Chapter 1420 - The Hunter, the Swordsman, & the Monk (6)

“Just how many of those things do you have?” Jake asked, briefly considering if he should try to disarm the man before he could absorb the stats from the warhammer, but he knew that wouldn’t work. All it took was a single thought, and the hammer would be absorbed.

“Only time will tell,” the monk answered mysteriously.

“Also, you lied before, didn’t you?” Jake asked. “I’m very much assuming those weapons function in the same manner as my staff did, and the staff was Soulbound. Yet you said Eron got it for you.”

“I didn’t lie,” the monk shook his head while looking at the large warhammer. “And it is Soulbound. However, these items also drop after death, so when the Chosen of the Lifesoul Daolord fell, the weapons he’d obtained became available for another to acquire.”

Jake narrowed his eyes, wondering whether that meant the monk had killed Eron to get them, or if the other Chosen had ended his own life on purpose to hand over the items. Well, he could have also been killed by someone or something else, but Jake thought it was significantly more likely the monk was the cause, either directly or indirectly.

“Good to know,” he just commented, as he saw no need to delay, considering his own stat boost was still running out, and he wanted to minimize the period where the monk had an advantage.

Before, Jake had used his arcane magic to great effect, and he continued to do so, but he also wanted to experience what he could do with his other forms of magic. Starting out basic, he launched a barrage of mana arrows – his new temporary name for arrows summoned using magic – forcing the monk to respond as he immediately absorbed the warhammer.

Even from a distance, Jake could feel the powerful effect as the monk was filled with what had to be primarily a massive boost to Strength. Proving his assessment true, the monk stomped down hard in the air, unleashing a shockwave as space compressed beneath his foot, repelling most of the arrows.

At the same time, he also punched, unleashing a massive golden fist toward Jake. Summoning his wings, Jake shot into the sky to avoid it while at the same time pumping out a dense mist of toxins. Flapping his wings, he sent the mist flying down toward the monk, who clapped his hands together, sending out yet another shockwave that scattered the mist. For a moment, anyway, as it quickly started gathering again.

Seeing as currently one of them was effectively a mage and the other a heavy warrior, the monk naturally didn’t want the fight to stay ranged, so he kicked off the air and propelled himself toward Jake. It was evident that compared to the sword, his Agility had not grown as much, but in turn, his Strength and even Toughness had definitely benefited.

Watching him charge and feeling his current power, Jake knew that once the effect of the staff wore off, he would be in for a bad time, so he chose to take advantage now and get as much of an edge as he possibly could.

Rather than dodge away, Jake chose to dive straight toward the monk, taking him by surprise. He immediately moved to punch a hole through Jake’s chest, but before he could do so, two glowing orange eyes locked onto his body as Primal Gaze activated.

The monk froze dead in his tracks as Jake went as far as to use both Boundless Sight and Primal Gaze together. Immediately, he confirmed that the Warhammer hadn’t given the monk any kind of Willpower or Perception, giving Jake a giant advantage in this clash of souls. What’s more, he wasn’t only channeling the empowered Gaze, but continued his attack in the physical world.

While continuing to fly, Jake made a palm strike to the frozen monk’s face and wrapped his hand around it as he dragged his opponent along. At the same time, Touch of the Malefic Viper, far more powerful than ever due to the giant increase from the staff, activated, pumping toxins into the monk’s body through his face.

In the mental realm, Jake and the Eastbound Monk’s souls were pitted against one another, as Jake definitely had the advantage. He was dealing continuous damage to the monk while keeping him immobile, which isn’t to say that the monk’s soul was weak. It was just that Jake’s soul was already incredibly powerful, and now with the Staff of the Magi, it was even stronger.

However, as Jake thought to push further, keeping the skill going longer than he perhaps should, he suddenly got a bad feeling. He briefly felt something that made him immediately stop using Primal Gaze, and when he did, the monk could move once more and instantly sought to get Jake off him.

