Chris weakly opened his eyes after the sudden attack, his vision blurred a little. Combined with the impending darkness, it was very hard to see. "What the.." Chris muttered, his voice raspy as he weakly rose from the ground.
Infront of him were three figures, all children, but their appearance hidden by the darkness. One of the figures stepped forward, holding an sharp object in their hand.
The figure turned to look at it's leader, pointing the sharp object at Chris "Boss, is this him? The Chris brat you were talking about?" The figure asked, their voice squaky but laced with malice.
Chris narrowed his eyes to better help enhance his vision, his eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. When his eyes adjusted, he could see the figures a bit more clearly.
One of them wore a red shirt and black pants, they had dark black, messy hair and eyes. They were a bit shorter than the others, and had a sharp kitchen knife in their hands.
The other had very similar clothing, but their appearance was different. This time with brown hair, similar to Chris. They appeared to be unarmed, but that didn't stop the hostile energy Chris could feel emanating from them.
And the last one, the boss of the group, was someone he knew all too well. Chris's heart sank in shock and his eyes widened upon recognizing the figure, their mocking grin all too familiar to him.
"J-jack?" Chris stuttered, a small shiver running down his spine, not from fear, but from the anger that was starting to surface inside him.
Jack flashed a creepy grin, his eyes gleaming in amusement as he heard Chris's stuttering. "Yes, this is him." Jack said to his subordinates.
He turned behind him to see Maria crying, her tears running down her face as she broke down on both knees. Jack rolled his eyes in annoyance, a sigh escaping his throat.
"You can go now Maria, here's your necklace." Jack said as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a necklace made of a shiny silver, possessing a small green emerald.
Jack violently tossed the emerald necklace onto the ground, covering the precious item in dirt and grime. Maria looked at Chris with sorry eyes, picking up the necklace without breaking eye contact with him.
"I'm sorry, Chris. They forced me to do it, otherwise they wouldn't return my mother's necklace from me. Please forgive me." Maria said, her voice shaky with the weight of her guilt.
With that Maria quickly bolted through the forest and ran home, sobbing all the way.
'Maria..' Chris watched as she went, he didn't feel any resentment towards her. She was just like him when he was powerless against Jack, having to do whatever he pleased and be beaten due to their power difference.
'But no more..' His fists clenched at his sides as he stared directly into Jack's eyes, he didn't expect to face Jack so soon, but now that he was, Chris was going to pay him back tenfold.
Jack felt a chill run down his spine as he felt Chris's anger bore through his eyes, he grinned at the sight.
His own victim was now standing up to him with pure anger in his eyes, a side of Chris he had never seem before, and a side of him he was going to enjoy getting rid of.
"I heard you were planning to leave the village to become an adventurer," Jack started, taking slow steps towards Chris. "Stone Bridge, was it? A big goal, for a small fish like you."
Chris tilted his head as his eyes narrowed even further, "Where did you hear that? I didn't tell anyone, except Elara, that I was planning on going to Stone Bridge."
Chris wanted to charge at Jack right away, but kept himself in check, he was curious as to where he got the information from.
"Elara, huh? You really can't keep your hands off my family, can you?" Jack said, his voice dripping with malice. "But if you want to know, I had Maria spy on you before luring you here."
Chris's anger was now on boiling point, his knuckles turned white and he took a deep breath to steel himself.
"Alright, that's enough about Maria, she's out of the picture now. So, why am I here?" Chris asked, his expression more serious and composed.
Jack laughed heartily, his voice echoing through out the Dark Woods. "Why are you here? It's simple really, I just wanted to give you one last beating before you go out of my life."
Jack grinned as he took another step foward and stretched his arms, ready to fight. His subordinates also took a step forward, surrounding Chris from all sides, leaving him with no option for escape.
"Hehe, this is going to be fun" The dark haired boy said as he tightened the grip on his knife, grinning with a nasty smile.
The forest was quiet, and the moon hung high in the sky, illuminating the forest. Chris stood focused, watching his opponents very closely.
The dark haired boy looked at the brown haired one, both shared a nod and looked back towards Chris before charging at him.
The dark haired boy swung his knife at Chris, but Chris dodged by sidestepping. He delivered a strong blow with his knee in the boy's stomach, all the air in the boy's lungs left his body as he weakly fell to the ground.
Dropping his knife and gasping for air. The brown haired one gritted his teeth as he swung his fist for Chris's face, but Chris reacted quickly and caught the blow with his palm.
Chris noted how weak the blow was and concluded that the boy was probably not an Awakened one, while still holding the boy's fist in his hand, he turned to look at Jack "Were you seriously planning on ambushing me with these losers?"
Chris said as he looked back at the boy who was struggling to remove his fist from his strong grip, he sighed as he kicked the boy hard on his chest, sending him crashing into a nearby tree.
Now that the trash was dealt with, Chris focused his eyes on Jack, who still had that amused expression on his face.
"You certaintly got alot stronger, i must admit." Jack said as he suddenly charged at Chris, "But you're still a bug in my eyes." Jack withdrew his palm as he then began to form a water ball, before shooting it at Chris.
Chris jumped to the side, avoiding the attack as it hit the tree behind him, dealing significant damage to it.
'Damn, if that hit me, it would've hurt really bad.' Chris noted internally as he landed onto the ground, but that was what Jack exactly wanted.
Before Chris could react fast enough, Jack's leg was already in his face. The kick connected and Chris's head jerked back as his spine bent, before falling to the ground.
"Hahaha!" Jack laughed, "Come on now, make this interesting, let's have fun before you leave for good." Jack said as he stomped on Chris over and over again.
The pain was brutal, it felt like he was being crushed by a boulder. But he wasn't going to lose to Jack, not anymore.
Chris grabbed Jack's leg and pulled on it hard, Jack gasped in suprise before falling hard on his back. Seizing the opportunity, Chris quickly rose to his feet and kicked Jack hard in the face.
Jack cried in pain as he he covered his face within his palms, "You bastard!" Jack yelled as he quickly got of the ground and threw a punch at Chris, covered inside his water magic.
Chris dodged the attack as he duck under the punch, and delivered a strong uppercut with all the strength he had. Jack's body fell onto its back with a loud thud, seemingly unconscious.
Chris was panting tired, he was exhausted but could still stand. "It's over..Jack" Chris said to Jack's unconscious body, feeling a strong sense of accomplishment in his chest.
After so long, he had finally gotten his revenge against his bully. But as Chris was happy for a moment, his eyes caught movement on Jack's body. His fingers were twitching as he regained consciousness very quickly.
"You..actually managed to beat me unconscious." Jack hissed as he slowly rose from the ground, the air became thicker and the magic from Jack's body were going haywire as water began to swirl around him violently, like a small tornado.
"I'm going to kill you for that." Jack said as he dashed towards Chris, way faster than before.
Before Chris could react, Jack delivered a water slash that cut a deep wound over his chest. Blood began to ooze out from his wound and paint his shirt a deep crimson.
"Heh, goodbye Chris." Jack hissed as he watched Chris drop to his knees, but his eyes widened soon after as he saw a bright golden flame envelop his body, lighting up the forest slightly.
'What the..'