Chapter 890. Protecting Nilrem
Four Winds, who saw the casting, also knew the predicament. They couldn't allow Nilrem to finish the casting. He clung to the hellion panther's side and instructed it to barge through.
Nilrem had placed himself in the middle of Everlasting Heavenly Legends' army so that she was protected during her casting. Yet, Abasi and the hellion panther seemed unstoppable. Abasi was flying so only ranged attacks could bother him. But even though he suffered damage, none of the ranged attacks caused movement restriction. So, he continued unhindered.
The hellion panther was very agile. It jumped through Everlasting Heavenly Legends' troops at high speed. Kishale also continued firing her ice arrows, impeding the enemies from obstructing them as well as slowing them down with her ice arrow's effect.
Four Winds continued hanging by the side of the hellion panther and cleaved anyone who came near. He also used Berserker's Cry of Rage. Some of the enemy melee units possessed movement restriction skills, especially blood counts.
Cry of Rage removed all movement restrictions and made allies more resistant to subsequent movement restrictions. Moreover, Four Winds had already max-leveled this skill. At level 20, the resistance to subsequent movement restrictions was one hundred percent and its duration increased to five minutes. This meant he, the hellion panther, and Kishale was immune to all movement restrictions at the moment.
Aside from Kishale's arrows, the two whiskers beside the hellion panther also smacked all the soldiers who tried to stop it. The whiskers' hooked suckers dealt high damage with each swing and also caused knockback. Its bladed tail also slashes anyone that tried to attack its rear.
When Nilrem was in sight, Four Winds readied himself. He needed to send a strong enough attack to disrupt the casting. But suddenly a huge figure came rushing from the side.
The figure slammed itself into the hellion panther. The hellion panther might be able to brush aside the attacks from the small guild soldiers, but the one who had just come crashing had a body as large as its own. It was the brave golem.
The hellion panther paused due to the body slam. Utilizing the pause, the brave golem did its shockwave punch. The panther resisted the knockback due to being immune to movement restriction, but the explosive wind still tore Kishale and Four Winds off from the panther's body. They fell and were surrounded by the guild soldiers, while brave golem grabbed the hellion panther's whiskers and held it down forcefully. All three of them were now unable to reach Nilrem.
"Hmph!" Abasi had seen the failed attempt. It seemed in the end, it all depended on him. He had flown close enough. Several of the eagle rider hunters tried to fly down and blocked him but his axe struck them all away.
Nilrem was now in range. Abasi lifted his giant axe. His axe conjured an imitation that was ten times bigger than the real weapon. This gigantic axe image then erupted with ghoulish dark-red flame. He then brought down this flaming axe image onto Nilrem.
Nilrem frowned when she sensed the power behind Abasi's attack. Her water curtain might not be enough to protect her from the attack. She was about to let go of her casting and fight Abasi directly. But she spotted something and she decided to continue her casting. When Abasi's gigantic flaming axe came cleaving from high up, someone came floating into the air between the two.
It was Jack.
His copies had run around the battlefield. When Nilrem landed, one was nearby, Jack immediately controlled it and had it headed toward Nilrem. Before he exchanged places with that copy, he had Peniel cast Second Life on him. He knew that Abasi was going to use his strongest attack to pierce through Nilrem's water curtain to disrupt her casting. He was not sure if his available defensive skills could tank through the attack or not. Since Peniel's invulnerability was still on cooldown, Second Life was the other sure skill that could help him survive.
After exchanging places with the copy near Nilrem, Jack cast Soar and floated up since Abasi came attacking from up in the air.
The flaming axe hit Jack squarely. The gigantic image completely engulfed him. Jack felt as if he had been split apart by a guillotine and was burned at the same time. His body slammed down into the ground from the impact. His HP was zero.
Abasi had failed to disrupt Nilrem, but seeing Jack's dead body, he felt satisfaction nevertheless. He had finally avenged Wangombe. Badu might regret for not being able to kill Jack directly, but he would understand.
Abasi only allowed his feeling to affect him for a beat. He immediately returned his attention to Nilrem. He struck the water curtain with his axe. The water curtain felt as solid as steel.
'Damn!' He cursed within. Without that strongest skill he just used, it would take some time to break through this defensive spell.
When he was about to continue hacking at the water curtain, something in the corner of his eyes caught his attention. He turned and saw Jack standing back up, his HP was full again.