A punch that would surely break Jake’s arm flew up from below, making him instead stop Touch of the Malefic Viper as he instead made his hand explode with arcane power, blasting the Eastbound Monk down toward the ground.

Still shaken by the soul attack, the monk didn’t brace properly as he crashed into the ground, creating a large crater that sent rock and soil flying everywhere. Jake followed up immediately as arcane explosions quickly leveled the crater and turned it into a deep pit.

After a couple of seconds of Jake unloading, a massive golden palm erupted from the pit, destroying all the arcane magic in flight before forcing Jake to dodge away. Out of the hole floated the monk, his face halfway melted off by Touch, with the following barrage of destructive arcane magic only worsening the damage.

The monk formed that accursed healing seal with his hand yet again as a rush of mending energy enveloped his body, but rather than fully heal him, as it had the other times, this time it only seemed to mend his surface wounds, his face still a mess. For a second, Jake thought that maybe the damn monk was finally running out of juice for the skill, but he quickly realized the real reason.

A stronger body is also far harder to heal.

The warhammer had massively increased his Endurance, Vitality, and Toughness, all of which affected how tough his body was, and Jake could feel how the toxins in the monk’s body were struggling to affect him despite the quantity and potency of the poison used.

It was still ravaging the monk from within, especially the poison just inflicted with Touch of the Malefic Viper, but it wasn’t enough. Not yet. Especially not with the monk continuously eliminating much of the toxin whenever he used that damn healing skill.

After healing himself as much as he could, the monk got ready to go on the offensive again, but Jake was already way ahead of him as arcane barriers surrounded the man, seeking to limit his movements while Jake let loose another wave of magic.

Unfortunately for Jake, his arcane barriers couldn’t stand up to the warhammer-empowered Strength of the monk, resulting in him effortlessly breaking through them and dodging the first wave of magic.

What did still work was the poison mist Jake had continued to pump into the atmosphere, and while the monk was far stronger now, he couldn’t fully stop having it invade his body, especially not when Jake actively manipulated it to implode towards his opponent at all times.

Stepping down, the monk teleported forward after breaking through another arcane barrier, his fist exploding forward with incredible momentum. Jake quickly retreated, but the fist sent out a shockwave far stronger than any prior, rattling Jake’s insides and interrupting his attempt to use One Step.

This allowed the monk to do a follow-up, and while Jake tried to defend himself with a wall of arcane energy, it wasn’t enough, as it was broken, only slightly lessening the power of the incoming blow. Jake raised his bow to block at the very last second, getting it slammed into his chest along with the fist as he allowed himself to get blasted backward while also borrowing the momentum to fly back as fast as he could.

In his wake, more poison spread and more magic manifested, launching toward the monk who gave chase. He deflected and dodged some of the arcane arrows, but he was still struck dozens of times, each slightly penetrating his skin before exploding.

Damage was accumulating, but the monk seemed to accept it as he didn’t want to give Jake time to conjure up any powerful magic. The joke was on him, though: Jake didn’t know any powerful magic besides rituals, and there was no fucking way he was going to sit down and make a ritual circle in the middle of a fight.

Reaching him again, Jake had to struggle to defend himself once more, the outcome still ending with him sent flying, his insides rattled badly. Like so, several exchanges followed with the monk looking a lot worse for wear, with Jake looking mostly fine, though his internal wounds were starting to get pretty damn bad.

Still, he was waiting for his opportunity to strike. He felt that the stat boost from the staff was soon coming to an end, and he needed one last hurrah to go out on. That last hurrah was already sitting there within his quiver, ready to be unleashed as soon as he saw the chance to.

Meanwhile, the monk continued to apply pressure, sending out golden fists, rattling shockwaves, and various small displays of sound techniques, primarily to defend himself, though he relied on his incredibly durable body at this stage of the fight. He truly was stupidly durable now compared to when the Blademaven’s sword had empowered him, though his low speed also made it difficult for him to land any blows, overall making him far less of a threat offensively.

