Chapter 63 – Surprise Attack
Jack followed the crowd to the fighting pits, complaining to Onem the entire way there.
“I’m just saying I’ve been in a cave the past week, bored out of my fucking mind. How come no one mentioned there were fighting pits? No wonder you guys weren’t interested in playing football. You assholes were all holding out on me!”
The mass of draugr came to a stop all surrounding a large arena. Upon inspection, the term “pit” was an over generous description. At best it was only a couple of feet deep and maybe thirty feet across with wooden spikes surrounding it and an opening at either side for the fighters to enter.
The surrounding draugr all seemed more alive with the threat of violence in the air as they stared at the center of the arena, waiting for a fight.
Jack jumped down into the pit, giving the tightly packed dirt floor of the arena a few test bounces, getting used to the space. Satisfied, he started to jog waving his arms in big circles to warm up. Several draugr jeered at his display but Jack just smiled and waved.
“First, I must right a wrong.” Onem announced as the expectant crowd finished filing in. The surrounding draugr were more engaged than they had been at the feast. Apparently, violence really captured their attention.
Looks like you’ve got more in common with these guys than you thought. Came Happy Jack’s voice from the back of his mind. He had released Killer Jack from the chokehold and the walking psychiatrists wet dream was now pacing around angrily behind Happy Jack.
“Shut up. And make sure to keep that guy in line,” Jack said, pointing to the manic Killer Jack. “Things are about to get interesting and we don’t need Knifey McStabFace over there spiraling out of control.”
“First. That is an amazing code name. Second. We all know things are going to spiral out of control anyway. So buckle up, super chief.” Happy Jack said while cheering him with a frozen pink drink topped with an unnecessary amount of tiny umbrellas.
Jack felt a shiver down his spine at that revelation and turned back to Onem, who was in the middle of his announcement.
“Halldis has informed me that since we’ve handsomely rewarded Jack with prizes from Gurthok’s hoard, it’s only fair that we give the Taskmaster an item of… equal value.” He said cryptically, producing a large two-handed pitch-black hammer. Its head was larger than Jacks and it sported a wicked spike on the back that was the size of Jack’s forearm. He grimaced as the Taskmaster kneeled in front of Onem.
“Master…” He said in a voice deep and thankful.
“For you, Taskmaster Ondott, I present a weapon recovered from the hoard of Gurthok – Berserkers Bane.” Onem said, presenting the hammer to the Taskmaster.
“What!?” Jack asked, interrupting the ceremony. “ Berserkers Bane? That name makes literally no sense. Aren’t like ninety percent of you guys berserkers?”
“Shut your mouth, peasant.” The Taskmaster snarled at him.
Onem glanced at Jack, who held up staying hands. Onem continued. “Taskmaster Ondott, do you accept this gift and promise to use-“
“I’m just saying. It makes zero sense. Why would Gurthok, the berserker king, have a weapon called Berserkers Bane? I wouldn’t use that if I were you. It’s probably cursed.” Jack said, interrupting the ceremony again.
“Enough!” the taskmaster roared. “Master, I beg you, please let me baptize this magnificent weapon in the blood of your new… Servant.” He said, still kneeling before Onem. Apparently the Taskmaster couldn’t work up the strength to call Jack his equal.
Onem stared at Jack for a long moment with an annoyed look on his face, then down at the pleading Taskmaster. “Try not to kill each other. If this battle results in a permanent injury for either of you, I will see to it Halldis punishes you accordingly.” He said matter of fact. Halldis started cackling over his shoulder.
The Taskmaster grabbed the hammer from Onem and hurled himself into the arena, bringing the hammer down in a powerful slam at Jack’s feet. Jack jumped back as the ground rumbled and earthen spikes shot out from the ground. He hefted the hammer onto his shoulder and fixed Jack with a challenging stare.
“I’ve been waiting for this.” The Taskmaster said, as the two began to circle each other.
“For what? A fair fight? The one-sided beating not enough to get you off anymore?” Jack shot back.
“Youuu.” He hissed. “The amount of suffering I’ve had to go through because of you. I know you triggered the curse that destroyed Gurthoks’ hoard. I saw you. Yet I was the one blamed. The one punished.” He finished, venom in his voice.
“Is that why you’ve been ignoring me lately? I just thought you realized how fucked you were now that I’m dad’s new favorite.”
