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Chapter 80 - War

Chapter 80 - War

Jack leaned against a tree, staring out into the open fields that proceeded Gurthok’s castle. Lined out front, two opposing draugr armies faced off against each other. Queen Geildana’s army of redeemed, and Gurthok’s army of cursed.

The two armies stood opposite each other, evenly matched. Geildana had Valkyries. Gurthok had screechers. She had a calvary of worg riders. He had a cabal of mages. She had elite abominations. He had elite abominations. The battle wouldn’t come down to who had the stronger army. It was going to come down to the generals. Namely, the Queen, Onem, Hannah, and himself. The queen had informed Jack and Hannah that Gurthok had his own contingent of draugr nobility who lived alongside him within the castle, all plenty powerful in their own right They would be in charge of leading the troops. As for Gurthok, he wouldn’t make an appearance until we started to win. Apparently, he liked to fight from behind, swooping in to turn the tide of battle with his unrelenting might.

Jack thought back to the festival with Gurthok. The rest of the evening had gone without incident, aside from the fact that Gurthok and Jack had almost killed each other in a deadly game of escalation. It wasn’t until Jack let slip some information he was supposed to keep to himself that things went downhill. Onem, at one point, had advised him not to mention the fact that we had dug up, and subsequently destroyed his hoard of treasure. Jack had agreed, and then forgot all about it when he asked Gurthok about Andurian.

Gurthok was his last lead on the man, and he got the impression, at least from Onem, that Gurthok had some sort of good relationship with him. When Jack brought up Andurian to Onem, Gurthok hit him so hard he practically flew across the camp. Then when Jack let slip how they even knew he had a connection to Andurian, all hell broke loose. Jack got his first taste of Gurthok then. The man’s aura alone leached into the air, infecting everything with a rage that burned him down to his very soul. Were the queen not there to calm him down, Gurthok likely would have slaughtered everyone then and there. Gurthok left shortly after, his mood spoiled.

Jack ‘tsked’ in annoyance at that. This dungeon represented the only real connection to Andurian he had. Jack had questioned anyone in the dungeon who would listen to him about Andurian, only to get shut down every time. Andurian had left them all with such a bad taste in their mouths that Jack couldn’t talk about him without someone getting angry. Jack, for the hundredth time, wondered just who the hell he had gotten himself tangled up with. He was even starting to wonder if the Tower was manipulating his constant run-ins with artifacts of Andurian. It seemed likely.

Jack let out a long sigh and pushed off the tree he was leaning against.

“Focus up. It’s about to start.” Hannah said as Jack walked up next to her. Jack and Hannah weren’t with the main forces. They had a different job for the battle. Onem and the Queen would stand back while the armies raged against each other. They needed to reserve their strength for their fight against Gurthok. That meant Jack and Hannah would be doing most of the dirty work for the first half of the battle. They would be a strike force on the battlefield, hunting elites, commanders, and taking out mage units. Their goal was to sow as much chaos as possible among the draugr, allowing the redeemed to overtake Gurthoks’ cursed army as quickly as possible.

When Gurthok showed himself, Jack would launch an opening salvo at the man. Both Onem and the queen seemed to think that Gurthok would be unable to defend against one of his fully charged attacks, and that would give them both an opening to clean up.

That brought Jack to another issue. His body had healed up and was feeling better than ever, largely thanks to the potion Gurthok had given him. Gone was the feeling of being incomplete after using static overdrive. In addition to that, his channels had mostly repaired themselves. They were a little rough around the edges, but the accelerated healing of static overdrive paired with his berserker channels had him back in full working order.

The issue was with his mana drops. His berserker channels had drained one drop a fair degree, and a partial amount of a second drop. From the time of the festival, it had only been two days, leaving Jack just enough time to get one fully charged mana drop. So he had three, with only one being at full strength for the duration of the war. This coming up fight was going to come down to stamina and resources, two things he had little of.

Jack took a deep breath and drew his daggers, watching as draugr’s alike on either side withdrew their weapons, banged on shields and let loose discordant screams. Tension was growing stronger by the second and any minute now they would charge off against each other.

