury of the storm, but stand before it and master it. Before, he saw an enemy and all he could think about was striking out at them with all of his power wherever he could land a blow. Now, though, he stared at Onem and all he saw was lightning rods.

The heart? Lightning Rod. The lungs? Lightning rod. The head? Lightning rod.

Jack felt like he finally had some modicum of control of where he could strike with his daggers. It was the same erratic lighting strike, but a far more controlled destruction.

He stared at the enemy in front of him. Onem didn’t know this yet, but he was going to remove the draugr’s head from his body.

Onem just cocked an eyebrow at him.

He fell forward, his muscles tensing all at once as he poured every ounce of remaining energy into his legs, launching forward at blinding speeds.

He was on top of Onem before the draugr could raise his staff in defense. Jacks’ daggers bit into Onem’s neck and he pushed hard, sinking the blades deep. He pulled back, wrenching the daggers hard through Onem’s neck, kicking off his body and somersaulting backwards. Jack landed in a kneeled position, panting heavily as black blood rained down on him from Onem’s neck. He watched as Onem’s head fell backward, barely hanging on by neck, muscle and skin.

He felt the rush that comes from victory for a fleeting second before an even greater feeling of sickness took it’s place.

There was no kill notification.

Nearly headless, Onem slammed his staff into the ground and an explosion of black shadow mana launched Jack backwards. He tumbled to the ground, quickly rolling to his feet as he watched Onem.

Onem’s staff absorbed the shadows cast by the bright moon above. Jack took a moment to revel in how Onem’s staff seemed to literally pull in the darkness, leaving his surroundings without a shadow. Jack’s heart sank as the shadows swirled around a nearly headless Onem wrapping him up in a dark cocoon.

Jack stood there awkwardly, unsure what to do.

A moment later the cocoon released Onem in an explosion of shadow. The draugr was whole and covered from head to toe in a menacing black seamless armor with dangerous hard edges. His staff now sported two large scythe-like blades on either end. He looked at Jack, a smile on his face.

“That was quite close. Allow me to return the favor.” Was all he said, taking his scythe in both hands and spinning it above his head. Jack threw himself back again as everything surrounding Onem was cut into half a dozen pieces. He finished the technique by lashing out with the scythe, sending a powerful wave of black crescent energy towards Jack that cut through everything in its path.

Just once I want the Tower to let me have an easy win, Jack sighed, dodging the blast of crescent energy and turning to run away.

He immediately spotted Hannah and felt a little less bad about his situation as he cleared through the forest. At least I’m not the only one getting their ass kicked.

Not that he wanted her to get hurt, it’s just it felt better to get your ass kicked as a team instead of just being the weak link.

He sprinted across the clearing and away from Onem as fast as he could manage. Hannah was still fighting the evil hag Halldis who had somehow managed to grow a wicked set of wings extended out to full span. Seeing as how she was kind enough to show them off, Jack took this opportunity to try and remove them, launching himself straight into her back and sinking his daggers into the joints where the wings connected.

He pushed off her body and glanced at the wide-eyed Hannah on the ground. He flashed her a smile and ran past her.

“Runrunrunrunrunrurun.” He said as he blasted past her.

He slowed down a bit, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure she caught up. His heart sank a little more as he saw a Onem not far off behind her followed closely by a shrieking Halldis.

“Long time no see.” Hannah said, catching up to Jack.

“You have a health potion?” Jack immediately asked.

“I missed you too.” She smirked, pulling out a health potion and tossing it to Jack.

Jack watched as the potion sailed past him and shattered all over the ground.

“You really shouldn’t throw those.”

“Fucking hell Jack! That was my last goddamn one!”