Chapter 68 – Surrender

Their hurried retreat quickly went south as Jack and Hannah ran face first into a still ongoing battle. Jack groaned as he pushed his way into the back line of several of the red-eyed draugr’s that made up Onem forces.

Luckily, the opposing blue eyed draugr seemed to be making headway in terms of who was winning. Jack slammed his dagger into the back of a draugr skull, panting heavily as he pushed through the chaos. Hannah was doing an excellent job of clearing a path before him.

“Friends of yours?” he asked.

“Your rescue squad, technically.”

“Rescue? Please, I had it under control.”

“Right, two boss mobs, piece of cake,” Hannah scoffed, launching another arrow at an approaching draugr and taking its head off.

Jack threw another glance over his shoulder. Onem was still in pursuit of them, but Halldis had disappeared.

“Your draugr friends and the bird people are great and all, but please tell me you brought some more firepower.”

“They're called Valkyries, and yes, if we can make it back to the queen, I think we’ll be in a better position.”

“Queen?” Jack asked while dispatching another two draugr blocking their path, “you’re telling me while I’ve been literally slaving away in the mines you’ve been getting the royal treatment?”

“Yep,” Hannah smirked.

“How come I’m the one who gets shafted in all of this? This all started because you said we should investigate the mines. I want a redo, damnit!” Jack protested.

“Well, if you didn’t turn into an insane maniac and just focused on being a distraction like I told you to, you probably could have escaped with me. Speaking of – you seem… How should I put this… Surprisingly normal?” Hannah said matter of fact.

“Yea. While I was inside the mines, I had some hardcore disassociation and learned about this new thing called introspection. I’m extremely well adjusted now. Nothing to worry about at all.” Jack said, flashing Hannah a smile and two thumbs up.

Hannah squinted at him, her face a mixture of disbelief, concern, and general annoyance at Jack. So pretty much how she always looked at him.

A shrieking Halldis flew down from the skies above, interrupting any further conversation. She slammed down onto a group of draugr battling it out, uncaring if it was friend or foe she had just crushed.

“Do not hope to escape me a second time.” She hissed, spreading her leather wings out behind her, blocking their retreat. “I’m going to savor ripping you to shreds.”

Halldis weaved black shadow magic around her, wrapping it around her hands until they formed long claws on each finger.

“I don’t suppose you have anything up your ass that can get us out of this?” Hannah asked.

“I do actually, a secret draugr killing technique I’ve developed. But I don’t feel like using it, so we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

“You distract and I shoot?”

“Yep,” Jack groaned.

Jack fell into a stance opposite Halldis, daggers at the ready. In terms of how this fight was about to play out, he knew he was fucked. He had no mana, no stamina, and his body was in terrible shape. Jack had maybe one good attack left in him, and one bad dodge. After that, he was all out of tricks.

Halldis moved to attack first. Jack launched himself off the ground to intercept. Well, he tried to. Jack pushed off the ground in an attempt at an explosive burst of speed, which resulted in more of a frantic jog. His legs felt like rubber and despite his best efforts to steady his breathing and distract himself from the pain in his ribs, it was all a little too much and the house of cards that was his body came crashing down.

Jack threw himself in front of Halldis the same way a deer throws itself in front of a car. She slammed into Jack and his world went black as the attack sent him flying backwards, rolling across the ground and slamming into the base of a tree. He coughed up blood and groaned in pain as he blinked away stars. Somewhere out there he could hear Halldis’ insane cackling, cut off by an explosive shot from Hannah.

Jack pushed himself up against the tree, trying to get to his feet, only for his body to give out and slide back down to the ground. His situation went from bad to worse as he looked over to see Onem walking towards him, scythe in hand, a cruel smile on his face.

“Excuse me…” Jack coughed through another mouthful of blood. “We’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty.”

“What?” Onem asked, confusion plain on his face.

Jack took that opportunity to throw sand and dirt in Onem’s eyes.

“Aughh!” the draugr screamed, rubbing at his eyes in frustration.

