Chapter 15

“Tell me something, how good are you...with pain?”.

She wasn't shocked or startled out of fear or anything, she's never heard something that sounded so utterly bluff, yet unsettling. Her heart pounded twice as those words were uttered. The only form of pain she's ever felt was that from the day her parents were killed right in front of her. Her several years of rigorous and intense physical training were nothing compared to that.

“You think you can ever make me feel pain?” as she said, her quietly unfazed voiced echoed through the space. “I've been through much worse than you can possibly throw at me. So come, I dare you!!!”.

There was a bit of silence in the parking lot, until she said “By all means”

Then, she felt it. It was a single punch that simultaneously stroke a certain nerve in her body, stimulating her pain receptors. The person she was up against already owned her skills in martial arts. For a moment there, a short, brief moment, she could barely move. But as her opponent uttered the words

“Now do you feel pain?”.

She gathered up energy and fought the unbearable pain then boosted herself upwards to get on her feet. In a flash, she picked up her swords and turned to attack but Lucy was gone.

“Face me head on and stop being a coward!”.

“In a battle to the death where two opponents are evenly matched in physical strength and skills, one has to target his opponent's weaknesses, added to other special skills he possesses and use that as an advantage in order to come out as the victor.

Basic strategy.

That's the case for a fair battle to the death. However, what we have here is a different case where one opponent surpasses the other in multitude. So tell me, how much pain can you take, are you ready to give up?”.

She left a soft gasp “Come, I dare you!”

“At least I showed pity, no one should blame me for beating up a powerless rookie who doesn't know her place”.

Jayna slowly went back down on her knees as every slight movement she makes feels like repeated rounds of cuts from a knife on a particular part of her skin.

“What did you do to me?” she asked.

“Struggling is futile. No one, on your level at least is capable of resisting that kind of attack. I'm sure you must have figured it out by now that I've stimulated your pain receptors, making even the slightest movement you make exceedingly painful. At this rate, you wouldn't last long so just give up” said Lucy. “It's a special ability I possess which makes me much different from my brother. This won't go your way no matter how hard to try, stop trying so hard when there's not much you can do, when you're so weak”.

As she said those words, Jayna couldn't help but be pissed at the current state she was in. She then threw a tiny dagger at a specific location. Her ears twitched to a sound she had waited to hear, that “ouch” sounded so pleasant, like a calling. What followed was a smirk that stretched the side of her lips, and then...

“Found you!”.

She rapidly picked up her katana and threw it to the same direction but she noticed Lucy had changed location. However, she pulled back the string she attached to the katana she threw, then spotted some traces of blood. She suddenly appeared in front of Jayna and punched her, sending her some distance away. She then appeared behind Jayna before she could land from the attack and gave another heavy punch that sent her towards the opposite direction as blood spilled and stained her cloth. Jayna blocked her next attack as on Lucy's face was an expression of total shock as what followed was the fist of a beast, sending her crashing through a nearby wall.

Was it fear, dread or trepidation, she wondered.

Jayna couldn't find her, “Invisibility?” she muttered “No, I got you this time!”

Lucy attacked from Jayna's right hand side, with an attempt to land a knock out punch but she quickly sensed her movements and redirected the attack, followed by a round of random attacks comprising of kicks, blows and cuts from her katanas. This time it wasn't just Jayna's blood that was being spilled.

She held Lucy's arms then slammed her head throw the side window of a nearby parked car. She pulled it out, moved to the next one and repeated it. She held Jayna's arm as she waved her sword then punched her abs, followed by an uppercut to the jaw which Jayna blocked. She lifted Lucy up from her waist and threw her to the side of a car, shattering all the windows. Jayna held her up and continued with more and more ruthless attacks; few kicks to her ribs, then her abs, followed by a round of blows to the face, a right hook then left. Right again, and left.

Right and left.

Right and left.

A punch to the right side of her face, then another at the left.

Lucy already had her turn, now it was Jayna's.

She kicked her two knees towards opposite direction, forcing her to knee down. Then rushed to pin her down on her knees and gave her countless amounts of punches on a spot. Her face had turned into a new punching bag for Jayna.

Smack!

Smack!!

Smack!!!

The words “She's a superhuman, she could handle a few couple of punches” kept on ringing inside her head as she continued with the merciless beating.

Next was a knockout as Lucy went straight to the ground after Jayna's fist made a final contact with her face.

“I wanted you to know, to show you that you are not invisible. Took me a while but I figured it all out. You possess the same ability as your twin brother but you happen to stand out more because of your unique way of using it due to your unbelievable mastery of your abilities. You make it seem like you're making yourself invisible but that isn't the case. You use your teleportation to move from one specific spot to another that isn't far away at all, and you do that at incredible speed, making it seem like you're maintaining a single position yet unable to be spotted due to your rapidly instant travels between those two spots, you just simply vanish into thin air. Which was why I couldn't see you but was able to hear your voice echoing as an effect of your teleportations.

Know this and know peace Lucy of the Thunder Squad, I beat you!”

+++

Deep in the shadows was a figure lurking within. It watched the whole fight and noted the victor, it then muttered “interesting”.

+++

Like a dog trying to fetch a lost ball, I headed off to find the others, my friends. Right now I'm the one who seems lost and needed to be found. I never saw it coming, it was only a matter of time before I realized I had been caught in a labyrinth illusion. When it finally dawned on me, it was already too late to go back as I had already cluelessly walked for miles. I thought to himself what a very familiar person would say and all I could do was picture the professor as I muttered

“Ha jeez”.