Beyond Death ( Part 2 )
Carol had by now gotten a hold of herself and was leading the only three surviving soldiers through the tunnel away from the fight. They found an empty sedan which one of the soldiers swiftly hot wired to ignition.
â Maâam you have to get in. This tunnel may collapse at any time ,â they urged her when she tried to linger.
â But Jack is still out there !â she protested.
âMaâam weâll die if we stay here. You saw him take out one of those hounds , heâs probably a mage and will make it out irregardless ,â
â We will wait at the other end of the tunnel. If heâs not out in twenty minutes , weâll go back to Parliament ,â she decided.
âWeren't we supposed to go to headquarters maâam?â
âHeadquarters have been breached by these monsters. Right now I have to ensure the safety of my subordinates above all else,â she said finally getting into the back seat of the car.
â Move it dumbass!â she yelled at the soldier meant to drive . He had spaced out for a moment after hearing how much she cared about them.
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Though they were literally leaving him behind with a possessed first class mage to deal with , Jack felt better with the soldiers gone.
Now he could go all out without having to worry about feeble humans getting killed in his wake.
The warrior mage , now a slave for the unholy reaper , leapt and swung his axe at Jack.
The aim was to take him out in a single arc , or break all his ribs at the very least. Instead of dodging , something he could have easily done with the increased speed, he decided to conserve stamina and parry the attack instead.
A near fatal mistake.
He wondered how he had overlooked the vast disparity of strength between himself and the warrior .Even though the Excalibur sword never broke , the momentum of the axe swept Jackâs body whole and flew him across the tunnel's entire cross-section. The wall he crashed into slammed at his back resoundingly , threatening to shatter every bone in him.
He reckoned that the only thing holding him together at this point was the increased durability from the system. But even that attribute was already at its limits and he felt Rejuvenation try to automatically engage .
He stopped it , choosing to conserve the 4 rejuvenation bars he had for the harder injuries to come.
âAiko , what happens if I activate two talents at the same time ?â he asked , wiping off the small trickle of blood from his nose.
âMore stamina will be consumed , the second talent using fifty percent more than it normally would. This effect stacks up Bossman ,â
â And the effective output ?â
âThe damage will remain consistent,â she assured him.
That was good to hear. If he was to stand a chance against the warrior , then heâd need to use Constricted Surface to weaken him. To deal the finishing blow , Jack would need to be there inside the attackâs effective radius to deal the finishing blow.
But since Constricted Surface was indiscriminate when choosing targets , he would also be subject to the attack and thus needed a way to reduce the damage he took from it by simultaneously activating the other talent , Flowing Paradise.
That was easier said than done.
The Soul Reaper floated into the arena , starting a coordinated assault against Jack with the aid of its enslaved mage. The reaperâs attacks were more rapid than the mageâs , causing Jack to crank up his speed faster than he had budgeted for.
Though he was able to consistently keep evading the attackâs , the rate at which he was burning through stamina was very discomforting.
â Flowing Paradise !â He chanted the activation of the first talent . It was of little use against physical attacks , but that was not the purpose it was intended for.
Sliding under the axe of the mage and barely dodging the swift Scythe that followed , he activated the second talent.
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âConstricted Furnace !â
Before the talent had even finished mapping out its effective radius , it was already lashing out with vengeful vents of blue flames at all of the individuals within it.
The Reaper tried flying higher , but with the tunnelâs ceiling coming to play , there was no escaping the attack. The mage tanked the first two flame bursts before falling to a knee on the third strike.
The attack was working , but sustaining it was coming at a heavy price to Jack. He was already pushing Flowing Paradise to its maximum to survive within Constricted Surface.
This was still not enough since after taking five hits from the flames , he had to use one rejuvenation bar to mitigate the accumulated damage.
[
System Warning
Stamina Residue Level 3
]
The screen notification meant that Aiko was doing her job. Levelling up Stamina replenished it to a full hundred percent.
He wanted to smile , but then got a warning of his talentâs uptime about to expire.
[
System Warning
Constricted Surface remaining uptime - 00:02:00:00
]
Two minutes was all he had to end the job.