CORE
Chapter 23 - "Ransom"

"Ha! Unfortunately for you, in Area 5, even if any of the performers are uncomfortable, that doesn't mean we'll stop, not even to let them breathe comfortably!" The Jester jeered as they clapped their hands slowly.

"Plus... Who cares what the performers feel? They only live to entertain, nothing more, nothing else,"

Hero continued to stay silent, taking consecutive deep breathes regardless of the crowd's laughter from outside, as he attempted to calm himself down, there was no point in getting too angry in a situation like this now, and plus, he would receive his get back, no matter what.

"Next..." Hero responded, much to The Jester's surprise, he had been silent for a while after all.

"...Or are you perhaps already finished? Is this really the best hell you can put me through?" Hero stared back at The Jester from above, clearly challenging them as he put up a forced smile, he had no reason to, but if it was to mock, to infuriate the way he did to him, then that alone is enough reason.

"...Heh, you trying to die today? Unfortunately, you've angered me enough, so you won't get that quick death," The Jester responded, looking back at Hero with a forced smile, veins appearing on their white face as their eyes glowed red, they snapped their fingers, and simultaneously with the clicking sound the bars of magic turned back into their original, thin form.

"Game #2!" The Jester shouted out, their voice echoing within The Carnival as he shrunk to a lower size, his limbs still long enough to completely cover the cage, the magic bars moved closer to the center, stopping in place shortly after.

"Can you-?" The Jester spoke out loud, however, stopped in the middle of his sentence as he began to hear loud knocking and rumbling on one of the sides of The Carnival, catching his attention as he turned to look at the source.

In that moment, he accidentally and unknowingly touched his hand on one of his magic bars, causing for Hero to take note of this, and smirk for a short moment.

"About time," Hero said as he snapped his fingers, hearing this, The Jester looked back, puzzled, but then it noticed his hand had started to freeze rapidly, and not only that, stuck to the magic iron bar too, the ice slowly froze The Jester's entire left arm along with the magic bar that Held hero captive.

"Cheap trick for a cheater! What do ya get out of this?!" The Jester spoke as he tried to pull out his hand from the ice, close to even ripping it into a bloody mess if he had to, The Jester then used his magic to command, and will the crowd to help him, specifically, the individuals behind him began to crawl up the stage, drawing themselves closer to The Jester's arm to set them free.

"No need to strain yourself..." Hero said as he took a step back.

"I can help you out just fine," He then ran full speed into the frozen magic bar, and The Jester's arm, jumping up slightly as he got into a dropkick position, before shattering and kicking through not only the magic bar but The Jester's entire arm too, causing for them to be pushed back along with their 'puppets'.

"So much for that anger you need to quell, eh?" Hero taunted back, grinning as The Jester stared back at him, his left arm regenerating, taking up a quarter of his magic pool as he continued to look at Hero with red glowing eyes.

"Thanks for being careless," Hero said, before jumping away with a burst of magic, The Jester attempted to grab them by extending his arm, but it was too late, Hero slid speedily on a floating icy path above the crowd of masked civilians, which slowly got larger as he then quickly shifted his magic into a different direction, pouring it all in his legs, and blasting off deeper into the city as he swiftly hid in an alleyway.

Rolling across the ground, Hero regained his balance, taking a few deep breaths, standing up properly now but he held himself on the wall.

"What a gamble..." Hero remarked, letting out a small chuckle before sighing, his face turning serious once more as he planned on setting those... Trapped civilians free, at least from his first guess, he laid his back on the wall, taking a rest as he had slightly overexerted his speed into that one burst of magic to arrive in the alleyway.

Elsewhere in The Carnival, at the center where the stage was...

The Jester stared there, standing on the edge of the stage cage as the magic bars behind him dissipated, he looked on furiously before looking around the crowd, grinning widely once more as he took one, sharp breath.

"Haha! So be it, if you wish to play that game, then allow me to be your host..." The Jester laughed.

..."Game #2..." The Jester spoke, in a strained, angry tone.

"Hide and Seek," The Jester outstretched his hands, as all the masked civilians turned exactly 180 degrees around, before walking away from the stage cage, the sound of their synchronized marching filling The Carnival as they looked around and about, while The Jester stayed the stage cage, sitting down in a comfortable position as they grew themselves up larger.

"Hopefully you are decent at begging for mercy," The Jester spoke to himself, looking at his hand that had been shattered not even minutes ago.

"Because I won't delay your death anymore,"

"Ah, speaking of..." They then looked over to where they had heard the banging on their Carnival roof from earlier.

"I wonder who's our second visitor?" The Jester smiled from ear to ear as they stood up, their limbs extending as they stretched their way over to the exit of their tent, limp and free like a noodle, yet hungry as a predator.

Somewhere else in the city within The Carnival...

The masked civilians scattered around and about, their walking continuing to fill The Carnival's fabric walls and layers, unharmonous and foreboding, all in search of one, keen individual.

There amidst it all, Hero was on the walls of an alleyway, sticking to them by using his ice magic on his legs and hands, while he looked left and right, relieved to see that the army of 'puppets' was unable to find him, not yet at least.

