Valkyrie's Lament

Gate #6 - Day 3 (Part II)

(Jasper’s Perspective)

Jasper was standing on the top of the building where a fence caged around the building to keep them from falling off. Jasper’s group had traveled over towards one of the ten story buildings a good distance away from the hotel. He wasn’t expecting to be suddenly being thrown into a one on one fight with Sam at all. Such thought never crossed his mind, but he knew what Silver was asking from him.

All he could do was nod his head like an empty puppet. He didn’t like the thought of Silver becoming someone else's property, the thought made him grate his teeth and his hand became a fist at his side.

Standing across from him was Sam, who examined Jasper. Then he turned towards Silver with a mischievous grin. This made Jasper peeved even more for not being taken seriously.

“So, the battle is simple. Whoever is knocked out first wins.” Silver started with her hands crossed over her chest. She tapped her feet on the floor and glanced towards each one of them.

For a split moment, Jasper thought he saw Silver give him a worried glance, but just as quickly as it came it disappeared in seconds.

“I’m okay with that.” Sam gave an excited expression. He was stretching and jumping up and down to get his legs warmed up.

Jasper stretched and sighed. He really didn’t want to fight. From seeing Sam’s fight, he knew that Sam was not an ordinary person. His fists were cruel and deadly, but even so Jasper didn’t back down.

This was the one time in his life, he felt like he needed to prove to himself that he was no coward or a pushover. He was going to make sure that Sam knew that he wasn’t someone to think lightly of.

“Are you ready?” Silver called out. “Start!”

Both of them ran forward with raised fists. Jasper had the head start because of his speed, his hand shot forward and punched Sam deeply into his stomach.

A painful thumb could be heard as he first made contact. Sam let out a bleaching cough as he was thrown backwards. He stumbled and took a couple steps, trying to catch himself. Even though their height difference was large, Jasper was able to make the first hit.

Jasper darted forward once again to get in another hit. It wasn’t until Sam whirled around and connected onto Jasper’s stomach with a kick. He went flying backwards as he hit the door with a thud.

Jasper didn’t expect such a powerful kick, he knew that Sam was strong, but not this strong. His kick felt like he was hit by a motorcycle.

Sam threw up a gust of wind blades that flew towards Jasper in the intent to hurt him.

“Sam?!” Brianna cried out worried that the wind blade would kill Jasper.

Jasper rolled out of harm’s way as the door was cut into four pieces and fell forward with a crash. He looked down towards the broken door with wide eyes. He then realized that Sam was probably trying to kill him.

“Are you crazy?!” Brianna shouted in anger. “Are you trying to kill him?”

“Shut up, Brianna. You’re too loud.” Sam whimsically stated. “If he can’t even deal against my attacks then he’s not even worth fighting.”

“Did you forget? It’s a knockout! Silver says something!” Brianna turned towards her, waiting for her to answer.

Silver stood still and didn’t say anything and stared at Jasper predicament with indifferent expression. Instead, Jasper felt like she was telling him to get up and fight. Maybe it was all in his mind, he wasn’t sure, but he knew that he couldn’t stay idle waiting to die by Sam’s hands.

Jasper sprung forward, using his magic he cast out a dark curtain of magical energy covering them both in a smoke screen. This was all he could muster from using Silver’s ability, there wasn't much he could do with dark magic. It was not his forte, nor were there enough for him to summon to make it into a powerful attack like Silvers. Blooming outwards into a mushroom cloud, Jasper darted in. He saw Sam in the middle of the mushroom cloud not moving and was searching around for him.

With quick feet, Jasper rushed in towards Sam. His hands were quick to pummel in a couple of hits. Sam reeled over in pain and mindlessly struck out in the hopes to harm Jasper.

“Where are you?!” Sam cried out in rage. He cussed up a storm for not being able to see. “Show yourself!”

“What if I don’t want to?” Jasper darted in and hit him from the back.

Sam stumbled forward dazed from the attack.

“Damn it!”

Jasper danced around Sam, aiming for any opening that he saw. Every hit made Sam angrier and angrier, making it to the point where he slammed his feet into the ground frustrated.

“You piece of shit!” Sam was blindly roaming around, swinging in the darkness unable to grasp a hold onto Jasper.

Jasper was relentless. He hit Sam without pulling back his punches, honestly he was peeved that Sam would even state such words about Silver being his. This fueled his anger even more, making the punch even stronger than before.

“If I get my hands on you, I’ll break you!”

“Try if you can.” Jasper smirked. He lunged in and did a sweeping kick.

Sam fell backwards onto his butt. Bruises decorated his face, arms, and legs as a groan slipped out of his lips.

Jasper couldn’t help but hold in his glee. He didn’t think that it would be this easy to push down Sam’s power with a simple smokescreen.

