The Achievement Junkie

Not wanting to give away anything more, Woltin smiled and sighed, "You're a worthy opponent… Want to work with us from now on?"

"Huh?" Jack was somewhat thrown for a loop. He and Woltin both continued with AOE attacks against the construct as they conversed for a moment. "Is that a job offer I'm hearing?"

"Why not? We can--"

"I'll stop you right there…" Jack sighed and wagged his finger. "Sorry, but you can't tempt me. I'm aiming for much higher than working within a zone…"

"Then I suppose we were right to assume you all are connected to Daruun?" asked Woltin, trying to take control of the conversation. "Can you--"

"Sorry, I can't hear you over my next attack!" Jack shouted, spreading spectral flares every which way. The ensuing flames even targeted Jack's double and Wollice, along with the entire room.

A sudden shockwave of white energy then passed over the room. That energy forcibly rendered the spectral flares useless. But Jack wasn't disappointed at all.

"You… separated my fire and spatial energies?" Jack guessed, following his gut feeling after experiencing the energy nullification on such a large scale.

"I have no need to explain my skill to an opponent!" laughed Woltin, who was regrowing a new set of poisonous vines.

"But if you can theoretically prove that it impossible for me to win, then I'll probably just give up…" Jack shrugged, now acting disappointed in his failure of an attack. "What's the use of wasting a good friendship by demoralizing each other? How come we can't just talk it out? I've already shown you my trump card but you've only given me a taste of yours. Please? Maybe I'll consider an internship under you guys to learn new skills…"

"For some reason, I want to doubt everything your saying," chuckled Woltin.

"Same!" Wollice grunted, parrying the rapier as Jack's double teleported to evade a powerful wave of sword energy. "Surrender, and then we'll talk!"

"Really? You'll give up your secrets if I just give up?" Jack asked, smiling excitedly. "Why didn't you just say so?! Information is always the greatest treasure!"

The next moment, both Jacks suddenly vanished and reappeared at the wall furthest from the purple barrier and the attacking constructs. Both Jacks spoke together, giving the twins a thumbs up, "They're all yours!"

But a slew of sword attacks targeted both Jacks, forcing them to teleport back near their earlier positions. While Jack's double continued to attack Wollice, Jack frowned and complained, "What's wrong? We're letting you--"

"Jack, give up your card already!" Woltin laughed, sending more and more vines toward Jack while hurling beams of light at Jack as well.

"That's no fun though…" Playing along, Jack focused on evasion. He kept close to the vines so that the constructs were partially obstructed and used more brainpower to evaluate the situation further.

That earlier pulse of nullifying energy had wiped out all of Jack's attacks but it had also torn apart Woltin's own spell. With that in mind, it was easy to assume that nullification magic was a double-edged sword. Jack also took into consideration how his energy felt upon being nullified. It wasn't that it was now out of Jack's control, but more so that the bonded energies were forcibly separated and then reduced to raw energy without any affinity. Not wanting to share his thoughts aloud and alert the twins that he was onto something, Jack reached a few key questions in his mind.

Can they precisely control what they nullify? Jack already knew the answer to that was no as the nullification skill couldn't discriminate between Jack's and Woltin's attacks, so Jack moved on to the next question. Does nullification overwrite Jack's control of his own energy? The answer to that was both yes and no since Jack wasn't able to stop or impede the nullification but the nullification would necessarily usurp control of his energy either. That brought Jack to his final thought. Would nullification work on raw energy? That's was what Jack still need to find out if he wanted to win this fight.

Jack couldn't think of any skill fitting for his test, but he came up with a simple test that might work.

The hero turned himself invisible and repositioned himself.

"Not bad!" Woltin laughed. "You're dispersing your energy among invisible clones, you're learning!"

"Well, you're acting as a great teacher. Now, let me test a theory, professor!"

Woltin blinked as he suddenly felt a rush of energy appearing at his left flank. He wasn't too worried at first but suddenly became more alarmed and turned to face the threat directly. "Nice try!"

The man's staff was thrust forward, piercing the raw cosmic energy and forcibly repelling it to Woltin's sides. Effectively, Woltin split the energy in two but failed to disperse it completely.

"Ohhh… So that's how nullification skills work!" Jack cackled, coming back into view. He stood a few meters away from Woltin as proof that he was the one who had caused the attack. Sweating a little, Jack added, "So nullifying skill don't nullify energy, it strips energy of their affinities and forcibly turns energy into raw energy, which is already incredibly hard to control. It's quite a powerful strategy, I must say…"

"If you already understand it, then why keep fighting?" Woltin asked, noticing the strain Jack felt from making the last attack. "Sure, you could technically defeat us with raw energy. But you would need far more energy than you could ever control, let alone produce without relying on your affinities. So why not--"

"I give up."

Both twins were taken aback by Jack's sudden statement, as well as the retreat of Jack's double. Jack's double appeared at his side while he stated, "I give up. There's no point in fighting your two if I can't win."

"Then--"

"You should give up too," Jack added, startling the twins further. "It would be best for us to go separate ways and for you to just let me handle things here. Tell you what, I'll teleport you two back into the main treasure chamber so you--"

"NO DEAL!" Woltin and Wollice shouted in unison.

"Fine…" Jack sighed, nodding to himself before his double teleported out of the room. "Then I guess we'll surrender together…"