Rhen and Jack were locked in a brutal struggle – two fighters who, despite their differences, mirrored each other in unsettling ways, at least on the surface.
Jack's physique had been enhanced when he awakened a B-rank Talent, Toxic Bloom.
He had also undergone Nilo's brutal training and had faced various opponents, as well as a few monsters, for battle experience.
Rhen's body carried the raw potential of an S+ Rank Talent, but unlike Jack, his strength was rough and unrefined.
Rhen's battle experience came mainly from fighting the monsters of Mazeweald, along with a few encounters against slum thugs.
Their clash carried no words, only the weight of anger that bled into every strike.
Both of them fought with frustration gnawing at their minds – nothing had gone the way it should have.
The weight of his mistakes pressed on him heavier than Jack's blade. Every strike reminded him of his failure.
He had put his teammates, the children, and Nina particularly in danger. This were the people he had subconsciously thought of as family after 12 years of being an orphan.
What had he overlooked? Had he underestimated the enemy?
He couldn't have guessed Jack not only had high-tier concealment, but also a poison vicious enough to cripple elites, and something that could even mask it all from the Union's eyes.
How did Jack get them? He was under Nilo right? Did Nilo help? How did that man have access to such?
Why would he even give someone like Jack that many resources just to bring him down?
Rhen had lots of questions.
He didn't have answers but he knew that his carelessness and selfishness had put everyone around him in peril.
He had only just begun to rise, only just felt the illusion of control and already, everything was crumbling beneath him.
The sudden fall of it all hit Rhen on levels he couldn't have imagined.
And the root of it all stood before him, the one who had dragged everything into ruin.
With that thought in mind, he glared hard at Jack, making the latter hiss.
Both of them clashed heavily at the center again, and Jack began speaking.
"Are you mad at me because your friends are going to die and it's all your fault? That's why you want to kill me, right?"
Rhen didn't reply but he was visibly annoyed by that statement.
Jack smirked, as he created distance and stood still.
"Well, that's the same way I felt when you killed my brother."
"I didn't kill your brother. He died because he committed a punishable sin," Rhen replied.
"Who ratted him out?" Jack yelled."It was you, because you wouldn't fucking mind your business.
"You wanted to play the hero and you went about causing problems. Those brats were going to die anyway! He only did them a favor — spared them the slow agony."
"Are you blinded by rage?" Rhen asked. "He sold the children. If not for me discovering that, the children in that house would have died long ago."
Jack's anger turned into maniacal laughter.
"Well, it seems you wasted your time because those children will be dying today."
Rhen remained cold as silence grew... until it broke.
"I don't care anymore, you're going to die today. I'll be killing you."
The mood suddenly changed.
Rhen had drunk a potion earlier and he had not been using its prowess.
His skills hadn't been used like Jack thought, it was merely a passive of his new daggers causing the ice that spread on the boy's skin.
And most of all, to Jack's heart-wrenching dismay, the poison that he had been releasing in Rhen's body with every successful slash were almost nullified.
Every bit he had been counting on was no more.
Rhen's body was mutated with a god and an ancient being's blood, poison of this level wasn't enough to be harmful.
Rhen covered the distance in a second, bringing his dagger down heavily.
Jack managed to stop it, but ice was spreading to his sword upon contact with the dagger.
He wasn't given a space to retreat as Rhen kept raining down slashes.
The tide of battle shifted. Each clash no longer felt equal—Jack was drowning beneath the cold weight of Rhen's fury.
Jack's short sword froze gradually, its weight becoming heavy under Rhen's daggers.
A little of it reached his arm, and the chilling cold raised his senses that it would be dangerous to be a victim too.
The boy held one of his short swords inversely to take on an attack.
The short sword stopped the dagger, made a little contact with Jack's forearm, but he successfully managed to create distance.
However, that proved meaningless as Jack's weight increased, limiting his movements and letting Rhen reach him again.
Blooming Venom was his trump card, the kind that rotted enemies from within, but against Rhen who seemed uninfluenced by it, he was forced to abandon it.
He used Spore Burst – the fastest skill he could muster.
Condensed dark green clouds poured out of Jack's body and after a few seconds exploded to cover the streets.
Rhen's fury stayed cold and sharp as he lashed a kick at Jack's face.
Jack had easily dodged that, and that was just because Rhen's real target was to kick the mask off Jack's face.
The mask flew free, clattering to the ground.
As it fell, Rhen let Jack leap back while he bent forward, picked up the mask, and managed to put it on.
The mask successfully blocked the poison from seeping in but due to Rhen's kick it was now unable to be attached to his face, making Rhen throw it aside.
"Who gave you the mask and the poison?"
He asked as he saw Jack's pitiful face.
"How? How's the gas not affecting you? How are you this strong?!"
Jack asked, his mind unsure of what to do.
Rhen darted through the cloud of poison, dispersing it as he closed in on Jack.
"Are you going to answer me?" he asked, stabbing his dagger into Jack's shoulder.
"You! You really did something to strengthen yourself! Who are you working with? The empire, the Holy Kingdom?"
His voice cracked, less warrior and more frightened child begging for a reason not to die.
Jack's last desperate hope was to wring an answer from Rhen; anything his master could use as a reason to intervene.
Alas, all was for naught.
After not receiving an answer, Rhen saw no need to postpone the inevitable. He had already killed one, what more could another do?
Each time the ice crept across Jack's flesh, Rhen shattered it himself before they could consume him.
It was a cruel rhythm, dragging out the torment instead of ending it.
Jack couldn't even beg for mercy.
Blinded by exhaustion and rage, Rhen never realized he had already carved the life out of Jack's body.
[You have killed Jackson Plague.]
[You have obtained a 2-star Loot.]