Ultraman could drop dead and still wouldn't bleed.
That was common knowledge.
Yet the Ultraman now before Ian was bleeding, and that truly caught Ian off guard. The look he gave Jack was uncertain and wary.
"What are you?" Ian's voice was very low, very heavy.
Jack wiped away the blood at the corner of his eye. The motion was natural, like a human wiping away sweat. He looked at the smear of red on his fingers and fell silent.
"We are Ultraman," Jack said. His voice was still steady, but beneath that steadiness, something was trembling faintly, like a string pulled too tight.
"Ultraman aren't like this."
Ian's tone was certain.
He looked at Jack. "Ultraman are incarnations of light. Energy beings. Their bodies are made of light. They don't bleed, don't break, don't have muscles, bones, or skin."
Clearly, the boy knew a great deal about Ultraman.
Jack fell silent. The other Ultraman gathered around and looked at Ian, then at Jack, unsure what to do. They were used to following Jack's orders, used to obeying commands in battle. But now Jack was injured, his sword was broken, and he was bleeding. They no longer knew whether they should keep fighting.
After a long while, Jack spoke.
"We've never seen the kind of Ultraman you're talking about. We're only warriors." He looked at the broken hilt in his hand, then drew it back into his palm.
The broken part did not grow back.
"However, you have glimpsed our weakness. Because of that, the Land of Light may very well hunt you down." It was hard to say how much of what Jack had said before had been false.
He left behind those meaningful words, then flew off into the distance with the other Ultraman.
"Interesting. There's probably a