I grabbed Sandro by his collar with my left hand and slammed my right fist against his face. It bounced off the shield, surprising me.
He pushed me off and sent me stumbling backward, produced two short-swords, and stabbed them into my shield.
The bastard used a skill, but the weapons were far from powerful enough. I pulled the halberd out of my pouch and swung it sideways at him, cracking the shield slightly, but it closed again. I grinned just as forty points returned to my own shield after gutting his.
“Let me show you what a real skill is, Sandro!” I growled as I pulled back my halberd.
Damage Notification:
You have used << FOCUS >>.
You have used 100 Enma.
“Huh? What the—hell are—you up to?”
He barely managed to finish his question as the five seconds were up quickly, and the skill was ready for activation. The weapon swung in a broad arc, catching both of his swords and devastating his shield in a single hit. The blade struck his side and embedded itself halfway to his spine.
Damage Notification:
You have inflicted 647 damage to Sandro.
“Fucking bastard! You cost me the lives of our people! You should have warned us about the boss and the rift! You should have been loyal, you fucking asshole!”
The now-familiar plop of an RPG round launching came from down the street, and I noticed it far before it had the chance to hit me. I pulled Sandro back and jumped down, holding on to my halberd. It was so deeply stuck in his side that he came flying with me but was unable to defend himself. He just hung there limply like a battered doll.
We landed on top of a car, almost smashing it in half.
“Shit! Lana!” I cursed, having already forgotten she’d been fighting the group alone, but there was Anton. The fucker who’d tortured Melina! Shit! Damn it all to hell!
“Go!” Lana yelled from behind me, noticing my predicament.
Three men with red bandanas stood back-to-back with her and battled the seven remaining Green Dragons.
“If you hurt my wife, I’ll destroy all of you!” I snapped at the three.
“Sir Viktor! We’re with Kang!”
I froze. Kang! He was still alive? Unfortunately, that was all Anton needed. A moment of hesitation. By the time I turned around again, he was gone, and his footsteps had already receded.
“Scar! Hunt that bastard down! I don’t care if anyone else gets in, but hunt Anton down!”
Scar wasn’t replying. His presence was gone, and I couldn’t even feel a sliver of his presence. It was only then that I felt the shock wave and saw the flash. It came right from the direction of their portal. But how had the bastard made it there so fast already?
“Stay here like a good boy,” I said as I nudged Sandro with my boot. “We’re far from done.”
I lodged the halberd’s shaft in between a wall and a downed car, then ran off to gather the weapons I threw earlier. By the time I was back, Lana and the three men stood there guarding Sandro.
“If I may ask, sir, is that the bastard who had our friends and family ambushed inside the boss rift?” one of the men asked. Their faces were hidden by black masks, but their bandanas told me they were from the Association.
“He is. Today is the last day he lives. His sister will be the one to end his life.”
The man nodded and bowed. “Thank you for bringing him to justice and helping with taking care of these scum. We have no way to fight them inside the rift, but we’ll keep them from getting out again, even if it’s the last thing we’ll ever do.”
“Greet Kang and Gary from me. Tell them I miss them every day.”
“No, it’s us who are sorry. We’re sorry they reacted so hastily and arrogantly. I’m sure that if you met—”
“No, please don’t ask. Kang and Gary know what I told them. If you ever leave me, never come back. They left me when I was at my weakest, but look at me now.”
The man let out a sigh and nodded again. “I’ll tell them. Thank you for giving me your time, Sir Viktor.”
“Wait—I—fuck! Tell them they can be my guests, and maybe we can talk. Maybe you guys can join too if you want.”
The man’s posture changed, and I could feel his elation emanate from him. He was happy; no, he was overjoyed, but I wasn’t. Or was I? Why the hell had I just said they could come again? Yes, I wanted them to work on the gear for the general. That must be it.
“Sir! Thank you! I’m sure he can now stop drinking and bitching all day!”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Bastards, but I care for them. They were there when this happened, so—I can’t forget what they did. Ever.”
I offered Lana my hand and turned to leave the men, but then remembered the whimpering Sandro. He wasn’t going to disappear on me this time, hell no.
Chapter Seventeen
We met with the general an hour later. He was busy assessing the damage and casualties. The raid had lasted barely an hour, but it was brutal beyond anything I’d ever thought possible. Hundreds of soldiers, thousands of Green Dragon gangsters along with their families, and several dozen Association members dead. All in a single hour.
A truck waited outside with the things we requested, and what’s more, they’d managed to get some contractors to do work on the inn, the plumbing, water, and even add solar panels for electricity. All we needed to do was to wait until the debris around the portal was cleaned up by several dozers.
“I’d say we did a good job if it hadn’t cost us so much,” Kade said as we finally sat down in his office. “It’s not your fault, but I can’t help but wonder about the last bomb that killed the reinforcements. Did it have to happen?”
I felt a pang of guilt. If I hadn’t acted so rashly and done things differently, I could have theoretically caught Anton, but I hadn’t.
“Whatever the case, I need some other things from you, General. I need mines, grenades, missiles, rockets, C-4, and all kinds of things that can make BAMs go boom.”
