Chapter 160 - Flight of the Dragons

[Sam]

Sam stepped out of the auction house, his heart hammering in head, the adrenaline rushing through his body so intensely he could barely stand straight.

Focus. Just like Kilgor taught you.

He opened his eyes as his breathing calmed down and took in the world around him. Fighting. Everyone was fighting in complete chaos. He glanced down at the small ring box in his hand.

I have to get the hell out of here before Gideon shows up.

There was a loud trumpeting sound, and Sam looked up from the box to see Kilgor stampeding towards him. Kilgor was an Elephantaur, the last of his kind, and Sam’s master. The only reason Sam had a chance of winning anything at all in there was because of Kilgor. The elephant was extremely frugal. He was also a former dragon slayer.

Dragons were all very greedy, in turn making Kilgor absurdly wealthy every time he took one down. Part of him wanted to stick around so he could see the look on Gideon’s face, but he didn’t have time, nor was he sure he would survive such a face off.

Kilgor’s trumpet bleated once more, and Sam knew exactly what his master was telling him to do.

Run.

Sam cast [Haste] on himself and sprinted through the fights, the world turning into a blur as he made his way towards the waypoint, his mind working in overdrive. He couldn’t stop thinking about the ring. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but he felt like he had a very solid idea.

A time loop.

He grinned to himself. If he had dreamed a million times about what he would do if he ever got isekaid, then he had dreamed a million more times about what he would do if he ever found himself in a time loop.

The only problem was, he had to escape a dragon first.

Fighting Gideon was strictly out of the question. He had thought he knew how powerful the man was. Thought he had some idea. He had been so very wrong. If Gideon got his hands on this ring… Honestly, he didn’t know what that future looked like, but he knew it wouldn’t be good.

Sam heard titanic roaring behind him that turned the pitch-black sky orange. Kilgor responded in kind with loud trumpeting of his own. Sam idly wondered how his master was faring. It had been a long time since he had hunted a dragon. He wanted to watch and see his master in all his glory, but he had to escape. Sam continued running towards the waypoint. It would take him fifteen minutes if he cast [Haste] on himself every five minutes, and he didn’t get into any fights.

A loud crack cut through the sky, and Sam couldn’t help but stop and turn around. The noise was too deep. Too primal. He turned around, worried that Gideon had just somehow killed Kilgor.

His mouth dropped open in shock as the moon erupted, sending hellfire and meteors raining down on the city.

Sam was paralyzed, unable to pull his eyes away. That was the moment Gideon spotted him.

Idiot, Sam chastised himself, casting [Haste] once more and sprinting down the street as fast as he could. It didn’t take long before his path was cut off.

Not because Gideon had caught up to him just yet. He was close, but Kilgor was in hot pursuit, launching spear after spear after the ever-evasive dragon.

No. It was a giant piece of the moon landing in front of him and destroying the road entirely.

Sam could barely see through the smoke, debris, and fire that filled the air, but he pushed forward, scrambling atop rubble as he continued towards the waypoint. That was only the beginning, though, as bits and pieces of the moon continued to rain down, shaking the planet with its explosive impact. Sam felt like he was in London, and the bombs were falling.

He made it across the smoke and debris, but golden flames were hot on his tale. Sam sprinted desperately, only a mile away from the waypoint at most. He felt like he could practically see it at this point.

Golden flames surged to either side of him, creating a towering wall that cut off his path. Sam stopped and turned in frustration. Gideon was standing there. He didn’t look furious, just annoyed.

“Sammy. We can do this the easy way or the slightly less easy way. Your choice.” Gideon said, walking towards him. Sam wasn’t looking at him, though. He traced his blue timeline and teleported through it, appearing two miles farther back.

Gideon was standing there right next to him.

“I’m much faster here. You know this, Sammy,” Gideon chastised.

Sam jumped once more, reappearing back at the auction house. The fighting was raging on, despite the fact that hellfire was still raining down and crushing people mid-fight.

“Sammy. You’re going to run out of mana eventually,” Gideon whispered in his ear.

He jumped again, all the way to where Gideon had cut him. The wall of flame was gone, but Gideon stood in his path.

