5.2
"What are you doing?"
Jelani spoke to the shadowed figure of a muscular man, one he would never forget.
After wiping his sweaty forehead, the man turned in Jelani's direction.
"Who are you?" the booming voice asked. "I can't see your face in the dark."
Jelani stepped into the light of the same streetlamp the man was standing beneath. There was no more than ten feet between them.
"You're Blake's friend, right?"
Owen raised his eyebrows.
"Ohh, you met us in Portland, didn't you, kid!"
Jelani nodded. "I did," he said. "But what are you doing here?"
"Me?" Owen grinned. "My role was to protect the people of this city. I've accomplished that, so I have nothing more to do here."
"Why did you protect them?" Jelani interrogated. "What did Blake tell you?"
Owen turned his back to Jelani. "Sorry, kid. You'll have to figure that out yourself."
CRASH
The sound of a shattering window stopped Owen in his tracks. He turned his head to see Jelani with his arm halfway into a store.
"That's what I'm doing right now," Jelani said, eyes dark and narrowed. "Figuring it out."
Owen chuckled. "You should order around someone else, kid. Someone you can beat in a fight."
In a heartbeat, the steel blade extending from Jelani's fist was within inches of Owen's face.
He ducked, and Jelani's punch cut the air a millimeter above his head.
After skidding to a stop on the pavement, Jelani turned his head.
"Someone I can beat? I think you fit the requirements."
Owen, head still bowed after dodging Jelani's attack, grinned even wider.
"You might be strong one day if you humble yourself, kid. I'll help you ou–"
Owen's words were interrupted by steel knuckles skimming the skin of lips.
Finally, he bent his knees and clenched his fist around the thick iron chain in his right hand.
Jelani was done talking, and he threw his next punch instantly.
Owen swatted the flying fist aside with his free left hand and leapt backwards.
But Jelani chased him, matching every single one of his strides and throwing punches so quickly that Owen resorted to using his left arm as a shield, steeling its strength to a maximum while Jelani pounded away at his flesh.
But his right arm was drawn back, and in the fleeting moment between Jelani's attacks, he countered.
With a force so intense that the pavement cracked beneath him, he dug his feet into the ground and torqued his body like a whip.
The massive weight of the ball and chain flung around, sweeping a wide arc around the entire street before catching Jelani.
Jelani's chest was only hit by the base of the chain where the velocity was lowest, yet he was sent tumbling across the pavement as if he'd been hit by a train.
Jelani ignored the crushing pain in his ribcage and leapt to his feet, but he was too late.
The distance had reopened–he was in Owen's most lethal range.
He leapt off the ground and lifted his feet, feeling the spiked metal ball skim the soles of his boots in midair. It was all he could do to avoid the strike, but the ball swung around its entire circular path so quickly that Jelani cringed in advance, curling his limbs up as a guard and channeling all of his strength into his left side.
Owen wasn't giving him enough time to even land on the ground.
When the steel spikes sunk into Jelani's shoulder, he felt more power than a train could possibly produce.
His strength shattered and his body folded, spinning through the air like a pinwheel.
Even then, Owen was merciless.
His next strike came quicker than the last.
Jelani slid some 100 feet across the pavement, only stopping after scrabbling at the ground with his fingers.
"How many do you want?" Owen called, still swinging his chain as he approached the half-dead Jelani.
Jelani gasped, barely able to force air into his collapsed lungs.
He choked on the blood that was clogging his throat, spluttering it out onto the pavement.
His left arm was useless–in fact, every bone in the left side of his body seemed to have shattered.
Still, the knuckle dusters were on his fists.
He raised his head, and when he saw Owen approaching, he frantically pounded his fist into the ground, now painfully aware of the spiked ball's ridiculous reach.
Jelani had another trick up his sleeve. With his hand two feet deep in the Hoodsdale earth, he closed his eyes.
The system of life wasn't as strong here as it had been in Portland, but he found it–the infinite links in the mycorrhizal network.
He only detected a few small roots near the surface beneath Owen, but he built them up carefully, preparing them for attack.
Owen realized the danger at the exact moment the roots flew up, and he leapt forward one moment too late.
One root shot into his thigh, and another wrapped around his ankle.
He stumbled, but he didn't fall.
Planting his free foot firmly, he tore his ankle free from the wood, but another root had already wrapped him up and was wrenching him down into the earth. Jelani almost smiled.
With plenty of additional roots lying beneath the street in wait, he could visualize every outcome perfectly, and they all ended in Owen's defeat.
No matter which way the man moved, Jelani would smother him in wood and drag him to the ground.
Now, Jelani really did grin.
After all the injuries he'd been given, it was time for payback.
He launched an all-out attack, sending roots shooting up like writhing worms. Each one was zeroed in on the target, and they wouldn't yield even an inch from their perfect course to Owen's limbs.
They wouldn't yield. That was the assumption that Jelani was making.
Now a cornered beast, Owen shattered the sprouting roots with his bare hands. He made the wood look like cardboard as he bent it down, even tearing some clean out of the ground as if he was dealing with blades of grass.
"If only you were humble, kid!"
Jelani gritted his teeth, ignoring the blood that trickled from his scalp into his eyes.
But he couldn't ignore Owen's upright figure, exuding confidence even as he handled Jelani's full assault.
It was clear that Owen couldn't be beaten with brute force, so Jelani directed his attention away from the ground at his enemy's feet.
Instead of sending roots up within Owen's reach, he sprouted them at a distance before willing their sharpened points on a bullet's path towards the man's heart.
Owen swung his chained mace over his head in response, chopping every new root at its base.
Jelani furiously grew living spear after living spear, but a single revolution of the chain was all it took to break them.
"Step one," Owen bellowed, "is knowing when to give up!"
The last thing Jelani saw was a glint of metal in the dark.