Johannes Volkner bid farewell to the chances of an easy or clean victory. They hadn't been there to begin with, but this sealed away any hope that may have existed in them. The world had been suffused with smoke and flame and darkness, and Boudica herself was the only person that Johannes could lay eyes on. At least, it seemed to stay as such for several seconds that stretched on as if for hours. Motionless, as if the world had stopped besides the burning, before Boudica disappeared entirely from view, and he could see Jill struggling and darting her gaze around, as if hurriedly looking for her enemy.
Raising his blade, he saw the instant Boudica 'reappeared', stepping out of the smoke above Jill and swinging that large sword downwards without a care in the world. He brought the rune of Raidho, of travel and wagons and movement, into existence through Beissende Hunde's golden light, supporting Jill in the exact instant she needed. With a heavy step, she cleared the area as the tip of the blade soared through the spot she had only barely vacated. The tip of the blade made contact with the ground, and it erupted into a column of flame unlike those brought forth by Boudica's sword prior.
Rather than just a fire spreading or shooting forth, the sudden movement of flames seemed to have immense pressure behind it that almost reminded him of a gunshot, shooting up from the point of impact incredibly quickly. If that had been Jill's body, rather than the ground, Johannes could only imagine that she'd die in an instant. What may have been worse, however, was that the howling of the fire was the first thing he'd heard since the Aristeia had begun. He hadn't realized it until that moment, but the world was filled with a weighty silence that only found itself undone by the flames loudly crackling as if surrounding him.
A single, heavy breath left his lungs, burning as he forced it out, and yet it was silent. It truly was as if the world did not exist beyond Boudica and her wrath. As if he and Jill only existed so that they would be targets for her. The madwoman in black iron took a single step, the thorny crown of metal nearly falling free from her head as she did so, flames blossoming and erupting to speed her movements. It was beautiful, yet so terrifying that Johannes could not move. Even if he'd been fast enough, just the sight of flames exploding out with each move would have paralyzed him regardless, and he knew that.
Jill had already rolled aside before Boudica's arrival finished, and though she threw her leg out towards Jill, it barely connected. The tip of her foot glanced Jill's side as she went end over end, before an explosion of flame brought forth screams from her as she went flying into something that after a brief moment Johannes could recognize as one of the burnt mud brick walls. He forced himself to keep walking, to get just a bit closer in the vain hope that he could help Jill in some way. That he could make any form of difference for her and her plight. His own pain had seemingly disappeared in the wake of everything that had happened. It seemed so distant, so infinitesimally small and unimportant.
What started as a walk turned into a run, his chest heaving with every step despite the bones he knew were broken, an occasional cough sending hot blood against the interior of his helmet as he saw Boudica casually walk over to Jill, who was only now beginning to stand up. Her entire left side had been burnt, and the fact that she could even stand seemed to be some form of miracle. Her hand had been charred to the point she didn't seem to be able to raise her arm, yet was still firmly clenched on the dagger swaying at her side.
Boudica's expression was unreadable for Johannes even as he got closer, but he could hear her words. "You fought decently well, but you're no warrior. Roman or otherwise, I respect your spirit, but that's all. Did the boy leave you to die? He seemed like the unreliable type." He didn't know if she was trying to give Jill some form of sendoff, or if this was her way of taunting her, but he saw that she slowly began to raise that sword, as if done with saying her piece.
He raised his right arm at the same time, connecting the pool of magical energy within him to the Ansuz runes carved into his arm, and through them, the absurd amounts of energy granted by the pool within. No one rune he could use would be able to handle it. The metaphysical depth of the rune would overflow entirely with energy, and much of it would be wasted, assuming he didn't just kill himself in a flaming explosion. No, he was as unreliable as Boudica had said. The only person that could save Jill at this moment was herself.
He could hear the energy crackling across his right arm and the plating covering it, something that shouldn't even be possible given where they were, and he directed all that energy to Jill herself. Not to admonish her, not to forcibly restrain her. Rather than using the Command Array's intended purpose, he utilized that ring of Ansuz runes to communicate just one thing to her, a purpose for which she could put her full power beyond what should be possible in her current physical vessel, and utilize all the excess energy that came with it.
"Jack the Ripper, kill her."
His words never came, even though he spoke them. The only way that he knew they'd been heard was the green lightning that seemed to suffuse every part of her. Rather than looking sickening and unnatural, the verdant green hue seemed to gracefully coat her, almost as if reflecting over her skin itself, and she sidestepped past Boudica, her good arm's knife finding itself another gap in the black iron plating, striking at a shoulder joint. Johannes could not begin to follow the clash that ensued, as flames began to repeatedly erupt and Jill moved at speeds far beyond what he could understand, the two dancing through the square as he could see in occasional glimpses that each one was finding themselves more, and more wounded.
