The Parasite

Chapter 23: Controller

As the door Solomon created disappeared into a cloud of smoke, Jack rose to his feet and glared at him. With a flourish of his sword, Solomon gestured to Jack and asked with confidence. "Shall we?" Jack answered by charging forward and slashing at Solomon who parried his strikes, forcing him onto the back foot. Solomon readied himself for another powerful swing, only for Jack to dodge out of the way and make an attack on his side. Solomon swung his sword down to block, barely managing to catch Jack's sword with the tip of the blade.

Jack let out a flurry of strikes after this, pushing Solomon back some distance but failing to find a crack in his seemingly unbreakable guard. Solomon retaliated with precise powerful strikes that forced Jack's sword into an awkward forward facing position, but as his sword was forced into this position, Jack noticed an opening and struck, wounding Solomon.

Solomon stumbled back, groaning from the pain as he pulled his hand away from his arm to reveal a shallow cut upon it. The wound itself was superficial, only cutting skin deep, in a fight like this these wounds are to be expected and are usually not something to be disturbed by. Solomon however, was enraged by the idea that someone could wound him and lashed out in a furious assault on Jack, gone was his refined technique and patient style, replaced with wild slashing and no clear goal aside from killing Jack.

Jack's sword twisted and warped from the constant pounding attack until cracks began to form on the blade. Solomon continued to press Jack, gradually becoming more focussed until, with a powerful strike, Jack's sword would snap as he was sent flying back. Jack sat up still clutching the broken sword, the blade having split halfway down. He noticed the blood leaking out of his chest and, dropping what remained of his sword, checked his shirt pocket that sat over his heart, and as he did this Solomon lunged forward and stabbed his sword through the pocket and into Jack's chest.

As Solomon twisted his sword into Jack's chest he noticed a chain hanging out of his shirt pocket and some sort of object inside that the sword had pierced. Solomon lifted his sword to see the broach that had been hanging around Jack's neck had been pierced through, and as Solomon was stunned in confusion, Jack took the chance to push Solomon's sword back and snap the chain.

Jack lashed out at Solomon with his shadow only to find himself spontaneously moved across the room. "You're smarter than you look, so how about I level the playing field?" Solomon said as fog began to fill the attic and suddenly dozens of identical doors appeared, slamming down onto the floor, surrounding Jack.

Solomon stepped into one of the doors, vanishing into the network as Jack projected shadows over his arms. Solomon taunted Jack as he moved between the doors, his voice constantly changing where it was projected from. "I wonder, why do you trust that other one so much, I thought you of all people would be wary of betrayal."

"What!?" Jack asked as his eyes darted around, and as he shouted a door opened behind him and out sprang Solomon who slashed at him, catching his shoulder before disappearing again. Jack spun around to see the door Solomon had come from but as soon as he did he was slashed across the back. Jack lashed out, smashing door after door with his shadow, intent on carving his way through to Solomon. Unfortunately, all Jack's efforts were met with more wounds until he eventually found himself back where he started, standing over his broken sword.

Suddenly, Jack had an idea and kicked the sword up to his hand before projecting a blanket of shadow over it which formed into the image of a great sword. With this Jack began cleaving through swaths of doors faster than they could be replaced, until he had carved out a sizable area, with the wooden scraps of the doors turning to smoke as they vanished.

Solomon appeared in front of Jack, stepping out of one of the remaining doors. "Ah do allow me to apologize, I can see you've become frustrated with my tricks." he said as the remaining doors vanished around him. Jack dashed forward, bringing his great sword down on Solomon, but shockingly the immense blade was easily blocked by Solomon with his comparatively small sword. "Did you forget? A shadow doesn't have any weight of its own, so no matter how big you make it the shadow is only as heavy as what is inside. You should have learned that when I gave you that gift." Solomon said as he drew a pistol from his pocket and fired a shot. Jack blocked the bullet by absorbing it into his shadow as Solomon disarmed him and launched a flurry of blows on him.

After a few moments exhaustion began to take hold and Jack's shadow became spotty, forcing him to shift it around to block the blows. As Solomon continued striking Jack he watched the motions of the shadow and sped up his own movements until feigning a strike on his legs and quickly slashing across Jack's face. Blood dripped down as Jack covered his face and pain overtook his senses, and as he removed his hands from his face he looked up to see, nothing.

In a moment it was as if the entire world had fallen into darkness, not even Jack's pure black shadow could compare to this as this was not black, but the complete absence of light and color. Jack wondered if this was another trick played by Solomon, until he reached up and felt the wound on his face, in one clean stroke Jack's eyes had been sliced through, and as he stood in stunned silence, his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a deafening crash and the sounds of commotion that sent him staggering back.

As Jack listened to what he assumed to be a fight he envisioned strange, blurry shapes in the darkness and took aim, and despite his newfound blindness he fired the bullet Solomon tried to shoot him with. Without warning, a sharp, stinging pain ripped through Jack's entire body, causing him to fall to the ground as the sounds of fighting continued on in spite of him.