Jack Coffery was not having a good day. He had woken up today before his alarm even rang, realized that his pocket was torn only after having lost a large bundle of money, his coffee tasted like shit and now this-
A man had burst into the lab, mounted atop a metal Usumgallu from Mesopotamian Mythos.
"Are you a child of Vulcan or Hephaestus?" Jack guessed from the metallic mount.
"Who the fuck are you? The one that runs this place?"
The intruders voice was somewhat deep, but it sounded just as he looked. A young adult.
Jack's eyes momentarily gleamed with intent.
"Myself Jack Coffery. The second-in-command of the Crucible." He introduced with a charming smile. "Now, who is your godly parent?"
The intruder raised an eyebrow.
"Nobody."
"Nobody? As in Odysseus? He's no god. Are you perhaps related to him in any way?"
"I do not have a godly parent." Said the Intruder as he jumped off the Usumagllu. Jack noticed the axe in his hand and looked at him again.
"A clear-sighted mortal with a Celestial Bronze weapon, riding a metallic best and with enough strength to dwarf most demigods? How curious." He broke out with a wide grin. A groan came from underneath the rubble somewhere, but Jack didn't care.
"May I ask why you came to bust down our building like this?"
"Cut the bullshit." The intruders cold tone cut through the silence. He pointed at him with his axe as the dragon let out a rumbling growl. "Where is he?"
Jack raised both his hands and spoke with half-lidded eyes. "Now now, no need to get violent... more than you already have. Why don't we talk a bit before eh? I'm quite curious to know how you found out about this place."
The intruder faltered in his steps. His expression morphed into one of confusion before he replied unevenly.
"I... have my ways."
"Perfect, now we're going somewhere aren't we? Now, you can take your demigod anytime you desire. I had no idea he had such a man protecting him." Jack walked onto the rubble and almost fell over. His extended his arms outwards as if trying to balance on a tight rope and began to circle the dragon.
The intruder and his mount both watched him warily as he spoke.
"What did you say your name was? It seems to have slipped from my mind."
"... Where is Reuben?"
"Reuben? Is that the demigod or the squirrel? We have both so you can take them." Jack droned on. "I'll ask this once again. Introduce yourself?"
His brows tightened as if he were trying to fight his own mind. But eventually, amid the growls of his dragon, the Intruder spoke.
"...Nathan... Nathan Hill."
"A pleasure, Mr. Hill."
"The pleasure is all... what the fuck?" Nathan suddenly shook his head and stepped back.
"Whats wrong? Did you leave the stove on?"
"No... I'm pretty sure you guys destroyed the stove."
"Oh, well, my deepest apologies."
Nathan and the dragon turned around as Jack tight roped over the rubble behind them and began to circle back.
"Now, Nathan. I can call you Nathan right?" Nathan nodded. "Then Nathan, just before we get you your demigod and the... murder hungry squirrel that we took in, there's just one thing that keeps bugging me."
Jack scratched his chin and stated Nathan into his eyes.
"How it is that you managed to grow so strong? Even more than that, how do you have a weapon capable of harming monsters? It seems to be capable of generating frost as well. Then there's the Usumgallu too." He suddenly shook his head with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. I realize that this may be something private. I can't help it you see; force of habit. A scientist's curiosity you can say."
"There's no need to be apologetic of that." Nathan smiled slightly as he lowered the axe. The dragon behind him reeled back its wings and stopped growling.
"Really? Then, can you say?" Jack's eyes gleamed like that of an excited kid.
Nathan felt a pang of pain in his heart and had to shake his head.
"I... wish I could tell you but even I don't know how any of this has happened."
"Then, at least how did you get the axe and the dragon?"
"That..." Nathan's brows furrowed. He suddenly held his head as if a migraine had assaulted him. He managed to speak through gritted teeth - "I... cannot say."
Jack stopped in his tracks and gave him a pitiful expression.
"Is that so... Then how about a job? We have plenty of job offers here at the Crucible."
"A job?" Nathan looked taken aback.
"A job."
"What kind?"
"Oh, all kinds. But mainly to do with medical shenanigans. You basically sit and mix vials of blood and chemicals together. Then you inject things into demigods you dont need anymore and watch good things happen." His face morphed into a grin that widened to split his face ear to ear. His facial features that had so far seemed charming and inviting looked twisted. Wicked.
"Most of the time, they die in horrific agony. But sometimes... on very rare occasions, they morph. They become something more. Something beautiful. Something beyond what the gods had created. We at the Crucible desire nothing more than to have mankind surpass gods and monsters alike. We make the next step in evolution possible. We are the designers. Mixing godly blood with mortal ones, adding elixirs, metals, chemicals and gases... all for the sake of creating perfection. Every small step, every vial of demigod blood brings us closer to our divine self.
"Closer to what we were meant to achieve!" He turned around and extended a hand to Nathan.
