[Summer – Shadow Valley Desert]
"Well, that took a turn faster than expected. Guess we are going to have to go the long, hot, desert route Poni...Onward to Boythe. Even if it takes many suns, we must get to Isaac before it's too late", stated Jennings.
They continued towards their destination with a goal in sight. Boythe was a small city on the outskirt of the humongous Shadow Valley Desert. On horseback it could take up to two weeks to traverse the harsh conditions of this desert. This was not uncommon territory for Jennings though, he had traveled through many states and valleys on his road to get to the point where he is today.
Several hours had passed since the tussle at the Lone Star Bar in Marbrook City. Jennings knew that authorities from the Department of Misconduct or 'DoM' must have already been notified of his departure just a few short hours earlier.
"Look...left side", Poni said in his hushed horse voice that interrupted Jennings thoughts.
Jennings looked out into the distance to see a group of bandits harassing someone. He looks away, trying to ignore his inner conscious which he believe died long ago. "We can't waste time on shit that doesn't concern us Poni. I may have dealt with shit my whole life, doesn't mean I look for shit", argued Jennings. Poni stops moving. "Hey what the-", questioned Jennings to his horse. "I told you.", said Jennings, now arguing with himself as his intelligent horse stares back as if to say, "We're doing this".
"Fine!", Jennings had given in to the peer pressure of his talking horse who he's raised since childhood. Poni was a gift from a higher-up individual within the 'Shark' ranks in Sureal, when Jennings was just 13-years old. He was the youngest to ever receive a horse within his group and grew fond of Poni from the start. It was years before an old psycho-Agist named Fredrick Carter, who specialized in animal Agi, gave Poni a voice. It was a new form of Agi utilization at the time, allowing humans to communicate with other animals, given they had the ability to receive the power. Little did Jennings know that he received a best-friend as a gift. He grew a soft spot for the horse and has vowed to treat him like the family he never knew.
With all previous concerns now departed from his body, Jennings directed Poni towards the group of bandits. "Get back crooks!", yelled Jennings as he approached the group of bandits. They stumbled back in surprise.
"Ey Griswald, who the fuck is this joker?", muttered one of the men in the group. Jennings looks down to see who they had been troubling, unconcerned with the hooligan's comment. He notices a young women with medium-length black hair and covered in, now, torn robes. She had been visibly beaten and showed pain in her expression as she lifted her weakened head to see the face of the man who had invited himself into this commotion. "I said...who are you hero? You her gentleman? Or you just want a piece?", laughs the unnamed bandit to his group.
"I want you all to leave. Never bother her again and it won't be the last decision you make in this life", shouted back Jennings as he prepares for a rebuttal.
"Woah, woah, woah. Don't we have a brave man here", the biggest bandit of the group steps forward looking at his colleagues, seemingly to show his dominance of the situation. "I give my respect to a man with the balls to threaten seven men, with weapons I do say, to their face. Shit...most men don't have the respect of 'Big Bad' Griswald, you should be proud. Tell ya what here hotshit. You jump on your lil' ole horse there and scurry back to Marbrook and we'll forget we saw your face here today. Who knows after we're done witcha', you can probably buy her from the Kado Market and get all your money's worth, and (laughs), I forgot the best part! You get to live. How about the sound of that cowboy?", finished Griswald.
"No", clarifies Jennings as he shoots two ice shards from his now blue-glowing hands. The shards fly straight through two of the bandits faces on each side of Jennings, killing them instantly.
"Wha-!? Get em'!", shouts Griswald to his remaining men. All five men rush JJ with daggers and one with an ax. Jennings bob-and-weaves every attack from them with ease. He proceeds to throw a bandit onto the ground and create a small ice knife to finish him off with a stab to the Adam's apple. Then Jennings knocks another guy out while kicking a second bandit in the face, sending him stumbling to the floor. The last two attacking bandits charge Jennings from his front, attempting to catch him off-guard. Jennings slides to the right of the bandit holding the ax, striking his arm holding the weapon and forcing him to drop it. Jennings quickly picks up the ax from the ground and swings it across both bandits' faces until they drop to the floor.
"The fuck", let's out Griswald before he chuckles a bit. "You're pretty damn good at this it seems...good. I been wantin' a challenge for a while now". Griswald begins to roll back the sleeves on his long-sleeved shirt, giving Jennings a better glimpse of the strength that he will be dealing with shortly. As expected of Jennings, he doesn't let Griswald get comfortable and shoots an ice shard hurling towards Griswald's face, but Griswald was prepared, and blocks it with an earth Agi spell. Remaining expressionless, Jennings was quite surprised that this random bandit had been able to learn the way of the earth Agi, which is considered one of the tougher Agi specialties to master. "What, you thought I was like those idiots?", said Griswald in a cocky manner. Catching Jennings off-guard this time, Griswald is able to tackle him to the ground and attempt to wrap his monstrous hands around the neck of Jennings. Unable to over power opponent and at a distinct disadvantage, Jennings struggles to escape from his clutches. "Was it worth this bitch? Huh!?", yells Griswald as he continued to drain the life slowly from Jennings' body by not allowing him to breathe. Becoming quite desperate, Jennings tries spitting in the head bandit's face, but that doesn't lessen his grip one bit and just makes him angrier.
"Grrrraahhhhh-!...", screamed Griswald before stopping abruptly and loosening his grip. Turns out the women in torn clothes had taken advantage of Griswald switching his attention to Jennings and kicked him square in the testicles. Dropping him to the floor in agony. After Jennings regained his composure, he stands up and draws his gun, aiming it at Griswald.
"Hey!...Look...I don' wan-want to d-", uttered Griswald before Jennings ended his sentence abruptly with a bullet to the face, killing him instantaneously.
Jennings stares down at the biggest corpse he has seen (or rather created) in a while and says, "fuck your offer".