Chapter 15 The Argument

"You're black!?" Jacko exclaimed. Rift looked at him, as his mask was removed by the two smiths. "Yeah dude, damn beautiful aren't I?" He winked. Jacko smiled back, he does look damn beautiful. He looked bald, but he does have some hair left there, paired with his hidden blue eyes. The two Smiths then put on the Sandworm armor on Rift. "Try moving around." Ahand told Rift. He raised his leg and jumped up. "This feels good! What the fuuck?" He checked on the inside of the neck hole himself. "How'd you make the flesh feel good to wear!?" He yelled. "Trade secrets." Lenya said, as she then presents him with the Sandworm Spine. "This ain't just a sword, we did some experimenting ourselves that a thief like you might like." She holds up the blade and then swings it, the Sandworm blade made out of scales carefully placed to shape a sword, are actually held together by a piece of the Sandworm's tongue. Once she swung it, the sword splits into individual scales, still held together by the tongue within the blade. "You can swing it to turn into a whip, then you just have to tighten the grip on the hilt to return it to it's sword form." Lenya told as she holds her grip and then returns it to sword form, tossing it to Rift. "That's damn cool.." He chuckled. "Thanks Jacko." He said once again, realizing this was Jacko's money. "It's fine." Jacko said. The smiths then looked at all the people in the den's readying their arms and bringing everything. "We're depending on y'all to protect us, we ain't fighters unfortunately." Lenya reminded. Ahand nodded at her. "Not only that, we're promised the redemption of Dust Town too, you all best to fulfill it!" He shouted at the fighters.

Sarah and Duke are outside waiting for everyone to gather out of the den. "What makes you so sure that the green boy can help us? I can already tell he's no fighter material just by his look." Duke told. "He beat me." Sarah admitted. "The kid's got the power and the potential. Hell, this could be a sign that change is coming." Sarah told. "The Magekeeps, the Elf exiles, and now we got a kid that can summon slimes, it's all coming together. I tell you." Sarah said. "Look, slimes? Really?" Duke said. "It's not just about the power, he's got potential. Ah, there he is now." Sarah then looked at Jacko walking back with Rift beside him. "Hey dudes! I'm stacked!" Rift then flexes his armor. "Haven't seen your face in a good while, Rift!" Duke laughed. Sarah looked away and called the other fighters to hurry up. "I can feel it, today we're taking back Dust Town!" Rift announced. "Don't get too cocky like last time." Duke warned. "Yeah, yeah. I'll try." He chuckled. Jacko just nervously watched his hands, controlling Slime Runes on his body and then nods with determination. "I'm going to kill." Jacko said. "I'm not gonna be a bitch anymore." He said louder. "Noone called you that, but aight. Love that energy" Rift smiled.

The journey to the Dust City went on for half the day. The town praised Jacko for having to summon Water Slimes to hydrate then entire group. Berney on the other hand is impressed, but mad at the same time since he couldn't charge for water anymore.

Then, another group of thieves passed by, then they noticed Sarah's group.

"Oi! You're all heading for Dust?" The leader of the fellow thieves group said. "Darren!" Sarah growled angrily. "Oh god it's this bitch." The thief leader grumbled. Sarah activated one mechanicalnhsnd to rise out of the bag. "Don't act like you're the one who wronged us!" Sarah charged, while having Rift and Duke hold her back. "Chill! Chill!" The two dudes cried. "Get off me! This motherfucker fucked me drunk! I'll kill him!" She then charged, the two dudes kinda looked at the thief leader in anger, letting Sarah loose. The thief jumped back dodging the punch. Then the other thieves started recognizing the thieves from Sarah's group. "Rift give me back my fucking cloak!" One of the thieves said while raising his sword. "Oh suck your mama!" Rift taunted. The man then started to wrestle with Rift.

Jacko just watched the two groups argue, barely drawing their arms until he heard something rise from behind him. "Guys?" Jacko turned to see the sand behind him being formed by slimy substance. His eyes shivered in fear as he recognizes the shape. The formed slime then causes the ground to shake, causing accidental kills during the heated argument between the groups. "GUYS! STOP FIGHTING!" Jacko yelled. The Slime then launches ground slimes from it's body, being thrown around the group and causing further chaos. The fighters then started focusing on the slimes, but getting themselves distracted from the others, being killed themselves.

Jacko groaned in fury as he then summons Water Slimes to turn into tentacles. "Fine! I'll do this myself! Grooooom!" Jacko grabs the summoned Grom with a tentacle and then throws it at the large slime. The Grom then takes a bite out of the Elder Ground Slime's head and began slurping it into its mouth. The Elder Ground Slime forms a sand hand to grab the Grom out of its head, but it immediately gets cut off by Jacko's Water tentacles. Jacko then spots something within the Elder Ground Slime, it caused him to lick his lips as he sees the Slime Heart from within the Elder Slime. Jacko shook his head, not knowing what got into him as he then dodged an incoming Sand Blast from the Elder Slime. Grom is then dropped by beside Jacko as the Golem Slime had his fill. The Ground Elder Slime then began to jump at Jacko, about to crush him to bits. He then throws down a Water Slime down Grom's mouth and then pointed at the Elder Ground Slime. "FIRE!" He yelled out as Grom blasts a powerful slime blast from its mouth, disintegrating the entire body of the Ground Elder Slime, it's bits and pieces being scattered around the area...and the Slime Heart landing by his arm, throbbing intensely and immediately gave Jacko's arm a sharp sting.

Sarah then punches Darren's face into the ground while spitting at his face. Regret then comes to her face as she realized most of their fighters were killed during the battle. There was only 14 left of them, including the smiths and the food providers and of course, Duke and Rift. "Shit...Where the kid!?" She panicked.

