Understanding Jack had installed trap bombs all over the field, the bandit decided to stay put and seek out other attacking options. He took a deep breath, raising and opening his mouth, then roared like a mighty lion. The sound turned into sonic waves, blowing up the surrounding small plant life, earth, and wooden pieces. Jack had to reveal himself, unable to adapt to the mana disruption and the strengthened aura of his enemy.
The Crusader smirked, clenching back his two fists and swinging them at Jack. The pressure condensed into two fast projectiles that would have hit the kid if he hadn’t used Shadow Dance in time to roll sideways. Utilizing the active time of the skill, Jack drew more poison from Felice's utility belt, condensed it, and shot back at his opponent, but the bandit waved it off like shooing a fly. Poison smoke burst out and blended into the air as Jack shortened the distance in half, throwing another flame-covered dagger. The bandit’s reaction time was superb, but he still gained a small scratch on his arm. From there, the fire burst up, wrapping around the wound like a parasite.
Jack used the final seconds of Shadow Dance to leap backward, retreating to the original distance.
“Damn brat!” The thug growled.
Jack lowered his body, channeling his energy into his legs, bracing himself for the next Crusader’s air punches to his face. He needed to buy some time before he could activate Shadow Dance again. The latest and next level of the skill only gave him more speed, not shortening the cooldown. The level that would increase its usage rate required more Agility. That would be the last thing he wanted to do, for he might need more Strength and Spirit if the situation demanded it.
This time, after clenching his fists, the bandit decided to approach his opponent. He was a melee Warrior, so he reckoned he should be fighting like one.
Jack struggled to keep his distance. Before he knew it, his enemy was within striking range. He quickly responded with a flurry of reactions; a snap of his finger, an explosion from another poison bomb, and a body spin he had learned from Martial Art Mastery. Jack managed to dodge aside as his opponent had a moment of confusion in the smoke screen.
The poison surrounded the bandit. Another aura blast was used, clearing this one as well as helping Jack to gain some distance. However, it also messed up Jack’s inside a bit. The punch had missed, but its pressure still managed to rip his shirt off, leaving behind a patch of bruises on his chest.
“You are more of a nuisance than I have expected!” The thug said with a low voice as his breathing was noticeably more difficult. “I’ve never liked those damn Maester snakes, but it only took smashing their head for them to went down. You, with that faction of coward cockroaches, that’s some combo right there.”
“Venomous and tough to kill?” Jack asked smilingly.
“No more than one of those slippery insects.”
Jack wanted to continue this war of words, but his opponent was also playing the same game as him, using the chit-chat to channel his ability the whole time. The bandit’s foot was still stationary, but the ground around him was shaking. As soon as Jack noticed something was off, a burst of energy came from under him and launched him upward against his will. A snake could only be slithery on the ground; in the air, it was nothing more than a practice dummy. Unlucky for Jack, he was the target for the massive club swinging forward. In the moment of panic, Jack used the most basic skill, channeling mana into his palm and launching them outward, nudging himself from the trajectory of the head-crushing weapon. The tip of the club barely scratched his left shoulder but was still enough to knock him hard to the ground.
Jack coughed, feeling glad that he had balanced his stats well. If he had not invested in his Strength enough, it would have been his head smashed into pieces instead of some cracks on his shoulder bone. He responded with five bombs surrounding the bandit. He followed them with three Condensed Shots, but the size of these was abnormally large.
The thug wasn’t bothered one bit. He opened his hand and clapped them, stopping the bombs again with the sonic blast. The shots, however, were still moving forward, protected by their mana covers. The bandit paid them little attention, waving his hand and deflecting them around. He attempted to leap forward again when he noticed in his peripheral visions the three shots, exposing themself after their disguise was broken as some more bombs, falling down and exploding right next to him. The toxic gas continued to increase the risk of a complete breakdown of the bandit’s infected organs. He could feel himself stretching his mana pool to the limit. After all, he was a Warrior, a faction not known for its high Spirit stats. The poisons couldn’t be kept at bay for long.
I’m losing. A thought flashed through his mind.
He hadn’t even turned the thought into action when Jack used Shadow Dance, picked up the blade on the field, and launched them at his opponent. Unsurprisingly, one of them was covered in Black Flame, leaving another concern on the thug’s thigh.
On the other side, Jack was running into similar problems. His mana pool, after pushing out skill after skill, had fewer than one-third left. He had upgraded his Black Flame, but his opponent was doing very well in resisting its spreading, as well as the ever-stacking poisons. Absorbing mana from the crystals took time, the time that one’s opponent would not allow one to have.
