Wrath Reincarnated

JULES

"For your aid, we will award you with another shot at the Tree, Jafar." The Elder hushed his peers before they could protest.

"Ha!" Jafar swept open his cloak to reveal his Nomadic robes. "As if that matters. It doesn't look like you kept the damned thing alive."

"I'm afraid that was out of my hands."

"Always is, isn't it?"

"The girl proffered a second wish."

"What?" the other Elders and Jafar demanded as one.

"That is why the Tree burns?"

"When were you going to tell us, Brother? We could have—"

"No use arguing," Jafar interrupted. He stared at Katarina, really studied her, until his eyes began to twitch. With malice, or jealousy? "Who are you?"

"I could ask the same of you." Katarina twirled a bloodied dagger around in her hand.

"Ladies first."

"Screw you."

"Take Wrath," the lead Elder said. "We will handle the rest." Jafar raised a hand for them to all pause while he studied Jules and Cyrus in a similar fashion to how he'd considered Katarina.

"That won't work for me. I want them alllll to myself." Jafar popped his neck. "Make room for us. You three—you can gather back around and regroup. I want you fresh and ready to go."

Cyrus and Katarina joined Jules. Whiskers stayed in the darkest shadows such that only his emerald eyes could be detected, until a frizzy and smoldering Rukia joined him and slapped him on the back.

"I can't fight full force while I'm containing this fire," Jules said. "If I let go, the Tree will burn to ash."

Jafar shrugged. "Your choice. I personally don't mind if this entire dump burns to the ground." He whistled while he waited.

"This asshole is just like one of the guys from my dreams," Katarina whispered. "He seemed like the leader of a really strong crew, and even The Painter didn't fight him outright."

"Then we keep him at a distance," Jules said. "Test his capabilities, figure out his technique. We'll go in one-at-a-time on him until we have a plan."

"I'm waiting!" Jafar taunted them by doing dramatic leg stretches with his back turned to them.

"Start!" Jules shouted, and his team spread out wide from each other, but kept their distance.

« « Shifting Sands » » [Jafar]

Jafar tossed out a pouch of sand, which swirled around him like a type of shield or barrier, while Jules and company enacted their own Ryoku Shields.

« « Summon Arrows » » [Jules]

Jules launched a volley of arrows from his open palm. Jafar spun his scimitar in a whirlwind and deflected every single one them, and Jules actually had to dodge his own attack as the projectiles sailed back toward him.

« « Ice Storm » » [Cy]

Cyrus launched his own attack of icicles and frosted daggers and swords at Jafar, who swatted at them midair and melted them away to just a pool on the ground.

« Metal » « Lightning » [Kat]

Thin metal rods rose from the ground, in a line straight from Katarina to Jafar, that accelerated her lightning bolt. Jafar absorbed the entire attack before the thunder even clapped and shook the cavern.

"Is that all you've got!?" Jafar yelled. You bastard.

« Fire » [Jules]

Jules unleashed the concentrated fireball into a stream. Jafar dug his feet into the ground and lifted up a lone gloved hand with a maniacal smile. Jules' stream pushed him back, and Jafar glanced at the Elder Cyrus had fought. He lifted up his other hand and redirected the fire at the old man. All four Elders and the Sages put barriers to protect him, until Jules contained the fire again.

"I'm very disappointed. Suppose I won't need this." Jafar sheathed his scimitar, then pulled out a cheap looking short sword. "Dull metal should suffice."

"Alright, I'm going in." Cyrus darted to Jafar.

CYRUS

"Wait, Cy!" Jules called out.

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"Wrath—You coward! You'd use your ally as a shield instead of leading the charge?"

Shield!? OK, now it's personal!

Cy struck first with Tensa. Jafar dodged and deflected by simply leaning side-to-side, never bothering to move his feet. Cy even summoned ice swords that pierced at him from on high, but Jafar handled it all with just the short sword and the most elementary of movement. He's young, but he has to be 3rd Rank—No way around that.

« « Summon Sword » » [Cy]

Cyrus dual-wielded a Voided sword and Tensa. Alright, focus on what The Painter said, and activate Tensa.

« « Awaken, Tensa! » » [Cy]

His Vessel lit up slightly as he struck Jafar's blade. It's working! I can do this—The light faded from Tensa, and Jafar punched Cy in the face and blasted him backward. Cy rolled on the ground and dropped his summoned sword, which evaporated away.

"Cy!" Jules yelled.

"No, Jules. I'm still good. I've got him." At least I'm starting to. Cy stood up and wiped blood from his mouth. Cy gripped Tensa with both hands and swung and swung at Jafar, until the bastard's short sword cracked, then split in two.

"My, my. You're not a grunt, after all." Jafar drew out his scimitar again.

« « Howl, Drakon! » » [Jafar]

Shit, that's a Vessel!? And it's glowing solid, unlike mine.

"You don't know the phrase for yours, do you?" Jafar taunted. "Tell ya what, I want that Vessel of yours. He deserves a proper owner."

With one upward swipe, Jafar removed Cy's arm, which flew up into the air along with Tensa. Eyes wide, fear overtook Cy as adrenaline flooded his blood stream, some of which was wasted as it spurted out of his open wound. He reached his phantom limb up for Tensa, and they grew further apart. Jafar reached up to catch it in the air as it fell—and Envy's knee connected with Jafar's jaw.

