[Summer – Dew Fall Forest]

Jennings continued to gaze with intent at the area where Penny had emerged, claiming that people were watching her. Being on the run provoked a sort of wariness that was stressful, yet it became an additional sense for him. Leaves no longer simply blew past, they rustled in the distance.

Meanwhile, the shadows visible around the group began to resemble black flames and shake fuzzily before two shooting streaks fired from the forest and took the shape of two dissimilar men, front and center.

The first shadow figure turned into a short bald man who creeped his smile open with visible crooked, rotten teeth. He stood arms-crossed and prepared to speak. In a high-pitched voice the man spoke.

“See Greko, told ya' we should have grabbed her,” looking toward his partner.

The second man had formed into a towering brutally-built man with disheveled, grimy orange hair and a tattoo for all to see drawn over his entire left cheek of an unintelligible name. He did not respond to his partner's criticism and instead remained quiet, refusing to break eye-contact from Jennings. This uneased the keen-eyed Jennings.

The unnamed man picked up where he left off as Jennings and company remained on their guard.

“So those were some mighty big words coming from ya,' John Jennings isn't it?”

Jennings winced at the sound of his name being spoken aloud and instead, uncharacteristically, spoke back to the unknown shadow Agist in a direct tone.

“So you know my name, what're yours?”

“Baldy...short...handsome,” the shorter man peered over to Penny, still standing behind Jennings. “...but mainly I go by Sawyer Maxwell and this oaf beside me is Greko. How about that?” laughed the tiny man. “You know now that the formals are outta' the way-”

Sawyer whistled, Greko pointed upwards toward the sky in response.

“That means sky, I like where this is going,” smirked Sawyer.

Jennings’ hands were still, hanging icebergs, however in such a position that any noise seemed capable of triggering a deadly response.

“You two should walk away before I'm forced to shut that mouth for you,” voiced Jennings with concern.

“Ohhh, testy one aren't ya',” continued Sawyer. “No matter, don’t change us having fun, see we got ourselves a job to do and you uttering your last breath is our last assignment before our trip to the Eastern Halfland.”

Jennings was inching his hand closer to his gun. Greko let out a vicious yell and conjured darkness between his now-connected giant fists, throwing out a blast towards Jennings.

Jennings pushed Penny back and was able to dodge the blast before pulling out his pistol and shooting two bullets in Greko's direction, nicking him with one bullet in the side of his left arm causing him to grunt and separate his hands.

It had impeded the current lash of shadows with force. Jennings rolled to the side and stood up in a fluidly displayed running motion. He gets around the side of the two shadow Agists to attempt to assess the situation in a fraction of the time necessary.

“C'mon now Jennings, don't cha' know that you can't run from your shadow!” shouted Sawyer.

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All while casting a dull, shapeless Agi spell that brought a dark veil from above where Jennings was actively sprinting. An explosion erupted near Jennings' right foot and blasted him along with clouds of debris. The damage caused was a noticeable incision on Jennings' leg, but he paid no attention.

Jennings responded by launching a few ice shards in their direction but Sawyer had shown his speed by jumping back and evading them.

Even with a gashed leg, Jennings sustained his offensive attack by shooting an Agi beam of ice toward Greko's own footing, successfully entombing his feet to the ground. Jennings capitalized, he ran up and delivered a crushing punch with an ice enveloped fist to Greko's jawline.

The strike hit with such force, that a burst of wind carried Jennings past his own punch and careening to the floor. Penny yelled her exclamative support, hidden within the outlying treeline with Poni’s head sticking out.

Greko shook the punch off with ease, instead he grabbed Jennings and tossed him backwards as if he was a speck of lint on his trousers. While J.J. was in close quarters with the giant man, being grappled, he needed a strategic epiphany hit him.

Jennings somersaulted to the ground and slid on the dirt before him. As Jennings attempted to pick himself up, another dark jet of Agi cleanly landed on his chin, sending him falling back down to the ground.

