"Bellance" the shadow man sneered as he regained his composure, "did you come to send another flaming arrow through my skull?"
Lance shrugged, "that was the plan. Hold still" he fired another arrow, but 'burnt face' jerked to the side,
"Tell me Bellance, did you plan on trapping me here, or do you care so much for your dear sister-in-law" he gestured at Jessica, still motionless on the floor.
She tried her best not to look afraid, so when Lance looked down at her she returned a look of defiant determination. Lance refocused on the, and in the shadows,
"You talk too much" he loaded and fired two more arrows, but the shadow man snapped his fingers and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"Next time I won't be so polite to you when you interrupt me" and out of the cloud came a wave of darkness black as night. Lance closed his eyes and when he opened them again they were glowing in orange and yellow hues. His bow deformed, then in a yellow and orange light he formed a lance (almost ironically), and thrust it at the dark wave, shattering it.
"Using my beloved's light against me? That's cheeky" 'burnt face' laughed, "I can be cheeky too". Desperate not to give him any ground, the 'burnt face' man emerged from the darkness holding a weapon everyone was all too familiar with, a pitch black scythe, and swung at his opponent, but as soon as Lance saw him he formed a second lance in his other hand and made an X pattern to block the attack.
It was clearly magic, and it was clearly Lance. Of all the things Jessica expected of him she never once expected sorcery. So many questions came to mind, how does he know how to use magic if the art was only just revived last month, why didn't he tell anyone, and if he had magic this whole time why didn't he use it to SAVE HIS OWN BROTHER. She got so angry thinking about these questions and what they implied she pounded her fist on the ground
Wait a minute. 'Pounded her fist'. She could move! At least a little bit.
She looked back over to the wizard duel happening behind her, where duel lances and a black scythe were still clashing violently at insane speeds. It was so intense that neither of the combatants noticed her crawling, inch by inch, to where her gun laid on the floor. Her heart pounded with every move she made as her still weakened muscles tried to move her, till finally, she had her weapon in hand.
she pointed it at the fight, and pulled her finger back on the trigger, letting it create a small cut to connect it to her SOUL via her bloodstream, "Lance, duck!" she called out
Lance instantly understood, dropping out of the way as the gun gave off a bright flash that hit his opponent dead center. The shadow man backed up, his scythe faded, and the shadow that hid the left side of his face started running off his face as black sticky HATE, revealing a hideous burn scar around an empty eye socket.
He moved a hand over to shield his maimed face from prying eyes, his eyes then focused on Jessica, "you're going to pay for that" he snarled as he reached his coat pocket and pulled out a dim gray SOUL,
"Look out!" Lance tried to warn her as the fingers of the shadow man pushed inward on the SOUL, crushing it in his grasp, but instead of fading, as the shards of a dead SOUL do, the shards of this broken SOUL began the melt into a familiar sticky black substance.
'he sacrificed a SOUL to generate more HATE' Jessica noticed
"Dark Rite of the Advancing Shadows" he called, then the world went black. All lights in the room dimmed until it was impossible to see your hand in front of your face. Several seconds passed while Jessica could only sit there in the darkness. Till eventually, she heard the swish of a knife and the wet sound of it entering the skin, and then again, and again, and again. The stabbing getting faster each time until she finally heard a dull thud, she could only fear the worst. Such fears were well founded for the lights came back to reveal Lance, bleeding from several stab wounds
"Really Belance? you're just going to stand in front of it?" he sighed, "well whatever, I got my search so I guess this scenario is over" he walked to the window and sat on the open frame, "but I have a much bigger campaign in store, so try not to die before the end" he leaned back and fell out of the house.
Lance grunted and tried to get up despite his injuries, so Jessica ran over to help in any way she could. Noticing she had regained her full movement she helped him onto her bed where his wounds proceeded to blood stain the sheets, "hang on, I'm calling an ambulance" she turned to get her phone from her desk, but Lance grabbed her wrist,
"can't do that" he wheezed, "too many questions" he gasped for breath, "I don't want to answer."
Jessica looked back at him and scowled, "well that's just too bad, cause I'm not letting you die too!"
Lance rolled his eyes, "oh, relax Jessy" he coughed up blood as he reached a trembling hand into his pocket, and pulled out half of a pastry of some sort. With difficulty he ate it, and in the same instant his breathing became easier and his wounds started to seal themselves, "it would've helped if I had both halves, but this'll have to do"
Jessica crossed her arms, still scowling, "great, just wonderful really, but I just have one tiny question about all of this"
Lance raised an eyebrow, "only one?"
"WHAT IS GOING ON"
Lance laughed, and pointed at her desk, or more specifically the book that was on it, The Book of Epsilon, "page 290 should explain." Jessica picked up the book and read
And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Drius III over the human kingdom of Epsilon, while the wizards of the third veil were being trained of magic in their youth, that a man, whose name was Zin, came onto the veil and asked to see the wizard Bravery. She granted his wish and saw him. Once she saw the man named Zin he began to praise her, and tell her many kind and flattering things, and asked for her to wed him. However, she denied him saying "I am too young to be loved, return when I am older" and he left.
"this looks like a bad rom com"
"Trust me, it gets worse"
And in the next year, the man named Zin returned with many gifts that he gave unto Bravery, and he asked again if she would wed him. Now Bravery, being very touched by that passion this man had for her, was almost moved to say yes, but again she denied him saying, "It would be improper for me to be married at this age, and I would be scolded by my family, return when I am older"
"why can't you just tell me this stuff"
"Cause I'm sick of this story"
And in the next year, the man named Zin returned again and demonstrated to Bravery that he had learned magic in his absence, and said unto her, "you are older now, and we are of the same profession, there is no reason why you cannot be my bride" but still Bravery denied him saying, "Zin, I understand that you have a great desire to marry me, but I do not feel that same way. The joy I felt at your previous attempts to court me were nothing more than girlish glee at the thought of being loved, they had no weight to them. There is nothing to say we can not be friends, but as for your proposal of marriage, my answer is no." It was at this time that Zin began to reveal his true colors, for he had, in secret, been practicing the dark trait of HATE. WIth his darkness, he overpowered Bravery and took her for his own purposes, but his crime did not go unnoticed. Within time, the lumiknight of Justice whose name was Lance came to her aid. With of the anti-HATE, FAITH, he absorbed a piece of Bravery's SOUL and defeated Zin, but this did not satisfy him. As punishment for his crime Lance stabbed Zin in the left eye, his face was burnt to a crisp and his left eye boiled in its socket. then the page ended
Jessica closed the book and put it down, "so that was?" she pointed at the window
Lance nodded, "old burnt-face"
Jessica looked dumbfounded, "and you are?"Lance smiled, "Lance Gray, Lumiknight of the Golden Flower"