Chapter 72

When Jake Smithson thought about it, the biggest problem they were facing is the awakener from Musashi.

The force he brings invalidates strategy, planning, tactics, and the kitchen sink.

The real meat of the issue is getting rid of the samurai, and then worry about breaking through back to Evergreen Castle.

"This looks like a good time to take the Empowerment Pill, wouldn't you say?" Jake asked, as this was a very good opportunity to use Master Li's gift.

"How long will it take me to fully absorb it, though?" Liam asked, who also received his own Empowerment Pill.

These items were both named the "Empowerment Pill", but each of these items were personalized for the awakener taking them. The box with Jake's pill had a knight embossed on it, while Liam's had a warrior with a sword on one hand and casting a spell with the other.

"A day? Two? We need to take it anyway – we have no other choice. The old guy didn't tell us how long it would take for it to start working."

"You think he forgot, because he's already old?"

"Well, he told us to take it when we could afford to," Jake noted, all the while thinking of what would happen if the Froad troops find them while they were still absorbing the full effects of the pills.

Could there be risks that would happen if they were interrupted while absorbing those pills?

'Who the fuck cares, life's all about risk! Better take it now rather than die like a dog against that period movie reject.'

"Anyway, here are some health potions. Drink them and you'll feel right as rain in a bit. Have your men cover us while Liam and I take the Empowerment Pill, okay?"

Jake was able to get back up quickly thanks to the health potions he bought and used; he now gave several to Song to aid his recovery – the kind of injuries they took were the kind that natural recovery couldn't just fix on its own.

It's the kind of internal organ damage that would end up endangering their lives sometime down the line – and that's why Jake wanted those wounds taken care of immediately.

'Shopping is awesome – it's the best. Who knew that I'd save a life other than my own thanks to the magic of shopping?

Things working out this way never fails to impress me.'

"Thank you," Song said, giving Jake a light bow before drinking the health potion in one fell swoop.

'These recovery items are truly valuable. I wonder how much I owe this man?'

Jake smiled at Song before turning to Liam.

"Showtime," he said, and Liam answered with a nod before Jake took out what looked like a jewel box from his inventory, and inside was a pill that looked like one of those shady oriental drugs.

He grabbed it and put it in his mouth, washing it down with a sip of water, and Liam followed suit shortly.

Nothing happened in the first five minutes, but shortly after that…

"Is it warm in here, or is it just me?" Jake asked, as he found that his back was sweaty for no reason at all.

"No," Song replied, looking at the two awakeners as he was resting. "it's just you."

"Okay," Liam replied. "Whoa, what was that?"

He felt his power flare up suddenly, and Song felt a bit helpless as he saw the two Grand Duelists' power begin to increase dramatically: the air around their bodies began to shimmer, and a visible aura of power was beginning to manifest around them.

'I need to find a way to get stronger…' Song thought, gritting his teeth. 'I need more power to help Evergreen.'

While Jake and Liam were absorbing the full effects of the Empowerment Pill, Song had nothing to do at the time except to rest and recover.

He wasn't feeling too down about it, though: 'well, it's what the civilians at Evergreen say, you do what you can with what you have… I think I'll start thinking of ways to win this damn war.'

Thankfully, nobody noticed the flare-up of power from within the cave, and thus a few days of grief, anger, and planned vengeance passed by uneventfully.

***

The barracks of Froad were shrouded in darkness from a moonless night.

Most awakeners often have a superstition: for awakeners who call Evergreen Castle and the areas around it home, it is that moonless nights are when vile spirits walk the earth and devour your soul through your dreams.

It was well past midnight when the screaming began.

First it was a few awakeners here and there.

And then, more and more started to scream, barely seconds before they would fall silent and leave the Froad barracks once more silent in the inky-black darkness.

Everyone realized something was up when the screams were not stopping.

"What is it?" Hammer asked as he emerged from the command tent.

"Enemy attack!" the Froad awakener tasked to be both his subordinate and a guard for the barracks, answered.

"Enemy? What are you talking about? An enemy attack?" Hammer asked, confused – there can't be an enemy attack, nobody is around to attack them!

Who would be attacking Froad? Evergreen?

Their defenses were but a hair's breadth from being overwhelmed.

When the sun rose, it would mean the end of Evergreen Castle.

Twenty days since the disappearance of Song; they just had to wait out the defenders and hold the blockade tight, and Evergreen Castle would be theirs.

There was one possibility he considered, though.

'Impossible,' he thought. 'You are the only ones who could attack now – you didn't run away!'

It was something completely inconceivable: he thought they'd already escaped at this point, or be hampered by injuries that they would be found half-dead sometime later.

'Did they have recovery items?'

Hammer thought of possibilities, but now was not the time for that, as his entire group of awakeners were being slaughtered.

The screams were now growing louder and more frequent.

'Is it an approaching army?' Hammer asked, thinking it must be something of that size to hit their camp. Hammer decided to take command, and…

"What the hell?!" he asked, bewildered at the sight before him.

A full third of the barracks was now destroyed, corpses strewn everywhere, and in the midst of the carnage were three awakeners.

This much killing was the product of only three awakeners.

Hammer couldn't believe what he was seeing.

***

Jake, Liam and Song announced their return in a stark and brutal fashion.

From out of nowhere, during a moonless night, they jumped into Hammer's camp and began a bloodbath.

No one was spared, they tore through the camp like a demented chainsaw, tearing everyone they ran into pieces.

It was only a matter of time before Hammer's unit began to register a ridiculous number of casualties.

