Out of everyone present, monster included, the Druid was the quickest to react. The instant he’d made the realization that they would have to fight, his hand had already started to reach into his Bag of Holding. The benefit of the artifact was that it was tied to him and his desires. There was no need to rummage around and actively search for the items he wanted to pull out. Instead, Jaco’s fingers quickly found what he was intending to find the moment they entered the pocket space.
He hurriedly pulled out a pair of metal containers, one right after the other. They were two of the six remaining Elixirs that Jaco had taken during his infiltration of the fort.
Hell Elixir of Supreme Might (Infernal, Consumable Artifact)
The liquid within this elixir greatly increases the physical strength of the consumer for a short while. The duration and effectiveness of this effect varies with how much of this artifact’s contents is consumed at a time.
Due to being created in Hell, however, consuming this artifact carries a potentially deadly side effect for humans.
Hell Elixir of Living Steel (Infernal, Consumable Artifact)
The liquid within this elixir greatly increases the toughness and endurance of the consumer for a short while. The duration and effectiveness of this effect varies with how much of this artifact’s contents is consumed at a time.
Due to being created in Hell, however, consuming this artifact carries a potentially deadly side effect for humans.
For just a fraction of a second, Jaco hesitated. Potions had been found around the inner city. And from what he knew about the work being done by the survivors in the camp, there was potential in them or similarly effective items eventually being created. The Hell Elixirs, however, were a different story.
There was no guarantee that he’d be able to get any more. Jaco didn’t know if there was another armory in the fortress that he had simply missed. His exploration had been rather limited to one section, and the entire thing was quite large. But there could just easily be more armories as there were none. So for all intents and purposes, until proven otherwise, the Hell Elixirs were currently a very limited resource.
Jaco didn’t necessarily need to use two of them up now, after all. On paper, there was a five Level gap between him and the Minotaur. But that was without counting the Stats provided by his Secondary Class, with both the boost and Modifications that had added up for 17 Levels now. With that in mind, there was every possibility that he didn’t require any consumables to win this fight. However, all that was from the perspective of him just fighting alone like he usually did.
But right now, he wasn’t alone. Standing beside him were two people, one of which had yet to even reach her Class Evolution. Either way, as neither of them had focused on Endurance, he wasn’t sure if they could take even a single hit. Sam as a Mage could be considered especially vulnerable, as at least Evelyn had her high Agility to make getting hit at all less likely.
His sense of responsibility quickly killed off that bit of hesitation. Jaco then quickly down the pair of elixirs, one right after the other. As for why he’d only grabbed two instead of all three types? Because he had a gut feeling that the Minotaur would only give him time to down two. So between the options, he’d rather take the ones that would allow him to perform the role of a tank to keep the Minotuar’s attention.
And his gut feeling once again proved to be correct. For the moment the last drops of the second elixir went down his throat, the Demidemon roared. With its greataxe raised, it then charged straight for them. But just a second later, the Druid charged forward in turn in order to meet it head on.
While he moved, Jaco’s body was already shifting as he assumed his bear form. Behind him, he trusted that Sam and Evelyn had already both begun to react accordingly. He would just need to be the meat shield that could stay in their enemy’s face.
As long as he did that much and constantly made himself out to be the biggest threat, it should just ignore them even as they attacked. It only made sense that it would ignore any lesser injuries from them, and instead focus on him as his claws and teeth should legitimately be able to seriously harm it.
Yet while his plan sounded good on paper, something quickly felt off. Jaco’s instincts then yelled of danger, but it was too late to slow down the momentum of his charge. In that moment, there was a gleam of light from the Minotaur’s greataxe. Jaco quickly reacted to identify it, and learned too late just what the weapon actually was.
Hell Greataxe of Greater Force
Before it even collided with him, the Minotaur swung its artifact. It moved in a horizontal arc, perpendicular to the Druid that was still several feet away. But Jaco could only curse his recklessness as a torrent of air then slammed into him.
There was the noise like shattering glass, as the magic from his Lesser Cloak of Protection was already broken. Pure unadulterated force created a blast that then managed to easily lift even his heavy body off the street.
Son of a-! Jaco cursed as he was sent flying. He tried to use his control of air to stabilize himself or at least cancel out the torrent. But it was to no avail. This wasn’t like taking control of the Chosen’s fireball and turning it around
Nothing about this was actually related to air magic, the torrent was just a secondary result. Jaco had the suspicion that even if they’d been in a vacuum, the force alone would have produced the same result. Even with the gap that had been between them, that was just the kind of power the artifact had.
Sent straight backward, the large bear shot right past the two people that had been behind him. The blast had been a slight angle, one that also made him go upward. But even as he went past them, his momentum had yet to even slow down by the slightest.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
50 feet. 100 feet. 200 feet. Jaco just kept flying further and further back. Now approximately 30 feet up in the air as well, he still just kept going. His fangs were bared with frustration as he once again cursed himself for running straight into this.
Jaco knew that of all his transformations, the hawk form was the most attuned to air. Through it, perhaps he could make use of the heavy wind around him and turn it to his advantage. That way he could perhaps actually manage to counteract the force flinging him away. Even if it wasn’t the wind causing it, it could still be the solution when added by his hawk form’s natural sentivies to air.
