Chapter 10

Jack’s foot was planted squarely in Knife-girl’s stomach as they came crashing down towards the forest floor.

Boom!

There was a sharp crack and Jack felt lightning shoot up his feet. His right leg had taken the full force of the fall, and Jack found himself falling head over heels as he lost his footing. Everything happened in a blur. The world spun around him as he rolled on the ground to break his fall until he finally crashed into a bush which stopped his intimate reunion with the forest floor.

Leaves rained down on him and bits of twigs and foliage found its way up his hair. Groaning, Jack tried to get up but his body was still in the midst of processing the sudden assault on its system. The pain took a while to build up, but when it finally came, it hit him like a freight train greeting a car making an illegal crossing.

“Aggghh!”

His entire body seized up in protest. Everything around him sounded dull and muted like he was underwater and his ears were filled with a constant, shrill, ringing noise. There was a steady rhythmic beat that he could hear in the background but he couldn’t tell what it was with the blood clogging his ears.

Jack struggled to his feet with some difficulty by channeling his mana to the problem areas. Gingerly, he tested his foot boosted by mana and took a single step. He knew he would regret doing so but he had no choice in the matter. The exam wasn’t going to be completed on its own.

There was a slight limp in his gait but it will have to do. He should have known better than to pull off stunts like that. It was better to leave the acrobatics to Warrior maniacs like Tanner.

Knife-girl was lying a few feet away from him and looked in a much worse state than before. The girl was coughing out blood which leaked out of her face mask covering her mouth and nose. She glared at Jack with bloodshot eyes and judging by her twitchy head movements, she was cursing out Jack while choking on her own blood. Jack, on the other hand, couldn’t hear a word of it.

His ears were still shot and the shrill ringing in his head just wouldn’t stop. Turning his head away from Knife-girl’s solo performance, Jack struck the side of his head until he felt his ears pop. A trickle of blood spilled out and all the sounds around him suddenly became a lot clearer. The mysterious dull rhythmic sound that he had been hearing till now was a lot more obvious now and Jack broke out into a cold sweat when he realized what exactly it was.

“Shit! The Bison.”

The sound of thundering hoofbeats was fast approaching and Jack didn’t have a minute to spare. He hobbled over to Knife-girl drawing out the hunting knife that he kept out of the battle till now. It was time to finish it. All loose ends needed to be tied up.

The purple edge of the blade glinted sinisterly and Knife-girl’s eyes were transfixed on the weapon as Jack advanced on her. She struggled even more violently trying to move her broken right arm to take hold of her knives but it was to no avail. Her injuries were too severe. Seeing her useless arm refused to obey her commands she turned her death glare towards Jack. If looks could kill he would have dropped dead right then and there. With an unwavering amount of determination, she moved her broken arm to lightly touch one of her knives which started glowing blue. She was about to send the knife flying but Jack was a step faster. His foot came down hard on her wrist and there was an audible snap.

A muffled groan came out of Knife-girl who was still glaring at Jack with her eyes spitting fire. She refused to scream. Her eyes were still defiant and guttural sounds came out of her mouth as she tried to curse out Jack, nearly choking on the blood that was coming out of her mouth.

Jack looked at the girl with grudging respect. She truly was unbendable. The girl looked like she was still ready to kick his ass which made what he was about to do all the more difficult. Taking a deep breath Jack angled the hunting knife under Knife-girl’s jaw. It was time to end it.

The Bisondon herd was very close. Judging by the sound they would be here in about a minute or two. He needed to be gone by then. Knife-girl went still sensing the cold steel resting under her chin. For the first time, Jack saw fear in her eyes.

The ground started shaking ever so slightly announcing the arrival of Bison but the two ignored the sounds, staring into each other’s eyes. Knife-girl’s chest moved up and down as she started breathing rapidly, sensing her impending death.

‘Do it.’ Jack willed himself to make the cut. A myriad of thoughts ran through his head as he pressed the blade against her jugular. This was fine. This was Just. She attacked first. She almost killed Soja. This was Justice. One slice and all their troubles would cease. The girl underneath him shivered seeing his cold gaze. Hazel eyes met silver as the sickle of death loomed above the two teenagers.

Jack willed himself to move but his arm wouldn’t budge. He knew he should eliminate her to avoid future troubles but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. The path of the warrior was clear and even Tanner would agree that slaying an enemy trying to kill you was just. Even knowing that, something about this felt extremely wrong.

Jack let out a tired sigh. He needed to leave. The Bison would soon overrun this place and he needed to be out of here by then. That said, there was one last thing that he felt compelled to do before he left. Leaning forward he reached for her mask.

“Let’s see that face of yours.”

There was a panicked look on Knife-girl’s face as he angled the hunting knife towards the bottom half of her mask. It was glued on tight with all the blood that was coming out of her mouth and he needed to cut it free, lest she drowns in her own blood.

A muffled groan of protest escaped from Knife-girl as he sliced the mask from the neck up with slow deliberate movements. The sickly pale skin of her neck was exposed as he slowly lifted the cutup mask. The vampire like skin tone didn’t match the rest of her face and Jack guessed that it had been years since she last received direct sunlight anywhere under where her face mask used to be. The weird change in skin coloration was one thing but nothing could have prepared what he saw next.

