I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1363: Judgment’s Talent

Something black and sinuous extended from Judgment’s back, wriggling in the air, with an edge so sharp the wind seemed scared of getting cut.

Jerimoth stood waiting. He studied the strange tentacle for a moment, then cocked his head with a menacing tilt.

”So? One more hand. The talent you seem to place your hope in is just one... more... hand?”

Judgment grinned.

”You’ll be surprised how much just one more hand can change.”

She spun both halves of her broken spear and shot forward. Without her wings she wasn’t nearly as fast, and Jerimoth could see it plainly.

The nature of the being she was baffled him greatly. How did she have another talent? He’d been convinced the wings were it. Of course, there was no way for Jerimoth to have known that Judgment was a completely different race. She only looked and functioned like a human at best. In truth, she was nothing like one.

Jerimoth raised his shield, ready to bash her aside, and angled his sword slightly behind him. That one would finish the job. His eyes tracked the tentacle as it wriggled behind her, seemingly useless.

As she covered half the distance, the tentacle moved.

It snapped forward with the speed of a released rubber band and slammed into his shield.

The impact split the air. A ring of shockwave exploded outward, tearing dust from the ground in a widening circle, and Jerimoth was sent flying back. His boots carved furrows into the earth before he left it entirely, the force behind that single strike far beyond what anything that thin had any right to produce.

Judgment leaped into the air, twirled, raised the sharp edge of her spear, and drove it down at him as he plummeted.

But Jerimoth was sharp. He used his shield to shove the spearhead aside, and the two crashed to the ground together, Judgment’s spear biting into the earth beside them. The tentacle immediately lashed down. Jerimoth released his sword, and this time he didn’t need to hurl it. The blade rolled through the air like it had a mind of its own, intercepting the tentacle as it struck again. The sinuous black flesh was thicker than it appeared, and the sword clashed against it, causing the thing to stiffen for a moment, but tearing through it was proving difficult.

Jerimoth dodged the tentacle’s first strike by snapping his head sideways while the sword kept it busy on the second.

Both of their arms were locked. Judgment pinned him with her hands and raw strength while Jerimoth strained beneath her, unable to pour his full power into resisting when that terrible tentacle demanded half his attention. His sword retreated and clashed against it over and over, buying him seconds, but nothing more.

Judgment grinned through it all. She winced at every strike of the sword against her tentacle, but she still grinned wickedly at him.

”You can make your weapon weightless by touching it. You can command your weapon to move by not touching it. Let me guess, you can also increase the weight by not touching it.” She tilted her head. ”What exactly are your abilities, or are you simply a Master?”

Jerimoth stared blankly, his eyes tracing the tentacle.

”Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

Judgment’s wicked grin turned darker.

”Same here.”

Another tentacle grew from her back and wriggled in the air. Jerimoth glared at it.

As the second tentacle came down on his head, Judgment saw the ground beneath him cave inward, as though the man had suddenly become impossibly heavy. She hesitated for a fraction of a second, and in that fraction, a terrible force yanked him from beneath her, dragged him through the crumbling ground and launched him into the air.

He froze at the apex, suspended, weightless.

Then the weight returned. All of it, and more. He dropped like a stone and slammed into the ground knees first, and the earth buckled beneath him. A small crater bloomed outward from the point of impact, cracks webbing through the stone, dust rising in a slow cloud around his kneeling form.

Judgment slowly straightened. The two tentacles behind her curled forward over her shoulders like demonic guardians, their edges catching what little light remained. She watched him from across the broken ground, the halves of her spear resting loose in her grip.

Jerimoth extended his hand. His shield returned to him, then his sword. He rolled his shoulders once, fixed Judgment with an indifferent gaze, and after a moment, chuckled.

”I can mark things,” he said, stepping forward. ”I can mark them to become weightless, or twice their weight. The things I mark will always return to my hand when I will it. As a Savant, I gained the ability to control the whereabouts of anything I’ve marked. I can move them from point A to point B, and from point B to point A. I can’t move them freely around. It doesn’t work like that.”

Judgment listened with a frown, one tentacle coiling and uncoiling slowly behind her.

’That explains why he isn’t controlling his sword to fight me automatically while he uses his hands...’

She had first expected this, thinking the weapon had a will of its own, but the man wasn’t doing it, so she’d had to resort to another guess.

”That last one though... let me guess. You marked yourself and moved yourself from point A to point B, from point B halfway to point A.”

Jerimoth smiled and nodded. ”I like how you pay attention to details. It makes you a very befitting opponent.”

Judgment scrunched her face in disgust.

”Okay, I was wrong.” Jerimoth laughed shortly. ”I spoke down on you and that was very... inexperienced of me. But it’s not so often one sees someone like you wielding a blade.” He paused. ”I do have a question though... Do you have two talents? Although that’s not possible.”

He brushed his chin. ”Could it be that those wings are a result of your attributes? I have heard of people unlocking the full potential and effects of their attributes, making them stronger. Is that it?”

Judgment stared for a moment, then burst into laughter. It was sharp and unrestrained, loud enough to carry across the ruined ground between them. Jerimoth watched her laugh with an unreadable expression, waiting.

After a while her laugh slowly receded, and she fixed her still-laughing gaze on Jerimoth.

”Is that why you revealed your talent to me? Because you feel I’ll be obligated to do the same thing?”

Jerimoth stared at her.

”Aren’t you? It won’t hurt, would it?”

Judgment stood on one leg and looked down for a moment, considering it.

”I guess it wouldn’t... but no.”