Chapter 599 - 599. A Duel Between Past Friends
"Are you done? It's time for you to pay for your betrayal then," Jack said and cast Magic Weapon, his hands now held two swords.
John's avatar came forward. Jack didn't plan to entertain John for long. He used Flame Strike, planning to smash the avatar away and head over to John to finish this at once. But as Jack's sword was about to hit, the avatar's sword twirled and guided Jack's sword in a circular motion. Jack's felt as if his assault sank into the depth of the ocean.
Jack recognized this move, it was one of his grandfather's defensive arts, Engulfing Vortex.
When Jack was still in astonishment. The Flame Strike was deflected away without fulfilling its intention, the avatar was still next to him and was slashing him with its other sword. Although he was surprised, Jack's reflex and speed was uncanny, he utilized the Eight Diagram Illusory Steps and dodged the slash narrowly.
Jack then slashed back, but his slash missed. He didn't stop, his Formless Flowing Sword style and Eight Diagram Illusory Steps operated hand in hand to perform complex assaults and evasions at the same time.
Surprisingly though, the avatar responded in kind.
After several slashes, Jack could tell for sure that the avatar was indeed using the same two arts that he was currently using, with equal expertise. Disturbed by how this avatar could perform such martial arts so well, he was distracted. His feet got snatched by the giant lizard's long tongue. The avatar landed its slash. Jack cut the tongue to free himself before jumping back.
When he landed, a Dirt Golem had been waiting there. He quickly spun around as he blocked a punch. When he wanted to counterattack, another came from his blind spot. His mana sense allowed him to notice the incoming attack though, his Flash Step brought him out of danger. Yet, as soon as he appeared, another attack was coming.
Jack continued dodging and blocking attacks from multiple directions that seemed unending.
"This… It's Nine Stars Formation!" Jack exclaimed. Although he didn't learn all his grandfather's martial arts, he had spent enough time in Domon's school to recognize most of his grandfather's arts.
"Hahaha! Surprised?" Jack heard John's taunting laugh. "I have to tell you, although I dislike those physical training from your grandfather, doesn't mean I didn't pay attention. All Domon had taught, are recorded inside my brain. Even if I can't perform those arts using my body, it's a piece of cake to do it using my mind. Now, do you finally realize the greatness of this young master before you? Hahaha…!!"
"I must say, you are already annoying when you are a friend. It is doubly now that you are an enemy, especially that laugh of yours!" Jack uttered. He started casting a spell.
"Ice Ring? Retreat!" John commanded. All his summons reacted swiftly, clearing the area before the spell hit.
Jack was astonished. John identified his spell when the rune had just started casting, it was not even one-quarter of the rune yet. John's speed in identifying a spell was even more swift than Assistant Manager Ironhand.
Jack was hoping to hit John's minions with the freezing or slowing effect of his spell. If he only wanted damage, it was better to use Whirlwind Slash which needed no casting time. But these summons' HP was very high, similar to the natives and wilderness monsters. Jack didn't plan to waste his time dealing with this summons.
Jack executed Shooting Dash. John had retreated some distances away when his summons started clashing with Jack, but Jack's shooting dash could dash three times now, covering a great distance. Jack aimed his dashes in between John's Dirt Golems which were seemingly spread around. On his third dash, when Jack thought he was about to reach John, the avatar suddenly stood in his way.
Jack's body crashed with the avatar. The avatar was very sturdy. The two stumbled back.
"Do you think I placed my summons randomly? I left a clear path for you to take. I already know from where you will be coming at me!" John uttered.
Jack recovered his balance, but he sensed an attack coming. He somersaulted back as several projectiles shot by. It was the Fae. It was a summon that dealt range attacks. John joined in by casting Mana Bullet and Energy Bolts. While Jack was dodging the range attacks. The dirt Golems had returned and surrounded Jack again with Nine Stars Formation.
John cast Arcane Turbulence while Jack was trapped inside the formation.
"Dream on if you think you can entrap me!" Jack exclaimed and used Blitz Slash, His body zoomed past the encirclement, dealing slashing damages to the summons, and came out the other side where John was at. Jack was about to attack when he was startled to find five Johns in front of him.