The next thing Jennings saw while looking up from the ground, was Greko’s mean expression rampaging toward him. Shrouded in darkness, he quickly cast an ice Agi spell to encase himself in a frosted spherical blob. When Greko rammed into him, the ice shattered like a brittle candy to the floor and sent Jennings once again onto his ass once more.

Jennings was able to shoot two more shots out from his pistol in the limited vision, one of which hit Greko in the shin. The giant mute slouched a bit before disappearing into his own, black, Agi cloud. Emerging from behind it, Sawyer layed another wallop on Jennings, which opened a cut on his face, bleeding profusely without delay.

The outlaw brought his hand up to his face to wipe away blood before sending two more ice shards hurling at Sawyer. Greko stuck out his massive left hand to absorb the shards before they hit his partner.

With an unusual amount of speed, Sawyer closed the distance. He began trading blows with Jennings, pushing for an additional Agi strike, and vice-versa. Right when Jennings was able to get the upper-hand with a swift elbow to Sawyer's temple, Greko by now was once again on the attack, swinging his wide-angled fists at Jennings.

After weaving around and dodging each of them, he stuck his foot out and tripped Greko with his own momentum. He sent Greko stumbling to the floor with his own weight behind him as the only damaging force.

Not wasting the opportunity, Jennings fired off a bullet that hit the onlooking Sawyer nearby. The bullet bounced right off his collarbone and exited his body through a bloody messy exit wound.

“Argh, fuck!” let out Sawyer in pain, muffled, and attempting to contain his remaining bone. “Get em' Greko!”

He instructed his partner while wincing in pain and adjusting to a knee. Greko wiped the dirt off himself while staggering to his feet and pointed upwards once again. This time a jagged, shadowed-Agi engulfed his finger, forcing Jennings to be prepared for another projectile strike.

Just before, Jennings' own shadow protruded upward from behind him and drug him to the floor once again with some force. Greko quickly noticed and ran over clumsily before delivering a stomp to the center of Jennings' chest with his oversized foot.

The air burst from within Jennings’ lungs as he felt the weight of a beast, translated through that brief blip of pain.

Breaking free from the dark shackles by angrily writhing, Jennings spun around and dodged the next slowly paced stomp.

A rare opportunity has arisen for retaliation. He first emitted a flurry of small ice chunks directly into Greko's eyes from beneath. Jennings followed it by gasping for air while sitting up in a hurried state, he had found his breath.

Jennings' hands glowed brighter than before as he created what can only be described as an ice boulder and allowed it to strategically fall, crushing him underneath it.

It wasn’t enough to stop Greko completely though, as he pushed the dropping boulder on top of him to the side with a subtle grace, still remaining standing on his feet, while he wiped at his eyes.

He was taking in his surroundings while bloody all-around, attempting to regain his vision while swiping in random directions like an untamed, wild animal. Meanwhile Sawyer was gingerly getting up, still his upper-torso in pain from his gunshot wound.

Jennings had generated a platform of ice that extended him several meters into the air at this point. Still clawing at his eyes making primitive noises, Greko had no opening to see Jennings jump mid-air from his platform and land an ice-filled spear straight into his forehead, killing him instantly as the big man toppled face first to the bloody pool beneath.

When Sawyer lifted his head, all he saw was his partner dead, slumped in the flurry as Jennings reloaded his pistol to take aim to finish off Sawyer as well.

“Well shit…,” exclaimed Sawyer, letting himself relax his own posture.

He fixed to find the words necessary for escape, he seemed experienced in begging. Jennings strided up to Sawyer's space and jammed his gun’s barrel straight away from the outside of his mouth, taking a tooth or two with its entry.

“What are you two? Did Isiah send you?!” shouted Jennings to the terrified man pouring sweat.

“-e ain't in -he -ellin' bus-ness-,” attempted Sawyer before his moribund words were impeded further by Jennings, shoving the remainder of the barrel deeper into his throat.

“Well then. You're my business,” responded Jennings before pulling the trigger.