Chapter 90 – Frenemies

Jack let out a tired sigh, his eyes locked on the storm clouds above. The rain was still coming down hard, and each mana infused drop that hit his skin weighed him down with an unrelenting lethargy and fatigue. He grit his teeth against the gentle storm and tried to shake off the blanket of exhaustion that the rains wrapped him in. Jack shook his head and tightened his grip on his daggers, retraining his focus on the fight.

He looked to his right, his eyes falling on the approaching Gideon. He watched as the man slowly sauntered towards him, giant scimitar resting on his shoulder, golden eyes fixated on Jack radiating life and curiosity. The man wore a comfortable, jovial smile, as though oblivious to the fact he was standing in the middle of an enemy encampment, facing down two people who wanted him dead.

Jack then looked back at Rodeo, who had contorted his face into the perfect picture of pure rage. His dead gray eyes bore down on Gideon, trying to burn a hole into the man's very soul. That was a face that Jack wasn’t used to seeing, but one he did recognize. Rodeo hadn’t lost often when Jack knew him, but when he did, his rage was a thing to behold. Judging by his reaction to Gideon, the two men had run-ins before, and Rodeo looked to be the loser of those interactions.

That left Jack with a problem. If Rodeo was unable to kill Gideon, that meant Jack likely could not kill Gideon.

“I know what you're thinking, Jackie boy,” came Rodeo’s gravelly voice. “He's not a beast that either of us can handle alone.”

Jack heard the words, but he mostly ignored them as he stared down the approaching Gideon. Rodeo would want to team up here. Jack hated Rodeo, and now that he knew Rodeo had been messing around inside his head, that hatred burned even hotter inside of him. Jack also knew that teaming up with Rodeo was the correct play. As much as he hated to admit it, Rodeo had, in fact, made him who he was. The two would be able to play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses in an unbeatable fashion. He could kill Gideon right here, right now. All he had to do was team up with Rodeo.

There wasn’t a chance in hell Jack was going to do that.

He knew the consequences of not killing Gideon. He remembered his quest and what would happen to humanity if he didn’t follow through. Unfortunately for humanity, Jack wasn’t exactly a responsible person.

Jack took a few steps back until he fell in step next to Rodeo, falling into [Storm Stance] as Gideon fell into a stance opposite them both.

“Glad to see you’ve still got some sense left-“

Jack whipped out his daggers at Rodeo’s throat before the man could get another word out. His sword flashed out and deflected the blow with an expected ease. Rodeo backpedaled, pulling out one sword after another from his void sack and tossing them into the air until five were floating in the skies above, swimming through the rain like hungry sharks.

“Did you already forget I’m in your head?” Rodeo taunted. “I know your every move, kid.”

Gideon wasted no time. He charged in, leaving a trail of Golden flames in his wake as he brought his scimitar crashing down against Rodeo’s jagged blade.

Their exchange was the signal to everyone who had been in hiding to come out. Fighters spilled out of every opening in the Rough House. Jumping from windows and balconies or rushing out the doors. Gideon had brought back up of his own as warriors, rogues, and mages alike jumped down from the walls to meet the Rough House fighters in combat.

Jack ducked and weaved through an explosion of abilities as swords sent blasts of energy flying and hammers slammed into the ground, creating deep rents and shockwaves across the sandy terrain of the training yard. Bolts and missiles of fire and ice launched through the air seeking unknown targets, only adding to the chaos as they exploded against walls, or the unfortunate person caught in its path.

Jack ignored it all as he found Rodeo and Gideon. Gideon was in the middle of a flurry of blades, a lazy grin on his face as he swung his giant scimitar around in the air, easily deflecting Rodeo’s onslaught. Golden flames wrapped themselves around Gideon’s free hand, compressing against his skin and forming a gauntlet of golden scales, each finger tipped with a vicious claw. Gideon swiped at the air, sending five golden, flaming claw marks flying through the air at Rodeo.

Rodeo rolled out of the way and straight into Jack’s attack. His fangs ripped through the air and bit into Rodeo, striking like lightning and biting into his pitch-black armor.

Rodeo had been expecting the attack. He dropped his sword and latched onto either of Jack’s arms, pulling them taut as Jack tried to rip himself free. Rodeo sent a command to his dropped sword, bringing it upward and biting into Jack’s flesh.