"...Justice has not arrived yet, from what I could tell that clown put up a magic barrier to prevent him from entering, what a pain..." Hero groaned as he looked up into the sky, his eyes irradiating white magic as he tried to think of a plan to get out of this situation.

"Given their numbers, they will most definitely track me down easily, and yet I can't do anything to them... Their bodies, even their Core are insanely fragile, one wrong move with a simple attack could actually kill them, but if I don't eliminate them, they would for sure group up and try to 'capture' me, at that point, it would just be a big red arrow signal for that clown that I'm here..." Hero said as he rested his head on his hand, thinking as he clicked his tongue with the roof of his mouth.

"This is..." Hero gritted his teeth as his eyes narrowed to the ground below him.

Elsewhere, outside, and at the very top of The Carnival...

Justice flew back, a part of his head bleeding a bright yellow liquid while he was regaining his balance, he dispersed his body into light and bounced off the air molecules in the area, creating hundreds of yellow light lines around The Jester, who had tried to keep up with Justice.

"Y'know that's useless right? I mean come on, you can do better than paint me a constellation, Justice-!" The Jester said, growing their hand far larger than the mini-constellation Justice had made as he then swung it a full 360 degrees horizontally, creating massive wind currents.

But as a countermeasure, Justice, as he continued to fly, vibrated his body at light speed, essentially phasing through not only the wind attacks but also The Jester's fist himself as he swiftly landed right behind them.

"And you can do better than bark like a dog," Justice spoke in a serious, foreboding tone as he twisted his body in an angle and then performed a hook kick, striking The Jester's face with such speed and efficiency to the point they could not activate their flexibility enhancement in time, causing for them to be knocked back further onto the roof of The Carnival, in which they quickly stretched themselves back up, retracting like a spring.

The Jester immediately enlengthened their leg to a drastic amount, before counterattacking with his own hook kick, one that seemed comically large as Justice quickly got into a defensive motion and was able to block the kick as The Jester's leg connected with his arm.

But as he attempted to escape, The Jester's strength proved incredibly well as Justice, for whatever reason, simply could not escape The Jester's grasp due to the force he was spinning his leg at, and The Jester knew this very well, they took this opportunity to then flex their leg and wrap it around Justice, before raising it and swinging them up into the air at near incomprehensible speeds, creating wind slashes, currents, and even mini-tornados in the process.

"...Buzzkill," Justice said as he clutched onto The Jester's leg with both of his hands, before exploding it with a blast of magic, guts, and particles tore into the sky as The Jester shrunk back, regenerating his leg which took up another portion of his magical pool.

Without a second passing, the two simultaneously dashed towards each other instantly, The Jester enlargening their fist as they swung it at Justice, who dispersed into light and reformed mid-air, showering down small beams of light at The Jester who increased their flexibility and careened through the tiny spaces as if he was a long noodle.

The Jester quickly sprung up, his body in the shape of a string as he practically swam through the air and made his way to Justice, who summoned a Light Javelin and hurled it at The Jester, which was able to land perfectly, but to lessen the damage, The Jester made their body flexible enough to only cause a few scars on their skin once the Light Javelin dissipated in particles of light.

The Jester recovered by sticking his hands deep within the magical barrier, practically connecting himself to The Carnival as he opened his mouth wide, his back curving as his teeth, now longer and sharper, burst out of his mouth like tentacles as they began to pursue Justice in hot pursuit, and taking note of this, Justice quickly flew back to another location, but the teeth tentacles arrived faster than he thought, causing for him to get stabbed directly in the arm before he could separate into light.

"Great punchline, clown," Justice spoke in a strained tone, grinning as he held his arm, before following up with his dissipation into light and flying above The Carnival while the teeth were still hurling towards him like a missile.

"This'll be a gamble but hopefully this still works..." Justice said, before suddenly careening around the teeth, which continued to track him down, suddenly, Justice stood still for a moment, allowing the teeth to reach him as it attempted to impale him entirely, but in five-tenths of a second Justice was able to swerve out of the way, before putting his hands on the teeth tentacle.

There, Justice began rubbing it at fast speeds with his hands, enhancing it with magic as well for maximum efficiency, and soon, at the speed he was going, the teeth eventually set on fire due to the friction with Justice's palm, at first it only burnt the tip but then it had slowly started to burn the rest of The Jester's tentacle teeth away into ash.

Down below, The Jester not only saw, but felt this, feeling every bit of that burning pain, and as a countermeasure, ripped off his own teeth with his bare hands, dashing back and regenerating them, taking up another part of his magic pool.

Justice floated back down, idly and calmly as he stood face-to-face with The Jester once more.

"You still up for a 2nd round?" Justice grinned as he put up a fighting stance, his magical aura covering his body whole.

"...What kind of question is that?" The Jester cackled as a purple magical aura overtook him.

"No, actually..."

"I'm the one that should be asking that," The Jester said as their arms stretched around and about, while also being covered in a hardened layer of magic. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"And the one to be upping the stakes," The Jester spoke as he and Justice both had a stare-off, Justice regenerating his wounds inflicted on him, taking up his magic in the process.

"...SHOWTIME!" The Jester shouted as he swung his magic-hardened arms at Justice, who quickly took a dash back in response, extending his arms, beckoning the clown that stood before him.

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