Watching her pull out of the villain's hold, he felt his anger ignite. She was already looking a little battered. Her tank top had ripped, exposing her skinned side and ribs. Seeing her this way was bad enough, but when he saw her start to tremble, it made him want to tear the villain apart. Whatever he was saying to the young woman, it was too quiet for the others to hear. It was obvious from how she was acting that it had set her on edge.
A glance at his companions showed that they were trying to decide on a course of action. The jungle cats were already at Jiayi's sides, ready to defend her. He could tell from the look in their eyes that they were just as displeased as he was. At his side, Jack's eyes narrowed upon Chase and his hands curled into fists. He knows he can't fight him, right? If he tries to fight Chase and he gets hurt, Jiayi will go into a rage. It was now, with slight disgust, that he realized why she had brought him along. His gaze settled upon Jiayi before turning into a glare. She had brought Raimundo along with the intention of having him protect Jack. When the others decided to accompany them, she was fine with it, but was adamant about Raimundo going with her.
Jiayi braced herself, standing with her back to a tree as she watched Chase with contempt clear in her amber eyes. He smirked and started toward her. With a swipe of her sword, a shower of bladelike icicles flew at the man. He knocked them away, only to find that she had vanished. Raimundo felt a small grin growing on his face as Jiayi reappeared on the immortal man's back, her sword slung across her back in its sheath and her clawed hands digging into the gaps in Chase's armor. The villain snarled and thrashed, quickly dislodging her. When she landed on her feet a good distance away, her fingers were coated in slick red blood.
The expression on her face was one of feral, sadistic pleasure and it sent a chill down Raimundo's spine. In this moment, with her long blue hair hanging to hide half of her face and her pale lips curled up in a malicious grin, she looked truly evil. She lifted a hand and traced along her middle finger with the tip of her tongue, licking up Chase's blood. Now the boy's heart skipped a beat.
"We must do something to help her!" Omi finally declared.
"Okay, but what? And you really think she'll want our help?" Clay asked, full of doubt.
Kimiko watched as Jiayi rushed at Chase, claws bared. The shen-gon-wu and sword were long forgotten now that her claws had pierced his flesh. It was quickly becoming evident to everyone that her hatred for Chase was turning her into a rampaging monster. "If we don't stop her…what do you think she'll do?"
Clay tipped his hat forward over his eyes, glancing at Jack and then back to Jiayi. "If we don't do somethin', I reckon she might turn evil again."
"I know what we must do! We must drive him away! He is the reason why she is acting so wicked now! He is exerting a malevolent influence over Jiayi!" Omi hurried toward the battling immortals without a second thought, launching himself at Chase Young.
Raimundo watched as the other two followed him and suppressed the urge to join them. Why did I get stuck watching Jack?! Is it because I still had my arm around her when she woke up this morning? Why was she even mad about that? He rubbed the back of his head, looking over at Jack. The redhead was watching the fight intently, gritting his teeth. "You want to protect her?"
"Why wouldn't I?! Look at what's happening!"
"Right." He turned toward the fight once more. "Would you fight him to protect her?"
"Of course I would! I love her!" Jack heard the sound of irritation that Raimundo made and rolled his eyes. "Look, aren't you supposed to be with them?"
"She wants me to protect you. Do you know what would happen to her if you got hurt again? She's like one step away from evil right now." Raimundo absently toyed with the hilt of the sword he held, watching as Jiayi dodged an energy blast from Chase. It just barely missed hitting the three monks.
Jack scowled. "What? Are you jealous?"
"So what? Yeah, I'm jealous. What does she even see in you? She keeps saying she loves you. She keeps calling you her boyfriend. What's so special about you? Do you know what I did to try to save her from him?"
"Yeah, you did such a great job. Did you know that he made her sleep with him?" Jack smirked when Raimundo's eye twitched. "Yeah. You still want to keep me from going over-?" The monk was already charging into the fight.
Shift P.O.V
Jiayi jumped away from Chase in time to avoid a sword coming down between them. Her eyes briefly met Raimundo's and she instantly knew what was happening. "Why do you even care about this?! It has nothing to do with you!"
"You have no idea, do you?! Why can't you just treat me the way you treat him? What's so special about him?" he demanded, gesturing toward Jack.
