Viper’s stare was intense, it was like he knew exactly where Sam was hiding. He pointed in Sam’s direction and said something. Sam knew that he had two choices. Fuck off or fess up and take control of the situation.
If he ran, that would probably make them raise the alarm, chase them, look for them or at least increase security. If he got up and challenged him or at least tried to abuse the situation, he could at least have a chance. There had to be a reason for how he could suddenly notice him like this, it wasn’t sound related as Sam had just been sitting there for a while, there was no chance he saw him through the brush, at least logically... He must have some skill or ability that allowed him to sense them. Was it an extension of the electrical thing or just a sensing ability?
Making a ‘wait here’ signal to Dia, hoping she’d understand he got up from the bush, proving his presence and stepped in like he owned the place. He wasn’t a good actor but it had worked before.
“And, who the fuck are you?!” Viper commented loudly, enough to be heard across a large area of the camp, drawing proper attention to the fact that something was going on here.
“I’m someone with information.” Sam replied, deciding to leverage some of his info to try and get closer. If he could get an opening, a moment of weakness, perhaps he could just take advantage of that.
Viper walked closer, even from a distance, Sam could feel pressure from the man, almost like the air became denser suddenly.
“And what kind of information is that?”
“Oh, it would be dumb of me to just share that without discussing a reward, no?” Sam didn’t lie here, his past had taught him the value of proper rewarding, as well as bargaining when your life is on the line.
“And is that related to your hiding friend over there?” Pointing at the bush they came from he had apparently noticed Dia as well.
“No, not really. I have information about the Bloodfang Marauders.” Sam replied, trying to pull focus back on himself.
As Viper was considering a response, Sam was looking around for options of what to do. Viper was standing not far away from a table with things on it, among those things was a crude meat cleaver. Expanding on his Area, Sam found that he could reach it with two Psyhands and pick it up. He could use this to either create chaos and an opening or try to pit them against each other.
Grabbing it with the needed Psyhands to lift it, in one movement he lifted it and Force Launched it towards Viper.
[ Critical hit, double damage. ]
Sam did his best to repress a smirk as the cleaver landed in his side, doing surprising damage for being a shit-tier weapon. The man didn’t look too wounded either, hinting that he had a substantial health pool compared to Sam.
“Who the fuck threw that?!” Viper shouted as he turned toward the side the cleaver came from and locking his eyes with three men standing in the area it could have been thrown from.
“I... I don’t know, Master.” One of them pleaded in response. “It... it just flew on its own.”
Viper pondered for a second before he looked back at Sam. “This was your doing, wasn’t it?!” Using the clever to point at Sam.
Sam had a moment of crisis, he caught on rather fast, but he had to keep the lie going.
“How the fuck would I do that? It’s all the way over there.” He commented, trying to look insulted that he was blaming Sam.
Tapping into being insulted that he caught on so fast, he hoped that this worked out. Sam was actually decent at lying, learned from experience.
Pondering this for a brief moment, Viper started a slightly tilted nod, seeming to agree with Sam’s logic. Turning back to the men on his side he aggressively pointed at them with the cleaver, tines of electricity arced off him into the air with small snapping sounds.
“You don’t think I know how some of you feel about me?! You petty fuckers came to me, I gave you everything you needed and this is how you repay me?!”
Sam had no idea what had gone on in the camp, but based on what the man they spoke to before mentioned, and just this scene, he could guess.
If there was a chance for any internal chaos, it was quelled by his electrifying display. Repeating his throwing of an object at Viper, he threw a dagger at him from the side. It didn’t land as well but did hit him, and also taught Sam something valuable.
As the dagger soared through the air from the table to his side, passing through the electric field Viper was producing, as it impacted him there was a spasm alongside the pained shriek that followed. The spasm was very similar to being lightly electrocuted, like someone touching a live wire from a house.
He was not immune to his own lighting.
The more Sam thought about it, the more that made sense. If this is magic or some other ability, mages could set themselves on fire, or drown themselves, depending on their spells. So why would Viper be immune?
Though that was good to know and could be a good way of attacking him, it would probably not work twice.
“Who the fuck did that?!” He turned around and looked in the direction of the dagger, again there was someone there, his yell earlier had people surround the area, after all.
But, again nobody took the blame for it.
His anger flared up, he looked like he was about to explode, needing some target, someone to blame. Sam took this moment to take a few steps closer, just so he wasn’t at the end of his Area. In case he found the opening he needed to attack.