Yet as soon as his body had shrunken down, he quickly realized that he’d made a mistake. His wings were immediately caught by the still ongoing blast of force, and Jaco found himself spinning backward.
The motion was only accelerated by the pressure hitting him, spinning him even faster. He was out of control, and a quick attempt to correct himself ended with failure. All the while, the wasted time only meant that he was still being sent farther away.
Thinking fast, the Druid suddenly got an idea. He first ended the effect of Lesser Beast Transformation, because for this next part, he’d rather not remain in the more delicate body of a bird. As soon the shift back to his human body was underway, he already began to focus on Lesser Manifestation of the Wild Elemental. Like he had before, Jaco once again used it to turn his entire body into rock.
Then with his Ability to control earth, he mentally took control of himself. Then with the simple goal of ending his time being blown away, he willed for himself to be thrown straight downward. The effect was immediate as Jaco shot down. The fall was even harder than it would have been as his inertia from before was still at least partially added. But then his goal was achieved as he crashed right into the street.
As soon as he landed, Jaco got straight back up and returned his body to regular flesh. At least the added resilience from Manifestation and his elixir had helped his ability to shrug off the heavy impact. Though there was a dull ache that he felt practically everywhere, it was nothing he couldn’t just ignore and let his Endurance deal with.
When Jaco got his bearings, he then swore under his breath. While he was technically on the same street, the blow had knocked him far, far away. A distance of at least several blocks now existed between him and the ongoing fight.
It had only been a few seconds since he’d initially gotten blown away. But even that short amount of time meant a lot when the Demidemon was drastically stronger than the two people still near it. With his enhanced vision, stomach dropped as he could still clearly see what was happening over there.
Sam’s eyes were wide with fear as she held her wand out, maintaining a final, desperate magical barrier. Evelyn was behind the Demidemon’s legs, her blade slicing against the back of its knees. Though with her face twisted in frustration, it was clear to see that her attempt was failing to do any real damage.
Shit! Shit! Shit! I’m too far away, there’s no way I’ll make it back in time! Jaco swore. He racked his brains as he tried to consider something, anything that would help.
The distance between him and them was well outside the outermost range of any of his Abilities. And even if he moved at top speed, with or without taking the time to chug down a Hell Elixir of Immense Alacrity, he wouldn’t be fast enough before the Minotaur got ahold of Sam. The moment it did so, it would be guaranteed death for her right there and then.
As his thoughts rapidly searched for ideas, his hand had already brushed against his Bag of Holding. In that moment, an image flashed within his mind’s eye. One of the many objects currently stored within. Jaco had a gut feeling that this might just be the solution he was looking for, and immediately acted on it by reaching inside to pull an item out.
Hell Crossbow (Infernal, Artifact)
This artifact has been enhanced to deliver force far beyond the mechanical capabilities of similar crossbows, and the durability to withstand such force. When infused with energy, it can impart the power stored directly into its shot as a devastating kinetic strike.
Restriction: Can only be properly wielded by those who carry the Devil’s Essence. Otherwise this artifact will feel supremely heavy to those without it.
Current charge: 0/100
At times, it was easy to forget that Jaco was effectively a walking armory of Infernal weaponry. Largely because all his fights were pretty easily solved by his own Abilities, especially his bear form which solely fought with its natural weapons. But in moments like this, he was able to take advantage of the wide range of options sitting within his Bag of Holding.
Of course, there were also Hell Arrows and Hell Bolts to be used alongside the crossbow and other ranged weapons. And while Jaco did take out an arrow just a moment later, it actually wasn’t one of them. Instead, it was a different kind of arrow that he had found before entering the fortress and had simply kept around all this time. Something he’d almost given to one of the Scouts back at the encampment over the last few days, but ultimately decided to keep for himself.
Explosive Arrow (Consumable Artifact)
Filled with a vast amount of concentrated fire, this arrow will release its stored energy upon impact. While in flight, the user can control the trajectory of this artifact to some degree.
For the crossbow, there were no attachments or any kind of mechanical assistance to pull back the string. And if there were any outside tools meant to assist, there hadn’t been any around in the fort’s armory at the time. But for a certain Druid, that didn’t matter in the slightest.
His hands were practically a blur of movement as he readied the shot. With nothing more than raw Strength, Jaco pulled back the sting and locked it into place. The instant that was done, he put the arrow into its spot and took aim.
In just the couple of moments it had taken him to load the arrow thanks to his more than superhuman Agility, he’d also crammed as much energy into the Hell Crossbow as he could. The energy in question was not Mana, however, but the same kind of power that the city was full of. It was the Devil’s Essence.
Yet as Jaco had infused the weapon with the Devil’s Essence, something unexpected happened. His original hope was to simply charge up as much as he could right before firing. He had expected that maybe he could get the charge up to 20 out of 100, maybe 30 at most. That was just the natural assumption based on how long it took him to channel Mana, and then applied the same standard to the Devil’s Essence as well.
But that wasn’t at all how things really went. When Jaco channeled the Devil’s Essence within him, it did move about as much as he had expected. More than that, however, there was a reaction outside of his own body.
Everything within the city was encased in the aura of Hell’s power. Now more than ever with the Apocalypse's third stage, it permeated through his immediate environment. Though he hadn’t been able to sense it before gaining its power, he just knew as much.
As he willed for his own energy to enter the crossbow, so too did the all-encompassing aura stir with it.