"You're making this much more complicated than it needs to be! Why couldn't you just continue to guard him for me?!" She blocked another swipe with her own sword, unsheathing it just in time to protect herself. Her eyes shifted to Kimiko, Omi, and Clay as she began to wonder how they would react. Clay appeared slightly unsure of what to do, but Kimiko and Omi swiftly crossed the distance to get to Raimundo. Unfortunately, he moved quickly and continued to attack her. She stepped back more and more, determined not to fight him. If I do, I'm afraid of what might happen. Worse, I still have to worry about Chase. Narrowing her eyes, she swiped with her blade. Icicles shot forth and trapped him to a tree by his clothes. "Don't interfere." Her tone was firm as she approached him, trying not to smirk at his pitiful look of anger. "Alright? Be good and stay there while I finish this."
"This isn't over! I'm not going to let him-!"
"Silence. Understand?" Her smirk grew as she turned away from Raimundo in order to face Chase Young. "I'm going to finish this on my own. I want to thank you…Kimiko, Omi, Clay…for helping me this far. I truly appreciate your support."
"We can still help you!" Omi protested.
"I need to do this alone. Just me against him. Alright?" Jiayi waited for a confirmation from the others before swaying her hips in excitement. She tossed her sheathed blade to Omi as thunder boomed in the distance. Lightning flashed overhead as the clouds grew dark. "Chase Young. How do you want to do this?"
The smirk he displayed brought color rushing to her cheeks and he knew that she hated it. "You know how I want to do this. Or have you already forgotten?"
Her hips swayed a bit faster as a corner of her mouth lifted. "Beast forms it is."
The two stood silently for a long moment, staring each other down. The villain's long black hair was picked up by the wind, blowing behind him as he watched her irritation grow. He wanted to draw this out as long as possible. The longer they fought, the more wickedness seemed to pump through her veins. With any luck, she would turn evil by the end of their battle. "Well? Are you just going to stand there admiring me? Or were you expecting me to make the first move?"
Jiayi's grin grew and she tilted her head, pushing a lock of long blue hair behind her ear. Opening her arms wide, she licked her lips. "Come at me, scrublord!"
Chase had started forward, shifting forms, and stopped dead in his tracks upon hearing her words. He raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to ask what she meant when she was suddenly right in front of him. An energy blast hit him squarely in the chest and pushed him backwards, sending him tumbling onto the ground. He regained his composure quickly, but was infuriated nonetheless. She was in tiger form now, watching him as her tail flicked back and forth in her amusement. He completed his transformation and crouched low, watching her for sudden movements. Jiayi seemed perfectly content with her sneak attack and it irked him beyond words. To be taken aback by something so foolish. "Now is that any way to speak to your king?"
"Hm…? Oh, you're still going on about that foolish ambition?" Jiayi's feline head tilted. "My king…even if I had the ambition to become a queen…my king would never be you. Sorry to disappoint you."
He lunged forward, claws raking across her ribcage as her teeth found his neck. The two immortals rolled across the ground, each fighting to pin the other. Her dark blue fur quickly became matted with blood, his scales smeared with blood as well, though neither was certain whose it was. Around them, the jungle cats stirred in a mixture of fear and excitement. Her trio of followers gathered at one side of the clearing, watching for a chance to enter the fight. Jiayi found herself on top of him and pressed a clawed paw against his throat. He stared up at her with narrowed eyes, both of them breathing hard. "You look so beautifully evil in this moment."
"You look so foolish in this moment," she snarled. "But haven't you always? I intend to leave this forest and if you interfere-!" Her body hit the ground hard, knocking the air from her lungs. He was on top of her now, in his human form, with a hand against her tiger throat in a mockery of their previous position. "Bastard!"
Blood ran down the side of his face and matted the hair above his right temple. It dripped from his chin, dotting her dark fur. "Do you really think that I will let myself be dominated by you?" he taunted, straddling her waist. "If I wanted to, I could destroy them all. Would that break you?" A muscle beneath her eye twitched. "That's what I thought. Now, why don't you change forms so that we're equal?" A low growl came from her, but she obeyed. His hand tightened around her throat and she started to thrash.
