Jin smirked cruelly. “Too slow, Dorigan.”
And then Jin was upon him again; sword flashing and swinging, pushing Dorigan back up the staircase. As Dorigan fought frantically to defend himself, fear began to chew its insidious way up his spine. His master had already given him a fair amount of demonic power, so Jin shouldn’t be able to keep up with him, and yet here he was, pushing Dorigan farther and farther up the spiral staircase to the meeting hall.
Jin chopped down at Dorigan, who blocked, and then Jin slapped his sword aside to slash freely at Dorigan’s neck. Dorigan ducked, and Jin’s blade collided with the stone wall. Dorigan jumped back to his feet and thrust at Jin’s exposed torso. Jin moved faster than he’d expected though and deflected the attack, pressing both their blades against the wall. Dorigan growled, but Jin merely grabbed his head and shoved him face first into the unforgiving stone. Dorigan shouted in pain and stumbled back before Jin elbowed him in the chest. Dorigan’s back hit the opposite wall of the staircase, and he answered Jin’s attack by trying to cut off his head. Jin ducked the attack, slid behind his opponent, and then shoved Dorigan against the wall, pinning Dorigan’s sword arm between the wall and his chest.
“You know you’re going to die tonight, right?” Jin hissed viciously in Dorigan’s ear.
Grunting with the effort, Dorigan worked a leg between himself and the wall and then kicked off as hard as he could, slamming Jin back-first into the opposite wall. Jin released him, and Dorigan responded by first driving his elbow into Jin’s gut and then smashed his fist into Jin’s temple. Already off balance, this blow sent Jin tumbling down the staircase with Dorigan leaping after him, eager to score the fatal blow and end the fight. But Jin recovered faster than Dorigan expected and parried his thrust before pressing the attack and pushing Dorigan back up the staircase.
The fight continued on. Jin and Dorigan’s blades slashed through the air, neither fighter showing any sign of fatigue. The cramped quarters of the staircase proved to be an ill-suited location for a swordfight and forced both Jin and Dorigan into using a select set of short chops and thrusts. Eventually, their fight led them to the end of the staircase, and with a powerful kick Jin sent Dorigan crashing through the door to the meeting hall.
Dorigan regained his footing immediately and continued to defend against the near-overwhelming power of Jin’s assault. As the fight continued, Dorigan found the fact that he was constantly pushed back onto the defensive, in spite of the demonic power he possessed, abhorrent. His anger at this welled up and pushed aside his fear, and he struck out with his sword. Jin was caught off guard by this sudden ferocity and leaned to the side to dodge.
Half a second too slow.
Despite Jin’s considerable reflexes and physical speed, Dorigan’s blade still sliced a searing line across Jin’s left cheek. Shocked, Jin slapped Dorigan’s blade aside and disengaged from the fight. He stepped back, just out of Dorigan’s reach, and touched his left hand to his wounded cheek.
“Too slow, Jin,” Dorigan said, a cruel grin on his face, eyes flashing red.
Jin growled, but before he could resume his attack, Dorigan was upon him.
Slowly but surely, Dorigan pushed Jin back toward the large glass windows that comprised the bulk of the back wall of the meeting hall. Jin was vaguely aware of this and did his best to push Dorigan back, to reverse their positions in the fight, but Dorigan fought like a man possessed, and Jin was suddenly hard pressed to defend himself. The fight continued, even as Jin was pushed back to within a foot of the right most windows.
“That’s a forty-foot fall, Jin,” Dorigan said gleefully. “Think you can survive it?”
Jin growled, but Dorigan suddenly broke off his attack and drove his foot into Jin’s chest. The force of the kick was so great that Jin was knocked completely off of his feet and sent crashing through the window. Allowing himself a self-satisfied chuckle, Dorigan walked up to the window and onto the ledge, holding the frame to keep himself steady.
As soon as he did so, Jin threw himself back up onto the ledge and chopped at Dorigan’s hand. Dorigan quickly pushed himself out of the way and was now balancing precariously on the ledge as well.
“That’s a forty-foot fall, Dorigan,” Jin said mockingly. “Think you can survive it?”