Her neck was riddled with scars. Angry red scars crisscrossed across every inch of her skin, like a macabre strokes of a mad painter on a canvas that was her flesh. The smaller ones were almost unnoticeable but there were two big ones that drew the most attention. One ran across her neck going from ear to ear while the other looked like someone had taken a butcher’s cleaver to her neck and sternum, trying to split her in half.

Confused and shocked by the gruesome display, Jack’s blood ran cold thinking of the cold precision of the cuts. Someone had gone across great lengths to keep her alive while doing this to her. How was she not dead?

The mask was fully removed now and the stench of blood and bile hit Jack full in the face. The bottom half of Knife-girl’s face was caked in blood, giving her a ghastly visage straight out of someone’s nightmares but under all that blood she wasn’t the hardened warrior that he had been expecting. A heart shaped face with a pointed chin and big almond eyes that could stare deep into your soul. Her sharp features gave her a rugged charm and combined with her formidable confidence she would have been quite striking if she had her mask off. That said, her earlier confidence had all but evaporated now and Knife-girl was staring at the blade in Jack’s hand with undisguised terror like it was out of her worst nightmares.

‘She is scared of knives?’ Jack wondered as the girl started shivering slightly. That was odd considering how many knives she uses. He put away the hunting knife back into its sheath and his eyes fell on the scars again. Then again, he couldn’t blame her judging by the gruesome tale that was carved on her neck. Jack stared at the scars some more when he noticed a change in Knife-girl. The shivering had stopped.

His eyes darted back to her face and saw Knife-girl staring back at him. The earlier fear was gone. As if in a trance her eyes traveled downward to see her mask cut open and her mutilations displayed for everyone to see. Slowly her confused face changed from panic and fear into pure loathing and madness. Her entire face contorted with rage and with an agonizing effort she tried to angle her head towards Jack. More blood spilled out of her lips and her mouth opened with a hiss.

Jack’s heart started beating fast and he felt pinpricks on the back of his neck. He had been through this before. It was Déjà vu, a gnawing sense of doubt in his mind which quickly transformed into a premonition of impending doom. His mind started to whirl and he heard Tanner and Soja calling out to him from afar, warning him of his demise.

‘Who says Reavers have to be sane.’

‘Pretend to get knocked out… and gut the first person that approaches.’

Knife-girl’s mouth fully opened and an intense sense of crisis hit Jack and his intuition told him to retreat immediately. Resting on her tongue was a glowing blade aimed straight at his face.

“DIE, BRITON!”

Time stood still as Jack's mind began to go into overdrive. Everything moved so slowly as a million thoughts rushed through Jack's head. Knife-girl’s mouth opened up and Jack could feel the sudden surge of mana building up in her mouth. The glowing blue blade was blinding to his eyes and soon that was all he could see. At this point, he didn't know whether the light was coming from the blade in her mouth or if it was the light at the end of the tunnel. Thousands of voices silently screamed willing him to live.

"Jackie." A girl with a bell-like voice called out to him.

His pupils dilated to pinpoints and his breath came out in a fog. In his left hand was the beast pills that he had been using till now. There was no time for conscious thought and his hands moved automatically. It was pure intuition. In the same motion that he had seen Knife-girl throw her blades so many times, Jack tossed out a scarlet red pill right into her mouth.

Womp!

The pill exploded in her mouth, jerking her head upwards. A blinding blue glow flashed by, leaving a sharp shrill ringing in his right ear as Knife-girl’s blade grazed by his cheek leaving a bloody streak across his face.

Time returned to normal and a shrill scream broke Jack out of his trance. The very last thing he saw was Knife-girl disappearing into a cloud of red dust before he too was engulfed by a sea of red.

“Scheiße!”

Covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve he made a run for it, desperately trying to find his way out of the smoke. All he could see was red, making it impossible to judge the right way out. His lungs were burning with the lack of oxygen as he rushed about. It seemed like an eternity when Jack finally broke out of the dust cloud with aching lungs and stinging eyes.

It was only when he was safely up a tree and about fifty feet away from Knife-girl that he truly felt safe. Standing on the tree branch he could see Knife-girl still stuck in the smoke, wheezing and coughing her lungs out. The red dust cloud grew in size as the winds picked up and Jack subconsciously took a step back. Knife-girl’s writhing form disappeared behind the growing dust cloud as the red mist turned opaque.

The ground started shaking and the sounds of thundering hoofbeats filled the forest. The angry roars of the raging bulls were clearer than ever and judging by the sound, they were all headed in this direction. Jack gave the shifting red cloud one last look before taking off. Channeling his mana throughout his beat-up body, Jack forced himself to run uphill towards the waterfall. There was no time for regrets. In the end, his choices never really matter when the results ended up being the same. The pills combined with the incoming Bison could mean only one outcome for the girl.

“Goodbye, Knife-girl.” He breathed out. “I didn’t even know your name.”

Jack rushed uphill with renewed determination to meet up with his two brothers. He would finish this exam one way or the other and get them out of this meat grinder alive.