Chapter 1419 - The Hunter, the Swordsman, & the Monk (5)

The two words echoed as the Sword Saint welcomed the Silent Winter, and proving his words true, all sound indeed disappeared right after he spoke. So did colors, the golden scripture surrounding the monk, and all the leaves that were still flying through the sky.

A cold aura fell over the battlefield, making a shiver run down Jake’s spine. He saw both the Sword Saint and the Eastbound Monk slow down, as if time itself were being affected by the cold.

Like with the heat from Scorching Summer before, this wasn’t a regular kind of cold. It was the kind that made even someone like Jake feel an innate sense of discomfort. Not just due to feeling like his body cooled down, but due to the lingering sense of death and finality. The kind of death to which all beings of the multiverse were subject.

Signs of decay started showing on the Eastbound Monk’s body as the aura affected him. In different places, his skin turned blue and black in a mix of necrosis and frostbite. Jake also carefully studied the state of his own body as he felt himself affected by the magic, too, but there was nothing outright damaging him.

Is it connected to the leaves?

Many leaves had merged with the monk’s body, seemingly not accomplishing much, but now, Jake felt like whatever energy had invaded the man’s body was activated and was wreaking havoc. The monk clearly tried to dispel the energy affecting him as the Sword Saint slowly walked forward, clearly also badly affected himself.

As he walked, he slowly raised his sword, which was enveloped by an aura of death. He held it up like an executioner’s blade, with his steps taking him closer and closer. The monk had stopped moving at this point and looked at the Sword Saint, amazement in his eyes.

“Absolutely wonderful,” he said, his voice cutting through the silence as he looked around himself with awe. Turning back to the Sword Saint, he gave the other man a nod of recognition. “Even I would not want to get hit by that... so let me apologize in advance.”

Jake instantly got a bad feeling as the monk very slowly raised his arm, his palm pointed upwards. From his perspective, it looked as if he cradled the Sword Saint in his hand before he spoke.

“Pillars of the Palm.”

Despite the stillness and death reigning over the world, a golden luster still found its way up from the ground as five utterly massive pillars of gold rose around them far in the distance. Each of them made even the massive forms of the Cyclops look like insects in comparison, but before Jake could even comprehend what kind of skill this was, the golden pillars disappeared... along with the stillness of winter.

Colors and sound returned to normal; the Sword Saint was gone, and so was what Jake suspected to be the ultimate culmination of what was effectively a skill combo. For a full second, Jake just stood there as the monk also remained still, his palm still raised up in front of him. Finally, after another second, he lowered it and turned to look up at Jake.

“The power granted by the sword is still coursing through my body and should not be wasted. Ready yourself,” the monk said, Jake still confused about what had happened to the Sword Saint.

He had faintly detected an extremely powerful space magic of some form when the monk used his skill, but it was equally weird as it was powerful. Had the monk summoned a domain of some kind, or forced the Sword Saint into it? Usually, domains also brought the user into said domain, though. A sealing skill, then? It did feel a little like that, but not quite, and usually, a sealing skill would not be that easy to use, especially not on someone who was enveloped by such powerful concepts as the Sword Saint had been.

Unfortunately, Jake wasn’t going to get any answers as the monk exploded forward, intending to make good use of the time the boost from the sword remained active. Jake quickly went on the defensive and retreated, not even having time to shoot another arrow before his opponent was upon him.

Focusing fully on defense, Jake managed to avoid the first few blows despite the monk’s odd skill that allowed him to manifest one of three outcomes. He didn’t use it every time, though, which made Jake theorize maybe it had an internal cooldown or a relatively high energy cost. He wasn’t willing to subscribe too much to either theory, though, as assumptions had already proven a massive issue during this fight.

Jake did also notice one other thing. While the Sword Saint was gone, the sense of decay and the effects of the withering leaves remained, and while the necrosis and frostbite-like effects on the monk’s body had stopped getting worse, they hadn’t disappeared. It all resulted in the monk’s movements being slightly affected, allowing Jake to weather the barrage of assault somewhat.

Emphasis on somewhat.

The stat disparity was simply too large for Jake to get away unharmed, and while he tried his best, taking damage was simply unavoidable, especially when the monk got more serious. The energy surrounding his hands intensified and took on a golden hue as his punches suddenly unleashed loud shockwaves, as if his hands were breaking through the sound barrier with every hit.