Dorigan snarled and lashed out with his sword. Jin blocked it and continued his attack. Out on the ledge, where there was room only to step forward and back, Jin and Dorigan’s attacks were single, darting slashes and stabs. Even so, Jin was the bolder swordsman and continued to push Dorigan back.
Thunder rumbled in the distance, and suddenly a fork of lightning stabbed out from the clouds above and slashed open the clouds, as though the very sky itself was embroiled in the struggle of these two men. Great torrents of rain began to pour from the clouds above and the ledge became suddenly slick.
As Dorigan blocked a thundering overhead chop from Jin, his left foot slid backward on the rain-soaked stone, and he suddenly realized he needed to get off the ledge.
Immediately.
Desperately, Dorigan slashed at Jin’s face and leapt off the ledge and onto a platform that had a staircase that led to the top of the castle-mansion’s tallest tower.
Jin followed his adversary to this platform, blocking a slash meant for his neck as he landed. Jin then pushed Dorigan’s blade away as he got to his feet and delivered another thunderous overhead, which Dorigan swatted aside to slash at Jin’s neck again. Jin ducked and simultaneously swung his sword at Dorigan’s feet. Dorigan jumped, then ducked under another swing meant to remove his head before standing up and pointing the tip of his sword at Jin’s chest.
“It’s over now, Jin,” he sneered triumphantly.
“Not by a long shot,” Jin retorted, slapping Dorigan’s blade away and resuming his attack.
Jin came on, faster and stronger than ever before. Somewhere deep within, Jin could feel the end of this fight approaching, and he drove Dorigan to it with manic intensity. Each step was paired with an attack, and each attack was countered, and then those counters were countered. An intricate web of offensive slashes and stabs and defensive blocks and parries wove between the two fighters, even as Jin’s monstrous offense drove Dorigan and his frantic defense backwards up the stairs. On and on they fought, giving everything they had and more to the singular goal of destroying their opponent until finally, they came to the top of the tower.
No spires adorned it, nor any rails or barriers. At the edge of the tower, whose surface was perfectly flat, a one-hundred-and-twenty-foot fall awaited whichever of the two fighters fell off.
The rain intensified, soaking Jin and Dorigan through to the bone, yet neither fighter quailed. They were too deep into it, too submerged in their hate for one another to care about the rain. All that mattered was the two of them, and the fact that only one of them would be walking away from this fight alive. Blade to blade, fist to fist, their skills were so nearly identical that neither could gain an advantage. So at last, with a final few desperate swings, the two of them sprang apart.
Rain-soaked and panting, Jin and Dorigan just stared at one another, circling each other like a pair of starving wolves fighting over a piece of meat. Thunder shocked the air, curtains of rain fell between them, and, summoning their last reserves of strength, they dove at each other.
It was over in a flurry of activity. Over a dozen blows were traded between the two swordsmen, faster than anyone would have been able to see. But at long last, Jin slapped aside Dorigan’s blade and savagely slashed him across the stomach. Dorigan gasped in surprise and stumbled backwards, dropping his sword. Breathing heavily, eyes shining with victory, Jin turned away from his fallen foe and began to walk away. Before Jin had taken five steps, however, Dorigan started laughing.
“And where do you think you’re going?”
Confused and surprised, Jin turned around to see Dorigan get back to his feet, the wound across his stomach healing before his very eyes.
“You’re too
late, Jin,” Dorigan said, grinning. “My transformation has finally begun.”
Almost at once, Dorigan’s body was engulfed in a brilliant red light. As Jin watched, Dorigan grew another three inches, his muscles bulged, curved spikes protruded from his shoulders, elbows, and knees, and a pair of horns burst from Dorigan’s temples and curved down around his face. The red glow vanished and revealed Dorigan’s demon form in all its glory.
His clothing had disappeared, yet his demon form lacked genitalia, and Jin could see that Dorigan’s skin was red and rough, much like a lizard’s, except around his face. The skin of Dorigan’s face was soft and smooth and was colored a pale, sickly green. His chest, abdomen, wrists, pelvis, and thighs were covered in a kind of purple shell that was the same color of his horns. Dorigan smiled, and Jin could see that his canines had become fangs. His eyes remained red, but the pupils had become elliptical.
