Second World

"It's coming! Move!" Spring Crown said as he pulled Gridhacker just as Jack's Spirit Weapon fired its offensive beam.

"It does that every one minute, pay attention!" Spring Crown told Gridhacker.

They had continued being kept in range by the darts from Jack's spirit weapon. Without his Weapons Festival, Spring Crown could only defend. He should have been able to approach the spirit weapon and go on the offensive if he didn't need to protect Gridhacker. But since he did, so he couldn't. The spirit weapon also fired a powerful beam in an interval.

The first time just before the Spirit Weapon fired its beam, Spring Crown noticed something was amiss with his astute perception. But since he didn't know the nature of this new attack, he failed to evade the attack properly. He instead used his Absorb Energy skill to block. He didn't suffer any damage and his spear was filled with enhanced energy. He still kept that added energy while waiting for an opportune moment to counterattack.

Gridhacker had been trying to send his raven familiar to sneak an attack on Jack's spirit weapon, but the poor raven was shredded by the weapon's fast-moving darts. The raven was now unavailable for a period of time.

"Damn it! That kid managed to enter the shrine," Gridhacker uttered.

"We have done all we can, no need to feel bad about it," Spring Crown said.

Gridhacker gave the guy an annoyed look. 'What all we can? You seem to do this half-heartedly!' He thought instead of saying it out loud. The guy had been keeping him alive all this time, it would sound ungrateful if he said it.

"We need to help Arlstraxx," Gridhacker said while looking at Arlstraxx who was being ganged upon by Jack's team. All the other remaining natives they brought were down already.

"I will be very impressed if they can cause a situation where that person needs our help," Spring Crown returned.

"We should still quickly end the enemies here and try to find a way to enter the shrine before the kid activates the defensive mechanism."

"What's the worry? Master still has that, doesn't he?"

"Yes, but it will be a waste to use it here. We might need it later for a more important matter."

"I can't think of a more important matter than winning against a divine faction."

"Just… do your best!" Gridhacker was running out of patience.

"Geez, fine! But if I do that, I can't protect you anymore. Are you ready to die? Do you wear an amulet of rebirth?" Spring Crown asked. He never stopped deflecting the attacking darts while speaking.

"I… Yes," Gridhacker said.

"Give me your God-eye monocle as well. You know that will drop even if you wear Amulet of Rebirth."

"… You talk like I'm sure to die," Gridhacker felt looked down upon.

"Let me put it this way then. Do you think you will still be alive now if not for me?"

Gridhacker made a scowl. He then reluctantly took off his monocle and gave it to Spring Crown.

"All right, I'm heading out now. You take care of yourself," Spring Crown said. He made quick swings, deflecting all the attacking darts one more time, before using Charge. His spirit weapon followed behind him.

Gridhacker cast Barrier again which had gone off-cooldown. He also readied his Magic Shield to defend.

Spring Crown's Charge left a trail of light. It was also three times faster than a normal Warrior's Charge. This was because Spring Crown had evolved the skill by using a seed.

The central eye orb of Jack's spirit weapon was glowing again. Spring Crown had memorized the beam's timing. He had known about the incoming attack. He canceled the Charge and ducked with uncanny timing, using Ki Wave at the same time. The beam rushed by above him while his Ki Wave struck the spirit weapon. The spirit weapon was unable to dodge because it was firing its core beam.

The Ki Wave carried the enhanced energy Spring Crown had received when he used Absorb Energy, so he dealt much more damage than usual. Spring Crown arrived before Jack's Spirit Weapon then.

Jack's spirit weapon immediately rearranged itself into melee mode and slashed at Spring Crown using dual swords.

Spring Crown disappeared and appeared behind Jack's spirit weapon with a Flash Slash, hitting it. At the same time, his own spirit weapon attacked from the other side. They were now flanking Jack's spirit weapon from two sides. Although Jack's spirit weapon used Formless Flowing Sword style, it was only an imitation. Against a real martial expert like Spring Crown, he easily found opportunities to strike among the slashes. Gridhacker also gave support by throwing range attacks.

While they were at an advantage, Jack's spirit weapon suddenly flew up.

"HP is low, automatically activate finishing mode," The spirit weapon uttered.

"Sweet Lord, it can even talk. Where did that Storm boy find this toy?" Spring Crown uttered. But when he saw the sword transformed into a gigantic sword, his intuition told him that it was not something to look down upon. His expression turned serious then.

"Gridhacker, see you back at the base!" Spring Crown uttered.