'Would you look at that, I'm earning points and I don't have to cheat to get them, Jake thought. Oh man, my wallet's going to be so heavy, I'll need a wagon to drag it around.'

His wallet was like a starving man suddenly having five buffet-line meals a day.

[Current Points: 650.000]

'Six hundred and fifty-thousand points? Isn't this, I don't know, a bit too much?'

This was only one attack, but he got to that amount in no time – and all these points only mean one thing.

'GOAT Flyers… the one with the increased experience effect!

They're offering the shoes for 650,000 points – I'd like to buy one more for my collection, but that can wait.

Can't wait to put these bad boys on, it's like having a salary negotiation and the CEO accidentally adds another zero to your annual paycheck!

Holy shit on a shit sandwich, this is like getting a 50% raise! If I can get 650,000 points with just this attack, how much more if I wear the shoes and take out more of those Froad goons?!

Shit, isn't this war profiteering or something?

Ah, fuck it. It's Nohas. This is what Nohas is like.'

Time to cash in and grab my nice kicks, then, Jake thought with a smile, remembering how he had to hold back from shopping until he got the 650,000 points he needed.

Now, though, the points he was gathering was at such a breakneck pace that he found that stopping himself from purchasing new items each time he saw something fancy.

He'd been holding back for too long, he's not going to wait any longer.

"Cha-ching!" Jake bellowed as he cut down another Froad soldier, and soon after pressed the button that would finalize his order of the GOAT Flyers Series 4.

A few seconds later, he was pulling out a delivery box from his inventory.

'It's been a long, long time, since I've seen you,' he thought longingly. 'Shopping really is the best.'

Jake's demeanor quickly changed as soon as he saw the delivery box – all the hardship and pain he endured simply melted away as he held it in his hands, tears streaming down his face all the while.

Thank you.

He gingerly and carefully removed the tape from the delivery box with a craftsman's touch, elaborately working so the tape wouldn't stick to the actual box within.

And when he finally undid the last piece of tape, he flipped the box open, only to see a resplendent shoe box with the embossed logo of a stylized winged GOAT on it.

"You really should have sent a poet here," he exclaimed. "A box made of gold… is this the power of the limited edition?"

It was a thing of beauty: the shoe box was more beautiful than any other shoe box he'd ever seen.

The box was gold.

For someone who loves to shop, the very image of the golden box was that of unparalleled luxury, and is the reason why Jake opened the box carefully, gingerly, almost with the purest form of veneration.

'Whoa, holy crap, I'll be in trouble if I get this box scratched. Might as well keep the box.'

It is in the intent to not damage the box in any way that Jake opened up the shoe box: these limited-edition shoes often came with rather valuable boxes, and as he opened the lid, Jake finally laid his eyes on the GOAT Flyer Series 4, the one that increased the experience gained while equipped.

One of history's most expensive sneakers: the GOAT Flyer Series 4.

Back home, a pair would cost 30 thousand dollars.

All Jake's life, he'd thought he'd never get to see a pair of shoes like this personally – let alone wear them, or even own them.

Now, though, his dream is fulfilled.

'Let me take a second to step back and kiss myself… and maybe wipe my tears off.'

***

As the three of them determined after they finished their rest and recovery, was that there was one element in their plan that was non-negotiable.

That Musashi division period movie reject Kinjo Toshihiro wasn't going to go back to his division alive.

Song wanted this the most, but Jake and Liam also did, and were thus willing to help him make it happen.

They also didn't want to see someone like that cocky samurai again.

In Jake's case, it was pure and simple payback.

In addition, Jake also thought that this was a favor he paid to a friend, and it wasn't just for the points. He considered the points he'd gain from striking down that period movie reject as the cherry on top of the sundae that was seeing that samurai bleed out into the dirt.

"Guys," Jake said, right before they made their move, "there's something rather important you need to know."

"What's going on?"

"Hmm?"

Times of crisis forge close bonds with people.

The three young men who went through a life-threatening crisis had become close friends – Liam and Song, as it turned out, were of the same age and quickly became friends, too.

"Everything's going according to plan right now, huh?" Jake asked, since their guerrilla operation was going without a hitch so far.

They nodded.

"Yet, we're still fighting like we're scared, because we know all of this won't help us beat that cock samurai punk."

Even with the pill, Jake and Liam weren't sure they'd beat that samurai – sure, if they went after him at once, the chance for victory rises. That begs the question: who will handle Hammer and his troops?

After all, they'll need to deal with Kinjo and the Froad troops simultaneously.

"That's why we're whittling Hammer's unit down."

"We're just doing small hit-and-run attacks. The reason this operation is possible now is because Toshihiro isn't at the camp."

The problem now is that they don't know how long their plan will go, because the samurai returned to his division while they were hiding out.

His return would end up making guerrilla operations difficult for them.

"That's right," Song said, agreeing with Jake. "Musashi's man attacking is the one thing we worry about most from the start – we don't have any good plan for that right now. What do you think we should do?"

His reply was tinged with anger, because even if they had gained power, it seemed that there was no way for him to avenge the fallen Evergreen soldiers,

'How will I face them when I die?'

After a silent moment the three awakeners shared, Jake finally outlined his plan for them.

"This is why I called you here," Jake explained. "You see, I just got a gigantic raise. And in celebration of my first new paycheck with that raise, I am going to treat the two of you with all the best equipment money can buy."

"Yeah, let's go build some armor sets to smack that smug smile off that shitty samurai's face."

Jake's evil grin was returned by both Liam and Song.

***