Feeling the air rush across his burning skin... Jack lit up into a blaze as his body spun and maneuvered the falling blades...
'Just a little further...'
"COME ON!" He screamed backfiring a devastating burst of infernal energy behind in hopes of more momentum...
'NO!' Jack gasped, feeling his speed slow as Callahan's face lit up with that same cocky grin...
Only a few meters away... Jack stopped, gripping a fiery blade with white knuckles and his mouth agape as gravity began to take hold...
Far below...
Blood flowed from a pair of emerald eyes as his own flames radiated outwards with unmoving resolve...
BOOM!
Chase soared upwards, outstretching his hand as a second flaming wing formed on Jack's back...
Jack's eyes widened in shock, as Chase's bloody grin began to fall to the ground with his body...
'He doesn't plan to his sync his flames with my movements... Not in that state... Does he?' Jack's thoughts shocked him back to the moment. His body burning violently as he let out a roar, and flashed forward with a shockwave of two separate flames...
CLANG!
The crowd let out a gasp, Jack's face twisting into a snarl...
"Is this some sort of sick joke?!" He screamed, clashing with Callahan once again.
Flames erupted from every direction as countless chains of metal reeled down from above.
Clang!
Clang!
Jack tore through the storm of chains with a ferocious roar, dashing forward with several chain reactions of infernal shockwaves.
For a split second... Callahan's eyebrow shot up in fear as Jack closed the distance between them in nearly an instant.
BOOM!
A chunk of metal appeared between them, exploding with pieces of shrapnel scattering across the arena.
...
Poppy gasped, finding Chase on his back in a large pile of debris, a slab of stone pinning him to the ground below.
However, Chase was wearing a grin of steel as his unbroken concentration kept his eyes locked onto the fight above, knowing that it could very well be their end if Jack lost this battle...
"Justin! Jackal! Somebody help get this damn rock off him!" Poppy yelled, gripping a side of the giant slab and using her spear to try to pry the debris off of her ally...
It didn't even budge, blood and sweat dripping down from her ivory crown.
"Go... Help... Him..." Chase winced, his eyes glowing a violent green...
Poppy turned her gaze towards Callahan and Jack's duel... Watching as the sky mirrored the fireworks from earlier that night...
...
As if stuck inside of a trance... Griffin shoved past countless people... All of which seemed to be in a daze of their own... Watching as they assumed that their vision had betrayed them...
A floating comet of metals hovered in the sky above... Threatening death to all in the city as the might of none other than Callahan radiated throughout the streets of Seh Jenah...
A terrible dread corroded the bard's inner thoughts, telling him instinctively that something was clearly very wrong...
He could smell death...
He pushed a jester aside, his eyes widening as he watched the friends he had accompanied through one of the deadliest journeys of his life: Battle one of the most powerful Paladins in the South-East of Vallmora...
He fell to his knees...
...
Jackal snarled, his onyx eyes locked onto the large crowd of Beast-kin in the far corner of the crater, cowering underneath the remnants of one of the higher floors...
Justin scratched his chin, his eyes darting between Callahan and the endangered group of people...
"We need to find a way to either get him on the ground... Or get ourselves up to him..." He muttered, seeing Poppy in the corner of his eye.
She was pointing at something...
Justin tilted his head, trying to find the thing that she wanted him and Jackal to see...
"Wait..." Jackal tapped Justin's shoulder, his eyes narrowing in on only one possible location.
BOOM!
Jack flipped upside down, sending an explosion of flames point blank at Callahan's face.
He recoiled, turning and launching a terrible slash with his metallic greatsword.
Jack twisted, launching another point blank explosion to knock both Callahan and his blade back a notch.
Callahan grit his teeth, his eyes glancing around the crater below.
"Damnit Oren..." He growled, summoning several metal spikes and launching them at Jack.
His wings fluttered, burning straight into his spine...
In an infernal explosion, he dodged the spikes... Now going straight for Callahan, his flaming blade shining under the moonlight...
The last thing Jack seen... Was Callahan's horrible grin...
...
Chase watched in horror as a colossal metal arm reached up and grabbed Jack from the air, slamming him into the crater's wall and dragging him straight through stone and metal alike.
Chase's vision pulsated between bright colors and pure darkness...
His body began to grow numb, his senses betraying his un-surrendering mind...
"Lift!" He screamed, beginning to push on the slab piercing into his side...
CLANG!
Poppy spear dug into the ground, pinning it between her back and the slab...
the both of them pushed, a loud tremble running through the ground as they just barely got the slab into the air.
Blood began to rush out from Chase's several wounds, but he persisted grabbing at the ground and pulling himself out of the debris, while at the same time using his feet to push the slab away from him.
He immediately collapsed, catching himself with his bloody fist as crimson liquid rained down from his hair and face...
Poppy crouched down next to him, fumbling with her torn up belt bag.
"It's fine..." He growled, his breaths resembling that of a wild animal...
She pulled a shattered vial with a deep crimson liquid bubbling up at the bottom, dripping from its edges as what looked like a healing potion had been completely destroyed in the previous battle.
She frowned, holding the shattered potion above his head and grabbing him by the hair with her other, forcing him to drink the remainder of the potion.
He choked and gagged, slamming the ground with his right fist.
Poppy deflected an incoming meteor of metal, cussing as her spear rung her hands from the impact.
Chase forced himself to stand, watching as Jack launched from a giant crater in the wall and returned to the fight...
Suddenly... A familiar voice spoke in the real world...
"Wait!" Luna yelled, putting a hand on Chase's back and immediately forcing her energy reserves into his Catalyst...
Poppy let out a sigh of relief, wiping the blood from her own face.
"You guys just need to hold him off for a little bit longer... Backup is almost here..."
Chase grit his trembling teeth.
"How long?" He asked, looking down at his quaking hands...
Luna and Poppy grimaced... Glancing between Chase and the scene of Jack getting launched into the ground and pummeled with several metallic comets...
"Maybe five minutes... I hope..." She mumbled the last part, causing Chase to feel dread rise in his stomach...