Chương 24: Jack

"They're here!" Elena hissed as she tightly gripped onto her twin knives. The morning light hung high behind her, illuminating the wide and grassy field. On her right was a porcupine which reached her knees, tensed up and ready for a battle. On her left stood Leo, who held his shortsword firm. Ahead of her, the three individuals cautiously approaching stopped. One was wielding a scimitar, another with a sword and one without any visible weapon. The latter slowly approached, as the other two waited behind him.

He had pitch black hair, with thin eyes wearing a confident smile. His hands were raised to his side at shoulder length, palms facing Elena.

"We're not here to fight." His deep voice swept through the empty field but it didn't ease the tension. Elena snorted.

"Good! Then you can head along on your way!"

"I'm Jack, and we have a proposition." Elena didn't reply, continuing to watch the man before her like a hawk.

"There's a sealed beast from the direction we came, with the two of you and the three of us, I'm sure we can take it on!"

"Not interested."

"Killing beasts will provide great rewards! And the sooner we kill them, the sooner we're out, alive." Elena watched him in silence. The porcupine beside her ruffled its spikes. Jack held her gaze for a while, before his confident smile turned ruthless.

"The two of you can't beat us." Leo took a step back.

"Try us." Elena, holding firm, spat back. With a snort, Jack signaled his two colleagues.

"I'll get the redhead you guys get the boy with the summon!" Then, he leaped forward. Elena readied her stance.

"You know what to do, don't panic." She gave a quick instruction to Leo, then she leaped forward to meet Jack head on, the porcupine charging alongside her.

"She's trying to buy time!" Jack yelled at his group, as they sprinted forward following closely behind Leo, who was running up a small hill. The swordsman activated his ability and suddenly both he and the archer sped up, closing the gap on Leo. Elena met Jack head on with a swing of her knife, directly aiming for his neck. She would end this fight quickly. Jack quickly ducked only to find another knife flying towards his face as Elena used her other arm.

Without a moment of hesitation, Jack used his right palm to block the knife. The knife stopped, but not before piercing a gaping hole through his hand. Elena winced. Jack's behavior was weird. Must have something to do with his ability. But she couldn't just let this opportunity go. A bright light radiated from the knife that had missed his neck as her weapon sped up dangerously fast down on Jack. Jack shifted his hand along with Elena's knife to intercept the second strike.

The metal groaned as it defied momentum, hooking around his palm like a living thing, just slipping past his guard. Jack smirked. A dark aura emanated from Jack as he quickly used his free hand to grab the wrist swinging down on him. Then the aura intensified. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Elena's instincts screamed at her to run. So she did. She kicked Jack back and jumped backwards to create some space.

As she created some space, the porcupine charged forward and tackled Jack. After a quick backstep of his own, Jack engaged the summon in a battle. He created just enough distance from Elena that he could comfortably fight the summon yet still be able to retreat should Elena rejoin the fight. Elena assessed the damage. Her left wrist had shriveled, looking almost devoid of life. Her control had weakened and the strength had all but dissipated. Life itself had been sapped out of her. Scary.

After a moment of thinking, Elena made up her mind. There's no reason to risk it. Originally, she planned to end the battle quickly, but having exchanged some blows, that plan was no longer feasible. Jack was strong, perhaps stronger than both her and the porcupine combined. Instead, the better plan was to stall. The porcupine went for another charge, to which Jack expertly dodged it before his feet crashed on the side of the porcupine, causing it to flip in the air and lightly roll.

Spikes stabbed into his shoes, but his angle of attack allowed him to dodge any deep blows. The porcupine fell over to the side as Jack followed up, grabbed its stomach and activated his ability once more. Elena's eyes widened a little when she realized the hand he used to grab the porcupine was the same one she'd stabbed. There was no hole! Having a better understanding, she quickly bolted forward, causing Jack to retreat.