Yet despite his fearsome new appearance, Jin was unsurprised and unimpressed.
“It figures that you’d use yourself as a test subject,” he scoffed. “Try and give yourself the power you know you’d need to defeat me because your human body would have been too weak to do so.”
Despite Jin’s harsh tone and words, Dorigan chuckled.
“Whatever you say, Jin.”
“It still won’t save you,” Jin said, raising his sword.
Dorigan chuckled again. “Well then come on and try if you’re so confident.”
Jin attacked, but it became very clear very soon that he was no longer a match for Dorigan. In speed, strength, and agility, Dorigan now vastly outclassed him. Jin was an overwhelmingly powerful warrior, but he was still only human. As Jin could feel the first ounces of fatigue weigh down his movements, Dorigan started to mock his efforts by slapping his limbs and face with the flat of his blade.
“Dead,” Dorigan chuckled gleefully each time he did so. “Dead, dead, dead, dead!”
Dorigan slashed at Jin’s neck, and Jin ducked with hardly a fraction of a second to spare, but he was sent splashing across the tower’s surface by a kick to the ribs so powerful Jin was worried they might be broken.
“You see, Jin?” Dorigan called as Jin coughed up blood. “You can’t beat me now!”
Jin growled angrily in protest, but he couldn’t bring himself to get up again.
Was this how it was going to end? After coming so far, after working so hard, and after going through so much pain and torment, he was still going to be slain by the butcher of his children? This thought was so repugnant, so hugely offensive, that Jin felt the bile rise in his throat and his hatred re-ignited once again. He forced himself to his knees, and he thought of Leah and Will, and what Dorigan would do to them should he fail. He thought of Mark and Mordechai, of all the people who Dorigan had killed just because he could. He thought about his children, and the life Dorigan hadn’t let them live.
“NO!” Jin roared. “I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY YOU!”
A blast of energy suddenly surged forth from Jin’s body and forced the curtains of rain away from his body in a transparent sphere of water. This wall of water splashed into Dorigan, and by the time Dorigan recovered, Jin was right in his face.
Roaring with fury, Jin rained blow upon blow down against Dorigan’s defenses. With his skill powered by his rage, and his rage somehow fueling a mysterious new power, Jin Sakai became a pure force of nature; an avatar of vengeance that was not just his own, but that of Mordechai, of Mark, of Leah and Will, and of Alexandra and Jonah. He took their pain and added it to his own and gave it all to the fire of his hate.
Dorigan blocked the first few of Jin’s blows contemptuously, as if insulted by Jin’s continued persistence. But as Jin’s attack continued, and Dorigan found himself actually trying to block Jin’s strokes, that small tingle of fear began to claw back up his spine. Where had Jin gotten this kind of power? Even as Dorigan poured more of his own demonic power into the fight, pushing his speed and strength past the limits of what any human should be able to fight at, Jin continued to match Dorigan blow for blow. Somehow, Jin Sakai had managed to become his equal.
Even worse, Jin was quickly becoming his superior.
In a final, desperate move, Dorigan locked their swords together and pushed back against Jin, hoping to overwhelm him with sheer strength.
But Jin didn’t move an inch. Instead, he pushed against Dorigan just as hard as Dorigan pushed against him. Dorigan strove to push harder but could no longer gain the leverage as he felt his sword slowly fall to his right. He looked at Jin, and realized that Jin had ever so slightly positioned himself to his left and was pushing his sword down.
“This…” Jin said through gritted teeth, “is…for Katie!”
Suddenly, Jin slashed upward with this sword and removed both of Dorigan’s hands.
“This…is for Alex!” Jin roared, shoving his sword through Dorigan’s stomach.
Dorigan howled in pain, and Jin took a step forward before shoving his sword up to the hilt through Dorigan’s stomach.
“And this?” Jin began, whispering venomously in Dorigan’s ear. “This is for Mark…”
Jin twisted his sword, extracting another howl of agony from Dorigan.
“…and Mordechai.”
