“What in the world…” King Baal was pushed back a few times as he tried to attack Jin who had equipped the System Rider Panda. The Panda Cultivator was proving to be able to fight him on par at the moment.
“Don’t get cocky because this suit of armour is providing you power!”
King Baal warned his opponent. After a few rounds of ‘sparring’, he seemingly had enough and dropped his sword, to reveal a new weapon. Cat paws. His overall form had also changed accordingly.
In total King Baal had three forms. Human, Cat and Frog. While many would choose one form over the others, the king had never forgotten his origins as a crossbreed and had learned to embrace his heritage.
With centuries at his disposal, he had learned how to efficiently use his inner traits, yet Baal was also able to use magic to enhance the performance of each form so he could further improve on the best of each trait. As mentioned, Baal summoned a pair of large paws, and they were able to parry Jin’s sword easily, causing System Rider Panda to be disarmed almost immediately.
“Be careful Jin! While in Cat Form, he is formidable in close combat and-” Before Moloch could continue his sentence, he already saw Jin fighting with his fist as well. However, the Dungeon Supplier could not hold a candle to his opponent. With each attempt to punch, King Baal had already returned the favour. The few hits Jin managed to get in were rewarded with even more devastating counters from King Baal.
Moloch pressed his cotton hoofs on to his face. “Why are you challenging him at something you are incredibly terrible at?!” He questioned his Master in the System Channel, so King Baal did not hear it. Otherwise, he might get even more confident in his assaults.
“Don’t you think I know that? What do you expect me to do?! He’s disarmed my sword with just a flick of his paw. Even if I picked it up again, I don’t see how the situation wouldn’t repeat itself!” Jin argued back as he tried to kick Baal in order to have some breathing space but Baal held onto his legs and used his momentum to reverse somersault him.
His claws were unable to do any real damage to the armour, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hurt the one inside through indirect ways. “That suit is really his saving grace… After I kill him, I should get the best blacksmiths to take a look and make me new armour from it.” Baal had already started to think about what to do after his imminent victory.
Although his head was still radiating with the most awful migraine imaginable after the use of that wretched crown, his challenger was, fortunately, proving to be easy pickings. So, despite his opponent’s new power, King Baal believed he did not need to strain himself any further.
Reality soon proved him to be very wrong.
“Master! Use the deck of cards that I prepared for you!” Moloch advised through the System Channel as Jin was slammed flat onto the ground from the reverse somersault. If not for the System’s automated distribution of Maqi, Jin’s neck would have snapped into two, and King Baal would only have needed to finish off the defenceless Moloch.
“What….?” Jin tried to shake out the blurring blackout he had from the slam while his System was continuously churning the Maqi into his heart and brain to regulate his circulatory system to keep him conscious.
“The cards! They are imbued with the power of your minions! This is similar to the System’s artificial fusion of your Astral Panda form and your bellators! You now have your System Rider suit, so now you can use the cards to fuse with them for a minute.” Moloch explained as he used his magic to choose a card from the deck and sent it into Jin’s hands.
“Shit, I could have used a primer before this duel. Anyway, all I need to do is scan the card, right?” Jin asked as his head was still pounding from the slam. He used the card’s image as a way to stabilise his vision and was thankful that King Baal was content standing there as if he was graciously giving Jin a chance to stand back up.
Moloch did have his suspicions to what degree the crown had taken a toll on him, and the pause in the fight was a confirmation that it was more severe than he thought.
King Baal was known to be merciless when he entered the fray personally. Allowing someone a break mid-combat would have never been his style. So the fact that Jin had been granted a break once more could only be seen as a blessing in disguise. (Though given the benefit of the doubt, King Baal might have been thinking of a way to defeat the suit of armour Jin was wearing.)
Still, he understood that Jin was still recovering from the attack as well, and there was no way his master could withstand another hit by King Baal before using the card. “Ahh! Fuck this!” Moloch cried as he broke the shield he was hiding behind and used his powers against Baal.
He decided to interfere just to give Jin enough time to move, knowing that this risky tactic was most likely a sure-fire way to get himself killed.
Magic cards flew out of Moloch’s cotton hoofs, and the volley of sharp projectiles was enough for King Baal to change direction and aim his punch towards his former subject.
“Since you are out of your hiding corner, I might as well handle you first! It will spare me the time to go looking for you!”
“Chance!” Moloch thought to himself as a card suddenly emerged from the ground and trapped King Baal momentarily inside of it, turning him into a picture card from the deck of poker cards. “Since when did I ever fight without an attempt to protect myself first?!” Moloch taunted his King who was already in the midst of breaking free.
He tried to run away from the corner to another while hoping the card entrapment was long enough for him to escape and create another shield… until he saw Jin still barely standing.
Then, Moloch realised that Jin was taking way too long to recover from that reverse somersault. “Can it be?!” Moloch realised that King Baal must have used his frog’s ability in-between forms to cast a daze spell.
“GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!” Moloch shouted as he infused his cotton horns with ‘cure ailments’ magic and smashed himself behind Jin. At the same time, King Baal managed to break out from the trap and tried to grab Moloch after he hit Jin with his spell.
“Oh shit!” Moloch thought that this was the end for him until Jin sidestepped to block King Baal’s advances.
“Get out of the way, kid! I’ll deal with you in a moment!” King Baal’s grab turned into a claw aimed straight at Jin’s helmet.
“No fucking way!” Jin refused. He hovered the card over his belt, and the System Driver lit up, emitting an intense wave of energy out, causing Baal to get knocked back. Yet, the King did not lose his balance as he landed.
As he wanted to attack once more, he first had to overcome the shining bright light from Jin.
“Card activated, Meomi Form.”
