Chapter 91 – Monster

Jack felt the cool water drench his entire body and shock his entire system awake. The burns from the explosion healed in seconds and his arm and leg re-knit themselves as the cold, refreshing waters did its magic. Jack tried to call out to Sarah, but water poured into his mouth, causing him to cough and choke.

After a long few seconds, Jack’s vision cleared, and his head quit swimming. He looked around the battlefield, frantically searching for Sarah.

What the hell is she doing here? Jack asked himself, his heart racing as his eyes shifted from fight to fight. There was still an intense battle raging on as members of the Rough House clashed against soldiers of the U.F.E.

Worse still, Crowen soldiers had arrived. Jack watched crows circling in the air above, making dive bombs towards the ground and landing in an explosion of black feathers and purple energy that gave way to a Crowen soldier. Jack never found Sarah in the chaos, and he was starting to believe he had imagined the whole thing. Then it started raining again. Each drop was a perfect emerald blue that pelted his skin and left him feeling invigorated, not tired. Jack watched as the rains revitalized the U.F.E. soldiers, sending them into an overdrive as they pressed their attacks even harder against their opponents.

Is this her? Is Sarah doing this? Jack wondered, now scanning the battlefield for Gideon and Rodeo.

His blood ran cold at the thought of Rodeo.

If Rodeo was in his head for the past several days, there wasn’t a chance in hell he didn’t know about Sarah, and if she was here, Rodeo would definitely use her against Jack. He grimaced at the thought and pushed himself up off the ground.

He’d fucked up. He got caught up in Rodeo’s pace. He let the man distract him, manipulate him even. Jack should have just teamed up with Gideon and tried to take out Rodeo in one fell swoop, but no, he got greedy and blew his chance to kill Rodeo. Now Sarah was here, and she was in danger.

“Never again.” Jack growled, picking up his daggers off the ground. He kicked off his other boot and felt the ground beneath his feet. He took in several deep breaths as he absorbed his surroundings. Jack had been marching along to Rodeo’s beat from the second he stepped foot back in the Rough House.

Jack allowed himself a small moment of chastisement. If he was being honest, he was holding back. Seeing Rodeo had reminded him of the man he had turned Jack into. Jack didn’t want to be that man. He wasn’t that man anymore.

Rodeo created the monster. But you’re the one who controls it now. Not him. Jack told himself again, thinking back to his time in the dungeon. He didn’t have to be one thing or the other. He could be whoever he wanted to be. Whoever he needed to be. He was the one in control now. Not Rodeo.

Jack slowly let his bloodlust flow through him, infecting every inch of his body. He could hear the faint, primal scream of a monster deep in his heart and he felt his grip tighten on his daggers in excitement. Several of the small skirmishes happening around him came to a pause as they all stopped to stare at Jack, eyes wide and uncertain. Jack felt a lazy, dangerous smile slide onto his face as he took in his surroundings. Right now, he needed to be the monster.

“First. Let’s thin the herd a little,” he mused to himself.

Jack fell forward in an explosive burst of speed, falling into [Storm Stance] as he lashed out like lightning towards his first victims. Three Crowen soldiers fell dead to the ground in an instant. Each strike from Jack’s daggers ripping through them with the unrelenting force of lightning. Jack stopped briefly, taking another deep breath and letting the refreshing rains revitalize him as he sighted in on new targets. The battlefield was slow to adjust to the addition of a new monster. Drawn out battles between Rough House members and the U.F.E. came to a close in seconds after the unstoppable storm of lightning that was Jack rained down upon them. The tides had shifted in mere seconds as Jack tore through his enemies without prejudice. He came to a stop as he crossed paths with a familiar opponent.

“I’ve been looking forward to this.” said the snake-like man, pulling his hook blade free from one of the several corpses of U.F.E. soldiers that littered the surrounding ground.

“Did you know Rodeo tried to start the Rough House back up again back on Earth?” Jack said, taking a lazy stance and flipping one dagger in his hand. “Wanna know why it never took off?”

“Why?” the snake man hissed at him, arms stretching out like whips and slithering through the air.

“Because no one could survive a fight against me.” Jack grinned, disappearing in a flash as he moved through the tangle of limbs that whipped out at him with devastating power. It didn’t matter what he did. Trying to hit Jack was like trying to hit a cloud. Storm stance would not allow him to be hit by such weak and slow attacks. Jack was inside his defenses before he had time to respond. His daggers bit at his neck and ripped through his throat. Jack watched as the man’s head rolled to the ground, his eyes still wide in shock.

Jack turned around, taking stock of the battlefield. The pace had changed and the U.F.E. were now the ones in control. Both the Crowen soldiers and Rough House fighters were unable to keep up as the U.F.E. closed in on them. Jack ran towards the front gate of the compound where he could hear more fighting outside. The battle raging outside was even bigger and more chaotic. Jack spotted Gideon first. The man was standing on the road that led to the compound, facing off a small army of Crowen soldiers that had him near surrounded.

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Gideon lashed out with a claw, ripping through half a dozen soldiers, and setting them on fire with his golden flames. He spun around with his giant curved scimitar, cutting through anything that was stupid enough to approach him. Jack’s eyes went wide as he watched Gideon roar, a torrent of golden flames spraying out of his mouth and melting a pack of soldiers. Even more surprising was Hannah. She was sending shot after shot into the approaching army, guarding Gideon’s blind spots, and thinning the herd with her own devastating AOE attacks and three bows in the air, raining down fiery destruction. Jack wondered why she was helping Gideon, but he quickly got his answer.