That meant even if Jake avoided a punch, he was still struck, his internal injuries quickly getting worse than before, with even his soul getting affected. The monk clearly wasn’t slowing down either, making Jake consider his options.

He still had more skills to show, methods to fight, but all of them were risky and would perhaps be best saved for if he was truly fucked... so he decided to even the playing field. While he generally wasn’t a fan of doing it, if the monk used external means to make himself stronger, fine, so would Jake.

After a particularly nasty clash that left Jake with the bone on his upper arm nearly broken from a kick, he finally accepted the circumstances as a staff appeared in his hand. This gave the monk a temporary pause as his eyes opened wide in surprise right as the staff disappeared and turned into a stream of energy that flooded Jake’s body, massively boosting his power as per the description of the Abundant Staff of the Magi:

“...the staff can be consumed, granting you the Abundant Blessing of the Magi, massively increasing mental stats and magical prowess for a limited amount of time.”

The monk quickly continued his assault as Jake raised a hand and summoned a powerful barrier of stable arcane energy. The fist connected with the barrier, breaking it apart while still rebounding the Eastbound Monk. Jake used the same raised hand to point toward the monk as magic manifested around him.

More than a hundred arcane bolts appeared, helped along by Pride, as Jake willed them all to fly forth, forcing the monk on the defensive as he tried to break them apart. Unfortunately for him, it took a lot of effort to destroy them, and even after shattering, Jake made the bolts explode while creating further distance between himself and his opponent.

It was difficult to explain what Jake was experiencing at that moment. It was somewhat akin to the first time he activated a boosting skill, except it somehow also felt evident that the stats and power he currently wielded didn’t fully belong to him. It had a foreign element to it, despite Jake feeling as if his mental stats had just increased by tens of thousands. He also had another realization he’d believed to be the case, and now had confirmed to be the truth, which was just downright wonderful:

Perception was also considered a mental stat.

His magic control and power had reached an unprecedented level, and rather than fully try to comprehend what he was now capable of, he simply let his instincts take over as he pushed himself.

The monk tried to attack again, but Jake forced Pride’s domain to expand significantly, covering the monk as he made barriers appear on all sides of his charging opponent. Punching the barrier, the monk successfully got through one as a dozen more appeared on all sides of him while Jake spread out his arms and willed over a thousand small arcane bolts, each no larger than a pencil, into existence.

Pointing, Jake sent them all flying towards the monk who was making his way through a labyrinth of stable arcane barriers. He tried to break a few, but it was much faster to fly. Not that either method would help much when a hail of sharp, spear-like arcane bolts flew at him from all sides.

The monk looked surprised and tried to smack away a few bolts, but all of them were incredibly tough, and there were simply too many of them. Seemingly having no other choice, the monk changed his stance as he made a hand seal yet again.

When he did, his entire body became still and took on a golden sheen. All the bolts that hit him shattered on impact as if they’d hit an indestructible object, and while Jake would have stopped the rest of the arcane bolts, he was already busy trying to conjure his next attack and didn’t want to dedicate the mental energy. He did have enough energy to make all the remaining bolts and barriers explode, though, filling the sky with arcane destruction.

Out of the massive blast, the monk was instantly smashed into the ground below; his defensive move apparently only effective against physical attacks, as he looked a lot worse for wear. Not that much, though, as his Toughness had significantly increased from absorbing the sword. Seemingly far more than his other physical stats.

At that moment, Jake was also certain... while both of them had experienced a massive stat increase from consuming their respective items, likely identical in scope, the monk simply couldn’t utilize them as well as Jake could. He likely made the mistake of thinking too much, wanting to stay fully in control, thus allowing his own mind to become a limiting factor. A flaw Jake didn’t share, as he was one of the foremost experts when it came to not overthinking while fighting.

Smiling, Jake finally unleashed the newest magic he’d cooked up, as rather than summon bolts, arrows appeared instead all around him. The monk naturally saw this and got himself ready to defend, as he was once more under assault by an overwhelming amount of magic. He was getting better at dealing with it, though, having gotten over the initial shock.

