by David Burke
Jay’s spear drove through the man’s neck from the side, taking him completely by surprise. There was more resistance than he had expected for his enhanced strength but he just figured that he needed to factor in that some of these might have the same abilities that he did. Even with that resistance, the spearhead went all the way through and burst out the other side. His target wasn’t even able to cry out through the ruin that his throat was and the girl beneath him as well as the two strange women in front who were helping to hold her down were sprayed with the gore of the attack.
He didn’t stop from there. Not wanting to lose the initiative he spun on the other intruder. Shifting his weight to do a flying kick as he leaned against the shaft of his spear in a twisting motion that essentially took the first man’s head off of his shoulder at the same time that Jay’s feet impacted the second man’s chest.
With his spear now free he thrust it with all his strength and speed into his new target as he lay flat on his back. The tip punctured through and skewered the man to the ground.
Then as Jay was going to twist the spear free to finish him off, he felt his arms suddenly be bound to his chest.
Looking down Jay saw that the same type of crystal bands as were around the prisoners had formed around his chest and arms. He looked over and saw one of the newcomers, a short red-haired girl with her hand extended towards him. Her eyes were closed and her face scrunched in concentration as she clearly was causing this.
Jay pushed his strength and felt the muscles of his arms swell from the effort. The crystal started to crack but its many rough edges cut into his skin. The redhead yelled out, “He’s very strong. I don’t know how long I can hold him. Put him down.”
A slinky brunette, clearly of Middle Eastern descent from her accent, said, “Well if he is strong maybe he wants to join us. You know Kenley and Tyson’s rule. If we don’t have a guy then we don’t get to keep living. Do you really want to go beg another of them to take us on as a 3rd or 4th. He killed Bruce and Tyson, maybe he would like to join with us.”
“Yeah,” began a third girl as she stood up releasing the victim she had been holding down moments before. She must have been going for sexy as she flopped her long blonde hair over her shoulder and continued, “Just think. If you join the army, you could have all of us and we would even help you get little treats like this.” She finished by pointing to the bound girls as though Jay would be enticed by the proposition of unwilling partners.
Blood from dozens of small cuts ran down his arms, chest, and back where the bands had dug into him. “These are my people that you are hurting and I would never want to be with a woman who condoned this.”
“Easy for you to say. You think the dungeon is the worst that there is. Kenley and Tyson will show you otherwise. It’s kill or be killed and I want to be on the winning side,” the blonde retorted.
“If he doesn’t want to join then just crush him, Kara,” the brunette ordered.
Strain obvious in her voice, the redhead snapped back, “What do you think I’ve been trying to do.”
Jay hardened his skin, pushed energy into his regeneration and tried to burst free with all his strength. This time instead of cracking, the crystalline bands shattered, pelting everyone nearby with small pieces.
A part of Jay struggled with the idea of attacking women. He knew they were his enemies. More than that he knew they were guilty of doing evil things, even if only in self-preservation. Still when he saw them standing there, stunned at his actions, he could only imagine his mom and sister before their deaths.
That hesitation cost Jay as the brunette reached out her hand and the air around Jay’s head seemed to get very thin. He was breathing deeply as his heart rushed with the effort of the battle and now he wasn’t getting any oxygen. Electrical arcs danced along the fingers of the blonde as she stepped forward and smiled before she reached out to him. As she put her hands on him, every muscle in his body seized up, contracting against their will from the electrical charge she was sending coursing through him. It was what he imagined being tased would feel like but it wasn’t ending as she just kept her hands on him.
If Jay had been alone at this point he likely would have died, but he wasn’t. The brunette suddenly burst into flame as all the oxygen she had pulled to herself was ignited by Meikiyo’s fireball. The redhead as well as the 4th girl were bowled over by the explosion but instead of getting up to run they found that vines sprung up from the ground and entangled them.
As for the blonde who was trying to be his personal electric chair, Jay saw the shock in her eyes for a brief second before it faded and looked down to see Amelia's dagger had been driven through her heart.
Jay nearly collapsed as his convulsing muscles tried to unlock but Amelia caught him or at least did her best to lower him to the ground smoothly. He looked up as Amelia dashed over to attack the two who were pinned to the ground by Huong’s vines.
“No, wait,” Huong cried out. “We can’t kill them when they are helpless.”
“Open your fucking eyes. They are here to kill or rape us, maybe both. They deserve no mercy,” Amelia screamed back.
Jay stumbled to his feet as he worked to regain control of his limbs and almost wished he hadn’t as they were all looking at him. Huong glanced over at Meikiyo who said, “Don’t look at me, I agree with her.”
“We can’t be like them. We have to at least give them a chance to surrender,” Huong pleaded.
“How could we trust anything that they say? You heard them. They were holding Julie down so that perv could do what he wanted with her and then when Jay killed their guys, they offered themselves to him.”
