The conflict between the Viper and Yip of Yore was beginning to enter its later phases, pushed forward by recent happenings, and as any good schemer, the Viper had adapted to the situation.In truth, Jake really didn’t want to do more schemes to get one over Ell’Hakan, but he was caught between a rock and a hard place. While he didn’t want to be a schemer, the Viper sure did, and it was a good thing Jake had talked to Villy, because if he had just gone with his plan of attacking Ell’Hakan, it could have messed with Villy significantly. Especially if he succeeded.Jake didn’t really want to do anything that could mess with the Viper… especially not when he felt shitty about the entire situation with Palate, and he felt like he owed the god a massive favor. So, despite not being a fan of not just taking the simplified approach of putting an arrow in Ell’Hakan’s skull, he would go along with whatever the Viper wanted. Assuming the plan didn’t suck, that is.“I’m not sure I’ll like whatev

Jake and Villy continued speaking for a good while more, discussing some additional details of what Jake’s role would be in all this. He felt like an actor having a role way beyond his skill level put upon him, and he felt a lot of pressure to carry things out as the Viper intended.Acting and Jake were two things that really didn’t go well together, and the Viper had at least taken this into account by ensuring Jake needed to do as little acting as possible. Moreover, this acting would be done nearly exclusively in front of people who didn’t really know him in the first place, making it far harder to detect any discrepancies in his actions.They both also knew all this was for the Viper and had little to do with Jake’s own goals or Path. Jake was fine with just teleporting right now and attacking Ell’Hakan wherever he was, and the only reason he held back and would agree to any of this was because Villy was the one asking him to. Sure, Jake did excuse himself for going along with eve

Carmen forcefully pressed Jake against the wall and pushed her own body onto his with all her weight. Jake responded by elbowing her in the shoulder only because she dodged getting hit in the head, the movement allowing him some leeway before she could headbutt him in the face as he struggled to get free. When his blow managed to gain him some space, he quickly jumped away and stabilized, trying to regain momentum.She pounced on him instantly, her grappling hands trying to restrain him. He escaped and dodged her blows one after another as they constantly swapped who was pushing the other one back, the soft sand beneath them making it difficult to move fast but also allowing them to really get some proper force behind their attacks.Dodging another swift blow, Jake quickly landed a low kick that made Carmen stumble. However, rather than fall backward, she dove straight into Jake’s incoming fist, taking it on the forehead and sending pain through Jake’s knuckles and fingers. He tried t

Meetings were unavoidable no matter the faction, even if it was one made up of beer-loving warriors who preferred a good battle to fix most problems. However, they did recognize there were situations where fighting would benefit no one, and everything happening in the Milky Way was one such situation.At least, it wasn’t yet the time for a full-on war.The entire reason behind the current conflict was to get rid of the Order of the Malefic Viper’s influence over the Milky Way. At least, that was the excuse Ell’Hakan used. The real reason was, of course, for Ell’Hakan to help his Patron defeat the Malefic Viper by building momentum for the god through his efforts in the new universe.So, what if they offered Ell’Hakan something better than him having some minor victories and claiming a few planets? As Bobby put it…“It’ll look better for Ell’Hakan that he managed to make you surrender—or at least look like you surrendered—and switch sides rather than just outmaneuvering you on the batt

Jake waited impatiently for the conference call to restart. While Ell’Hakan and company likely had a lot to talk about, Jake and the others really didn’t. Nothing said or discussed so far warranted any real conversation, so all Jake did was check in with Carmen and Bobby to hear their thoughts on how things were going so far—after Bobby assured Jake no one could hear or see them, that is.“He seems pretty on board,” Carmen said, shrugging, “but it’s hard to say with slimy bastards like him. Either way, even if he doesn’t believe us, he probably wants to just go along with the story anyway, right? At least until his Patron battles the Malefic Viper.”Bobby nodded. “I’m in agreement. You just need the story to be somewhat believable. I’m sure Ell’Hakan will do the necessary selling to the rest of the galaxy and multiverse to help power up Yip of Yore from there, and when you do your official public denouncement of the Malefic Viper, nothing prior will have mattered. That in itself will