“Does your skill work on him?” Jake shouted to Lawrance.
“I think so,” Lawrance said. “I can’t tell.”
“I need a distraction,” Jake said, looking Lawrance in the eye.
His trusted friend looked him in the eye and nodded before bounding away. Jake saw four more of his soldiers fall to the spells of the thief and ran to protect his clan.
“Follow me!” he shouted, rounding up his soldiers. He would stand there and let them take blows and suffer. He was their leader and he would protect every single one of them with his life. He led the attack against the thief head-on, aware that there would be many injuries, but he hoped that he could save their lives.
“Outnumber him!” he shouted. “Surround him!”
His plan was quite simple. All he had to do was outnumber the thief. It was a well-known fact that magicians needed time to concentrate their power. If the thief was being attacked one after the other, he would not have enough time to perform killing blows. The most he could do was mild injuries and Jake hoped that it would eventually wear him down.
He jumped onto his opponent just as five more of his soldiers did. The thief blasted five separate beams that hit them all, knocking them down. Just as Jake had suspected, the blows were not strong enough. He got up as more and more of his soldiers jumped at the thief. The thief tried his best to hit everyone with his beams, but as the bears grew more and more in number, his attacks grew weaker.
“Give me back the ruby!” Jake roared as he jumped onto the thief once more. He managed to dodge the blow that the thief sent and landed right on top of him. The thief fell, howling in pain as Jake’s claws dug into his chest.
“Surrender!” He growled.
“Never!” The thief snarled, his eyes gleaming with evil. He suddenly shot out a beam that was stronger than before. This one was bright blue and almost like an explosion. It forced Jake off the thief, and he fell onto the floor as he felt the damage the explosion had inflicted.
He had already been weak, and this attack left him weaker. He got up, stumbling, and looked around in horror as he saw the thief shooting out beams of fire from his mouth. He looked around, frozen in shock as he saw his soldiers on the ground, their bodies burning.
The building itself had caught fire and was burning up. Jake looked around, feeling weak as he realized the destruction and death that surrounded him.
“Jake!” He heard Lawrance’s voice call out and he returned to reality. He looked at him and saw that Lawrance was ready to use his skill.
Only a second later, the thief started to give piercing screams of agony as Lawrance started to mentally torture him. Jake couldn’t imagine what images Lawrance was making the thief see, but the screams led him to believe that they were nothing but pure fear.
Jake used this opportunity to lunge at his opponent, jumping on him with such force that he cracked the bones of his opponent’s arm. The thief screamed and howled as Bane wrapped the thief in chains and Lawrance withdrew his skill.
The thief lay there, screaming in pain from Jake’s attack.
“You-” The thief coughed. “You bastards!”
“The ruby!” Jake ordered and Bane instantly retrieved it. Jake shifted back into his human form and walked over to the thief. He sank in to knees and said, “Tell me why you came after the ruby? Someone hired you! Who was it?”
“Go to hell!” the thief said, spitting on Jake.
Jake didn’t flinch. He sat there, calm and collected.
“Answer me now or I will have to use my methods to get the answer out of you!” Jake snarled.
The thief just grinned at him. A second later Jake heard Lawrance shout, “He has something in his mouth!”
Jake reacted by reaching forward, but he was too late. The thief bit on the capsule in his mouth and started to cough and thrash as white foam started to come from his mouth.
Within mere seconds, he lay dead in front of Jake. Jake roared in anger before getting up. He started marching away, trembling with anger.
“Jake!” Lawrance shouted. “Where are you going?”
“To the girl!” Jake growled. “I am getting my answers. No matter what!”
Chapter 8
Jazz
Jazz sat on the floor, waiting in anticipation. She could hear noises of fighting outside and she felt anxious. She had taken up this job for money, but she hadn’t expected the consequences to be so severe.