The Taskmaster charged him in response, swinging the massive hammer over his shoulder and missing Jack completely.
The previously unimpressed draugr were now all cheering in a chorus of creepy, discordant screams and groans. They were banging on their shields or stomping on the ground as Jack dodged and weaved through the Taskmaster’s hammer swings. Jack even had to contend with the occasional overzealous draugr trying to poke him in the back with a spear.
Meanwhile, the voices in his head were screaming to be released.
Well, one voice was.
Killer Jack had stopped his pacing. He was instead howling in rage, daggers in hand, practically frothing at the mouth. The guy really wanted to kill the Taskmaster.
This time, Jack just so happened to agree with him.
He finally drew his daggers, which spurred on the crowd of draugr on even more. The threat of violence was all they needed to have a good time. The screaming grew louder but Jack tuned it all out.
He took deep breaths as he slowly let his bloodlust flow through him, seeping into every muscle fiber.
God, this feels so fucking good, Jack thought in a shiver.
The two exchanged blows in a flurry of action. This time, Jack delivered half a dozen cuts as the two crossed each other.
As Jack turned to face his enemy he looked at his daggers, black blood dripping from the edges. The Taskmaster seemed nonplussed by the small cuts Jack had administered and a familiar red glow sprung up around the man.
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Let’s not get too crazy here, guys. Jack heard Happy Jack saying somewhere in the back of his mind and he knew, umm, he was right.
Damn this was getting confusing. Time to end this before he goes full berserker. Jack quickly decided
He launched himself at the Taskmaster in an explosive burst of speed. Now that he’d bumped his Dexterity up to Adept levels, it seemed much easier to get up to full speed now.
He was inside the Taskmaster’s defenses in a split second. The draugr’s eyes went wide at Jack's sudden offensive. From somewhere inside, Killer Jack let slip a cruel smile that was mirrored on Jack's face just as they made eye contact with the Taskmaster.
Jack cast [Lightning Centipedes Bite].
This wasn’t the weakened version of lightning centipedes’ bite that he showcased for Onem a few days ago with his drained mana drops.
No, this was a fully charged bite, this was absolute destruction.
Large black fangs wreathed in dangerous lightning superimposed themselves over Jack’s arms as he launched his daggers forward in a deadly pincer attack.
The Taskmaster, and several draugr who found themselves in the unfortunate position of being directly behind him, disintegrated.
The power let loose by his fangs tore through half of the arena leaving nothing but dusted draugr in its wake. Jack had honestly forgotten how devastating the ability was. He hadn’t used it, or any of his abilities, in what felt like forever.
Jack groaned as the freshly healed channels in his arms became scorched from the inside out all over again. His new berserker channels flared to life immediately, the hot pain that came with the healing radiated throughout his arms as it began to drain his one remaining mana drop. Jack felt fractures running through the bones in his arms, but thanks to his improvements in Vitality and Endurance, he was no longer left with useless broken limbs. Only semi-useless fractured arms.
Jack winced in pain as he gripped his daggers, everyone in his head admiring the destruction of his ability. There were deep rents in the ground where his ability had torn through, and dangerous bolts of lightning still bit at the air, striking out at anyone dumb enough to still be standing nearby. Draugr were shoving themselves backwards, tripping over each other to get away from Jack.
You have Slain Taskmaster Ondett.
+150,000AP
+2 Skill Points
Jack let loose a lazy grin at the confirmation, turning his head to look at Onem.
Anger and shock burned in his eyes as he stared at Jack. His mouth moving, failing to find the words he was looking for.
Halldis screeched, her veins turning black as she howled at Jack and began to manifest some sort of dark shadow laced spell in her hands.
“Betrayer! Onem, let me kill him, I beg of you.”
Onem, to his credit, maintained his composure.
“No.” he said in tightly controlled anger. “The Taskmaster spent weeks torturing him. While this loss is painful and sets us back a great deal, it is understandable. It was foolish of me to expect any form of self-control from this savage, especially before swearing a soul oath. Come, put these back on.” He commanded, his clipped words biting at the air. Onem produced a pair of manacles and held them up to Jack.
Jack clenched his daggers tighter as he stared at the manacles. He couldn’t really hear anything Onem was saying as Killer Jack was voicing a bloodthirsty victory howl that drowned out everything else.
