As they moved through the forest, leaping from one tree to another, both remained silent.
"The reason he died… i-it's because we held back. We could've taken it down sooner had we used shifts from the start."
Beatrice seemed calm as she spoke, showing no emotions on her face.
Drake only glanced at her without turning his head.
"Tarth held back too. We had a plan but something unexpected occurred. We held back and he died as a result."
He paused for a moment, then he spoke again. "It happens, no one can account for every possible outcome."
Beatrice looked at him for a few seconds, the looked forward again and remained silent.
Drake spoke once again after the brief silence— "What was that shift back there?"
Beatrice glanced at him, then looked forward again.
"The third shift. By dropping the temperature of my divinity and surrounding myself with that divinity. Anything within the space of my divinity will get frozen. Myself included.
Well it's a lot less affective on me since I'm trained."
Drake listened carefully without saying a word….before and after she spoke.
He simply nodded his head.
Seeing this, she took the liberty to speak once again.
"His divinity… it's very high, but divinity doesn't make a great fighter.
Do you think he might already be…"
Her expression dropped as she spoke, visibly anxious about Jacob's situation.
Drake spoke calmly and with confidence.
"He doesn't just have high levels of divinity. He's strong too, very strong."
Hearing this caused her to smile.
Short lived. That's how her smiled could be described. For what they saw after Drake spoke, left her and Drake alike, visibly shaken.
"W-what happened here?"
Beatrice's eyes were wide and her expression was that of obvious shock.
They stood high up on the branch of a tree. Before them, was an enormous crater in the ground. It wasn't very deep but it was massive nonetheless.
Trees were gone where the crater was, only open gravel on a steep crater.
Down at the bottom, at the center stood Jacob. His clothes strangely in fine condition, however his ponytail had come loose, his hair messy as it swayed in the wind.
He was bloody. Covered red on his face and his hands. He staggered and struggled to keep his balance as he stood, his sword the only thing supporting his balance and allowing him to stand.
In front of him, dozens of meters away, stood the creature he had been battling against this entire time.
It stood up straight, looking fine. It stood straight up and watch the boy struggling to stand on his own two feet.
On it's chest however, was a large gaping hole with yellow pus flowing out from it. Besides a few minor cracks in it's exoskeleton, that hole was the only injury on the creature.
Beatrice sprinted towards Jacob, Drake following behind. When they got there, Beatrice stopped in front of him and just stared at him in a daze.
Drake studied the heavily injured Jacob then looked at Beatrice in confusion.
Jacob seemed extremely exhausted as he kept panting and coughing.
"You…you made it just in time. Don't let him go anywhere. See that hole in his chest? He's at his weakest, we need to finish him now."
As he spoke his divinity kept rising.
"Your ribs are broken. Your left shoulder is dislocated and your ankle ligaments are torn. If you fight anymore, you might die."
Drake looked at him in astonishment.
No wonder he's in this shape.what do you even mean 'we're just in time'?
Jacob looked up at Beatrice then at Drake.
"I know, but to let him go now would mean dying for sure. I caught him by surprise many times to weaken him to this extent."
He smiled widely, showing his teeth in excitement. They had blood all over them.
"It's three against one now. Doing this means making sure no one else ever ends up like Tarth."
Beatrice looked at him she too quite astonished by how lively he was.
His words made her nod her head, filled with new found confidence.
"You…still have… this much…energy left in you? A… lively kid…indeed."
The creature chuckled as it stared Jacob down with hollow eye sockets.
"I…will not…run."
It's chuckle turned into laughter. It took a step forward as it laughed.
Jacob pulled his sword out of the ground, and took a step forward, exploding an intense amount of divinity while straightening his back.
"A few more minutes… I can keep fighting for a few more minutes."
His divinity was very low, extremely low, but strong nonetheless.
He held one hand in a prayer sign, then quickly changed that sign and folded his hand into a fist.
Beatrice looked at him with a slight expression of surprise.
Shift? And a second one at that?!
Jacob took a step forward while he spoke softly and calmly.
"Flame shift, second: concentration"
His face turned beet red after he spoke. Steam filling the air from his body while he spoke again.
"Co-ordinate, I have a better chance of landing my attacks now that you two are here."
Drake used the same hand signs that Jacob did while nodding his head
"Flame shift, second: concentration."
Drake's face turned red too, as he took a step forward following Jacob's lead.
Suddenly they took sprints at the creature, who simultaneously did the same. Clashing as soon as they reached each other.
Every punch, every kick, every touch that Drake and Jacob landed resulted in an explosion of heat.
The difference between now and when Jacob was alone was that the creature could keep up with Jacob before. Two people who were this fast however, was a different story.
It's bones kept cracking. Even so, it made sure no attack aimed at it's chest area landed.
The relentless pounding from the two continued until the creature finally took a leap backwards opening up some distance between them.
Their breathing was heavy, strained by the continuous battles they've engaged in today. They were tired.
It was even more so for Jacob, His hands bled and his muscles screamed in agony. Regardless, he clutched on his sword and took a step forward again.
Drake followed his lead.
Drake was an exceptional hand to hand combatant, but even he could admit. Jacob's skills in combat were just extraordinary.
Every step he took, every slight shift on his body, every swing of the sword. It all carried a tremendous amount of calculation, precision and at the same time risk!
Jacob once again lunged straight at the creature, sending slash after slash while Drake synced his movements with him and went with his lead.
They were relentless.
Beatrice stood behind, her eyes wide, the shock of witnessing such an intense battle leaving her speechless.
Even so, she continued to watch, observe, study. Making sure not to miss a single moment. Making sure not to miss a single step.
After a few seconds of watching them connect multiple attacks on the creature, each attack landed resulting in a chain of heated explosions.
She finally took a breath, a smile slowly creeping up on her face.
His abdomen!
"Jacob!"
Excitement escaped from her mouth, mixing in with her shout for Jacob to disengage in his battle.
Jacob and Drake immediately leapt back when they heard her shout.
They slid on the ground and stopped directly next to her.
As she stood in the middle of the two. She lifted her hand and slowly started weaving the signs of the third shift.
While she she was doing so, she spoke to the two. All three of them not daring to lose sight of the creature again, they all faced forward as she spoke— her voice calm and confident.
"His abdomen. He keeps covering his chest but that's only to mislead us. What he's really covering is his abdomen."
Jacob narrowed his eyes and paused for a moment, then he spoke.
"You're right. I see why you're going with that shift then, you're very smart."
Beatrice smiled slightly.
"Move."
Once she said this, they both took leaps in opposite directions.
"Ice shift, third: Frost zone"
Temperature around her suddenly dropped again, her skin turning a strange but beautiful pale blue.
They're using third shifts because they're to exhausted to go past that. I could used the fourth shift… but I'd deplete my divinity if I did. Who would heal them then?
Beatrice too a deep breath, then exhaled.
Jacob clutched on his sword, once again taking a step forward and taking the lead.
The ground shook as he lunged at the creature, old man Henry once again, this time going for a stab.
When the old man dodged it, Drake had already caught up swinging his leg downwards for a low kick, which the creature responded to by jumping to evade.
Suddenly they both retreated, leaving the old man confused mid-air.
Behind him stood a woman in a beautiful and luxurious dress. She had a cold expression on her pale, blue-ish face.
Oh, how…did I…miss this. They…were just…distracting me.
While he thought to himself, the old man's skeleton slowly turned blue-ish white, it's temperature rapidly plummeting into the negatives.
It's body went stiff.
By the time it landed on the ground, it was already frozen in place.
The beautiful lady's body temperature slowly returning to normal.
Her beautiful face slowly returning to it's regular, slightly pale self.