The Grave Part 4

“Where did you get this ?” he quickly asked.

Elisha was at first confused , wondering why his rescuer would ask that question out of all the others that could have been asked in the context of the situation at hand.

“ It’s a mark of my people ,” he replied.

Jack felt Aiko’s interest also getting piqued within his soul , but he had to cut the chatter and block another splash of magma as one of the Beast folk came crashing in their direction.

Even though the magma was starting to solidify , it had only formed a brittle crust that under enough pressure would break and sink a person.

“ Help me , someone fucking help me !” The beast man cried as he drowned and got sealed as the magma quickly developed another crust over him.

Horrified by the man’s fate , Jack had forgotten to pay attention to Elisha. Jack had the durability to survive the splash , but not the man.

“ Please , make sure this reaches my wife ,” Jack turned as Elisha pressed an envelope into his hand before finally succumbing to his injuries. The magma had poured squarely on his abdomen and chest , the outcome being certain death.

“Bossman , Aiko thinks that we should keep that envelope safe . It may have information about Aiko’s people ,” she advised .

“ Put it in the Bag of Domicile for me ,” he said , holding the envelope out of his palm. After a few seconds it vanished and Jack felt it appear somewhere inside of his soul.

The large room they were in was where multiple tunnels seemed to be converging to.There were massive cylindrical pillars standing next to each of the seven corners of the room , making it look more like a gungeon hall than a mining site.

Behind the Nameless Death were the two large doors that had been opened just recently.Though the room beyond the door was arguably very dark and poorly lit , the corners of a massive tomb could still be seen inside it.

“ Aiko , are you still sure this place is a mine ?” Jack asked, summoning the Excalibur sword.Seeing how the beast men were being wasted so easily by the monster , he saw no longer saw the point of staying out of the fight.

“ Aiko was not wrong about calling it a mine, but she also senses that there is something more to this place than meets the eye of Aiko,”

“ How long exactly has it been since you were last in Praiyas?”

“No less than a century Bossman,” she answered.

The Nameless stood firm , waiting on the group of Beast folk encircling it to make a move. The beast men , on their end , were starting to get weary of engaging the suit of armour , seeing what it had just done to a few of their comrades. The brittle ground that could crunch at any second didn’t help much either.

“NOW MEN !” Allan commanded the group and they all pounced simultaneously.

The Nameless bent over forward to let the first attacker fly past , using this opportunity to thrust forward a fist to the stomach of the guy directly in front of it. It then swiftly pulled out its sword again to block Allan just as he was about to try and pierce the armour around the chest area.

The rest happened so fast that only a few really saw it. The Nameless grabbed Allan’s neck , and planted his head through the magma crust , right into the awaiting magma , before pulling him out and sending him through one of the pillars holding up the room. The man’s shield just allowed him to barely survive.

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With their leader taken out , the rest of the best men lost coordination and the Nameless had its sword running them in halves within seconds. It was just about to finish off the very last one before Jack’s Excalibur blocked its own sword , almost matching it in power.

“This black sword it wields , it converts any part of the body that it strikes into the weakness of the opponent ,” Jack observed.

The two exchanged a few more fencing rounds to gauge their power standings before each took a few steps back . The Nameless Death , though lacking a head , appeared to have battlefield experience. It seemed to recognize that Jack was on a higher level than the Beast Folk it had just laid waste to , choosing to err on the side of caution.

“It’s smart and powerful. I will use Patterns to drag out the fight , then once it starts slowing , charge up Singularity and nuke it to high heavens ,” Jack brought Excalibur close to his chest and started walking forward. This was a fight he hadn’t wanted and since the System hadn’t placed a countdown on the bounty , he could have gotten away.

The Nameless took another swing , this time taking advantage of its height advantage against Jack to bring the sword down from above. As expected , Jack had to hold Excalibur with both hands to block this , creating the opening that the Nameless wanted to send a kick through his chest.

The Patterns talent gave him the sense that this attack was coming but without a way to evade it , all he could do was stiffen his abdominal muscles and wait for the Nameless to do its worst.

“So , the Patterns talent neither helps me evade nor lets me copy the opponents moves. It only gives a warning of what's coming and a muscular response to avoid or counter such an attack ,” Jack noted as he tanked the attack.

Being hit by a creature of flesh and bones was apparently better than taking a similar hit from pure reinforced metal. Even with the System’s enhancements , he knew that if his durability had been any level lower than what it was currently , he’d have gotten more than two broken ribs.

“REJUVENATION !” he yelped , writhing in agony when one of the ribs injured his lung. ANy sooner than that and he would have been too suffocated to chant.

This heal took with it 2 rejuvenation bars , leaving only four behind.

“Maybe I should have focused more on levelling up Rejuvenation,” he got up. Luck seemed to be on his side , only one arm had punctured the crust and dipped into the magma below.At least he was right handed.

The Nameless had charged , planning on following up with a slash from its sword. Just one hit on any part of Jack’s body would make that part a critical weakness highly susceptible to subsequent attacks. Even if it was just his little finger that was hit , any other attack by the Nameless on it would deal massive damage to Jack’s whole body through it.

“Constricted Surface ,” Jack released the second card up his sleeve. The talent wouldn’t do much damage as the Nameless had already proved itself immune to magma . What it could do,however , was distract the Nameless with its rapid spontaneous attacks so it couldn’t land a perfect hit with its sword.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me ,” Jack was left speechless as the Nameless walked through the spurting flames as if they were no more than stray winds. Having the talent any further would only put him at a disadvantage since he’d be forced to consistently keep Flowing Paradise going.

Dismissing that talent , he again engaged the monster . It had now added in more force and vigour in its attacks, making them faster and stronger. As the sword fight started tuning up , the Patterns talent was forced to adapt faster , slowly starting to conflict with Jack’s own rational thought.

At one point he wanted to parry and launch a counter offensive but the talent jammed his muscles to this coordination , moving his hands to instead attack from the on set. It made him lose his edge and get a severe arc etched into the flesh of his chest.

Having finally created a weakness on Jack , the Nameless put aside its sword and delivered a heavy uppercut on the injury as Jack was distracted trying to get Rejuvenation to heal up.

That powerful fist lifted him into the air and even before he could land , the Nameless caught him with a forward punch in mid air. It was enough to send his body flying through the doors that led to the other room that the monster had been trapped in , crashing into the tomb he had seen before.

Getting a weakness created on a body area that was already an actual weakness to begin with hit Jack with more pain than he had ever experienced before in his life. It took another two rejuvenation bars to close up the wound ,but even with this he could still feel how vulnerable his chest would be to any subsequent attacks from the Nameless.

“What kind of monsters are they making in Krassus ?” He jumped inside the open tomb to escape the black sword that the Nameless had just thrown at him like a javelin .

With every critical hit it made , the monster was always sure to follow up with an even deadlier strike. This was a unique fighting style it had developed , tied to the unique properties that its sword carried.