"So, Nathan. My dear friend. Why don't you join us? Reuben will go free, I can assure you. Anything you want, we will provide. Money, women, power.. It'll all come at your fingertips. We are the new tower of babel. We bring ourselves closer to the gods, not by building a structure. But by elevating our very cells. So Join us!"
The Usumgallu whimpered
Nathan stared at the outstretched hand for a few seconds. His strained to speak, but the words seemed to stuck in his throat.
"Come on! Swear on the river Styx! Join us! Swear it!"
The Usumgallu's whimpers turned into growls.
Nathan gritted his teeth. His cheeks went red and a vein threatened to pop on his forehead.
"Go on!"
"No!" Nathan shouted at the top of lungs. He felt his philtrum grow warm and wet and realized blood was flowing freely down his nostrils.
"No?"
"You... you're all a bunch of fucking maniacs down here aren't you?" Nathan wiped his face with his sleeve. His face looked a bit pale and sickly. "Fuck you and your job. I made a mistake by stopping. Should have just sliced your neck clean through."
Jack Coffery sighed with a sad smile.
He looked down at his feet, and shook his head.
"Shame... you can eat him now."
Boom!
A serpentine form smashed out of the rubble, throwing debris and dust into the air. Nathan, who was caught in a moment of confusion was catapulted in an instant!
Roaaarr!
The serpent roared out, and Drago roared to compete.
As the sense of weightlessness overtook him, Nathan looked at the monster that had appeared out of the remnants of the building.
Lizard like placoid scales lined the outside of its body, shining a beautiful forest green colour. It was easily as large and lengthy as a subway tunnel, so much so that Nathan wondered why he had failed to detect it when it was right under his feet. Two horns jutted out from the top of its head and within its sockets rested a pair of deep, sea-green eyes.
Instantly, Nathan realized what this was.
A Lydian Drakon.
He remembered the monster from the wiki.
The dragon swept its large, terrible claw up at him. In the last moment, Nathan's body jerked itself midair, throwing the axe backwards and using the momentum to slip right over the claw!
He extended his hand backwards the the axe, which he had enchanted with [Loyalty II] before arriving came flying back at him.
Whoosh!
Slice!
The axe bit into the monster's scales, causing it to emit a painful hiss. The Usumgallu pounced at the dragon with its powerful metal body, his maw spreading wide open to catch the drakon's neck!
"It was a real shame, Nathan!" Then came Jack Coffery's shout. "I actually really liked you! Maybe we could have been friends, but it was not to be!"
Nathan gritted his teeth as he tried to hold onto the drakon's thrashing figure. He couldn't do anything as he heard the man's voice get smaller and smaller.
He was getting away.
Without thinking, Nathan let the drakon's momentum carry him off.
Whooooosh!
Shaaaaaaa!
His body jumped into the sky, passing a height of 50 meters in a few heartbeats before he came to a stop!
He looked down at the streets. People had still not cleared out the way and were looking at the collapsed building with some curiosity.
Even in this day, idiots are everywhere. Nathan commented to himself, before gravity sent him earth-bound.
The drakon swatted away Drago like he was a fly and looked up at Nathan who was falling.
With a deep and guttural growl, the drakon perched up on the collapsed frame of the building, scaring the humans as he appeared and opened its jaw wide.
Nathan let out a manic grin, and holding his axe, he raised it over his head and fell right down.
...
At that moment, something overcame Nathan's urge to dodge. He wished to avoid the bite altogether, but his hunter's instincts completely overrode his natural survival ones.
As the drakon's maw approached, Nathan had a single thought in his mind.
I wonder how many points I'll get from this guy...
Something clicked. And Nathan who was dead set on heading right into the beasts mouth suddenly changed course.
Midway down its mouth, he threw the axe towards the right, into the gums of the drakon. As the rebound pushed him into the opposite side, he called back the axe, letting the added rebound carry him completely out of the jaw!
Slam!
The beast slammed its moutn shut, and Nathan's axe once again bit into the side of its face.
Boom!
An explosion of frost rang out, making the drakon stumble on the debris and fall towards the street!
At that moment, Nathan smirked and put his hand on the wound he had carved with the axe.
In the split second in which the drakon was about to fall, where Nathan hung on with a feeling that he weighed nothing, red dust, shining with a volcanic glow seeped out from his hand and travelled into the drakon's body.
And so, Nathan let go.
Crash!
The monster who had just gotten half of its head frozen from the Leviathan Axe slammed right into the opposite building, but managed to catch itself before the people under could be crushed.
Nathan who was about to slam into the ground was caught in a pair of soft wings. Drgao took to the air and brought him above the drakon, out of its attack range.
The drakon looked up at them and growled, poisonous breath threatening to spill from its mouth.
"So glad I made this." Nathan chuckled, bringing his free hand up to his face.
Then he snapped.
Snap!
Spurt!!!
[You have gained 1360 Customization Points!]
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A/N: ngl, I enjoyed writing Jack the most up until now lol.
Bros just too easy to write.
Mayne thats just because I'm experimenting a lot with him, but yeah.
Also, how did you like this chapter? Comment your thoughts.