Chapter 105: 60,000 Damage
[ALERT]
[Extreme bloodlust detected.]
Jack’s body went stiff. He had never seen a monster with a level so high.
’Flawed Sight!’
[Name: ???]
[Class:???]
[Level: 124]
[Strength: ???]
[Stamina: ???]
[Agility: ???]
[Vitality: ???]
[Endurance: ???]
[Magic: ???]
[Mana: ???]
[HP: ???]
[Magic Talent Rank: ???]
[Martial Talent Rank: ???]
[Affinity: ???, ???, ???, ???, ???]
[Something scary is coming and I have zero data. Have fun dying.]
’Wait, class??? It’s a human, it’s not a beast. Why can’t I see this person’s stats or even their name??!’
[Entity is too strong to see.]
A chill crawled across his skin.
An invisible tide of pressure caused his hair on his arms to rise and he forgot to breathe for a split second.
Jack scanned the treeline. Mist smothered everything beyond a few yards, but the presence kept getting heavier.
Like a storm building right before it was about to be released.
[Recommend immediate retreat.]
Jack just kept staring, ignoring everything the system was saying.
Footsteps, slow and deliberate, broke the silence. It was just a silhouette thickening inside the fog, tall and broad, moving toward Jack.
Jack lifted a hand, lightning buzzing under his skin.
[Scan Initiated...]
[Error: Data Overflow]
The figure vanished.
Jack rubbed his eyes because he thought he saw someone and even a system message popped up saying something was approaching.
A quick pop cracked in the air.
Jack barely registered motion before a blur slammed into his chest.
He felt lightning crackled around his chest as he was hit.
Jack felt his bone splinter. His ribs cracked from the pressure.
His back arched as he flew across the grass.
He hit the ground hard enough to rattle his teeth and felt something in his ribs give with snap.
His lungs couldn’t inhale properly. It felt like someone stabbed him in the chest, making it hard to breathe.
Blood filled his mouth.
[-599 HP]
[HP: 1 / 600]
[Critical Condition]
Jack’s vision pulsed black and white.
Through the haze he caught a single shape approaching.
They walked calmly and unhurried.
The mist parted to reveal a man built like a war statue brought to life, bare-armed, cestus gleaming dark against his scarred skin.
Chiron Stormblood.
Lightning fizzed at Jack’s fingertips on reflex, but the system pinged again.
[Entity Power Output: 1% of maximum]
Jack tried to sit and nearly blacked out.
’One percent?! You’re telling me he can do 60,000 damage in one hit!! Who the fuck is this!!’
If that had been two percent, he’d be a smear on the grass.
The old warrior stopped a stride away, shadow falling across Jack like the edge of a blade.
He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. The air itself bowed under his presence.
Jack coughed a thread of blood onto the pebbles and forced a rasping whisper through his shredded lungs.
"Okay," he wheezed. "That...hurt."
Corvin shuffled closer, wings half-spread, a low croak vibrating in his throat. Jack managed a crooked grin for the bird’s benefit, though each breath felt like he drank fire.
Chiron’s eyes studied him with an unreadable calm.
He didn’t gloat or apologize. He just stood there silently.
Jack sagged back against the cold ground, pain rippled across his body.
Each inhale felt like broken glass grinding between his bones. Blood pooled in his mouth, it tasted metallic and warm.
Corvin edged closer, wings mantled in a protective fury.
The raven’s talons scraped against the dirt, feathers puffed to twice their normal size in a display of aggression that would have been laughable if it was against anyone else.
Chiron crouched so smoothly it barely disturbed the mist swirling around his boots. He rested his scarred forearms on his knees and studied Jack.
The silence stretched until the very air felt heavy.
Even the lake had gone still, as if the water itself held its breath.
"Have you ever taken a life?"
The words were soft as falling snow, but they struck like a war hammer against Jack’s chest.
Jack swallowed, tasting his own blood as he struggled to form words. "...No."
Chiron’s white eyes didn’t waver, he didn’t blink, didn’t offer even the smallest mercy of looking away.
By this point, Jack had gotten a good look at his face. He knew it was Chiron.
"Then you don’t know war. Not yet."
He shifted his gaze to the lake.
"War isn’t banners snapping in the wind or crowds cheering your name. It’s the sound a man makes when steel finds flesh. Just this wet, surprised gasp like he can’t understand why breathing suddenly costs so much."
Jack stared at the ground, his heartbeat so loud in his skull it nearly drowned out Chiron’s words.
"The first kill marks you forever," Chiron continued. "The smell of iron moves into your lungs and makes itself at home. You taste it when you wake, when you eat, when you kiss your children goodnight. You hear that last breath again and again until you stop pretending you can wash it off your hands."
The words settled into Jack’s bones like lead weights, each sentence made Jack reel.
