Chapter 29: Chapter 29: All Together Now

“Come on you damn drunkie, don’t die yet. There are still a few more barrels of rum in your room. Now, who’s going to drink all that? The customers?” Jacked tied a tourniquet around her stump.

“Oh, I’m not dying yet, Gnome-beard. I haven’t killed the rusted bitch who did this to my drinking hand. Everyone in this damn town and around it seems to forget that one of the Demon Lord’s killers is still around,” Sinta punched Jacked’s face with her bloody stump. It was faint despite it taking most of her energy to do.

Face pale and sweaty, she struggled to keep her eyes open. Too much blood had been lost, if they’d arrived a little later they probably would’ve never found her crushed under the big man she carried and used as a shield against the rain.

Nox sped through the now empty streets. Her first day in her new place and her landlord was already dying. The eyes of the desperate stared at her, peering through their holed walls and windows. She already knew that she couldn’t save them all, especially with the injury she has yet to heal, carrying it the past decade.

 

They arrived at Savepoint Bar, and the radius of the moat outside seemed to grow larger. Inside the bar, Eeya sat on the floor drenched in sweat and doing the same arm movements she did before they left. Opening her eyes and seeing the state that Sinta was in almost caused her to break the spell.

“No, you keep going with that barrier. I’ll tend to Sinta,” Nox threw her broom on one of the tables; rolling her sleeves up and pinning its straps to her shoulders, they laid Sinta down on a table.

“Good job with watching over the bar, girl. Hah! I might be able to leave you running it for a few hours while I play cards at the better bar,” Sinta smiled at Eeya, patting her on the hand when they went past her.

“I’ll make you a new hand when the rain stops. Something made out of plant magic. I know it’s possible, I just have to ask the spirits. They’ll make an exception for you, I promise,” tears streamed down her face, messing up the little makeup she wore.

“I’m sure it is, you can do anything,” there wasn’t much strength in her voice.

“Eeya,” Jacked interjected. “It might be too much to ask, but can you communicate with the Phoenix from here? Is it awake?”

“Yeah, I’ll check,” her eyes rolled back, showing only the whites of her eyes.

“Phoenix? You know a Phoenix that’s nearby!? Why didn’t you say that earlier? We could make a contract with it and it’ll wipe out their entire army in a second!” Nox exclaimed while she was cleaning Sinta’s wounds.

“About that,” Jacked sighed. “It’s under the bar.”

“A Phoenix” –she stammered–“is underground? What, do you have it chained up? Did you capture one!?” She shouted, her mouth near Sinta’s ear.

“No, no, its soul merged with a Forged Turtle instead of a random bird and it’s still an infant,” he confessed and cast his head down.

“And you’re only telling me this now!?” Nox screamed.

“Oh, keep it down, woman,” Sinta groaned. “Pretty face, nasty mouth. Hey, smooth head, hand me a bottle. Doesn’t matter which one as long as it has alcohol in it. Might make these voices next to my ear, shut up!” She screamed next to her ear as well and extended her good hand out.

He gave her an unopened bottle. “I’m telling you now. So, what do we do if things get worse out there?”

“Now that you’ve told me about the Phoenix let me tell you about something too. I don’t think I have enough mana crystals for two trips on the broom. Shit, I never got around to replenishing the ones used for space hopping too. The last one I had was when we came back from that mountain. I could probably carry Eeya and Sinta out of town,” she finished up her treatment on Sinta, a temporary fix. “But you’d have to escape on foot and I don’t know what the Phoenix could even do to save itself since it’s still a baby.”

“You lot don’t have to worry about me when you have to leave. I’m staying right here. But you have to take Eeya with you, she has no future here,” Sinta had already drunk half of the bottle.

“What!?” Eeya almost stopped the spell. “I’m not leaving if you’re not leaving!” She yelled from the floor.

“You are not! If I have to die in this shithole, then so be it. I cannot and will not part with the bar and this town. You, however, still have your own life to live. You haven’t even lived a tenth of my age,” Sinta started to get emotional by the end.

“You can’t do this to me,” Eeya started crying.

“Hey,” Sinta sniffled. “How about you two go somewhere else, we need some privacy. We’ll shout if something happens outside,” she asked the two wizards.

Jacked motioned for Nox to follow him to the basement with a nod of his head. Opening the trap door showed the faint, warm light that the Phoenix’s shell gave off.

“And, thank you,” Sinta added before they closed the door above them.

 

It got brighter and brighter up to a certain point, then it would get gradually dimmer until the surroundings got pitch black, repeating itself. The light he gave off matched his breathing. Cycling huge amounts of Mana throughout his body naturally without anyone teaching him. If only Dumog had a drop of the Phoenix’s talent.

There wasn’t much room inside the basement, three creaky steps and the low ceiling forced anyone to crouch or sit down. Jacked placed a hand and rested his forehead on the Phoenix’s shell. Still unresponsive, though Jacked couldn’t communicate with it even if it was awake.

“This is the Phoenix, huh? My guess is that it picked a Forged Turtle because of its temperature control and it laid eggs. It might've confused it as a suitable host to possess. Read theories about the possibility of it doing the exact thing, though a turtle was never mentioned as a compatible host,” Nox placed a hand on its shell as well. “But why is it so big? Forged Turtles never get this big, they’re usually as big as a bull. And this Mana seems different, altered,” she looked at him suspiciously.

