[Strangler’s Poison] = Essence (Venenum, 0.25-1.25L) + Lungs (Amphibious, level 61+, 0.4-2kg) + Mutagen (Insect, level 71+, 0.1-0.5kg) + Hemlock (+3, 0.05-0.25kg) + Water (Salt, 0.5-0.1L) + [Cauldron] (Iron, 450-475°K)
----------------------------------------
It took the better part of a week to bring this together.
Jay watched Viktor’s camp from afar, the reeds chafing against his skin. Even though they were miles away, his perception potion was active to help keep a tight watch, along with a spyglass Sayid had given him. Their enemy still assumed both were dead, so Jay refused to do any half-measures. Not when they were so close.
Trish slowly strolled through the jungle beneath, her cart filled with Viktor’s daily meat supply, bumping against the roots beneath. She continued at a slow but even pace, the morning sun burning bright above.
Jay rubbed the bags beneath his eyes. Man, had this week been a long one. Having to evade Natura’s wrath after helping Sayid so much was one thing, but also needing to hide during the day to maintain his cover had really taken its toll. True to form, Viktor had taken pretty much everything left behind at his old base followed by doing the same to the harbor, and patrolling the area more than normal, just to be safe. Were it not for Sayid’s advice on the best ways to be hidden, he would have no doubt been caught.
But between Kevin’s home as a hideout and the spacious caverns to use for the nighttime fights, they had managed to keep themselves stable long enough to get the other pieces in place.
Yes, it was almost poetic now. Only one day remained until Viktor’s next deadline, but it would be him fighting for his life soon, not anyone else.
Jay shifted an inch back into the reeds, not willing to let anything get in the way of his plan.
Viktor sauntered into the open as Trish dragged her cart into his camp, with Misha resting nearby. Jay might not have been able to hear from this distance, but their body language spoke enough. He thanked her for her participation in his game yet again, despite the fact that it wouldn’t make a difference. Predictably, the island could not sustain his needs again, so her involvement appeared as little more than damage control for the night to come.
Not that Viktor cared. The interaction dragged on for longer than Jay would have liked as he flapped his hands about and jeered in his usual flamboyant style, but Trish played her role almost far too well. She simply nodded and continued delivering her goods, balancing disdain with complacency as she played along.
That much kept Viktor busy while Naomi slipped in behind.
With the meat being delivered and their enemy distracted, Naomi crept into the backside of his camp and began digging through his storage chests. Viktor was a minimalist at his core, never keeping more than necessary on hand since he stole from everyone else, so that gave Naomi the leeway to search through each available container as Trish did what she could to drag things out, buying as much time as possible. There was a moment when Misha began to peer her way, but Trish returned the monster’s attention to her with some impatient stomping.
Then the pair left, their business concluded.
Trish had to have cleared a hundred yards before turning to Jay’s hiding spot and giving a thumbs up. Naomi did the same soon after, smiling as she held up the goods high to show how well this first phase went.
But Jay did not allow himself to reciprocate. Too much was on the line for him and everyone else, and though he’d spent days formulating every nuance of this plan, theory and execution were not the same. The painful memory of his last defeat still burned through his limbs. A phantom pain of what his hubris had brought about.
Viktor did not experience that same dread, however. Once Trish left, he hauled the meat into the safety of his rebuilt shack, undoubtedly to upscale it into something that could sustain his overleveled body.
Time moved at an oppressively slow pace as Jay watched his shack, fighting against his own indecision. Could Viktor have suspected something? Had they moved too quickly? Too slowly? At too consistent a pace? If he suspected the trap before it was delivered, then everything else would be lost.
They wouldn’t stand a chance if Viktor knew they were coming.
The shack door slammed open, and Jay squirmed in place. But before he could question where it would go, he saw the conspicuously tiny chunk of meat in Viktor’s hand. He went to his campfire and mixed it with herbs and boiled water a moment later, cooking up a stew.
With one final swirl, he began munching his meal down.
And the air caught in Jay’s throat, the anticipation killing him.
A hand tapped his shoulder. He nearly lunged from his spot in reflex.
“It will take some time to take effect, Jay,” Sayid explained. “We have been over this a dozen times.”
“I know,” he said, still feeling antsy. “I’m just tired.”
“You and me both, my friend. But the war is already over now, even if the battle is still to come.”
Jay nodded. Sayid was right. They’d spent the entire week putting this scheme together, and now, all he could do was sit and wait. Viktor continued to buzz around his camp, basking in the early morning sun with his hands behind his head.
…What an agonizing calm before a storm.