Viper charged up a lot of energy in the dagger he picked up, it started glowing from the heat of the electricity bundling inside it before he threw it at the man he thought responsible. The dagger hit him in the chest and burned, singed and seared its way into his chest, the residual electricity sparking from the metal into the body triggering some spasms. The damage from the dagger might not have been enough on its own, but the extra heat made this substantially worse.
The ordeal, once the dagger landed, took a few seconds before life left his eyes and he fell over. Every sound in the camp faded to a deadly silence, nothing except for the wind could be heard.
“Anyone else?!” Viper shouted out challenging as he pointed around accusingly with an unhinged expression.
His men took a few steps back when they were pointed at, and Sam got a good look at why the man in the woods was so on board with taking Viper down.
Though he looked unhinged and chaotic, Viper had stopped letting off the passive energy around him, seemed that he recognised the possibility of that being used against him, removing that option from Sam’s list.
Viper used a moment to process everything before he turned towards Sam with crackling fury in his eyes. “Now, the fuck information did you... No..first... Get your friend out of that bush before I burn it to ash!” His cleaver-pointing changed from Sam to the bush where Dia was hiding.
Sam really didn’t want Dia to show herself, he was glad that she understood to remain hidden, but seeing a beastfolk could make things worse... Or perhaps better? If they thought he was some beastmaster class or something, would it make it easier to hide his telekinesis?
Well, it didn’t matter, he had to do something, and trying to keep her hidden when he knew she was there, especially when he looked this ready to go, was probably going to get her attacked.
“Dia, come!” Sam shouted at the bush with a ‘come here’ wave. He turned back to the people of the camp to check their reactions, if it looked like anyone was going to attack, he would beat them to it.
She did as told and got up and walked out of the bush before she walked towards Sam. Staring down the group as she did as requested, Sam didn’t get more of her expression or what she did before he turned.
The group started murmuring, he couldn’t hear what they said from the distance, but Viper looked like he relaxed a little. Several others had pulled weapons and didn’t seem happy that a Beastfolk was walking into the village.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Oh. You got yourself a pet? What are you, some beastmaster class or something?” He didn’t look entirely surprised.
Sam was relieved, it seemed that his initial idea worked, though, in Viper’s defence, Sam would most likely have assumed the same.
“Something like that.” There was no need to confirm or deny anything, the vague confirmation or denial would probably be plenty.
“Huh. It looks like the other vermin we used for target practice.” Viper chuckled, not considering the beastfolk as living creatures at all.
Sam had problems commenting against it, considering the micro-genocide he was part of when farming the Beastfolk dungeons before.
“Though... two tails... that’s kind of rare, no?” He tilted his head slightly to the side as he pointed in Dia’s general direction with the clever in hand. Thinking about something for a second he turned towards the crowd around him. “Didn’t one of you fuckers say that we caught something two-tailed a while ago?”
It was silent for a moment before one man hesitantly responded. “Y-yes, Sir. It fought harder than the others, we think it might be a higher Rank or something. The first one we saw with two tails, we-”
He was interrupted by another man who joined the talk, a bit more energetically, like he wanted part credit for responding. “Yea! We caught her in a cage in the old camp, but...” Looking around a bit confused. “Now that I think about it... I think we sort of forgot it... or did it die?”
Viper chucked. “Well, doesn’t matter, if it’s the same one, consider it a gift from us.” Placing the flat of the cleaver against his chest he made a fake bow, almost like he meant it genuinely. “Now that you have been rewarded, share the fucking information you have before I use you, both of you as targets.” His tone shifted from almost polite to fuming as soon as he hit the swear word.
“The Butcher, or the fuck he called himself, the leader of the Bloodfangs, is dead. Not sure if someone has taken over yet or not.” He left out all the good details, he expected follow-up questions. He also knew that the quest log had gone back to listing three Dominant forces, but he didn’t know who or what that was.
“Oh, interesting.” Viper’s voice had softened considerably since a few seconds ago. The group around him murmured in response. “I heard that was the case, but it sounded too dumb, nobody over there had the balls or strength to take him out.” He scratch his head with the dull side of the cleaver as he looked to the sky.
This was good news to Sam, if he was correct it meant that everyone else was an easier target, if it came to that. He could just straight up take the credit for killing him, after all, it was true, but that could put Viper on the defence, someone powerful enough to kill the Butcher could possibly pose a danger. Though Sam didn’t know how powerful Viper was, he didn’t want him to defend more than needed.
