After the rumbling, the roar continued to sound. Jack must commend the dragon for doing her parts in attracting attention. From their hiding in a distance, Jack and Wilted Tree saw the huge doors to the balcony opened and people rushed in. There were the two native guards, two players who were working on the device at the top, and Wong. Which meant only Master and Leavemealone were left up there.
They waited until the footsteps receded before they came out of hiding. Wilted Tree handed the Orb of Concealment to Jack. The plan was for her to go up and act as if she was Motherboard and looked for an opportunity to strike while Master was unaware. Jack would follow behind with his presence concealed by the orb.
Jack stayed on the stairs outside of perception as Wilted Tree climbed to the top of the tower. She held her gun at her back, ready in case Motherboard had contacted Master.
Master was sitting on the second chair next to Leavemealone who was still trapped. Several needles were poking into Leavemealone’s body as traces of energy were seen being extracted into the device before being transferred into Master’s body.
When Master saw Wilted Tree appear, he asked, “Motherboard, what are you doing here? Did you know what happen down there? It was the roar of that dragon, did that creature somehow escape?”
“Yes, Master. That was what I want to report to you,” Wilted Tree said as she approached, secretly relieved that Master did not know yet about the real Motherboard.
At this time, Jack felt something was wrong. He had felt it when he was still in hiding, now it was more obvious. What he felt was someone coming at Wilted Tree at high speed. The fact that Wilted Tree was not responding meant the person was invisible and also concealed from radar.
Jack stored the orb of concealment in his hand and replaced it with his two weapons. He cast a spell before jumping out from his hiding place. He immediately fired Sword of Light just before the invisible attacker reached Wilted Tree.
A loud clang was heard when the crescent light hit something solid. A figure immediately came into view after the collision. The figure had used a rapier to block Jack’s skill but she still suffered high damage.
When the figure appeared beside Wilted Tree, Jack felt as if he was looking at twins. It was the escaped Motherboard! The real Motherboard hurriedly jumped back to where Master was.
Master stood up from his seat. The energy feed that coursed into him dispersed and the large machine hummed a protest. The traces of energy coming out from Leavemealone also stopped.
“Show yourself, Wilted!” Master said.
Seeing that her guise had been exposed, Wilted Tree removed her disguise and her real self appeared.
“I must admit. You truly are a pain,” Master said and activated the same device Wilted used to prevent someone from rebirthing in the safe zone. “You have messed with my plan for far too long. I will end you today.”
“When did you arrive here? We didn’t see you passing us down there,” Wilted Tree asked Motherboard.
“I used invisibility scroll, I came up when Wong and the others open the balcony door,” Motherboard answered. “I have been in contact with Master since my escape. He asked me to use the scroll to come here because he knows you will still try to pretend to be me to get a jump on him.”
“You have saved the lightning boy. Are you here to save the fire boy as well?” Master asked, two magic staff appeared on both his hands. Spell formations were formed quickly. His avatar and Flame Salamander appeared. “Bad move. You should have taken the small win. Now, you are going to lose them both instead.”
“Don’t look down on us!” Wilted Tree uttered and threw a large metallic ball which transformed into Mazin.
The techno golem wasted no time clashing against Master’s avatar. The avatar was thrown back by Mazin’s punch. The golem’s strength was clearly superior.
A song suddenly filled the air. Motherboard had taken out a violin and played it, using her rapier as the bow to play the instrument.
Jack was astonished to see it. Could a sword be used like that? Wouldn’t that just cut the strings? This world was seriously defying the law of physics! He thought.
When the song played, Master, his avatar, and the flame salamander were enveloped by reddish light.
‘Bards gain the ability to play songs for their first skill, which mostly give buffs to ally or negative effects to the enemy,’ Peniel explained. ‘The effect of the songs differs depending on the type of instruments and songs they played, which they purchase or acquire from loots.’
The Avatar clashed again with Mazin. It still staggered but was not thrown away as before, its strength had increased tremendously. The Flame Salamander slithered and stuck onto Mazin’s back. Its body then inflamed and caused continuous fire damage to the golem.