Jack grit his teeth in pain as Rodeo pulled on the blade, trying to saw Jack’s arms off. Gideon interrupted the battlefield amputation, appearing behind him in a small explosion of Golden flames, swinging his scimitar down hard on Rodeo’s head. Three blades shot down from the skies and caught the attack, but Rodeo dropped his concentration on cutting off Jack’s arms and let him go. Jack danced backwards, joined by Gideon a second later, who fell into a stance beside him.

Jack looked down at his arms, the blood gushing from them, sinewy muscle the only thing keeping them attached.

“Health potion.” Jack said as he started to wobble from both blood loss and the rain.

“You don’t need one. Get a hold of yourself, man.” Gideon said matter of fact.

“Listen asshole. If we’re going to kill Rodeo, I’m going to need my arms to pull it off. Now if you have a health potion, quit being stingy about it and hand it over.”

“Oh, you're going to kill Rodeo, are you? The man who doesn’t even realize his wounds are just figments of his imagination?” Gideon taunted.

Jack looked down at his arms again. They were fine, mostly. They had two deep cuts, but his arms weren’t hanging on by threads like he had previously thought. It still hurt like hell, though.

“His powers are based on manipulating fear. He has some sort of aura that affects everything it touches. Injuries will seem far worse than they actually are. More blood, more guts, louder screams of pain and agony, things of that nature. The more fear he generates, the more it feeds into the ability. I must admit, he uses it quite effectively in terms of mental warfare. I’ve seen people go into shock and die after receiving as little as a small paper cut from him.” Gideon said, taking on the tone of the dutiful instructor.

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Jack rolled his eyes and ignored the dragon’s advice. Something about the way the man talked annoyed him.

Then Jack took the opportunity to attack the unsuspecting dragon, whipping his daggers at his head. Gideon didn’t move fast. It was more like his hand just happened to be in the exact perfect spot to catch the attack. He latched onto Jack’s wrist, holding him with an iron, unbreakable grip and fixed him with an amused grin.

“Let’s not do anything rash until we’ve had ourselves a nice little chat. In the meantime, I suggest we deal with that man over there.” He said with a nod towards Rodeo. “I’ve seen the attack he’s planning next. It’s quite unpleasant. Just remember, nothing is actually as bad as it seems with him.”

Gideon let Jack go and launched himself back at Rodeo, who had replaced his swords with… barrels? Jack wondered, staring at the barrels Rodeo sent up into the sky. He watched as Gideon charged Rodeo and Rodeo sent a barrel crashing down like a meteor before him. It slammed into the ground, releasing a powerful explosion of fire and smoke. It quickly gave way to reveal Gideon behind a small barrier of golden flames. Completely unphased.

Rodeo responded by raining down more of the exploding barrels, pulling another from his void sack and launching it into the air to replace every explosive he launched at Gideon.

Jack moved along the edges of his fight. Making his way past the frantic combat of the Rough House and whatever soldiers Gideon brought with him. They looked to be on the losing side of the fight and Jack was sure to deliver a fatal blow to whatever unsuspecting Rough House fighter he passed as he moved towards Gideon and Rodeo.

The rain slowly subsided as Jack approached the fight and he let out a breath as the feeling of fatigue faded away as quickly as it came. He watched as Rodeo used every dirty trick in the book to fend off Gideon, who walked him down without a care in the world, using his giant scimitar to bat away any attack or blocking an explosion with his golden barrier.

Jack was starting to feel a little embarrassed. Both Rodeo and Gideon had easily deflected his attacks, and we’re treating him as nothing more than a minor annoyance as they duked it out. That pissed Jack off a little, but to be fair, he hadn’t been putting his best foot forward. That was about to change.

Jack launched himself back into the fight, running past the barrels before they could catch him in an explosion. He was on top of Rodeo in a second, and this time he didn’t have five swords to defend against Jack’s onslaught.

Jack let [Storm Stance] consume him as he reined down strikes on Rodeo. His plate armor was barely able to withstand the blows as Jack ripped through pieces of the armor with each attack. Rodeo sent a final barrel down on them both, uncaring if he was caught in the Radius of his own explosion. Jack jumped back out of the blast range, waiting not even half a second after the explosion to throw himself back into the fires.

Jack jumped through the flames and slammed straight into Hannah.

“What the fuck are you doing-“ Jack screamed, only for the image of Hannah to fizz out like static, Rodeo swinging in hard with two swords from behind. Gideon deflected the blow, rejoining the fight and saving Jack again.

“Gotta keep your mental defenses sharp!” Gideon said as he exchanged another blow with Rodeo.

