A few moments later, Jax was starting to regret taking this particular path
"Damn it!"
Jax leapt backward, narrowly avoiding a monstrously fast jab. A violent gust of air blew past the spot he'd been standing a moment earlier, cracking the rocky tunnel.
The blind man had moved so fast that Jax barely registered the movement before the man appeared in front of him.
Before he could recover, a second hand flashed past him, grabbing at his clothes.
Jax felt a stab of pain flare through his side, but he just barely managed to leap back.
"Damn it."
He bit back a curse, lingering for a while while mentally assessing the damage. Taking his eyes off the blind man would be just too treacherous a choice.
He edged forward cautiously, his tracking the silent giant's every move.
No matter how fast he moved, the blind man always seemed to know exactly where he was.
"Is this monster really blind?"
Just then, a second entry stumbled upon them, his eyes widening slightly in surprise, then narrowing with glee.
The entry, a dark-haired young man, paused, his gaze flicking between the two men, a hint of bewilderment crossing his face.
He took in the blood soaking through Jax's shirt and then seemingly made up his mind.
Within moments, he seemed to determine that the blindman was likely the weaker target, then rushed forward.
With a shout, the young man wildly flung himself forward toward the blind man.
Jax watched him in dark amusement.
" Fool..."
He smirked, then grinned.
" Now."
He silently dashed forward, lowering his entire body to move as fast as possible.
Jax abruptly came to a halt, stopping in his tracks.
He stared at the scene in front of him with disbelief.
"What the hell..."
The blind man straightened, then silently moved back from the body of the now lifeless young man.
Blood slowly dripped from his fingers to the wet stone floor, the rhythmic sound echoing melancholically through the tunnel.
Jax had watched the whole thing transpire, but still couldn't bring himself to accept what he'd just witnessed.
His mind churned to make sense of what had just happened.
His eyes widened when a horrific realization dawned on him.
At the point when the young man had drawn near, he'd already been dead.
"He's much stronger than me. If we continue fighting...I'll probably lose."
His lips slowly curled into a wicked, predatory grin.
"If I fight fairly, that is...
In the next moment, his biometric wristband beeped.
Jax spared it a distracted glance.
[Iminent kill streak detected: Two consecutive kills...]
Jax cursed, taking a step back.
"Calm down. If I can't beat him, at the very least, I should be able to escape. "
The blind man calmly wiped the blood of his fingers with a nonchalant expression.
"You must be quite confused right now. You're probably wondering how I can see you, right?"
Jax remained silent.
He'd already figured out that the blind man didn't require his eyes to lock in on his opponent.
The realization itself had been quite sobering.
The old man calmly strode forward, his footsteps digging into the dirt.
"Ten yards"
Jax resisted the instinctive urge to bolt immediately, staying frozen in place.
"Five yards."
The old man came to a stop, his lips curling into a faint smile.
"And you probably think that you've figured it out...but you're wrong."
Every instinct in Jax's body screamed for him to move.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl.
Jax ducked low without turning his back to the opponent and strained every muscle in his legs, planting his feet into the ground and pushing back using the momentum in his feet.
He gritted his teeth in frustration.
"I'm still too close."
At the same time, the blind man lunged forward. Despite his casual movement, he was much faster than Jax.
And similar to quick draws in the old westerns, there could only be one victor.
Jax shakily stared at the fingers digging into his abdomen, letting out a strained breath.
He strained, holding the blind man's hand in place, barring it from moving deeper into the wound on his side.
The blind man smiled.
" You're not half bad."
Jax offered him a pale smile, his arms trembling from the effort of holding the blind man's single arm in place.
" Ah shit."
A split second later, a strange cracking sound rang out through the tunnel, and a dark figure flew back, crashing into the tunnel wall with a scream.
Jax bounced off the wall with a resounding thud, crushing into the dirt below.
He landed spread-eagled with his mouth open in shock.
Strange colours and stars swam in his vision.
Jax slowly regained his senses, then bit back a groan.
A flare of pain erupted through his side, sobering him up instantly.
" Shit."
He weakly crawled back, cradling his arm.
"Damn. This guy is a monster."
As his senses returned, Jax peered through the swirling cloud of dust
The blind man slowly walked forward, then inhaled and coughed slightly.
" For one as weak as yourself, you're surprisingly tricky."
Jax inwardly snarled.
" Yeah, no shit!"
In that brief moment of their exchange, Jax's life had briefly hinged on a small window of opportunity.
Knowing he couldn't beat the old man, he'd decided to reduce the damage the old man would deal him and find a way to escape in the process.
Of course, he could have simply tucked tail and run, but then his bloodthirsty audience probably wouldn't like that.
" Damn it all."
In the end, it had come down to an insidious battle of deception, one which Jax had evidently lost.
Well, not completely.
The blind man had subtly used his body's movements, creating several feints to distract Jax into blocking several vital spots.
Earlier on, Jax had seen the man casually rip out the youth's throat without batting an eye.
In the end, Jax had simply guessed that the blind would go for his heart instead and lowered his body in time.
Instead of crushing his heart, the blind man had merely dislocated his shoulder, probably fractured a bone or two, and sent him flying.
"Well, this sucks."