Chapter 101 – Soul Oaths Two, Electric Boogaloo
Jack leaned against the rough stone wall of a small building that was a hidden Crowen outpost several days’ march from the forward siege base. Alongside him were the majority of the U.F.E. elites, Sam, Hannah, Gideon, and Sarah.
They all stood surrounding a large stone rectangle that served as a portal receptacle, awaiting the arrival of Maximillian.
After several days of back channeling with Maximilian, the U.F.E. had decided on a concrete plan - after swearing soul oaths, they would send a raiding party of their own into the capitol via a portal provided by Maximillian and Rodeo. The attack was three-pronged. Sam and Sarah and several of the U.F.E. elites were responsible for bringing down the barrier and opening the gates so the army proper could get inside the city.
Hannah was to escort Maximillian to the temple district where his cabal of healers would be awaiting. From there, they would rejoin the group responsible for opening up the gates and assist the army in taking over the capital. That left Jack and Gideon with the job of killing the king. Killing the king wasn’t entirely necessary. If they managed to get the army inside the city walls, then the U.F.E. were extremely likely to win the war. The only concern was the king might flee, and seeing as how he had the final key to the Dungeon of Xinnolath, they wanted to stop that.
Supposedly, he had secret portals of his own squirreled away inside the castle, and the prospect of chasing the king all over the countryside wasn’t something anyone wanted to do. They did have orders not to do anything too dangerous or reckless if killing the king proved too difficult, but Jack honestly wasn’t sure if anyone believed they would actually follow that last order.
As for why they didn’t bring the entire army with them, there were some concerns about funneling hundreds of soldiers through a single point of entry. If things went south, they wouldn’t have any real options, so instead they just decided to send a raiding party of the strongest the U.F.E. had to offer and steamroll their way through the city, hopefully catching them extremely off guard.
Despite his protests that he could handle killing the king himself, they had insisted that Gideon join him. The two of them would be teaming up with Rodeo. Jack was equal parts annoyed and excited at the prospect.
“Remember, don’t kill Rodeo the second he shows up.” Gideon whispered, practically reading Jack’s mind. “There are a lot of moving parts, and we don’t need you screwing up the plan before it even begins.”
Jack rolled his eyes and focused on his mana drops. He had every intention of Storm Stepping Rodeo out of existence the second the man walked through the portal.
“Jack,” Sarah said, fixing him with a stern look. “If you screw up the plan for vengeance and a bunch of people die, I’m holding you personally responsible,” she said, turning around and poking him in the chest. “Promise me you’ll behave?”
“Oof. Sorry. I already promised other people I would misbehave.” Jack winked at her. Sarah tried to hide a small smile as she turned back around.
Jack glanced over at Gideon, who watched the exchange and was now staring at Sarah with a look he couldn’t quite decipher. Sadness maybe?
That’s right. I’m winning asshole. Jack thought to himself with a satisfied smirk.
Gideon noticed Jack was staring at him and cocked an eyebrow. He opened his mouth to say something, but the portal sparked to life and all heads turned to face it, several soldiers drawing weapons.
“Remember your mental defense training, everyone.” Gideon said aloud to the group.
“There was mental defense training? Why wasn’t I invited?” Jack asked.
“You’re kidding right?” Hannah scoffed.
“What? I would at least like the opportunity to refuse.” Jack grinned, tapping at the handles of his daggers.
The stone portal frame filled with an ethereal blue swirling energy, and a moment later a man in a finely tailored white suit stepped out. Jack gripped his daggers and let his bloodlust flow through him. Rodeo would be through the gate any second now.
Maximillian stood there by himself for several seconds. Then the portal behind him disappeared.
“Where’s Rodeo?” Devin, the U.F.E. commander, snapped as the portal winked out of existence.
“How foolish do you think we are?” Maximillian grinned. “First, everyone will swear a soul oath to me, guaranteeing both mine and Rodeo’s safety. When that happens, I’ll open back up the portal and allow Rodeo to come through. Then you’ll swear a second oath to him. Understood?”
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Jack grit his teeth, already annoyed.
“Fine.” Devin growled. “I swear on my soul that neither I, nor the U.F.E. will bring any harm to you or Rodeo while on the first floor. In addition, I will provide you with two spots for the dungeon of Xinnolath.”
Maximillian nodded, a pleased smile on his face. He had already sworn soul oaths of his own that this wasn’t some sort of elaborate trap.
What proceeded next was a parade of soul oaths as lines formed and every member of the U.F.E. elite made similar oaths.
