Jace opened his eyes again, flipping his body over and practically coughed his heart out. Judging by the splashing mud and pouring rain, he was still in the Verdant Maw. He had broken away from the Void once again.
'I'm…not dead?'
He felt his chest. There were still holes torn through the cuirass of his leather armor but the wounds had healed. The image of his ripped organs were no more, feeling the rough scar patched where they were before.
Suddenly a familiar voice yelled, breaking him away from his thoughts.
"You absolute fool! What have you done?!"
Jace ignored Heather's cries and opened his Soul.
[HP: 72/130]
'She healed me that much—that quickly? Some healing spell, seriously.'
Heather's voice cried again, his insulting words cutting into the vulnerable mage. She had chosen to heal Jace, using the last ounce of her mana instead of delivering the killing blow to the Alpha Jackal.
Which had meant the beast was also spared from the Void.
Jace's eyes locked onto a frightening dark figure rapidly rushing towards them. He tackled Brita out of the way, avoiding the lunging claw from the beast.
There wasn't any time to argue about who was right or wrong. If Brita wanted to keep Jace alive, then she would have believed he was capable of pushing their squad to victory.
He couldn't thank her for that kind gesture, not yet, not when the thoughts of slaying that beast were flooding into his mind.
The Alpha Jackal slowly turned its body, watching the same Climber who was supposedly dead, grip his silver sword again.
Jace yelled, his voice urgent and quick.
"Brita, go! Get out of its eyes!"
But the beast could hardly bother with the stray Climbers. It wanted Jace, it always wanted him from the start, as if the very moment the Tower had designed its monstrosity, he would be the one to slay it.
He lowered his body, implanting his boots into the mud, and prepared to dash. Brita's healing spell must have lightened his fatigue because he was more than ready for another round.
And noticing how it was barely dragging its knuckles on the mud, that absurd amounts of effort had taken a toll. It was growing tired, facing the same Climber that also shared a stubborn defiance to the Void.
Jace waited for the beast to pounce, holding his silver sword in anticipation.
'Come on! get a piece of me, you bastard—'
Heather ran past him, discarding his sigil sword and plated leather armor. From a regular perspective, it looked like he had also gone insane.
But his body began to spark, igniting himself in a burning fuse as he threw himself into the beast.
Jace squinted his eyes.
'What the—'
The area had violently combusted in an explosion of flames, incinerating everything that was remotely close in the vicinity where Heather originally was.
Jace was blasted away by the shockwave, tumbling across the mud as he shielded his face from blurring heat. Flames engulfed the area, shooting upward into the air, while small embers lingered around them.
Something so destructive had only come from a Skill, a power that Heather only possessed in his Soul.
'After all this time, after we bled, and after I touched the Void, you had something like that?'
A few seconds later of gusting wind, the Verdant Maw had turned quiet like they all remembered. What remained of the area resided a wide crater of ash and smoldering flames, dancing as if it was celebrating the hard-earned victory.
Then the rain promptly returned, not as pouring as before, but subtle enough to extinguish the cinders at their boots.
Jace watched Heather struggle to stand from the dry ground, pushing off from his knee in a feeble balance.
Heather's skin was covered in soot, some spots in a minor char, but he somehow survived that self-explosion. That rule from his Soul, unfortunately, had only applied to his body. His tattered shirt was riddled with burns and his pants threatened to fall apart if it wasn't for the purpose of a belt.
Jace hated how proud he looked. He hated how much effort and struggle he had to endure because somebody cared more about credit than another life of a squad member.
He gripped his sword again, dashing towards their defenseless squad leader with a clear killing intent in his eyes.
The Alpha Jackal rose behind Heather, steadily positioning its only armed claw behind him, building enough force to maim his bare body.
Jace deflected its claws, saving the squad leader from a free trip to the Void.
Heather startled back, stumbling to the ground as his voice rung with desperation:
"No—wait! Stop!"
Jace felt his ankle tug with force, as if someone was trying to drag him down.
'Get off me, you bastard! I should have known what you were trying to do!'
