Jack vs Arthur

No spells, just a pure physical fight, was what ensued next.

Unlike Selphine, who was fighting for survival, no matter how wrong she had been, this was completely different. Arthur’s fists swung with pure, unfiltered malice, every swing of his that connected made me feel every negative emotion he had harbored. Pain, jealousy, greed, all of it.

I knew these emotions weren’t born because of me, but I could tell that it was my fault they surfaced now. My soul, which had resided on Earth my entire life, came into contact with a body that was born in The Void, knowing no emotion. Thus, what happened when I entered his body was that a flow of emotion flooded the body of Arthur, and not knowing how to react, it did the only thing it could and finally reacted to the build up of all of Arthur’s life: His childhood, the masked order, Esmeralda’s death at the hands of Selphine, all of it instantly boiled up, and now he was full of pure rage, pure sadness, and he couldn’t handle it.

This fight was personal for him. I was the one who introduced all of this unknown variables to him, so naturally, I would become the outlet upon which he released it all. All of his negativity was being created from all of those years of memories, it was way too fast for the void to drain, and the huge amount of it meant that the little that was being drained made nearly no difference.

Arthur hit me with an uppercut from the heavens, rocking me completely. Funnily enough, my endurance had actually gone up now that I’d switched bodies, as Louise’s body was clearly physically superior.

However, what I’d gotten wrong before was that Louise was the best enhancer, and the fight that was currently unfolding was proving me wrong: Louise was Maria, someone who originally came from Earth. Even though she spent years here, it probably wasn’t as much as her time on Earth, so she could still feel emotion, even though it got drained a lot, but it was still drained.

Arthur couldn’t feel emotion in the first place, and that was the key difference: It seemed enhancement worked on those feelings, the stronger you felt, the stronger the enhancement. Right now Arthur was boiling with rage and fury, which allowed him to enhance his physical power to a level far beyond Maria ever could, even though her base strength was superior to his. This forced me to take a more defensive stance, just like Selphine had: The roles had been completely reversed, and I was on the end of it, one lapse, one mistake, could cost me greatly, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I said that he would kill me with one of those punches, if I wasn’t being careful.

All I could do for the moment was to remain patient and hope to exploit the slightest of an opening, whenever he showed one. Louise and Emmett remained unconscious on the floor near the door that lead out, they had been there ever since the masked men had dragged them in, before we took care of them and Selphine with that temporary soul switch.

However, Arthur had clearly lost his cool, no matter how much he tried to play it off, and I could instantly tell because of just how hard he was trying, just how full of ferocity every punch he threw was. He didn’t care that this body belonged to an old friend of his, he might not have even known right in this instant, and might just have been going on pure instinct.

The logical thing to do here was to simply just keep my distance, stay away from him, until the temporary soul transfer ended, and I returned to his body while Maria returned to Louise’s. But for some reason, even though that was the smart option….that was the last thing I wanted to do. I didn’t want to cower, I didn’t want to take the safe, calculated option, the one with least risks. No. At this point, there was one thing on my mind, and one thing only: I wanted to smash Arthur’s fucking head in.

“You fucking bitch!” I immediately stopped running, held my ground, and as his fist connected to my jaw, so did mine to his.

We both struck each other at the same time, and sprawled out on the floor. Each of us tried to get back up faster than the other, and whoever managed to would gain a huge advantage, however as soon as I got back on my feet, Arthur had done so as well at the exact same time.

Like I said earlier, Arthur had a great advantage over me due to the new heights his enhancement had reached, so the smart thing for me to do would be to look for openings while staying back. So naturally, I did the complete opposite, threw caution to the wind and charged straight at him without an inch of defense on my mind.

This move was so stupid that it left Arthur surprised for about half a second, but that was too long for him to lose focus, as that split second handed me the opportunity to gift back that uppercut he’d delivered to me earlier. Of course, it wasn’t nearly as strong as his, but it was good enough to do the job, as it sent him tumbling to the floor once again.

“Is that all you got?” Arthur said as he stood up, trying to act tough, but the blood flowing down by the side of his mouth told a different story.

I ignored his taunt and charged at him again, but he was ready for it this time, and held his ground. We exchanged a flurry of brutal blows, neither willing to back down, until Arthur managed to strike me in the side of my head and knocked me down.

I immediately got up and for some reason, I started laughing.