Once Jack got close enough, he launched himself towards the Ogre Shaman, aiming to land a heavy blow onto it with his shortswords. However, as Jack approached, the Shaman jumped back a bit, gripping its staff with both of its hands.
“Herr ga’ kale.” The Shaman said.
Clang.
Jack's eyes narrowed slightly. After those words had left the creature's mouth, an instantaneous magic barrier had been deployed, blocking Jack's attack with ease. Following the barrier, lightning crackled lightly below Jack, forcing the Tamer to quickly leap back, as a giant lightning strike shot up from the ground – reaching the ceiling and destroying part of it, sending debris falling down with a dust cloud.
The Shaman remained unphased, the falling debris bouncing off of the magic barrier it had made around itself, while Jack scoffed and using his shortswords quickly slashed at the falling fragments, destroying them as they reached him.
After the debris, the dust cloud reached the ground, covering the battlefield lightly. “Tch– Guess the warning about this thing having a capacity for highly destructive magic wasn’t a joke. That lightning would have done some serious damage to me had I taken it head on.” As the dust storm cleared, the red eyes of the Shaman shone, before several spheres of flames formed around it. Jack took in a deep breath, spinning his shortswords before launching himself forward.
“I should try and play it passive aggressively. I need to find myself an opportunity to strike it without it being able to deploy a barrier to stop me.” Jack thought as he approached the Shaman once more. The Shaman's eyes shone brightly for a moment, before it lifted the staff in its hands up high into the air.
“Ragale, hakkae, obwa!” Then, from the spheres of flames that were floating around the Shaman, a barrage of fireballs was launched towards Jack. The Tamer didn’t slow his dash towards the Shaman for a second — dodging and slicing apart the incoming fireballs.
Then, he leapt into the air and came crashing down towards the Ogre Shaman, who quickly leapt out of the way as Jack smashed into the ground, creating a fairly large crater and kicking up a large dust cloud. After the Shamans dodge, it looked towards the dust cloud, about to cast more spells – but before it could do anything, Jack suddenly launched out of the dust cloud, having morphed his legs into a pair of grasshopper ones. The Shaman's eyes only widened, as Jack closed the distance between them both in almost an instant, his eyes shining orange as he slashed towards the Shaman with his shortswords.
In the last moment, the Shaman used its staff to block the attack, entering a test of strength between it and Jack for a second, before some nearby shadows reacted slightly — then shot up as a sharp appendage and launched itself at Jack, forcing the Tamer to knock the Shaman away, before quickly leaping out of the attacks way.
However, before he could do anything else, suddenly four large fireballs surrounded him, as the Shaman stopped its motion and slammed its staff onto the ground. “Hegale al’ rackeus!” Jack shed a cold sweat, as the fireballs erupted into four large distinct explosions, reaching all the way up to the ceiling of the dungeon.
The large scale chain of explosions was enough to catch the attention of Araneida and Sallow, who were still fighting off the other Ogres. Sallow looked towards where Jack was facing off against the Shaman. “My Lord – do not underestimate the Shaman. It’s a truly frightening beast.”
The Ogre Shaman snickered to itself, while Jack coughed, before wiping away the dust cloud created by the chain explosion. The Tamer then wiped off the light blood that had leaked from his mouth before looking down at the Grey Kings Slasher. The explosion had wrecked it.
The blade was shattered and the handle may as well also have been. Jack scoffed, tossing the broken weapon away before standing up and stretching out a bit. “That was a rather nasty attack from the thing… It caught me completely off guard.” Jack commented, before throwing his gaze to the side, a window opening.
[ STATUS ]
Health: 600/940
[ STATUS ]
“Three hundred and forty damage from one attack? Hah… Yeah, the ‘destructiveness’ of the magic was an understatement.” Jack closed the window, before exhaling and spinning the Red Moon around, taking a battle ready position once more. It was a clearly bad match up for Jack.
While he was strong at Melee range, that meant nothing if the Shaman was able to kill him from range in just three hits. “Better try not tanking another one of those.” Jack thought, before taking in a deep breath and launching at the Shaman once more.
The Ogres eyes shone, before it aimed its staff at Jack, the shadows around it reacting and launching a barrage of shadow appendages from them, that lashed out towards Jack.
[ ALERT ]
A familiar situation has been detected.
Through [Combat Experience] your Agility and Defence stats have been boosted by 40%.
