Chapter 437 Jack Realizes Their Desperate Situation
A moment passed as Eedaj and Tralbok eyed each other. One was preparing to defend and evade while the other was preparing to attack.
Tralbok made the first move, using wind to disperse the darkness around them. He coldly smirked as more wind whirled around his body. The God of Time had become as light as a feather.
Eedaj gathered fire to hurl fireball after fireball at Tralbok, making sure to include some false ones and some invisible ones, though it didn't make much of a difference for Tralbok. Then, the Mind God recast darkness and created multiple copies of himself. Those copies dashed through the darkness, weaving in and out of each other to best hide Eedaj's true self.
"Interesting…" Tralbok chuckled.
With a wave of the hand, Tralbok created a tornado with himself in the center. That tornado grew until it consumed all of the various Eedaj clones, tearing each of them apart.
Just when it seemed that Eedaj had evaded the attack, Tralbok waved his hand again. This caused the tornado to twist and turn. It acted more like a snake than it did a twister, but such was a simple task for a lv. 96 god.
As the tornado twisted, it snatched Eedaj while it dispersed the last of the darkness.
"Come on, Eedaj. Don't tell me that's all you've got? Or did you waste all of your mana against Pestro?" mocked Tralbok. "If you don't hurry and figure something out, then you'll have lost your life while destroying your reputation."
Eedaj remained silent. His body was circling inside the threatening winds and taking damage with every second he was inside. But he remained calm. So calm in fact, looking closer made it seem like Eedaj was meditating.
With his eyes closed, Eedaj was completely focused on his personal spell, God's Perspective. Not only did it allow Eedaj to view nearly any part of the world at a given moment, it also allowed Eedaj to view the world from someone else's perspective. In this case, Eedaj was carefully examining Tralbok's perspective and his current thoughts about the battle.
It was a rare occurrence.
On one side there was the God of Time, a man who could reverse any outcome so long as he was careful and strategized correctly. And against him was the Mind God, a man who could view the world through his opponent's eyes and anticipate attacks before his opponents could decide what they did next. Even with the difference in level the battle was extremely unique and quite a show for Halmut and the other gods.
*****
'Jack…' Argyle hurried to Jack's side, finding the hero lying across the wall with his eyes close. 'Jack, what happened here?'
'Are Bowzer and Phoro ok?" Jack asked.
Argyle looked to the Hell-flame Fox and Minokawa not far from the gate, then nodded. 'For now, they're fine. We're close by so I'll help them if they need it.'
'Okay… Then let me explain…' Jack sighed, glad that he had upgraded his health regeneration skill to lv. 7. It was the only reason he was still conscious. Opening his eyes, Jack looked back to the battlefield. 'We leveled up too quickly… Bowzer forcibly started evolving… The same is happening to Phoro… As for the dragon, that beast was in the summoning amulet I won at the auction…'
'That…' Doing a double-take to see the dragon in a new light, Argyle looked back to Jack and verbally shouted, "That was in my amulet?!"
It pained Jack to chuckle but he did so anyway. "Yeah, I'm excited about him… Argyle… You saw the purple light, right?"
The mood changed, instantly losing the lightheartedness.
"Yeah, I saw it. That was Tralon, wasn't it?"
"Yup… It was his last spell…"
Dumbstruck, Argyle looked to Jack with his mouth agape. Such a statement was too unexpected.
Jack continued, "I don't know why he did that… but it had to be something terribly important… for him to trade his life…"
"We'll investigate when we can," replied Argyle. "For now… sadly, all we can do is wait for the gods to stop fighting. Without that, no one will be safe, even after we slaughter the army."
Lifting his head slightly, Jack reexamined the battlefield.
Lorwynn had made short work of the men facing Dradich and Karronteel, sending Jack even more EXP. Dradich and Lorwynn hurried to aid Dragov while Karronteel backed off to get a breather. Like Jack and Bowzer, Karronteel was under-leveled and struggled against the lv. 60's and lv. 70's. However, Karronteel was now lv. 61 after pushing himself to the limit.
Hadurt was toying with Jeara, who refused to face Hadurt head-on. Soon, Hadurt would get tired of her running, but not yet.
With a Draconic Centipede now at lv. 83, a Glacier Wyrm now at lv. 74, and Lorwynn now at lv. 88, the remaining syndicate members were up against the wall. They would slowly die and be killed without mercy.
Jack noticed Rikko and Pestro next, chuckling in the back of his head. But then he spotted Eedaj, a sight that brought all of Jack's happy thoughts to an end.
"No… Why is Tralbok here!?" Jack shouted, catching Argyle's attention.
"Tralbok… Tralbok?! Tralbok, as in the God of Time?!" Argyle joined Jack in shouting. "That's Tralbok?"
"It has to be… But how did he get here?" His mind wandering anew, Jack's stress level spiked yet again. "Now what? Guuro left after the reception… Dragas is too far… And Uncle Jin never bothered coming… Now what?!"
Argyle wanted Jack to calm down but he couldn't think of any way to do so. He felt just as troubled, anxious to know how Eedaj could make that work. Trying to not overthink the situation, Argyle asked, "Who's the blue goblin?"
"Oh yeah… That's Uncle Rikko, the God of Trickery… He's the one who stole Pestro's halberd…"
"What?!"
"Take a look at Hadurt…"
Looking to a different part of the battlefield, Argyle found Hadurt chasing after a knight, slowly losing his patience. In his hands was a black halberd erupting with demonic energy.
"That… You stole a god's weapon?"
"But what will we do about Tralbok?" Jack returned to the most important topic at hand. "With him here… It can ruin everything…"
Trying to speed things up, Jack telepathically shouted to Hadurt, 'Hurry up already! With Tralbok here, who knows what could happen if you don't kill them now!'
'Fine…' Hadurt sighed as he picked up his pace, closing the gap between him and Jeara.
She put up a defense, but the demonic halberd shattered her sky defenses.
After claiming her life and swiping her storage, Hadurt rushed back to the army. However, Hadurt looked behind him as a shout bellowed across the open field.
"HADURT, YOU FOOL!!!"
Pestro had been fed up with the speedy goblin who didn't bother fighting back. The moment he noticed Hadurt separate from the army with the halberd in hand, Pestro made it his mission to end the former champion he had blessed prior.
"DIE!! AND RETURN MY WEAPON!!"
The ground under Pestro's feet scattered as the Demon God pushed off toward Hadurt. Not caring what stood in his way, Pestro focused on Hadurt and only Hadurt.
Instantly adjusting, Rikko changed course for Hadurt as well. The blue goblin shouted, "Hey! Give Rikko back halberd. Rikko stab fat Pestro with it. Rikko want see Pestro pop!"
"Rikko!"
Unable to ignore such blatant slandering, Pestro tried to elbow Rikko as the goblin ran past him.
Chuckling and unfazed, Rikko evaded the elbow and used that moment to pass Pestro. Beating the Demon God to Hadurt, Rikko stated, "Come, we run!" Rikko then grabbed Hadurt by the arm and dragged him along, kiting Pestro further and further north until they entered the woods and disappeared.