Chapter CLXV: Those Were The Days ~Jaded

The lone figure trudged through the ruins. He appeared to be a weathered man, of about twenty-six years old, with a flowing blue-green cloak with a hood, navy blue pants, burly brown leather boots, and raven black hair and a bit of a beard to match. He wore a coiled whip around his shoulder.

The ruins weren’t as usually depicted. First off, they were out and exposed to the air; nature around them could clearly be seen. Secondly, they weren’t in any cave setting, but instead, a green plain with wispy white fog across the ground, curling in and out of the still standing pillars and remains. The man walked about cautiously, his head turning from side to side, combing the area for any danger. But, on this early morning, nothing save he stirred. For a moment.

With a rustle of cloth behind him he spun about. Standing there with a black broken blade poised stood the one he had felt certain had been shadowing him for the past hour. He was slightly taken back at first, but this passed, and he crossed his arms, assuming a more confident air.

He grinned cockily. “Well, well, who do we have here?”

The newcomer glared, glowering behind the red scarf that covered his lower face. “You know damn well who it is, demon hunter.”

The man now known to be a demon hunter by profession smirked. “Cheeky as ever, eh – hmm, it’s ‘Jaded’ now, isn’t it?”

The mercenary snorted but nodded. “It is.”

The hunter grinned, readying his whip. “Well, Jaded, let’s hope you put up a better front this time than back in the tournament!”

Jaded’s eyes narrowed.

“You...you...RUINED my face, you bastard! I’ll make your suffering as endless and numerous as my scars!” Jaded bellowed, charging.

The hunter smirked and snapped back his whip. He cracked it inches from where Jaded was at the moment, tauntingly.

“Ah, didn’t even flinch I see. New training’s actually making you a man.”

Jaded growled, lunging and swinging his sword in mid flight. His opponent leapt back, then leapt high to dodge as Jaded simply flipped in the air and came out slashing again. The hunter snapped his whip at Jaded again, this time nearly taking out one of his eyes. But, at the last minute, the mercenary moved his head to the side and the whip only came close to injuring his ear.

Jaded snarled and reached a hand to the looped pouches on his belt. He drew a series of small but sharp knives from a few, then threw them with great speed at the young man. The hunter managed to deflect a few with his wrist guard, but one struck him in the shoulder and imbedded there. The man yelped slightly as it did and he landed from his jump (cybernetic technology in footwear of various dimensions allowed some unusual abilities). He reached into his pocket and produced a metallic, spherical device. Winding up, he threw it straight at the mercenary.

Feet away from contact, it exploded in a massive blue explosion. Jaded shuddered violently and dropped to a knee. Patches of frost remained on his clothing, and his body smoked from the radical temperature difference it had been exposed to. He soon got his bearings and was back on his feet, however. Without hesitating, he charged again, and leapt before the hunter knew what was happening.

“Ry-,” he cried at the height of his leap. “AK!” he bellowed as the sword came down, taking the outside of one of the man’s sleeves clean off and a good deal of skin with it.

But Jaded was hardly finished. Moving like a blur, he left his crouch, spinning to his feet, blade outstretched. It cut cleanly along the man’s torso, and he doubled over in pain.

Jaded stopped, facing away from the man, his right hand still clutching his sword as his left covered his face as he shook it, trying to regain his senses from the rush of energy needed for the attack. In the meantime, the hunter coiled the whip over his shoulder, and withdrew a strange device from his cloak. It appeared to be a grey, metal fist with clawed fingers and a few hydraulic looking devices that attached to the back of the glove from the metal wrist.

He slipped this on, saying as he did, “You fare well against the whip-“ He drew his gloved hand back, closing it into a fist. “Let’s see how you face the hand of a god!”

Just as Jaded was collecting himself, the fist ploughed into his back. Though it should have been a normal punch, the mercenary was lifted from his feet and flew through the air as if a train had collided with him. As he landed, he rolled side over side before getting to a crouch.

His back felt oddly warm, and the smell of coal dominated his nostrils. He didn’t even bother to feel at his back, which had had a fist shaped impression burn clear through the layers of cloth and slightly singed a spot on his back, and instead took up his sword and prepared to evade. Steam hissed from the hydraulics of the glove in a short burst. The hunter knelt and ploughed the glove straight into the ground. Jaded leapt as high as he could. Though any normal punch would have stopped on contact with the hard earth, the fist punched a bit clean through it and stopped a few feet in. The earth shook violently, and rocks and chunks of earth were tossed around, haphazardly smashing into fallen marble pillars and leaving prominent dents in them.

All this happened in the span of an instant, and as he landed, Jaded was glad he had avoided it. Taking the momentary hesitation of the hunter, the mercenary grabbed a small rock and threw it. The object hit the young man square in the forehead, leaving a nice sized wound. The man yelled in agony, his hands flying to the site of his injury. Jaded took this moment to use his superior size against the man. Rushing at him, at the last minute, Jaded threw his shoulder out and ducked down slightly, catching the hunter in the chest and head with it. He stopped, but the hunter didn’t; his body bouncing several times as it hit the ground before coming to a stop.

