Second World

They soon returned to the opening where they could peek at the Ice Demon Spawn. Jack had eaten Sweet Dumpling and applied Poison Salve to his Storm Breaker. He cast Barrier and Body Double spells. His two doppelgangers joined him.

He whispered to Kirsi, ”follow this one. As we have talked about, do not shoot your arrows. It wonʼt damage the spawn much, you will just draw its attention unnecessarily. Wait until my signal then activates that machine.”

Kirsi nodded. Jack controlled his one copy to go around through the maze, Kirsi followed that copy. Jack tried to bring her as close enough to the side with the activation panel.

”Okay, ready?” Jack whispered to Samuel.

”Anytime,” Samuel whispered back.

Jack then controlled his other copy and had it walk out into the open. The Ice Demon Spawn immediately noticed this intruder. However, it was rather confusing. This small ant simply walked like nobodyʼs business. The Ice Demon Spawn watched the intruder while continuing to suck the fire element.

Jack had the copy walked to the other side from the panel. Through his copyʼs eyes, he could get a better look at the Ice Demon Spawn. It was a grotesque creature with weird physiology. Its head was small, Jack didnʼt even sure if it was its head actually. The main torso was large, the huge mouth full of sharp teeth was at the center of this torso. Perhaps it was a creature with just the head as its main body. Four large limbs and a powerful thick tail protruded out from this torso slash head.

Most of its body was covered by ice scales. Especially its back, long sharp icicle protruded out all over its back. The icy surface of these scales gleamed with unnatural light. Jack was not sure where were its eyes. There were two round black holes at the side of the small head. There were also large oval things that looked like compound eyes at the creatureʼs shoulders. But Jack knew the creature was watching his copy, as it tilted its body following his copyʼs movement.

It finally stopped sucking the fire. Its mouth shut. The stream of fire stopped coming out of the mound. Its fore limbs were lifted as it stood upright using its two hind legs. It started taking huge steps down the mound towards Jackʼs copy.

It didnʼt lunge through. It just walked forward slowly. Continuing to study this preposterous intruder who clearly didnʼt know his limit.

When it arrived before the intruder, the intruder simply stood there looking up at it. There was no fear in the intruderʼs eyes, which was odd. It considered observing the intruder for a few more seconds before it lost interest. It lifted one of its legs up and leisurely stomped at the intruder.

Astonishment soon filled it when its feet simply passed through the intruder. At the same time, it felt something from the other side. Something stinging and primal, something dangerous. It looked to the side and found twenty balls crackling with electricity were rushing at it.

It was taken by surprise and did not have the chance to dodge. It soon felt the balls erupted on its body. Each explosion sent a shockwave throughout its body parts, unceasing electrical current coursed through its inside. Its sturdy hard scale was not able to resist this elemental force.

When the assault ended, it found itself had surprisingly robbed of 78,000 damage.

Samuel, who was watching, turned to Jack in disbelief. His one move had taken out almost one-sixth of this fearsome creatureʼs life. One thing that he believed even his strongest attack wouldnʼt be able to achieve. The craziest thing was, the guyʼs level was way below him.

Jack didnʼt share his companionʼs amazement though. Under normal circumstances, this attack of him should have resulted in way over 100,000 damage. He had activated Life Burning Art, Adrenaline Rush, and also Storm Breakerʼs Overlimit. He had gone all out right from the start. Yet, the resulting damage was below expectation. Despite the creatureʼs weakness toward elemental attack, its level was still too high for Jack to cause effective damage.

The Ice Demon Spawn looked at the real Jack with rage. It understood now that the one at its leg was simply an illusion. It felt humiliated from being tricked. Its huge mouth uttered a deafening roar. This huge cavern hall seemingly shook from it. It then ran with large steps at Jack.

Samuel immediately went forward to meet the creature. He made a superhuman long jump as his two axes cleaved down. The Ice Demon Spawn lifted one of its large arms and blocked the axe attack. A loud clanging sound was heard from the impact. It was the sound of a hard object meeting a similarly hard object. No damage on the Ice Demon Spawn for receiving the attack using its arm.