“BAMs?” he asked as his right eyebrow rose slightly.
“Big-ass monsters.”
“Oh? Well, that’s not really something we can spare right now.”
“I’m not saying right now, but maybe in a few minutes? You know, I need that kind of firepower if I’m to kill the big baddies roaming the zones we farm at. I’ll start on the production right after I get back, and if you have people to spare, they could help us out on the other side. Hurry all of this along a bit faster, you know?”
He nodded slowly while holding the butt of a lit cigar in his mouth. I had no idea what was going through his mind, but I did know he was thinking about it. Hard. After all, I’d showed him what someone with gear from the other world could do, and if he was to prevent the enemy from taking back what they lost, he would need the gear.
“Let me be frank with you, Viktor, we’ll have our hands full trying to keep the Green Dragon Gang from coming back. We’ve already come up with some ideas, but that isn’t anything permanent, only temporary.”
“General, why don’t you create a prison around their portal?” Lana asked curiously. “A meter-thick room made of concrete and iron bars. I don’t think they’d be able to get through that without using big explosives.”
“We already thought of something like that, but there’s a sort of dome that doesn’t let us build anything atop it, so we’d need to make it larger and sturdier, but the larger it is, the weaker the top is.”
“Why don’t you crisscross beams infused with crystals on top?”
Kade shook his head and then picked his drink up, gulping half the glass up hungrily. “We don’t have the crystals, Lana. The gate to the tower is closed, and no one has figured out how to get in there yet. Monsters don’t spawn anymore, so it’s not like we can get our hands on extra crystals.”
I put my hand into the pouch and pulled fifty pieces of rank two crystals out, then placed them on the table. I still had a little over three hundred left, so it wasn’t an issue
, and with us starting the production, I’d be getting my hands on them with relative ease.
“Take five for yourself, General. A gift. Use the rest to make that prison a reality. I want to know that the people up here are safe when I’m gone. At least for the time being.”
Kade stared at the pile and nodded slowly. The greed in his eyes was apparent as he eyed the crystals and picked five of them up, then stared at them with fascination.
“These are quite the upgrade from what the kobolds dropped.”
“It was the best thing that could have happened to us in such a… shitty time.”
“Sure was,” he replied. “Technology will start to advance at a rapid pace now, especially the medical field, I guess.”
I shrugged and leaned back against the chair, placing my hand atop Lana’s. She placed her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes.
“Say, let me ask you something, General. But first, how much do you trust Linda?”
His eyes narrowed on mine and he perked up in his chair. “Why? She’s been with me for twelve years now.”
“And you trust her unconditionally?”
He nodded. “She’s my wife. Of course I do!”
“Oh,” I replied, slightly caught off guard. “She looks quite young.”
“And I am, Sir Viktor. I’m seven years younger than Kade.” Linda chuckled from across the room.
“Come sit with him, then. I’ll give you something.”
She looked at the general for instruction, but he nodded as their eyes met.
“Do you want me to give her some as well?” Lana asked.
“No need. I still got a bunch.” I handed five over to her and nodded for Kade to come over. “Come sit with me on the ground. You too, Linda. That skirt is quite short, so if you’re uncomfortable, go get changed.”
“No, it’s fine. You’re a married man, and I’m a married woman. Besides, I don’t think you’re interested in my body. Just look at Lana. She’s—I don’t even have the words to describe her.”
“Oh, you!” Lana chuckled. “I’ll make sure you look just as good, trust me.”
I didn’t tell her she’d made a mistake, as I wasn’t with Lana anymore, but thought better of it. They could think what they want.
“Give me your hands, General. This will hurt quite a bit, so make sure you keep your voice down. We don’t want anyone to think I’m hurting you.”
“What are you planning to do?”
The look in his eyes told me he wasn’t trusting me with his hands unless I explained.
I sighed and shrugged. “It’s up to you. I can help you get to A+ at least, but you’ll have to trust me, and more than anything, if this technique gets out, I’ll destroy all of you. Is that clear?”
Now he really looked unsure. The man was a general in the Sylmar Defense Force, or the SDF as it said on his name tag. It was normal for him to be distrustful, but these were strange times, times where friends from yesterday became tomorrow’s enemies and the other way around.
He finally relented and nodded, then put his hands out. The man was ambitious, and he was already blessed by the Gods. If I managed to make a friend out of him and helped him rise to power, I was going to have an ally here, I was sure of it. He didn’t radiate any malice or ill will, but then again, people changed with power. I’d just have to make sure to keep him a rank below me.
“Go ahead.”
It took me seven minutes to burn his first meridian, and over an hour to do the second. Linda wasn’t as fortunate. It took Lana over an hour for the first, and the second was nowhere in sight. Still, she gained something barely anyone else had in this world: a much stronger Enma Shield. The ones people got from leveling up and getting stats were decent and enough to dodge a bullet or two, but every meridian gave a nice boost to the shield.
We were exhausted by the time I finished. All four of us, but at least we hadn’t gotten covered in any of the black muck that clung to both Linda’s and Kade’s clothes, skin, and hair. Most of their impurities had been pushed out with this first session, I was sure of it.
