Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

Jay lunged past Amaya, shoving the puppeteer aside. Ping raced ahead of him and blocked Ezekiel's opening strike.

The swordsman backed off when Jay reached Lyra's side, flicking his eyes between her and Amaya.

"Don't attack," said Jay, "it's complicated."

Surprisingly, Ezekiel lowered his sword. A cold, calculating patience shone from behind the swordsman's eyes, almost like he was assessing the situation and waiting for Jay to explain it.

"Their bodies are twinned. Everything Lyra does, Amaya does too. We can't kill one without killing the other."

Jay silently seethed at Lyra. Based on how injured Amaya was, they'd clearly been twinned for a while. Why didn't she finish off Amaya and return to help Akira? Their friend would have died if Karis had returned a few seconds later. She even had the gall to ask Jay to finish the job off for her, like she couldn't bring herself to do it.

Should've thought of that before you left Akira for dead.

Jay kept his face calm while staring at Ezekiel. Controlling his thoughts was much harder.

For fuck's sake Lyra. Akira would've died for you, and this is how you treat him?

You knew he'd agree to your plan. You gave him no other option.

"You got a plan?" spat Ezekiel. He still had that pensive look over his eyes, but Jay supposed it was too much to ask for the brute to think of a solution.

You really think I have a fucking pla-

Ezekiel lunged forward.

Jay raised his guard. Ping shot in front of him.

But the Soulsnatcher wasn't swinging his sword, nor was he aiming at Jay.

Jay swivelled, twisting backwards and flailing out his arms.

Lyra held both arms out, wielding her rapier in a backwards grip pointed at her stomach. Her obsidian arms twitched. Jay reacted faster. Within a second, he entered his range and planted his right foot. Electricity surged through his left as he swung it forward.

Jay didn't bother holding back on Lyra, his glowing leg wrapped around her wrist, deforming to electricity's will as it booted the rapier into the jungle.

In the distance, Amaya's arms spasmed, locked upright through Lyra's twinning and Jay's electricity.

Jay didn't know whether Lyra felt the electricity through her obsidian body.

He hoped she did.

Ezekiel sheathed his sword and grabbed onto both of Lyra's wrists. She struggled against his grip, but her fight with Amaya had clearly exhausted her, she barely moved him.

"Okay, here's the plan," said Jay. He refused to even look down at Lyra, instead he met Ezekiel's piercing gaze with an ice cold smoulder that masked the fire beneath it. "You take Lyra. I'll take Amaya. We walk them back to the exit hub, give Amaya to Karis, let them leave, then leave ourselves."

Ezekiel took a moment to think. Jay could almost see the cogs turning within his mind. Eventually he nodded before tossing Lyra over his shoulder. Ezekiel wanted him dead, but he wanted Amaya alive more. Jay could trust the Soulsnatcher to play ball up until Amaya was free from Lyra's grasp. Jay knew his plan wouldn't last a second past that point; he didn't want it to.

But Ezekiel didn't need to know that.

Jay stomped over to Amaya, refusing to look Lyra in the eyes. He hoisted the puppeteer upwards, rammed his shoulder into her stomach and hoped they both felt it.

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The silent walk back to the exit hub gave Jay plenty of time for his emotions to simmer down.

They didn't.

He was pissed at Lyra for even thinking this was a good idea, but at least that anger was rational. He was even more pissed that she couldn't finish the job.

All fucking talk and you're happy to sacrifice your allies but when it comes to yourself you can't do shit. Pathetic.

But although Jay burned at Lyra, he wasn't angry enough to kill her. He still wanted her—and more importantly Akira—to make it out of the tournament alive.

He just worried about what he'd have to sacrifice to get there.

Jay entered the clearing after a long, silent minute of walking. Karis stood over Akira while ten of his crows picked at Draeven's dead body beside them. The Frontiersman had surely sent a crow to observe them, so Jay didn't think he needed to explain their situation.

Ezekiel carried Lyra over to the exit hub, her glossy eyes hollow and her expression numb. She didn't even resist.

Karis walked over to Jay, face as unreadable as ever.