The hunter got to his feet, fighting his aching muscles. Steam burst from the glove again as the man drew it back, then threw a right hook with all his might. During this, the glove glowed bright crimson. A wave of red fire poured from where it had been swung and travelled quickly towards Jaded. But the mercenary wasn’t going to throw in the towel at this this time.

Jaded ran straight for the wave, not faltering in his course for a minute. Then, as he grew close, he leapt slightly. He lunged through the flames, his clothes and oddly his sword catching on fire. He landed and kept running, summoning all the might his body could afford him. He drew the blade inward as he neared the man, then swung it in a vicious slash as he began to pass him. The blade cleaved through cloth and skin, superheated so that it fused the wound shut almost instantly. Jaded dived and somersaulted a few times, dousing the flames. He then got to his feet, turned, and flung his sword. It went end over end as it flew through the air, and finally, at its mark, the blade plunged into the hunter’s back. The man screamed in agony, but no sound came to his lips. No breath to his throat or mouth. He hesitated with a last wind, then collapsed into a heap on the ground.

Jaded stood and walked calmly over. He stood over the body for a moment. Then, he reached out a hand and drew his sword from the back of the hunter. It was slightly red from the halfway point, and the redness boiled slightly on the still steaming metal. Jaded frowned and looked down at the body, drawing his sword up high.

He wasn’t prepared as the purple lightning bolt struck the body. It shook violently for a moment, then simply atomized before his eyes- fading to nothing but dust on the ground. From the dust, the whip and the glove rose, hovering in the air. Then, they soared over to the one who had a hold on them now. He shoved them in some pocket in his cape.

Jaded growled. “That...was...MY kill!! I had a score to settle!!”

The figure smirked evilly. A brandy snifter appeared in its hand.

“Dreadfully sorry, but I do think I needed the trinkets quite more than you needed vengeance,” it chuckled slightly, sipping at the contents of the snifter.

Jaded tensed his fists, shaking with rage. “You..you, I SWEAR I’ll kill you!”

The being waved a hand, dropping the snifter but making it vanish. He looked quite stern now. “Dear boy, don’t speak words in anger; you may live to regret them. Or wish you had never lived.”

As it said this, purple light sparked over its gloved hand, and suddenly two massive purple bolts rocketed at Jaded. He couldn’t block them as they struck his body and it surged with pain. He collapsed on his front, his sword falling next to him. The being smirked as he looked on, head tilted.

“Funny, you are a strong one- that would normally over-bake an elephant.”

He folded his arms, a purple fire beginning to engulf him. He glared at Jaded as he began to vanish.

“Just try to stay alive ‘till round two.”

Those were the last words before his disappearance.

--------

Jaded frowned, his eyes opening. He was still sitting on one of the couches in the guest car of the Spectrum, arms folded, facing Josh and the Sensei on the opposite couch. Scilas was seated on one side of him, and Ratch on the other.

Scilas nudged his arm. “You ok?”

Ratch nodded as well. “Yeah, you seemed to be frowning pretty deeply. Somethin’ the matter?”

Jaded shook his head. “No, nothing is wrong.”

Ratch nodded but Scilas persisted. “You sure? I’ve gotten to know you, and something’s up.”

Jaded shook his head again. “No, everything’s fine. I was just...thinking about something.”

“And what’s that?”

Jaded closed his eyes again. “The Kra tu and the Rhene tala.”

Ratch scratched his head. “The wha’ and the wha’? Never heard of ‘em.”

Jaded grinned slightly. “As I guessed; they were two rare weapons- the Kra tu a mighty whip that could smite evil as easily as day pierces the darkness. The Rhene tala, the legendary ‘Fist of Rhondow’.”

“Rhondow?”

“Yes. Seems the demons believed in a lotta gods long ago, and Rhondow was their god of the Forge. Seems he had ‘mighty hands of the strongest metal; able to tear mountains in two and cleave through the land with them.’ It also noted he had not been born with them, but crafted them in his forges. I thought they were myths, but I saw two things that fit the bill ages ago.”

Ratch rubbed his jaw. “Can’t ya just get them and we can win nothin’ flat?”

Jaded opened his eyes. “I would, but when I saw them, someone stole them, and knowing him, he probably left them somewhere and forgot about them.”

Jaded glared slightly, and Scilas nor Ratch decided not to go deeper on the matter.

Changing the subject, Ratch asked curiously, “Say, how come demons use the letter ‘R’ in a lotta their stuff anyway?”

Jaded smirked. “Simple; the english letter ‘R’ stands for twenty seven different characters in Rhenzin, they’re all pronounced differently, and mean different things, but the letter ‘R’ is as close as we can get to saying it correctly.”

Ratch slowly nodded. “I think I get it now.” He paused, then got up from the couch. “I’m gettin a drink, this deep stuff makes my circuitry overheat.”

Scilas chuckled and Jaded laughed. They calmed down, and Jaded closed his eyes again.

Just maybe, he thought, just maybe...someday, those things’ll be of use to us.