Sinful realized his blunder. He was indeed already aware of Jack's dual-class from World Maker's data. The fight with Luther had been abrupt. He had heard the commotion and immediately lent a hand because he didn't want Jack to be killed. The order was to capture Jack alive. Jack might not die for real but that was also an opportunity to further gain Jack's trust. He didn't realize that one misstep had blown his cover.
"Hm, you are not wearing Amulet of Rebirth?" Jack said. "Good! Save me the time from hunting you down. This should teach you, disgusting psycho, from threatening my friend."
Jack swung his sword down. A puff of smoke burst out when Jack's sword hit Sinful's body. No, not a body. It was a piece of wood!
"What the..."
Jack's surprise was cut short when he sensed an attack from his back. He quickly activated Flash Step. When he appeared somewhere else, the sense came again at his back. Jack made a complex pose by crossing his two swords at his back just as he felt an impact.
Jack jumped away, turned, and looked back at Sinful, who was wearing an ugly face. Sinful had hoped his two backstabs to have hit at least once, he never expected Jack to be able to escape both stabs. He had used a rare skill, Substitution Escape, to avoid Jack's attack and then backstab Jack. When Jack evaded that, he used Phase Strike, but Jack still managed to block the second stab.
"You are not kidding when you said you are good at ambushing," Jack said. "Even your fighting style reflects that. But that ends now, those World Maker people should have sent someone strong to accompany you. Even if you managed to track me down, it is useless if you can't win against me."
"You are too full of yourself," Sinful countered. "Do you think I have no reason to not wear an Amulet of Rebirth?"
Some mana cores appeared in his hand, he then hold them near his pendant. The pendant sucked the mana cores in and started to glow.
"Oh! Is that...?" Peniel uttered.
Sinful's pendant suddenly exploded with black light before the black light formed a large shape. Before Jack knew it, a monstrosity stood between him and Sinful.
The monster looked like a large humanoid frog. Its body was covered with hard carapaces filled with sharp horns. Its large froglike head had two frills jutting from its skull to the back of its neck. Jack used Inspect on the creature.
Thorny Toadfolk (special elite, magical), level 45
HP: 142,000
"That is an Amulet of Summoning," Peniel said.
"Well, it's pretty obvious now, ain't it?" Jack commented. "So that Disbandment Charge's effect has run out, eh? Or are we out of its effective perimeter? Well, anyway, if you can summon, then so can I!"
Jack used his Companion Token and summoned Heathcliffe. Although the two summoned creatures' levels were similar, the knight was an entire grade lower.
Sinful was gleeful enough to point it out, "Hah! Do you think your elite grade companion can go against my special elite one?"
"Who said they are going to contest on who will win? He only needs to hold that ugly monster of yours for a few seconds," Jack said.
Heathcliffe received the command and immediately clashed with the toadfolk.
"You won't get past it!" Sinful cried as he hid behind his summoned monster.
"Cute," Jack said before he used Shooting Dash, making an L-shaped turn and arriving before Sinful who hid behind the Toadfolk.
When Jack was about to slash at him, he suddenly felt a strong pull on his leg. His body got yanked in the air. He looked at where his leg was and saw a long red tongue was gripping it. The tongue had shot out from the Toadfolk.
The toadfolk swung his tongue and smashed Jack onto the rocky ground. The ground cracked and Jack received damage from it. Heathcliffe used the chance when the toadfolk saved its master to smash the monster's head with his two-handed mace. The monster reeled from the hit, the thorns on its carapace shot out and stabbed at the knight.
"Ugh," Jack grunted as he stood back up. The damage from the throw was not high, but to be denied victory in such an unexpected way was frustrating.
Jack looked at Heathcliffe fighting the Toadfolk. The thorns on the monster's carapace kept on stabbing out every time its opponent came into melee range. Heathcliffe who was a pure melee unit wouldn't last long against such an opponent.
