114. 13th Freak of Freaks (II)

The first gangster to face the 13th Freak of Freaks came in contact with [Guillotine-G]. Jay applied the Skill on his hand for a karate chop, which exuded a large, purple blade that grew stronger when falling in the direction of Jay’s manipulated gravity. The gangster split apart into two halves down the middle, hurling blood and organs everywhere.

The explosion of gore and death shocked the nearest gangsters. They had a poor understanding of how much magic damage Jay could dish out when pitted against their low Poise. It was for this reason that Jay had chosen Intellect as one of his four extremely boosted Attributes. More magic damage. Faster mind to go with it.

Jay had chosen Resilience and Poise to survive the modified Chance outcomes and the narrative supporting the gangsters. The gangsters had more numbers. They were defending their turf. They had their king amid them, urging the gangsters on to defeat the invader. Their Chance Status might get boosted even more due to these narrative reasonings.

That was perfectly fine. Jay would have too much Resilience for any solid blow to land a convincing hit. His Poise would be so ridiculously high that every attempt to catch him in a field of magic would slide off and do diddly squat. Magic projectiles splashed against him like they were playing with water balloons and squirt guns. They only stung a little.

The Chance modifiers were simply not enough to overcome Jay’s Attribute advantages among pockets of gangsters Jay threw himself into. The narrative was too spread out among so many combatants, too. By trying to modify the Chance of an entire army against Jay, the narrative had weakened itself based on that army when faced against a single fighter. This all became highlighted by Jay’s boosted Discovery plus his Commander of Challenge and Change Title and other powers.

Jay remembered how he looked at Discovery as a useful Attribute back in the early days of crawling the Toyreveler Dungeon. It became obscenely useful here when Chance would throw in attempts at tripping Jay or sliding in means to have him fall into a trap that could hurt a little more than a sting. But Jay’s extremely boosted Discovery would see areas of opportunity to thwart the Chance of his enemies.

Discovery was a good Attribute to have even when Chance was against you. This was why Macy was a powerful [Crafter] despite the areas she lacked that would be more conventional. She fully invested in Discovery, and when given enough opportunities, could bring down the gods.

Jay chose Discovery even though he could’ve gone with Agility or Strength for more physical damage. But those Attributes didn’t need extra boosting. He had more than enough for this situation. He had more than enough Conviction, too. And there was no need to touch Perception since he had plenty of that. Most of his abilities scaled with perception, but having more Intellect made it easier to direct more Mana faster into each ability as he used them.

And he needed to work his way from the top to the bottom while saving Doug for last to satisfy his Young Virtuoso and Prodigy Titles.

Still, even with the boosts, three hundred magic gangsters were a lot to face. Jay had his work cut out for him. But he had his women watching, so he had to put forth the effort. And he wasn’t alone in this bloody madness.

The first targets were the highest Rank 2 gangsters. They were the most likely to have better Chance modifications, too, which could threaten Jay somewhat. Their Resilience and Poise might offer some resistance. They were the biggest threats outside of Doug. But there were a lot less of these enemies compared to lower Rank 2s and the Rank 1s.

With Jay juiced by the greatest amount of Attribute-focused power he’d ever felt, he slipped through the smallest holes in the gangster army’s formation. He stayed closer to the ground to throw the gangster army into disarray with his passing while he hunted for the heads of Rank 2s in their high twenties in levels.

Jay took his hits. He shrugged them off. Then Jay danced on his enemies and used Capoeira. He twisted gravity around for himself as he swung a kick bearing a gravity-shaped cleaver. Heads rolled. Blood sprayed up in geysers. Nearby gangsters caught by Jay’s gravity-cleaver attacks cried from losing a limb or getting their torsos sliced open. Jay paid them little mind.

He slipped on blood and gravel somehow. He used that spot of bad Chance as an opportunity to spring off his hands and throw himself at his next target. He kept on the move. Staying on the ground made it harder for the army to blast at him or use fields of magic without hurting each other. It also threw everyone into chaos. This made Jay smile. This made Jay thrive. The burning hunger inside of Jay grew.