“How did that happen? Did you have anything to do with it?” Viper asked the somewhat logical questions, having been spot on in most of it so far.
“Nah, I think he would have killed me if I got close... Though I did hear he had trouble breathing sand.” Again not lying, he told only the truth. The reason he had to be clever in how he killed the man was just that; in close combat, he would most likely have killed Sam in a few moves at most. Especially since the man wore Sam’s armour at the time.
“Well, that’s good news! Having it from different sources validates it more.” He seemed honestly happy about this detail. Based on his comments he already knew it but validating things from various sources was always a good logic.
“Now, the question is-” He again looked at Sam with an accusting expression. “Which side are you on?”
“Well, not the Bloodfangs’” Sam commented dryly, he had plenty of honesty there. “They found me on the beach a few days ago, fuckers caged me up and were going to feed me to some beasts they had, I managed to get loose and ran into the woods.”
Viper just had an ‘and then?’ expression, seeming to want a proper answer.
“I’m on my own, of sorts. Being alone on this island seems... dangerous... So anyone willing to take the fight to the Bloodfangs sounds good.” Again Sam used the dumb little fact of not answering properly but also baking in truths, it tended to make your voice sound more real for those who knew how to pick up on things.
Viper nodded with several uh-huhs, many more than he needed. Almost like he was making a point out of it. “Then let’s get you signed in!” Turning around towards the group of people behind him they started roaring and cheering, several men ran in the same direction and everyone was spreading out a bit more.
Sam walked in closer, with Dia in very close tow. It seemed his bluff of joining them could have worked, he was still on guard in case this was just a ruse to turn everything on him. He got a slightly better view of the camp the more he stepped into it. It was very similar to the Bloodfangs’ and to be honest, it was somewhat limite to how different a camp like this could look. Tents, fires and stuff were strewn about, it seemed to have started with a single fire and perhaps grew outwards from there, getting an extra table, tent, box or whatever when necessary. No proper reasoning as to what was where, at least not that Sam could see. But it didn’t take long for him to see what the commotion was about.
The group had dragged a naked man, tied up and gagged much like Sam was a few days ago, from a cage and dropped him on the ground. The Viper walked up next to him and pointed at him with the cleaver. And in a dramatic pose and voice, he ordered Sam.
“Prove that you’re game, kill this man.”
Looking up at Sam with pleading eyes, the man requested mercy without saying a single word. This also had Sam wonder what he should do. On one hand, he could just kill him, the tied-up man on the ground had no value to him, but it seeme a bit cruel. That also had him consider the men he had just butchered in the jungle, without confirming if they were on board with things or not. This train of thought was derailed due to the urgency of the situation.
“You want me to just kill him? Not knowing what he’s done, who he is or anything?” The question was more to buy time to process the situation than it was about him actually caring about any of those.
“Yes, if you want to join us, you need to get used to listening to your betters. Me. You should do what I tell you to do, as I tell you to do them.” Viper took a few steps closer after explaining, stopping several steps away from Sam, out of reach of any swing of a weapon.
“Now. Kill. This. Man.” In a dramatic voice, he put pressure on every single word with a solid pause between them, putting emphasis on what was said.
“Should I use your cleaver... or... is there any special way you want this done? Slow? Fast?” Again Sam was stalling, and he could tell that Viper realised.
“I don’t fucking care, either you kill him now, or you take his place. You have plenty of weapons, use those.” Viper gestured with the cleaver to the bunch of weapons attached to Sam’s body.
Viper had a good point, it wasn’t like Sam was unarmed, but rather the other way around, he might be overgeared for this.
Processing his next step he slowly pulled the Moonblade, if he went through with this a heavy scimitar would do the best job, given his position and lack of dodging abilities, a critical hit with it could possibly do it in one hit.
But Sam had a better idea.
As he was walking over to where the man was lying, he saw more items on different tables and boxes around. Psyhand picking up a crude stone hammer, which was just a stone on a stick, threw that at Viper as he walked closer to the man on the ground.
The hammer hit him but seemingly did zero damage, it still had Viper trigger something fierce.
“NOW WHO THE FUCK IS DOING THIS SHIT?!” He turned around and tines of electricity arced from his body into the air, the ground and anyone slightly too close.
This was what Sam was waiting for, pulling all his weapons as Viper turned around, ignoring the awe and reactions he got from everyone around them as his 10 weapons started floating on their own, the Moonblade included. He sent them all towards the unaware leader.