A Jaded Life

Seeing Jongarn in the dim torchlight, I tried to meld deeper into the shadows, hiding myself from him. Luckily, his gaze had been fixed on Rai, ignoring the entrance so I had not been discovered. In the shadows, I froze, asking Lenore to tell Adra and Sigmir to wait with their attack. I was not certain about Jongarn’s combat prowess, so a frontal assault was not appealing. The only estimation I could use was Sigmir, and that was a sobering thought. Sure, she had told me that she was a better fighter, that he never crossed the first divide, but time had passed, so it could have changed. Or she could have been deceived. So I would treat him as a dangerous opponent.

Waiting on him to turn his back, I focused on listening. Even as close as I was to them, it took effort to make out words, the muffling of my shadow cloak affecting me just as much as it affected the noises I might make. At least, that was what I hoped.

“Why, why don’t you just tell me what I want to know, stupid pup? Do you enjoy what I do to you?” Jongarn talked, almost in monologue, as if he did not care what Rai said. Or maybe it was a question he had asked a few times already.

“I saw you react earlier. You know something, but why won’t you just tell me? Why don’t you make it easier on yourself?” Jongarn bent down, looking Rai in the eyes.

“You know, you will tell me what I want to know. It’s just a question how much pain you have to suffer beforehand.” As he said that, he straightened and just as he talked about the pain Rai had to suffer, he placed a vicious soccer-kick in his side, causing Rai to let out a grunt. The look on Jongarn’s face was not one of someone who did not like what he did, it was one of pleasure, as if he had a new toy and was playing with it. For some reason, it felt familiar, as if I had seen it before but I was unable to place it. Where had I seen such a smile?

“When I talked to Horgar, I saw you react to the name Sigmir. I know that her father never let her venture in the direction of Adernas. I know that she fled north, not east. So, I know she is back. You will tell me what you know about her. Oh, you will tell me. And I will find her.” Hearing Sigmir’s name on Jongarn’s lips, my blood started to run cold, but hearing that Rai had not told on us, without knowing the circumstances, despite being tortured, raised my opinion on him by quite a bit.

“I… spit on you!” It came out as a whisper, almost inaudible for me, but the defiance in Rai’s voice was palpable. He even tried to make good on his words, spitting in Jongarn’s general direction, showing more backbone than I had seen before. Or maybe, he just wanted Jongarn to kill him, simply to end the pain. If that was his plan, he was in the right direction.

Faced with Rai’s defiance, Jongarn actually retreated a bit, muttering under his breath as he walked towards the back of the cave. Feeling that it was a possibly unique chance, I moved forward, skirting the edges of light and hiding in another shadow. If Jongarn moved back to Rai, I would have an open way to strike.

“Do you think I don’t know what your defiance is? Seeking to die, don’t you? Don’t worry, you will. After you told me everything you know. And after I made you pay for the time you make me waste. Oh, we will have so much fun…” Jongarn’s ranting was getting even more deranged and his tone of voice promised more pain for Rai, as he stalked back towards him. But that would never happen. Seeing my moment approaching, I asked Lenore to let Sigmir and Adra start their assault outside. And then my moment was there, Jongarn turned back to Rai and in the process had his wide-open back turned in my direction. Seeing an obvious opening, I surged forward, drawing my blades and dropping the shadow-cloak that held me concealed at the last step. I was not sure how the strange non-corporeality would interact with an attack and right now was not the time to test the interaction. No, now was the time to bury my blades into Jongarn’s kidneys.

Sadly, all ideas to make him suffer had to be discarded for a swift and terminal solution, something that made sure I could focus on other things, like slaughtering the rest of his henchman, in case they focused on the cave.

So, with Bullet Time activating, I carefully aimed my two Ice Blades at the seams of his armour, using my Ice Magic to steady them and move them as they punched through and dug deep into his back and kidneys. His ranting was replaced by a piercing scream, as the pain hit him. Two blades in the back was what I considered a good start, when it came to him but far from enough. So, my next move was to give him a swift kick into the back of his knees, causing him to stumble forward and fall to his knees, his own momentum helping me to twist the blades and rip them back out. Sadly, twisting the blades was almost impossible, his armour held them more or less in the same direction, but the thought was there.

But to build on the idea of pierced kidneys, I went to other targets. One blade went higher in his back, roughly the area his heart would be but his armour was quite sturdy there, no seams to abuse, so the blow glanced off. Normally, it would have caused a bruise, but I doubted that bruising would be a problem in that situation. No, bruising would never be a problem for him again, I realised that when my second blade cut into the soft tissue between his ear and his jaw-bone before easily sliding to the front, cutting through cartilage, muscle and blood-vessels on the way. The way his scream was literally cut off and replaced with more of a whistling sound told me that I had at least nicked his windpipe, maybe even severed most of it. But what I definitely had severed were the blood vessels supplying his brain. At least if the anatomy of giantblood was the same as humans, or similar enough in that regard.

Pulling the blade back out, I saw something. Something disturbing. In the flickering light of the single torch, I saw my mirror-image reflected on my blade, just for a split second, without Bullet Time I would never have realised what I was seeing. But that moment showed me why Jongarn’s smile had been so familiar. In that moment, I was wearing just the same smile. I felt shock race through my system in a way I had never felt before. I felt revulsion, revulsion that I was displaying a mannerism so similar to someone like him. Forcibly and with great mental effort, I banished any thought on that matter. It would have to wait until the situation was resolved.

I could hear combat noises from outside so I got ready to move. I heard a soft gasp from Rai and a swift glance to Rai showed me that he was looking good for now and the bindings would make sure that he didn’t do anything stupid, like rushing into combat while wounded, and an even shorter glance to my notifications told me that Jongarn had given me some EXP. The EXP weren’t even half-bad, he had a couple of levels on me, not that it had helped him any.

Just as I thought about my next step, move out to attack or stay and defend Rai, I heard rapidly approaching footsteps and someone shouting for Jongarn, telling him that the camp was under attack. Maybe, they had not heard his scream or they had taken it for Rai’s scream. Not that it mattered to me. Feeling Bullet Time run out, I activated Overflow to allow for a maximised alpha strike, something to make sure that no matter who came into the cave, he would fall. All six shuttles of the Weaver’s Fury rose from my cloak, forming a beautiful, deadly snowflake in the air and the second the figure of a Jonari Hunter stepped into my view, the six shuttles flew off with deadly grace. Somewhere, deep in the back of my mind, an idea was formed for later consideration, the idea to join the shuttles with the runes for Hail or Blizzard, similar to the way I had used the runes for Shadow and Concealment to strengthen my Cloak of Shadows before. But it was not something that I wanted to test in the midst of combat.

I saw the look on the Jonari change from concern to surprise as he saw me with my, no doubt, silvery blue glowing eyes and then to pain, as all six shuttles pierced his torso. I think he wanted to say something but at least one of the shuttles had pierced his lung, maybe two, it was hard to tell by the angle. Another two were lodged into the area his heart was in, undoubtedly doing even more damage and the final two were sunk into his stomach.

With but a thought, I ripped all six back out, watching the Jonari crumble. before I thought about making my way outside and into the rest of the fight.