Chapter 719 - Halmut's Torture and Jack's Suspicion

"You dared do whatever you want… So I'll do the same, runt…"

With a grin to match his satisfied gaze, Skaryn stood over the crippled dragon. He swiftly drove the tip of his greatsword into Halmut's throat, retracting it seconds later as Halmut tried to cough up blood. Skaryn enjoyed the sight of the wound healing.

"I'm glad you're healing abilities are so powerful!" laughed the Dark God, giving the spectating cosmicians chills. "So long as I allow you, I can wound you, slice you, break you, and more yet you'll gradually return to your lively but helpless state… Survive a few millennia of this and I might consider your debt paid, finally worthy of a painless death…"

His greatsword plummeted into Halmut's chest, twisting around inside his ribcage. The mighty cosmician that failed to ascend to two-star writhed and whined as his heart and internals were being shredded. But like Skaryn had stated, Halmut's natural regeneration now played to the Dark God's advantage, allowing him to torture the Sun Dragon to limits far beyond that of any other creature with less vitality.

Everyone was fixated on the pleasure that the menacing, ascending cosmician caused the amputee competitor. At the same time, they were entirely unaware of why the Sicabor twins hadn't taken advantage of the situation to attack the ascending cosmician while his energy is more unstable than usual. The spectators understood that Skaryn was unnaturally strong but they wouldn't doubt the twins fighting him together would fail, not while he's in the middle of ascension. It was better that an ascending cosmician flee to not stunt his growth rather than take a chance at winning a competition.

But they had no clue that the twins were after a larger prize. Most wouldn't know about the true meaning of Glacier Keep's challenge. Now that the twins had discovered where to find the hidden chamber and that Jack would clear the way for them, how could they not go after the bigger fish?

*****

"That's against the rules! You can't--"

"You can't summon anyone else while inside the challenge, but there's no rule against summoning yourself…" Jack joked.

As spatial energy dispersed, a new figure appeared inside the closed area. That man immediately downed a powerful potion and loosed a sigh of relief. "Much better…"

"Jack?!" Wollice shouted in question.

The other twin groaned with a sarcastic chuckle, "Jack… your twin won't count as--"

"Who said anything about twins?" Both Jack's replied in perfect unison, smiling cheekily at Wollice and Woltin. "Now it's a fair fight!"

Jack tossed a ring to his double, who gladly took it and cackled, "So, Skaryn doesn't need it anymore… Then I'll make due!" A rapier with a blackened tip then appeared in the double's hand. He immediately charged at Wollice while brandishing a curious smile. "Show me what you got!"

While Jack's double shifted into his Spectral Minokawa form to enhance his speed to the max, Jack flooded his immediate surroundings with spectral flares. The charging constructs were kept at bay for a moment and Woltin gave Jack a front-row view of his abilities. "You can nullify skills?"

"Sure… But it's not as rare as you might believe," chuckled Woltin. "I think you're much more interesting, having two bodies and more energy affinities than I can count. Who are you?"

"If I tell you, will you agree to just leave?" Jack laughed, teleporting to face Woltin directly, lunging forward at top speed to grip the mage.

However, living vines sprouted from Woltin's energy and rushed to grab Jack first. A frown spread around Jack as he teleported away to narrowly evade the barbs of the powerful vines.

Sighing, Jack stated, "Nature, poison, and nullification… You're an annoying foe… Why bother with you?!"

Suddenly, Jack teleported above the crowd of constructs. Thick spatial energy began to gather around Jack's hands as he eyed the constructs jumping at him. Jack readied himself to grip the fabric of space but he suddenly felt his own energy fizzle out. He was forced to teleport away and avoid the dozen or so constructs about to leap onto him.

"Come on… At least let me--"

"We need those to open the barrier," commented Woltin, who used his thorny vines to keep some distance from the nearby constructs. "If I let you take them out, I think it's obvious that you'd just grab the core instead of fighting us 2-v-2."

"What gave you that idea?" Jack asked, tilting his head innocently. Jack also punch through a few bestial construct skulls as he clicked his tongue in disappointment.

"Wollice, hurry up and--"

"Want to switch?" the sword-wielding twin laughed as he evaded the swift jabs of a teleporting rapier. "Come tag me out if you like…"

"Seems he needs help. Why not--"

Before Jack could finish his taunting joke, a javelin of holy energy flashed past his head. The hero whistled after dodging the attack. "Someone's more fl.u.s.tered than their letting on… Don't blame me for what comes next…"

Suddenly, Woltin felt a hand grabbing the top of his head. "What--"

"Cerebral Collapse!" Jack laughed as he cut the battle short. Or, at least while he tried to. "What?!"

Woltin then lashed out at Jack's ninja clone, easily crushing the false copy of Jack. "If you want me to believe that's really you, then you'll need to better distribute your energy."

"Right…" Jack sighed, taking note of that comment but also paying close attention to how Woltin was situated. "You made an anti-energy barrier? Is that why you attacked my copy instead of your nearby vines?"

"That--"

"You've never attacked anyone personally, not with your own hands. Then again, I've yet to see someone get that close to you. But it would explain why you're so calm and cool against all of my attacks…" Jack deduced, convinced that he was onto something. "You're a mythic cosmician and your brother is a martial cosmician, right? That's why he nullifies skills with his sword, making my double a difficult opponent, while you can sit back and be the greatest support. Sound about right?"