The beast slammed its claws again, staggering Jace's block through his silver sword.
But it was weak, far too weak from what it used to be.
Jace gritted his teeth, dragging his silver blade with the laces of its claws and spun his sword towards its hind legs.
[Skill Activate: Wide Slash]
Its left hind leg had slashed completely off, tumbling the beast to the ground without any strength to support its weight.
Jace ignored the cries from their cunning, and failed, squad leader. He jumped onto the arched back of the Floor Guardian and shouted, sinking his silver sword into its neck and spine.
The Alpha Jackal jolted still, its faint crimson eyes faded along with its resilience.
He fell back to the ground as his boots passed through the dissolving body of the beast. Now looking at the sky, he never imagined this ominous rainforest could have the warmth of sunlight.
'It's dead…it's finally dead.'
The Soul echoed into his ears.
[You have slain Guardian Lycan. You have gained experience.]
He studied the name and felt slightly ashamed he had addressed the beast wrong the entire time. In a way, the two of them shared grim similarities if that sounded weird enough.
They were both following the same fate from the Tower.
[Congratulations, Climber Jace! You have leveled up!]
Jace suppressed himself from laughing, knowing Heather's face was probably swelling with even more loathe against him.
That was when the Soul echoed in his ears again.
[Congratulations, Climber Jace! You have leveled up!]
[Congratulations, Climber Jace! You have leveled up!]
He wondered if anyone else could see the look in his eyes.
'I had touched the Void for three levels!'
And he would do it again without hesitation.
Brita crept closer to them, taking in the sight of golden mist floating around the two boys laying across from each other.
One seemed to be strangely thrilled about nothing, staring through the air with his face frozen in place.
The other looked to burst in another act of self-explosion, watching his eyes stare in disgust, as if he was conjuring thoughts too terrible to decipher.
Brita was reluctant to their expressions, but she asked:
"Is…it over?"
Heather answered instantly in a cold voice:
"Of course it's over! What else could you think, you useless mage?!"
"I…didn't mean to—"
Heather turned his face to her, and yelled in anger:
"I gave you one order! One! Simple! Order! Do you even remember what you agreed upon once you joined my squad?!"
Brita averted her eyes, avoiding contact with their leader's tantrum. She couldn't find the words to respond.
Jace sat up, still staring at the transparent window of his Soul.
[You have 3 Soul Points remaining.]
'This is real, right? One slain monster had given me three Soul Points?'
As he stared into that incredible number, he failed to notice the other force standing behind it.
Heather kicked Jace across the face, snapping him out from his own fantasy of bliss.
Brita gasped as she covered her mouth in shock.
Heather pointed down at Jace with utter disgust, and even twisting his tone like he was referring to the squad member like a lost animal.
"You chose to save him! For what, Brita?! You saved him for what?!"
Jace wiped his mouth.
'I'll show you what she saved me for.'
[STR: 5 > 6]
[AGL: 3 > 5]
Jace sprung from the ground, ditching his silver sword, and hurled his right fist as his veins coursed with burning radiance.
[Your Soul strengthens…]
Brita begged for them to stop, watching the two Climbers enter a brawl.
He would have easily lost against Heather with a sword, there was no denying that fact. But there were no blades in view.
What was left in their hands was the raw spirit of a fighter.
In reality, Brita was begging for Jace to stop.
Fistfuls of determination and spite swung across, some blocked and some connected, though it was already clear who was being overwhelmed.
After the time Jace spent staying in their squad, none of them really knew where he came from. Being raised in a crappy orphanage had created immoral values that shaped him into the person he was today.
He wasn't a human chosen by the Soul nor was he a Climber. He was a survivor willing to take matters to the extreme if it meant for a better tomorrow.
Heather never came across that. He had never met a person like Jace.
As another fist struck across his face, his nose began to generously bleed, Jace couldn't help but laugh as the words escaped from his thoughts.
"That's right, Heather! How does it feel?! Different without our swords, without your Skills?! Time to fight on your own! Man to man! Soul to Soul!"