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After several seconds and more explosions of flame than Johannes could count, the two began to slow enough that he could briefly keep up with the visuals of their movements. Jill's entire body was covered with burn scars from near misses, and by a casual glance he couldn't believe that she was even alive. Her breathing had compressed into a single, low wheeze that sounded less like a human being, or even an animal's cry, and more like the rush of wind from an ominous cave entrance. Somehow, she was the better off of the two at the moment. Boudica was riddled with wounds, her armor running red with her own blood and her movements often being supported with her own sword. She'd gotten her leg slashed deeply at some point, and her movements were impaired even with the explosions she used to rocket around with each step.
Johannes could tell that at this rate, Boudica would be the victor. Not because of the damage Jill had taken, but because of the fact she had nearly burnt through the full thousand units of magical energy he had given her. He had one thousand units left in the Command Array that he could forcibly use to give her another shot, but he was unsure if that would be enough. Rather, they might quickly end up in a situation where they had no way left to stop Boudica at all. As the two continued to clash, he kept moving, pointing his blade forwards once more. Not at Jill, to give her another use of support magic, but at Boudica.
He'd been running himself dry through constant use of support magic, Beissende Hunde or not, and being damaged from that single strike he took didn't help matters. He had just a bit left, and no idea how many units it was. The number didn't matter, he could maybe use one more rune before he dropped down. He would turn the tides, and open an opportunity for Jill. Sowilo, the rune of the sun, formed in front of the blade, as he poured everything he had left into one strike. From behind, a bright beam of light hit Boudica squarely in the upper midsection, not wider than the sword it'd been fired from. It pierced through her blackened armor, tearing through, but failed to deliver a fatal blow, leaving a scorched hole on the left side of her torso. Still, in that moment, she whipped around as Johannes fell to the ground, vision swimming once more.
He dropped to both knees, holding tightly onto Beissende Hunde and using it to prevent collapsing totally onto the ground for the sake of not drowning in his own blood. She had turned towards him, taking a single step to arrive over him, sword held over his head and ready to end his life. In that moment, he could remember everything that had led up to this point. The years he spent with Jessica in that accursed house. His mother and father's 'love' and 'care', or at least the closest things they had ever shown to it. The days after he left, trying to understand and find a way in the world so that he could find a solution to Jessica's ordeal. The loneliness of trying to make it in that world alone, isolated from those he'd known before so that they would not be rooted out by his family.
One day, he could remember that he had broken down over a simple beef stew served in a pub. It hadn't been anything special, or even particularly good. But after being on the run, after everything he'd seen, the man who had bought it for him had given him something for free out of the kindness of his heart, simply asking if he needed a hot meal. That one kindness had moved him to tears, and it was the first time he'd had any form of happiness since leaving home.
Even the days at Heliopolis came back to him, those scant few days between leaving the planet, and entering this bizarre Distortion. The simulated gravity, the all-too-clean white walls. His mind drifted back to the present, ready to meet death.
And his eyes were greeted with seeing a headless corpse, slowly vanishing into a destroyed, large lump of clay. Everything about his body hurt, and he was covered in his own blood, but he was alive for the moment. Only some feet from him was Jill, in even worse shape than himself but still breathing, having collapsed with a knife literally inside the chest of the clay vessel. Rather than stabbing through a gap in the armor, she had directly stabbed Boudica in the hole he made, her knife directly entering Boudica's organs and killing her in one blow.
Johannes tried to say something, anything. To thank her for saving him. To apologize for how much of a failure he'd been. To say that they should find somewhere safe to hide away and try to recover. All that came out of his mouth was a garbled mess as he fell over, and the darkness of unconsciousness took him. Jill looked over the silly man who had tried his best. Johannes hadn't been the best man, but he'd tried to be understanding for her. Even though she was a weak Spirit, and her reputation was bad, he'd really tried for her.
She slung his body over one shoulder, and got moving, even though she could feel that her time was almost up. Spirits were ephemeral things, not meant to stay contained in a vessel for long. Her vessel had been damaged, and she didn't have much energy left, but that was okay. If only she could make sure he made it. She was pretty sure that she was crying, but no tears came out, she'd lost a lot of her face's movement from one of that bitch's blasts of flame.
For what felt like hours, she dragged his armor through the streets, bringing Johannes into a half-destroyed house and gently setting him in the corner, before sitting beside the door, watching. Even if it was just a bit longer, she wanted to watch over that boy and make sure nobody hurt him. He was young, immature, and too scared of not doing enough or doing the wrong thing. Even if it was just until she joined him in sleep, she wanted to make sure he was safe for just a bit longer, no matter how heavy her eyes were getting. No matter how tired she was.