“Look at him. He doesn’t look like he’s finished.” Halldis screamed, pointing an accusing finger at Jack, who still hadn’t made any sort of movement.
“The dog lost his temper. We’ll train him better now that we know what we’re dealing with. He’s done. Even he knows it would be complete insanity to attack us by himself in the middle of our bolstered war encampment.” Onem said in obvious warning.
Jack felt his smile grow wider as common sense and reason quickly left the building.
“Well…” Jack started to say. “They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. And I’ve already raided your camp once and tried to kill you by myself…” he said, taking a step closer to Onem.
Onem produced his black staff and fell into a subtle stance sensing where this line of reasoning was going..
“So yes, I think insanity would be an accurate description of what’s about to happen.” Jack said.
In his mind a simple door appeared in front of Killer Jack with a note on it that said in big, bold letters, Jacks Mind: Authorized Personnel Only. A manic smile was plastered on Killer Jack's face as he kicked open the door and raced through.
Jack cast [Storm Step].
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[Hannah]
Hannah hung off the side of a boat, staring into the distance as the draugr rowed the boat down the river. She glanced at the queen who was standing near the bow, attentive and ready for any sign of battle. She had a large crystalline bow in her hand and was scanning the horizon the same as Hannah.
Queen Geildana had offered her armies to Hannah in order to go save Jack. What she had failed to mention is that her armies were in no way ready to field. Before they could commission a rescue mission, they needed time to build boats to sail the rivers.
Hannah had snuck out of the encampment half a dozen times over the past month, but the Valkyries had the advantage of being able to fly, making it difficult to launch any sort of meaningful escape that didn’t involve killing them.
Once they finally built their armada, Hannah had thought it would be smooth sailing. Turns out the priorities of seemingly immortal Valkyries are different from that of humans.
The queen and her contingent of Valkyrie didn’t seem pressed for time and took every opportunity they could to bring the ships ashore to capture and turn more draugr outposts to their side. Hannah could see the logic in it, bolstering their troops as they sailed back to Gurthok castle, but with the addition of more troops, more boats had to be built. It took weeks before they were able to gain any sort of meaningful distance and Hannah’s mood grew darker with every stall and detour.
She wasn’t used to worrying about Jack. She had discovered early on that if she spared any worry for the man, the resulting ulcer that formed would kill her. Jack attracted trouble and chaos like honey attracted flies and she had trained the worry out of herself a long time ago.
But this time was different. Not because she thought he was dead. She just had no idea what sort of state she was going to find him in. She had asked him to become the killer she had first met, but instead got a psychopath more terrifying than any enemy she had ever encountered. She had never been afraid of Jack, but now… she wasn’t sure what awaited her.
“We approach,” Geildana said, voice cutting through the cool night air.
Hannah moved to attention, staring at the same point the queen was where the river gave way to an enormous lake.
“I imagine they will spot us quickly. Be ready for anything.” The queen continued.
There was muffled shouting among the ships as everyone in their entourage prepared. Wings unraveled and stretched out, dotted among the dozens of raiding ships as Valkyries took to the skies above, fanning out in a protective radius.
The ships were soon greeted with the echoing of several large horns as enemy forces spotted them.
“We sail for the shore opposite where Onem’s camp lies. Warriors, row hard, your queen and her Valkyrie shall protect you from anyone foolish enough to impede our path to war.” The queen announced, receiving several rallying cries from the surrounding ships.
The queen held up her large crystalline bow. An ethereal string that glowed in the moonlight appeared and she held the string in a delicate grasp, pulling back smoothly. A shimmering crystal arrow appeared and the Queen let it loose into the night sky. The arrow sailed across the lake with impossible speed and accuracy as Hannah watched as the arrow split into a dozen different arrows. Those arrows split again and again until hundreds of arrows rained down on enemy draugr boarding ships of their own.
Hannah turned to scan the far-off shores and the forest behind for any signs of Onem's encampments.
Without warning a lightning strike the size of a sequoia tree erupted from the middle of the forest and lit up the night sky.
The queen's head snapped to where the lightning struck, her mouth turned downward in a deep frown.
“That power… I fear the enemy has uncovered a deadly weapon of some sort. This war may be far deadlier than I had anticipated. There’s no telling what monsters await us now.” she said, a look of concern in her eyes.
Hannah walked up next to the queen, a knowing grin on her face.
“Oh that? I wouldn’t worry too much. That’s just Jack.”