"Release Jiayi immediately! If you kill her-!" Omi started.
"Now why would I want to kill her? That would be such a waste." He spared the monks a quick glance before turning his eyes back to Jiayi's. "Do they know that we were meant for each other?"
"Again with your lies?" She winced as his hold tightened around her throat. If I don't get loose soon, he'll try to make me black out! If I could just push him back! She looked away from him, hoping to find something that she could use to distract him. Amber met red as she spotted Jack standing right behind Chase Young. Fear flooded her body and she could feel the color draining from her face. No! Why is he over here?! I told him to stay back! Why is he here?
"L-let go of her!" Jack demanded.
Chase looked at the redhead over his shoulder and smirked. "She belongs to me. She always has and she always will. You must realize that you were just a small distraction for her."
"I said to let go of her!" Anger filled his eyes and carried over into his voice, making him sound much more confident this time. "If you don't let go of Jiayi-!"
"What will you do? You're just a pathetic insect that she took pity on."
"Don't make me say it again. I'm serious." Jack looked past him to Jiayi. The girl was sprawled beneath the dark-haired man, fear present in her eyes and blood drying around her mouth as well as on her hands. "Jiayi doesn't love you. She loves me. She chose me."
"You have no claim over her. Your words mean nothing to me." At this, Jack began to snicker. "What do you find so humorous?"
"It's like you don't even know! She can't stand being around you! She hates you!" When he was struck, Jack's body flew several feet back and collided with a tree rather hard. He blinked up at the villain standing over him and soon found the front of his shirt being gripped, his body being lifted so that his feet dangled over the ground. The young man had known that his words would anger the villain. It had been his intention to draw his attention away from Jiayi long enough for the girl to escape. What he had not anticipated was how much it would hurt once he had Chase's attention.
The dark-haired immortal scowled at Jack as if he was a spider on the wall. As if he was a pest to be exterminated without care. He could feel and see that Jack was shaking with nervousness, but he took little satisfaction in it. What he wanted most was to destroy Jack, with either scathing words or literally tearing him apart. The stare that seemed to pierce his back warned against such actions, but he was determined not to let Jack's taunting go unpunished. "You think that she loves you now? What do you think she will do when you've aged? What will she do when you die? While you continue to age, she will stay the same. When you die, it will be quick. Your very presence in her life will be so brief that it won't even matter to her once you die. Who do you think she will go to when that happens? Better yet, what do you really think will happen when you age? She won't stay with you. I can promise you that."
"Excuse me! Who gave you permission to touch my human?!" Jiayi's clawed hand nearly grasped the back of his neck, but he shifted quickly. He kept a tight hold on Jack, dragging the mortal with him. "Give him back to me or I will disembowel you!"
Holding Jack at arm's length, Chase closed the distance between himself and Jiayi. A malicious smirk took form on his face as he gripped her chin with his free hand. "Since you seem so intent on keeping him around, why don't I just take you in front of him? Come now. Why do you look so furious? I thought you said that there was nothing wrong with spectators."
When he leaned in to kiss her, she swiftly took a step back and away from him. She moved to do it again when he moved closer, but found her jaw caught in his grip once more. His lips pressed against hers and she snarled, putting her hands on his chest to try to push him away. A blade separated them, coming down swiftly and giving them little time to react. They parted and both immortals looked to Raimundo, who had freed himself and was now seething. "You got what you wanted, didn't you?! Why are you still fighting him?" he demanded.
She blinked, alarmed by his rage, and took a step back. Why am I still fighting him? I…don't even remember suddenly. Her eyes shifted to Chase and narrowed into a glare. She grabbed Jack's arm and dragged him from the man's grasp, wrapping both arms around the young man. Jack blushed pink and snickered at the anger in Chase's eyes. "Raimundo is right. We're leaving now. Omi, can I have my sword back?" She slung it across her back and gripped Jack's hand in hers, ignoring the way he nervously looked at the dried blood that coated her fingers. "If you follow me…if you start trouble for me again…I will not hesitate to tear you limb from limb and rip out your heart. Chase Young. This is your final warning."
He waited for her to turn away, satisfaction settling on his features as he watched her anxiously sway her hips. "You are foolish if you think this will stop me."