Godfire: The Split Soul

Beads of blood burst from Jack's mouth as he clamped his arm on the wall he crashed into.

"Where did Jim get that power from?" His face tensed the moment he straightened and shifted his gaze forward.

Bone-crackling sounds echoed around his arms as his fist tightened.

Strings of wind drifted toward him and formed a ring around his wrist.

His chest heaved in rampaging beats, but he didn't fall.

He wiped the blood stuck to his lips with the thump of his left arm, then smiled.

"Jim," a loud voice echoed as he stopped a few meters away from Jim and the man whose torn arm moved frantically on the ground.

"If someone will do this, it shouldn't have been you," Jack said, his voice echoing with regret.

Beside Wang, Jim rolled the fifteen beads around his wrist, then turned toward Jack.

"Who said I ever wanted to be part of this garbage land?"

A joyous laughter burst out of Jim as he took slow steps toward Jack.

He shook his head, closed his eyes, and brushed his right arm across his face.

When he cracked his eyes open, Jim's red eyes glowed vigorously, almost as if the sun's power originated from him.

In a blink, Jim vanished and reappeared just an inch from Jack.

Before Jack could react, Jim's shoulder bone slammed into his jaw and shoved him upward.

Another strike followed the moment Jack's body drifted downward.

In a frantic movement, Jim used his shoulder, knees, and head.

In all the strikes, Jack couldn't block even one; all he could do was just follow where the kicks would send him.

After five minutes of continuous kicks, Jack's body weakened as his knees gave out, causing him collapse beneath Jim's feet.

"I never liked you from the very first day you joined the Shadow Cult," Jim said, spitting on Jack's fraying body.

He raised his right foot, then slammed it into Jack's chest.

The impact sent Jack rolling a few meters, screeching his back and face into the scattered woods and broken blocks.

…

Bam!

Dust jolted at Yung Mai's face as he grabbed Jack's body and stopped him from slamming his head into a silver spear raised slightly—Jack's own spear.

"Master," Jack's voice echoed with traces of blood.

Yung Mai's mouth curled inward as he saddened. There, the ring of air around Jack's wrist flared toward Yung Mai like a soul fleeing from its host.

After helping Jack to stand, Yung Mai whispered in Jack's ear,

"Go to where Kai's room is, the room he was given before he was appointed to join the Shadow Cult."

Jack's bones begged him to stop, yet he didn't; he simply dashed forward, skipping over raised platforms and dodging falling woods.

After he watched Jack exit from sight, Yung Mai turned in Jim's direction with a tensed expression.

The ground shook as he took a few steps forward, and when he stopped, he placed his hands at his back and smiled.

"You were like a son to me." The smile on his face faded one at a time.

"I never wanted to be!" Jim screamed, then shot forward at great speed.

Jim's right arm surged forward like lightning, but missed when it moved past Yung Mai's face.

He threw the left, almost as if he wanted to slam Yung Mai from beneath his legs, but missed when Yung Mai jumped over him.

The moment Yung Mai landed, he moved his left leg and shot it forward.

He intentionally didn't want to hit Jim, the air alone struck Jim like a bomb blast.

The impact sent Jim flying a few meters back. His black boots scraped and skittered in the dust.

His face turned into a grin when he slammed his hand on the ground behind him, forcing his body to pivot upward.

The moment he landed softly like a leaf, he saw Yung Mai closing in at a devilish speed.

A kick shoved dust and air to his left arm.

He blocked it, but the traces that the kick left in his bones and his skin sent him crashing another ten meters back.

A loud bumping sound erupted as he crashed into the collapsed building that was a few meters away from the collapsed meditation chamber.

Sweat glistened along his forehead and snaked down to his lips.

The taste of iron and blood coated his tongue as the sweat entered his open mouth.

With heaving heart and a grim grin, he slammed his hand in the debris and straightened himself upward.

Dust swirled around them like a living storm as Jim dashed forward, his red eyes flaring like caged fire.

The dust whirled in tandem as the tips of Yung Mai's white robes flickered with each step, slicing the air and tracing invisible arcs that seemed almost alive.

After managing to throw a blow on Yung Mai's palm, Yung Mai stumbled a step back and pivoted on his heel.

The subtle scraping of stone underfoot punctuated the silence of a heartbeat before another strike came from him and landed at Jim's right shoulder.

Yung Mai's right hand shot forward, fingertip slicing toward Jim's throat immediately after Jim stumbled back.

Jim barely tilted his head back as the wind whipped his hair into his face, momentarily blinding him from blocking.

CRACK!

A hollow crack blasted as Jim bent down and countered with a spinning elbow.

With a force that seemed imperceptible to humans, Jim's arm collided with Yung Mai's rib.

A smile tore on Yung Mai's face as a shock reverberated through his chest.

Instead of stumbling back, Yung Mai's body moved like water, folding, twisting, and sending Jim skidding backward over splintered wood after the tip of his index finger slammed Jim's chest.

Instantly, dust exploded around him like the aftermath of a nuclear blast.

The mist it created hung in dying sun's rays like a healing curse.

Jim's red eyes flared again as sharp inhales exited from his mouth as he straightened himself again.

His veins pulsated as he surged forward with a rush of uncontrolled speed that sent the ground spiraling.

Jim swung a series of strikes in perfect rhythm the moment he reached Yung Mai's front.

He threw his elbows, knees, and palm, but all of the strikes were vacant and incomparably lower than that of Yung Mai's.

One leg of Yung Mai flickered, barely brushing Jim's shoulder, yet the displacement of the air slammed him sideways like a giant's blow.

Rolling to a stop, another strike, barely visible, landed on Jim's jaw.

The impact sent a spray of blood out of his lungs like fireworks in reverse.

Little by little, the fight escalated into a storm and forced the bright sky to turn darker.

Yung Mai's footwork was precise, sliding along the cracked stone, pivoting, and dropping.

Dust roared underneath his foot as he slammed his right foot just beside where Jim's head dashed away from.