Death's Grip: Chapter 18

Jack had to make up his mind between whether to go into the middle of the Parasites territory or to go towards the Federation. The mysterious pulling feeling was coming from both areas and he could vaguely feel another one but it was confusing since it was not pointing in any direction. He knew that he would encounter lots of trouble if he went to either place but he figured the Federation would be a better guess since he could potentially become allies with them. He could help them with something and they could let him explore their territory type of deal.

After a day of thinking the black heart was seemingly getting angry that he was not rushing so he decided to go with the safer option for now and head towards the federation. Jack could also "kindly ask" some of the corrupt people in Eva if they knew anything about his kidnapping. From what Sam said they basically ruled the city since they had the princess under their thumbs. He did not want to think about it too much so he quickly gathered his things and cleaned up his camp site. It was around 11 at night so nobody was leaving the city although he could still hear the bustling town from his campsite. He then set out in the dead of night towards Eva. His gaze seemingly reached all the way to Eva and encompassed the whole town causing everyone there to freeze in fear for a moment. Some people even fainted on the streets causing panic around the town. They thought the Parasites had attacked.

- - - - -

While Jack was on his journey he encountered little problems aside from The Black Heart causing him some light pain when he got closer to the location the pull wass coming from. A few days later he reached Eva's front gate. The guards looked at him weirdly as he was not on a carriage like the rest of the people heading into the town but Jack didn't mind and just walked past them not forgetting to leave a soldier in their shadow in case he needed to escape and they had tried to stop him. Jack then went to a restaurant and ordered lunch for himself.

Jack 'Go out and investigate what is happening in the town.'

Jack's shadow then shook and thousands of smaller shadows separated from his. They spread into the town finding out how the town was operating and who was operating it. After an hour Jack basically had the inner workings of the entire town's operation. Jack then got up and headed towards a smaller building. It was an auction house but instead of selling items it sold people and beastmen. If Jack could free some of them then he would be able to get on the good side of the Federation for when he was going to head over there. This would allow him to get in and out without having to start a war by himself against an entire race. Although he could probably manage...

Auction house Guard "Can i see your entry pass please?"

Jack "Here is my entry pass."

Jack showed the guard his shadowy arm and punched the daylights out of him knocking him unconscious. He then threw the man behind some bushes and entered the building. He quickly made his way down a hallway and towards the stairway but it seemed that people had found out about him breaking in as there were around ten people all around level 4 standing in his way.

Jack "You think this is enough?"

Leader "For a low level like you we are more than enough."

Jack just scoffed and watched as the man in the front rushed towards him with an ax in hand. Jack only sidestepped his overhead swing and delivered a punch to the man's temple shattering his skull. Ever since Jack leveled up his arm had seemingly gotten stronger. It had increased his overall strength greatly, allowing him to fight with higher levels than him. Normally when he engaged with a higher level he would rely on Bellivir and Samson since with their perfect teamwork no one stood a chance. But since he got his new arm he did not have to worry about being beaten in one on one combat. Although he still was inexperienced with fist combat.

Jack called out Hook and he quickly cleaned up the rest of the people. All of his shadows had likewise gotten much stronger when he leveled up although none of them had begun to talk like Dorry could. Jack was curious as to what was causing this but figured that it was correlated with their strength. Jack then went into the basement and saw that there were dozens of cages with people inside of them. All the people backed away in their cages when they saw a figure in the doorway to the stairs. They did not expect the man to begin breaking all the locks on their cages. They were simply stunned by what was transpiring. Jack freed all the people and only left behind a few words.

Jack "If I ever ask for assistance, and you will know it is me, accept it."

He then left, killing the rest of the people rushing into the auction house attempting to stop him from freeing all the captured people and beastmen. That night it was not an uncommon occurrence to see beastmen fleeing over the walls of the city. If anyone tried to capture them a figure would pop out of their shadows killing the person who tried to capture them. After that Jack was going to head out of the city to set up his base camp but that was when he heard something about a kidnapping in Haramark. One of his soldiers had found something that could be related to him so he rushed over keeping himself hidden. Jack eaves dropped their conversation hoping to get some information on who the man who kidnapped him was. The fat man mentioned a man named James and something about the Parasites but Jack did not know much about what they were talking about so he just remembered the name James and quickly left quietly since they were not talking much about the incident and were more focused on the beastmen escape tonight.

Jack set up his base camp an hour later and passed out to the sound of the black heart beating. The next morning he made some coffee and cleaned up his base camp. After finishing he packed his stuff and left towards the Federations borders where the heart was pulling him to.