Jack took that moment to slam his daggers into the back of Gideon.

“Whose side are you on?” Gideon shouted, spinning like a tornado as he sent his scimitar swinging back at him, wholly unphased by Jack's attack. Jack ducked under the blade, ripping his daggers free and jumping backwards. Rodeo had shifted back to controlling swords as he threw himself back into the fray. He only had three floating behind his shoulder, striking out at any opening that presented itself. There were fewer swords, but it seemed as though his attacks had gotten far more precise and deadly as he exchanged blows with Gideon.

Jack threw himself back into the fight, an uncaring storm that rained down strikes with little prejudices as he poked and prodded his way through the defenses of both men. His primary focus was on killing Rodeo. But the original plan had been sound. If he played his cards right, he might be able to kill them both right here, right now.

He wasn’t sure if he had overestimated Gideon, or underestimated Rodeo, but the man was a sight to behold. Jack had never actually seen Rodeo pushed to his limits, but he only seemed to grow more terrifying the harder Jack pressed his assault. For every one attack Jack made, Rodeo would launch three different attacks. It wasn’t that he was faster. It’s just that every move he made was a setup for another attack, which was a setup for another attack in a non-stop chain reaction of violence. Jack felt like a kid again getting tossed around the dojo by Rodeo.

Gideon wasn’t as much help as he had been hoping for. If anything, it seemed like he was trying to let Jack get the kill. Jack had created the perfect opening for Gideon to lob Rodeo’s head off, but he didn’t take it.

“It’ll be better if you do it yourself. Kills are wasted on me down here, and how often do you get the chance to train against a strong opponent?” Gideon said after Jack flashed him an angry look.

Great, he’s one of those training obsessed assholes. Jack groaned to himself as he pressed the assault on Rodeo.

Admittedly, Jack hadn’t been trying very hard either. Well, he was trying, but it was more so like he was waiting.

He only had one mana drop in his core, and it was weaker than average thanks to his berserker channels, but it would be enough. It had to be enough. He just needed the perfect moment to use it.

The three men raged across the battlefield, killing anything that was unlucky enough to get caught up in their storm of a fight until the surrounding soldiers had created a wide berth around them.

Gideon took his scimitar in both hands and swung down hard on Rodeo, who used two of his three floating blades to deflect the attack. Blood erupted out of his nose and a vein throbbed in his head as he strained against the powerful attack, barely holding it at bay. Rodeo dropped low, his own sword still in his hand as he launched in towards Gideon, who shifted just enough to avoid getting run through, but still earning a deadly cut through the side of his stomach.

Jack took that moment to feed his drop of mana to [Lightning Centipedes Bite]. Enormous black fangs wreathed in lightning tore through the air as Jack swung in hard at the two men locked in combat against each other, one fang pointed at Gideon, the other at Rodeo.

Jack’s eyes went wide as Rodeos’ third blade hanging in the air transformed. It wasn’t actually a sword, but a larger version of those explosive kegs he had been using. Jack tried to pull back, but he had committed to the attack.

“I told you to pay attention!” was the only thing he heard as his fang made contact with the keg. The world turned to fire and the explosion knocked Jack back across the training yard. He hit the ground, skidding across it and slamming into the wall behind him with a thud. His shadow armor had morphed into a breastplate, doing its best to mitigate the blast, but Jack was still heavily injured.

He stared out across the battlefield, his head swimming and his vision dazed and foggy. He looked down at his body. The blast had burned his skin clean off, and he was missing an arm and a leg. He told himself it wasn’t that bad, that it was Rodeo’s weird aura affecting him, making everything seem worse. But he knew in his heart it actually was that bad.

He tried to focus his vision. Tried to get up off the ground, but his thoughts were scrambled, and his body refused to respond. He looked around frantically for a solution as he spotted a shape walking towards him amongst the chaos of the battlefield. His one remaining hand clawed at the surrounding ground in search of his dagger.

The edges of his vision were going black as the adrenaline wore off and his body screamed in pain, further muddying his thoughts.

He watched as the person approached to finish him off. He recognized the silhouette; it was the shape of a woman he had seen a thousand times before. It was who he saw when he closed his eyes every night. He tried to focus his eyes, tried to get confirmation, but they were refusing to respond as nothing but a hazy darkness took over.

“Sarah…?” He coughed out through a raspy voice.

A torrent of water pouring over his entire body was the only thing he got in response.