The next thing Kael knew, he had already acted. His left fist was rammed deep into the belly of Jason. The impact had the teen bend over, bringing his face right in line with Kaels swinging right. Kael gave his opponent no chance to react, and when his fist collided with Jason's face, he held nothing back. He was fighting purely on instinct at this point.

The sudden ferocity was somewhat explained by his anger and rage, but there was also something else at play here. Not that he had made the calculation rationally, but a 1vs2 seemed like a much more winnable proposal than 1vs3. To that end, his body was still in motion. Using the energy from his right, he rotated his hips left and right, transferring some of the power into a follow-up attack.

His left shot out in a hook and caught Jason's dropping head right on the chin. Jason simply dropped. Like a marionette with its strings cut, he collapsed on the ground. Behind the thin barrier of calm and reason shielding his mind, his emotions were still raging. His knuckles and arms were in pain from the strange movements and impacts, but he could not stop here. There was a task to complete. The only thing that mattered right now was to stop this piece of trash from hurting Lucy or anyone else.

One last look down confirmed Jason as unconscious or worse, and Kael turned to his two remaining opponents. They had taken a step back and were screaming something unimportant while stretching their hands above their heads. Keeping his ears peeled for any sign of movement by the two goons, he knelt down beside Green.

Expecting broken bones and internal bleeding, Kael carefully tried to turn the teen over. At his touch, he felt Green flinching, confirming that he was still alive at least. The murmuring and groaning that accompanied his work somewhat rectified his sudden actions. Rushing into danger like this was not something he would normally do.

Once he had Green uncurled, he saw the full extent of his injuries. All in all, he had been lucky. Bruises all over the arms and legs, combined with a broken nose, appeared to be the worst of it. Kael could see spots of blue and cuts scattered all over the teen's face, a testament to the abuse Jason had inflicted upon him. That was to be expected. So were the tear stains, still visible even after they had dried. What he was not expecting, however, was that Green was awake and staring at him.

Kael had expected pain, anger, fear, even relief. What he got, however, were wide-open eyes that spoke of shock and confusion. The boy looked like he had just met a movie star at the gas station. Kael was slightly disturbed by the reaction but attributed it to the absurdity of the situation. There were simply more important things to think about right now.

“Are you ok? Do you need an ambulance? The police?” Looking over the rest of his body as he searched for injuries he had missed, he asked questions. “Do you have a smartphone? Can you stand? Walk?“ A nod of the head was all he got. Before he could ask more clarifying questions, however, a loud screech stopped him dead in his tracks. The scream, he realized it was now, sounded like it should have been impossible for any human throat to produce.

Turning around, Kael saw Jason, decidedly not unconscious anymore, sitting up and screaming his rage into the sky. There was something profoundly unsettling about the whole thing, and Kael decided it was time to go. Jumping up, he stretched out a hand behind him. “Get up, we need to run.” Eyes never leaving the still screaming boy, Kael felt a hand in his. Pulling, Green was back on his feet.

Seemingly defying the human need for oxygen, the scream still had not stopped. Terror welled up in Kael's stomach when strange, small whisps of black began swirling all around Jason. He had no idea what was happening but after his encounter with the archmage... Kael felt it best to vacate the premise at once. There would be time to contemplate black stuff coming out of a screaming teen later. Twisting to his right, Kael moved towards the alley's exit. That was until something restrained his arms from behind.

Kael tried to get free. He was twisting and pushing against his bonds, but the iron-like grip on his arms held. Turning his head, he tried to identify what was holding his arms. Behind him, he saw Jason. The motes of black seemed to have somehow solidified and were now wrapped around his arms like tentacles. The iron-like grip on his arms was scary, but what really terrified Kael was the distorted face of Jason, staring back at him.

Something was going very wrong here, and he had no clue what to do. Redoubling his efforts to break free, Kael tried to twist himself out of his shackles. In response, the ropes of solidified black smoke that bound him tightened, making him cry out in pain. There was nothing but pain for Kael. At least until the pain suddenly ended. Ripping his eyes open, Kael saw his rescuee. Shining green hands were in the process of tearing the shadowy tentacles from his arm. With his help, they managed to free Kael and restarted their escape.

They had just made it a few meters down the alley when Kael heard a shout, followed by an impact on his right shoulder. The shock threw his entire right side forward, disrupting his movement. Pain racing through his shoulder, he lost his balance. Unable to stop his momentum, he had no choice but to dive forward in a controlled manner.

The impact on the hard concrete floor drove the air out of his lungs. Using his forward momentum, Kael ignored the pain in his shoulder and bounced back up on his feet to continue their escape. Disoriented and in pain, Kael had trouble focusing on his movements and almost did not notice when he heard laughter from somewhere behind him.

“YES! THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE! Scum! Falling to their knees before the great me! Now, beg for forgiveness from your god, ant.” Uninterested in the ramblings of a teen calling himself a god, Kael continued running, doing his utmost to get away from said lunatic. “HAHA! Yes, scramble, resist, try. This will only make your desperation more delicious. Oh how I do love breaking those like you.”

He had just caught back up to Green, when suddenly, instincts he did not even know he had rung alarm bells in his mind. Purely on instinct, he reacted. Kael, already in motion, immediately used the momentum to dodge to his right, pushing Green in the opposite direction. His reaction was not a moment too soon as it turned out.

Something dark flew past his head, right where he had been running just now, at high speed. Leaving only its shadowy trail and the crack of impact as it hit something in the distance. He still had no clue what he had just dodged but was quite sure that being hit by whatever it was would be a bad idea if the sound its impact had made on the wall was any indication. Before panic could grip him, Kael heard Green's voice from his side. “Jason. What are you doing?! What about the statutes? Do you even care about your life?!”

Question marks danced above his head while Kael tried to combat his fear, listening to what Green and Jason were saying. “Oh? And who is going to report me after I am done with the two of you? HAHAHA! You should see your face right now Martin! Yes that is it, give me more. MORE! Fear me! Hate me! Worship me!” - “Fuck. Run!” Kael did not need to be told twice and took off as fast as he could.