“You people are not the only ones who can summon minions,” Jack uttered and feed ten mana cores to his amulet. A large level 36 elite rock golem soon appeared. It rushed forward at Master, who fired Mana Bullet at the approaching construct.
The enhanced Mana Bullet exploded and caused the large golem to stagger. A Fireball soon followed and engulfed the golem, taking a big chunk of its life.
“Argh…! Hell, you are disappointing! Go and help Mazin. I will deal with this boss!” Jack said as he lunged at Master. The Rapid Dazing Staff on his left hand was already transformed to Whirlwind Falchion.
Master cast two spells at once, Flame Shield shielded his body before it broke into five identical Master. All of the copies possessed flame shields as well.
‘It’s Mirror Image spell! Only one is real,’ Peniel informed.
Jack didn’t have a problem knowing which one, this spell was useless against him. He slashed at the real Master amongst the five images. Jack suffered fire damage due to being at melee range with Master. Luckily, his fire resistance had improved after getting the Amulet of Summoning.
Magic Shield appeared on Master’s staff to block Jack’s slash. The shield then slammed forward with great force. Jack was thrown away by the impact. Master could use this Magician’s Magic Shield to execute Knight’s Shield Bash.
Eight energy bolts shot out towards Jack who was still unbalanced. He quickly solidified his footings and performed eight diagram illusory steps to evade half the bolts while slashing at the other half. Master’s Arcane Turbulence followed soon.
Jack was planning to save Shooting Dash for later but he decided to use it now. He dodged the Arcane Turbulence and headed directly to Leavemealone, but a Flame Ring appeared around Leavemealone, followed by a deformed-looking gate.
Jack tried to barge through the Flame ring, suffering high fire damage. He also received Burn and Weakness status from the flame. When he crashed onto the gate, it was very solid. The gate suddenly opened and Jack felt a strong force from it. Jack hurriedly used the second dash of his skill to move away, at the same time using his Golden Noble Headband’s ability to cleanse the negative status effects. His attempt to reach Leavemealone had failed.
Tongues of unholy fire lashed out from the opened gate, burning everything in front of it before three fiery and hellish-looking dogs came out of it.
‘Those were hellhounds, creatures from hell,’ Peniel informed. ‘That gate is Hell Gate spell, a spell received by Warlock when they passed the trial on the first try. To summon three hellhounds from the gate meant he had leveled up the skill to at least level 10.’
‘Shit! Exactly how many minions can this dude summons?’ Jack complained. The three hellhounds came at him with high speed.
Wilted Tree had been shooting at the Flame Salamander to aid Mazin. With Jack’s Rock Golem arriving, the Flame Salamander was successfully smacked away from clinging onto Mazin’s back. Mazin wanted to take revenge by stomping on it, but the Salamander was fast, it crawled around the floor avoiding the stomps of the two slow golems. Meanwhile, its partner, the avatar, slashed its two swords at the two golems.
Wilted Tree placed Immobilizing Trap near where the two golems were, in hope of the Flame Salamander stepping onto it, but it didn’t. After paying attention, Wilted Tree realized that Master had been consciously controlling these two puppets. The two were too well coordinated to be left on auto mode. Master had also seen where Wilted placed her trap, so the trap was useless. To be able to deal with Jack and still control his puppets, Wilted was again reminded of Master’s genius mind.
Seeing that it was difficult to deal with the summoned creatures, Wilted decided to just target Motherboard instead. She started shooting at Motherboard, but Motherboard ducked away for cover behind the large machine that bound Leavemealone, while continuously playing her song.
Wilted Tree changed intention again and go to Leavemealone. Their target was to save him after all, but Master’ Flame Ring appeared at that time. The spell was meant to hinder both Wilted Tree and Jack who was using Shooting Dash at the time. Despite the hectic battle, Master still had a clear grasp on the whole situation.. Even though she found it unsavory, Wilted Tree must admit that she was impressed.