Then Jacko's scream was heard from beside them, lying on the ground as they sees his arm being shifted into the strangest shapes. "Dude!" Rift immediately ran to Jacko and propping him up on his feet. "You ok bud!?" He yelled. Jacko rubbed his right arm, the form of his arm slowly shifting back into the shape of his arm. "You...you guys didn't stop..." Jacko grumbled. "Jacko..." Sarah sighed, they didn't even know what Jacko do. "Why do you guys like fighting so much!?" Jacko yelled. "It's...it's always been like that, it just makes me so mad!" Jacko ranted. "We all had our reasons." Rift said. "Is it really that hard to help each other!? I know some of the Magekeeps' are probably corpses but they were people! We HAD the same enemy!" Jacko yelled. The others just listened to him and they felt his words sting. Jacko then walked by them and groaned. "Sorry...Can we rest for a bit?" Jacko's voice toned down as the others nodded.

The Dust Town was teeming with traders that thought the Dust Town was perfectly normal. There were mages watching every single move of anyone who entered. One of them in particular, the ones without blue eyes, was angry. "I sent a group to take the Slime One, and you're saying they were defeated...By Darakon..." The Magekeep growled. He looked young with fresh brown hair and yellow eyes, looking down at his fellow Magekeeps of Elite rank. "We tried to look for them in their area, but it turns out they had already left before we could reach them." The Elite explained. "I already know that, I want to hear your plans to capture them!" The Elder Magekeep grumbled. "I sent down an Elder Ground Slime there, Castro." One of the Elites answered." The Elder Magekeep looked at him dumbfounded. "You...fucking what?" He began..."I thought it was obvious to overwhelm the Slime One with more slime." The Elite answered. The Elder Magekeep chuckled. "Oh! Ohhhhh! Genius! And what happened to that slime?" The Magekeep held the Elite by the shoulder as his face grinned with twitches in front of the Elite. "He...took its Slime Heart." The Elite answered, with sweat flowing through his body. "Come with me for a moment." The Elder grilled his shoulder tightly, bringing him to a room in the tavern they are in. The Elite gasped as he laid eyes on the large glowing orb in front of him, encased in glass. The Elite shook his head. "It...it was a mistake! Elder!" The Elite gasped. "Not even a fucking child would make a mistake, LOOK AT IT!" The Elder then grabbed his neck and then his hand would form a sandy grip on his neck and forces him to look st the orb. The Elite's eyes slowly turned blue, and slowly stopped resisting. "Just because they're fucking Elites, they already think they're geniuses." The Elder groaned as he snapped his fingers, making the fallen Elite walk out of the room. "You're all here because of your fate in our belief." The Elder told. "You are all of the strong willed who have chosen to believe in the coming true God, Darakon!" He happily tells the remaining Elites. "But I must remind you all, Darakon doesn't need fucking dumbasses! DO YOU ALL UNDERSTAND!?" The Elder hissed. The Elites nodded, terrified of his anger. "Now find him before I'm tempted to cut someone's neck...fuck's sake." He sat on a tavern chair and groaned, the Elite's then left. He then looked at the terrified bartender who watched everything. "Get me a drink, idiots am I right?" Castro said. The bartender nods. "Right...Idiots." he murmured.

There were tents setup on the night after the battles. Jacko watched the smiths working on the weapons and smelting the weapons of the fallen fighters. "Why do you work for...bad people?" Jacko suddenly asked. Lenya looked at him and smirked. "Money of course, it's not easy to find someone not bad anyway." She said. Jacko nodded, Vines said the same thing when he asked the question before. "There's no such thing as a pure of heart, Jacko. Some people may be acting' nice now, it's because some do change from bad people. It's inevitable, it's only human to be bad." Ahand said as he hammered on a sword. "Did Rift do something on the past that is bad?" Jacko asked. "He used to be a soldier at Grayhold until he was caught stealing. He then killed every one of his victims to take their stuff just to survive." Ahand told. Jacko shivered, he was so good to him...how can he confront him after hearing this about him now. Jacko even said he was going to kill, but now...it just felt so wrong again. "There you are dude!" Rift said as he opened the tent. Jacko looked at Rift and frowned. Rift sighed. "Y'all told him..." Rift sighed, the smiths didn't react. "Did you at least feel guilty?" Jacko asked. Rift looked away. "Nah, I was doing what needed to be done to keep me alive, if I hadn't done shit stuff, I would have been dead now." Rift told. Jacko found it surprising that Rift said that. If all nice people used to be bad...then how about the other nice people he knew...wait, no. To be honest he kinda understands it. Jacko looked at Rift and holds his hand. "I don't want to be like you in the past." Jacko said. "I don't want to do bad stuff. I really don't...I don't know, I just don't wanna feel guilty I guess..." Jacko sighed. "You can just shrug it off dude, you'll get used to it. So far you're the strongest out of all of here. I heard you even beat Sarah." Rift said. Jacko couldn't help but smile, he was a bit proud of that achievement. "I did..." Jacko says, then he raised his head. "Rift. Can you teach me how to kill without guilt?" Jacko looked at Rift with a determined look. "Ok, now I see why it sounds so bad for your perspective now...but we got nothing to kill." Rift chuckled. "Tomorrow." Jacko looked serious. "Fine, fine..." Rift says. "Wait hold up, we still homies right?" He asked. "Yeah." Jacko says after some thought. "Whoa wait, how do you know so much hood talk thoo?" Rift asked. "...Tavern experiences." Jacko groaned. "Right...right." Rift says, as he hands Jacko a piece of bread.