At that, Jin tore his sword free, out through Dorigan’s side, and wiped the blood from his sword using a now sopping wet handkerchief. Dorigan collapsed to his knees, gasping as he choked on his own blood, and clutched his ravaged side. Sheathing his sword, Jin stared contemptuously down at his dying enemy.
“Burn in Hell, you son of a bitch,” Jin said, breathing heavily. “You burn in Hell.”
With that, Jin walked away back down the stairs as Dorigan drew a last ragged breath, and his eyes rolled back into his head.
Chronicles of the Apocalypse
--<(0)>--
Part 1: Revenge, Everything is Nothing
Chapter 23: The Last Loose End
As Jin returned to Pine Lake, the early morning sun began to rise above the horizon. Despite his immense exhaustion, both physical and emotional, the sight of the rising sun gave him a sense of peace and hope.
A new day, a new life, he thought to himself.
As he pulled up to Mark’s shop, he noticed that Leah and Will were sitting on the curb, their heads resting on one another. Jin smiled at the sight; they must have stayed out to wait for him. Driving just a hair farther, Jin eased his car into the alley beside the shop, turned it off, and got out, closing the door as gently as possible. Still smiling, Jin walked back over to Leah and sat down, placing his right hand on her shoulder. She stirred, and Jin further roused her by giving her shoulder a light shake. Moaning gently, she turned to look up at the person who had awoken her. When she saw Jin’s emerald eyes gazing brightly at her, she smiled and leaned into him, careful not to disturb Will.
Jin wrapped his arms around her and held her close, savoring the warm, gentle contact that had been absent from his life for so long. With Dorigan and the others now dead, Jin felt the flames of his hate and rage wither and die.
His soul had finally found peace.
“Is it over?” Leah asked, turning her head to watch the sunrise.
Jin sighed contentedly and was about to answer yes, but then a scrap of memory flashed before his mind’s eye and served as a spark that revived a sliver of his dying hate.
A memory of a blond woman with cold gray eyes and a block of ice where her heart should have been.
A memory of a woman with fear, but no remorse.
A memory of a woman named Rachel Hartman.
“No,” Jin whispered. “Not yet.”
--<(0)>--
Around midday, Jin stood before the front doors of a beautiful beachfront home in Southern California. It was a single-story dwelling, painted a simple white, but its curved architecture and glass-block windows undermined its simple color and lack of size.
The sun was high in the sky, and no clouds could be seen – a gorgeous, eighty-plus-degree day. Even wearing
jeans and a white T-shirt, Jin was remarkably warm. He rang the doorbell and then slid his hands calmly into his pockets. He didn’t have to wait long, for within merely five seconds, the sound of hurried footsteps was audible through the door. A moment later, the door swung inward to reveal Rachel standing in a pair of shorts and a gray tank top. The instant she saw Jin, her breath caught in her throat.
“No,” she gasped.
“Hi, honey,” Jin said, smiling with a cruel glint in his eyes. “I’m home.”
Smiling, Jin walked inside the door with Rachel stepping backward in fear. Once clear of the door, Jin turned around and slammed it shut with enough force to shake a pair of paintings off the wall. Still smiling, he turned back to Rachel.
“What’s wrong, babe?” he asked, looking suddenly disappointed. “Haven’t you missed me these last five years?”
“Jin, please…” she pleaded, raising her hands as though to hold him back.
Jin didn’t let her finish. His right arm lashed out and struck a heavy blow across her face. Off balance, Rachel could do nothing to stop Jin grabbing a fistful of her hair, turning around, and brutally slamming her face-first into the wall. Dazed, disoriented, and with her nose now streaming blood, Rachel stumbled backward right into Jin’s chest. She looked up, eyes hazy, and only when they snapped wide with recognition did Jin move again. This time, he snapped his right hand up and clamped it tight around Rachel’s throat. She gasped for air, and Jin dragged her out of the entrance hall and into the living room. She fought against his grip, but her strength was far inferior to his. Coming to a stop, Jin lifted her as high as his arm would allow and then hurled her back first into the hardwood floor.
Kneeling by her left shoulder, Jin gazed at her, eyes shining with both unbelievable hate and harsh contempt.
Chronicles of the Apocalypse: Revenge, Everything is Nothing Page 26