[ ALERT ]
The Tamer didn’t slow his dash.
He dodged the incoming strikes — leaping over them, sliding under them or even simply jumping to the side to dodge them. With his boosted swift movements and smooth maneuvering, he closed the distance between him and the Shaman in no time at all, slashing the Red Moon towards the Ogre, who simply deployed another barrier to block the attack.
Jack scoffed, before leaping back a bit and then back towards the Shaman, striking the barrier it had created over and over, and over again – his movement becoming faster and faster with each successive attack – until eventually, it became so fast, the Shaman was unable to keep up with the Tamers movement.
Then—
Crack.
The barrier around the Shaman cracked. The Ogre's eyes widened as it backed up towards the center of the barrier, clearly shocked and nervous. Jack continued his relentless attacks onto the barrier, until eventually it shattered to bits — causing the Shaman to freeze for a moment.
Jack closed the distance between him and the Shaman in a split moment, about to jam the Red Moon into the Shamans body, however the Ogre quickly blocked the attack, about to cast a spell to push the Tamer back once more. “Kade—” Before it even could begin the chant, the Tamer kicked the Shaman in the side of his head, sending it flying straight into a stone wall.
He had anticipated that the thing would use its staff to block and then lock his weapon in a standoff before firing off a spell, so he decided to catch it off guard and strike using his body as it started the spell casting.
“That one hit landed, but I doubt it did much to it.” Jack exhaled, before reaching into his bag and taking out one of the High Healing potions on him, popping it open before downing it in quick succession, tossing the empty container to the side, before wiping off his mouth, as his wounds from the earlier explosion healed.
“It could be seen as a waste to use one of those now, but it’s better to be safe rather than sorry.” Jack then spun the Red Moon around, before moving towards where he had launched the Ogre to. The Shaman rose out of the debris of the wall, its body slightly shaking as blood dripped from its head. The creature lifted its right hand up towards its head, touching the blood before looking at it. Then, it trembled in anger.
The Shaman then let out a loud shriek — clearly showcasing the fact that it was enraged, most likely by the fact that it had sustained an injury. Jack narrowed his eyes, tossing the Red Moon into the air for a moment, before grabbing it and launching towards the Shaman, who raised its staff in the air. “Jarr hadd’ le mareu hrean!” The Shaman shouted loudly, before smashing the staff onto the ground. In an instant, flames erupted from beneath the Ogre, before forming into a large flaming serpent, which let out a loud hiss as it looked down towards the approaching Jack.
Jack gasped for a second, however then scoffed and picked up his speed, accelerating even faster towards the Shaman, to try and strike it before it could do anything else. However, as he closed the distance, the Shaman aimed its staff towards the Tamer, letting out a loud, gibberish roar — which most likely was an order that it gave to the giant flaming serpent it had just created.
The giant flaming serpent let out a roaring hiss, before dashing down at Jack, causing the Tamers eyes to widen, before he quickly moved his arms in front of him and morphed a large tortoise shell in front of him to act as a shield, as the serpent crashed into him and pushed him back alongside it, burning away at the tortoise shell defence, before eventually breaking through it and going through Jack, knocking away the Red Moon far, far away from the Tamer, before rising up into the sky once more.
Jack fell to his knees, breathing a bit heavily.
It had just felt like he had gone through hell itself with the way the flames that made up the Serpent's body burned away at his flesh and skin. Singed marks covered his body, however his clothing was surprisingly intact, not having sustained much damage at all.
Before Jack could do anything, the serpent came crashing down onto him, sinking into the ground and once more going through Jack's entire body, causing the Tamer to let out a momentary cry of pain, as his skin was singed by the flames. The serpent then returned back to the Shaman, which was cackling to itself, as it slowly moved towards Jack with shining red eyes.
An announcement window appeared in front of Jack.
[ WARNING ]
Heavy damage sustained.
Health: 203/940
Healing is recommended.
[ WARNING ]
Jack scoffed, lifting his head up and looking at the approaching Shaman, his vision blurring for a moment. “What bullshit… That this is made from fire, something I can’t touch with physical attacks…” He commented to himself, before slowly rising back up to his feet, his entire body trembling as he did.