“Fed and gave it some supplements. Remember the Dragon Mana I requested from Tunggak?” Jacked closed his eyes and rested for a while.

“And you gave it to an infant? Better hope that Lady Luck is fucking smiling, or at the least grinning. This is extremely risky, which isn’t normal for you. I’m the one who’s supposed to do the gambling,” she sounded more worried about the turtle than what was happening outside.

“If I didn’t like gambling then I wouldn’t be bald would I?” He spread his arms out and hugged the warm shell. “Oh, you big bitch, if only you can carry this janky building and run out of town,” he whispered to the turtle while pressing his whole face against it.

The shell started to get uncomfortably warm for his face. But before he could comment on it, footsteps came pounding from above. Dust fell on them, sending them into a sneezing fit. It was too lively to be Sinta’s. A moment later, Eeya opened the trapdoor and popped her head in upside down. No glow on her hands.

“The rain has stopped!” She announced, relieved with a slight bit of worry in her voice.

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Heavy and deep within their stomach, they all shared the same feeling. And it doesn’t take a sliver of magic to sense it. The same question hanging over their heads. Peace was a lie, they all wondered what was coming next. Jacked closed his eyes and took a deep breath, patting the turtle goodbye as he stood up and left the basement that violated several workplace safety laws.

“Let’s go check out who we’re up against,” he grinned and stepped out the front door.

 

Sky clear of any kind of dangers or enemies, it was still too early for any of them to relax. Defiled and ravaged, holes filled every inch of the town’s surface. The acid slowly sank into the ground which made it somewhat safe for the streets to be walked on. Though it wasn’t the same for the buildings. From the top floor going down, acid made its way to the people hiding below. The people's screams never stopped.

“To think that this is only a portion of what happened at Grayfield,” he said.

“They’re probably saving the acid they have left for last,” Nox brought her shotgun out. Her mana channels were strained and temporarily unavailable.

It looked more like an art piece than a weapon, priced like one too. The type of weapon most rich people don’t have access to. Only a select few crafters were skilled enough or had the knowledge to make a gun in the world, a guarded secret. Ironic for a mage to have one as it is the Anti-Mage’s favorite weapon. A gun has the power to make powerless people into a threat in an instant. Nox having one was a bad time, turning such a weapon magical.

“Why didn’t you let me borrow that thing when we were against the Foxes?” Jacked acted jealous, like a kid who wanted the other kid’s toy.

“You never shot one before, I didn’t want you accidentally shooting the back of my head,” she changed the crystal on her pipe back into the ice one.

“Because you never let me borrow it.”

“Hold up, I spot two blue things coming our way, down the street. So, the Kobolds are in on this too,” she raised her gun and took aim, waiting for them to get closer. All the dust and steam coming from the ground made it hard to see things far away.

“Wait, I’ll handle it. Save your shots. I need to blow off some steam anyways, I’ve been stressed since this morning,” he stopped her.

She nodded and lowered her gun. Jacked then proceeded to strip, removing the top half of his robes and leaving the long flowing pants on, for now. Nox rolled her eyes. He threw his robes at her face and rotated his arms in small circles, warming up his shoulders. A couple of short stretches later, he disappeared.

 

It looked like he used magic to dash and close the distance, but it wasn’t. With big muscles and mastery of his control over them, he could command every fiber of his body to generate extreme power and velocity. Of course, he did this without injuring or straining himself. He wasn’t going to use magic against some regular Kobolds. His fist at the ready, he made sure to only squeeze right before the impact.

“Jacked?” Why are you naked? Why are you huge!? What is” –it spoke and it wasn’t a Kobold.

The fine-tuned commands were already set, his mind couldn’t send the message fast enough. He was already in the middle of the punching motion when it spoke. His words and voice hadn’t even registered in his brain yet when he twisted his hips, layering more power behind the punch. It connected, his punch and the dots; it hit, his fist and the realization that it was Dumog.

“Sorry,” Jacked tried to say, but it sounded more like a grunt.

Trying to stop his punch was impossible in the split second, the most he could do was change its trajectory a bit. Instead of Dumog’s face, he lowered it to his chest area, where the top half of the Kobold’s body he carried on his shoulder was. Whether Dumog was lucky or not was up for debate as Jacked’s fist penetrated through the corpse–mitigating the damage–and then Dumog’s chest. Leaving a giant hole in the dead body, the punch launched Dumog in the air and sent him back several meters.

Dumog didn’t move, luckily he landed not anywhere near any acid. Jacked looked to the right. Amihan was in a fighting stance with a hammer in her hand.

“Welcome back,” he gave a sheepish smile.

---

Net Worth	-9,345 Gold (Debt to Jacked)
Items:	Description:
-Rags	A diaper stolen from a baby Kobold. He wears it to cover his private parts.
-Dwarven Boots	The boots of a Brewmaster who had large feet. Metal plates of unknown material riveted into the tough leather. It reaches up to below the knees. Given to him by Sinta.
-Unpoppable Balloon	A bright red balloon used for training.
-Mouth Guard	Dental care is expensive in all the other worlds.

 

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