“[Time Theft: Weapon]” Sam’s hand glowed blue and he plunged it into the very fabric of reality. He felt his grip tighten around the haft of an unknown weapon and launched forward towards Gideon. As he swung down hard, an enormous hammer from another timeline materialized, bearing down on Gideon. Somewhere, sometime, there was a version of Sam that was using an enormous battle hammer. The ability was a bit of a gamble, as he had little to no control over where he was stealing a weapon from, or what kind of weapon it would be, and it was only single use before it disappeared back to wherever he stole it from. But every once in a while he pulled out something excessively powerful from another version of himself in an alternate timeline.

Gideon caught it in his hand, easily dispersing a shockwave of power that erupted at soon as it made contact.

Sam wasn’t done though.

“Oh.” Gideon’s voice came out slow. “Thaaat wassss clevvverrrr.” he had his same amused smile that he always wore as he tried to speak through the effects of [Slow]. Sam refreshed [Haste] on himself and continued his dead sprint.

His ears perked up as he ran. Someone was screaming, yelling “fuck” repeatedly. Someone else was calling someone an idiot.

“HOWDOWETURN?ISAWTHEDRAGON!SOMEONESTOPTHISTHING!”

One of the voices sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.

Debris came slamming into one of the buildings right next to Sam. He couldn’t react fast enough, and the shockwave knocked him to the side, slamming him against a wall and making his vision swim.

As the smoke from the debris cleared, Sam could see Gideon slowly waltzing towards him, an almost sympathetic look on his face.

“Sam. Enough,” Gideon said.

The rubble stirred at the right side of the road, and Sam couldn’t believe who stumbled out, falling forward onto the road and groaning in pain.

“You,” Jack said, cradling his ribs. “Don’t you dare move, asshole.” Jack tried pushing himself off the ground, falling flat on his face once more. “God damn it, everything hurts.” He pushed himself up again. “As soon as I get up off the ground, I’m kicking your ass.” Jack was wildly waving his dagger around while struggling to stand. As soon as he got up, the debris behind him stirred once more, hitting him in the back and knocking him to the ground again.

A gnome and very pale elf stumbled out of the rubble.

Sam couldn’t decide who was more shocked, him or Gideon.

“I told you,” the gnome growled, “not to go in that room. I hadn’t dealt with the traps yet!” he finished in a scream.

The pale elf knelt down next to the struggling Jack and whispered something cryptic. “You thought you were in debt to me before, but you just blew up my only lead. Don’t think you’re escaping my services now.”

“We can settle up later,” Jack groaned. “Help me kill this guy.” Finally pushing himself off the ground, Jack leveled his gaze at Gideon.

“I don’t feel like helping you very much at the moment,” the elf huffed.

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“Me, either,” said the small gnome. The gnome glanced at Gideon. “Gideon,” he said with a polite nod.

“Mortimaxx.” Gideon nodded back.

Both the elf and gnome turned, leaving Jack, Gideon, and Sam standing there.

“Blow up one secret moon base, and suddenly no one wants to be your friend anymore,” Jack complained. Then he glanced at Sam. “Sammy!” A grin spread across his cheeks. “The auction still going on? You would not believe how many achievement points I just earned.” he said with a casual glance at the meteorites still raining down on the city.

“Just missed it,” Sam said, unable to stop himself from smiling back.

“Oh, well.” Jack shrugged. Then he disappeared.

Sam blinked, looking all round for him. Jack had both his knives inches away from Gideon’s eye sockets. The dragon was holding him back by the wrist.

“Impressive speed, as always,” Gideon admitted, pushing Jack back slowly.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet, asshole.” Two knives shot out of Jack’s wrists and hit Gideon square in the face. He stumbled back with a pained growl, clutching his eyes.

“Run, Sam,” Jack said, flashing him a reassuring grin.

Sam was torn. He couldn’t betray Jack again. Jack didn’t know how strong Gideon truly was.

Still, his feet moved. He had to escape. He had to use this ring before Gideon could. He turned and ran, sprinting as fast as he possibly could, swearing to Jack that this would be the last time he ever ran away.

“This is the last time,” he swore to himself aloud, reaching the waypoint in only a minute or so. With only a few feet left to safety, the world shook, knocking him to his feet.

“Samuel!” came a draconic roar as Gideon slammed into the ground in front of him, causing an earthquake.

