Jakes Story 2, ch 26

Alright, Plan A and Plan B are a bust.  Time for Plan C.

Canophta’s heavy footsteps echoed on the marble floor, returning from wherever he’d gone to.  Jake’s original plan had been to escape his restraints, hide by the entry to the hallway the minotaur had gone down, and ambush him with everything he had left.

Jake tested his restraints in a way he hadn’t before, trying to test his range of motion.  Hmmm, no great, but not too bad, either.  A new plan, plan D was starting to form in Jake’s mind.  Plan C had actually been less than idea.  Plan D incorporated plan D but probably offered much higher odds of survival.

Of course, plan C and Plan D were only possible because Jake had spent ten years as a shadow ghoul.  He’d had plenty of time to grow fully accustomed to his new body.

Finally, Canophta returned.   He was carrying a huge, heavy-looking sword with a square end.  It was a giant minotaur-sized executioner blade.

When the minotaur came to a solemn halt, Jake jerked his thumb up at the restraint on his mouth.  He’d been wise enough not to  try takin it off himself.  Canophta seemed to understand what Jake was trying to say.  “If I take the muzzle off, do you promise to speak respectfully?”

With an effort of will, Jake avoided rolling his eyes and merely gave a curt nod.

The restraint over Jake’s mouth detached and slithered back into the floor.  As it did, Jake briefly wondered how they worked.  He’d been transported a long distance from the portal to this place.  Both the mage and cultivator parts of him considered the restraints, eventually deciding it was likely that the physical chains, cables, and other artifact parts had been left by the portal, connected to the minotaur’s lair by magic.  Once back here, they’d just reattached themselves.

Jake hadn’t known that restraints like these existed, although he probably should have after experiencing the suppression in the Web Burrows.  Maybe this knowledge would prove useful in the future if he didn’t have his head cut off in the next few minutes.

With his mouth free, Jake said, “Since I’m going to die anyway, do you mind satisfying some of my curiosity about this world and your very large, very impressive home?”

A little flattery rarely hurt, and it seemed to have hit the mark with Canophta.  The big minotaur swelled with pride.  Thank you.  I have spent two hundred years as your kind measure them on this place, configuring it for my needs, making it secure.  The world we are on helps with that.

“You see, the very nature of this world is illusion.  Unless one has been attuned with the planet the way only one of my kind can be, or they are almost as powerful as a god, they will become hopelessly lost and with time, be driven mad.  They would eventually destroy themselves.  So even though my power level is lacking on the universal scale, I am safe here.  And of course, after slaying you, my power level will rise.”

Jake really wanted to point out that, “slaying,” him right now would be more like a slaughter, but he kept his mouth shut.  Maybe he could get some information he could use.  “Well, if I’m going to die, at least it will have some sort of effect.  You said you will grow more poweful.  How?”

The minotaur looked at him like he was stupid.  “By using the Eternal Struggle Reward System, of course.  You are a champion.  Don’t you have access to it as well?”

“Yes.”  Jake drew out the word.

“Well, then you should know that killing an enemy champion brings points.  In my case, I will be rewarded extra points by gods that hate you.  The gods very rarely can reward points directly outside the system, but I know Ahriman will be glad to do so if you are killed.”

Jake frowned.  “But you said you will grow more powerful.

It was the minotaur’s turn to look confused again.  “Why would I get a new sword?  I can query the system for an elixir to directly increase my strength or magic power.  With the number of points I’ll get from your death, I will very easily be able to get an extremely high quality reward.”

“Oh,” said Jake.  Since he was a monster cultivator, it had changed how he viewed the world.  It never even occurred to him that other champions could just get stronger using the Eternal Struggle Reward System, but it made sense.  Maybe Jake could use it that way too, like try to get a rare, powerful monster core.  But that might also be a waste of the system’s benefits for him specifically.  Like, what if they could be obtained without too much fuss in the Murim world?

If only he hadn’t been stuck in the damn Web Burrows for a decade!  There was so much he felt behind on!

He reminded himself that none of this mattered if he died in Canophta’s living room.

Jake hung his head.  “I have a request.”

Canophta said, “I’m listening.”

“There is something—I must confess something.”

“Yes?”

“It is my darkest secret, something that would shake the very heavens if the wrong people knew it.:”

The minotaur’s curiosity had begun to peek through the stoic front he was showing.  “It is my duty to hear what you must tell me.”

Jake shook his head.  “No, you must swear to secrecy.  What I know will shake the very foundations of my world if it were well known.  The gods themselves would pay dearly to know this secret.”

“You may tell me.”

“I cannot bear to say it loudly.  If I must say it, I must whisper.  Even that will be one of the most difficult things I have ever done.”

The giant minotaur leaned his huge sword against the wall and bent lower.  “Speak.”

Jake shook his head again.  “I can’t bear it–”

Canophta got lower.  “It is my duty to listen.”

Jake was mostly restrained, wounded, had no access to his power, on an unfamiliar, unnavigable world, and was almost completely unarmed other than his claws and teeth, which the minotaur was too big to really fear.  Even the eye that Jake had scratched before during their fight on earth had healed..  Canophta had no reason to be wary of him at all, at least not in his current state.