“Huh. If I had thought that would actually work, I probably would have planned a follow up attack…” Jack mused, wincing in pain with each breath, watching as Onem rubbed his eyes. If Jack was to die, he was at least going to make Onem work for it.

Onem’s eyes flared black, venting the black shadow mana and clearing out the dirt and sand.

“You’ve been quite the annoyance.” He said, fixing Jack with an annoyed look and raising his scythe up over his head to deliver the final blow.

Jack clenched his teeth, willing strength into his hands as he gripped his daggers too… he had no plans, but he often found the threat of imminent death usually generated his best ideas.

Halldis started screaming in pain and Onem stayed his scythe as he brought it down on Jack, looking over at her, confusion on his face.

Jack glanced over at Hannah and her fight.

Halldis had turned into a draugr pin cushion. Dozens of crystalline arrows were sticking out of every part of her body.

Stolen story; please report.

Well, looks like Hannah learned some new tricks, Jack thought.

“No!” Onem screamed, moving to intervene in whatever was happening. Jack took that moment to stab the distracted draugr in the foot. Not his best plan, but it was all he managed to come up with.

Onem stumbled forward, and he threw Jack a look of pure hatred as he launched himself off the ground towards Halldis.

Jack watched in surprise as a twelve-foot shimmering crystal pillar dropped out of the sky with the precision of a tactical missile, slamming straight into Halldis’ screeching form, obliterating her.

Jack stared in awe at the radiating crystal, and then at Onem, who immediately braced himself, throwing up the same black barrier that had blocked his [Storm Step] from earlier.

Why is he doing that? Jack wondered.

Then the crystal pillar cracked, releasing a deadly cold that radiated all throughout the forest, even giving Jack goosebumps. The pillar exploded into a thousand tiny fragments, launching themselves in every direction.

Despite the chaos of the explosion, the fragments sought out targets instead of haphazardly ripping through the surroundings. Every red eyed draugr in the vicinity immediately fell to the ground as a crystal shard implanted itself in its head.

Floating in the sky where the large crystal pillar previously stood was a woman. Dark skin, long silver hair, radiant blue eyes and six translucent wings holding her a few feet in the air. She held a large crystalline bow in her hand and had Onem fixed with a regal gaze that was filled with disdain.

“Queen Geildana,” Onem said in a mock bow, “so glad you could finally step down from your perch and come join us.”

She responded by leveling her bow at Onem. A dozen arrows materialized in the air around her as she drew back on the string and released. Onem spun his scythe, easily deflecting them all as he launched himself backwards.

Jack watched the fight, the realization that Onem had been toying with him hitting a little too close to home as he watched the two powerhouses collide with each other.

Several Valkyrie landed in the surrounding area, and Hannah ran up to one of them, getting a health potion and running it over to Jack.

“Hurry, drink this.” She said, holding it up to his mouth.

He chugged the health potion, letting loose a small cry of relief as it instantly kicked in and started healing his broken body.

Jack pushed himself up off the ground and watched as Onem and the Queen exchanged another flurry of blows. He wanted to help, but health potions were only good in the repair department, not great for stamina recovery. He still felt tired and weak.

“Let's run.” Jack said matter of fact.

“No, idiot. She’s our ticket out of here.”

“You just want to stick around in case she dies so you can get her bow.”

“I’m serious Jack, she has an army, and she seems to want Gurthok dead as much as us. We need her alive.”

Jack squinted in confusion at the queen.

“What is it?” Hannah asked.

“Well, Onem was pretty much doing the exact same thing. Technically, I had joined up with him to take out Gurthok. This whole thing has been bugging me. Why does the Tower keep giving us allies?”

“What?” Hannah asked, eyes going wide. “Then why the hell did you attack him? And don’t say you didn’t – I saw you use storm step.”

“I don’t work with people who enslave and torture me. It’s a matter of principle.” Jack said, taking a haughty tone. “Not like it matters, anyway. I don’t think the queen over there has any interest in working with Onem.”

