TO CUT A TURNING TAIL

18). ONE STEP FORWARD

Jon has Shridgaar rolled in chains as he watches the hologram. It is strange how he pulled such a win amid witnessing a dope holographic clip. But finally, as the clip finishes with Learn's death, Jon sees something gripping. A hologram or not, he does not know, but all he can see is a vivid image of his face. Suddenly, a deep kick catapults him to the wall of the sewer, as he is about to hit the wall, a bulgy sensation stops him. He is still hanging in the chair but the chain that connected him and Shridgaar has now been broken up, probably by the domain's wall. A spill of blood falls off Jon's mouth. And now that he has nothing to do but gradually hit the wall, he thinks hard till he realizes it was Shridgaar's eyes that were staring right into his own, making him see the reflection. Jon isn't astonished. Suddenly, a mystical force pulls him back into the domain.

Srinagaar is standing right next to Jon with a dagger pointed at his forehead. It is amused by Jon's improvement. They both engage in fist/dagger combat again. Amidst the fist combat, Jon's hand gets cantoned by Shridgaar's leg. Shridgaar lurches a few kicks at him soon after. Then he brings out two daggers, rolling one of them, he thwarts it at Jon. Jon, who is in severe pain dodges it even with the gloomy expression. This is the time when Jon has to activate his ken, as he vanishes from Shridgaar's sight and probably even out of the domain, he can hear Shridgaar scratching this dagger on the wall.

Still in the domain, before Shridgaar can manipulate him yet again, Jon tries to whack Shridgaar's back but the opponent is swift. He turns behind, Jon has to immediately recruit to the daggers, they both engage themselves in tussling daggers at each other. Their daggers constantly knocking and them constantly dodging each other's attacks. 

Shridgaar lunges his hand forward again but Jon cannons it, his dagger digs deep into the hole between the dagger and Shridgaar's skin. Jon twists the dagger as much as possible, in frustration, Shridgaar kicks him in the crotch. [You always have to option to break the rules].

Exhausted from the fight, but ultimately, something that his uncle taught him helped him, he pretended to be a pawn.

 [This is similar to how his uncle pretended to be out of money and let the shopkeeper keep tab but then he never paid as he was about to shift soon. Yes, he had an uncle and aunt just like Larriel, but they barely lived. His parents' identity is unknown but they did live as well. Obviously, they lived, that's how he was born... Sometimes nowadays, Jon gets the feeling they have something to do with the three, Zenith, Burma, and Tridaily, he has an idea those three are indeed the very three people he witnessed in the last hologram. But who is Learn?]

Jon's hands are swollen and his body numb. He still gets up and brings out the knives, he runs all over Shridgaar and tries to defeat him, [Just envisage it from both Jon and your view, how in slow motion he tries to pierce a knife into Shridgaar 's heart and Shridgaar 's neck slowly turns south to notice Jon but as he reaches Shridgaar, he realizes Shridgaar is prepared to dodge his attack, so when he steps on the ground, he rapidly pivots his body to his left. 

Now he stands just behind Shridgaar, water sparkling over his robe from the sudden stepping. According to his view, these things happen slowly, but in reality, Jon leaped at Shridgaar but ended up slipping right at his back with a ton of water sprinkling at his face, his eyes closed off this sudden mishappening and in front of him, Shridgaar standing stoic. However, what if this was Jon's trick, three daggers flip out of his robe and fall right at Shridgaar. Shridgaar miscalculated its own movements and crouched down thinking Jon would thump at him or sway his hand. The daggers fall at his back due to this action.

Jon jumps back to a slate on the all with the distraction, tired; he collapses on the ground and starts spitting blood. Shridgaar knocks those knives off his body and rubs the little wounds as if they are itchy spots. It does a few exercises till Jon regains decent consciousness. Once so, Jon runs yet again and throws his last dagger into Shridgaar 's mouth. Jon tries to get up once again, with the bare minimum strength left in him, he utters, "what would you do if I die right here?". Shridgaar reacts callously by turning his head to Jon, Jon smirks and like a spirited body, he takes the last run as he summons his chain, he pierces it into Shridgaar's body (the chain has edgy ends).

"I bet this one did more than a tickle," he says as he slips to the ground in a rush. "You know I won't care even If you die, one reaped soul won't effect" is a vibration in Jon's head. "Don't you get greedy; don't you feel you'd have no more a purpose if I die." Suddenly, Jon's body starts working involuntarily, he brings out the chain from Shridgaar's stomach and pierces his own stomach with it. "You know you cheated" is another vibration that Jon hears in his body. "In order to win? that's not greed, exactly" he gaspingly remarks. He realizes a similar change of actions happened in the past as well.

The chain has started to hurt his body, it is piercing the stomach gradually as his hand movements allow. The last hologram appears in front of his eyes, eight tattoos visible, altogether he can differentiate between the two skins in the dark, one person wears the tattoos of the weird loop weapon with a shield surrounding it, and the number 1; they are both dressed on the woman's cheeks, making them as four different tattoos. The other wears the typical disc trapping a grinning face and the number two, this one seems to be male from the cheeks and lips.

They are both being consistently being kicked at the body by a hard sole of shoes. Standing in front of them is a bald man, he is none other than Draco, the mentor of the 'Six Warriors'. The hologram disappears and Jon turns back with a numb face, as if someone woke him from a dream, he looks around and realizes Shridgaar is gone. Jon feels as if he has won, slowly, he sees his body vanishing as well, though this is because of Ikshana. He feels victorious till he hears the cunning laugh of Shridgaar, he has never heard the voice but he feels it is Shridgaar. Demented and unable to examine, Jon leaves the scene like wavering dust.

"Um, what is a domain? Well Jon, hope this lets you understand the psychology of a domain's working.

 There were speeches and orientations during the start of the world to eliminate the object, i.e., fear completely from the minds of a person. But, people could not handle such a factor as humans tend to be born with fear. Though, in this better world, the fear had been diminished inside of nearly every sole. And those who had extensive phobias were treated rather than being divulged. And the people with phobias were bought to psychologists, now known as 'pals'.

The domain is a specified area where the figurine can drive you to a certain extent, moreover, it can manipulate you to fight only at certain positions as if you are a stationary figure. Still, there is some mode of control you can have over yourself. There are a few spots that can work as freezing spots. The fun part, throwing your weapon or touching any part of the user during the offensive attack can be used to freeze, moreover, cultivate that part of your body as a puppet. 

As in the figurine drives that part of your body ahead of it. Though, since the domain decreases with time, you have a lot of time to eliminate the figurine for once before it gets the advantage. Even then, due to the narrowness of the width, many fail as they bump to the wall or something. Because, obviously, the initial arena is the entire sewer, moreover, all the area which comes in before another figurine has its place somewhere near. So the range is quite good, let's say 5 km. 

This range decreases, in ways: the length of the wall under the secured domain gets decreasing at a decent speed bringing to getting off the wall and floating range midst air. The length barely diminishes since it needs to fulfill such a scenario where the domain surrounds just the figure and the opponent ads well give them a minimum space.

 Plus, the domain moves around with Shridgaar. In the end, if one tries to escape the domain, you easily fall out of it and stay in the sewer for as long as till you don't find a way out. Moreover, it won't even give you the environmental advantage. P.s., once on the edge, i.e., escaping the domain, the process is slow and the person falls at a very slow speed. As in, you're sinking out."