Chapter 126 – Overconfident

Jack watched as Nutt mixed together one concoction after another with a sort of haphazard recklessness that made him question the little goblin’s credentials. At no point did it seem like he knew what he was doing. When Jack had asked him if smoke bombs were a possibility Nutt had willingly agreed, only to insist Jack transfer him over about a million AP so he could buy reagents from the market. Vendors liked to come outside the city gates where people were camped and extort the ever living hell out of everyone, making everything exceptionally expensive.

At no point during the crushing, mixing, and stirring of reagents had Nutt used the same recipe twice. He was always adding, tweaking, or just flat out using different ingredients all together. To make it all worse there wasn’t a measuring device to be seen. Sometimes it was a random pinch of leaves, or a handful of yellowed teeth he would crush up with mortar and pestle. Every time he corked a connection into one of the round potion vials he seemed just as surprised it didn’t explode as Jack did.

“What kind of mana core do you have exactly?” The only thing Nutt had consistently done in his brewing was add some of his mana into the mix. He would hold his palm over the small cauldron and a green sweat like energy would drip out of him.

“Acid.” Nutt said, all focus still trained on his potions.

“Huh. What kind of abilities ya got?”

“Rude question.” He peered up at Jack with an offended glare.

“Come on. We’re teammates now. I’ve gotta know what I’m working with here.”

“You haven’t even shown me your mana yet!” Nutt protested. “I haven’t seen you use one singular ability. Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”

Jack looked away, opting not to answer. He wasn’t sure how to broach the whole ‘I don’t have a mana core’ conversation. It didn’t seem like information he should be sharing willy nilly. He was also positive Nutt would up and leave once he found out about Jack’s handicap, and he still needed the little guy. At least for now.

“Are you sure these are all smoke bombs?” Jack picked up one of the ‘finished products’ and inspected it.

Unstable Potion of Clouded Vision

Type: Potion

Tier: Common

Obscures vision with a cloudy haze.

*****

Product of Nutt

“…It will produce smoke.” Was all Nutt offered, eyes going wide as he saw Jack holding the bulbous vial.

“And why is it called a potion? I want to throw this, not drink it.”

“Some potions are made for throwing, some made for drinking, if it has the toxicity tag then you can drink it. Probably.”

Jack carefully set the potion down next to the others and did a quick scan of the others. Unstable Potion of Expanding Fog. Unstable Potion of Ceaseless Smoke. Unstable Potion of Acid Vapor. Unstable Potion of Prankster’s Plume. Not a single one matched in size or color.

Jack narrowed his eyes at the one commonality the potions shared. Unstable.

“Am I going to be able to breathe in any of this?”

A gas mask hit him in the chest a moment later. Jack picked it up and looked at it. It was goblin sized. Big enough to cover about half his mouth and that was it. Wiggleworm jumped off his arm and devoured it instantly.

“I only had one of those…” Nutt said, staring at the feeding frenzy. “Maybe hold your breath when they go off.”

Jack grimaced, standing up and walking out of the tent. If he watched the goblin mix potions any longer, he was going to psyche himself out.

He stepped out into the open and traded glares with just about every other person in the makeshift camp that had been set up. Jack and Nutt had spent the past several days in preparation, learning what they could and picking an appropriate target.

As it turns out, the west gate was a bit different from the three other entry points into the city. This one was overly crowded with elves. Summer Elves to be more specific. They all had dark tans and hair so blonde it was practically white. They wore white clothing draped over their bodies in a toga like fashion and were adorned with golden bands, rings, and necklaces. They had a casual nature about them that Jack found out was due to having a powerful backer. They all served a young scion who was making her Tower climbing debut. She was rumored to be exceptionally powerful.

She had set out six months ago with a small band of elites to earn enough beast hearts for her retinue that ran more than a hundred deep. They remained camped out at the West gate patiently waiting for her return. Jack had learned that the band of Tortuga’s running control of the first sector of the city had been in charge for close to a year now. When he inquired about why no one had killed them off yet the answer was always the same. Turtles are very good at defense.

Jack did eventually wait in line to see what the gate security was like. Fighting his way in had also seemed like a good prospect. When he reached the gate there was no one there to greet him. Just a closed door. When he pressed his hand against it a system message appeared allowing him to interface with someone on the other side of the closed gate who vehemently demanded beast hearts. So, fighting his way in wasn’t really an option because, well, there was no one to fight.

