"Sublimatio! Sublimatio!" Jack screamed, caring not a wit that his voice cracked as not one but two volleys of beach-ball sized globes of dissolution streaked through the air.

Aroust's eyes widened, instantly all deadly business as he waved his main gauche in the air. "Disputio! Disputio!" He hissed, alarm turning to fiercest vindication when Jack's orbs abruptly dove straight down, splashing on the marble slabs with an audible hiss, not a single one staying airborne long enouh to strike at the duelist now racing forward once more.

Just as Jack had intended.

"Jack!" Drake's panicked voice.

Get your dad the fuck off the terrace! Jack screamed with his mind, making full use of their still intact party link, as Jack immediately crouched into a ball, 3 foot diameter crimson shield held high as the duelist sneered, contempt clearly written on his face. Because a man crouched over in obvious fear was an easy target for any foe to maneuver around to deliver vicious cleaving blows.

Aroust's bemused laughter washed over them all. "And so it ends, boy. A single clean thrust and it will all be over," he declared, ready to deliver death in the blink of an eye.

Before peering hard at Jack, as if only then realizing the significance of Jack's shield against the fencing blade that was the small sword, three feet of light quick thrusting death.

As limiting as Jack's crouch was, his shield made all the difference.

Because the one thing Aroust's deadly fencing blade couldn't do was deliver wrapping blows around the shield's edge. Of course, arguably, his dagger could.

And even as Aroust factored this into his movements, pivoting with his hips as if calculating how best to twist around Jack to plunge his far better suited main gauche around his opponent, only then did he realize what Jack's unexpected and seemingly foolish maneuver had distracted him from noting.

Namely that he was still sliding toward the steps at full speed, as if he dashed across water slicked ice, made all too clear when his shift in stance and balance did nothing to change his trajectory as he slid on dissolvent that more than one slime forced off dungeon walls had proved was equally effective as a lubricant, so long as the dissolving stone wasn't so pitted as to catch the boots rapidly disintegratin on the feet of the suddenly panicked fencer now sliding past Jack with an alarmed look of disbelief.

Before being blasted with an unexpected spray his main gauche wand was unable to counter as it was not a discrete globe, projectile, or Etherial enchantment, but a caustic stream of destruction.

"Sagitta Acidium!" Jack shouted, caring not at all that his foe's inhuman quickness allowed for a harmless whipping strike against his arm with the flat of his blade that did nothing to him, even as Jack's hand gushed with acid. A spray against which his opponent's parrying dagger proved worthless.

But it was a Pyrrhic victory, Jack found, because even as his opponent reeled away from the stream of liquid now devouring his face, he had still somehow managed a vicious hooking strike with his main gauche, near crippling Jack's hand in a fountain of blood before flying off the stage entire and crashing down the steps into the crowd below.

And the air rang with awful screams of shock and agony.

Shrieks that belonged not to Jack, as much as the pain tearing through his hand left hot tears stinging to corners of his eyes, but the fencer who had crashed to the hard stone round.

Jack quickly dispelled his shield as he gazed down at the stunned audience, the almost festive mood of party-goers attending a play instantly dispelled with the shrieks of a man in true agony.

"Back away! All of you! Aqua Effusorium Majoris!"

Before Jack blasted the man with a geyser's worth of water with his uninjured left arm.

The crowd gazed on in alarm and horror as a roaring torrent of water crashed into the shrieking man clawing his melting face.

"I declare the match ended. Victory to my son's second!" Lord de Leone called in a sonorous voice, instantly stilling the harsh angry whispers and murmurs overtaking the crowd.

"Jack! The match is over! You have won. You have won!" Drake cried almost desperately.

You have successfully bested Rank 6 Duelist! A part of his endless potential is now your own!

Dissolution Orb is now Journeyman Rank 2.

Acid Spray is now Apprentice Rank 2.

Greater Water Spout is now Apprentice Rank 3.

Jack nodded, only allowing his Water Spout to fade when he had forced back the seeping flood of caustic dissolvent away from the steps leading toward the crowd, doing his best to both dilute it and spread it such that it wouldn't harm anything save the already hissing and smoking marble tiles. His own limbs were still shaking with the shock of battle, a nearly crippling wound, and the fact he had just bottomed out his mana. Almost too afraid to even look back and see if he had drowned the man he had been trying to save.

But no. Aroust was still alive, though wheezing like a dying man as he shrieked for mercy, his face a savaged mess of bloody flesh gouged by acid, his nose a bleeding stump of cartilage, ruined lips locked in a howl of agony as he thrashed around desperately, as if trying to gaze through the bloody craters that had once been his eyes.

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"Jack, your arm!" hissed an alarmed Drake, Jack only then noting the blood still spurting from his left wrist, adrenaline masking the pain, but not the dizziness he was beginning to feel.

You have been critically struck by Level 6 Duelist. Your weakness has been found. Right arm has been partially crippled! You are losing 1 point of Health per second due to bloodloss.

First aid skillcheck successful. You have successfully applied tourniquet with assistance!

"Sana Injuriam," Jack whispered under his breath only after Drake helped him tie an impromptu tourniquet, and he allowed himself a minute to recover a good portion of his reserves, now struggling against mana depletion vs bloodloss, hardly paying attention to the crowd at all as Drake's father's oration skills soon had them in hand. Focusing only on Drake, the rightness of their cause, and the buffoonery of their foes, before cajoling them to enjoy free drinks at a nearby inn, even as Jack felt his mana steadily trickle away once more as he flooded his wrist with regenerative magics before sighing with relief when the blood loss finally stopped and his grievous wound had been reduced to Mild Impairment.