Jay jumped into the face of a giant man standing as tall as twenty feet. Jay ensnared the giant with his massive magical power and brought the giant into the air. He used the giant to shield anti-air magic projectiles and slammed him on the gangsters who failed to run away in time. Then Jay hacked off the head of the sizeshifter before he rocketed toward his next target using a gravity dash pad.

He streaked across the air with his foot coated in neon purple light that painted a bright trail behind him. His flying kick ended with an explosion of magic that cratered the ground and tore apart the nearest gangsters caught in the epicenter. The target of Jay’s kick had been one of the more magical gangsters here, and despite having decent Poise, Jay’s power was so overwhelming, it exploded the man.

The still living gangsters who survived the explosion but were too damaged to get away cried and garnered Jay’s attention. He swept them up with a flex of his gravity powers, slinging them around easily due to their grossly lowered Poise. As if they had no Poise whatsoever. More than a dozen men whirled round and round with Jay at the center of the spiraling gravity globe, accelerating his victims to higher speeds.

Jay shot still-living gangsters at the most congested groups of gangsters around him. The sailing men screamed as they crashed into their comrades, sometimes dying from the impact if they were lucky enough. A few men Jay had slung at high speeds had decent Resilience and ended up splattering to death others with lower Resilience. They couldn’t endure the impacts of flesh and bone enhanced by the System and gravity magic.

The fun truly began when Doug finally threw himself into the fight to intervene. He dashed in faster than Jay could move for a hit or two. Then he would run away before Jay could reply with a strong magical attack that would surely hurt Doug. The moment Doug stunned Jay, the gangster army would rain down their attacks. Boulders of earth. Spears of fire. Magical hail. Acid. Mystical wolf heads. Lightning hammers. An aura construct that looked like a famous boxer. And more. Plenty more. After those volleys of powers, the most hands-on gangsters would run in and try to pummel Jay directly.

Jay threw them into the sky and let Kleo and Mary take care of them. Those two were working in the background while Jay rampaged. Kleo knew of her master’s intent. She swung Mary around her faster than she had ever spun an object before. She grew in power just like her master, especially with Intellect and Discovery getting boosted. Whenever the gangsters got too distracted by Jay….

Kleo would dive down and cleave Mary through a high Rank 2 and kill them in a few short scant moments. Then she would fly low across the ground with Mary spiraling constantly around her like a blue buzzsaw, hacking feet off by the ankles. Once an opening presented itself to fly away, Kleo would take it. Everytime her master tossed men into the air without falling up with them, Kleo and Mary would buzz through them and make it rain blood and limbs on the gangster army.

“How is this happening?” screamed one man after losing an arm to Jay and a foot to Kleo.

The disabled survivor was sitting while soaked in the blood of his allies, surrounded by limbs, heads, guts, and worse. The sky rained more blood and limbs after men had been tossed into the air and chewed up by Kleo and Mary. Without the gore, all that could be seen above the injured man was pretty blue-white magic lights and laughing green-yellow flakes dancing on the wind.

It was pure madness.

“No more!” the man shouted, turning to hobble away with one leg and arm.

He disintegrated.

Another man trying to hold his guts in saw this man disintegrate. He looked at Jay’s spiraling form as the teenager cleaved and blasted gangsters with karate chops and spinning kicks. If Jay fell into a group with low Poise, he threw them into the sky where they would meet their demise by another’s blade.

The man with the gut wound looked at the spot where the other man disintegrated.

“Fuck this.” The man with the gut wound turned to flee. He disintegrated, too. His fine particles drifted with the passing wind, swirling with green-yellow flakes and blue-white magic lights.

More fine particles of gangsters choosing disintegration rather than facing a freaky slaughter would dance along the wind. If not, then the air would fill with thousands of carrions and scavenging bugs. By the time Jay had to drop the Attribute boosts and let his Chance fill up and exceed past the cap, about thirty gangsters remained.

Surprisingly, Billy stood among them.

Jay yawned from his throne of corpses that Kleo and Mary had made for him. Kleo did more of the lifting and placing with gravity magic. Mary did the more fun part, chopping apart gangsters.

