Chapter 133 – Surrender

There weren’t a lot of great ways to deal with a hallucination. Jack took one look at Rodeo, pulled out a knife, and stabbed himself straight through his thigh. His eyes watered and he clenched his teeth in pain as he felt the blade cut into his bone. The hallucinations blurred in an instant, disappearing behind a cloud of pain. Jack left the knife in his thigh, letting the constant pain be his tether to reality. He let out several pained gasps as he leaned back against the wall and took in his surroundings.

It was an all out drugged up turtle war, with the monsters mauling each other in a hallucinogenic frenzy, mistaking ally for enemy, friend for foe. Jack spotted Nutt first. The goblin still had his gun, and the occasional shot rang out sending a spear of ice through the body of some unfortunate turtle, or a massive fireball would set a few of them on fire. The little goblin seemed to be having the time of his little life as he shot in every which direction with reckless abandon.

To make matters worse, the dome was collapsing with every dead turtle. None of the turtles had their shell, and Jack realized it must have been because their own personal shells that were used to form the giant defensive dome they hid inside. As the Tortuga killed each other off, their shells disappeared, and holes were appearing all throughout the dome. Zombies were trying to force themselves through the openings in droves and ghouls were raining down from the openings that appeared above.

Jack sighted in on a group of the Tortuga who seemed unaffected by the chaos and had actually formed their own small group of four, defending someone at their center. These turtles were all much larger, and their skin was a light gray, compared to the dark green of their companions. They each donned a large circular shell on their back that reminded him of the full moon that hung permanently in the sky above the city. The Tortuga wanted the heart of the moonlight beasts as a component for their race upgrade. He could only guess that this is what this upgrade looked like. Weird moon turtles.

The moon turtles all stood tall with spears. Behind them, one Tortuga towered over them all. He had the same graying skin and moon shaped shell that his guards did. In his hand was an enormous club that he held at the center. Atop the club was a clump of long hair, and Jack quickly realized that it wasn’t a club at all. It was a paintbrush. The Tortuga gave his oversized paintbrush several lazy spins and touched it to the ground. Technicolor paint poured from the tip like a river and began to flood the floors of the dome, branching out in all directions. As the paint made contact with the surrounding Tortuga battling it out against each other in their hallucinogenic frenzy, it crawled up their bodies and consumed them entirely. Soon, half a dozen of the turtles were covered head to toe in paint and no longer moving. Jack watched as the painted Tortuga troops were taken under control, and dispatched to problem areas within the dome, breaking up large fights or defending against intruding zombies.

The leader was gaining control of the situation rather quickly, deciding to just take direct control of his troops until the effects wore off. Jack stared at the leader, he seemed to be in deep concentration as he manipulated the rivers of paint that bled from his brush, enveloping one turtle after another and taking control of them.

Jack took a step forward and almost doubled over in pain. He stared down at the knife still jutting out of his thigh. He needed the pain to keep him focused. The technicolored world around him was still spinning, but he at least wasn’t having to deal with any Rodeo shaped hallucinations. The downside was he felt groggy and uneven, he had a knife in his leg, and moving quickly was going to be difficult unless he drank a health potion. While the health potion would heal the wound, it provided little help against things like poison or hallucinogenic acid that your asshole goblin created.

Jack ripped out the knife with a pained grimace and stared at the wound in his leg. His Vitality was only at eighteen, which meant left untreated something like this would take a few days to heal completely on its own, so he wouldn’t need to worry about it closing up. Normally, he would put the pain out of his mind, he had been taught to do that well enough. He needed it though now if he wanted to stay lucid. He took one careful step after another, slowly building up speed as he embraced the shockwaves of pain with each step he took. Wiggleworm fell into place around his shoulders shrouding him in darkness, and Jack moved back into the fray of combat as a slow moving executioner taking lumbering steps towards his target.

Through a stroke of luck, Jack was met with little resistance. The zombies and ghouls were beginning to make headway into the dome, and the Tortuga in charge had the majority of his soldiers he was controlling holding back the hordes. That meant Jack could walk right past them, putting him face to face with the vanguard. He watched as their shells slid off their back, reforming onto their arms like massive shields. With their opposite hand they painted glyphs onto the face of their shields. As the glyphs dried onto the shield, they took on different aspects with some erupting into flames, others ice, or stone. One even crackled with lightning. Then they all threw their shields at Jack.

He met the first one head on. It slammed into his daggers like a comet and broke through his guard. He spun around hard on his good leg as the second shield whizzed past his head. He jumped up and pushed off the air with his bad leg, wincing in pain as another shockwave was sent through his body. He dove down towards the first Tortuga who met his attack head on, thrusting out with his spear. Jack narrowly dodged it and lashed out with his daggers. The first turtle blocked the attack with his now unshielded arm, and Jack felt his stomach twist into a knot when he was unable to cut through the monster’s skin. It felt like he was sawing at stone. He tried to push off and reset, but another of the flying shields slammed into his back, knocking him to the ground. Jack gave a panicked roll as one more shield sunk into the the spot where his head had just been. He pushed up off the ground only to be met with another spear thrust that tore a chunk out of his side.

