They leapt across buildings with Harold chasing down Jet. Jet fired two more bullets from his pistol, one missing Harold and another hitting him directly in the leg. Harold fell onto the rooftop with a heavy thud. Jet ceased his movements on the rooftop of the house up ahead, pulling a rifle out of his back. "Checkmate." Aiming it at Harold, he pulled the trigger, firing a singular bullet that targeted his face. The bullet whizzed through the air, coming at Harold like the grim reaper's hand.
Quickly, Harold rolled to the side. Expecting another bullet, he knelt up and heaved his blade in Jet's direction, sending a slice of Divine Light at him. The slice went cleanly through the obstacles in its way, nearly getting to Jet.
Jet spun, movements slick like water. He infused Rysen into his legs and bounced to another rooftop. Planting his feet, he broke a sweat as if he just avoided death's clutches. Looking back on the aftermath of the damage, the one stable house he stood at collapsed under the damage of being sliced in half. "Phew, didn't expect that one. You're quite cunning, I'll give you that."
Harold got to his feet, sipping a small health potion in his pocket to heal the bullet wound in his leg. "You hate me, right? Why are you going to such lengths to kill me?"
The dumbfounded question struck him, as if something snapped inside of him. Rage, hatred, and envy all started to ooze out of him slowly. "Because your existence took everything from me! My family, my Artifact, even my mother!"
Harold confusingly points at himself. "H-Huh? Me?!"
Hurling back with rage, he roars, tears splashing all over the place as his head violently turned. "That's right... I was supposed to have everything! But you took it all away!"
"I-I'm sorry, but that makes no sense; how would I have any direct involvement with any of those...?"
Jet chuckled, having a deranged twitch in his eyebrow. "Oh, that's right, you don't even know. You don't even know about your own mother rotting away in a dungeon. You don't know that OUR MOTHER IS CURRENTLY DYING!"
"What are you talking about-"
"Our mom came back to the Yula Kingdom and was deemed a traitor. Now she's suffering and being tortured because of your shitty father, who swooned her!"
"Hey, don't talk about my dad like that!" Harold replied, waving his sword at him.
He clutched his hair, writhing in madness. "She took away the Artifact I was supposed to have and left me to suffer her consequences! The entire royal family hates me, and now you own the Artifact that was meant for me!" Tears spurted from his eyes again, creating an awkward moment for Harold.
Seeing Jet in a distraught state, he lowered his weapon in shock. The pain and suffering through his breakdown spoke out to him, his tears etching through his anguish as if it were a call for some sort of hope in his situation. He didn't know what to say to his supposed brother in this moment, especially given how awkward it was.
"H-Hey, I'm guessing you're my brother if we have the same mom; maybe we can talk about this-"
"DON'T ACT LIKE WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS! MY LIFE NOW IS ESSENTIALLY HUNTING DOWN SOME BUM IN THE STREETS!"
The word "bum" registered with him for some reason. Maybe it's because of the life of poverty he dealt with that told him Jet was referring to him. "Are you referring to me? Cause that's kind of mean..."
"YOU HAVE A GODLY ARTIFACT THAT YOU'VE STOLEN FROM ME!"
"Look man, I didn't know it was yours-"
"YOU EVEN HAVE A CUTE GIRLFRIEND, AND I'M STUCK WITH NOBODY!"
Harold blushes profusely as Mina immediately pops up in his mind. "W-Wait, y-you mean Mina?! I-I'm not dating her!" He averts his eyes with a heat of embarrassment. "E-Even if she is pretty cute... and kind... and adorable... I wouldn't mind if we started dating—not like I'm hoping for that or anything..." he says, scratching his chin.
"YOU DON'T GET IT! YOU ESSENTIALLY HAVE ALL THE GREAT THINGS THAT I'M SUPPOSED TO HAVE!"
In the surge of his outcry, an unexpected guest arrives on the scene. "Did I interrupt something?
Sirus appears to control an army of clockworks by his side. He spun his Artifact in his hands, the shape of a dark navy halberd slamming into the ground. "By order of Stephen Lyhorn, you are all under arrest!"
