Chapter 3 Mercenary

On the road once again, King sees a bulletin board with their faces on it. 

He shows Ash: “Hey Ash, I don't look too bad. Hey check out your portrait, *bumping his shoulder*, they made you look super sinister. You didn't do anything really bad, yet.”

While they are looking at the reward, King makes a joke that Ash clearly finds distasteful as King quiets down soon after the joke. King lights the paper on fire letting the ashes hit the floor before stomping it out.

A man hops out of the trees holding steady power in his voice: "Hey, King! If it is, I am taking you dead or alive, it doesn't matter to me."

Ash questioned who he was and the mercenary answered showing pride as he puffed out his chest.

The man made sure the two will get a good look at his eye patch: “I am Jax, the last remaining member of my tribe."

Ash began to think where that name felt familiar, while King started to prepare to fight Jax. Ash dropped a purple spike in the ground setting a trap just in case King lost, he can feel the aura wafting off of Jax. Ash never really had a reason to take precautions but staying ahead of everyone kept him alive this long. Not that it mattered if he died or not, his power wouldn't let him.

Jax pulls his katana from his waist. He looks well prepared and seems like he has been through a lot of battles just by looks alone with him wearing black pants with a shiny silver belt that has a large metal buckle and coal-black boots that have metal plates. For the top, wears a black V-neck shirt and a white trench coat with grey linings and an eye patch that doesn't seem to cover just his eye but something else like Ash but just in one eye socket. He has pure white hair that almost glows or radiates. He is also carrying a broadsword on his back that is made out of red adamantite, he lays it down against a tree. His katana is made out of Mythril which gives it a green tint that shines in the sunlight like it is absorbing it. 

Ash bumps King: “Hey king, watch out for his hidden blades under his sleeves, they have stamina draining runes on them."

King nods and Jax keeps his poker face on.

Jax can only guess: “How did you know?"

But soon realized Ash's eyes were glowing yellow under the blindfold. He was testing him to see if he had what it takes to fight him. King took out his dark blue sword that had whispers coming out of it like it was alive, the sword's voice was saying "save us please."

It threw off Jax just enough for King to get the jump, they soon began the battle with swift strikes with back and forth fire blasts that seemed to warm up Ash nicely. Ash lay against a tree putting his arms behind his head.

King raised his sword: “Air slash level three, *sending his blade downwards*.”

King launched a purple wind sword slash that missed Jax and hit a mountain splitting it open down the middle. Jax looks back to admire the power.

Jax responds: “That was a nice move you got there but it's my turn to show off, let's get down to business.”

His katana split into short daggers one which is the normal katana the other was a dagger made out of holy magic. It emanated a white light too bright to look directly at it.

Jax lets a little smile creep in: “Now let's really begin."

Jax is now on the offensive using both a katana and holy dagger, slashing at unseeable speeds, the danger excited King as he wasn't backing down, he released souls from his blade and sent them after Jax.

Jax dodged and slid slashing through them but didn't expect the souls to explode on impact, it blew him back but landed on his feet after a backflip. Dashing almost immediately after getting his footing it cracked the ground and obliterated the trees behind him like some supersonic push propelling him forward.

It knocked King off balance and got slashed open by Jax's katana. King hung his head low covering his deep wound. Holding his chest to stop the bleeding, his hair covered his face.

 Jax voices out thinking he has won: “Now you know my power, give up or die, it's fine either way, if you want to die it doesn't make it any harder to sleep.”

King laughed maniacally, showing his crazed face: “Now this is fun, how about we have more fu-"

King gets cut off by Ash with a swift roundhouse kick to the jaw that sends him flying.

Ash: “Now that you have fought my brother I would like to ask you some questions, and please, answer without lying, I might be able to help you with your problem."

Jax was unsure what he was trying to get at, "Fine I will answer your questions, then you answer one of my questions too."

Ash was as calm as he ever was, asking about a tribe named Heian and if it was his tribe. Jax was staggered by Ash’s question and kind of ticked off about how much he knew about his tribe.

Jax Bearing fangs: "Yeah that is my tribe, how the hades do you know about it, who are you!”

Ash is relieved by his answer: “I already know what you want, it's revenge, isn't it. Like me and King over there, somewhere, I guess what I am trying to say is, would you join us. *Ash looks up raising his hands* We both know gods are the true evil here! I will even give my reason why I want them dead. My dad is Hades, the king of the underworld, he experimented on me and my brothers and sisters. My whole life was pain, he made me believe all there was, was pain.”

Jax, having no confidence in Ash’s words, dashed towards Ash striking with the wind untying his blindfold, revealing his eyes which are pure black on the outer of his eyes with yellow similar to lightning in the centers with rune enchants in them showing words unknown to every kind of species. It burned the very ground turning it into small shards of glass. Lightning struck all around him encasing him in a box.

Ash voiced his pain: "Now I hope you understand the pain I went through and how these eyes feel like they are burning every minute, every second. I was the last of his seventeen children; he experimented on all others, thirteen out of the seventeen failed him and died. *His voice started cracking* He tested on them, day and night without breaks! Like it was one of his sadistic hobbies!”

Jax was convinced by his eyes, how much pain he was going through to literally just stand there was enough to understand why he wanted Hades dead, the burning is like a metal rod sitting in a fireplace for hours then putting the rod that is flaming red into your eyes. Jax, astonished with his endurance to pain, lifted his eyepatch, and there sat where his eye should be was an all-seeing dragon eye that lets him peer into the future.

Jax bonds with Ash's pain: "My tribe was destroyed by the gods, now I must kill them all."

Ash picks up King who went through several trees and boulders and asks again: "So will you join us on our quest for revenge or not? It's up to you, it will be a lot easier if we do this together."

Jax held out a hand with a smile: "I will gladly join you, *He points out to the bleeding out King* I think we should heal King or he might die."

Ash let out a sigh and then put his blindfold back to ease the pain. Ash drops King on the hard ground with a thud and uses another skill forbidden by the gods, dragon healing magic which is a taboo skill for everyone except dragonkin, it can go horribly wrong and dissolve the user and the person being healed. It was a piece of cake for Ash as he lived with the dragon's kin to learn their skills but the only thing it can’t heal is holy light magic. 

After it was done King hopped back up on his feet: "Alright round two let's go, time to fight with no restraints!"

Ash again throws King through a tree telling him: "He is on our side you idiot, can you chill for a bit."

King groggy from the number of times being tossed: "Fine Ash, I will 'chill', just know this, if Jax wants to throw down again I am here."

Ash remembers to take off the trap that sends this plot of land into space: "Oh right, let me do something for a sec."

After disabling the trap, he pulls an orb out of his pouch on his hip, the orb is the size of an eye. Ash throws it at the ground, smashing it into pieces, sending them back to the tavern King and Ash were at before going to the forest.

Jax in a happy mood pats King's back saying: "We are going to be wonderful friends."

Ash sits at a table looking at a map to see where their next destination will be: “This kingdom is close to Mount Olympus but it is probably full of adventurers looking to cash in our bounty, that's is not the hard part here, the hard part is not killing anyone.”

Jax suggests: “How about we go to the kingdom just to restock and get out of there as soon as possible before anyone notices us.”

King comments on Jax’s suggestion: “Or we could blow up everything and everyone and take all we want without paying.”

Ash answers both of them: “Well King’s plan would be less irritating and more simple but Jax your plan will let us resupply there again if we ever come back to the kingdom. So I am going to side with Jax just because it is closer to Mount Olympus.”

King gives a friendly smile to Jax who smiles right back at King. The three get a round of ale to go with their chatting of war stories.