The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 226: The prey and the predator

“I’m Rambert of House Tantalus.” the newcomer replied in a hoarse, raspy voice. Pushing each word out of his lungs appeared like quite the challenge.

“Tantalus?” Jason tilted his head. “Ah! Your families have been fighting over this province, right? But what the hell happened to you? Did you skip your vegetables as a child or something?”

Rambert’s expression soured upon hearing the ill-concealed ridicule, though he didn’t refute Jason, fully cognisant of his poor state. He was still missing the arm Percy had chopped off during their fight, his entire body pale and shrivelled. Countless infected cuts covered him from head to toe, each of them oozing some disturbing brown sludge: a little too viscous and off coloured to be described as blood. If he wasn’t moving and talking, one could easily mistake him for a corpse. And not a particularly fresh one, at that.

“What do you think?! This asshole did this to me!” he snarled, some hatred spilling into his voice as he pointed towards Percy with a shaky finger. “It’s been weeks, and I still haven’t managed to fix myself!”

“Right. I suppose that would explain the rather strong karmic thread linking you two.” Jason shrugged. “I’d have laughed at you for getting your ass handed to you by an Orange, had I not spent the last 15 minutes fighting the little monster.”

‘Karmic? Is that what his affinity is?’ Percy focused on the most interesting part, tuning the rest of their conversation out.

At the same time, he discreetly grabbed a couple healing potions from his pocket, silently uncorking them with his thumb.

“Honestly, I’d no idea this bastard had pissed the Divine Root off too. I suppose you won’t let me kill him?” Rambert asked.

“Afraid not. My boss wants him alive.” Jason replied. “How did you even find us this quickly? Isn’t your family based on the other side of the river?”

Rambert grimaced, but he wasn’t quite ready to give up just yet, apparently.

“It is, but we’ve been infiltrating their territories in search of easy pickings since the start of the war. And the two of you have raised quite a commotion. At least, tell me he won’t have a good end.”

Jason grinned.

“That much, I can guarantee. Deimos has never been a patient man, and this piece of shit has screwed with us for way too long. I’m pretty sure he will take great pleasure in gutting him himself.”

Then, he turned towards Percy, who had remained silent during their brief conversation.

“The only thing I’m not sure about is how long it’ll take for him to spill all his secrets. He’s shown me quite a few interesting tricks tonight…”

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Undeterred by Jason’s predatory gaze, Percy swiftly turned around, chugging down the potions as he dashed into the trees. He nearly stumbled too: even staying on his wobbling feet being quite the struggle. Let alone keeping Synchronization active. But he didn’t have a choice. If he stayed here, he was done for.

Jason didn’t seem surprised, nor particularly annoyed by Percy’s escape attempt. He casually strolled behind him, launching one karmic bolt after the other, forcing him to clumsily dodge each of them by the skin of his teeth. Suffice to say, all of Percy’s bones screamed in agony every time he rolled on the ground or collided against a tree. Still, he had to pick himself up quickly each time, lest the enchanted projectiles turn him into a pincushion.

Through Mana Sense, Percy saw Rambert following behind them. Though he hadn’t interfered, seemingly content enjoying the sadistic show for now.

The only good news was that the healing potions were doing their job. The first two had already alleviated some of his pain and exhaustion, allowing him to keep moving. And he’d stashed quite a few of them in his pockets before the battle, preparing for the worst-case scenario. By the time he downed the sixth one, he was already doing much better: almost as if he’d never drank that trollsfury potion. Then again, he was at a severe disadvantage without its help. As things stood, dodging Jason’s attacks was about the most he could manage.

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“I’ve got to hand it to you, you’re quite resourceful.” Jason said a couple minutes later, pausing his attacks. “I’m starting to believe you really are an alchemist. A genius one at that. Not to mention your second core, your weird spells… and a sharp mind for battle too. Out of respect for all that, I’ll give you one final chance to come with me willingly.”