“See Gurthok yet?” Jack asked, staring out into the army of draugr.

“No. Do you see that group of mages in the back, though? I think they should be our first target.”

Jack stared at the back of the army, where the vast majority of the commanders had congregated, spread out through the back lines. This fight was going to be tricky for Jack and Hannah. He wasn’t quite sure if this was a suicide mission or not. Charging the back lines themselves seemed risky. The queen had assured them both she would be providing support, but that was little comfort. Jack looked over at Hannah, her brows furrowed in deep concentration as she considered strategy. He felt his grip tighten on his daggers.

This dungeon had been good for him in unexpected ways. He was learning about himself a little more every day. He had experienced self-control to a degree he didn’t know he was capable of. What he wanted was a question that constantly plagued his mind, though. Jack still wasn’t sure what he wanted himself. He wanted to fight. He wanted to kill. But he also wanted more than that. He wanted to get him and Hannah out of the dungeon. He wanted to find Sam… he wanted to see Sarah.

Change is hard, Jack found himself thinking. You tell yourself you’re going to change, but old habits are often hard to break. Despite his self-realizations, Jack still found himself flopping back and forth between reckless killer and playful idiot. In his first fight against Onem, he felt those two come together in a way that gave him perfect control over himself. Jack took a deep breath in. He needed to be that guy right now. The guy who was in control. This wasn’t a time to mess around. This wasn’t a time to get lost in his bloodlust. He needed to be a perfect killer. This fight would likely be it for him and Hannah unless every move he made was perfect. He couldn’t afford to take damage. He couldn’t afford wasted attacks.

The armies sounded off and began a slow lumbering walk that quickly morphed into a frenzied charge as the screams from the draugr grew louder and louder. Jack closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and drowning everything out. He felt his bloodlust rise, running through his veins, spreading to every inch of his body, infecting his every cell. A smile crawled onto his face, same as it always did. He let out another long breath as he refined his bloodlust further and further, bringing it deeper under his control.

“You ready?” he heard Hannah ask, punctuated by the thunderous clash of two armies. Jack let the tension bleed out of his body as he fell forward, eyes open to the world, his charge forward his only response.

He was out of the forest and into the clearing in seconds. They were prepared for him, a draugr alerting a contingent of archers who all set their sights on him. Jack waited till the last moment they let loose their arrows, watching as they flew up into the air. He doubled his speed, pushing off the ground even faster. He was at their flank in seconds. A draugr raised its shield to defend. Jack simply kicked off it, jumping into the air and sailing across to the back lines where he landed in the middle of a small group of draugr mages. His smile was wide, and he watched the glowing red eyes of the draugr burned brighter, not in rage, but in fear.

Jack fell into [Storm Stance] with a practiced ease. Each devastating strike biting into a draugr mage before they could ready a spell. He watched them, really watched them. The flow of mana coursing through their bodies as they tried and failed to launch off volley after volley in desperate attempt to stop him. He was at the ready, dodging past spears of ice and jumping past powerful earthen magic that shook the ground, burying his daggers in the head of whoever dared to cast a spell.

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Jack panted heavily as six of the magi fell dead. By this time, he was more than surrounded by enraged draugr with weapons at the ready. He pushed down any sense of panic as he scanned for a way out. Crystal arrows came raining out of the sky a moment later, creating a wide berth around him. Jack scanned the skies to find what he was looking for. A large fiery orb had formed up in the air, hanging above the back lines a little further past his position. That was Hannah’s signal for the next target. Jack sprinted past the surrounding draugr, dodging and ducking past sword and axe swings, each met with a retaliation of his own from his daggers.

He matched Hannah’s charged shot as it sailed through the air at her flaming orb and sent down a rain of destruction on the draugr below. Jack jumped through the flames as his sights fell onto his next target.

This time it was one of Gurthok’s nobility. Jack had little information on what they were capable of, aside from Onem’s warning they would be dangerous. Time to find out how dangerous, Jack thought as he spared a brief inspection of the draugr noble.