It brought to question what Mary would consider immoral. She had no issue with arranging the bodies of defeated enemies into a fifteen-foot throne for Jay to sit on and look down on the remaining gangsters. Maybe Mary’s style of justice was a lot more extreme than people would think. Or she found the gangsters so unforgivable that Jay hadn’t crossed any lines with her.

Mary was quite mad as a spirit of Slaying Justice. She fitted Jay’s hand very well after Kleo gave the blade back to him. The [Faerie] sat on Jay’s left shoulder while he waved Mary around playfully in his right hand, tracing the air faintly with Mary’s blue radiance. The remaining gangsters, even Doug, gaped up at Jay in fear and apprehension as if waiting for his verdict.

“Kleo, remove the rest for me. Leave Doug,” Jay ordered.

Kleo smiled mischievously. She ensnared the mind of the last remaining female gangster amid this poor group. Kleo forced the woman to scream, and then Kleo applied her [Influential Actor] Talent through the woman’s mouth.

“Run! We have to run! Or they’ll take our souls next!” she screamed, her voice enhanced by Kleo’s influence. Billy and the survivors couldn’t hope to defend themselves from the manipulation. Especially with their Conviction having been thoroughly crushed. They ran and disintegrated themselves.

Only Doug remained in a field of blood, guts, body parts, and worse.

“Dude,” Doug said with a trembling voice. “You’re evil.”

Jay looked at Mary. She glinted with blue radiance like usual.

“Not to Mary,” Jay said. “She’s the Knife of Slaying Justice. I’m doing good work.”

Doug looked around him at the horrific travesty that had been wrought. A mass murder that would make all of his efforts to gain his position look like child’s play. Doug looked past Jay and saw YoAnna sitting on top of the Flaming Mother with Jhara and Fuzzy.

“How can you let this happen?” Doug asked.

“You’ve challenged my Commander,” YoAnna said. “You’ve been found wanting. Though, what my Commander decides to do is his prerogative. It’s definitely quite grisly. I will certainly keep a focus on turning to dust fools such as yourselves when the opportunity arrives.”

Doug shook his head.

YoAnna continued, “This is the end of you. You have two choices. Die by violence. Or die by divinity. Face Jay like a warrior. Or turn to dust as a coward. What will it be, Doug?”

Jay watched intently as the Roach King struggled with the choice. He’d suffered some wounds while trying to interrupt Jay’s steady massacre. He might’ve hurt Jay if he’d kept fighting while Jay whittled the gangster army down to sub one hundred people. His boosts had shrunk considerably by then. But Doug stopped all of his actions when he realized Jay was more focused on the subordinates. Doug had stood by and watched as his men died to Jay or ran and got turned to dust by YoAnna.

Now Doug was alone.

“I just wanted to be strong,” Doug said. “So they’ll stop bullying me. The whole Duffelbag Doug nickname worked out for me sometimes. But there were other sellers, y’know. And they wanted to kick me to the curb. They literally did.”

Doug met Jay’s eyes. “I saw my opportunity here. I stepped up. I did what I had to do when it was your mistake in the first place. And now I get punished because of you guys? Is that what happens when you don’t like how we do things even though it’s your fault? You come around and step on us little guys?”

“Did you kill innocent people for levels instead of protecting yourself?” Jay asked Doug.

Doug shifted uncomfortably.

“Did you capture and eat Yoroachian Fairies even when they did you no harm?” Jay pointed the Knife of Slaying Justice at Fuzzy.

“That’s a damn monster!” Doug shouted.

“With feelings. With a nature that is good. And wants to help. And it can talk our language and understand us. But you caught them and ate them, didn’t you? For power. For levels. To become the bug I have to step on, right?”

Doug opened and closed his mouth.

“Look, man. Trying to fight the moral ground with me isn’t going to cut it. My Pantheon Leader told you the choices you have. Face the blade, me. Or die in disgrace, YoAnna. If you choose the latter, at least she’ll make it painless.”

Doug faced away. He started to cry on the first step. He started to sob on the second. He paused midway through the third step, right before he would’ve gotten turned to dust. Doug refaced Jay, his hands balled into trembling fists.

Jay smiled. The [Freak] stood from the top of his throne and walked down the fleshy steps marked on each side by bodiless heads. It was as gruesome and over the top as it could get. Everyone seeing this would either lose their lunch or inflame the hype behind him as some violent devil held on a leash by the goddess-to-be.