"Why don't you leave first?" he asked, "You have three relics. I'll take care of Lyra and Akira; we'll walk in there right after you."

Jay gently shook his head.

"I want to make sure you guys are safe. Hurry up and carry Akira out of here, he needs the coliseum's healing."

They locked eyes. Jay stared at his myriad reflections off the diamonds embedded in Karis' eye sockets.

He wished he felt the conviction he saw.

"Take this."

Karis placed a silver ring on his left index finger beside the one Akira gave him earlier. It was the relic he'd seen them take in the scry earlier.

How does this help me?

"Don't try to be a hero Jay, get out of here as fast as you can."

Karis rushed back to Akira, hoisting the unconscious samurai off the ground before carrying him to the exit hub.

"Throw Lyra in," he said to Ezekiel. "I'll follow her."

Ezekiel kicked open the exit hub door before tossing Lyra inside.

Karis stopped on the doorstep.

He turned towards Jay.

Each of the crows pecking at Draeven's corpse lifted their heads.

Karis whistled. They scattered west into the jungle.

The Frontiersman nodded at Jay before entering the building and swinging the door shut behind him.

Jay held the blade of his Conqueror's fist against Amaya's neck, clutching the metal half of her head with his left hand. He flared Eye of the storm through his nervous system. Waiting for the puppeteer's first signs of movement.

The second her body twitched it, he'd know she was free from Lyra's twinning.

Jay was still angry at Lyra, but he couldn't bring himself to kill his friend.

BANG!

A gust of pure white smoke filled Jay's vision. He jerked his right fist back, but barely nicked Amaya's neck before the vortex flung his arm away.

He clung onto Amaya's skull with his left, pressing his fingertips into the metal ridge. The spiralling winds buffeted his fingers but Jay held strong, they wrenched his grip away but Jay refused to let go.

Szzt!

The metal jerked upwards. It tore the skin from Amaya's scalp, sticking to Jay's hand as it whipped away from Amaya, propelled by the wind.

Amaya twisted away, ripped from Jay's grip by the rapidly accelerating cyclone.

Jay leapt back, snapping his head upright, searching for a follow up from Ezekiel. Ping flew in front of him. Nothing came.

As the smoke cloud dissipated, Jay watched Ezekiel stand guard by Amaya's side while she reached into her satchel. She pulled a second metal plate from it, this one untouched by Lyra's axe, and raised it up to her deformed skull.

"A wind necklace too? I thought you stuck with ice for those?" said Jay, attempting to mask his uncertainty with humour.

Amaya fiddled with her secondary skull. Her flaming gaze darted around the clearing as her eye lolled within its socket, finally settling on Jay when the puppeteer fastened the metal plate in place.

"Oh, that was just a relic, dear," said Amaya. Jay watched her fingers tremble as she fiddled with her new skull plate, yet her voice remained just as mocking as always. "You got the better of us with a smoke bomb last time. I thought it only right that we pay you back in kind."

How generous.

"Look at our little team Jay! Exactly where we started, if a little worn down. You could've saved us all so much time and effort if you sacrificed yourself at the tournament's beginning rather than now."

Ezekiel bared his teeth beside Amaya like a guard dog awaiting command. The measured stillness in his eyes had vanished and he practically frothed at the mouth while eyeballing Jay.

"Don't suppose we could agree to be friends?" asked Jay. He knew the answer but wanted a few extra seconds to prepare for what was to come.

"And invalidate your heroic sacrifice?" replied Amaya, "Oh we could never do such a thing! Think of the millions watching. Wouldn't it be anticlimactic?"

Jay held his left arm in front of his chest.

"Anticlimactic? Well yeah… I guess that would be anticlimactic…"

He popped the dagger out of its socket in his bracer and caught it in his left hand.

"…But what made you think I'm a hero?"

Jay's eyes ran over the description of the Berserker's Bite.

If the dagger's wielder cuts themself with the blade, they gain a surge in power proportional to the volume of blood spilled.

At a cost to their health and sanity.

Jay gripped the relic's hilt tightly.

"And what made you think I'm gonna sacrifice shit?"

Before his enemies could react, he plunged it straight into his heart.