"I’ve seen men cheer as they died because they were finally done hearing the ghosts. I’ve watched children pick up swords heavier than they were because their fathers never came home and someone had to stand watch. War doesn’t care about your noble intentions or your grand plans for civilization."
Chiron’s gaze met Jack, pinning him like a butterfly to a board.
"You don’t win a war, boy. You survive it. And survival changes you more than death ever could."
[Quest Received: War Without Casualties]
[Objective: Win the coming conflict without losing a single soldier under your command.]
[Reward: +10,000 Reputation Points, Notable Citizens attraction bonus]
[Failure Condition: Each death under your command reduces Reputation Points by 1,000 points]
[Difficulty: S Rank]
’Wow. Inspirational and terrifying. Ten out of ten pep talk, would not recommend it to friends. How the fuck am I supposed to win a war with no deaths.’
Jack forced a shaky laugh that tasted like blood. "You came all the way out here... just to tell me that?"
Chiron’s expression didn’t change, but something shifted behind his eyes.
"No," he said simply. "To see if you could stand after the first real hit."
Jack coughed, grimacing as the motion sent fresh fire through his ribs. "Barely."
Chiron gave the smallest nod, like a teacher acknowledging a student who’d grasped a difficult lesson. "Barely is still standing. Barely means you didn’t break."
Jack wiped blood from his chin with the back of his hand, thoughts tumbling over each other like stones in an avalanche.
"I heard you before," he rasped, each word scraping his throat raw. "With my father. About his power being locked away. Why?"
Chiron didn’t feign surprise or pretend ignorance. His weathered face remained impassive, but Jack caught the slight tightening around his eyes.
"So you listened from the shadows like a proper spy. Good, you’re improving little by little."
He shifted his weight, his gaze sliding toward the horizon where the moon was going down.
"Your father once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me on battlefields that would make grown men weep to remember. We carved our names into the history books with darkness and lightning. But his strength never stopped. Year after year, battle after battle, until no mortal body could contain what he’d become."
Jack held his breath as Chiron’s voice dropped to barely above a whisper.
"Long after the civil war ended, after the false queen and her demon-touched lover fell to his blade, his own power threatened to consume him from within. His power would leak out of his body and cause him such massive pain he couldn’t move for days."
[The Sealed Blade of Alaric Kaiser]
’Apparently I inherited the family gift for excessive ambition. I can’t believe he killed the king’s wife. And he sealed his own powers away. He’s already strong, when Spiralus invaded, he killed a Dread Rank with one hit.’
Jack’s voice came out as barely more than a whisper. "He did all that... for the kingdom?"
Chiron’s laugh was like wind through a graveyard, cold and full of old grief.
"For all of you. His wife. His children. The people who looked at him like he hung the moon and stars."
His expression softened just enough to seem human. "Greatness demands a price, Jack Kaiser. Your father paid it in silence while the world called him hero or monster depending on which way the winds were blowing that day."
All those times his father had seemed distant, preoccupied, carrying weight that bent his shoulders despite his strength.
The careful way he moved around his family, like he was afraid of breaking something precious just by being too close.
They sat in that heavy silence for a long moment, morning mist curling around them.
At last Chiron rose to his full height, his shadow stretching across the lake like the wing of some enormous predator.
"I’ll be watching this war of yours," he said, voice carrying like distant thunder rolling across empty plains. "Marcus Thorne and his mercenaries will test every lesson you think you’ve learned. Show me you have what it takes to step forward instead of falling back when the blood starts flowing."
[New Quest: Prove Your Worth]
[Chiron Stormblood will observe your conduct during the coming conflict]
[Performance rating will influence future opportunities and threats]
’Just impress the man who casually deals 60,000 damage while holding back 99% of his actual power.’
Chiron turned without another word and walked into the retreating fog. With each step, the oppressive weight of his presence lifted. As he walked away Jack could see tendrils of white lightning coming off his body.
’He can use white lightning. How fucking strong is this guy. And my father was as strong as him??’
Jack remained motionless on the cold ground, ribs aching with each breath, the System’s faint electronic hum the only sound disturbing the morning stillness.
[Recommendation: Train a lot. Chiron Stormblood should be your ceiling when training.]
Corvin croaked softly, the sound almost gentle after the violence that had preceded it.
The great raven hopped close enough for his wing to brush against Jack’s arm. A gesture of comfort that somehow made the pain in his ribs seem less important.
Jack let out a ragged breath, eyes fixed on the brightening horizon where dawn was burning away the last of the night’s shadows.
The question was what kind of man he would choose to become when the killing started.
[Quest Received: The War to Come]
[Objective: Define yourself through the choices you make when everything you’ve built is threatened]
[Reward: +25,000 Reputation Points, ???]
[Warning: This quest will have permanent consequences for your morals and available future paths]
[Some bridges, once burned, cannot be rebuilt]