“Arrrrrgggggh!” A sharp spike in energy surrounded Sam in seconds. Wind blew all around him, blowing away the smoke.

Jasper was pushed backwards from the large peak of wind. He had to cover his face from the strong power, while he peeked through his fingers. The moment he looked, he was shocked that Sam was onto him like a predator onto its prey.

Sam’s eyes were bloodied with rage, wanting to knock and bloody Jasper into a pulp. His fist came straight outwards from Jasper’s blindsight and struck him in his face.

Jasper stumbled backwards temporarily in a daze.

“Let me bloody up that pretty face of yours.” Sam started with glee. He swung his fist again, this time Jasper was ready for it and ducked under.

Lucky for him, he was able to dodge out of harm’s way, but he didn’t notice that he was in front of the entrance towards the door that Sam had broken.

Sam twisted and turned. He bolted towards Jasper with quick steps and jump-kicked towards him. Jasper stepped backwards, his steps faltered and he was falling backwards down the stairs.

“Augh!” Jasper cried out in surprise. He fell down the stairs and his hands cushioned his blow from the ground.

Sam’s foot went flying over his head and also tumbled on the ground with him. Both of them were at the bottom of the stairs in pain.

“Now that’s what I call a sight.” Brianna ran over and saw the two of them entangled on the ground. Silver was watching the two with a smile on her face.

Jasper took this chance to slip out. He took this slip up to crawl over and struck down onto Sam. Sam rolled out of harm’s way, and shot out a gust of powerful wind that made Jasper fly backwards.

With a thud, Jasper flew through the hallway and towards the door of this female washroom. Jasper was thrown through the door and fell with a rough splat on the floor. Blood dripped from his lips and open cuts on his head.

With a thundering roar, Sam jumped through and fell on top of Jasper with a pleased grin. His fist was filled with wind magic, surrounding it with power. Jasper couldn’t help but move barely out of harm’s way as Sam punched downwards.

Right now, Jasper was pressed to the floor by Sam, his ruthless attacks shot downwards in the hopes of knocking out Jasper with multiple vicious hits. Jasper covered his arms over his face, holding back the pain that Sam endowed onto his arm.

Speed and tyrannical power, Jasper didn’t expect Sam would have such strong power that seemed to come out in large bursts.

“Come on. Come on. Come on!” Sam yelled with a gleeful expression. “Is this all you got?!”

Jasper held on and buckled, throwing Sam off his body. He used a burst of light magic and shined it in Sam’s eyes, temporarily blinding him. This gave him a chance to retaliate and hit him hard, knocking Sam off of him..

With a thud, Sam fell hitting his face into the wall. His eyes darkened as he pushed off the wall. With a quick movement of his hand, his fist made a sharp turn towards Jasper. But to Sam’s surprise, his fierce attack actually came down to nothing.

Jasper had already taken a step backwards out of harm’s way and distanced himself away from Sam. He knew that hand-to-hand combat was a very dangerous fight between both of them.

Sam’s had an equally fast reaction speed, and movement that was also hardly able to follow with his naked eye. Still, this didn’t stop Jasper, and instead he gritted his teeth ready to take another bout with Sam.

Right now Jasper had an unknown uneasy feeling the moment he was thrown into the female’s bathroom. He could feel a strong amount of magical power swirling around Sam, coating him into an armor.

Jasper pulled out a strong magical electrical energy into his fist. A soft glow of sparks started to go off, making the hair on his arms start to raise. With a push off with feet, he attacked.

Fist against fist, they collided without a single thought. Wind blades scattered towards Jasper, cutting him all over his body. A sharp shock was sent throughout Sam’s body, both of them in pain.

Sam's eyes became wild with frenzy from Jasper's perspective, he noticed that Sam was no longer showing off the thirst for blood and saw a trace of viciousness and glee. This was the first time Jasper was seeing some other kind of emotional movement beside being violent and crazy. It was a hint of calmness. He shook off the static electric shock from his body as if it was nothing.

Under Jasper's gaze, Sam maintained a very strange posture. Body lowered down, knees slightly bent just like a hungry wolf ready to attack at any second. With a bolt, the two were in a deadlock.

Right now, he felt a great deal of pressure from Sam, but he actually calmed down because of it. Though he was strong, and fast, but after all he was not unbeatable. He could tell that Sam had some weakness from his stance and posture. The way he fought let out quite a lot of opening from someone like him who had studied martial arts in his small body.

Winds dangerously flew outwards like razor blades, cutting into the sinks and causing waters to spurt out from the damaged pipes. The whole bathroom became slippery and difficult to maneuver. Jasper knew that if he was not careful, he would slip and hit his head on the floor.

The thought of dying in such a pathetic way made his speed drop drastically.

