Chapter 128 – New Enemies
“I’m… Training…” Jack lied. He didn’t necessarily care if anyone knew about his lack of mana situation, but he had just stabbed this woman less than ten minutes ago and now he was about to ask her for a favor. If she thought that he was yet to release his full potential, then she might decide a fight isn’t worth the hassle.
“Training?” Elera narrowed her eyes at Jack. “What kind of training has you suppressing your mana in such a fashion? Seriously. I don’t detect a hint of mana anywhere in your body. Are you some kind of freak savant at suppressing your mana? Just who is your master?”
Jack let out an inward sigh of relief. He had been told multiple times now that climbing the Tower without access to mana was an absurd endeavor, and judging by Elera’s reaction it wasn’t even on the list of possibilities that Jack might not have a mana core. In fact, she even seemed to think he was doing something impressive with his “ability” to suppress his mana.
“My master? You saw the cloak. Who do you think I work for.” Jack grinned. Nutt had originally told him that the Black Centipede was a fairytale. He hoped that wasn’t a widely held belief. Elera seemed like she actually was an important person judging by the small army that was flanking her, hopefully that meant she was in the know.
“The Black Centipede,” she tilted her head to the side, tasting the words as she said them.
“That’s right! We’re assassins!” Nutt squeaked, seeming to have recovered from his shock. Elera glanced down at the little goblin and raised an eyebrow.
“Cute.” She grabbed Nutt by the scruff and held him under her arm, scratching at his head like you might pet a chihuahua. Nutt bit her fingers.
“If you two weren’t so brazen,” she started, dropping Nutt and launching him back towards Jack with a gust of wind, “I might actually believe you. I suppose it would make sense for an assassin to be exceptionally skilled at suppressing their mana. What doesn’t make sense is why you would be attacking me.” Her eyes went hard, and hot dangerous winds picked back up, licking at Jack’s already scorched skin.
Shitshitshit, Jack thought. He was making this plan up as he went, and so far, he seemed to just be digging himself a deeper grave.
“Who hired you?” she demanded, holding out her hand and creating a small vortex of wind in her palm.
“Fair question. I don’t know? It’s sort of on a need to know basis, they just tell me who to go kill. But since I obviously failed, I say we let bygones be bygones,” Jack tried.
She leveled her hand at Jack and sent the vortex shooting out of her palm. It grew to the size of a small tornado and shot at him like a snake through grass. Jack grabbed Nutt and jumped out of the way. Heat licked at his back as he barely avoided the attack. He glanced back to see a section of the sand dune carved out and turned to glass.
“That’s right. I forgot you were fast. Very well, let us see how long you can survive against my solar winds.”
Jack’s daggers appeared in his hand only for his arms to be immediately hit by two crescent slashes of wind. He screamed in agony as the solar wind burned and cut his arms making him drop his daggers. She sent them flying in opposite directions before he could recover them. Jack tried to reorient himself but was buffeted from every direction with blasts of wind at unprecedented speed.
This had been why he changed plans so quickly. She had shrugged off his initial assault with ease. Even seemed bored if not slightly amused by the fact that he launched a surprise attack and stabbed her several times over. She was the real deal, and now he was getting a taste of just how strong she really was.
He whipped out his pistol and exploded forward in a burst of speed, choking back a pained cry as his burnt-up body protested against the sudden explosive movement. He appeared in front of her a moment later, pistol leveled directly in her face.
“I dare you.” She smiled at Jack, leaning forward and pressing her forehead against the barrel.
Jack pulled the trigger, but the gun never went off. He looked down at the gun. She jammed her fingers in between the hammers before they could make contact and ignite the spellshot inside the barrel. That’s actually pretty impressive, came an errant thought.
“Surprised?”
“Actually, I think I’m a little aroused.”
Elera smirked at him, and then glanced back at the gun, her grip going iron around the barrel.
“Is this an Andurian artifact? You’re just full of surprises aren’t you.”
“It is. And if you would let go so I can shoot you again I would appreciate it,” Jack grimaced, taking the gun in both hands and pulling.
“I think I’ll be keeping this,” she smiled.
“Shit.” Jack let go of the gun and launched backwards, but this time he wasn’t nearly fast enough. Burning hot winds erupted out of Elera and Jack felt his vision go white as he was burned alive in her solar winds. He tried to scream, but it was lost in the gale force typhoon she had unleashed. He felt himself slam into the ground several times over, body burned and charred, barely able to move.
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“Since you did save my soldiers from having to deal with the arbiter, I won’t finish you off. If you do somehow manage to survive,” he heard her voice ring out, “come and find me. I’m sure I could find use for an assassin such as yourself,” she laughed.
“I didn’t know they made goblins so adorable,” he heard her suddenly say. “You’re coming with me, cutie.”
Jack couldn’t see anything, only hear. He laid on the ground in agony, trying to quiet his screaming mind only to hear the sound of marching boots and a complaining Nutt.
“What? No! I’ll bite you again! Unhand me at once!” Nutt squeaked in anger.
Doesn’t even have the decency to finish me off, Jack grimaced through pained gasps, reaching to the void sack at his side. He had wanted to know how he stacked up against the elites. Plaything was apparently his current ranking.