“You don’t understand. You don’t know how strong Kenley and Tyson are. They will kill you if you don’t join them. I just don’t want to die?” They all turned to see that it was the redhead on the ground who spoke up.
“So that gives you permission to do this to other women. That is some sick thinking,” Amelia snapped.
“If there was any way to safely contain them, I would be all for keeping them as prisoners. Then we could have a trial or something, but how is that practical here,” Jay said. The solemn tone on his voice matched his face as he added, “And every minute we spend debating this is time that another of our friends have to suffer like this.”
They all traded looks before Amelia said, “I know this may not be something you are willing to do as a boy scout, so I will do it for you.”
Jay shook his head and said, “No, I am the leader. This responsibility weighs upon me.”
He knew that this distasteful task would not grow easier by delaying and also that there was no way around it. Jay stepped forward, wrenching his spear from where it lay stuck in its second target and immediately thrust it through the chest of the redhead with enough force to cave her chest in and impaled her heart. A second later he repeated the same maneuver upon the second trapped woman despite her pleas.
A tear filled his eyes but he blinked it away. He looked at the girls from their cluster which had been captured. “Free them and then help them back to the ziggurat. Amelia and I will find the next group. Please be careful and watch each other’s backs.”
His mournful look at Amelia was all that was required for her to conjure her shroud again and the two of them headed off. Forewarned with this experience, they were able to end the next two groups with much less trouble. They found that at least twenty of those who had originally been here were dead but they also managed to kill three more of the male and six of the female invaders. Fortunately none of these others tried to surrender and that made it so much easier for Jay.
The last group that they found was set up near the bungalows. There were two men and a dozen women and another fourteen of their friends who were bound up in some sort of spider webbing and sprawled out upon the ground. The men were drinking something while the women all looked around nervously and the prisoners wailed in fear.
By Jay’s math that meant that another guy was
out there somewhere and he was hesitant to attack such a large group when there might be another enemy he didn’t know the location of. It would be different, or at least somewhat so, if they were actively attacking his people but for now they only had them bound. They were waiting for something, apparently, or maybe just drinking to their success.
Whoever these people were and wherever they had come from they had wrecked this group of people. Prior to this attack there had been over 50 people in the group apart from Jay’s four-person team. Now they would be lucky if half of that number were still alive.
“Can you go back and find Meikiyo and Huong, we are going to need all the help we can get with a group this large,” Jay whispered.
Amelia frowned. “Are you sure this is a good idea. Maybe we could wait till they go to sleep.”
“We may have to end up doing that, but I would prefer that our group be together if we have to act.” Jay stopped and studied her face before adding, “You can do this. They won’t even know you are moving around and we can’t leave the rest of our team for too long or they may try to find us. I will be safe here. I can hide as long as I don’t have to move.”
Amelia looked around at the spot they were at hiding behind one of the corners of a bungalow and spying on this last group. She started to protest again but finally said, “Ok, you are the leader, but if you do something bone headed and get yourself killed, I will never forgive you.”
Jay settled in to wait for the rest of his team to return. The more he observed the two guys who were clearly the leaders of these invaders the less he liked them. They lorded their power over all those around them. More than once they slapped one of their own followers and most of the women who came with them were clearly just as fearful of them as the prisoners were.
After about 10 minutes of watching them, Jay heard some screeching and then laughter from the two enemy leaders. Looking to where the sound was coming from, he saw a massive hairy man dressed in only some loose gym shorts without anything even on his feet. He was dragging two women behind him by their hair as the proverbial caveman might have.
One of the leaders addressed the newcomer and Jay strained to hear what they were saying, “Don’t rough up the goods too much, at least not before we get to enjoy them. That one especially. I can’t wait to see that smug look wiped off her face.”
Jay looked closer and realized that the two unconscious women that he was dragging were Jasmine and Daphne. His reply to his leader was, “I had to kill the other two, but be careful of this one,” he kicked Jasmine as he said that, “she has some ability that gets in your head. If I hadn’t turned into my wolf man form, I probably would have done whatever she wanted.”
A noise behind him made Jay almost jump and reveal his location but then he heard Amelia’s whisper, “We’re back.”
He looked over his shoulder and smiled to see his three teammates but placed his finger to his lips in a signal for them to be quiet.
The rest of the conversation from the invaders was too quiet for him to make out what they were saying. It was then though that a crazy idea popped into Jay’s head. He ran through it a couple of times and compared it to all the information that he had. The more the thought about it, the more he thought it was their best option.
“So do you all trust me?”
All three of them looked back but Meikiyo was the first to answer, “With my life.” The others nodded.
“Then, just stay hidden and don’t be shocked by what I am saying, it is all to find a way to save you and as many of the others as we can.”
“Okay, but if it looks bad for you then I won’t promise to not jump in,” Amelia said.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less, but remember I’m a big boy. I can take a punch. Only step up if there is no other option.”