“If I were you, I would clench my jaw right..about…now!” Sam came roaring,his hands filled fist full of wind. He shot outwards, and the wind pushed out into a small bullet.

Jasper took this chance to shoot back a small electric current back at Sam at the same time. Both struck against each other, creating a small explosion.

Boom!

Both of them flew backwards. Jasper was pushed out the girls bathroom and slammed into the wall, breaking his speed. With a cough blood was spat out from Jasper’s mouth and onto the ground.

“Holy cow, what just happened?” Brianna came running over completely confused at the loud sound that they had made. When she looked down the hallway she saw that the female bathroom was completely destroyed. Water completely flooded all over the ground as the stalls were broken.

Sam was covered in water, bleeding on the floor. He wasn’t as badly injured as Jasper, but he still looked pretty bad.

“Sam?!” Brianna cried out in alarm. She was just about to run towards Sam that was on the floor, but she was suddenly stopped by Silver. Confused, she looked up towards Silver, wondering why she was stopped. “They’re injured!” She tried to console Silver to stop the fight.

Instead, Silver shook her head in a no, not allowing Brianna to go forward.

“Why not?”

“This is their fight. Do you think Sam will be pleased if you butt into them right now?”

Brianna went silent, unable to say anything. Instead, she felt like what Silver said was very true. Sam didn’t like to get interrupted, especially in a heated fight like this.

“You can’t answer, meaning I was right.”

“I-”

“Watch.”

Silver watched both of them with interest.

Jasper got up with pain on his chest and arm. The cuts on his body were a lot more painful than before. Already, he could feel the harsh bruise on the side of his chest. Glancing up, he could see that Sam was getting up from pain as well.

Sam spat onto the ground as he got up in pain. He glanced towards Jasper with a gleeful expression.

Jasper knew that he needed to finish this fight or one of them would either die. He saw that Sam was on his feet, and making his way straight towards Jasper.

“Crap.” He spat on the ground with blood on the side. This time Jasper crackled energy in his fist ready to use it any time.

“Not bad. Not bad.” Sam wiped his lips of blood with his arms. He felt elated by Jasper’s attack.

“Back down Sam. This will only lead to one way.”

“And that is?”

“You should know by now.”

“I see.” With a sinister smile, he ran towards Jasper with elated breath. He appeared in front of Jasper in a blink of an eye.

Surprised at the sudden appearance, Jasper felt a strong deathly aura from Sam without a hint of remorse. Jasper felt impact, although he dodged to the side on time, and Sam’s first once again smack upwards in an uppercut.

Jasper caught the fist with his bare hands, and sent a shockwave of high density of electricity.

“Arrgggh!” Sam yelled out in shock, he stumbled onto his legs unable to move as electricity flickered all around him. His head flopped forward onto his chest.

Jasper was breathing heavily from the large use of magical energy and all he could do was stare with bated breath.

“You…..still don’t….learn do you.” Sam’s words came out as a whisper. His hand grabbed onto his wrist with a deathly smile on his face.

He couldn’t believe that Sam was able to still stand through the shock. The shock was powerful enough to cause someone to go into shock. Sam was a lot stronger than he had thought, especially if he could take such a strong blast.

Jasper’s movements were one step too slow. He felt a strong force coming towards his shoulder, his hands were wrapped around his shoulder and thrown onto the wall. With every strength he could muster, he kicked Sam away from him with his two feet.

“Damn brat!” Sam stumbled backwards and reorientated himself. He gave him an evil glare full of annoyance at Jasper’s kick.

Jasper scrambled out of harm's way from Sam’s vicious kick. All he could do was roll, his pained body was screaming at him to stop fighting, but he knew that if he stopped there was a high chance that he would not see another day.

“Stay still and this will all be over.”

“No.” Jasper pulled back scampering away like a mouse.

“Damn brat, you should listen to your superior.”

“Superior? What the heck are you even talking about?” Jasper yelled angrily. “To me, all I see is someone who will lose.”

“Big talk for someone so short.”

“What did you say?” Jasper felt his blood vessels constrict from hearing such words.

“What? Do you have a problem with what I say shortly?” Sam was laughing at Jasper’s reaction to his words.

“Yes, I actually do.” A burst of electricity was sent towards Sam with lightning speed.

Sam felt danger when Jasper spoke his last words and pulled up a strong wind barrier around his body, though it was not strong enough for Sam to completely block out all of the electric attack and had enough energy to stun him on the spot.

Jasper took this chance to bulldoze towards Sam without a single remorse and tackle him to the ground. Pulling the last bit of magical strength, he let out a torrent of electrical attacks that shock throughout Sam’s body.

What made Jasper even more shocked was that Sam at the same time willed up his last ounce of magical attack to directly attack Jasper’s body.

