The Achievement Junkie

More explosions of lightning and fire rang out above Estonya. Jack and Torian chased each other around the outside of the barrier as Jack wouldn't allow a single bolt of lightning to get past him.

Torian was fuming mad. Accepting and losing such a challenge as earlier was disgrace enough and now he couldn't even get past a god that had ascended days ago.

"What's on your mind?" asked Jack, teasing the Thundering God. "I'm really lv. 91, I promise."

"Liar!"

Torian threw another round of lightning bolts, scattering them across half the city. Yet multiple Jack's appeared everywhere, throwing spectral flares in defense.

"The best defense is a great offense, at least that's what I've heard," Jack laughed. "For that reason, It's my turn!"

Jack suddenly appeared before Torian, fearlessly swinging his scythe-like claws toward the Storm Dragon's neck. But Torian roared and swatted at Jack's claws with his tail. At the same time, however, Torian felt a few fingers touch the top of his head. The Thundering God immediately retreated at his greatest speed and climbed higher into the sky.

"Coward!" Jack shouted, pursuing Torian.

But the moment Torian disappeared through the clouds, lightning bolts showered down upon the barrier. This forced Jack back onto defense as more and more lightning bolts fell from the sky without end.

This took place for a few seconds until Torian rushed back down in retreat from another copy of Jack.

Again, fingers touched the Storm Dragon's head but he refused to offer Jack a clean opportunity to perform cerebral collapse. The constant shift from offense to defense was unusual but necessary in their situation.

"Want to settle this like men?" questioned Jack.

"And how would that be?"

"Ha! You are a man, therefore, you're not allowed to pass!"

Six copies of Jack appeared and surround Torian from all sides. The Thundering God emitted a powerful pulse of electricity to eliminate the fakes but was stunned to find them all as fake. Jack was nowhere to be found.

"You're the coward!" slandered Torian, covering all surroundings in a vast net of electricity.

Torian then felt another touch on his head but didn't flee this time. His flexible tail whipped around at full speed to dismember the arm that dared attempt such a trick. Blood spilled as an image of Jack appeared and started to fade out after losing an arm.

"Hey!"

Torian looked back to his front, finding an image of Jack ready to unleash a spectral flare in Torian's face. The Storm Dragon roared and readied lightning to counter-attack but was suddenly overcome with a familiar feeling.

The true Jack, which was hiding behind the fake that lost an arm, plunged his claws into the base of Torian's tail. Before blood could spill out, Jack teleported them both away from the city and its protective barrier. They reappeared in the sky high above the Prehistoric Forest of Korten.

"You!"

Jack instantly retracted his claws in the most painful way possible. His thinner-than-razor claws cut themselves out of the tail as Jack backed away with a snicker. "Now, we can fight!"

"I'll disembowel you and cause your wives eternal suffering!" Torian roared, retrieving a potion vial and chomping down on it as if the glass was nothing to his digestive system.

As the wound on his tail healed, Torian rocketed into Jack as he trapped them both inside a twister filled with lightning javelins. In response, Jack flooded the entire space with dense purple energy. While Jack was evading the countless bolts of lightning, Torian felt as if he was swimming through the thick energy and was greatly slowed.

For Jack, there was only one thought on his mind.

The moment Phoro and Dragov finished their ascension, Jack was then become a lv. 93 and could more confidently overwhelm Torian. The hero could keep up and force Torian to struggle but the disparity in level wasn't so easily conquered. By leveling up, Jack would best guarantee his success. All he had to do was stall and drag everything out until then, believing in his fellow leisure gods and that they would ask for help if needed.

"I'm tired of your games!" roared Torian. "This is why we never bothered making Eedaj one of us, or Rikko. All you cowards can do is drag out fights and helplessly struggle against your opponents. If you want to kill me, then prove my disbelief wrong!"

Thunder clapped as obscenely large bolts of lightning fell from the sky and covered the entire twister, hitting Torian as well.

Jack unleashed a plume of spectral flares all around him, letting the attacks clash and forcibly cancel each other out. He also made sure to spit a few toward Torian. The Storm Dragon was going to get away with harming Jack for free.

Both of them finally took substantial damage but there was a clear difference between their levels of endurance. While Torian shrugged and shook the pain of the explosive flames, Jack hid his deep breaths in mad laughter. Jack smiled wide and allowed Torian to understand the seriousness in Jack's eyes. The hero then faded as if it were never the true Jack after all.

"I'm out here if you're curious!"

Torian snarled and dispersed the twister to spot Jack standing in the air just outside of the cyclone's limits.

What Torian didn't know was that Jack was putting on a front. Jack was still more than able to fight but he had indeed taken damage from that barrage of lightning. By pretending to have evaded the attack, though, Jack would be able to keep Torian from possibly trying that again or from attacking recklessly. The last thing that Jack wanted was for Torian to get reckless and abandon defense. It would give Jack a chance to fatally injure the Strom Dragon but it would lead to himself also getting fatally injured. And all Jack wanted was time.

"Want to make things interesting?" Jack asked, laughing with a raised eyebrow.