Still, he couldn’t even leave the ground as Jake continued to hail down magic, not being super inventive but just spamming out a mix between destructive and stable arcane mana in different forms to attack. Ideas were starting to form in his mind after successfully conjuring arrows of pure magic, though, and he felt a deeper connection with his arcane mana than ever before.

He played with the sense of control as he summoned more complex patterns, closely observing how his mana moved and how the arrows formed. While still continuing to rain down arcane magic, Jake also pulled out his bow and started shooting, barely focusing on the shots themselves, but on the arrows he created.

A flash of inspiration hit him, and he activated the Rapid Fire function of Timeless Focus without even thinking, just to increase his shooting speed. The monk suddenly found the situation easier to deal with as Jake summoned less magic and focused more on his arrows.

Taking the opportunity, the monk shot into the sky and punched forward, sending a massive golden fist flying up towards Jake. He continued shooting into it several times before he was forced to dodge and interrupt his Timeless Focus, but that didn’t mean he stopped shooting altogether.

Rather than charge again, the monk seemed to realize something as he stopped. He didn’t attack again, but only defended against Jake’s arrows, breaking them apart while seemingly further familiarizing himself with his increase in stats. By now, he had nearly eliminated the traces left by the Sword Saint, and with an increased ability to utilize his stat boost, he was growing significantly stronger at a rapid pace.

Jake didn’t have time to pay it any mind, though, as he started to find his own shooting speed too slow. In a flash of inspiration, Jake grinned and pushed his Pride to its limits. He put his fingers on the string of his bow, and as usual, Avaricious Arcane Hunter’s Arrows made an arrow appear on the string, but this time around, not just on the string. At the same time, nearly a hundred arrows also appeared around him, Jake feeling his mind being torn apart as he still smiled.

Pulling back the string, arcane threads also appeared behind every arrow, pulling them back alongside it. As if a hundred bows surrounded Jake, all the strings were taut as Jake loosed his arrows, sending forth more than ninety at once.

Every single arrow registered in Jake’s mind as if he’d actually shot them from his bow, all of them benefiting from all of his passive skills and whatnot, and all of them easily controlled by Jake’s senses as they flew in unpredictable patterns and swarmed the monk.

Seeing them, Jake’s opponent stomped down hard, making the ground rise around him as a golden shockwave defended him, while at the same time, another seal was formed that seemed to massively increase the monk’s durability.

Reliving the same feeling as before, Jake nocked another arrow, this time only conjuring out a dozen additional ones around him. They were larger this time around, though, and when Jake pulled back the string, moving all the floating arrows back as he did so, something seemed to finally click, and the notification came before he even let go of the string.

[Avaricious Arcane Hunter’s Arrows (Epic)] --> [Boundless Arcane Hunter’s Arrows (Ancient)]

Letting the arrows loose, the monk once more defended himself, simply taking the attacks as he remained unmoving. Jake didn’t shoot a follow-up immediately, but instead waited for the dust to settle before looking down at the monk with a complicated gaze.

“Thanks,” he muttered, fully aware of what the monk had done.

“To interrupt the moment of enlightenment of another would be too grand a sin,” the monk said, wiping away blood from his lips after having clearly taken some damage from the many explosions. “I congratulate you on your success, and I do find myself stumped by how immense the increase in power is from your consumption of the staff, making me realize... I’m not fully utilizing what I’ve gained, am I?”

“Far from it,” Jake answered honestly.

“I see,” the monk muttered before smiling. “How exciting. Unfortunately, it appears I lost my window to fully do so with the sword.”

Right then, Jake felt the aura of the monk significantly wane, signifying that the massive stat boost from the Blademaven’s sword had dropped off. Meanwhile, Jake still had plenty of boosting time left. At some point, the Sword Saint would also return from whatever place he’d been confined to.

Yeah, things weren’t looking good for the monk.

“I hope you have more to show,” Jake said, genuinely hoping that was the case.

The monk had a complicated look for a moment before sighing. “For now, let me just shamelessly continue borrowing the power of another.”

With those words, a large warhammer appeared in his hand, radiating a similar aura to both the Staff of the Magi and the sword of the Blademaven, making Jake realize... the admittedly polite fucker had more than one of those overpowered stat-boosting weapons.