So when Jake summoned his sword, Blooming Honor, Destruction Flower of the Eternal Nightmare into his hand as he swung it up to his enemy’s shoulder, as if to hold it to tell a dark secret, all he had to do was follow through.  Even without his muscle amplification or using any of his techniques, Jake was still a monster.  And Bloom was a very special sword.

The blade easily cut Conophta’s throat.  He looked down in disbelief and Jake used that momentary shock to stab the blade into the other champion’s side.  The razor sharp, divine-enchanted blade easily pierced the unprepared, vulnerable minotaur’s side.

Then Jake got the best stumbling head start he could before phasing.  The restraints might have blocked his unnatural abilities, but he was a shadow ghoul, a monster.  Phasing was natural for him.  What’s more, after being a ghoul for so long, he knew exactly how to exclude specific things touching him from the phase.  As a result,he actually disconnected himself from all of the restraints even before phasing.

He went toward the room where his enemy had just come from, down a long hallway.  Jake phased back into reality some distance away in the huge house.  He heard violent noises coming from the direction he’d just fled from.

Even a mortally wounded Conophta was dangerous as hell.  The minotaur could have probably killed Jake with one bare hand the way he’d been tied up before.  But now Jake was free.

He was standing in a room lined on all sides with massive swords.  It was obviously an armory of sorts.  They were all unfamiliar and untested to Jake, not to mention too large to use effectively.

He’d left Bloom in his enemy’s side, so he pulled his wooden sword out of his unblocked inventory.  Then he cautiously moved down the long hallway toward his wounded foe.

Canophta was struggling on the floor as huge gouts of blood poured from his neck.  He kept trying to remove the sword in his side, but whenever his hand touched Bloom’s hilt, it would immediately burn and he’d gargle-scream.  The pain must have been excruciating whenever touching it, because it was very obvious that the minotaur was not a delicate flower.

Even now, stricken as badly as he had been, with a soul-shattering weapon in his side and his throat open, the dark champion was still struggling.  Jake could actually feel his vitality returning a bit.  This tough bastard is going to fully recover if just left alone! Jake thought with shock.

He was floored.  What the hell does it take to kill this guy!?

Part of him, no, most of him was unhappy that he still needed to finish the job.  Canophta had been one of the least unpleasant enemies he’d ever had, despite the whole…trying to kill him multiple times and talking about Jake’s death like a corporate stepping stone, thing.  And Jake had blatantly tricked him.

The fact he’d been ambushed and dragged into the minotaur’s dungeon-like home did mitigate some of his guilt.

Jake decided not to take any chances.  He had automatically hid his presence after phasing away, and he maintained that now.  He kept expecting Canophta to suddenly attack him, to maybe even destroy the house out of spite.  But apparently, he’d been focusing everything he had on staying alive.  When Jake came up behind the gigantic, kneeling figure, ready to strike, Canophta didn’t even act like he knew Jake was there.  Maybe he didn’t.

But now that he was dying on the floor and very obviously aware that Jake had escaped his restraints, it changed things.  Jake had been about to strike but he stayed his hand.  What if that was what the huge champion was waiting for?  If he couldn’t sense where Jake was, the best time to retaliate would be when Jake was striking him.

In fact, now that Jake’s mind was going this direction, he briefly used his mage senses, then Veil Piercing Phoenx Eyes.  Sure enough, there was a layer of energy, a barrier concentrated on the back of Conophta’s head and neck, and trailing down his back.  The way he was kneeling on the floor was intentional.  He was providing a tempting target and had protected himself.  The crafty sonofabitch really was waiting for Jake to attack him before acting.

Jake was full of admiration, respect, and frustration.  He knew from experience how tough the minotaur was.  Now he wondered how much of Conophta’s apparent desperation was even real.  Definitely part of it, but he might be hamming it up, too.

He thought it through, but ultimately, he didn’t have a choice.  If he didn’t kill Conophta, Jake would be in a horrible predicament.  The only way he had to survive this situation was to take the opportunity that he’d created and finish the job.  Jake set his jaw.  He was going to do exactly what the minotaur expected him to do, but he was going to put everything he had left into it.

The tricky part was hiding his energy until the moment he was going to strike.  He was actually lucky that Conophta was making a show of being as vulnerable as possible.  If he’d just looked behind him, he probably could have spotted Jake.  Even though Jake was sticking to the shadows, he was bone tired and definitely not at his best.

With that cheery thought, Jake slowly, stealthily revolved his cultivation base, trying to turn a hum into a whisper.  Then, using all of his faculties, bending every fiber of his willpower to the task, he swung his wooden sword and infused the blade with Lunar Dao Polishing simultaneously with Phoenix Piercing Talon.

He gritted his teeth when the backlash began to hit even before the strike landed.  The moment seemed to stretch into eternity, but Jake endured.  Dimly, he thought about Four Winds of Heaven Spirit Purification.  Jake was able to handle agony and discordant energies much better now.  If he’d still been human, mixing these volatile energies probably would have already killed him.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the blade touched Conophta’s barrier on his neck, shattering it.  The big minotaur tried to surge upwards, no doubt realizing what was happening at the last moment, but it was already too late.  There was a huge flash of light before the backlash completely overwhelmed Jake’s body and spirit.  As he fell, he tried to stop himself but only ended up driving the point of his damaged, wooden sword into the floor.

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was Conphta’s head roll halfway to the fireplace.