Chapter 35: A minute

Peter stood, completely unharmed, not a scratch or grave to be seen as he slowly opened his eyes. A humored breath left Rylan as he fell to his knees, relief draining the energy out of his body, he let go of Peter's wrist and drew him into a tight hug.

“It worked.” He muttered quietly, his grip tightening around Peters body till it was now as deadly as the arrows.

“Rylan you're squashing me.” He cried playfully as he continuously tapped on Rylan's back.

“Shit, sorry.” Rylan apologized, gently pushing him away, he stared for a long moment. He was grateful, grateful it had worked, grateful that his last minute gamble had paid off. Since the first time he'd used Arkana to strengthen himself Rylan formed a theory, if he could strengthen himself then the obvious evolution of such a technique would be to strengthen other things not connected to him, already doing it instinctively with his clothes but since he'd been focused on avoiding any sort of conflict instead of his own growth he'd postponed expanding on that theory till that very risky second. He cupped peters face in his hands and smiled again.

“I told you, I'll keep you—”

“Fucking Hell Rylan!!!” The voice reminded them of where exactly it is they were, they turned to the origin of the voice and there he stood, in all his bloody glory, Jakob, with a grin so wide it must've physically hurt.

“Every fucking time I think I got a handle on your power you go ahead and shatter my expectations!”

Rylan forced himself to his feet and stared at him, his breaths were uneven, exhaustion made it hard to stay on his feet, noticing this, Peter discretely came closer and allowed Rylan to use him as support.

“We can't let him see.” Peter said quietly even though Jakob would need to be omnipotent to hear them from this distance, Rylan turned to him and the look in his eyes—it should never belong to a kid. He sighed and turned his attention back to Jakob.

“What if I didn't, what if those arrows had killed me, what then?!” Rylan shouted back

“what’d I tell ya Rylan, I trust my gut!”

Rylan gritted his teeth at the response, an effort at restraining himself from rushing into a fight he'd loose but with every sentence that left Jakob's mouth he could feel his restraint being chipped away.

“I'll make you pay for this!” He shouted without thinking.

“How? You can barely stand without support!” Jakob responded like he was genuinely curious as to how it was Rylan thought he could make that happen. “You can't run Rylan dragging you down and we outnumber you so I'm curious Rylan, How are you gon make me pay?!”

Fuckkkk, Rylan inwardly cussed. He could not think of a way of getting out of this, he needed to stall, stall till he could think of something, stall till a means of escaping came to him.

“So what was the plan? Kill the kid and force me to work for you?” he asked, seriously hoping that he was feeling chatty enough to give an answer. He was.

“Maybe, what do you think?”

“Me. I think you don't know what you're doing, I think you're way out of your depth and just haven't realized it yet!” Please, please, please, please respond, Rylan begged but somehow managed to keep his face straight.

His smile lessened but remained present. “Is that what you think?”

“What I think? What i think is that you're a weak man who happened to get lucky cause a few idiots think you're some kind of leader.” Rylan shouted, hoping to get an agitated reaction but all that followed was a long pause that stretched uncomfortably till he covered his face and a chuckle sounded, transforming into soft laughter, the volume gradually increasing till it had become a loud maniacal cackle then it abruptly stopped. The silence that followed felt threatening, Rylan readied himself for an attack, his eyes moving from Anel to him and glancing over each and every one of the players that stood behind them but they did not move. They all stayed, eyes fixed on him and blank expressions on their faces as Jakob slowly took his hands off his own face and turned his attention to Rylan, He smiled.

“You're stalling Rylan.” Jakob accused, he straightened and continued. “You're stalling cause you know you're screwed, so it don’t matter how much time you can buy, a minute, an hour, a day, it don't matter, Your situation ain't gon change. You'll still be screwed.”

One of the players at the very end shifted, Rylan's eyes snapped to him but he hadn't moved, his eyes immediately snapped back to Jakob but something had changed, Anel was no longer there, they'd taken advantage of his overstimulated sense to—a heavy fist slammed into his stomach, lifting him off the ground and knocking the air out of his lungs, He crumbled to his knees and Anel stood before him, her cold eyes looking down on his weakend form. The look in her eyes shifted to one of disgust, her mouth twisted as she said the words.

“Pathetic.”

“Rylan!” Peter shouted, flailing his hands about in an effort to attack, tsk, the sound distinct as she kicked Peter away.

“Pete!” Rylan screamed but was rendered quiet as a kick landed on his face sending him falling sideways. Blood dripped from his nose and she place her heel on his head, a victorious smile curving her soft lips.

\[HP: 50/100\]

The notification obstructing the view of his own blood dropping to the floor, he clenched his fist, but even in this position, a smile crossed his lips even as she twisted her heel, his circumstance had been dire—up until a moment ago at least, With every bit of force he could muster, he pushed himself off the ground destabilizing her and sending her stumbling backwards, He wasted not even a moment as he attacked, A right hook strengthened with an absurd amount of Arkana that’ll he would most definitely regret using and even in her destabilized position, She dodged it and countered with an attack of her own but without footing it was easily evaded, He stepped on her stable foot and kept her in place, He'd had a moment of rest, no matter how brief so, he tried again, it worked.

\[Mothlight activated\]

He unleashed a flurry of punches, every single one hitting its target till it deactivated, her eyes had rolled back and blood streamed down her nose, he released her feet and landed one more punch that sent her flying backwards and crashing into a tree and breaking it into half with ease. His body steamed, heat rushing through every part of him but he remained standing. He was thankful for whatever it was that made her despise him so much cause if not for it she wouldn't have made that mistake and he wouldn't have been able to beat her. He turned on his heel.

“Peter!” He shouted as he ran to check on the boy's condition. As he was a few steps away he felt a tug on the back of his shirt followed by a pull he couldn't fight against as Jakob tossed him into a tree.

“You really forgot about me didn't you, RYLAN!!”