Jack was thinking of reversing the roles. He dealt with the toadfolk while Heathcliffe went after Sinful, but this would drag the battle longer. He didn't want that. Another reason was, this Sinful was rather crafty. He might have prepared something to flee if forced, he probably didn't use it yet because he was still hoping that he could still catch Jack and complete his objective. Jack didn't want to let him have a chance of fleeing, he needed to finish this psychotic backstabber to avoid trouble in the future.
Sinful was now stealing his chance and threw his dagger at Heathcliffe while he was preoccupied with the toadfolk.
Jack cast Arcane Turbulence and placed it in between Sinful and Toadfolk, forcing the dwarf to separate from his summoned monster. Jack then rushed at the dwarf. Sinful gave an order for the toadfolk to come to his protection.
Jack activated Charge, attempting to reach Sinful before the monster arrived. Heathcliffe understood Jack's intention and did his best to hinder the toadfolk. Seeing that it could not make it in time, the toadfolk opened its mouth and again shot out its long tongue.
After getting caught the first time, Jack had been ready. He canceled his Charge and jumped sideways just as the tongue rolled past. He then used Flame Strike. The burning sword sliced through, cutting the tongue clean in two.
'Awesome! This should mean it can't use its tongue attack again, right?' Jack said in his mind. But while he was celebrating, a shadow suddenly came to his side.
Jack was surprised. He slashed to that side but the shadow had ducked away and stabbed at him. The ranger's first skill, Swift Stab, had been fast. Sinful's dagger dug into his waist. Jack counterattack with a slash but Sinful rolled away, back to where Toadfolk was at.
Jack was notified that he had been afflicted by Poison. That was from Assassin's skill, Poison Mastery. Jack used his Golden Noble Headband's ability to dispel the poison status effect. At the same time, he cast Energy Bolts that chased after the fleeing Sinful.
The dwarf managed to hide behind the toadfolk's back and let the monster receive the eight energy bolts.
'That sneaky bastard!' Jack cursed.
But now that the toadfolk had lost its tongue, it no longer could save Sinful during a critical time.
Sinful who was aware of this fact, was alert as he watched Jack. He was sure the guy would be gunning for him again. But Jack instead moved until his line of sight was covered by the toadfolk. When Sinful was puzzled by this, a thick beam suddenly pierced out from the toadfolk and rushed at him. Luckily, his reflex was high enough that he still managed to dodge the beam.
Jack who had cast Mana Beam, cast another spell immediately after. It was Magic Bind which locked the toadfolk in place.
"Heathcliffe! Meteor throw!" Jack shouted.
Heathcliffe understood Jack's order. He threw his large two-handed mace. The mace was blanketed by spherical energy as it flew at Sinful. Sinful who was unbalanced after dodging Mana Beam, still managed to jump, evading the throw. This spoke to the dwarf's tenacity.
Jack, however, was ready for it. He swung his sword. Green-colored thin energy flashed forward at an arc, it was so fast that it zipped past Sinful's body who was still in the air. The flash of energy caused critical damage of over 3000 damages. Sinful whose full HP was only 1760 was immediately depleted. Jack's Wind Slash had made its fatal debut.
But instead of falling to zero, Sinful's HP hung stubbornly at one. Jack who had encountered such a scene numerously, was ready for it. He already fired a Mana Bullet after executing the Wind Slash. The bullet hit Sinful and took out that remaining 1 HP.
Jack used the Runestone of Luck. He never used it before on a player and was interested to test it.
Sinful fell unwillingly, he was glaring at Jack as he fell.
The Thorny Toadfolk dispersed following his master's demise. Two items dropped near Sinful's body before it disintegrated.
Jack clapped on Heathcliffe's shoulder as a compliment, to which Heathcliffe nodded in return before going to pick up his mace. Jack went to the items dropped by Sinful.
"Yes! It works!" Jack exclaimed after seeing one of the things on the ground. He picked it up. It was the Amulet of Summoning that Sinful had worn.
While he was admiring the pendant, the other item on the ground shone and hummed. Jack was taken aback by the event.. He looked at the item, it was a small rectangular metal plate.