“I swear on my soul that neither I, nor the U.F.E. will bring any harm to you or Rodeo for the duration of the first floor.” Jack said. He hid his hand behind his back and crossed his fingers. To his surprise, an ethereal force pulled his fingers apart as he swore the oath.
Fucking Tower bullshit. He grimaced.
With everyone having swore their oath, Maximilian opened the portal back up. Despite the fact that everyone just swore an oath not to kill Rodeo, every soldier drew their weapons and leveled it at the portal.
Rodeo stepped through.
His dead gray eyes scanned the crowd, landing on Jack. A wolf life smile crawled onto Rodeo’s face as Jack met his gaze. He matched Rodeo’s smile with a lazy grin of his own.
“You first.” Rodeo said, taking slow treacherous steps towards Jack until they stood face to face.
“I swear on my soul that I will bring you no harm while on the first floor.”
“You disappoint me. I half expected you to attack me right here and now,” Rodeo smirked, turning and walking back towards the commander.
Jack focused on a drop of mana, watching as Rodeo walked away. He started to feed it into [Lightning Centipedes Bite].
Sarah grabbed his hand. He let go of the drop of mana and glanced over at her. She had a look of pleading in her eyes.
Jack let out a sigh as other soldiers lined up to swear their oath to Rodeo. This time around was significantly slower than the first. The reality that they had to swear an oath to Rodeo finally kicking in. Jack had no problem because he still had every intention of breaking the oath and killing the man, consequences or not.
Once everyone finished swearing their oaths, there was an awkward tension that filled the air. The people who had been harassing and killing them for months were now their supposed allies.
“Alright.” Devin said, taking charge of everyone. “Rodeo has informed me he has gathered up several of the Crowen soldiers on the other side of the portal. They believe they are about to launch an assault on us. Unfortunately for them, we’ll be the ones leading the surprise attack this time.”
Several soldiers cheered in response.
“Our first objective is to secure the barracks. This is the largest and best defended one in the city, seeing as it has all the staging portals in its basement, claiming this barracks will be a huge blow to the city. From there, everyone knows their mission. Gideon will head through the portal first and create a landing-“
Jack stepped through the portal before Devin could finish his speech.
True to his word, several dozen Crown soldiers were there to greet him, menacing dark feathered armor and beak like masks covering their faces.
“This isn’t the bathroom,” Jack said, scratching the back of his head. Every soldier in the room drew their weapons, but not fast enough. Jack fell deep into [Storm Stance], striking out at the heads of the two closest soldiers. He moved like a raging storm as he pushed his way into the middle of the group, working his way towards the back stairwell and lashing out like lightning at anything dumb enough to get close to him.
Jack emerged from the back of the group of soldiers, panting heavily and covered in blood. He launched himself at a retreating soldier, likely someone going to warn the rest of the barracks. He slammed his daggers into his back and wrenched them hard, killing the guard.
Every soldier had turned their backs to the portal. All eyes were on him, weapons leveled in his direction. Jack felt a lazy smile crawl onto his face as he pointed at the portal now behind them.
Golden flames erupted out of the blue portal, consuming everything. Gideon emerged, a giant scimitar in hand and cleaving through half a dozen Crowen soldiers with every swing. Rodeo emerged shortly after, his saw-like blade resting on his shoulder. When he appeared, everything got worse. Gideon’s flames became more menacing, the blood and gore amplified. Several Crowen soldiers began to scream in fear. Jack squinted, trying to see through the technique. Rodeo had the ability to make things seem worse than they actually were, some sort of illusionary aura that struck fear into the hearts of his enemies. It was working extremely well as the Crowen soldiers quickly dropped out of rank and tried to flee.
Nothing got past Jack as the rest of the U.F.E. emerged from the portal. Hannah shot arrow after flaming arrow, and Sam swung his sword hard, jumping around the battlefield from fight to fight, putting down soldiers with every swing of his sword. Sarah and Maximilian brought up the rear. Jack cringed as he watched Maximillian heal any injured soldiers. His mana poured like blood over everyone. Sarah, on the other hand, hit people with refreshing blasts of water, bringing them back to full.
“Good work, but we’re just getting started.” Devin said, three white ethereal swords hanging in the air above him.
There were several cheers, and soldiers charged past Jack up the stairs.
“Took ya long enough,” Jack grinned as Gideon walked towards him. The dragon smirked at him in response.
“How about I lead the charge this time?”
“And let you have all the fun? Hell no.” Jack said, turning to run up the stairs. He immediately tripped. Jack looked down at his feet to see golden flames wrapped around them like a rope. “Hey! That’s cheating!”
“See you outside.” Gideon said, walking past him up the stairs and out of sight.