He was seemingly just waiting out Jake’s boost while trying to ensure Jake couldn’t pull off any big moves. Jake was cooking something up, though. He had been so for a while.

When Jake knew that not even half a minute remained of the staff’s effect, he finally made his move, truly having no other choice. Like always, he unleashed a barrage of magic, but this time, it was slightly different from before. When the monk moved to dodge, all the bolts and arrows exploded, unleashing not just arcane energy, but a massive blast of dark mana that covered the sky.

At the same time, Jake raised his hand and made it glow dark green. Before, when Jake had used Touch of the Malefic Viper, he hadn’t simply infused the Eastbound Monk with toxic energy to melt him from the inside, but also pumped in plenty of toxins with the dark affinity. Usually, Jake’s dark affinity wasn’t that impressive, but with the boost from the staff, it was suddenly more than usable.

Attacked from both the outside and within, the monk was enveloped in darkness as the dark affinity overwhelmed his senses. Jake kept attacking with arcane mana; he also took the opportunity to finally pull out his Protean Arrow, which he’d been waiting to use until now.

In the back of his mind, despite the precarious circumstances of this battle, Jake had still considered the presence of the Sword Saint. The old guy was gone for now, sure, but he would return, and when he did, Jake wanted to have some methods left to fight him. Alas, Jake decided that he at least needed to take the monk down, or deal lethal damage before his staff boost ran out.

Plus, there was one more reason. One that was even more important. Perhaps the biggest bonus from the special items wasn’t the stats themselves, but the opportunities they gave, and Jake wanted to take advantage of one final time with a skill he’d been working on upgrading every single time he used it. A skill that was already core to his Path, and would likely continue to be so for eternity to come.

Arcane Powershot channeled as Jake reveled in the feeling of having the arcane energy circulate his body and into his bow. The pattern of movement felt smoother than ever before; he had greater control, and all the minor flaws he’d been surmising about whenever he used it normally suddenly had such obvious solutions. With his mind split between continuing to ensure the monk was blinded and continuing to focus on defense, Jake charged his arrow while his aura grew stronger.

Despite how much he was focusing on the process and improvement, this ended up being one of the quickest Arcane Powershots Jake had ever fully charged due to the sheer intensity of the energy he was handling, but its power also surpassed any Powershot he’d ever used before.

Reaching its zenith, Jake unleashed one last barrage of magic as a shadowy figure also emerged from his body. He had barely dedicated any mental energy to its purpose, but the shadow seemed to understand as it charged after the hail of magic towards the monk.

Half a second later, Jake deeply breathed in, poured in every shred of Hunting Momentum he had accumulated, poured every other enhancement he had into the arrow, and let it fly, the explosions rocking the sky unable to deafen the sound within Jake’s head signaling another long-awaited upgrade.

[Arcane Powershot (Ancient)] --> [Arcane Powershot (Legendary)]

The Protean Arrow soared forth with unstoppable momentum towards the large cloud of dark smoke that enveloped the Eastbound Monk. Within this cloud, his opponent clearly detected the incoming danger and took a defensive stance right as an attack arrived.

Eternal Shadow appeared in front of the monk and stabbed forward, Rupturing Fang revolving around its katar. The monk responded by raising a palm towards the strike, but right before the katar hit the hand, all the energy suddenly dispersed and Jake’s Eternal Shadow only lightly poked the palm of the monk.

His redirection move was nullified, with the shadow dispersing right after making its strike... only for the monk to flip around the palm he’d just used to block with as a golden wave of energy erupted from him, dispersing the surrounding darkness as he narrowed his eyes and lifted his palm, cradling Jake within... reminding Jake that while he’d used one palm to seal the Sword Saint, he had a second one available.

“Pillars of the Palm.”

With the Protean Arrow still halfway between them, five utterly gigantic golden fingers rose around them. Jake felt a powerful pull as he was about to be dragged into another world, but before it could happen, he also spoke.