They both came to the final conclusion: they had to use what was left of them now. The bandit jumped forward as Jack instantly disappeared. The aura blast was unleashed, disrupting Presence of the Night, turning Jack into a blinking light, disappearing and reappearing, confusing his opponent. Still, the punches fell, and Jack tried to dodge them. He risked himself trying to adapt to his opponent’s melee prowess with all of his available skill, especially the stances and moves of Martial Art Mastery. Jack didn’t counterattack and instead focused on minimizing the damage taken. Even so, the growing number of wounds was turning his body into a creepy blood bag. The pressure from the blows passing by had ripped many parts of his body, bleeding the scratches on his forehead, scraping out the flesh of his underbelly, and bruising his thighs.
As the cooldown of Shadow Dance ticked to zero, Jack quickly activated it and leaped backward. The bandit smirked, throwing out a small object as if he had predicted his opponent’s move. The cube sparkled under the moonlight. A thunderous sound was unleashed, and a circular area was covered in a lightning storm. Jack tried to protect his body with a mana shield, but much at the caravan, a Herald wasn’t capable of that.
The distance he had created using Shadow Dance meant he was at the edge of the affected zone, minimizing the effect. However, Jack still fell to the ground, paralyzed and shaken.
The bandit laughed in annoyance.
“Two Crusader grenades in one day. I really know how to spend my fortune.”
He walked exhaustingly toward Jack, knowing he had the win firmly in his hand. The shockwave had also forced him to deplete his mana pool defending himself.
“As I have told your father, if you had just followed my plan, it wouldn’t have been so costly for me. I would have been so much gentle with you too. I only shackled you a bit, not beating you up or anything….”
Jack gritted his teeth and forced himself back on his feet, remembering how Robert had been mistreated. The sound of teeth clanking made the bandit laugh out loud. He was now right in front of him.
“Save for that old fool and the little kid. Now,” he spread his arms out; its size was terrifying, even for Jack, “I’ll pla….”
Jack raised his left arm up, and Boom.
It burst out in a mushroom shape. Jack was pushed back, rolling uncontrollably on the ground as smoke and toxic black blood splashed on the bandit’s face. A few drops found their way into the eyes and mouth of the bandit. This time, he didn’t have the mana for any more aura blast, saving the last of it to fight the new poison. He tried to no avail, for Jack’s final straw had triggered something, tipping off the fragile balance between his resistance and the accumulating toxic. The thug staggered forward, his hand still reaching out, searching for Jack’s throat. One of his eyes felt like being burnt away. He tried to roar but only found himself snorting with a dried and painful throat. Black Flame, ever the opportunistic, broke out on his body.
The bandit crumbled to the ground, his body convulsing, his eyes melting away. He choked out instead of breathing, unable to cope with the fact he had lost against a Herald kid.
Jack wasn’t in much better shape. He had hoped to unleash the poison smoke through his pores and fingertips like mini Condensed Shots, but the grenade had destabilized his mana, resulting in Jack turning himself into a hand-cannon. Whatever the case, the outcome was nothing out of the ordinary for Jack. His left arm was now wasted. Blackened and messy, it was no better than how Mantis had abused his own. The infected blood was heading to his head and heart as green veins showed themself, crawling up on his pale face. Jack took out the detox mixtures he had prepared and forced himself to swallow them. Both Enhancement and Resistance Technique were unavailable since his body was still under the effect of the lightning shock.
His mind wanted to fade away from all that medicine, only to be held back by the pain of his flesh. Jack used some bandages to wrap himself. The cube had left quite an impression on him, so he had devised a plan to set up the poison within himself as the trump card. Jack knew for sure the greedy bandit wouldn’t use it unless being pushed to his limit if he had any more of the thing. Still, this outcome was not what Jack had wanted, for nobody wanted to have a part of them blow apart. Jack had a chill running down his spine, thinking of the poison still running in his other arm, legs, chest, and back to be used in the utmost extreme cases.
The bleeding had been stopped, and he had himself a big laugh contemplating the battle.
It was stupid.
Had he run with his father, he wouldn’t have suffered this much. Still, he laughed. It had been so long, too long, since he had last felt so alive. Jack missed the adventures and the glorious but rather messy battles with his companions before all of this.
He relaxed himself, lying on the empty field, waiting for the poison to slowly take out the dying Crusader Warrior. All of Julia’s lessons echoed in his mind. Now, he had to be patient before getting his hand on the bandit’s item. He would wait for the system to inform him about the victory.
Not very far from the farmhouse, Abraham was running back with everything he had to find Jack.
Damn these handcuffs, he cursed with his heavy breathing, pushing his lungs to their limit.
He had forgotten to tell Jack one thing. He had been too busy thinking about how his son would lose and run away to warn him about the opposite.
When facing a Crusader or higher, resting on your victory meant dead.
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