Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

"Guys, I'm about to start on the vault. Just one question before we begin."

Jay heard Lyra's voice inside his own head, immediately followed by Tia's.

"Ask away!" she said.

"How good's your healing factor here?" said Lyra.

"Scared already?" Tia replied. "It's good. Coliseum grade. We've got lethal protection too; the training room will stop a death blow before it even lands. So don't worry. When my fist is embedded inside your skull, you'll barely feel a thing!"

Lyra chuckled through the communication system, before another booming voice filled Jay's mind and a timer appeared in his peripheral vision.

Countdown Started

Time remaining: 4:59.

Jay's world sunk into blackness as he closed his eyes off from the world. For the first step of his plan, he didn't need them.

During his fights, Jay had channelled Eye of the storm through his body, absorbing all the information he could from his nervous system. While grappling, it was a much more useful way of channelling his technique than through his eyes.

Since his opponents were half a labyrinth away right now, he couldn't exactly use his sense of touch to find them. But his adaptation of the technique proved that it could be used with any of his senses, provided he focused enough.

Jay's eyes and nerves couldn't hope to locate Fox's team, but maybe he didn't need them. Ping had neither, and she got along just fine.

Empowered by their connection, Jay felt his shield's odd sensory perception take over. He had a sense of how she perceived the world, having journeyed through her memories, and this strategy had been brewing in his mind since he'd first left Arlie's shop.

But experiencing Ping's world in real life was a far cry from dreaming it on Arlie's basement floor.

Akira's thundering footsteps bounced around the vault room, shaking Jay's entire existence. Lyra fiddled with the vault behind him, clinking her stony fingers against its panels. Its inner mechanisms grumbled and scraped in response to each press. The grating scratch of metal gears was quieter than Akira's booming footsteps, but it lingered far longer.

His teammates' unintended cacophony pulled Jay away from his targets, but Ping dragged him back. She was used to it.

Beneath the persistent racket nearby. Beneath the illusory stone floors, vaults, and every other layer of noise that clouded their perception, they searched.

They hunted.

There!

Footsteps.

South.

"They're coming from the south." said Jay. He got to his feet. Akira nodded back as Jay turned to leave.

Time to get to work.

They're travelling together.

Jay crept towards the oncoming team, retracing the steps he took while searching for the vault. It had taken him, Lyra and Akira several minutes to meander their way to the vault room. Based on the rapidly approaching footsteps, the attackers had far more urgency.

Jay had hoped they'd split up, opening a path for a surprise attack on Alf without his friends there to defend him. Since they were together, he'd work on separating Fox instead. Beneath the façade of effectiveness, Jay had quietly wished his opponents not to separate. It gave him the chance to fight Fox. To measure himself against him. To find out which of Earth's martial arts' representatives was truly stronger.

The defenders' slower journey didn't just mean they reached the vault slower. It meant they'd had more time to scout for ambush spots. Jay waited for Fox at a T-Junction where both paths branched and turned after splitting. He didn't want to engage all three of his opponents in a wide open space.

No space to manoeuvre.

No time to think.

The more lost they were, the better.

He half wished he'd taken up Pippin's offer of the bombs. Regardless of their problems with storage or detonation, chucking one into the middle of an oncoming group would cause the exact kind of chaos he needed to separate Fox.

As it was, he'd make do with what he had.

Ping hovered by Jay's shins. He'd considered standing on top of her and gliding to mask his footsteps, but the shield could barely support his weight for more than a minute.

He left that strategy for another day.

Jay pulled half a metre of the coiled Quicksnatch rope out of his bracer, gripping it in his fist. He made sure Davad's dagger was clamped tightly. The exploding dagger was nearly useless if he couldn't trigger it quickly, so Jay decided keeping it close was worth the risk.

Ping drifted sideways, gently brushing into the illusory stone walls. Jay had grown accustomed to Eterna's magical training rooms, yet they still amazed him. He knew there was nothing beside him, but it felt so real.

Through Ping, Jay heard the footsteps get closer. They were jogging. Scanning each room quickly rather than awaiting an ambush. It seemed they'd come to the same conclusion as Akira, that leaving the vault room was a waste of time.

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Bad decision.

They're coming.

THUNK!

Heavy footsteps first.

THUNK!

Probably Fox.

THUNK!

Perfect.

THU-

Jay rushed forward, head down, and rammed his body through Fox's gut.

Fox was a more experienced grappler than him. Precision and technique wouldn't get Jay anywhere. He needed pure force.

To Jay, that meant acceleration.

Before Fox, Alf, or Tia could even react, Jay had lifted Fox into the air and started running.

By the time he heard them gasp, he'd already cleared the first corner and separated Fox from his team.

But even though Jay's attack was simple, it was far from one dimensional.

Ping bounced around Fox's legs. Not attacking him, disrupting his balance.

Jay clenched the loose end of rope in his fist. Pippin said that he needed to throw it to activate its stickiness, but he'd never seen Jay fight before.

He dug a lightning fast uppercut into Fox's ribs, pressing the Quicksnatch laden rope against his torso.

Jay kept running. He'd successfully separated the attackers, but surprise only lasted so long.

Fox's hand reached down to the axe by his waist.

Jay smashed him into a wall.

Don't.

He let go of the rope and clamped his hand around Fox's wrist.

Give him.

Jay pressed against his opponent. Sandwiching him between the wall and landing a burrowing hook to his body.

Space.

He scraped Fox's back against the wall, activating Eye of the storm, channelling it through his entire body.

Don't.

Jay's perception narrowed to just the man in front of him. Fox's muscular micro adjustments became Jay's entire reality.

Give him.

He shifted to create a gap between them. Enough to throw a punch at Fox's jaw.