“Event Horizon.”

The ground was swallowed as the five rising pillars of gold were consumed and dispersed, as all matter seemed to gather into a singular ring of light surrounding the Eastbound Monk. Any pull was gone, and with even greater momentum than before, the arrow continued toward the monk, who was still standing there with his hand cradled and wide eyes, staring into the world bereft of anything besides the two of them.

“Astonishing.”

Reality returned as the glimpse ended right before the monk was struck. He barely managed to move his arms in front of his body at the very last moment, but it was far from enough as both were pierced through before the arrow continued all the way through his body.

It penetrated his entire chest section before stopping, pierced straight through him while sticking out the other side. Unlike normal, the Protean Arrow didn’t disperse but instead stayed there, continually pumping toxins and destructive arcane energy into the monk’s body.

Despite his greatly heightened Toughness, dark green veins spread from the bucket-sized hole where the arrow was still lodged, and Jake didn’t hesitate to follow up, raising his hand and activating Touch to further empower the toxins.

Around the same time, Jake’s stat boost from the Staff of the Magi dispersed as he felt the power leave his body, but it had done enough. It had to have done enough.

The aura of the monk rapidly weakened as he tried to raise his hand to rip out the arrow, but between it and all the other damage he’d taken, he simply didn’t have the power to. Jake was also fairly sure that while his healing magic had mended his body, it hadn’t actually restored much of his vital energy.

Breathing heavily, Jake got closer to the monk as he didn’t stop using Touch of the Malefic Viper. The monk was looking down at the arrow but raised his head to look at Jake as he approached. He had a smile on his face as he slowly nodded.

“You... have shown me a truly wondrous sight.”

Jake slowly nodded as he felt the monk’s life force continue to weaken. Still, he couldn’t help but feel some kind of trepidation as he looked at the dying man, wanting him to finish the job quickly. Yet he also stopped himself out of sheer curiosity to see what the monk could possibly pull out at this juncture.

In either case, Jake quickly popped a rejuvenation potion to restore some of his resources, as no matter what, he had to get ready for when the Sword Saint made his return, which would probably happen when – if – the truly monk died.

“Glad you enjoyed the glimpse,” Jake said, keeping his distance somewhat, again, still keeping up Touch of the Malefic Viper.

“I sincerely did,” the monk muttered, a look of regret on his face. “Would you allow me to also show you something? I ask you sincerely, not rhetorically. Know that your answer shall determine whether my fight ends here or not.”

This was not a scenario Jake had ever found himself in before, where a dying opponent was asking him whether he could show off his final trump card or not. The smart choice would be to try to finish off the monk immediately... but Jake was Jake.

“Sure, but it better leave me in awe.”

The monk smiled and nodded as he looked at Jake and asked another question:

“Have you ever seen a Transcendent Artifact before?”

Before Jake could answer, a new aura fell over the battlefield, and floating behind the monk’s body, a giant wheel appeared. Jake stared at it with open eyes for a moment as if he were staring at the Gate of Enlightenment, but he quickly realized why when he picked up an energy signature... a very familiar one.

“A treasure left by the one I acknowledge as my teacher... the reason I can stand here today... why I survived the infection... so please, witness it...

The wheel started slowly turning; Jake’s ring of light from Event Horizon that was still active shattered apart, and the monk spoke as he invoked its power.

“Wheel of Samsara.”

Jake barely even registered the monk’s words as he was instead far too preoccupied with the aura given off by the wheel as he recognized its creator and felt it resonate with a certain tome left within his Soulspace.

The First Sage.

And with that wonderful cliff, we go on break! Not my fault; we had a vote on Discord. To be clear, the cliff tomorrow would be twice as bad, but hey, this is manageable, right?

... right?

Anyway, have a wonderful summer, everyone, and see you all either randomly on Discord or on the 31st for the next mega cliff! Also... the balance of chapters ending on 5 or 0 has been restored. Yay.