Suddenly, Viktor coughed. It did not seem to bother him much from their vantage, so he merely shifted his position. But then he coughed again and again. It was not long before he drank some water, but that did little to stop him, now wandering about as he fought his coughing spree.
And somewhere along the way, he noticed the blood mixed with his spit.
Misha watched his master as Viktor flipped through the Guide, straightening up at the sight of his Condition. He launched for his containers, digging through each. His movements became more erratic as he sought out medicine.
But there was none to be had. Only the radio that Naomi left behind.
When Viktor picked it up, Jay knew it was time to end this game.
He cleared his throat and held his own radio close. “Hello, Viktor.”
His enemy stiffened, but did not speak.
“What’s wrong, Viktor?” Jay mocked. “No clever retort? No lesson to give?” He smiled. “Or is there something stuck in your throat?”
“What did you do?” Viktor asked, his tone gruff as he held back another coughing fit.
“All you need to know is that it wasn’t just me, but everyone you’ve harmed.”
Again, Viktor began to retch, the pain now apparent as he clung to a canister for support. But his grip tightened, his arms quaked, and soon, he dug through them again with increasing veracity.
“That won’t help you,” Jay explained. “We removed all your meds before administering the poison.”
Viktor’s head whipped in circles as he stared through the jungle, but to no avail. By now, everyone was well over a kilometer away, watching him from the safety of the underbrush if they could afford to at all.
“You’re probably wondering how, huh?” Jay continued. “Let me tell you a short little story, Viktor. I was experimenting with Alchemy a few weeks back, chugging random recipes because it shortened the research time. When I reached the end, I was so tired of drinking failures that I got impatient. I didn’t clean the jar properly before swallowing what I’d struggled to make, and I got poisoned as a result.
“Annwyn is weird like that. Everything works off a binary. Conditions, Afflictions, Wounds. You either get them or you don’t. I got poisoned from a single berry on my first day here, and the same thing happened when I drank from that tainted jar. It was a stupid mistake on my end, but I’d at least learned how the littlest things can come back to bite you if you’re not careful.”
Viktor paused again, now focused only on the radio.
Jay smiled. “And after our last bout, that story came straight to mind, Viktor. You’ve dedicated your second chance to oppressing those weaker than you, believing that all you need is brute strength to keep everyone else in line. But it doesn’t matter how powerful you become here. You’re still subjected to the same Rules as us.
“I had Trish slip some poisoned meat into her delivery. Because Annwyn works on this binary, when you upscaled it by mixing that tainted meat with the rest of your supply, everything became poisoned with it, from that pile of raw meat which you squeezed into tiny blocks, to the stew you cooked up after. Now, there’s nothing you can do unless the poison is cleared.
“How’s that feel, anyway? It’s called ‘Strangler’s Poison,’ and from the way Sayid describes it, it’ll only get worse from here.”
Viktor bent over, this time vomiting a mouthful of blood. He disappeared into his shack a moment later, coming back out with his machine gun and pistol. Misha lurched to its feet as well, matching his rage with a growl.
“That won’t help you either, Viktor,” Jay went on. “Your meds are in our hands, and you won’t find anymore, no matter how many cairns you search.”
Jay chunked. “Yeah, I figured that one out too. At first I’d assumed that you were so aggressive with cairns to monopolize weapons, but now that I can ascertain your vitality level, it makes more sense that you’ve needed those modern first aid and antiseptic kits to live. They’re the only resources on this island that can undo any damage you sustain that your passive regeneration couldn’t handle alone.” He shifted in place. “Suffice to say, the E-Rank group has pilfered every cairn available these past few days, going at night so you would not notice, and only taking the meds from the cache while keeping the Guardian in place.”
Viktor glanced over to his pile of food, staring deep.
Jay yawned. “Before you think of trying to artificially lower your vitality enough for an antidote you can craft to take effect, just remember that this takes time, Viktor. Your body has digested all that high-quality meat, so you’ll have to slowly purge it from your system by eating trash. You won’t be able to get it down to low-Primal, not for more than a full day. That means you’re trapped somewhere higher, which still needs high level meds to function. Trust me, I spent weeks doing this shit after the leviathan. I know exactly how it works.
“Ultimately, the only way you’d be able to save yourself now is to do the exact same thing as everyone else has done. Collect the herbs yourself, craft the right benches, sit at the research bench for as long as it takes.” He sighed. “Maybe you’ll make it in time, or maybe you won’t. You tell me.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Only then did Viktor stop. He peered around the jungle with fresh eyes, a palm over his mouth to keep the coughing fits at bay.
