The Achievement Junkie

Seeing Jack vanish was no surprise to Duorda. His skeletal head turned inhumanly as Duorda looked behind him. "Try harder!"

Jack's reappearance and sudden change of attack was of no concern to the crypt lord, whose limbs inhumanly turned around to block Jack's dual strikes. The holy sickly blocked Jack's Spatial Slash and the deathly sickle blocked Jack's flaming blade.

Frowning slightly, Jack jumped back and vanished again. He didn't like how his heath would be drained even when Duorda blocked him, and that quick exchange was enough proof that Duorda's dual-wielding was a massive hurdle that Jack would need to clear in order to win.

"Where are you? Don't tell me you're running away after all that!" Duorda shouted, toying with Jack.

Jack remained invisible this time. He needed to come up with some way to get past Duorda's defenses, otherwise, there was no hope for victory.

Hurrying through his menu, Jack opened his skill list. Given his current abilities, the hero had an idea that may allow him to break Duorda's defenses without needing to buy some insanely powerful and expensive skill.

A few seconds passed and Duorda was getting a little impatient. "If you're going to hide, then I'll just use summons to find you. Since you prefer not to fight directly, then I'm forced to resort to overwhelming tactics."

"Hey!"

Hearing Jack's shout, Duorda turned to the side. He found Jack's reappearance and immediately put up his defenses. His sickles clashed with Jack's katanas before Jack disappeared again.

Reappearing on the opposite side, Jack readied his follow-up strikes. But they were again blocked by Duorda.

This same maneuver repeated again and again. For more than half a dozen attempts, Jack failed to break the crypt lord's defenses and had a fraction of his health drained each time, albeit a tiny fraction.

"That it? Have you finally--"

"Shut up!" Jack came at the crypt lord yet again, repeating his past failed attempts.

Duorda defended again with both sickles, stopping the katanas in their tracks. The crypt lord sighed, "Come on… What happened to all the excitement? Don't tell me--"

"Shut up! Here I come!" Jack shouted all the louder, reappearing behind the crypt lord.

Shaking his head, Crypt Lord Duorda repeated his prior actions. He easily mounted a defense and braced for the imminent impact. If he had facial muscles, Duorda would've been frowning in disappointment. After all the hype thus far, just when Jack seemed to be able to clear Duorda's tremendous strength, Jack's efforts failed to grow stronger.

As the two collided again, Duorda sighed. But the crypt lord's more relaxed approach to defense was never contested.

Directly in front of him, Duorda witnessed the image of Jack fade into obscurity the second it came into contact with his defense. At the same time, Duorda felt his spine, chest, and shoulders be bombarded from behind.

The crypt lord faltered and fell away from the invisible strikes from behind. All disappointment and depression vanished from Duorda's thoughts as he realized the truth of the situation. "You can remain invisible while attacking? Marvelous!"

Jack reappeared, showing both katanas doused in either fire or spatial energy. "You left yourself wide open."

"You never truly moved that time. You made yourself invisible and created an illusion of yourself to attack from behind, tricking me into exposing my back for a wide-open attack. Well done, Jack!" Duorda praised Jack as he healed his bones with an abundance of holy energy. "That spell was at least greater illusion. That means you're proficient in illusion, fire, spatial, and wind magic… Astounding!"

"Enough talk, unless you--"

"Right, enough talk!"

Duorda rushed Jack, not wanting to lose the hype yet again. He was anxious to see Jack's true strength unravel. "If you've got any more tricks, please use them now! I don't want to kill you before understanding how spectacular of an opponent you truly are. That way I can understand your abilities after you become my summon."

"How about you become my summon?" spat Jack, tired of being degraded.

"Survive and we'll discuss that option later!" laughed Duorda, hurling one attack after the other.

Jack vanished as Duorda carved into the ground where Jack once stood. The excitement he felt was exhilarating. When Jack reappeared, the crypt lord swung his holy sickle to create a wave of sword energy and dissipate the illusion. As he felt a sword attack carve into his side, Duorda attacked instead of defending.

A deathly sword wave swung into the invisible hero, who backed away disillusioned. The exchange of blows wasn't what Jack was after, albeit better than his prior situation.

Still invisible, Jack asked, "Are you still holding back or not?"

"And what if I am?"

"How about we show off for each other? You'll finally show your biggest trump card and I'll reveal my final form?"

"Ohhh… You've still got more forms?!" Duorda questioned in excitement. "Only if you show me while you're not invisible. I want to see this final form in full glory!"

"Okay."

Jack became visible, standing only ten meters directly in front of Duorda. "Since I'm the challenger, would you mind going first?"

"Alright, but you'd better not disappoint me. Otherwise, I'll have to kill you on the spot…" Duorda chuckled, dispersing all energy gathered around his body. "Watch carefully. You're the fourth person in history to witness this. And should you survive our exchange without fleeing, you'll be the first being to ever overcome my true abilities."

Silent, Jack watched as Duorda took a neutral stance. Both sickles remained in the crypt lord's hands while his arms rested at his sides. Then, Jack witnessed another ability that had never existed within "A Hero's Tale".

While no energy was gathered around Duorda, the red glow of his eyes suddenly faded. For a moment, the dark grey skeleton appeared to be standing there lifeless. But only for a moment. Duorda's skull suddenly turned to the left and to the right at the same time. However, the color of the skull was now different… The rest of Duorda's body followed suit, turning left and right at the same time also. Then, it took a step to the left while also stepping to the right. Duorda's body seemingly, and effortlessly, separated into two individual skeletons, one pitch black and one pure white.