'How?!' He thought questioningly. He didn't see any high priest around who might have the resurrection spell. Even though he wanted very much to kill Jack again, he had no time. He needed to destroy Nilrem's water curtain and disrupt her from completing her mega spell.
However, a shout caused him to change his mind.
"Kill the outworlder! He summoned the army, killing him will unsummon the guild army here!"
It was Four Winds who had shouted. Before he engaged Everlasting Heavenly Legends' army, he had tasked Disco Rain to do her out-of-body experience to find out the position of where the enemy's guild army controlling platform was. If they could take out the platform or the player controlling the platform, the enemy's guild army would be unsummoned.
After finding out, Disco Rain informed Four Winds via messages. Knowing that it was Jack who was controlling the platform, his plan to ambush the platform site was scrapped. Even if they reached the platform, he doubted they would be able to do much against Jack. He was still surprised though, to find out that Jack had a skill that allowed him to be at two places at the same time.
Four Winds had expected all of Everlasting Heavenly Legends' guild soldiers to disappear when Jack crashed into the ground from Abasi's attack. But when they didn't, he knew something was wrong. He continued to look at Jack. When Jack got back up, Four Winds wasn't surprised. He figured Jack must have used a life-saving tool like a sacrificial dummy. Probably a higher-grade sacrificial dummy, that's why Jack came to life with full HP instead of 1 HP.
Four Winds immediately shouted the information about Jack controlling the command platform to Abasi, since the warlord was the closest to Jack at the moment.
After hearing Four Winds' words, Abasi no longer tried to break Nilrem's water curtain. Killing Jack would be the same as canceling Nilrem's spell as well. He came to Jack and uttered, "I will kill you again, pesky outworlder!"
Five flaming shadows with axe images came cleaving, sealing Jack's escape path. Abasi was hell-bent on finishing Jack.
Jack didn't underestimate Abasi. Now that Peniel's two ultimate protection spell was gone, he had to use all the defensive skills he had available. A sharp golden light burst out of his body. His total HP increased to two times his previous number. His HP was now over 30,000. It was Gold Dragon Vitality, the third skill of his bloodline.
At the same time before Abasi's axe struck, Jack activated Lightning God Suit and Dragon Eye.
Electricity erupted from Jack's body, striking enemies in the vicinity. Abasi's axe cut into Jack, but the damage was less than one-third than it should be. With Jack's HP being double from before, this was not enough to pose any danger.
With his perception of time slowed. Jack rose and executed the burst attack of Formless Flowing Sword style. He had an easier time directing the ninety-six slashes with the slowed time. Since he had just learned this third phase, his control was not that good yet. The Dragon Eye helped overcome this flaw.
With better control, all ninety-six slashes landed on Abasi's body before he could react, but Jack also felt great fatigue. Fully controlling the third phase of the burst attack consumed a lot of stamina. Abasi received large damage due to the combo multiplier, but Jack was not yet finished with his assault. He followed up with Brave Slash.
A long Golden light expanded from his sword. He then made a slash forward.
Abasi tried to parry the attack with his huge axe. Jack twisted his hand before the two weapons made contact, he didn't want to waste this attack by getting parried. At the same time, his off-hand weapon came up with Flame Strike. The flame strike hit Abasi's axe and pushed it slightly, his brave blade then slipped through and slashed Abasi's left arm.
An unsuspected thing happened upon contact. The brave blade produced a critical hit, but that was not what surprised Jack. It was that after the brave blade struck, Abasi's arm was cut off.
Abasi roared painfully as he reared back. His left arm was now a stump slightly above the elbow. His cut arm was on the ground before Jack.
Jack halted for a bit due to this unexpected event. He remembered again the description of the skill. High chance to wound opponents. So, this was what it meant.
A sense of incoming attack from his back snapped him back to alert. He used Flash Step and dodged a large paw that struck the ground where he stood. But once he did, another attack came from the side. A very fast one. Jack couldn't dodge this one and he was struck.
He felt himself getting held by the thing that struck his side. He turned and found out it to be the hellion panther. One of its whiskers with hooked ends tried to lodge itself onto Jack's body, but because of Lightning God Suit, it was unable to. The whisker instead rolled around Jack's waist to forcefully hold him in place. The panther then opened its wide mouth. An eerie phantom with the shape of a cat's head appeared and bit Jack.
This attack was what Peniel had cautioned Paytowin before, Consume Soul.