Admittedly, this summer elf scion wasn’t the smart target to go after. If Hannah was here, she would have them hunting down a small group of weaklings, or just going out and getting their own beast heart. Stealing from the scion and her hundreds of followers camped outside the gate wasn’t the best idea he had ever had, but Jack was impatient. It was also important to him to find out his limits. The orcs hadn’t been a satisfying enough test, and he needed to understand just what it was he was up against in the Tower. Kicking the biggest hornets’ nest he could find seemed as good a way as any.

That left him with Argyle, the undead dwarf, Arbiter and peacekeeper of Broken Moon City. The dwarf turned out to be quite the stalker. Every time Jack turned around he spotted the man casually creeping on him, following him through the camp with such nonchalance it circled back around to suspicion.

Jack had asked around about the arbiters as well. Every single person had a story to tell about their ruthless efficiency. About how dangerous they were, and you should avoid them at all costs. No one, however, had actually witnessed it. It was all rumors and speculation. To Jack that meant it was all a bunch of made-up bullshit. The more ridiculous stories he heard about the arbiters the more confident he became that they weren’t actually what everyone made them out to be.

As Jack finished his walk through the camp, he noticed a group of the summer elves gathering on one of the higher sand dunes just outside the encampment.

“The daughter of the summer sun has returned! Finally, we can move forward in this moonlit nightmare,” He announced, drawing a cheer from the crowd of elves.

Most of the camp dropped whatever they were doing and scrambled up the sand dune. Jack joined them. On the horizon was a giant orb of yellow fire that hung in the air. Just below was a band of fifty or so warriors marching in step towards them. The elves on the dune had abandoned their gaudy jewelry and togas, pulling out armor and weapons from void sacks of their own as they quickly got changed into matching armor sets of white.

Gone were the snobby elves that looked as if they had been plucked off a beach somewhere in the Hamptons. In their place were well trained soldiers who fell into a practiced formation with warriors at the front and ranged at the back, all marching out to greet their scion.

“Get ready,” one of the onlooking orcs said to his group, drawing Jack’s attention. He glanced back at everyone left in the camp. Parties were huddled up in frantic discussion and Jack quickly realized he wasn’t the only one with a plan to attack. Despite everyone warning him to the contrary, they all seemed to be doing the exact same thing Jack was going to do. A fight was about to break out.

“Happens every time. No one ever listens. Everyone always thinks they are the strongest.” Jack glanced down to see the dwarf standing next to him, hands resting on the head of his hammer. He grimaced. Twice now the dwarf had snuck up on him without him realizing it.

“Not going to do anything to stop it?”

“Why do you think I’m here?” Argyle gave Jack a toothy smile beneath his bushy beard and hefted his hammer up over his head.

Shit.

Jack launched off the ground and sprinted down the dune. As Argyle’s hammer hit the ground a shockwave went out, knocking the surrounding group to their feet. Hundreds of boney arms shot out of the ground in the area of the shockwave and latched on to anyone within reach. Panicked screams rang out as the arms began to drag them into the depths of the sand.

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“The summer elves shall be left alone,” Argyle said, hefting his hammer back onto his shoulder. “If you struggle against my hands, they will drag you to a sandy tomb. Relax. Let them freely pass, and you shall survive to climb another day.”

It took several people being dragged helplessly into the sand before they quit struggling. Jack had managed to evade Argyles’ ability and was sprinting toward the tent Nutt was in.

“It’s go time. Is everything ready?” Jack asked.

“Yep. This one is yours.” He said, handing Jack a much larger potion vial with a milky gray substance swirling around inside.

Unstable Potion of Smoke

Type: Potion

Tier: Common

Creates a large plume of smoke.

*****

Product of Nutt

“Just smash it on the ground.”

“What about the rest?” Jack asked, eyeing Nutt as he stuffed the other half dozen smoke bombs into his void sack.

“Leave them to me. They need to be thrown in a special order.”

“Why?” Jack squinted at the goblin.

“Just trust me,” Nutt said with a mischievous smile.

Jack didn’t trust the little goblin even a little bit, but before he could further inquire several screams rang out.

“What was that?” Nutt squeaked.

“The arbiter.” Jack grimaced. He turned and left the tent with Nutt chasing after him. Everyone in the camp had charged the arbiter and he responded by slamming his hammer into the ground once more. This time a dozen stone coffins erupted from the ground, knocking several adventures into the sky. The coffins swung open, and several oversized skeletons jumped out, grabbing whatever adventures they could and pulling them back into the coffins, slamming shut and disappearing back into the ground. Argyle seemed on the defensive but still very much in control of the chaos.