'Mirror Image? But the mana amongst the five is similar,' Jack thought in confusion. The Mirror Image should only have one true body. When Master cast this spell, he could easily identify the real one, but why it's different this time?
Yet, he did sense some dissimilarities between the five images, some were more obscure. Jack surmised he should be able to tell the real body if he focused more attention, but at that time, John's avatar had arrived behind him. Jack rolled to the side as the avatar's twin-blade came slashing.
Feeling vexed by constant disruptions from the summons, Jack was not patient enough to focus his mana sense. He used Wind Slash. Two wind energies crisscrossed amongst all five images of John. Whichever the real one was, it would still get hit.
All five Johns cast Magic Shield. Their magic shields were a larger version than normal, shaped like a kite shield. Jack had informed his guild's core members about equipment imprinting, allowing them to do the same.
Despite protection from the magic shield, John still received damage from the wind slash. Jack knew now which was the real one since the real one showed damage numbers above the head. Jack sent Sword of Light as a follow-up. His attack smashed John's magic shield to pieces and again dealt damage.
"Hey! What are you guys doing? Cast Heal on me!" John shouted at the spectators. The spectators were baffled. Wasn't it you who say no aiding no matter what?
One of them snapped from the daze and cast heal on him.
John's Fae continued shooting its range attacks to try hindering Jack. Its attacks had a chance to cause Poison and Confused. Jack had been inflicted by its Poison, but luckily, no confused yet. He would have to use his headband's cleansing ability if he did. He ignored the poison effect as his HP recovery was enough to counteract the effect.
The Dirt Golems and Giant lizard had come again to encircle him.
"I must admit I'm impressed. I thought I can kill you with only my main class. Now even after using my two classes, I still have trouble. Taste my third class then, wolf pack comes out!" Jack uttered as ten wolves came out. The lead alpha was the large black wolf from his Beastmaster trial.
When the wolves appeared, William and everyone else except John had a shocked expression. They knew this was a Beastmaster's skill, which meant Jack now had another class aside from Blade Dancer and Archmage.
Each of the wolves immediately pounced at the giant lizard and seven dirt golems, while the remaining two tried to lunge at the avatar. The avatar used Formless Flowing Sword Style to smack the two away before executing the burst slashes of the art towards Jack. Jack responded in kind. Uncountable sparks filled the air as their swords collided.
Jack's strength and damage modifier were far higher. Every time their swords clashed, the avatar lost a bit of HP. But its HP pool was very high that such small overspill damages were meaningless.
One of the two wolves that tried to attack the avatar was the alpha. It quickly recovered its balance and deftly jumped to the avatar's back, biting its neck. Jack used the interference to make a superhuman jump, somersaulting over the avatar's back. He then used Charge to get close to John.
The fae continued shooting but its damages were too low for Jack's defense and Jack was still not affected by the Confuse state. The chance was low and Jack's resistance was high.
John had no choice but to rely on himself. He cast Barrier before casting magic bind. Jack sensed the magic bind taking effect on the path he was rushing on. Jack canceled his charge and jumped to the side when a ring of light appeared. Jack cast the same spell in retaliation.
John also deftly evaded the spell. Jack had heard from his regular chat messages with his grandfather, that amongst all guild members, John was the most advance in the improvement of mana sense. The guy might be terrible during physical training, but Domon praised John's mental training, so Jack was not surprised when he saw his spell being dodged easily.
Unfortunately for John, even if he successfully dodged Jack's spell. Jack was close enough. Jack fired a mana beam. The beam punctured the Fae while headed at John's head. John made a panic dive to evade the spell.
While he was diving, Jack's speed had brought him before John. Jack executed Devouring Cross.
John's Barrier was completely devoured by the dark energy. Although the barrier absorbed enough damage to allow him to survive, his HP was only a hairbreadth remaining.
"Time out!" John exclaimed.
"Time out your sister! This is for betraying us!" Jack said and sent a quick follow-up slash which took out John's remaining HP.
John didn't set a party with any of the Saint Edge's people around there. So when he fell, the combat was considered ended and his body disintegrated.
Jack looked to the silent spectators.
"I've not yet felt satisfied beating him.. You people will have to bear my fury," Jack said to them.