Stephen said nothing as he shivered, still holding his dagger up - but against all logic, he suddenly found the nerve to talk back.
“You’re probably just strong because you push other people down! You’re like a parasite! You’re probably just exploiting someone else to get stronger! I bet deep down you’re just a scared little boy! Admit it.” A smug smile almost began to form on Stephen's face.
“How stupid is this guy? Are we even living in the same reality?” Jay wondered.
Stephen had absolutely no clue about Jay’s life, he simply started to judge Jay and tried to make him look like some sort of evil villain - even though there was no one else around. It was like he was trying to rile up a crowd of people which didn’t exist to come and defend him.
“He tried to kill me because I embarrassed him, now he's calling me evil? Seriously? This loser probably thinks he’s some kind of hero in a story, that everything he does is morally good - and if not, he will do all sorts of explaining to justify the evil acts he does, giving himself a pat on the back at the end of the day... These self-justifying types often commit the most evil.” Jay thought as he looked at the pitiful man before him. His brows were furrowed, mixed with anger and pity; he wasn't sure what to feel.
“Huh..” Jay was surprised with his own thoughts. They were quite deep for a situation like this.
“Perhaps the immortal book is giving me these thoughts..”
Stephen was silent, his eyes widened. He looked as if he got caught opening someone else’s presents - it was like he was hoping that Jay would buy his story.
A wide smile was about to form on his face as he waited for Jay to fall into his psychological manipulative trap, wondering if he could trick Jay into arguing with him right after he attacked Jay - but after Jay’s next actions, his eyes started tearing up.
Clearly, Jay’s thoughts were elsewhere.
Stepping forward, Jay grabbed Stephens dagger by the blade.
[-3]
Blood dripped onto Stephen’s glasses.
Jay received some damage, but it was worth sending a message. He ripped it out of Stephen's double-grip with ease, tossing it away.
“How will I make him remember this…” thought Jay.
He knew he had to send a message, or people like this would just get slightly stronger, get over confident, and then try to hurt people they didn’t like - all while giving themselves a false sense of moral high ground and a self-congratulatory pat on the back.
The sad thing was, people like Stephen truly believed the bullshit coming out of their own mouths - even though they were the ones who made it up.
“Hmm…”
Jay stomped down on Stephen’s foot, causing him to wince a little.
Taking his sword out again, he stabbed it into Stephen’s leg, between his tibia and his achilles tendon.
“GRAAAHHH!!!!” Stephen screamed in pain, tears flowing from his face.
Truly, he was like a little child who thought the world belonged to him, but seeing his scream powerlessly made Jay smile.
Jay shrugged “I don't know why you’re screaming, the next part will hurt more.”
He ripped his sword out sideways, severing the achilles tendon.
Stephen had no breath left in his lungs to scream - and after taking one breath he began to cry.
After second, the tendon healed back up, draining Stephens health.
“Hmm… how will I stop it from healing…” Jay wondered.
He wanted to permanently slightly cripple Stephen by causing permanent damage to his achilles tendon - resulting in a permanent limp. A permanent reminder which would stop him from developing such hubris.
Furthermore, this would stop him from being able to run away if he tried to do the same thing to others in the future. Of course, if he tried attacking Jay again, he can say goodbye to his other tendon too.
This was when Jay had an idea for an experiment.
“I wonder…”
Jay turned to Stephen, pulling his hand back and then punching, he bashed Stephen right in the cheek, causing his head to bounce off the rock; he was knocked out in a single punch.
The water turret was still firing, and had taken 15 of Jay’s health so far, so it was slowly taking it’s toll.
Jay hopped down from the boulder and destroyed it with his shield before returning to Stephen again.
Next, Jay repeated the same process to sever his tendon, yet this time, Jay tried something risky - he put his hand across and would, and before the tendon could heal, he channelled some of his necrotic essence into the wound.
Jay closed his eyes and felt his energy going into the flesh.
It was much more complicated as he was used to dealing with bone - but the difference this time is that he wasn’t trying to make something useful from it, but to disable it.
Soon he honed in and found the snapped ends of the tendon.
“Okay.. here it goes.”
Jay focused on them and channelled his necrotic gas to solidify around the ends of each tendon - creating a sort of cartilage-cap on each end.
“If this works, they will act like a barrier to stop the tendons from reconnecting.” he smiled, watching the wound close up once more.
Jay checked Stephen's health after the instantaneous surgery.
[64%]
“Good.. it’s not dropping. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what he’s like after he wakes up.”
Jay decided to walk further down the path until he could barely see Stephen lying unconscious on the rock. He didn’t want to be around when he woke up.
Jay continued to enjoy the warm sun and the gentle forest breeze. Other than the ambush today, it was quite peaceful and he was still somewhat enjoying his day - but now, Jay was more interested in his instantaneous experiment.
Soon, Stephen stirred on the rock, lifting his head up before he sat up.
“Arrh!”
He let out a little squeal as he tried to stand up, putting some pressure on his foot. Clearly, Jay’s surgery worked.
Jay watched as Stephen began to gently rub his foot.
“It’s working” Jay smiled mischievously.
After a while, Stephen had to get down from the large boulder.
“AHH!” he screamed as he put pressure on his busted ankle.
After taking a moment to recover, Stephen began searching around the boulder.
“...What’s he doing now...” Jay wondered for a moment before realising.
“Oh right, he’s looking for his dagger.” Jay smiled, stopping himself from laughing - he didn’t want Stephen to know he was watching from a distance.
After this pathetic display, Jay had seen enough, his experiment was a success and he was still in a good mood - perhaps even a better mood after learning this trick.
“I’m not sure if his intention was to kill me, but not killing him was a wise choice - I won’t have a dead body or an investigation to worry about.”
“Besides, I don’t want to kill anyone…” he furrowed his brow.
“If I have the choice, I will choose not to. It’s not just legally wrong, but it feels wrong, and I bet my conscience wouldn’t let me sleep well.”
“Though I’m sure there’s people out there who don’t murder simply because they fear punishment… I wonder if this makes them evil - even though they have not committed the act?”
“Hmm... perhaps laws are only for those who are bad, requiring a threat of punishment to stop them?” he was getting quite philosophical as he walked through the calm woods.
Jay pondered such things as he walked through the beautiful forest, his thoughts quite contrasting to the environment.
He decided to put these thoughts aside for now, and enjoy the rest of his walk.
Jay made his way back to Losla, entering over the bridge on the north side of town.
It was pretty quiet today, and people seemed at ease as they went about their business.
Stopping at his butchery, he found no sign of Trenly.
“Hmm, I guess he’s still busy at the market...”
Little did Jay know, it was a little harder to find a carcass in the market because recently, many of the forest animals were decimated.
The scent of blood on the wind had kept away much of the normal wildlife.
“Oh well.” Jay entered his house, stocking up on some supplies - water and food.
He went to have a bath, but decided not to as he was heading to the stink-rat marsh. He was about to get much filthier.
“Hmm.. I’ll leave a message for Trenly”
He wrote a small message and put it on the butchering counter.
[Trenly - I will be back sometime this afternoon. Feel free to get started butchering one of the carcasses. Or wait for me. Up to you.]
As he was leaving he remembered something.
“Oh yeah..” he turned and went to his small kitchen, adding some utensils, plates, and cups to his inventory.
“Hmm, but why stop there?” He added a chair, a stool, and a blanket too.
Jay looked around the room, wondering what other kinds of homely comforts he may want when out adventuring - though not specifically for the marsh, as anything he takes out there would get a bad smell to it.
Not finding anything else worth bringing, he left, and headed for the stink-rat marsh.