When Gridhacker was confused about what Spring Crown meant by that. He saw the guy suddenly shoot away, causing the air to explode as he did. It was a movement skill that Spring Crown had learned from a technique book, Propelling Dash. It was similar to Jack's Shooting Dash but traveled a much longer distance. It only dashed one time, though, as opposed to Jack's three-time dashes.

While Gridhacker was still wondering, Jack's spirit weapon stabbed onto the ground nearby and its energy core enlarged.

"Oh, shi…" Gridhacker didn't have the time to complete his curse as an enormous explosion erupted from the energy core and engulfed him. His HP zeroed instantly despite his Barrier still intact.

*

Jack left his spirit weapon to fight on its own while he and the others focused on Arlstraxx. The cardinal was just too dangerous. Arlstraxx had the fog tentacles that surrounded his body. They struck at anyone who came into melee range and protected Arlstraxx from all incoming attacks, reducing the damage the cardinal suffered.

At the same time, Arlstraxx continued to cast one spell after another. Despite being outnumbered, he was still at an advantage.

Arlcard took a chance when the cardinal was looking at him and used his mesmerizing stare. The stare could only paralyze someone as strong as Arlstraxx for a brief second, but during that small window, everyone sent their strongest attack.

Ice Demon Fiend used its ice spears. Therras was already in its sovereign mode because Jack used Ultimate Beast skill. It was now gathering Earth energy in its mouth to fire its earth core bomb. Brave King used Flame Burst which produced blue fire.

Arlcard didn't use his rune technique because it took too long a time. Instead, he used a new spell that he had received after increasing his level. It was another seven-runes spell. It created a gigantic image of a dark, ominous sword stabbing forward. Peniel informed Jack later that the spell was called Dark Lord's Sword. It was a single target spell that dealt huge darkness damage.

Jack didn't use his strongest skills but he used a decent one, Wings of Devastation. Everyone was using a ranged attack so his wide-area spell didn't hit friendlies. Before all the attacks hit, the fog around Arlstraxx coalesced into a thick dense ball, covering the native.

The combination attacks drowned Arlstraxx completely. When it was over, Arlstraxx's HP only went down by ten percent. However, the fog that always hovered around his body was no more.

Arlstraxx looked at his adversaries with a savage grin. "Good, good. You people have successfully enraged me." He cast a spell and multiple dark balls were thrown out. When it came close to a target, it exploded into a large gravity field. Ice Demon Fiend and Brave King were not fast enough and they got caught by these bombs. Their bodies were sucked by the gravity field and received continuous damage each second.

Jack, Therras, and Arlcard used their speed to evade these bombs. Arlcard used another new skill, Shadow Clone. It produced a similar clone as the Assassin's skill, except this clone was completely black and dealt darkness damage.

While they continued to evade the gravity bombs, Jack sensed that his spirit weapon had exploded using its finishing mode. He glanced at his radar, trying to discern if his spirit weapon had managed to take out Spring Crown and Gridhacker on its own. If not, he would need to be cautious. He didn't want to get ambushed while fighting Arlstraxx.

He saw on his radar there was still one black dot. So, one enemy player was still in play. This black dot was coming from behind him. He immediately detached and moved away from Arlstraxx. He turned around swinging his swords, which then clashed with Spring Crown's blue spear. Arlcard and the others continued to battle against the cardinal.

"How about we have a rematch?" Spring Crown said. "I know you are still holding back."

"Yeah, I figure your boss is here too, right?" Jack asked.

The two resumed their match. Spring Crown used Assaulting Frenzy again, increasing his attack speed to catch up to Jack's speed. His weapons kept on changing as they kept on clashing with Jack's swords.

"Don't bother to look for him. You have better look for a way to escape," Spring Crown replied.

"You should be the one that flees with the rest of your friends. Paytowin is activating the defensive mechanism as we speak. You guys have failed."

"The defensive mechanism here doesn't truly matter. It won't change the outcome of this battle."

The ground suddenly shook heavily. They heard loud rumbling sounds from the distance. Jack then saw a colossal form rising in the distance. It was a humanoid golem. It rose and stood up straight. It was extremely gigantic. Jack estimated it was probably as tall as a twenty-storey building.

While he marveled at the sight, another similar golem stood up in a different direction. Then another. Jack then realized that he recognized the golem's head. It was the head of the stone statues placed around the edges of this Daminos Square Garden. The ones that he thought reminded him of the stone head statues from Easter Island.

"That… Those are the defense mechanism?" Jack asked.