He wore a silken blue shirt belted in the middle with a large clasp. He was closer to human than draugr, like much of the redeemed were. His eyes didn’t glow red, nor his pupils black. His hair was slicked back and his beard kept short. He leveled a longsword at Jack in challenge, but that wasn’t what he was concerned about. It was the glowing cane he held in his off-hand that Jack knew was going to be the problem.

Jack charged the noble, only to find himself staring down a barrage of ethereal missiles that locked on and chased after him. Jack’s assault on the noble turned into a frantic retreat as he did a 180, throwing himself back into the surrounding draugr and luring them into the path of the missiles in hot pursuit. One still managed to hit him on the back and flung him forward. Jack grit his teeth as he pushed down the burning pain and turned around to once again charge at his opponent.

“I don’t have time for this shit,” Jack growled under his breath

Luckily – he wasn’t alone. Another one of Hannah’s charge shots ripped across the field straight into the unsuspecting noble’s back. That was all Jack needed. He let loose the mana drops in his core as he charged the draugr again. He felt the mana drops clash into each other, sending a powerful shockwave through his body that was matched with a powerful swipe from his daggers, cleaving a giant X through the draugrs’ chest and dropping him to the ground. Jack smashed in the back of his head for good measure. Then he hurriedly grabbed the sword and cane and stuffed it into his void sack. One thing he remembered Hannah had mentioned about dungeons was the loot. They were yet to get anything in the way of real loot yet and that drove Jack nuts. His dungeon experiences thus far had been far from anything described to him. He had made a promise to, at the very least, steal whatever weapons he could get his hands on.

Jack grimaced as he searched the sky for another orb, letting him know where his next target would be. There was nothing in the air yet. Jack looked over to Hannah’s position in the forest lines to see a group of draugr that had broken off from the back lines to deal with her. Hannah sent a volley of her own arrows at the approaching draugr, and Jack watched as heads disappeared as the arrows exploded.

Hannah was far from needing his help.

Jack turned to find his next target. Several more draugr bore down on him, unsure if they should be pushing their way towards the front lines or dealing with him in the back lines. Each time they approached Jack, a volley of the queen’s crystal arrows rained down on Jack’s position, ripping through draugr and pinning them to the ground.

Two giant draugr stood at the back lines, each twelve feet tall and horribly disfigured. They stood next to a pile of boulders which they grabbed and hurtled into the skies above, raining down on the redeemed in devastating fashion. Jack launched himself at the giants, jumping across shoulders and heads as he blazed past soldiers towards his new targets. He fed his weakest mana drop to his [Lightning Centipedes Bite] as he approached the first giant, two fangs superimposed over his arms as he ripped through the top half of its body, bisecting the monster. Black blood rained down and lightning bit at the air. The mana drop was weak, but still more powerful than any draugr could withstand. His arms hadn’t even broken this time and his mana channels just felt sore from the use. His smile was wide as he charged down the second draugr, setting free the two remaining mana drops as he synced the shockwaves of their clash with his storm stance, ripping through tendons and kneecaps until the giant was on its knees, where he removed its head from its body.

Jack let out another long breath, panting even harder now as he fell deeper and deeper into the rhythm of combat.

Just keep moving. Don’t stop. Don’t get hurt. Just keep killing. He said to himself over and over again. He was growing more tired by the second, but he was also growing more deadly. Each move he made became more lethal as he fought to maintain a perfect efficiency. Each strike of his daggers meant to kill. He fell on another contingent of mages like a dark storm, his strikes a deadly lightning obliterating anything they touched. Hannah had rejoined him, raining destruction from the skies. Jack let loose a hungry, dangerous smile as he fell deeper into storm stance, deeper into his bloodlust.

Control it. A voice rang out in the back of his head – and he did.

Jack honed in on his killing intent, keeping it deadly sharp, his focus unbreakable as he tore through ranks of draugr elite and nobility alike. He was the unending lightning storm. His body burned and his heart pounded, but he pushed himself harder and harder as he lashed out with the unrelenting destruction of lightning, leaving nothing but obliteration in his wake.