With that Jay stepped out of her shroud, walked around the bungalow with his hands up. He held his spear over his head and yelled out. “Hello, looking for the guy who took out your other people?”
The people scrambled and a few of the girls stepped in front of the two leaders while the man who had been dragging Jasmine took a step towards him but was unarmed. Jay didn’t move any further. Inside he was freaking out but he had to project confidence.
One of the two leaders pushed the women in front of him out of the way. “So you must be Jay.”
“That’s right.”
“So you are the one that some of these little mewling quims were yammering about. ‘Jay will save us. You better watch out for Jay.’ I must say I was equal parts interested and annoyed. I had to burn the one that was talking about it the most and that shut the rest of them up.” After he spoke he gestured to a clearly charred human corpse.
Jay growled to himself and wanted to charge the guy but he knew that this was a set-up and he was just dead enough inside after having to kill all those he already had to maintain his cool. “You know how girls are. You give’em a little something and they can’t wait for more.”
The second man said, “For sure. The honeys can’t get enough of the goodness. Isn’t that true.” The women who came with them all tried to reach out and touch one of the leaders or otherwise assure them of their adoration.
It turned Jay’s stomach but he forced himself to laugh. “Some of your people tried to recruit me before I killed them, so I figured I would find out if you are still in the market for help.”
The two exchanged a look before the first man said, “So how many of our people did you kill?”
This seemed to be a sensitive situation, “Well there was a girl with me with flame powers and she killed one of your people, a tall brunette with some kind of air control power. She went up like a candle, but I have had to kill the rest. My other two teammates died yesterday while we were fighting the boss of the first dungeon floor and your electric blonde took out my fire girl. So just me now.”
“You seem to be taking this pretty calmly. Care to tell me why that is?”
Jay thought for a second and tried to buy time as he turned the question back on the other man. “So do you. I just told you I killed what 16 of your people, well 15 myself but it doesn’t seem to bother you too much.”
“Well you will have to excuse me, but I asked you first and I would like to hear your answer before I decide if we can be friends.”
The third man erupted at that point, “If he killed Adam then he needs to die.”
Jay was a bit startled as the second leader reached with his hand and an invisible force flung the bare-chested man back twenty feet. “Don’t talk while your betters are speaking.”
The first leader said, “Excuse us. I have forgotten my manners. I am Kenley and this is Tyson. We are the leaders of this little group. Brent over there is highly emotional but it comes with his powers and even a rabid dog serves its purpose. Now though I believe you owe me an answer to my question.”
“At first when I got here, just like everyone else I didn’t know what to make of it. The more I think about it though, the more I realize that the strong get what they want and I can either be the strong or I can be a victim. I’ve only known these women for a few days. Why should I care if they die, other than if they were a good lay,” Jay said.
“Well then I think we can use a man like you. What are your basic abilities?” Kenley asked.
“I’m strong and I have tough skin.”
“And you took out the rest of our team just with that? No other skills.”
“Not besides my pyro friend, but once you find something you are good at, why worry about other stuff, right?” Jay replied. He figured the more information he could keep to himself the best. “So if I’m gonna be working with you, then what are your abilities?”
Tyson snapped, “Not working with us. Working for us.”
Kenley started to say something as he bounced a ball of fire between his hands. This was going well because Jay was learning what he needed to know. The one was a pyro like Meikiyo and the other was telekinetic it appeared, but before he c
ould say much more Brent yelled again, “You have to choose, him or me.”
Kenley and Tyson looked at each other again before the first said, “Well one muscle head is as good as another.”
With that they ordered a spot cleared and made a circle about 30’ across with all of the girls forming the perimeter, captives and captors alike. The two men sat on opposite sides of the circle and had what were apparently their favorite girls next to them for easy groping. Jasmine and Daphne were outside the circle and still unconscious but now bound by the spider-like webbing.
Chapter 40 - Into the Ring
“Well both of you enter the ring. The winner is the one left breathing. Remember we have no use for the weak,” Kenley said.
By this point adrenaline was carrying Jay through as he stepped into the circle, his eyes on his opponent. Brent began to beat his chest like a wild man. His head twisted and turned back and forth to odd angles as hair grew all over his body. Jay couldn’t look away. It was one of those things like a trainwreck. It was gruesome yet captivating. Shoulder joints swelled and popped out of place.
It was obvious that he was transforming into some sort of beast and based upon what he had said earlier, likely something like a were-wolf. The transformation finished as his nails grew out two inches and turned black as they thickened. All in all it only took five or six seconds for the transformation to take place but it seemed twice that to Jay as he watched and from how painful it seemed he imagined it felt like even longer to Brent.
Even as he watched, Jay had not been idle. He desperately wanted to win this fight with as few of his abilities as possible so that he would still have something as a surprise for use against the others. He couldn’t deny though that the entire wolf man effect was pretty intimidating so he just had to hope that his level was higher. He assumed it was given the notification that he was the first one to break the threshold.