Jack pulled out what he hoped was the Panacea Health Potion and put it to his lips, letting out a small moan as the liquid poured into his mouth. The sweet liquid was unlike anything he had ever tasted before. The pain in his body disappeared in an instant. His mind went clear, erasing all memories of the pain. He desperately gulped down the contents of the potion, each swallow seeping into his body and bringing him back to full form. His tired aching muscles felt as though he had been resting on a cloud and getting daily massages for the past month. He felt full. Complete. Returned to form. He felt so good in fact that he even glanced at his mana core, half expecting it to be there. Sadly, even that wasn’t something the potion seemed capable of repairing. Wiggleworm did seem to receive some of the benefits of the health potion which he found interesting She had returned to the full size tattoo on his arm, even going so far as to eat the glass potion vial once Jack had polished off the contents inside.
He pushed himself up off the ground with a reinvigorated body, mind, and soul.
“Daggers first,” he told himself, glancing in either direction. A small stroke of luck was his black daggers held sharp contrast against the white sands and he found them with relative ease. It still took him about thirty minutes though, and during that hour he had gotten angrier and angrier.
She took my gun, Jack complained to himself. AND MY GOBLIN.
He approached the wall to the city and glanced upwards. It just sort of disappeared into the black sky. This had been his initial plan. Just break into the city. He was warned against it by practically everyone. First, no one could even decide if the wall had an upper limit. Second, those who believed it did have an upper limit claimed it would be lined with arbiters. Third, illegal entry to the city would earn him a bounty of some sort.
Jack jumped off the ground and kicked off the wall launching himself higher still into the air. Then he used his Zephyr Bangle to kick off the air back towards the wall. He landed on the wall once more, resetting the bangle and jumping back into the air. It only took him fifteen minutes to reach the top, but he was In perfect condition and one of the fastest people around. He landed atop the smooth stone wall and peered back down. He couldn’t see the ground on either side. Only pitch black.
“So I guess the arbiter rumors aren’t true…” Jack said, inspecting his surroundings.
“You guess wrong.”
Jack fell into stance with his daggers at the ready. Three clouds of mist floated before him, materializing into tall slender elves with pale skin, gaunt eyes, and hollow sunken cheeks. They wore black plate armor with a white circular moon painted on the chest plating. They each had a sword with an extreme curve that gave Jack the impression of a crescent moon. He narrowed his eyes at one of the elves who ran his tongue across his teeth. Fucking vampires. Seriously? Jack complained.
“We would give you a chance to return below and enter the city the proper way, but it appears there already is a bounty for your head. Good. We’ve grown quite hungry and it’s been such a long time since we’ve had a proper meal.”
Jack glanced behind him to see three more of the creepy vampire elves appear.
“I didn’t bring any food with me…” Jack squinted at the vampires as they closed in around him.
“Ohh but you did my sweet.”
The vampire at his back lunged at him and Jack jumped off the top of the wall. The group let loose an ear-piercing scream as they gave pursuit. Jack kicked off the air much the same he did when climbing up the wall. Only this time it was to increase his speed as he shot downward towards the city. He was harassed the entire way down as vampires would appear next to him out of a misty cloud and slash out with clawed hands.
Between gravity and his own self propulsion, he was soon heading toward the ground like a rocket. The vampires had given up attacking and were now in desperate pursuit.
As the city finally came into view Jack couldn’t help but gasp. It was a sprawling metropolis of grandiosity and decay. The outskirts of the city hung heavy with neglect, but as he moved his gaze inward, the dying outskirts gave way to a brutalist architecture, and then spiraling gothic towers as he went deeper yet. At the city’s center lay a colossal castle seemingly crafted from the shadows of the overhanging moon.
Jack refocused on the outer limits he was currently hurtling towards. It could only be described as destitute and abandoned. Dilapidated buildings and a crumbling facade lined broken cobblestone streets. Torn banners of a once thriving city hung limp in the stale unmoving air of the city. A putrid green stream ran through the city streets, giving off a distinct haze that seemed to further stain the sector. He quickly sighted in on a group of summer elves all locked in combat and grinned.
They didn’t appear to have made it very far into the city. They were currently being attacked by what Jack thought might be zombies, a massive horde surrounding them. The soldiers had thrown up a shield wall with Elera at its center. She stood casually at the center observing the situation, Jack’s gun still in hand as Nutt tried to angrily pull it away from her. Jack hit the wall once more, bouncing off it and far out into the air as he repositioned above Elera.
He wished he had a camera so he could have taken a photo of Nutt’s face when he came crashing down on top of her like a comet. The only thing that had given him away was the screaming vampires hot on his heels. She had looked up just in time to see Jack slamming his boots into her face. He grabbed his gun, and then grabbed Nutt, hurtling him over the shield wall as the goblin let loose a panicked cry. Jack launched after him, just in time for the vampires to show up in the middle of the surrounding soldiers.
The summer elves quickly turned on the vampires, assuming it was another attack. Jack heard another furious scream as a tornado erupted, and he couldn’t help but grin. He found Nutt halfway inside a zombie’s mouth, struggling to not be eaten as he sprayed his acid mana all over the creature. The zombies were all the races he had seen thus far in the tower locked in various states of decay. They were slow moving but strong as they lunged out at him. He cut through the zombies with ease and rescued Nutt from becoming food.
“You saved me!” Nutt screamed, tears in his eyes. “She was going to turn me into her pet! Her PET!”
The furious tornado behind them only grew larger, and Jack watched as both friend and foe got sucked up into Elera’s rage. Jack picked a direction opposite of the chaos, and ran the fuck away.