Jack watched as the battle played out. The arbiter was the last piece of the puzzle he had yet to figure out. His original plan was to draw out a three-way battle between the scion, the arbiter, and himself. Argyle claimed he was here to keep the peace and stop everyone from killing each other. But it seemed like he was going to just kill everyone anyway. So why bother stopping a fight in the first place? It didn’t make sense. However, if he considered that the Arbiter was just flat out lying and was actually here to protect the scion then things started to come together. She was supposed to have powerful backing after all. Jack didn’t find it completely unreasonable that someone inside the city could pay off the arbiter to protect the summer elves. It made things infinitely more difficult of course as his plans for a three-way battle were flushed down the drain, but it was better then being taken by surprise if the two of them suddenly teamed up.

Jack and Nutt slinked past the fight to the front of the gate where the approaching summer elves were marching towards.

“All right, get in position I guess?” Jack still wasn’t sure what Nutt was going to do. He honestly wasn’t sure what the goblin could do. He just hoped it wouldn’t interfere too much as he watched Nutt scamper off to hide behind a nearby sand dune.

“Alright. You’ve had enough rest. Time to work.” Jack glanced down at Wiggleworm still stuck as a tattoo on his arm. She slid back and forth on his arm and Jack took it as an acknowledgement.

Jack looked onward as the battalion of soldiers came to a slow in front of him. When they stopped they split down the middle, and a small elven woman sauntered forward. Her skin was dark tan like her companions, but her hair was pitch black in contrast to the white-blonde hair every other summer elf had. She had not changed into any armor, instead wearing a simple white dress that flowed freely as she walked. In her hand she held firmly onto a silver handle. From the top of the handle a chain flowed upwards. Jack traced the chain up to the giant sun like orb of fire that floated above the battalion. She held onto it as if it was a balloon. With a twitch of her wrist the giant orb immediately shrank to the size of a grapefruit, coming back down until it dangled limply towards the ground, a flail of burning hot energy. She gave it several lazy spins as she walked towards Jack.

“Let me guess,” she said, curious smile on her face, “hand over all the beast hearts I’ve collected, and you’ll let me live?”

“I mean, honestly? I was kinda hoping for a fight,” Jack shrugged. Her smile widened in response.

“That fight not good enough for you? Had to come over here and bother me?” She glanced over at the small army of adventurers getting decimated by the arbiter.

“Actually, if you could call your babysitter over here it would make things easier for me. Don’t need him launching any surprise attacks in the middle of our fight.”

“Excuse me?” her face went sour. “Babysitter?”

“Sure. He isn’t defending me from an entire camp of adventurers.”

She seemed so offended by the accusations that Jack started to second guess himself. A stone coffin erupted out of the ground as though summoned by their very conversation. The coffin door slammed to the ground and Argyle stepped out, taking a knee before the scion. Jack glanced back over to where the adventurers had been battling him seconds ago. They were now facing off against an army of skeletons.

“Lady Elera, daughter of the Summer Sun,” the dwarf started “I welcome you to the Broken Moon. The Lord of the Twilight has asked that I see you safely inside, please, allow me to deal with this adventurer.”

“That ancient bag of dust is responsible for this?” Her face was bent in rage as she stared down at the now startled dwarf. “Let me guess, you’re to escort me all the way to his keep where he can lock me away until I agree to a marriage?” She was swinging her flail much faster now.

“No, no, not at all m'lady. He simply requested that I see you safely inside the city walls. That is all.”

“Well you can fuck right off. I don’t want any help from that bastard.”

“Beg my forgiveness, but I take my orders from the Twilight lord, not you. Should harm befall you it will be my head.” The dwarf bowed deeper this time.

Elera cocked an eyebrow at the dwarf, then glanced back at Jack. Her smile returned once more.

“I guess I’ll be killing two people today.”

“What?” Argyle stood up, his hammer at the ready as he stared back at her in shock. Wiggleworm chose that moment to turn back into a shroud, draping over Jack’s shoulders and covering his face. Jack’s long black daggers appeared in either of his hands.

“Ooooh. Creepy,” Elera smiled as she inspected Jack. Argyle looked back and forth between Jack and Elera, an unsure look on his face on who he was about to fight.