They would see him as the scariest force on earth, and see YoAnna, and possibly Britney, as their most benevolent saviors keeping back a [Freak] like Jay. If this was to be the end of him, at the very least, Jay would leave his mark upon this world as the greatest evil ever witnessed even when he truly wanted to be a hero of comedy.

Doug did his best. He had good abilities enhanced by his Rank 3 nature. But Jay had his Chance Status filled to the top plus extra. For the first time ever, Jay had the full favor of the System’s narrative in Junkside. Even though he had to mug three hundred gangsters for it. All of those extra Chance Modifiers meant Jay could abuse a trick he’d been wanting to take more advantage of.

Jay’s left eye shone brighter than ever before. The divine light hid his face behind its silver-gold magnificence.

He used a perk from the [Eye of Venerated Madness] Talent: future-vision. For every Chance Modifier sacrificed, Jay could see seconds into the future within his view. Doug’s future actions became shimmering golden rings extending beyond him. Jay moved where Doug wouldn’t hit and punished Doug for his failed attempts with a slice, or two, or three, or five from the Knife of Slaying Justice.

Up and down Doug’s body, Jay attacked, hacking away at the Roach King, forcing Doug to graft his wounds fast for the sake of his survival. Jay’s Chance Status dropped steadily, but he had more than enough to reach his goal.

Jay was keeping track of all the cuts he had struck on Doug. He beat Doug down with magic and combat efficiency Doug couldn’t hope to defeat even with his monstrous Rank 3 powers.

Doug blasted at Jay. Doug threw a barrage of punches. He used Skill after Skill. Doug kept trying, pushing past the pain of getting hacked apart while failing to land a hit. Jay swept around his every attempt and put the kukri on Doug again and again.

Then Doug lost an arm and didn’t have the power to graft it back in place. He had plenty of open wounds that he couldn’t seal shut anymore. He stood shakily after suffering so much, his emotions a storm of regret, horror, pain, and a spark of defiance that wouldn’t let him quit. Despite all he’d done, he still wanted to fight his way out of this. He still wanted to survive. He kind of reminded Jay of Frank, who would probably get angry if Jay died.

Jay hesitated.

“See it through, Commander,” YoAnna urged softly. “We shall take care of the rest.”

Jay relaxed, trusting YoAnna’s words. There were plenty of reasons not to. She’d been a manipulative force for a long while. But he trusted her nonetheless. They would deal with their issues down the road.

“Ready to die, Doug?” Jay asked.

“Hell no,” Doug said. “I’m going to pull something out my ass and win this.”

“Good,” Jay said, feeling a nudge from 4D headspace. “You will need that attitude for what is to come.”

Doug rushed for one final attack. His brownish aura blazed around his remaining fist. Despite Jay’s dominance, the Pantheon Commander was still low in Health after so much fighting. His Stamina was pretty down in the dumps, too. And Jay had abused his Chance with repeated uses of [Eye of Venerated Madness] until it looked about average. Too low for exceptional modifications

For a brief moment, as if the System wanted to pull an upset against Jay and YoAnna, Doug’s Chance modifiers shot up. This final hit would kill Jay, and it had a good amount of Chance for Doug to hit regardless of what Jay did.

“One-hundred seventy.” Jay picked up his mom’s machete from the bloody, corpse-riddled ground.

Doug lost his head to a Basic machete enhanced by the Number of Power multiplied by ten. His beheading was the final cut Jay would deliver to Doug to get one hundred seventy.

The climactic fight between the Pantheon Commander and Roach King came to a conclusion.

The fight to save Jay’s life started from there. Kleo jumped into her master’s body, inviting Mary’s spirit inside. YoAnna sailed through the air with Mom and Fuzzy right when Doug’s head started flying from his shoulders.

She became twenty-five feet tall again, holding Mom to her chest with one arm while grabbing Doug’s head with her free hand. She touched Doug’s head to the machete that was still in Jay’s grip as the [Freak’s] eyes went black.