Tim-

Jay's fist stopped. It didn't smash into Fox's jaw, or even graze his cheek. It stopped. Before the punch landed, Fox had wrapped his free hand around Jay's oncoming wrist.

Jay's fist loosened as his fingers grew numb, cut off from circulation beneath Fox's merciless grip. Fox bared his teeth like a cornered animal. Face to face, barely an inch apart, his deep brown eyes glared at Jay, bereft of even a shred of their usual kindness.

But his eyes weren't filled with focus, like Jay's were every fight.

They weren't filled with rage, like Jay knew consumed a lot of fighters.

No. When Jay stared at Fox, man to man, in a way that only fighters could. He only saw one emotion within them.

Pure, savage, euphoria.

Fox snarled and Jay knew, even with all the speed in the world, he wasn't dodging the next attack.

Fox stretched his neck back. Jay tensed up. He braced just before Fox's forehead clattered into his nose.

Blood gushed from Jay's nostrils. The cartilage inside crumpled beneath the impact. Fox freed his hands and shoved Jay away.

But they were already tied together.

The rope tugged at Jay's wrist as he fell to the floor. It dragged Fox by his guts, yanking him towards Jay.

Both fighters hit the floor hard.

Jay reacted first.

He fired a sloppy hook off his back. His knuckles crunched Fox's cheekbone before the trailing blade of the Conqueror's fist ripped a crimson smear across his face.

Fox began laughing.

Ruptured capillaries leaked out of his torn-open cheek, spewing thick blood and shards of fractured skull into Jay's eyes.

But Fox kept laughing. Because when the old flesh disappeared, he simply grew more to replace it.

Muscles pulled themselves over a rapidly reforming skull. Fox's face stitched itself together just in time to smile sadistically before hammering Jay's ribcage with his fist. Jay felt the punch, but Akira's gift dulled the blow. The Orivian silk liquefied and spread the impact across his body.

Fox must've felt it too. He rained down an elbow from above, slashing down at Jay's brow.

Jay rolled with the impact, deflecting most of Fox's power into the stone beneath him and using the strike's momentum to spin on top of Fox.

Fox was a fucking monster, but Jay didn't have to defeat him here. He just had to delay him long enough for Lyra to crack open the vault.

Easier fucking said than done…

Jay feinted another punch.

Fox didn't buy it. He grinned up at Jay, daring him to even attempt an attack.

Jay sank his fist into Fox's body. Fox kept smiling.

He dug the Conqueror's fist inside Fox's guts, twisting the blade. Fox kept smiling.

Throughout their fight. Jay had tried to beat Fox at his own game. To best him with the skills he'd taught him. Jay had ignored the essence of electricity. Kept it to its cage. Forced it to sit and watch.

But electricity never remained still. Sure, it waited. But it was always one spark away from overflowing.

Jay unleashed the raging storm of electricity through his blade.

His army of electrical tendrils ran through Fox's body, overloading his cells with energy.

Fox wasn't smiling anymore.

He was screaming though clenched teeth.

Jay wondered how the training room's lethal protection worked. Fox's regeneration was fast, but electricity was always faster. It was killing Fox from the inside out.

Fox spasmed on the floor beneath Jay. His muscles no longer obeyed him, instead bending the knee to electricity's reign.

Jay waited for the room to save his training partner. To stop him from murdering his friend.

Nothing happened.

Is he-

Fox's arm shot up. His hand clamped around Jay's throat.

His arm shouldn't have been able to move. Electricity had obliterated the cells inside it.

It was supposed to be dead.

It was dead.

The painful dying wail that had escaped Fox's throat stopped.

A roar of pure, indomitable life replaced it.

Fox was supposed to be dead.

But he simply refused to die.

He whipped Jay's neck into the ground, smashing his head into the stone.

He pulled Jay up again.

And smashed him into the ground again.

Before the third time, Jay managed to activate Eye of the storm. The world slowed down, and his stormforged body told Jay how absolutely fucked he was.

Jay raised his left.

Fox wrenched him towards the ground.

Another hit and I'm out.

Jay willed the clamps attached to his bracer forward.

He spun the blade around.

Pushed the hilt towards his fingertips.

Jay didn't know what would happen next. But it was better than smashing into the fucking ground again.

The instant before he hit the floor, Jay pushed against the button with all his strength.

The world froze.

First, it was his eyes. They were drawn to the dagger, like he couldn't look away.

But then it was more. So much more.

Jay leaned forward. At least, it felt like he did. His head pulled closer to the button he'd just pressed. In his peripheral vision, Jay saw Fox lean forward too.

Ah shit.

Jay realised his inevitable future as his being was dragged towards the dagger. Because he wasn't merely being pulled towards it. Neither was Fox.

They were being compressed.

And Jay knew better than most what always followed compression.

BOOM!

Jay snapped back. The rope around his bracer unravelled, Quicksnatch barely holding against the explosion that blasted them apart.

Jay's head whipped back, smashing into the stone wall behind him. Blinding white flashes became his reality. Jay couldn't even hear his own head bouncing against the stones.

He sure felt it though.

Opposite him, Fox was already on his feet. Ping flew in between them, but Jay didn't know what the shield could possibly do against the absolute monster standing across from him.

A snake-like vine crept through the hallway. It darted across the rubble-strewn battlefield and wrapped around Fox's ankle.

It pulled the man's leg from underneath him, dragging him from their duel.

Jay let out a sigh. Ping drifted closer to him.

He was glad to be safe, but Jay couldn't let himself rest for long.

Because if Fox wasn't here with him, then the vine could only have dragged him to one place. And if Lyra was working on the vault, that meant Akira was alone, defending her against all three attackers.