“What do you want?” he wheezed through the radio.
Jay looked over his shoulder for confirmation. Sayid nodded.
“Your weapons and armor,” Jay said. “Hand over that machine gun, all your knives, that flintlock pistol you keep in camp, and the modern handgun you stole from me. The same goes for every armor set you own. Place all of them in a location that we will tell you later, get onto the skiff you came in on with Misha, and go a kilometer offshore. We will have Sayid sprint out to you and deliver the antidote when the time is right.”
Even from this distance, Jay could see his face turn bright red.
“Do you think I am idiot!?” Viktor scowled. “You will gun me down the moment I leave the shore.”
It was true. Viktor was too dangerous to leave alive, and they’d only agreed to this plan after coming to that shared conclusion.
They couldn’t risk giving this bastard an inch.
“I don’t think you have a choice,” Jay countered. “Either you do exactly what we tell you, or you’ll die. Both of you.”
Misha shivered in front as Viktor stared at his coveted pet, dumbfounded. That was the final incentive. Misha might have been able to destroy everything in its path on this island, but it was still only E-Rank. The moment Viktor died, Naomi’s group would simply kill his pet monster too.
And Viktor knew it. In this moment, he understood just how dire his situation was. It didn’t matter what he wanted anymore, or how much he wished for circumstances to be different. He was entirely at Jay’s mercy.
Just as Viktor had done to them, so too were they repaying his hostility in kind.
But he didn’t fall to his knees and beg for mercy. His shoulders tightened, and though Jay couldn’t be certain from this far away, it almost seemed as if he started smiling.
“I will do what you ask,” Viktor conceded, his voice now firm. “Give me the location.”
Sayid took the radio from there, coordinating Viktor’s surrender. After exchanging directions, Viktor nodded along, went into his shack one last time, and brought out a backpack and satchel. His weapons poked out of the backpack, but Jay couldn’t help but notice the satchel.
What’s that for? Jay squinted tight, but it was impossible to make out what he kept inside. At best, he could only see small bulges, like the thing was stuffed with marbles…
The other Expats filed into their spot as they planned the next steps.
“How much time we got?” Trish asked.
“Sayid said it’d take at least twelve hours to incapacitate him,” Naomi explained, “but he could be weak enough for us to finish off several hours before.”
“Still leaves a lot of mileage for him to get revenge. Don’t forget that wolves are at their most dangerous when cornered…”
They kept going. Talking about how they’d evacuated this half of the island with the help of Ben and Desmond, and how everyone else currently would hide underground while they waited for this to play out, and how it didn’t matter which direction Viktor tried to go, they had everywhere under watch. There wasn’t a single place on this island where he could hide from them for long.
“You alright, Jay?” Naomi asked after some time.
He wasn’t. Jay stroked his chin, trying to see what else he’d been missing. He considered every single one of Viktor’s actions until now and how they’d all come together.
“What do you think is in that satchel?” Jay asked.
“Huh?”
“Just now, when Sayid ordered him out of camp, he took a backpack for his weapons, but he also carried a satchel too. What do you think he put inside?”
Naomi shrugged. “I don’t know, a grenade?”
“He has spots on his toolbelt for grenades.”
“Ammo then?”
“Why not just put it in his backpack?”
Naomi scoffed. “Don’t you think this is a little much, Jay?”
Maybe. But another seed of doubt had wormed its way into his mind. Viktor had collected basically everything from his opponents, but he didn’t do so flippantly. The food maintained his vitality advantage and the weapons kept others from threatening him. He never really bothered with much else though. Metals, wood, leather, and bones were almost always left behind, no doubt because they required crafting to be used into something else, which he did not do.
But there was one thing he made sure to take whenever he had the chance, and that was what came to mind now.
…What did he do with all the monster cores?
Naomi’s radio flared to life, coming from their private channel.
“Our friend’s taking a detour,” Ben said on the other end. “Looks like he’s wandering into a cairn.”
“Which one?” Naomi asked.
“The one shaped like a general store.”
“We’re good then. I cleared that place out yesterday. No meds left.”
“Doesn’t it have a Seam?” Ben asked.
“Yeah, there are a few still floating about, but they’re all tiny.”
“Maybe he’s going for the Nightrealm,” Jay considered. “It’s the only place we don’t have eyes."
Naomi chuckled. “Then he’s made our lives easier. Good fucking luck trying to go through there.” She pressed the radio again. “Ben, any way for you to see if he’s trying to escape through the Seams?”
“I’d have to go through Misha first,” he said. “He’s keeping watch out front. But if I find an opening and get confirmation, I’ll just seal the bastard on the other side.”
