Jack dived out of the way of another fire bolt, wondering how many times Mike could continue to use that talent. He had tried to close the distance to the group, hoping his greater physical stats would make it possible. So far, each time Jack got within thirty meters of the group, they began focus firing at him like crazy. Mike’s fire bolt coupled with Andreas’ frost wave were a nightmare when used with synergy, not to mention Jack had to guard his back for any curving arrows the entire time. They fired an occasional arrow at Luna, who was just focusing on evasion until her wounds healed. It made her look like an injured animal trying to survive rather than a threat, and from his boisterous words earlier Jack had hinted at the possibility of having his own innate talent.

Jack had tried to change tactics and head towards the barrier’s edge, aiming to shatter it as quickly as possible, but they had countermeasures for that as well. Mike, the only innate talent user that had the range, perhaps due to his being Tier 2, started blasting fire bolts towards him, and due to him heading in one fixed direction, a bolt barely missed the back of his head. Not only that, but the other two started firing on Luna, hoping to get a level up from killing her.

Jack’s anger was starting to rise, now realizing just how badly these people wanted to kill him. Was getting a level up that much of a high? Jack felt like this might be part of the reason, because he too had experienced the euphoria from being an average human to a man who was close to approaching the physical limits of the human body, but even then these people were a special brand of murderous.

He didn’t want to use his innate talent, because using an unknown power in the middle of a live battlefield seemed like a terrible idea. Not to mention that he wasn’t naive enough to believe that the entity had given him its power without any reason. What would happen to him if he used it? Would he instantly die? Would he be, without realizing it, controlled by an ancient being? There was simply no way to know until he used it, and Jack was not going to risk it until he had no choice left.

Qi Pool: 15/18.

‘Damn it,’ Jack thought, knowing that his senses did not deceive him. When his Qi shield was shattered, all the Qi used to channel it was lost. Which meant that he could only block the firebolt five more times. If this battle of attrition continued to last, Jack knew that either him or Luna would be grievously injured or even worse, dead.

‘It was time to begin the countdown,’ Jack thought, as he blocked another arrow that was trying to sneak up on him.

Instead of evading close to the edges of the dome, Jack finally changed his direction- heading straight for the good men and women that wanted him dead.

“What happened to all that big talk earlier? Pathetic,” Mike’s irritating voice rang out in the background, but it was of no consideration for Jack.

At that moment, Jack was operating at a full hundred percent- his senses were sharper than them, his physical body stronger, and his mind faster. First came the wave of frost, freezing the ground in his direction at rapid speed, but Jack was prepared. Merely an instant later, Jack applied force to his legs and leaped- a normal leap, no longer capable of doing the fancy Qi powered ones.

His powerful leg muscles were enough to give him a few seconds of airtime, the ground under him frozen solid by the time he landed. He had reached the thirty meter mark.

A bolt of red lightning snaked through the air, leaving a thunderous rumble behind. Jack braced himself, as his shield exploded again with a bang, fire erupting over his left arm.

“Fuck!” Jack grunted, flames once again burning his left hand- this time it hurt more in comparison, especially over the already wounded area. But his physical resilience had also reached an impressive level, and Jack had a feeling that if it were not a Tier 2 talent, he could have shrugged it off.

Qi Pool: 12/18.

‘60, 59, 58, 57…..’

Perhaps they expected him to dodge instead of taking the blow head on, because he was able to cross the next five meters unscathed. Another Qi shield had materialized in place of the old one, but Jack’s arm was throbbing with occasional bursts of pain. He had begun the countdown the moment he had taken the first hit, knowing this might be the only chance he had to resolve this threat.

“Hahaha, he’s gone insane!” Matt howled like a lunatic, almost as if he was enjoying the pain and suffering he felt.

An arrow was fired, headed right for his exposed thigh without any talent being used. The intent behind it was simple, to get him to change directions.

‘49,48, 47……’

The arrow, much to Elise’s shock, just stabbed Jack in the thigh. He made no attempts to dodge it, knowing that his physiology would minimize blood loss.

Twenty meters…

“Attack together and finish him!” Andreas shouted out, slamming his mace into the floor once again. Jack saw the wave of frost head towards his direction, leaping once again, but this time leftward. A bolt of red lightning snaked to where he would have been if he leaped forward, missing him by a meter. Landing back on his feet, Jack took two steps before breaking into a slide, using the wave of frost Andreas had carpeted the floor with to his advantage. The ice had reduced the friction considerably, an arrow flying past where Jack’s head would have been if he had not gotten creative, increasing his speed tremendously.

Ten meters were crossed almost instantly.

‘41, 40, 39, 38….’

Jack slid back to his feet and started strafing forward, moving in a zigzag manner. But the distance at this point was too close to comfort, and a potent bolt of red lightning was headed for his chest, point blank. The shield shattered the next moment, and Jack’s left arm was droused in fire.

“Aaaaagh!” Jack screamed, but even then rolled forward while his left arm made contact with the frozen floor, reducing some of the burn.

Seven meters. He was down to just seven meters.

Qi Pool: 9/18

Without waiting, Jack dove forward with his left arm hanging limply at the side, an arrow whizzing past his forehead, rolling and landing on his feet- another wave of frost catching him the moment he landed. Andreas had learned from his mistake, as Jack was only four meters away from the two mace-knights hidden behind their shields.

His left arm completely burnt, right thigh having an arrow poke out, both legs frozen solid- with only four meters left.

Jack got a glimpse of the three attackers, looking at him with some relief in their eyes- clearly not expecting him to be crazy enough to charge head on.

‘12, 11, 10, 9…’

“Deny,” Jack whispered, and all the extensive damage he had taken in the past sixty seconds disappeared, as if it never existed. For Andreas and the others, one moment Jack was half dead lying on their doorstep, and the next second the only wound he had was a light burn on his left hand.

Anger coursing at how cruelly they had attacked him, Jack moved forward in a burst of motion, a distance of four meters almost nothing to him. With a single, clean jerk of his sword, Jack cleanly sliced off Andreas’ mace wielding arm that was protruding out from behind his shield.