“That thing seems to be enjoying my suffrage. What a despicable creature…” Jack noted in his mind, before gritting his teeth, as he reached for his bag, with the intention of taking out a High Healing potion and smashing it onto him, however, before he could open his bag, his hand froze. “...I better not do it now. If I take it out now to heal, that thing will surely send the serpent towards me.”
Jack commented, moving his hand away from his back before looking over to where the Red Moon had landed. It was too far away from him to make it worth launching to grab it, so he was forced to think of something else. The flaming serpent was a problem — the thing was untouchable by his physical attacks. If it had been a living creature with an actual body, perhaps Jack would have been able to slay it before it had managed to deal so much damage to him.
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“I have to continue the fight… I am not going to die to some Shaman.” Jack thought, before standing completely up, his breathing slow and steady – while his legs trembled lightly. It was clear that it wasn’t easy for him to withstand the injuries, however at the same time, Jack was quickly becoming used to the injuries - their pain slightly numbing. Then, Jack smiled, before breaking out into a light laughter. “I have to say, the last time I sustained injuries as bad as this was after I got caught in a tent that was bombed four times. I was barely alive there — even if I was somehow still in one piece.”
The Shaman stopped, as if listening to Jack's words.
“It seems as though you’ve played your trump card – that flaming serpent is a true terror. So, I think I could return the favour.” Jack said, before gripping the khopesh he still had on his back, unsheathing it and spinning it lightly.
An idea had come to mind.
He still had one trump card up his sleeve – the only drawback was that he had never activated this trump card, due to the fact that it hadn’t been needed. Until now.
[ INFORMATION ]
Leaders Transformation - Unique Skill
Activation cost: 0
A Skill that allows the user to create a strong exterior armour around their body as well enhances the users senses and stats. Additionally, while active, the skill makes the user immune to instant death abilities.
Limitation; Consumes magical energy while the skill is active.
When the user runs out of magical energy, the skill is deactivated.
[ INFORMATION ]
It was time to stop holding back his cards.
The Shaman scoffed, before letting out a loud shriek, followed by a gibberish order, which caused the flaming serpent to roar before dashing towards Jack once more. Jack exhaled, before leaning forward. “I’m praying that this works. Because if it doesn’t… I'm as good as dead.” Jack commented, before looking at the approaching serpent of flames.
Then, he smirked.
A thick magical energy aura engulfed Jack as he began to leak his magical energy out of his body. Then, his eyes lit up a bright orange as he let out a loud roar. “Leaders Transformation!”
[ NOTICE ]
Command accepted.
[Leaders Transformation] activating.
[ NOTICE ]
A sudden burst of magical energy and wind force came from Jack. The burst's sheer force forced the serpent back, the thing quickly recovering before wrapping around the Shaman, who watched in shock and worry.
Araneida and Sallow stopped for a moment, and so did the Ogres they were fighting. All of them turned to look towards the area where the immense magical energy waves were coming from. “I recognise this feeling… My Lord, are you finally using the gift you received upon receiving my servitude?” Sallow asked in his mind, before dodging an attack from an Ogre and slicing it in half with one swing of his greatsword.
The immense energy around Jack began to surround his body, creating a warm feeling as his body was slowly covered in a dark grey armour shell. Jack could also feel the pain of his injuries vanish as the armour formed around his body, causing the Tamer to put on a wide, wide grin, all the while his eyes shone brightly. Once his entire body was covered by the armour, the Tamer let out a loud battle cry, the sheer force of it creating a tremor within the dungeon that was strong enough to cause stalactites to fall.
The Shaman shed a cold sweat, before backing up, while Jack simply spun the White Spiders Fang around before pointing it towards the Shaman. His body was covered by a stone like, dark grey armour shell, which had orange pulsating energy flowing through it. The shining eyes in his eye sockets shone brightly for a second, to signal him narrowing his gaze.
“Let’s see who has the stronger trump card, shall we?”
Jack said, before the Shaman let out a loud roar, causing the serpent to hiss before launching at Jack, about to ram through him. Jack simply stood in place, allowing the serpent to pass through his body. Unlike before, the Tamer could barely even feel the immense heat of the serpent's flame body.
As for the reason why…
[ NOTICE ]
Fire resistance of the skill [Leaders Transformation] has decreased damage taken by fire based attacks by 90%.
[ NOTICE ]
Jack snickered.
The Shaman's eyes widened, before Jack launched at the Ogre, swinging the White Spiders Fangs towards the monster with such speed, the creature had almost no time to react and thus was slashed across the chest. However, Jack didn’t let landing a single attack cloud his ego.
