Jack's axe made contact with the shadow copy of Rikert, which duly shattered. His eyes widened in glee as Rikert's presence was first revealed by the wall of shadow, but then they widened further as the shadows receded and he saw what weapon the traitor had in store. He had known it from his days serving the order alongside Jäger under Meta; if it touched him, death was almost certain. He tried to move to the right, but was forced left as the last illusionary Rikert hacked at him. Although the captain was able to parry the illusionary assassin's attacks, he was driven back, and towards Rikert's position, which was presumably the intention behind the animated shadow's attack. With his free hand, he managed to wrestle the shadow-creature back, holding its sword at bay with his axe. He did not push back far enough in time. Being shoved away from Jack by a burst of desperate effort from the captain, the shadowy clone of Rikert stumbled back a few feet. The arrow sailed towards its destination, and Jack attempted to lurch out of the way.
The bolt that promised death sailed above his face. He saw it beneath his chin, then coming towards his eyes, and finally sailing gently away from his face. It might have seemed, to an outsider, that nothing had happened. That it had not come into contact with Jack, that it had not found purchase before continuing on its journey, that it had not shed blood.
But it had done all of those things. Even though the arrow had only nicked him, its lethality was still unrivalled. Jack screamed, clutching his face and collapsing to the floor. A burning sensation ripped through his form, inducing pain like nothing he'd ever felt in the entirety of his unlife. Within his mind, the call of Morr echoed. Dead, dead, dead. That is what you are. That's a death arrow, Jack don't you know? Jäger spends a long time making them and it kills them dead.
It's going to kill you dead, Jack. You are already dead. This is death. Even immortals might be convinced of this last assertion by the blackness in front of their eyes, the stifling of the brain, the sluggishness of the limbs. But Jack was not convinced. The madness that had undid him would save his life, for if his willpower was great enough - and the madness did induce a frenzy that added to his determination - he could resist the lethal effect of the arrow, and survive. Death? This is death? What is death? What is 'this'?
Death is when we kill them, stupid!
What do we kill them with?
Axes, you fool...
So why is this death, then? Rikert hasn't used an axe! You need axes to cause death.
Axes? Er...perhaps you're right about the axes. Axes! Axes! Axes bring about death!
We have axes, don't we!
Of course!
So why don't we use them on Rikert, for being so stupid! He thought he could bring death without an axe. Let's bring death to him WITH an axe! It is the only way - let's show him.
A surge of excitement and determination shot through Jack's form, counteracting the effects of the arrow and preserving his life. As the call of death subsided, Jack staggered to his feet only to be struck by the illusionary Rikert once more. He did not manage to block the attack, but he did manage to mitigate its damage, redirecting the blow from his chest to his rib, where it rent a small tear in the assassin's flesh. I can't go on like this.
Go on?
Well, I will go on!
Where will we go on? Not here.
No, no no... The assassin had spotted Mikhail wielding a tree against Kylar, and had a devilish idea. We will take Rikert to my world...to the forest, yes...
Jack brought his axe up and it clashed with the shadow creature's sword once more. The creature put both hands behind its sword, slowly forcing it towards Jack's face. Jack wrenched a throwing axe out of his pocket in a rage, thrusting it at the shadow's face. It used a hand to grasp Jack's arm, stopping the throwing axe's advance towards the shadow creature's face. Then, the captain exerted pressure with his main axe, now pushing against a sword with only one hand behind it. In desperation, the shadow-creature leapt back to avoid the axe-cut to its face. However, the combat axe followed it, embedding itself in the creature's skull. The being duly shattered into shadowy fragments.
The throwing of the axe had caught the creature off guard because Jack now had no melee weapons, both of his axes lying at different distances from him and closer to his enemy than himself. What might alarm Rikert more was what Jack did next: he threw his throwing axe at the man, now without a cloaking of shadow, leaving himself completely disarmed. An explanation as to why he did this was provided after he threw the axe. The captain instantly shadow-stepped back to his two-handed battle axe, picked it up, and then shadow-stepped again, beyond the treeline. "Catch me if you can!" he called out, laughing madly. The laugh was not entirely carefree, however. Successive wounds were taking their toll on Jack - and the pain showed in the constriction that lay within his chuckling.