“Jack!” came a voice that put a smile on Jack’s face. He turned to see Sammy approaching. He was wearing a blue coat and had a pair of gauntlets on that went up to the elbow. He wore greaves and a shining silver breastplate under his coat. He had an enormous two-handed sword propped up on his shoulder. Sam looked a little bigger, and even more confident as he strode up to Jack, a smile matching his own.

“Looking good, Sam. Finally get laid?”

“What?” Sam instantly blushed. “No. I’m just happy to- wait. Why did you ask me that?” Sam said, suddenly flustered.

At least he’s still awkward. Jack grinned to himself.

“Never mind that.” Sam quickly said. “You need to help Gideon. Rodeo is getting away.”

Jack’s smile turned into a frown in a second as he stared at Gideon fending off the army.

“Rodeo somewhere in that mess?”

“We think he’s retreating. He escaped at some point during the explosion. We have to kill him, Jack, otherwise this entire mission is a failure. Gideon would kill him, but he’s… busy.” Sam grimaced, turning to look at the dragon holding off what was shaping up to be an entire army.

I wonder what they thought was going to happen raiding a spot this close to the capitol, Jack wondered to himself, trying to piece together their haphazard mission. Things must be going poorly for the U.F.E. if they are trying a plan this suicidal.

“Here,” Sam said, pulling something out from behind his coat. Jack’s smile returned as Sam handed him his flintlock.

“God, I’ve missed this.” Jack grinned, taking the gun and giving it a few test spins.

“There are only two types of bullets. I tried to get more, but it requires a delicate touch that most people aren’t capable of,” Sam grimaced. “It has my haste shot, which basically just shoots the bullet extremely fast and gives the haste buff to whoever it hits, provided they don’t die. Gideon also made some dragon shots for me. Careful with that one, though, they're pretty powerful.”

Jack took the ammunition and inspected the blue round haste shot before loading it into the gun and sighting in on a Crowen soldier running through the nearby trees. Jack pulled the trigger.

The shot was so fast he didn’t even see it. Jack wasn’t even sure he hit the target, but then the soldier started moving extremely fast, tumbling forward and slamming into a tree at an accelerated speed.

“Nice.” Jack said, loading up another shot and tucking it into his belt. “Now tell me where Sarah is.” Jack said, turning serious again.

“She…” Sam started, eyes going wide. Then his face turned serious as he stared Jack in the eyes. “She doesn’t need your protection, Jack.” He said in an uncharacteristic tone of chastisement. “She’s stronger than anyone here and can fend for herself. Don’t worry about her and just focus on killing Rodeo. Also stop trying to kill Gideon, that’s just going to piss her off.”

Jack worked his jaw for a long moment, trying to process that slew of information.

“How many times did Sarah make you rehearse that?” Jack finally asked. Sam looked down at his feet in embarrassment.

“Alright fine, I'll trust you that she's fine. But once I’ve cleaned up this mess, me and you are going to have a long talk about just what sort of information you’ve been sharing with our dragon friend over there.” Jack said with a nod towards Gideon, who seemed to be getting more… dragon like the more he fought, with giant flaming wings having erupted from his back. “Also, look out behind you.” Jack pointed at three Crowen soldiers who rounded the corner of the compound, eyes locked on Jack and Sam.

Sam disappeared in a flash of blue energy, leaving Jack alone to deal with the approaching soldiers.

Jack sighed and pulled out his daggers, smiling to himself that Sam still hadn’t really changed. Then his eyes went wide as he watched Sam reappear behind one of the approaching soldiers, sword held high above his head, bringing it down in a devastating slash that cleaved through the first soldier. Sam had a hectic exchange with the other two soldiers, moving around like a frantic mess and Jack moved in to help. Then Sam disappeared again, then reappeared in front of another one of the soldiers, swinging his sword like a Louisville slugger. The soldier raised his weapon to defend, but Sam was gone again before he made contact. He popped up behind the soldier in a second slamming the sword into his back and cutting him in half. Sam turned, ran up the wall halfway and pushed off it, thrusting into the air at nothing, then he disappeared a final time. When he reappeared again, he completed his thrust, skewering the final soldier through the stomach.

His eyes were wide, and he was panting heavily. He wore a shell shocked look on his face before grimacing and clenching his teeth hard, turning to look back at Jack as he pulled his sword free.

“I look forward to our talk.” Sam nodded, before disappearing again.

“Huh.” Jack said, not quite sure what to do with a badass, confident Sam.

Then he turned back to the chaotic fighting going on all around him. He recognized some of the U.F.E. soldiers. He was certain this was the group they briefly had a run in outside of the dungeon with. The dangerous-looking woman in a brown duster and a saber who danced through the opponent with an impressive speed. There was an untouchable warrior, blocking every attack thrown at him and matching with devastating counters of his own. There were several mages alongside them standing on brightly growing runic circles and slinging spells in every direction.

Jack let out a content sigh as the heavy rain fell down on him, replenishing his stamina. He wore a small smile on his face. Sam was safe. Hannah was safe. Sarah was here somewhere, and it sounded as though she was safe as well. Rodeo hadn’t won yet. Jack just had to find him and kill him before he could cause anymore damage. He still had time.

Jack took a step forward towards Gideon and the army he was fending off. He let go of everything weighing him down. All of his thoughts and his concerns. All of his fears. There was no place for baggage in a fight against Rodeo. He let his bloodlust build back up and flow through his body until it drowned out everything else.

It was time to show Rodeo just what sort of monster he had created.