Instead, he immediately followed up the attack with a punch to the Shamans face, sending the Shaman flying away, before Jack dashed after him, accelerating his movement to even higher speeds than before and catching up to the flying Ogre, before leaping up above it and crashing down onto it, slamming it into the ground and kicking up a large dust cloud.
The flaming serpent flipped around, letting out a loud roar, before launching down towards the duo. Jack quickly kicked the Ogre on the bottom jaw, before turning to face the Serpent and simply tanking its entire dive down into Jack.
Once again, he barely even felt the heat.
Once the serpent had completely sunk into the ground, Jack stomped onto the ground, causing a large tremor and shockwave to echo through the dungeon. The Shaman struggled to stand back up, falling to its knees once more as its body trembled. The Flaming Serpent rose out of the ground behind the Ogre, before letting out a loud hiss aimed at Jack, who dashed towards the Shaman and the serpent once more.
The Shaman gave another order to the serpent, before slamming its staff onto the ground. The serpent lifted its head up, before firing off a concentrated stream of fire towards Jack, engulfing the Tamer completely. Meanwhile, around the tamer two golems made of stone broke out from the ground, before taking stances in front of the Shaman, ready to defend the creature. Jack dashed out of the stream of flames fired by the serpent, before his shining orange eyes shined brightly once more, as he closed the distance between him and the golems in an instant, leaping up above them and then with two kicks shattering the golems into dust.
Then, before the fire serpent could react, the Tamer landed in front of the Shaman and pummeled it in the stomach, knocking out the air from it as well as causing it to cough up blood. The pummel also sent the Shaman flying into another dungeon wall. The fire serpent suddenly disappeared, the flames dispersing.
“I see… so this thing was keeping the serpent active using its breathing. As long as it could breathe, the serpent would exist.” Jack commented, before looking down as a window opened.
[ STATUS ]
Magical Energy: 1,723/3,200
[ STATUS ]
“Almost out of time. I should wrap it up here.” Jack thought, before moving his right foot back and launching towards the Shaman, right as it rose back up to its feet. Jack closed the distance in an instant, appearing in front of the Shaman. The Ogre panicked, using the staff to try and block the attack, however Jack sliced apart the staff, before jamming the White Spiders Fangs into the Ogres left side of the chest, pushing it deep enough that it went through the entire body of the monster and jammed into the stone wall behind it.
The Shaman coughed up blood, while more blood spewed from the spot it had been stabbed in.
[ NOTICE ]
White Spiders Fangs has activated the runes of ‘REAP’.
Absorbing the target's life force.
[ NOTICE ]
The Shamans pupils shook, as Jack ripped off its hood before with his fists beginning to beat the Shaman into the wall. Punch after punch, Jack kept up a relentless barrage of attacks on the Shaman, causing blood to fly everywhere with every punch that Jack hit.
The Tamer kept this up for some time, before smashing the Shaman's head into the wall, shattering the back of its skull. Then, Jack grabbed the Ogre's head with his other hand as well, before snapping its neck and then brutally ripping off its head, snapping the spine in half, before tossing the head to the side.
The Shaman's headless body went limp mere moments after the head came off, only held up by the khopesh Jack had lodged inside of it. Taking hold of the blade's handle, Jack pulled it out, causing the body to fall to the ground, with blood flowing out onto the stone ground.
Jack backed up, the armour around his body breaking off while the immense magical energy that was surrounding him subdued. Jack fell down to his left knee, breathing heavily. “Holy hell… that was close.”
[ ALERT ]
You have levelled up.
60 > 82
[ ALERT ]
…
[ NOTICE ]
You have slain a Special Class monster.
Additional experience has been awarded.
Passive Ability
You will take 50% less fire damage.
[ NOTICE ]
Jack exhaled heavily, before with his trembling hand, reaching for his bag, opening it and taking out one of the High Healing Potions, before popping it open and chugging it down, throwing the bottle away to the side afterwards.
The injuries and burns he had sustained from the flaming serpent healed at a rapid pace, and though he wasn’t fully healed, he was healed enough to not care about any of the minor injuries. Rising back up to his feet, he spun the khopesh in his left hand, before sheathing it back up.
“Alright – time to see if Sallow and Araneida are finished or if they need my help.”