He then turned to Drake, still gazing at a desperately sobbing Aroust with genuine pity.

"Poor, sad bastard," Drake whispered. "Now let's get you to the healers. We'll have to see what we can do for him later. Now Let's get you to somewhere I can give you your bracelet so you can heal up!" He gave Jack's shoulder a wordless pat as he silently conveyed his real intentions in party chat, showing his unquestioning support for Jack before a crowd gazing at Jack with looks ranging from admiration to shocked disbelief to outright disgust, Jack's exquisitely sensitive ears easily making out the clink of coins changing hands, even as all his focus was on the broken man who had been the master of his own glorious adventure of a life, just minutes ago.

He swallowed and turned to his friend. "Drake?"

But Drake was looking at Jack's wrist with something close to awe. "You actually managed to..." he shook his head with wonder. "No wonder that bastard was so eager to claim you as his property!"

Jack smirked at the odd looks this earned them, before tapping Drake's own wrist, where his artifact was currently nestled.

Drake winced in apology at what he perhaps shouldn't have said aloud, his frown turned to curious scepticism, when he saw that Jack intended for his bracelet to heal far more than a puncture wound. "Is it really powerful enough to fix... that?"

Jack shrugged. "Well, it managed to heal more than one near disembowelment inflicted by shadow wolves when used in conjunction with my own healing, so... maybe?"

Drake gave a firm nod. "Alright. But not here, in front of witnesses who have already seen too much. Let's get this poor fool back to the Silver Wand Inn. It's the closest secure location that my father trusts, and there are several healers nearby to justify our return. Not to mention we can actually summon those healers, and see if they can do anything as well."

Jack dipped his head. "Sounds like a plan," he said aloud, before pulling free one of the makeshift stretchers Stormy's troopers had made when they had struggled to bring their wounded back to shelter after battling the wolves, and Jack sure as hell wasn't going to let it go to waste after it had helped save his life.

Of course, this earned more than a few raised eyebrows as well.

"The power of magic!" he said brightly, though he winced when he tried to roll over the thrashing and now thankfully disarmed fencer onto the stretcher.

Drake gave a firm shake of his head as his manservant singled out two burly looking individuals.

"We'll gladly bring him to the Silver Wand Inn for you, sers," said the first with a thick brogue accent.

The second nodded, the pair wearing identical caps and tunics of coarse linen, and both appeared happy just to have witnessed the spectacle and now effectively become a part of the story, however grim a turn it had taken. Of course, both picked up their step with smiles despite their passenger's wails when cold ale to quench their thirst were mentioned. In a surprisingly short period of time, the horrifically disfigured fencer was deposited upon Jack's bed, Mistriss Sigrid sharing a glance with Lord de Leone that somehow said all that needed to be said, as a breathless Cornelia and another serving girl stood by with steamed towels, buckets of water, and whatever else might be needed.

Jack winced, in truth wanting no one save perhaps Drake to witness what he was about to do, but didn't bother wasting any more time, peripherally noting a certain serving girl's look of breathless wonder when he took his enchanted copper band and gently placed it on the wounded man's wrist, before finding himself flying across the room so hard he nearly blacked out.

Level 6 Duelist has critically struck you! You have saved versus fracture. You have suffered one Medium Wound and Mild Concussion.

"Cease your thrashing, fool! We're trying to save you! But if you'd rather live the rest of your life with your face melted off, be my fucking guest!" Roared none other than a furious Drake as Jack collected his wits, whispering his go-to healing spell once more, both surprised and grateful by how quickly his throbbing aches ceased, his damage fading to nothing in just a handful of seconds.

He blinked at the soft hands now clasping his own as Cornelia raised him back to his feet. "Are you alright, Jack?"

He flushed and smiled, doing his best not to be too distracted when the girl gave him a quick tight hug, finding himself all too aware of her lush curves and soft brown eyes now gazing up at him as she stroked his cheek, before stepping back.

He then took a deep breath and now, far more cautiously, approached the duelist.

"Do you want the pain to end?" Quiet words that somehow filled the full-sized bedroom.

"Yes!" the broken man sobbed. "I beg of you, my lord! I... if you can heal me, if you can return my sight, I will be eternally in your debt!"

Jack sighed. "How about you just promise not to sock me or stab me any more? Or hell. How about a general promise not to ever deliberately cause harm to me or my family or friends, directly or indirectly, with the understanding that I'll do my best to cause you no deliberate harm either, as a binding oath between us?"

"I swear it!" Aroust quickly shouted, even as Drake gazed at Jack in consternation, for all that his father gave a thoughtful nod. "On my word as a duelist and Delver, I swear it! Please, I beg of you... the pain!"

Jack nodded. "I will do my best, then," he said, this time able to successfully place the arm band before whispering the words to his own spell repeatedly through the night, taking breaks only long enough to restore his mana before doing his part to coax incredibly tiny parts of his former opponent's body to regrow and align themselves in exactly the same configuration as they had been arranged in before, a task he found to be far more difficult than healing bloodloss, cuts, or simple puncture wounds.

Synergistic bonus between Greater Artifact and Adept Tier Lesser Healing spell detected.

You have successfully regenerated multiple sensory organs.

Your target has suffered Minimal Scarring!

Congratulations, Lesser Healing is now Adept Rank 3!