Consequences To Hesitation

Angulimala closed its eyes as it saw the blade comming down. It was already too late for him to react. He walling heads facing the sky, there was almost no way for him to generate enough strength to avoid the incomming hatches or to block said attack effectively. As of such, he could only close his eyes in anticipation of his fated doom.

Thud...

The sound of the hatchet sinking into the ground could be heard but oddly, Angulimala felt as if nothing at all happened...

He opens his eyes only to see Jeremy staring blankly at him with his hatchet inches away from his neck. For a moment, the Curse of Bloodlust seemed to have receded, allowing some sense to return to Angulimala.

"Fool! Why didn't you kill me!" Angulimala bellowed.

"I... I... I can't! Taking a life isn't something to be done on a whim!" Jeremy yelled back as he retrieve his hatchet.

It's not easy to take a life of another. A normal person who has never killed before will have his guilty conscious weight down on his every action every moment as he closes in on the deed, deterring him every step of the way.

It's one thing to see someone kill another, when we back sit and critique, it's still always 'oh because they deserve it', or 'oh it had to be done', we do so without a batting of an eye, filled with self righteous justification. But when you do it yourself, you will find it significantly harder to take the next step akin to watching a person taking the jump of a bungee and actually doing it yourself.

Cold sweat flowed down through the back of his neck as he tried to calm himself down on what just happened.

Angulimala's body started to flickered before vanishing into reality. Taking this opportunity, Jeremy too flitterer out of the void.

...

It was only a moment ago when Angulimala was about to loop off Jeremy's head when Jeremy poofed into thin air followed by Angulimala.

Following what would normally happen, Irshad and Hana was both expecting to see Jeremy reapear moments later behind followed by Angulimala. However, that did not happen.

1 minute past but there were both still missing.

"What happened... Where are they?" Adam asked as he looked around.

"I'm not too sure myself but be in your guard!" Irshad said warily as he got to his feet.

Half a second passed with all three of them merely looking around, as if preparing for an in comming attack.

Bzzzz

Angulimala's body suddenly blurred back into view not from them. He was crouching to the ground as if injured.

Barely a breath later, Jeremy too blurred into existence beside them while looking exhausted. His hands where shivering.

"I have lost. Kill me now before it takes over again! Hurry!" Angulimala yelled.

"What..." Hana said, clearly confused. She turned around to stare at her fellow companions, only to realise they were equally confused.

Contrary to Irshad, Adam and Hana, Jeremy was petrified into inaction.

"Arghhhhhhh.....hu..hurry....arghhhh" Angulimala yelled as a sinister red aura once again start to envelop his body.

Swish...

Adam after a moment of hesitation, he immediately lunged and slashed Angulimala. However, its was too late. The curse took hold of him once more and with a swipe of his arm, Adam was flung sideways into the ground.

"Arghhhhhhhhh!!!!" Angulimala yelled as if feral before lunging once again towards the Irshad. This time however, it would have seem that he has given up using the shadow step technique and is merely sprinting forwards.

Even so, he was fast.

Klang Klang Klang Klang!

Rain of blows from struck Irshad shield Angulimala swift movements guided his daggers to slash one after another in a fluid and continuous motion, forcing Irshad to move a step back at every strike.

"If you are going to do something, now is the time!" Irshad yelled as he could slowly felt himself losing strength from the constant barrage of assault.

Jeremy stood frozen at where he stood. Still rattled from the though of having to actually take a life. Hana noticed the rattled Jeremy, while she didn't know what happened in the moments both Jeremy and Angulimala went missing, she can guess it wasn't the time to rely on him.

Immediately after thinking about that, she charged her strongest single target spell that she knew Flashbolt, a spell of concentrated fire that blast off in the shape of a beam the size of a fist, incinerating everything in front of it.

It was a dangerous spell to use as it would attack anything in front of it, friend and foe alike. In normal circumstances, she would never use the spell in a team battle. But, dire circumstances calls for fire actions. Banking that Irshad will be able to head a command to duck on an instance notice similar to what they have been doing previously, she begins to charge her spell, ready to unleash at a critical moment.

Klang Klang Klang klang!

Angulimala's daggers slashed for times more before it abruptly stop along with a loud thud. Using the large shield as a ramp, Angulimala lepth into the air and threw a dagger straight at Hana who was hiding behind Irshad and at the same time using the momentum from his spinning body to angle a backhand with another dagger at Irshad.

It all happened in a blink of an eye. The dagger blitz towards Hana as her heart went cold.

Was this the end.

Klang.

The speeding dagger was intercepted by Jeremy's hatches which flew and smack it out of the way. As soon as she saw she heard the klang, she knew this was her moment, "Flashbolt!"

BAM!

A blinding bright light seared across the plains barely above Irshad, piercing right through Angulimala into yonder.

As soon as it apeared, the light soon faded into darkness once more. In the wake of the attack, Irshad gave a long sigh as he looked around to find for Angulimala. As he did that, he could felt a searing pain around the left side of his neck. The heat from the Flashbolt has caused him to sustain some minor burns.

The smell of burn flesh waffled in the air.

As he turned his head to the back, there he saw it, the mangled body of Angulimala face down.

Hana covered her mouth and gasp. This wasn't what she was aiming for.

In truth, she was aiming for chest to imobilize him or his head or heart to finish him off quick. But because Angulimala was in the midst of twisting his body to strike Irshad, the Flashbolt struck from hip to hip, incenerating everything in between. His spine connecting his hip from his upper torso was no longer there and ruptured guts spilled on the ground where he lay as blood and ooze gunk everyone.

What made it all worst was that he was still alive!

As his upper body was no longer connected to his lower via spine, all he could do was struggle his way as he dragged his mangled body to face upwards.

"Finish it... Please..." Angulimala begged in pain as his body twisted in ungodly sight in order to face upwards.

Jeremy picked up his hatchet which wasn't too far off, and begun walking towards his body.

"I'm sorry..." he mumbled as his words drifted into the wind.