I went on to explain what the system I used was and that if he could get together a unit that would solely be dedicated to making sure no Green Dragons got through, I would do the same to them and make sure he kept up with everyone.
We ended up agreeing on a group of four people for the start. Two men, and two women. They had to be a couple or married, as I didn’t want any of the men gawking at my woman. They had to be strong, willing to take orders, and most of all, be loyal to him directly.
“When will you be back?” Kade asked as we stood in front of the elevator. “And when can I send them?”
I really had no idea how to move on, so I gave it some thought. It depended on a lot of things, but mainly on how to get the production going. Donald and even Mark wouldn’t be enough to do things by themselves, and I wasn’t going to waste my time doing it myself.
“I have a monopoly over the rift, and you’ll never try anything funny. Is that clear?”
He nodded but frowned, not understanding what I was getting at. “What do you mean, though?”
“Have the four ready tomorrow morning and meet me there. That’s as long as I’ll be staying in the rift. I’m coming back right away to check the tower, but there are more important things to take care of before that.”
“Linda, call—no, I’ll do it myself once our guests are gone. Please go make us some coffee. I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.”
“In that case, we’ll see each other soon?” she asked while hugging Lana.
The two had hit it off after a rocky start when she mentioned the Association. To everyone’s luck, the Association turned out to be neutral. They did what they agreed on, but once the military and their people started the looting of dead Greenies and their base, things almost escalated.
“Tomorrow already. We can have dinner? All four of us?”
“Only if Linda cooks!” Kade laughed. “She’s a damn good cook, if I may say so.”
I offered him my hand, and he shook it. There was no way to know for sure if he was going to stay true to his word or not, but for now, I’d give him the benefit of the doubt. The man seemed sincere enough to want this as much as I did.
Down at the entrance, Sandro lay unconscious and was guarded by several soldiers with high-powered rifles and others with Bone Swords pillaged from the gang. Four of them helped carried the half-corpse into a truck and we made way toward the portal. A part of the approach had already been restored using sand and brick, but it would need asphalt. And very soon at that.
The trucks already waited for us and so did the labor force. Twenty men in total would join us until the plumbing, electrical, and whatever else we needed were taken care of. The main problem was how to get all the damn equipment through, so I busied myself gathering all the provisions first. To my surprise, it barely took up any room. Whatever it was that Veles had done to my pouch, the damn thing was immense.
Two hours later, we were ready to depart, and in all honesty, I was looking forward to going home. What was even stranger, I thought of it as home. My home. Our home. It was something worth protecting with all I had and making sure there was something to go back to.
“Do you want to go first?” I asked.
Lana shook her head. “No. If they see me go in first, they might have a heart attack, thinking you were gone.”
It made sense to a degree, so I nodded and flashed her a smile as I moved my hand through her hair. I didn’t know why, but I felt sick to my core, almost as if something bad was about to happen. There was enough military presence that nothing should happen, but still—something nagged at the back of my mind. Almost as if someone was watching us, waiting for us to move.
“You go in first, alright?”
“Huh? Why?”
“Just do it?”
She frowned but nodded and stepped through the portal. I looked around, but there was nothing. No change, no difference in
Enma concentration. I let out a sigh and followed her, glad to be proven wrong.
The bright sunlight struck me as I came out on the other side. Lana stood there waiting for me, but no one else was there. They must have been busy doing something else and not heard the portal activate.
“Why did you push me to go first?” Lana asked, her eyes narrowed into slits. “What’s wrong?”
“I thought I felt something was wrong, is all.”
“And was it?”
I shook my head and stepped forward, dragging Sandro along the ground.
“Must have been one of those false alarm things.” I laughed as I moved toward the inn. “Melina!” I yelled. “We’re back!”
The inn’s front door slid open with a loud thud, and my black-haired beauty came rushing out.
“Vik! Lana! You’re back!” She laughed and stopped in her tracks as she saw what I was dragging along.
Her hands moved to her mouth, and she gasped. A scream followed as she started shaking. Lana hurried over and put her arms around her, comforting the other woman.
“What’s wrong?” Mark yelled as he stormed out onto the balcony. “Vik! Lana! And that bastard Sandro!” He jumped off the balcony and ran over to us. Next to come out were Donald and Rita, then Sarah carrying their kid.
“Is he… dead?” Melina whimpered.
I shook my head. “Not yet, but he will be by the day’s end. He’s unconscious and barely holding on.”
Melina looked away, unable to see her brother in that state. It made sense to a degree, but after she heard about Anton, now that was going to break her.
“This isn’t everything. We need to talk, but in private.”
“What? What could be worse than this?”
“Can you guys make sure he doesn’t die?” I asked, looking from Mark to Donald and Rita.
“Yeah, you go do what you need. I’ll be here,” Mark replied as he bumped into me with his shoulder and patted me on the back with his free hand. “We can talk later, brother.”
Crafting Death: A LitRPG Cultivation Series (Towers & Rifts Book 2) Page 19