Cy's head slammed into the stone, and his arm and Vessel followed. Concussion stars filled his peripheral vision, and he rolled over onto his wounded side and shoved his limb roughly back in place. He threw up, but still managed to grab Tensa and skewer himself from the top between the shoulder blades to reattach his arm.

ENVY

« « Quick Step » » [Kat]

Kat launched at Jafar and kneed him in the face, though it felt like a cushioned strike to her, and they landed a few dozen paces from Cyrus. Jafar massaged his cheek and stretched out his jaw. A fine mist of sand shifted around him. "So the sand is your shield."

"Finally!" Jafar's maniac grin spread even further. "You're starting to understand—You need to all attack me at once!!"

Kat flew in with her daggers, and Jafar paid her back with a cross to the jaw that knocked her on her back. Flames struck him in the chest, and Kat watched all the sand shift to his chest to absorb it—but Jafar fell to his knees as a mostly rehabilitated Cyrus came crashing down from behind. Both men took some of the fire damage before Jules must have redirected it back to Jafar, who's grin had disappeared. Kat lunged for him again, but Jafar grabbed her by the neck one-handed and blasted Cyrus away with the other. Even as the fire consumed him, Jafar pulled out a dagger as Kat choked and struggled to break free.

"Judgment day always comes for your kind." My kind? Does he know—No. This hatred in his eyes… He thinks I'm an Elementalist. Just before he plunged the blade into her heart, Jules collided with them both. The Sound disarmed Jafar, who dropped Kat back to the ground.

Behind them all, the Tree of Wishes erupted into violent black flames. Kat gasped for air as Jules took Jafar one-on-one.

"It would appear Wrath has made his choice, and now our intervention is required." The Elder closed in on Kat and Cyrus. "I have seen your Vessel, Child. It is nothing for me to fear."

Kat glanced at Cyrus. "Do it."

Cyrus stabbed the Elder through the heart with Tensa, who let it slide right through himself up to the hilt, completely unafraid.

« « Bait and Switch » » [Kat]

From nearby, Kat switched Tensa's position with Jafar's cracked short sword.

"I warned you, Children." The Elder coughed up blood and slumped over onto Cyrus. "Not…to seek death…here…"

JULES

"Just you and me, Wrath." Jafar sheathed his dagger. He extended an arm, and his scimitar flew back to it. "The Tree's a lost cause now, so no holding back anymore. Promise?"

"Why are we even fighting?" Jules lowered the Sound to his side. "Why are you tracking us, and who are you even working for?"

"Afraid there's no reason to my madness. Or the madness of the desert."

"Kat's not an Elementalist."

Jafar spat at Jules' feet. "Anyone who wears that signet is." Surely Pop isn't one…

"All I can tell you is that I'm telling the truth."

"Let me ask you this." Jafar motioned over to Katarina. "She a Sin?"

"What? No, she's—" Ah, shit. The lie came instinctual, from years of protecting her identity, and he'd been caught in it. Jafar whistled long and low as he gazed at Whisker's bright, shining eyes.

"Seems the Truth Serum's worn off, Wrath. Tsk, tsk." He swung at Jules. Dammit, this is a lost cause already.

« Integrate » [Jules]

A pair of the spying animal eyes in the shadows dimmed out as Rukia Integrated into the Sound of Fury. Jules slashed it and its white flames at Jafar's Vessel in an outright assault. Don't want to find out what that Vessel of his does. Rukia's white flames danced and trailed around them until it practically encompassed the surrounding air in a sphere. Why isn't this phasing this guy!?

Jafar kicked Jules in the chest and knocked him back a few steps. "How do you do that? Become one with your Vessel."

"I don't know," Jules said. "I'm special, I guess. Why are you unharmed?"

"Because I'm much stronger than you." Jafar swept back in, and Jules was on the defense.

He's right, Kiddo! You're not gonna make it out of here alive.

I need you, you goateed geezer!

« Integrate » [Jules]

"Ahaha! I thought you'd never ask, Jules!"

Still restrained, Jafar studied him and Jules grew in size, and the white samurai armor morphed from his existing armor.

"No time to waste, old man. Ryoku's low."

"Are you talking to your Ves—"

Jules, Kaizen, and Rukia pressed Jafar backward until they struck and dented the cavern's stone walls

"You wanted to fight three-on-one? Well you got it, motherfuckerrrr!"

"Quiet, Rukia!"

"Three-on-one?" Jafar's grin returned. "If your Familiar's one, then who's the other, I wonder?"

"See, you loud-mouthed fox!?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Oh, but I need to. But first, I think I'll call on another friend, myself." Jafar head-butted Jules then slipped out the side. He raised up his left hand, which was covered in a fingerless black glove with a white skull imprinted on it, by his head like claw.

« « Reap, Masrur! » » [Jafar]

"What the hell is that, old man?"

"Old man?" Jafar asked.

No, I meant the idiot inside me!

"I think you have me mistaken for my master. I am the Desert Mouse, pride pupil of The Nomad." Jafar lunged at them, and Jules, Rukia, and Kaizen all swung the Sound of Fury with their full might.

Jafar clasped the wooden sword in his hand, and each struggled to overpower the other—but Jules knew it was lost. Upon impact, he'd felt the brittle snap.