Percy took a few more steps before stopping as well. Turning around, he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

“How dumb do you think I am? It hasn’t even been 5 minutes since you promised Rambert I’ll be tortured to death.”

Jason shrugged.

“Oh, don’t take me wrong. That’s still going to happen: there’s no avoiding that. But it doesn’t have to start tonight. You can at least walk back to the Guild on your own two feet. It sure beats having to carry you.”

Percy chuckled.

“Thanks for the generous offer. I’m sorry I can’t reciprocate…”

Suddenly, several black butterflies materialized in random spots around Jason, each of them flying rapidly towards him. Taken by surprise, he unleashed a wide burst of karma mana: wider than any he’d used against Percy’s constructs: to ensure he intercepted all of them.

Having already been warned about Jason’s affinity, Nesha destroyed her butterflies the moment they got corrupted. She was supposed to change spots too, to make it harder for Jason to track her, though Percy couldn’t tell if she’d done that. Either way, he wouldn’t waste the opening she’d created for him.

His body didn’t produce as much mana without the potion, but Percy had gone out of his way to preserve as much of his shroud as possible. Pulling a hefty amount of it, he swiftly launched a wave of throwing stars against his opponent.

“Tsch. Did you honestly believe your girlfriend would be enough to make a difference?” Jason merely used his earlier trick to pull himself away from the attack’s path.

His features shifted to shock, however, as soon as he noticed the fireballs closing onto him from behind.

“The fuck are you doing?!” Jason swore, barely managing to avoid the attacks.

Sadly for him, he never got a chance to catch his breath, however. Soon, a second round of butterflies materialized around him, followed by another wave of throwing stars. Finally, Rambert pitched in again with some more fireballs, as the three of them used everything they had to box Jason in.

Panicking, the karma mage unleashed a tremendous wave of colourful mana from his body, freezing most of the spells to a halt. But not all of them. A Green’s willpower wasn’t nearly as easy for him to override as Percy’s or Nesha’s, the fireballs still trudging through the air towards him, pushing against his control.

Perhaps he could have won the tug-of-war, but it would have cost him more effort, mana and time. Either way, the projectiles were already dangerously close to him before he even made his mind up.

Rambert detonated them all, Jason barely managing to pull himself away from their blast radius in time to avoid any serious injuries. Still, all these costly moves had already brought his reserves down to about a quarter of his capacity.

“Again!” Percy yelled, this time putting every last mote of mana into the shroud, sacrificing Synchronization to unleash the widest wave of throwing stars he was currently capable of. The others didn’t shy away either, with Nesha manifesting a third round of butterflies, and Rambert sending more fireballs at Jason.

Doing everything he could to survive, Jason zigged and zagged through the air, making full use of his rare affinity to dodge the storm of attacks, his core draining at a scary rate. By the time all the spells were dealt with, he didn’t even have enough juice to seize control of the Soul Harvester spinning towards him.

Leaping out of the scythe’s path using his legs alone, he barely managed to lift his head up in time to see a near-skeletal hand close around his throat, before pressing him violently against the ground.

“Why…?” Jason gasped as his fellow Green tried to choke him.

“I hate him. Probably more than you do, I bet.” Rambert spat, before sighing. “But I don’t have a choice. He’s my only chance to survive.”

Jason’s eyes widened at the sound of that, though he didn’t bother replying. Grabbing Rambert’s wrist, he tried to push it away. At first, it seemed to work too. Jason didn’t have much trouble overpowering his peer, given the difference in their physical condition.

However, there was one crucial difference between them that brute force alone couldn’t bridge so easily. Jason was already out of mana, and Rambert wasn’t.

Before the latter’s hand moved even an inch back, a bright orange flash emerged from the decaying palm. A deafening boom soon followed, drowning the ever-present tunes of the surrounding trees for a few seconds.

Yet, Percy’s eyes had remained locked on Jason throughout the whole exchange. It wasn’t until the man’s headless corpse became visible through the smoke that he allowed himself to plop down weakly.