Wrath Reincarnated

JULES

Jules lunged at the feral Warg and activated an Inked Art to summon a sword, as the Sound was effectively useless broken, and without Kaizen or Rukia around, even more so. The indigo katana's aura shifted around the blade as Jules plunged it into the Warg's side. Damn thing turned its head just in time—Why do I always hit the side!?

It twisted its hide and kicked Jules in the chest with its hind legs and knocked him to the ground. Even the beast's hooves were smoldering in flames, but the Potion at least kept Jules' skin from getting damaged too much this early. The Warg spun around to face Jules directly, then lowered its massive rack of antlers. It charged at him, and Jules leapt and rolled to the side to narrowly avoid a collision. Jules spun back up to his feet as the Warg arced back around for another charge. He lifted his sword up and pointed it straight at the beast's hand, then let go.

« Air » [Jules]

The blade shot like an arrow straight through the Warg. It ripped an ever-expanding hole along the thing's spine and eviscerated it whole, into chunks of meat and scraps of skin. Jules' sword disintegrated into the air after contact was broken, so he summoned a new one, ready to fight another Leshen, should it come out of the woodworks. Everything's cyclical here.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Instead of a Leshen, three Wargs rose from the same hillside. How? I should have heard them, or at least smelled them—Oh, that's right.

« Speed » [Jules]

Jules reinforced his legs just in time, as the trio of feral Wargs launched a three-tiered assault at him. He evaded side-to-side and even leapt over one to avoid any contact. If one knocks me down, the others will be ready to stomp me down. Gotta play safe and only strike when there's little to no risk.

They danced around each other like a group of bulls and a matador, constantly charging and trying to kick Jules down. Wait for it—Now!

Jules repeated the same assault on the previous Warg after he managed to finally line up all three of these Wargs, and they met the same end as the first.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

A herd of hooves approached over the same hill, a group of five rabid Wargs appeared. Great. They just keep coming.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Sweet Salvos that is annoying the shit out of me! And I need to hear where these new ones are coming from, but that damn sound is practically drowning them out. The thumping inside his mind fused with the thumping of hooves, as over a dozen Wargs chased Jules through the Shrine forest.

"Aaaa-oooooooo!!" That's a new sound. Somewhere far off in the distance, in the direction Jules was being chased toward, some new beast howled into the night sky.

New plan—forget about the Wargs, forget about the Boss until I find Rukia. Then we stop that Savlos-damned thumping first, then kill everything else in sight. Sounds like a great plan, actually.

Jules ran over the peak of a hill and skidded to a halt, as another set of Wargs rushed him from head-on, and now he was pinched.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Jules' eye twitched. Getting awfully tired of this shit. Do I kill them all? Seems like they're just replaced with more each time. Rukia? Rukia!? Can you hear me? Bah, no time. What if I…?

Jules allowed the Wargs to get closer to him from all sides. None of them were bold enough to rush in quite yet, thank Salvos, and Jules charged up a Script he'd been the victim of a few times over.

«« Spellbinding Circle »» [Jules]

The Script erupted from Jules' palm as a transmutation circle disc that grew out from him concentrically and froze all of the Wargs in place. It was immediately effective, but would only last so long as the Ryoku draw was intense, so he decided to freeze them for good measure while they were trapped.

« Ice » [Jules]

OK, now to find Rukia. Jules fled into the forest in search for his Familiar, and away from the howling in the distance. He ran down to a flattened area where the trees grew thickest and sprinted over fallen branches, cracking and snapping them. A whistling sound came from overhead. Jules spun around and saw the massive trunk plummeting from the sky, straight at him. He dove to the side, and the Leshen that'd thrown it stalked over to him and howled.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

On his back, Jules sighed and banged his head into the hard dirt, then he got up to face it. "I'm a lot stronger since we last fought. I unlocked my System, and I almost beat you single handedly before then. This time shouldn't be any different."

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The Lesh clenched its fists and slammed them into its chest. When its gaze leveled back on Jules, a glint of light glimmered on its skull. Ah, that must be the tsuba. I might be able to defeat this Shrine without anyone's help after all.

Jules half-expected like his arrogance would jinx him, and he hesitated, but Wrath's words never came.

«« Summon Sword »» « Fire » [Jules]

Jules set his Voided sword on fire as soon as he summoned it, then rushed in. Vines fell down from the canopy and tried to ensnare Jules, but he spun around like a madman-fueled tornado and sliced them to pieces; he landed, then leapt up to the Lesh's stone mask and plunged his blade straight through its skull. They crashed down to the ground, and Jules put his palm beside his sword.