Naomi humphed. “Good thinking, though I doubt he’s that stupid.”
No, he’s not. More than that, Viktor’s ego would not allow him to do something so pointless. Fleeing to the Nightrealm was tantamount to a cowardly suicide. There’d be no beauty in that. No elegance. And Viktor Kuznetsov was a showman who bathed in glorious chaos above all else.
So what could he possibly be up to down there? What kind of trump card would he attempt to play?
Jay’s eyes widened as the revelation came together. He can’t seriously be thinking of…
Jay yanked the radio from Naomi’s hands. “Ben! You need to get out of there. Now!”
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“He’s not trying to escape or fall for our trap!” He grit his teeth. “He wants to go out with a bang.”
Naomi stared at him sideways. “From inside a magic dungeon? What could he possibly be able to do from there?”
Gotta be careful with Seams too, Desmond once explained to Jay as he cleared some out. The more monster and Expat cores pass through, the bigger they get. Next thing you know…
“Ummm, guys!” Ben’s garbled voice rang through. “Something’s happening down here! Something bad!”
“What do you think he had inside that satchel, Naomi?” Jay asked. “Why do you think a man who never crafted a single weapon wanted hundreds of cores of his own? How else might they be weaponized?”
Her jaw dropped a moment later, now seeing the same truth.
Then they all watched the valley, right where the cairn would be located. But the pillar of magical essence had swirled into a blackened tornado, shooting unnaturally high into the sky. The clouds darkened where its corrupted essence touched, and the island became shrouded beneath, its land twisting gray as the cairn’s fell aura spread further out. The bubble continued to grow wider and wider…
And wider…
And wider…
“Just how big can one of these Seam things get?” Trish asked, recoiling a few steps as it spread closer to their hiding spot.
Naomi merely watched back, her eyes refusing to blink.
“I don’t have the slightest fucking clue.”
Name: Jay Reis (Copper Age)
Vitality – 99/99
Hunger – 64/72
Thirst – 23/24
Fatigue – 21/24 (Poorly Rested+2)
Sanity – 96/110
Main Crafts: Alchemy 2, Armor Crafting 2, Base Building 3, Cooking 2, Jewelry 2, Medicine 2, Tailoring 2, Tool Crafting 3, Tinkering 1, Vehicles 1, Weapon Crafting 2.
Weapon Crafts: Axes 5, Bows 9, Clubs 5, Daggers 5, Spears 5, Swords 11.
Armor Crafts: Heavy Armor 5, Light Armor 5, Medium Armor 8, Shields 6.
Sub-Crafts: Curved Swords 5.
Character Skills:
[Forbidden Knowledge]
Armor Skills:
Heavy Armor: [Push], [Stampede]
Medium Armor: [Recover], [Leap], [Waterform], [Quickstep]
Light Armor: [Dash], [Feather Fall]
Shield: [Brace], [Track], [Break]
Weapon Skills:
Axes: [Chop], [Whirlwind]
Bows: [Sharpshooter], [Longshot], [Scattershot Arrow]
Clubs: [Bash], [Paralyze]
Daggers: [Slice], [Flourish]
Spears: [Thrust], [Sweep]
Swords: [Power Attack], [Slash], [Rend], [Shirk], [Violent Storm]
Armor:
[Copperplated Hat+3] (Nightmarish+5), (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+1)
[Copperplated Coat+2] (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+2)
[Copperplated Leggings+3] (Nightmarish+6), (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+2), (Reinforced+1)
[Copperplated Shoes+2] (Nightmarish+3), (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+1), (Reinforced)
[Copperplated Gloves+1] (Nightmarish+2), (Buttressed+2), (Hardened+1), (Reinforced)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Beryl] (Frigus)
[Silver Ring]: Socketed with [Chipped Beryl] (Frigus)
Weapons:
[Copper Scimitar+6] (Nightmarish+8), (Sharpened+4), (Hardened+4), (Reinforced+2), (Stable+2)
[Treated Bow+1] (Hardened+1): Socketed with [Chipped Beryl] (Frigus)
[Basic Leather Quiver]: Contains 17 [Silver-tipped Arrows] (Elemental+2), (Stability+3) and 3 [Scattershot Arrows] (Elemental+2), (Stability+4)
Tools:
[Copper Knife+3]
[Copper Axe+3]
[Copper Hammer+3]
[Copper Pickaxe+3]
[Copper Shovel+3]
[Basic Grappling Hook]
Boons:
[Minor (Speed)] (x3), [Minor (Sanity)]