Chapter 528 One Down And One To Go
Reappearing on the ninety-ninth floor, Jack laughed and tossed the white skull to the far-off entrance of the vast chamber.
Seeing the action with his own eye sockets, both Duorda"s black body and white skull were hysterical as well. "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
"So, does that mean we can--"
"Fight me, Jack!" Duorda insisted, not backing down at all. "Though my other half is incapacitated at the moment, to fulfill my purpose, you"ll have to shatter at least one half of mine. Now hurry!
Shrugging, Jack rushed to keep the initiative. Jack wasn"t certain how long he could maintain his new transformation and he didn"t want to find out the hard way.
Glad that he wasn"t bound by game logic, Jack allowed his mind to go through some intense mental acrobatics, pondering the best way to deal with the threat before him in as little time possible. Still defending himself, Jack felt the miasma get thicker as it condensed to cover less of the chamber and followed Jack around instead. He would need to be quick as Jack cast Greater Replenish for the fourth time in that long battle and watched his health get sapped away.
Waves of powerful sword energy rocked against Jack as the black death knight didn"t dare to defend. Duorda relied wholly on his draining ability to make up for his purely offensive pursuit of Jack.
The hero utilized Sudden death as an evasive tactic while pondering how to deal with the remaining half of the Yin-yang Death Knight. And hearing Duorda mention shattering one at least one half made Jack curious what would happen. It was clear to him that Duorda wasn"t put at the bottom of Earthen Keep solely as a boss monster in-game. If Duorda had been on that ninety-ninth floor since before G.o.ds had ascended, Duorda"s true purpose and existence had to be something key to the world"s design. In that case, Duorda and his true, hidden strength had to be connected to the world"s creator.
"What is Daruun to you?" Jack asked.
"You"ll learn after you overcome my existence," answered Duorda.
Jack kept asking while he evaded all attacks, "But why did he put you down here? Does it have something to do with that door? Us heroes thought it was just decoration since you were the crypt lord yet we couldn"t enter there even after defeating you. If it"s not your crypt, then where does that door lead to?"
Duorda chuckled as he hurled more sword attacks at the hero. "Defeat me as I am now and you"ll learn all. That is my purpose and the purpose of that door…"
"So…" Putting his gamer knowledge together with his gained knowledge of Kartonia, Jack inferred, "Does that door lead me to Daruun, perhaps?"
Saying nothing in response, Duorda only laughed and continued his charge. After a few more seconds, the false crypt lord stated, "If you only dodge, eventually my miasma will drain your life to nothing. Hurry and fulfill my purpose while I have hope for you. Don"t die so easily!"
"If you say so…" Jack was smiling, feeling that he had finally figured out one of the great mysteries that Daruun had never explained. He was only a single foe away from claiming something he had longed to know of.
Jack vanished from where he stood, reappearing to flank the black death knight. However, Duorda felt the first of a few strikes cut into his back.
The black death knight ignored the visible image of Jack, letting it fade as it falsely attacked Duorda. With his black, bone s.h.i.+eld, Duorda covered his rear and defended himself from the barrage. As the attacks ceased, another image of Jack appeared but Duorda cut through it with a sword wave attack. He managed to defend the next invisible barrage, failing to block only the first strike.
Now, two images of Jack appeared at the same time. Both were ready to hammer into the black death knight mercilessly.
"Good, but you"ll need to try harder!" Duorda laughed, slicing the two false images apart with sword waves.
When no follow-up attack came, Duorda kept himself on guard. That proved to be a good decision when four thin, earthen walls boxed-in Duorda from all sides, bursting from the ground with great force.
"Earth magic as well? I should"ve expected as much with the centipede bloodline," still chuckling, Duorda turned in a complete circle to slice the four walls to pieces. Then, he found seven different images of Jack rus.h.i.+ng him from all sides as well. "That"s better!"
The death knight worked as quickly as he could to attack each image. In case Jack had hidden himself among them, Duorda had to be sure they were all false while they were all still in the open.
However, more walls of earth continued to erupt from the ground and block the many sword wave attacks. When the many images of Jack reached Duorda, he didn"t have enough time to attack them all. Finally, he felt the pressure of being someone"s prey.
Another black pulse spread through the room as Duorda shrunk the coverage of his miasma to deal more damage to all those inside. Now, it was patent enough to remove the false copies of Jack.
As all seven of the images faded, Duorda readied himself to defend.
He felt a sharp object clash into his back yet again. Eager for more, Duorda spun around to defend but was baffled by his findings.
A small, sharp earthen pillar was jutting out of the ground and stabbing Duorda"s spine. It did little to no damage but it was enough to activate Duorda"s defensive reactions. But it was too late to stop Jack and his onslaught.
Holy energy flooded into Duorda"s black half as Jack cast Revivification on the skeleton. This was followed up by Time Stop, granting Jack time to cast more targeted attacks.
While Jack had been evading, he had purchased the cheap, high-tier spell Earth Wall for fifty skill points. It was perfect to combo with his many illusions and worked to distract Duorda also. But that wasn"t the only thing that Jack had purchased.