Harold remembered that raspy voice anywhere. His mask, his uniform, and his Artifact. "You're that police captain!" He says, pointing his blade at Sirus. Sirus glared at Harold like the hindrance he was. A weird disdain he held for Harold never went away, and his glare screamed it. Before Jet could speak, the machinations of a steel jaw clamped onto him and carried him away. It was the clockwork wyvern he saw earlier, and it was viciously attacking Jet midair. "Jet!" Harold yelled in concern, charging up Divine Light to blast the wyvern down. But a multitude of other clockworks jumped onto the rooftops, immediately going on the assault.
Seeing as he was surrounded, Harold put his blade in the air and released all the Divine Light at once, creating a gigantic explosion that destroyed the clockworks that were incoming. In the aftermath of the explosion, he stood on top of the debris. The airborne dust covered his entire vision, and he was not able to grasp where Sirus was.
The Artifact of Sirus proved to be a hassle last time they battled. He recalled the nonstop onslaught of powerful waves of water that kept crashing into him. If Harold wanted to survive, he needed higher ground. "If I can get to another house, I'll be able to make some distance." Using his trained agility, he parkoured up one of the houses with ease. Then, looking below, he saw waves already crashing throughout the streets. "It's like a tsunami hit the place..." The stampede of water ate away at everything in the streets like a beast out to hunt. The noise of the water was dense, and the smell of the sea was apparent.
One of the waves clumped onto the floor momentarily before bursting out Sirus, who flung himself toward him. Already alert for an incoming attack, Harold swiped the air, sending a slash of Divine Light toward him. In response, Sirus created a giant ball of condensed waves, shielding him from the incoming slash. On impact, it splattered a massive amount of water, nearly sending Harold off the rooftops. Stepping in front of him, Sirus stabbed his halberd into the ground upright. "You've gotten an Artifact. That won't change the outcome of this battle, though."
Harold did admit that Sirus's Artifact was formidable. It may seem simple that he's only able to make waves, but the amount he's able to output is insane. Sirus aimed his halberd at Harold, a motion that looked down on him. "Go ahead, use that bullshit magic you did to save yourself like last time. I already have a plan for that."
"Is he talking about King's Will? He has a way to counter it? But I don't want to use that transformation willingly. It consumes way too much Rysen for me to use normally!"
"Silent? So you have some sort of restriction to using it, I assume." Sirus charged in, ready to swing his halberd. Harold already came up with a plan. He will step inside of Sirus's range, where Sirus will be too close to land a blow. Then he'll feint out a stab to land a lethal blow with the frying pan to the head. The plan felt solid till Sirus unexpectedly tapped on the ground beside him, creating a furious wave of water to crash into Harold's side. "Damn it, instead, he feinted me out!"
Harold was flung off the rooftop in a vicious push, smashing him onto the bottom floor. The impact was heavy, and he didn't brace himself well enough. The immense force pushed the wind from his lungs out, leading him to gasp for air. Then, he saw a shadow. That shadow was dropping closer to him. Taking a closer look made the shadow more visible. It was Sirus, directing the sharp tip of his halberd onto Harold.
He didn't have time to roll away, so he used his Artifact and called in Tavas. "Tavas, make a barrier, quick!" Tavas, who emerged in a crimson haze on top of Harold, immediately roared. His roar cast a barrier of condensed Rysen right on top of Harold, blocking the impending doom that approached him. Stabbing his halberd into the barrier, Sirus let out a loud grunt. "It seems you've learned a few more annoying tricks..."
With the undoing of the barrier, Harold quickly rolled to the side and leapt back to create distance between Sirus. "You clearly aren't trying to arrest me... you're trying to kill me."
Sirus slammed his halberd onto the floor, making a massive wave of water form underneath him. As the wave slowly grew, Sirus stood tall and allowed himself to be carried by it. With seconds left before impact, their eyes met. Their piercing glares challenged each other.
Under his breath, Harold muttered frustrated words at Sirus.
"Come at me then."