«« Flames of Hell »» [Jules]

The Script incinerated the beast immediately, and even Jules had to leap back and away from the inferno that broke past his Potion's last line of defense, where he could still feel the searing heat on his skin. While he waited for the flames to die down, two creaking noises sounded on either side of him. Damn Wargs must be back. I just need to rush in and grab that piece of the Sound and—

A massive arm swiped Jules and sent him flying into the trees, where he was eventually caught in a web of branches. Orange flames singed from Jules' eyes. What in the hell!? Three Leshens approached him now.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

"So you aren't the Boss this time? Ahhh, you gotta be kidding me!" Jules unstuck himself from the tree and fell gracefully to the ground. He waved his arms around in the air into a pose, in order to control the fiery flames of hell, which funneled into a point.

« Wildfire » [Jules]

The flames erupted like a wall that rushed for the other three Leshens, but Jules made sure to spread the flames out enough to cripple them as well, lest they continue multiplying like the damned Wargs. And then he hauled ass.

"Rukia!" Jules repeated over and over again as he ran back to the howling beast, past the Wargs. As he ran, his fingertips and toes began to tingle, like they were being stabbed by pins and needles. The pain and battle fatigue he'd accumulated from his various fights began to drift away as well. He'd received every degree of burn from own Flames of Hell spell, and he looked down at it, half-expecting it to have Regenerated already.

Nope. Still there, oily and bleeding. Third degree burns don't hurt because you sever your nerves, but they're always accompanied by second- and first-degree burns around the transitional edges. This should hurt like hell! He stopped.

« Activate » [Jules]

[Inked Art Consumed: Heal]

Jules concentrated the Script to spot-heal these wounds only, as it would affect his combat the most. Oil bubbled out and skin reformed and filled in the gaps, and soon it looked like he'd only had a minor burn. But why don't I feel any relief? He flexed his arm and formed a fist over and over again, with varying degrees of clenching force; and no matter how hard he squeezed, he could barely tell the difference.

Jules took a few steps back in disbelief of his own body, then he looked down at his feet. He could no longer tell if he was on solid ground, if he had any balance, or if his feet were even touching the ground.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

From the corner of his vision, Jules saw the first of several Wargs charging at him. Jules instinctively took a step back to take a defensive stance, but his vision shifted up to the sky, and he wobbled back and forth. Oh Salvos—I've lost my sense of touch.

The Warg charged straight into Jules' chest, and Jules grabbed it—or tried to—as best he could. Without any sensation of pain, or even balance, Jules' vision shifted around wherever his eyes faced. I'm on the ground.

« Fire » [Jules]

Jules blasted the Warg's chest and flung it off of him. Jules wobbled to his feet and his whipped around back and forth like a toddler just learning how to walk. Fuck fuck fuck. This is really bad. How can I fight if I can't feel!? Smoke rose up to Jules' eyes, and he noticed his own clothes were on fire. He dropped and rolled immediately, though he only fell to his knees and he kept arching his back to try and roll, and his vision just took in the night sky. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck—work on your neck first, work on your line of sight.

« Wawa »

« Wabaa »

« Wuhwa »

Dammit, not even my tongue is working right! No Scripts, no combat. How can I get out of here? Hooves approached him cautiously. Maybe my erratic behavior is freaking them out—Oh!

Jules looked at the ground, which grew further and further away from him. One of them launched me into the sky? Ah, of course I didn't feel it—Oh shit!! If I don't land right, I'll snap my neck!

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Jules closed his eyes and meditated. Find the wavelengths around me. Use that to feel out my surroundings, and control my own body. OK—Straightening out…now! He opened his eyes, and once again, he was upside down, and the world went completely black.

Am I dead? Wait, no—that sound. It's… Bubbles?

Oh fuck. I'm drowning.

Jules found a source of light to determine which way was up, and then with all his concentration, kicked his legs and swam his arms desperately, until he finally broke the surface of the lake. The shore lied nearby, and after some time Jules made it to dry land—though wet and dry had no meaning to him right now. He heard himself involuntarily hack up water, and his vision kept jerking up and down. Normally it would have made him dizzy or off-balance, but that didn't exist to him anymore, either.

OK. I can see. I can hear. I can meditate. How can I use those to—

Jules… Help… Me….

"Lugia!?" Jules shouted with a fat tongue. Rukia—Is that you? I'm at the lake—where are you? I've lost my senses. Are yours still in tact? Rukia? Rukia!?

No answer arrived, and luckily neither did any enemies. That Warg must have really flung me far away. They'll be here soon though. Think of a plan. How am I going to win?

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Jules would have tried to rip his ears off if he could. The sound was maddening and deafening, all at the same time. It reminded him of the Tree of Wishes, of his next Shrine to find inside Mount Fury. Of not knowing where the fuck this piece of the Sound was.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

He thought of Jafar and Seraphina. How one seemed to be working with The Iron Maiden, and the other probably at her mercy, or lack thereof. The Magi. The Apocalypse. It's all getting to be too much, too much to handle and juggle at once. And now the Sound…

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Wait—That's it.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

That sound is the Sound.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Jules closed his eyes and focused on where it could be coming from. The heart beat one more time, inside his own chest, but also far away—right where the beast howled.

Rukia.