Jack didn’t waste any more time. Both his targets were in position and a lot hinged on him getting the first attack off.

He took a deep breath in and launched forward in an explosive burst of speed. He delivered three swift cuts to Elera’s arms. He felt a shiver run down his spine as he cut her. She didn’t move. Didn’t respond. Didn’t try to defend herself in the slightest. Jack would have thought this meant he was too fast to keep up with.

But her eyes had followed him.

As he pivoted off his foot to launch at Argyle he felt her gaze on his back, taking in his every movement. He put it out of his mind as he delivered several more cuts to the defenseless dwarf.

In seconds he reappeared back in front of them both. Bright red blood burst forth from the cuts on her arms and stained her dress. Black blood oozed out of the cuts Argyle received.

“That was fast” Elera exclaimed, seemingly unbothered by the blood gushing from her arms. Several of her soldiers stepped forward to attend to her but she waved them off, an amused smile on her face as she stared at Jack.

Pleaseworkpleaseworkpleasework, Jack repeated over and over in his head while taking several deep breaths through his nose.

He was rewarded with the scent of iron and rot filling his nostrils.

[Blood Scent Activated]

He watched as Elera’s cuts quickly healed back up on their own and his heart started to beat faster in panic. But it didn’t seem to matter. He had her scent now. It felt as though a force was pulling him to her.

As for Argyle, that had been a bit of a gamble. He wasn’t entirely sure the undead could bleed. Apparently that black ichor oozing out of his body counted as blood. The only real downside was there was now a constant rotting smell in his nose.

Now for the second part, Jack thought.

Admittedly, even though he wanted to fight them both, he did have some misgivings about it all. At best, he would be pitched against two powerful elites and hopefully manage to kill them both. At worst, he would be pitched against two powerful elites and hundreds of other adventurers. Even Jack knew those odds weren’t great. So he was going to use every cheap trick in the book to ensure he could win. He figured it was fair seeing as how he didn’t have a core and couldn’t use mana.

He grinned at both of them and pulled out the unstable potion of smoke. Elera smiled back at him, eyebrow cocked at the potion. Jack slammed in on the ground and the world around them was drowned out in smoke.

Nutt came through with the smoke bomb. Jack couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face through the smoke. It was perfect.

He heard several panicked cries from the soldiers and focused in on his blood scent. It was still working perfectly. He could feel both Elera and Argyle. Hell, he could see them, and judging from how they were stumbling through the smoke, they couldn’t see much of anything.

He launched back out at Elera, even faster than before thanks to the blood scent connecting him to her. He felt his daggers make purchase in her flesh and was rewarded with a pained scream. Before he could finish her off, he felt Argyle at his back. The dwarf was halfway into his stone coffin before Jack had his pistol drawn, sending two large spears of ice through his chest, impaling him to the coffin. He turned back to finish off Elera, but she was gone. She had retreated back into the safety of her soldiers. That didn’t matter too much. Jack already knew where she was. He quickly loaded two more shots into his pistol and tucked it back into his waist.

He took one step forward - then the smoke disappeared as quickly as it came.

Jack was hit by a gust of burning hot winds so hard it sent him toppling head over heel. He dug his feet into the ground and looked upward. Elera had both her hands outstretched, a furious glint in her eye. She was bleeding profusely from several places, and her veins were turning black. The corrupting blood effect on his daggers had taken hold.

She stared down at her creeping black veins until they slowly retreated, disappearing as quickly as they had come. Well that’s a neat trick, Jack mused.

He glanced over at the sand dune where Nutt was hiding. He was frozen solid, potion in hand ready to throw, eyes wide that the smoke had just disappeared, likely his plans gone with the wind.

“I’ll admit,” Elera grimaced, stepping forward from the safety of her soldiers, “that was halfway clever. Let me guess. You have some sort of blood scent that lets you track me in any condition? Kept your mana hidden so I couldn’t track you through the smoke? I’ll admit, your ability to keep your mana shrouded is quite impressive, I can’t even sense your core,” she acknowledged with a thoughtful look.

“Something like that…” Jack narrowed his eyes at her. She had figured out things fast.

“Might have worked too. Unfortunately, you got a bad matchup.” Her smile returned, and she began to spin the flail still in her hand faster and faster until gale like winds were cascading off it with every cycle. “Now it’s my turn.”

She swung out with her flail, launching a tornado at Jack.

She has wind mana. Fuck.