Both were at a stalemate, cutting and electrocuting each other without stopping until they both collapsed on the ground exhausted.

“Not….Bad.” Sam's eyes rolled backwards as he was on the floor unable to move. He was staring at Jasper, breathing heavily on the floor.

Both of them were bloodied up and winded from their fight.

“You as well.” Jasper rasped out a breath of air. He struggled to move but was unable too.

“So, a stalemate. Huh…” Silver came over looking down upon the two. “Well then, that explains the power level of both of you guys.” She smiled, casting her gaze down towards both of them.

“I’m not…through.” Sam let out an exhausted gasp of breath. He barely was able to move his burnt arms up to support his weight.

“Sam!” Brianna ran over in complete shock at Sam’s predicament.

“Brianna, take out one of his crystals that he received from the baby angels. He’ll be able to recover faster.”

“I said, I’m not through!”

“Quit your bickering. The fight is over.” Brianna frowned towards him.

“But-”

“Enough Sam. The point is to become immobile and both of you guys are. This fight is over.”

Sam didn’t like the words that Silver said and instead went unusually quiet.

Brianna shook her head up and down, and searched through Sam’s clothes. She pulled out a red crystal that he liked to keep inside his interior pocket and slipped it into his mouth. “Chew slowly.” She looked down towards him with worry.

Silver squatted down and looked at Jasper’s miserable state. She gave him a gentle smile and reached over towards his necklace. “I’m assuming you haven’t eaten yours yet, have you?”

“I didn’t.” Talking made it a lot more difficult than he thought. All he could do was pitiably stay on the floor while Sliver pulled out the crystal from his necklace and slipped it into his mouth.

“Eat.”

Jasper chewed the crystal and gulped. All of a sudden, he felt a rush of power running throughout his whole body and even could feel a horrible itch on his skin.

Hissing like sound could be heard all over his body as his wounds started to heal, leaving him with no scars. Even the magical power that he lost was gained back. Pushing himself up, he looked down upon his arms in amazement. Just seeing the power of the crystal from eating it always surprised him still.

He didn’t understand how a small red crystal could fix the majority of his wounds so quickly, but even still there were quite a few small scratches that were from deep wounds not completely gone.

“Thanks.” Jasper let out a sigh. He shakily got up, but his body flopped back down on the ground. He felt like he could do better, but the result was right in front of his eyes. The feeling of a draw left a bad taste in his mouth, and all he could do was suck it in.

Silver came over and the princess carried him.

Alarmed Jasper struggled and felt so ashamed that he was carried so easily.

“Calm down. You’re going to make me drop you.”

“I can walk.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Yes, I can. Really.” He tried to once again get out of her arms.

“Just stay still will you, or I’m going to walk over towards the window and throw you out. Then you’ll break a couple of bones and I’ll pick you up again when you’re more compliant.”

Jasper started, stunned at Silver’s harsh words and felt himself sink into her arms. He felt so ashamed and saddened that he was not taller than her or showing a more manly side. This really chipped at his pride as he steeled himself to drink a lot more milk and eat a lot of crystals to grow bigger.

“Seems like you calmed down.” Silver gave him a warm smile. “Let’s go, Brianna. Staying here will attract attention.”

“I’m on it.” Brianna hoisted Sam onto her back as if it was nothing.

Jasper felt his color drain just from watching Brianna’s scary strength. He knew that Brianna was strong, but not to the point of picking up a grown man without much difficulties.

“Yea…I’m just as surprised as you are. She only can use bursts of strength and it's only for a limited amount of time.”

They were making their way down towards the ground floor and eventually made it to the hotel and into their room.

“We should stay here for the day.” Silver spoke a bit concerned for the two of them.

“I agree.” Brianna nodded her head. “It’ll be bad if we go out looking for Ronfonso when our force is cut in half.”

“What are you talking about? I’m fine.” Sam replied with a snort. “You think this is going to stop me?”

“Yea.” Brianna punched him where it hurted.

Sam shouted out in pain.

“See. You’re not fully healed.”

“You’re making it worse!”

“We stay. That’s that.” Silver cut off the conversation.

Jasper was super conscious about being held by Silver. He could smell her soft womanly scent and the warmth of her body touching skin-to-skin with each other. Even his head was bouncing back and forth hitting her chest as he froze completely still in shock. Throughout the whole time, Jasper wanted to hide himself as he was too embarrassed to be carried in such a way. Brianna dropped Sam onto the bed exhausted, while Silver did the same.

His face was scarlet red as he curled up into a ball dazed. It was a bliss at the same time he felt completely embarrassed as he swore to himself that he would never ever be carried such a way ever again in his life. Instead, he once again steeled his heart to grow taller as fast as he could by eating as many crystals as possible from that day forth.