When Samuel landed, he found the monsterʼs other arm was swinging down at him. He quickly rolled away before the arm slammed hard onto the ground. This monster was not as powerful as the Grim Sand Drake since its level was lower, Samuel could still face it one on one. Damaging it though, that was a different story. All he could do was keep the Ice Demon Spawn occupied.

Jack took the chance when the Ice Demon Spawn had its attention drawn by Samuel to cast Myriad Ensnaring Chains. Ten thick crimsons sprouted out and held the monster. However, it didnʼt last long. Cracks started appearing on the chains as the monster exerted its brute force.

Samuel and Jack took the chance to land their attacks while the monster was immobilized.

Six swirling axes appeared around Samuel as he rushed forward. Each of these axes slammed into the Ice Demon Spawn with 1,000 damages. He jumped to the top of the monsterʼs head before his body spun rapidly like a sideway top. His two axes continuously sliced at the monsterʼs body while Samuel continued to spin all the way to the ground.

Still, the damage Samuel inflicted was minuscule compared to Jack. Jack continuously alternated between magic and sword attack from a distance. He cast Mana Bullet, Energy Bolts, Arcane Turbulence, and Mana Beam. The beast was weak against magical attacks so Jack scored more damage than Samuel despite him being much lower in level. However, Jackʼs largest damage came from his sword attack which was still in the Overlimit state. This state granted his every attack with chaos damage which bypass and lowered the Ice Demon Spawnʼs defense even further.

Jackʼs Sword of Light hit the Ice Demon Spawn with over 7,000 damage. He also use Shredding Fangs, which produced five fangs with each fang causing almost 4,000 damage. He also used Shooting Dash to steal a quick stab at the monsterʼs back before using the second dash to return to safety.

Although Jack had explained the monsterʼs superiority against physical attack and its weakness against magic and elemental attacks, Samuel was still morose when he noticed the difference in damages they inflicted. Who was exactly the more high-level one?

Both Samuel and Jack had capitalized on that short moment where the Ice Demon Spawn was bound by the crimson chains, but these chains were soon shattered. The Ice Demon Spawn made an abrupt slap at Samuel who was situated closer. Samuel jumped back evading the slap but there was a tail swing following the slap. Samuel didnʼt have time to evade this second attack. The best he could do was brace himself with his two axes to receive the attack. His body was sent far away with a loud impact.

The Ice Demon Spawn then turned to Jack. It knew him as the one who had continued hurting him. It came at him with a bellow. When the beast approached, Jackʼs left hand quickly replaced his magic staff with Whirlwind Falchion. Before the monster could send its attack, Jack executed Blitz Slash, his body blurred past the Ice Demon Spawn and appeared behind it. At the same time, the monster received five rapid slashes.

Not deterred, the monster turned back and lunged at Jack again. Jack was back to using his magic staff and cast Magic Bind. The spell unfortunately didnʼt even last one second. It was broken apart as soon as it was formed.

Jack didnʼt expect that spell to be so useless, the Ice Demon Spawn was already slapping down on him. He used Flash Step to move away, but another slap was already coming. He quickly switch places with his copy since there was no time to dodge.

Samuel came back to keep the monster busy at this time. Jack, still protected by Barrier, this time took the risk to come to the monsterʼs back. His long-range sword skills were on cooldown and his Overlimit would end soon, he didnʼt want to waste the damage boost it provided by standing at the side. Jack used his sword art and synchronized his attacks with Samuel. They attacked the beast from two opposite sides.

The Ice Demon Spawn was greatly irritated by this, its ice scale body erupted with a blue sphere. The aura sent chill down Jack and Samuel. They felt their movements slightly slowed. Luckily they had drunk the Holy Water, keeping their resistances high.

The monster made an abrupt 360-degree tail swipe. Jack managed to re-equipped his magic staff and cast Magic Shield just before it hit. The strike still cause his Barrier to burst, his Magic Shield broke, and he still received damage from the strike. Samuel also received damage. The two were thrown far back.

The Ice Demon Spawn then crouched down with all its limbs on the ground.. It made a low growl as the entire cavern shook.

😉