Elena needed to protect Juniper's summon, otherwise the fight would become too dangerous too fast. … Jack rubbed his wrist as he watched Elena closely. She had surprised him with her skill, and along with that boy's summon he had left her… No point taking any risks I suppose. I'll play it safe and wait to outnumber her. Jack had absolute confidence his friends would be able to catch Leo quickly, he just needed to wait. … Leo ran hard, reaching the top of the hill, before taking a short jump down from the cliff.

The two pursuers followed closely, now just a few meters from their target. Suddenly a huge blast of heat slammed into them stopping all their momentum. The pursuers paused. Two figures were charging towards them, the summoner boy and a new black haired man holding high quality steel.

"There's a third." One hissed before readying his stance. The man holding a scimitar grit his teeth. They had recovered from the blast of heat, and hadn't expected to be fighting an extra person. However, they did not panic. Even if there were two, the boy's porcupine summon wasn't here to help him, and this other guy seemed to have a heat ability that was useful, but not too lethal. He activated his own ability.

A floating eye opened from above his head, as if ripping through the fabric of reality and gazed intensely at the two men in front of him. He could see their every move, along with his extra speed, he felt confident in his victory. Another wave of intense heat burst forward pushing him back, forcing him still for a short amount of time. He sneered.

"You're just delaying the inevitable." Brenton sneered back.

"Oh yeah?" Stab! The scimitar wielder felt a sharp pain stabbing into the back of his spine. The attack could not have come from the new man in front of him. What? An ability? But we've already seen both their abilities! He stumbled a few steps forward from the impact, but before he could understand what was happening, a sword pierced his stomach. The swordsman beside him paled. But before he could regain his focus, it was already too late.

"Th-th-there are…" An arrow slammed into his shoulder.

"Four!" … Elena's behaviour confused Jack. He had expected her to be attacking him in a panic. After all, the longer the fight dragged out, the sooner his friends would arrive and outnumber her. But they'd only exchanged a few short blows, and neither party had gone for any committed attacks. Even the porcupine was just standing by. As long as the summon lives, the boy does as well. There must be a distance limit on his summon so he couldn't have run too far… Yet he's not dead… It just didn't make sense.

He charged in once more, but Elena made a shallow jab before quickly jumping back. His confusion slowly turned into suspicion as his mind went through every scenario. A trap? Jack observed Elena carefully, looking for any hints as to what she was thinking, but the only thing he discerned was that she looked sure of herself. I need to test the waters.

"Your friend is probably dead by now." Of course, in Jack's mind this was impossible. After all, the porcupine had yet to burst into Energy. A subtle smile appeared on Elena's face, but she didn't reply. After another few moments of silence, Jack made a decision.

"Looks like my friends have arrived!" Elena remained unmoving, continuing to watch Jack in silence.

"Tch." Failing his little bluff, Jack took the most straightforward approach and simply decided to run away. Something about this situation just felt horribly wrong. He was hoping to distract her with his bluff to make more distance, since she seemed to have some speed related abilities he didn't quite understand. So far, she had only used it on her hands, but he couldn't discount her using it on her legs as well. If that were the case, she would likely be able to catch up, should she follow him.

Yet she didn't chase. … Elena watched carefully as Jack continued running away. Whew. Although she could probably catch up to him, she didn't feel confident winning the following battle. His ability was troublesome. It was a pointless risk, after all, her friends should be finished any minute now. And as she predicted, three figures appeared a short wait later. It was Brenton, Juniper and Leo, returning from their victorious battle. Elena waved.

"Great work guys!" … Jack watched his black compass with tense hands, but the needle had dropped all movement.

"FUCK!" The compass in his hand shattered violently from his grip causing a pulse of Energy to expand outwards, dissipating into the forest. The glass cover cut deeply into his hands but he didn't notice the pain. He had hoped his bad feeling was just that, a feeling, but having already waited for more than ten minutes and still not seeing any needle movement, he knew the worst had happened. An image of him training with his friends flashed across his mind as tears began welling up in his eyes.

A flash of heat climbed his neck, and his breathing grew unsteady. He brushed his forearm across his face, revealing slightly swollen eyes filled with a renewed focus.