Jack panted hard, smiling at the sky, the dead draugr his only company. He took in deep breaths of the musty, blood-filled air.

He felt alive.

But he wasn’t lost, not by any means. He was in complete control of himself. With that control, he pulled himself out of the battle, retreating back into the forest, falling to his knees as he approached Hannah and throwing up all over the ground. Jack rolled onto his back, gasping for breath. Hannah covered his retreat the entire time. There were still plenty of draugr left, but he and Hannah had done a perfect of job of sowing chaos in their back lines.

“Stamina or health potion?” Was all Hannah asked.

“Stamina.” Jack pleaded through gasping breaths. Aside from the magic missile and several cuts and scrapes, he had taken little in the way of real damage. Jack downed the potion in one go, feeling his breathing slow and the tension in his muscles ease. It still wasn’t enough, but he felt like he could stand back up now that the adrenaline in his body was starting to fade.

“That was… Something else.” was all Hannah managed to say as Jack joined her watching the battle.

“Not done yet.” Jack said, watching the draugr clash. We were winning, and by a fair amount, it seemed. The red-eyed draugr were getting pushed further and further back. The queen sending the occasional devastating volley into the battle. Things seemed to be going according to plan. He scanned the field for Onem, but the draugr was yet to reveal himself, likely waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike out at Gurthok.

“Still have enough drops of mana for Gurthok?” Hannah asked as the two recovered.

“Yea. Think he’ll show soon?”

Hannah stared off in the distance, towards the castle for a long moment. “I think he’s already here.” Was all she offered.

Jack watched as the red-eyed draugr all let loose another discordant scream all at the same time, the red fire in their eyes burning brighter and brighter until it ran down their cheeks and spilled off their chest like small rivers of flame. An uncomfortable heat bit at the surrounding air.

The sky turned a blood red.

A meteorite came crashing down, landing in the middle of the battle, uncaring of friend or foe. At its epicenter, a man on fire. He stood up slowly, red flames licking his body, a smile on his face.

“He stole my move.” Jack complained, staring at the berserker king.

“You ready?”

“Not sure we have a choice.” Jack muttered, cranking his shoulder and walking back out onto the field. Jack took slow steps back towards the action, Hannah walking at his side.

He let the tension bleed out of his body for the second time as he took steadying breaths. This is it. He told himself. Nothing else mattered aside from this. One way or another, it all ended here. Jack let go of all his fears, of anything that threatened to hold him back. He took another deep breath as he focused on the second drop of mana.

“Good luck” was the last thing he heard as he fed the drop to [Storm Step].

He was high above the clashing army in a second. To his surprise, Gurthok was staring up at him. He threw out his hands in a challenge. Jack activated the second part of storm step, crashing down on the king in a dangerous crash of lightning. It was weaker than it could have been, but that was ok. It saved Jack’s legs from breaking. Gurthok was clearly not ready for such a volatile attack as storm step blasted through his guards, his arms wide open and his chest exposed. Jack fed his full strength drop into another [Lightning Centipedes Bite]. The condensed mana ripped through his channels, burning his arms from the inside out. Two enormous fangs superimposed themselves over Jack’s arms, wreathed in a dangerous lightning, all aimed at Gurthok’s head.

In a blast of movement so fast not even Jack could keep up, Gurthok met the attack head on, his own plain simple axes lashing out to meet Jack’s fangs. Jack’s eyes went wide as Gurthok deflected the blow. The man’s arms snapped in the process - but he had stopped the attack. Jack panted hard, staring at Gurthok in disbelief, lightning biting at the surrounding air.

“Nice attack.” Gurthok said behind a smile, his arms repairing themselves in a second.

Jacks’ arms were now cracked and in pain, but he tightened his grip on his daggers. The opening attack had failed, yet he found his smile matching Gurthoks. It was all or nothing. He couldn’t stop here. So he might as well enjoy his last fight.