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As the Tortuga pulled back on his spear to skewer Jack, Wiggleworm turned back into a centipede and lunged at the turtle.

She was no bigger than a snake, but her speed was something to behold as she scrambled across the large Tortuga’s body, causing him to drop his spear in panic as he frantically tried to rip her off. Her fangs snapped with power but even she seemed unable to pierce his flesh with her pincers. That was fine though, her distraction was all Jack needed. In that small moment Jack stepped forward with his daggers and struck like lightning, dropping every ounce of strength he could muster into the attack. The Tortugas gray flesh gave way, falling like chunks of stone to Jack’s attack. It was still only a shallow wound, but enough that Jack could now sink his daggers into the beast and cause some serious damage. He was rewarded with a large spray of blood as he ripped his daggers free of the Tortuga.

You Have Slain Climber Pigmento of the Painted Shell

+0 AP

Jack couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the notification. Cheap bastards must be giving all their AP to the boss man.

He didn’t have much time to complain though, as another shield slammed into his back sending him back towards the ground. He rolled over in pain, surprised he wasn’t just sawed in half. The three remaining Tortuga’s bore down on him, an enraged look in their eyes. The pain of his injuries was starting to become overbearing, and he pushed it out of his mind, but when he did that he was forced to confront the spinning world all over again. Tortuga’s started sprouting heads and arms and tripling in size as the hallucinogenic effects still rampaged throughout his mind. Still, it allowed him to stand up and face his attackers head on.

“That’s right Jackie-boy, just like I taught ya. Do whatever it takes,” Rodeo whispered in his ear.

“Honestly,” Jack said, “I think I’d rather die than listen to you.”

Jack released the flood of pain he was holding back and fell to his knee, the turtles bearing down on him. As they approached, spears at the ready he tried to let all the tension bleed out of his body, but the pain was making that difficult. He was preparing for an explosive burst of speed. With his injuries so far, he wasn’t sure he would be able to pull it off, and even if he did he might black out on the other side.

The Tortuga hefted his spear to skewer Jack, but then stopped midway, his eyes went wide and he looked downward at his chest. Two ice spears ripped through the front of his body, and he fell to the ground dead, revealing a tiny goblin wearing a black centipede’s cloak and gripping a pistol that was nearly his size. Jack glanced back at the Tortuga he had just killed. Wiggleworm was no longer there. She must have gone to find Nutt and bring him here, Jack mused.

“The black centipede sends its regards!” The goblin cackled, mad with power.

The two Tortuga turned on Nutt in an instant and he squeaked in terror as they thrust their spears at him. That was a mistake. Jack struck the first turtle across the back three times over, ripping out chunks of his flesh and sinking his daggers into the exposed body. The Tortuga fell to his knees, throwing health potions glass and all into his mouth as the vicious wounds gushed black blood, but it was too late. The daggers had taken effect and corrupted blood was coursing through his veins, the wounds were mortal and resistant to healing. He was dead, he just didn’t know it yet.

Jack turned on the last Tortuga, hobbling toward the monster as he turned to defend against Jack. Nutt reloaded the gun and shot him in the kneecapt, sending the Tortuga to the ground. He held up his turtle shelled shield desperate to fend Jack off, but it did little to stay his execution. Jack was quick to end his life.

“You should heal that,” Nutt said as he inspected Jack's torn apart body.

“Why aren’t you losing your mind right now?” Jack squinted at the goblin.

“I made an antidote,” Nutt shrugged.

Jack stared at the oblivious goblin, his body still screaming in pain. The goblin saving his life was the only thing that stopped him from skinning him alive.

“Do you have any left?” Jack asked through gritted teeth.

“Only enough for one dose,” Nutt lamented.

Jack closed his eyes and tried to hold himself back from outright killing the little goblin.

“Give me back my gun.” He ripped the gun away from Nutt’s grip and held out his hand, “and the ammo.”

“Used it all.” Nutt shrugged again.

Jack ground his teeth together. He checked each of his void rings and his void sack, but he seemed fresh out as well.

Jack looked over at the unmoving Tortuga leader. He held his giant brush to the ground, both hands gripped tightly around it. He seemed to be in deep concentration as more and more rivers of paint poured out of his brush. Jack glanced around. He had taken over most of the remaining Tortuga’s and stopped them from killing each other off. He set them too defending against the zombies that were pushing into the dome. Where he wasn’t defending, he was rebuilding the holes in the dome with more of his paint.

Jack pulled out his daggers and limped toward the leader. He honestly wasn’t sure how this fight was going to play out. He knew the leader was strong enough to take over a sector, so that had to count for something.

The Tortuga leader looked up from his pained concentration, and stared Jack deep in the eyes.

“I surrender.”