A Jaded Life Chapter 96

Seeing Jongarn in the dim torchlight, I tried to ld 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 that she was a better fighter, that he never crossed the first divide, but ti 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 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 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 tis already.

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

“You know, you will tell 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 soone 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 so 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 na 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 what you know about her. Oh, you will tell . And I will find her.” Hearing Sigmir’s na 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 ca out as a whisper, almost inaudible for , 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 everything you know. And after I made you pay for the ti you make 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 mont approaching, I asked Lenore to let Sigmir and Adra start their assault outside. And then my mont 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 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 ti to test the interaction. No, now was the ti to bury my blades into Jongarn’s kidneys.

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Sadly, all ideas to make him suffer had to be discarded for a swift and terminal solution, sothing 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 Ti activating, I carefully aid 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 ca 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 montum helping 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 sa 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 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 sa as humans, or similar enough in that regard.

Pulling the blade back out, I saw sothing. Sothing 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 Ti I would never have realised what I was seeing. But that mont showed why Jongarn’s smile had been so familiar. In that mont, I was wearing just the sa 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 soone like him. Forcibly and with great ntal 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 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 that Jongarn had given so EXP. The EXP weren’t even half-bad, he had a couple of levels on , 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 soone 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 . Feeling Bullet Ti run out, I activated Overflow to allow for a maximised alpha strike, sothing to make sure that no matter who ca 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. Sowhere, deep in the back of my mind, an idea was ford 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 Concealnt to strengthen my Cloak of Shadows before. But it was not sothing 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 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 sothing 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.