With his escape cut off, he did the only thing he could think. He pulled Looper’s Domain out of its protective ring box designed to maintain the magical integrity of the item. It was Ancient without a weaker variant, meaning it would downgrade into nothing and likely be destroyed if he didn’t use it right here, right now. System warnings flashed in his face confirming as much. Sam slipped the ring on his finger right as a clawed draconic hand slammed into his chest…

*****

[Jack]

[A few moments earlier]

Every bone in Jack’s body felt cracked or broken. That explosion did a number on him. He was also incredibly annoyed that Karlisle and Mortimaxx just ditched him. He vowed to himself that those two were going to be the next ones he killed. It’s not like I did it on purpose. Well, not on super purpose, he grumbled internally.

Gideon pulled his hands away from his eyes, glaring at Jack. He turned to look down the road.

“I can still make it,” he said more to himself, his eyes going vacant for the briefest of moments. Then he turned back to Jack.

“For what it’s worth, I thought it was the only way,” he said, expression solemn.

The pain disappeared in a flash, replaced with a fury that Jack could barely contain. Still, he held back. He needed to be smart about this. He watched the dragon chasing after Sammy on his piece of burning meteorite. He didn’t know why, but Gideon seemed intent on stopping him.

It annoyed Jack to no end, but he knew within seconds of seeing Gideon that he had no chance in hell at killing the dragon. With his mana core back, something had returned that he had sorely missed. He could sense mana from other people now. Gideon had always been able to keep up on the first floor, but Jack always had the impression he could one day overcome the dragon. Staring at him now, though, sensing his mana on the second floor… It was like staring into the fiery depths of hell. His flames seemed like an unending ocean.

There was also the issue of someone else lurking in the shadows behind him; he had picked up on a third-party interloper almost immediately. Someone was being careless because they didn’t know he could sense mana again.

Jack put the third party out of his mind for a brief second and retrained his focus on Gideon. He couldn’t kill him. He knew that. He could slow him down though.

“Run if you want, you fucking coward. I’m faster, and you know it!” Jack taunted.

A vein twitched in Gideon’s temple, and he took to the skies, turning back into a dragon and flapping his wings so hard he broke the sound barrier.

Jack managed to shoot into Gideon’s thigh with his harpoon and was unceremoniously dragged along, slamming into basically every remaining building that hadn’t been crushed by the lunar explosion.

Jack shot his other harpoon, clipping Gideon in the wing. He yanked down hard, screwing up his steering and causing him to slam into a building. Gideon dismissed his form and stomped over to Jack as he tried to push himself up off the ground.

“Must you make me kill you?” Gideon roared, pulling back his fist and hitting Jack so hard in the face he thought he felt his neck snap.

Gideon turned and ran, only fifty or so feet away from the waypoint, and Jack sprinted after him, seeing double and running funny from the punch to the head.

Jack reached the waypoint only to find no one waiting for him. He hoped Sam escaped, but there was a rather concerning pool of blade just shy of the teleporter.

He fell to his knees, letting out a sigh as he tried to recover. “So close, yet so far.”

“Jack,” a voice called from behind.

Jack sighed once more, glancing over his shoulder. Another fucking gnome, he thought.

Cumberlin stepped out of the shadows of the rubble, a solemn expression on his face.

“Seriously? This is the moment you pick?” Jack asked.

“Be gracious; I’m letting you see it coming,” Cumberlin said.

Jack glanced at the fifteen balls of bouncing mana in his core and grinned. He had a surprise in store, hopefully. It was why he didn’t use mana in his fight against Gideon, after all. Someone had been lurking in the shadows waiting to kill him. It was time to get even.

“Heads up, Cumby, I’ve gotten a lot stronger,” Jack said, pushing himself off the ground and rolling his shoulders.

Cumberlin didn’t respond, two portals opening up behind him that pitch-black barracudas shot out of.

Jack stepped forward into the storm, letting his daggers fly free, ripping through the swarm and destroying the fish with ease as he pushed closer to Cumberlin. The gnome was watching him carefully, and Jack knew a centipede was lurking somewhere in the shadows, waiting to strike.

Just as he had expected, the centipede jumped out of the darkness.