The system-approved wraith started working its way to taking Jay’s soul. It found resistance from Mary, a Rank 3 equivalent spirit, and Kleo, who had made a home inside of Jay. They would not be enough to stop a wraith blessed by the System Admins.

“Fuzzy, enhance the machete as a proper receptacle for a strong soul, please,” YoAnna requested.

“Y-yes, mother of the blood!” Fuzzy said, riding on the giant [Godling’s] shoulder.

As Fuzzy used [Seelie Magic], YoAnna uttered a divine decree that shook the air. “You have seen a sky that rained blood and gore, you have been met with a power that you couldn’t hope to defeat, you have been thwarted, demeaned, and stepped on, no matter if you are deserving of such, for you have suffered under the crossing of greater forces than you.” YoAnna inhaled sharply. “And yet, you’ve impressed the deity who sought to demean and crush you. You’ve earned a smile from the monster who came to hack you with the blade. You turned away from the coward’s path, and raised your head in defiance against the invaders, and you died on your feet fighting regardless of your sins. For this, I applaud. For this, I will take you. For this, I will have you redeem yourself. Hack your way free of your sins. Carve through the flesh of all enemies awaiting us on the violent path of challenge and change, Blade of Redeeming Struggle.”

YoAnna trembled, almost out of breath somehow.

“The machete’s ready!” Fuzzy shouted.

“Do you accept such a position, Douglas Kingsley?” YoAnna asked. “Will you join us and become greater than you ever have even after death?”

There was no response.

The wraith inside of Jay started to burrow deeper, pushing Mary and Kleo aside. It would soon have Jay’s soul, killing him for good.

The machete glowed a burnt orange as big and bright as a bonfire. It became the Blade of Redeeming Struggle.

[Blade of Redeeming Struggle, Great]: A blackened machete with a burnt orange aura that’s representative of the soul it contains, Douglas Kingsley, a struggler on a quest for redemption. In the face of great odds, any warrior wielding this blade will find themselves hardened, given greater brawn, and have their spirit constantly renewed even when beaten down. The wielder of this blade must be fighting against a great struggle that can not be overcomed easily, raising your Conviction extremely. This blade can hack through the toughest of foes and keep your body and spirit shielded even if it comes down to an absolute dog fight.

Doug’s entrance into the fight for Jay’s soul surprised the wraith. Doug punched it back. Between Doug and Mary, Kleo could afford a moment to concentrate and weave her magic better.

Kleo did what she did best: she sipped on secrets for power, became a slayer of tyranny, wielded calamity to punish the divine, and let loose her devilish appetite to feast on providence.

Kleo ate the wraith and saved her master. The wraith didn’t die right away. Even after the ordeal had concluded, when Kleo opened her mouth, the wraith’s echoing screams could be heard inside a prison who would digest and recycle the creature to make Jay even stronger.

Jay blinked at Kleo, becoming conscious again. Kleo sat on YoAnna’s shoulder, patting her happy belly.

Jay occupied one arm of giant YoAnna as she carried him and Mom like small children. YoAnna was on the move to meet with the Champions, striding through the ruins of Junkside.

“You had a wild day, huh?” Mom asked from across YoAnna’s chest.

“Yeah,” Jay said. “How was yours?”

“Pretty hard. I’m due for a vacation.”

“I have so much work waiting for me.” Jay sighed. “Look where we’re are, and I can’t even enjoy the moment from all the dread of what YoAnna’s gonna need from me.”

“Sucks to be you,” Jhara said. “Drinks after?”

“Yeah, I think I’ll like that,” Jay said.

“What do they drink?” Fuzzy asked from YoAnna’s left shoulder.

“Mostly rum cocktails. I’ll share with you,” Kleo said from YoAnna’s right shoulder.

“My fairy will outdrink your fairy,” Jhara challenged.

“Ten malarkey. We’ll see,” Jay said.

“Bet,” Jhara accepted.

YoAnna sighed like a passing gale.

“The leak in the apocalypse spreads further, and you think of drinking,” YoAnna said, her voice both thunderous and loving. It was as if the son and mother annoyed and humored her at the same time. Her godly voice shook them both while being held against her chest. “There are no creatures like you Luckruns.”

“That’s us!” cheered Jay and Jhara Luckrun.