Lightning Blade (2)

"Ugh…"

Jamie put a hand to his forehead, his eyes still recovering from the bright flash of light. He could hear something crackling, but was unable to focus, only noticing that his hand came away wet.

The moment he heard the crackle get louder, everything came back to him, and he immediately rushed to get up, only now noticing that the ground around him and Terry had sunk into a deep crater.

His vision coming back to him, Jamie pulled himself out of the crater, hearing another explosion from the spot he just left. Getting to his feet, he turned around, wiping away blood from his forehead that threatened to drip into his eye.

Terry stood in the middle, his wakizashi pointed at the ground where Jamie lay seconds ago, though he looked different. His hair stood up on different parts, charged with static energy, and his eyes were now lit up, flashing through the rain, which Jamie had noticed was now way weaker than before, no longer obscuring vision or hearing.

'Fuck, so that's why he waited until the storm got stronger…' Jamie thought, realizing that Terry had just been waiting for the best time to power himself up. 'Did he make the whole storm come, or just the lightning?'

The biggest change was on his wakizashi. What was previously a normal short blade was now twice as long and jagged, the bright blue energy wrapping it constantly pulsing and crackling, revealing the source of the noise.

In front of the wakizashi imbued with lightning, the ground held a long, deep gash that Jamie couldn't see the bottom of. Terry truly did personify his title.

Terry's head snapped to look at Jamie, who was breathing heavily and injured, a thin stream of blood flowing from his forehead as well as a broken right arm. His eyes glanced at Jamie's ghost hand for a moment, after which he scoffed.

Unwilling to waste any more time speaking, lightning gathered around Terry's feet as he leaped, launching himself towards Jamie. Seeing the boy not even try to run away or fight back, Terry readied his blade, intending to slice him in half.

Watching Terry fly at him, about to kill him, Jamie's expression turned sour.

"Goddamnit…" Jamie's breathing turned calm, and one could tell from his voice that he was pissed off. "I really didn't wanna expose myself too soon."

Right before Terry reached him, right before he could swing his blade and cleave Jamie into two, the Agent noticed how the boy's mood abruptly changed, but he didn't notice fast enough to be able to react.

"Ack!?"

An insanely strong force crashed into Terry from the left, hitting his jaw and shoulder, sending him flying away at a 90 degree turn. Terry coughed out blood, realizing as he flew through the air that at least some bones were broken. 

He looked at the space in front of Jamie where he was sent flying with utter shock, watching how a massive, nearly 3-meter tall robot appeared out of thin air, its fist outstretched in a punching motion, steam even coming off the parts of its fingers that made contact with Terry.

He crashed into a tree, hard enough that it cracked and shuddered before he slid to the ground. Terry coughed out more blood on the ground below him before he looked up, eyes filled with rage.

Jamie only looked back at Terry indifferently, taking hold of his right arm and pulling it back in the right direction as Prime took his place in front of Jamie, standing tall and proud, the mecha's red optic lenses menacingly focused on Terry.

"I really didn't want anyone to know about Prime, you asshole." Jamie grunted as he tried moving his arm. It was still broken, and most definitely painful, but at least he could move it again.

Terry got to his feet and readied his blade, shaking with anger. "So you were a Pilot…"

Though he was angry at himself for being unable to foresee the sudden attack, he was more angry at Jamie's new demeanor. What started as a desperate fighter had suddenly turned to this arrogant Pilot who acted like the whole situation was now under his control. He was looking down on Terry.

"You…"

"Did you say something?"

Jamie looked coldly at Terry, and without warning, two laser beams shot out of Prime's optic lenses, aiming for Terry. Startled by the sudden ranged attack, Terry blocked with his blade, placing the flat side of his wakizashi in front of him to face the lasers. Fortunately, the lightning increased not only the length but also the width of the blade, meaning there was enough surface area for both lasers to hit.

As the lasers collided with the wakizashi, Terry was immediately pushed back, breaking out into sweat as he realized that the lasers were still shooting out from Prime's optics, and were beginning to chip away at his lightning.

"Argh!"

Terry yelled in pain as Prime's head suddenly turned upwards, aiming for his face. He was able to bring up the blade and cover his face, but his shoulder was hit in the process, the red-hot laser immediately shooting through the flesh, leaving a bloody mess despite just being a graze. 

'I'm being pushed back… I can't just stay on the defensive…'

Gritting his teeth, Terry crouched down and slammed the tip of his blade into the ground before Prime could readjust the lasers. The ground exploded, kicking up dirt and rocks, making a cloud big enough to momentarily hide Terry.

Jamie narrowed his eyes suspiciously and ordered Prime to turn on Thermal Vision, just in case Terry tried to hide behind some trees or if he just plain ran away. Right as Jamie connected his vision to Prime's, and the screen appeared that showed the world as infrared, something fast came at Prime from his peripheral vision, the hot lightning blade carried by the figure filling the screen with bright orange.

Jamie winced and shut his eyes, turning off Thermal Vision, leaving him unaware of the flow of battle for a second. Terry's timing coincidentally turned into a great opportunity that he wouldn't waste.

Stopping in front of the immobile Prime, Terry pumped as much mana into his lightning blade as he could, draining more than half of his reserves. In return, the blade grew another few inches, and shone brighter.

He swung it hard at Prime's torso, actually managing to leave a large gash across the mecha's chest, exposing some wires and inner workings. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do any real damage, as Prime reached out and grabbed Terry's arm as soon as Jamie recovered. It began to squeeze, acting like the damage Terry dealt was nothing.

"You know, Terry…" Jamie spoke as Terry's expression turned into one of pain, gasping as his arm was slowly getting crushed. "I'm going to ask you the same thing I asked Victor."

Terry didn't know why, but for some reason, Jamie's next words chilled him to the core.

"What level are you?"