Jimmy Stickman

Chapter 31: Lord Zayne

Jimmy fell through the trees, and the protruding branches impacted sharply with his body. He expected to have a hard landing on the ground, but instead he was met with a steeply-decreasing slope into a giant crater. He slid down and kept tumbling, but there was little he could do to slow his momentum.

As he tried to stabilize his center of mass, he was able to spot a large root protruding from the dirt a few meters down. He lunged-out at it as he got close and grabbed it, but it was of little use; his glove was unable to grab a hold of it, and he was sent further down the slope.

He finally hit the flat bottom of the hill. His suit was very dirty at this point, and his body ached too; he was in great pain at this point. Yet, Jimmy was still not completely incapacitated.

As Jimmy began to slowly and painfully push himself up off of the ground, something leaped from above and landed on its feet in front of him. It was Lord Zayne.

"Thought I would take care of you so that you don't become a bigger problem later!" Zayne explained rudely to Jimmy, who was just barely able to stand erect on his own two feet.

"Z.. Zayne!?" He said rather hoarsely before being slammed to the ground. He then heard what sounded like a sword being removed from its sheath, so he duplicated the action and took his own out, albeit weakly.

Zayne's sword came stabbing downward, almost impaling Jimmy's face. But Jimmy deflected it and kicked Zayne in the front, sending him backward.

Jimmy rolled himself forward and ran towards Zayne with his sword ready. As he began to chop it down Zayne's body, it was knocked away effortlessly by the opposing blade, and he was uppercutted below the chin.

Blood spewed from his mouth, and he was starting to feel queasy. He was punched again three times just seconds apart from each other before he saw Zayne spin and kick him back with great force.

At this point, his vision was starting to become blurry, and he was disoriented. He lay there, on the ground, helpless. His sword was a few meters away, but he was too weak to retrieve it. Yet, in a very vain attempt, he started to crawl to it.

However, he was kicked again in the side, flipping him over so that his belly was faced-up.

Lord Zayne stepped his foot on Jimmy's chest, using his weight to render the boy helpless before drawing his sword yet again. "I can't believe I finally have you right where I have always wanted you ever since you became an annoyance to me. Finding and killing you was not always my target, but it is helpful to me to have you dead anyway." Zayne lifted his sword high into the air, ready to stab Jimmy.

But Jimmy did not desire to give up, as tired and sick as he felt. At the very moment that Lord Zayne thrusted his blade down, Jimmy gripped both of the assassin's legs tightly and threw them to the side, causing Zayne to fall over, freeing Jimmy.

Without wasting time, Jimmy got on his feet and sprinted over to his sword, grabbing its hilt mid-sprint.

Zayne arose and attempted to hit Jimmy with his sword, but Jimmy blocked it with his own blade and pushed the assassin back before violently slashing at Zayne, who did his very best to defend himself.

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The two swords were bashing against each other repeatedly as both wielders moved between the maze of pine trees.

At first, Jimmy and Zayne appeared neck-and-neck; both as skillful as the other. But then, Jimmy gained an immediate advantage as Zayne's back was pressed into a tree trunk with Jimmy in front of him, bashing his sword multiple times against Zayne's.

Lord Zayne held Jimmy's sword up and attempted to punch him. However, Jimmy blocked the assassin's fist and grabbed his mask, tearing it clean off. The face underneath was humanoid with a dark complexion, no hair, pointed ears, and pupil-less yellow eyes; Zayne was stunned.

Jimmy used Zayne's sudden feeling of exposure as a distraction and manipulated him so that he could be put into a headlock. Once Jimmy had his enemy secured, who was struggling to get out of the boy's grasp, he reared back and thrusted his sword into Zayne's back, impaling him all the way through. The tip of the blade was now caked with the former assassin's blood.

Jimmy breathed a short sigh of relief and removed the sword. Zayne, who was now dead, fell limply like a ragdoll to the rough forest terrain.