“Give up Onem. Your gambit to usurp the throne has failed.” The queen said, launching another volley of arrows at the draugr.

“Give up? I simply have to wait for Authun to arrive.”

“You think he will be on your side in all of this? He is more loyal to the king than anyone. He will have your head for this betrayal.”

“Maybe. But he might find it more pragmatic to join forces with me if it means stopping you.” Onem hissed in a cruel smile. “You can sit here and grandstand all you want about my betrayal, but I know what it is you are really after, Geildana.”

“Enough!” the queen said, anger in her eyes as she leveled her bow again at Onem, who deflected another barrage of arrows.

“Who the hell is Authun?” Jack asked, confused.

“Remember how I said there was a barracks we could attack before all of this started? A guy named Authun runs it. He’s a pretty powerful mage trained by the queen herself. He’s fiercely loyal to Gurthok.”

“It seems like Authun and the queen have some sort of beef, though? You said the queen trained him?”

“Yep. And you’ve got beef with Rodeo. Not all master disciple relationships turn out well.”

Jack squinted at the queen, his distrust growing deeper by the second.

“How about this? What say you and I join forces?” Onem offered “We both know you can’t take on Authun and Gurthok yourself. Especially if we decide to clash against each other here and now.”

“Join forces with you? You who have slain my daughters and corrupted our peoples? I would sooner die.”

Several war horns rang out in the distance, heralding the arrival of another force.

“It sounds like your wish may be granted, Authun approaches.” Onem mused, staring off in the direction of the horns.

The queen stopped her shooting to stare in the same direction as Onem, a troubled and angry look on her face.

“Then what about this,” Onem said. “I surrender.”

Jack watched as Onem dropped his scythe to the ground, the blades disappearing as it returned to its staff form and his armor melting away into the surrounding darkness. He fell to his knees and held his hands out, palms up in surrender.

“Take this as a sign of good faith. You can consider my offer while keeping me in custody.” Onem said.

The queen fixed Onem with a hard stare, leveling her bow at the now defenseless draugr. She pulled back on the string.

“My queen,” Eyla the Valkyrie said, stepping up next to the queen. “Mother,” she said again, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Authun will never side with us, and what that monster speaks is true. We stand little chance by ourselves.”

“But your sisters… My daughters…” the queen said, a sad and angry look in her eyes.

“My heart breaks and my spirit cries out for the death of this man as well, mother, and I assure you that I do not want Onem to walk free for his crimes. But until that time, we must consider what is best for us all.”

The queen slowly lowered her bow, turning and fixing Eyla with a gentle smile. “Even though the words are difficult to say, you speak them well, daughter. You show great wisdom in this and will make a wonderful queen one day.”

Eyla flushed at the response and fell into a deep bow before the queen.

The queen produced a pair of manacles that looked to be far more reinforced than the pair Jack had grown accustomed to back in the mines. She tossed them over to Onem, who attached them to his ankles.

“You,” she said to Onem, her voice full of venom. “One slip up, one mistake, one betrayal, and I promise you I will dedicate myself to killing you, even if it costs me my life.”

“I look forward to it.” Onem said, rising to his feet.

“Hold on. Don’t I get a say in any of this? I say we shoot the asshole!” Jack said.

“No.” The queen, the Valkyries, and even Hannah, all said in unison.

Jack grimaced in response.

“Come, everyone, we must make our retreat before Authun and his forces arrive. Onem, I take it you have ships prepared as well? See to it your forces are loaded up immediately and ready to sail out.” She commanded.

Onem nodded, sending some sort of unseen command to any remaining red eyed draugr, who immediately started moving towards the beach.

“After you, my queen.” He said, prompting the queen and her contingent of Valkyries to take to the skies above.

Onem stared around at the forest for a long moment, an inspecting look in his eyes. Then his gaze landed on Jack, and a cruel, menacing smile slid onto the draugr’s face.

“You’re seeing this shit, right?” Jack asked, a concerned look on his face.

“I’d make sure to sleep with a knife under your pillow.” Hannah said matter of fact.