Jack picked three balls of mana and cast [Storm Step] three times over, slamming his foot onto its head, torso, and tail. Jack came down like violent bolts of brilliant blue lightning in rapid succession, destroying the bug completely. It hurt like hell to use, but in a sort of invigorating way. His mana channels felt like rusty pipes that he just sent a jet of water through. Mana ripped through his channels old and clogged up from disuse. He shivered in delight at the pain of mana coursing through his body once more. It hurt so good.

Jack's eyes locked onto Cumberlin, a wild smile on his face.

“I got my mana back.”

Cumberlin went wide-eyed.

He launched at Cumberlin with every ounce of speed he had available. Jack had spent so long on this floor, struggling, surviving, and losing. No more. With the confidence that came with regaining his lost mana, he felt like a new man. A new kind of monster. He was stronger. Faster. More deadly than he could have ever hoped to be.

Jack fell deep into [Storm Stance], losing himself completely in the raging tempest that brewed inside of his core. The drops of mana he had prepared were let loose and raged inside his core, slamming into each other and sending pulsating shockwaves throughout his body that shocked his entire system into action. He matched his strikes with the shockwaves, creating an unreadable rhythm of lightning strikes with his daggers.

Jack began to cast [Storm Step] over and over again, cutting off any hope of retreat for the stumbling gnome. He interweaved it with flashes of [Lightning Centipede’s Bite], ripping through Cumberlins panicked defenses until all of his mana was spent, and the gnome was left a stumbling pile of bloodied flesh.

He threw his hand forward, and Wiggleworm leaped off his arm, wrapping Cumberlin in a vise. Static filled the air, and Jack could taste the ions as she cast a lightning bolt of her own, bringing down her own wrath on the gnome and paralyzing him momentarily.

“So you can use lightning now also?” Jack mused, remembering when Wiggle ate the Thunder. She peeled her head off Cumberlin briefly to nod excitedly.

Jack smirked, and then grabbed Cumberlin by the neck and slammed him in the wall, jamming his dagger into the gnome’s stomach and twisting hard. Cumberlin let out a pained groan, and Jack leaned down to whisper in his ear.

“I didn’t stab anything important.” Jack teased, tossing the gnome to the ground. Cumberlin gasped out in pain, fishing a health potion out of his void sack. Jack crushed it under his boot. Cumberlin looked back at him, a look of fury in his eyes.

“Going to make me suffer?” he said, coughing up blood, fighting against the effects of Jack’s cursed blades. “Finish it, you coward!”

He just stared down at the gnome. Then pulled out his pistol, fishing out one of the few shots he had left and giving it a quick inspection before loading it in the gun.

Unstable Bolt Shot

Type: Spellshot

Tier: Uncommon

Enchantment Slots: 3/3

[Lightning Bolt- 3 Slots]

Shoots forth a bolt of lightning

*****

Black powder infused with lightning mana and condensed down into a bullet. Crafted to be used with a magic pistol. Warning, this spellshot has not been properly crafted, and results may vary.

It felt like a lifetime ago when he had these made for himself. Being unstable and all, they only worked about fifty percent of the time to varying effect, and he hadn't found a good use for them until right now. He pressed the barrel of the gun to Cumberlins skull. The gnome closed his eyes, taking it in stride.

Jack pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

“Remember this,” Jack growled. “I. won.” He slid the pistol back into his belt, and turned to walk away, leaving an exasperated gnome in his wake.

Jack honestly wasn’t sure if keeping Cumberlin alive was the best move or not, but he was still far from done on the second floor and the Black Centipede was still actively hunting him. If he could flip the gnome to his side, that might make his life a little easier. Plus, fate literally just spared the gnome's life.

Alternatively, he just wasted his one good chance to kill Cumberlin. There was a good chance he only won that fight because Cumberlin truly hadn’t been expecting him to use mana. He put the thought out of his mind for now, and moved onto something far more pressing. He strolled through the shattered remains of the sector, moseying away from where the bulk of the fighting had been. He had spotted Elera briefly on his trip back from the moon, and it seemed like they didn’t need his help too much with the remainder of the fighting. Besides, he was far more interested in something else he had spotted from his aerial rocket view.

He wasn’t certain, but he had seen the tell-tale signs of a mostly destroyed tavern, and he desperately needed a drink.