The battle became a systematic culling...
Judge Jack, the Black Rakshasa, was a wrecking ball. He shrugged off curses and offensive spells like nothing. His blazing armor proved to be extremely resilient against them. And his [Hyper Recovery] fixed the damaged parts of his armor and body almost instantly, whenever the opponents managed to d so.
A Black Market Syndicate sorcerer tried to ensnare him with a net of shadows. Jack merely roared and flexed his arms. The shadows were torn. Dissipating like smoke.
He then crushed the sorcerer's head with a single, brutal swing of the [Judgement Warhammer]. Killing one more opponent.
A pale warlock from the Undeath Sect attempted to raise skeletal minions. However, before the first bone claw could fully form from the earth, Reina was there.
Her guns were blazing. BANG! BANG! She put two bullets through the warlock's chest. She then blinked away as his dying curse fizzled into nothing. His half-formed skeletal servants collapsed into dust. One more down. Five more to go.
The last cultist from the Purity Cult lunged at Jack with a dagger blessed with purity power. One that glowed with corrupted white light.
But before he even reached the rakshasa, Aella appeared amidst the sparks of purple-black color.
The girl intercepted the cultist. Her voidfire revolver discharged deadly energy bullets at point-blank range. Burning a hole through his forehead. The cultist barely had time to gasp before he fell. Dead. Four to go.
The remaining acolyte from the Circles of Wealth was panicked. He tried to flee. Unveiling an expensive teleportation scroll.
But Ned, high above, had long targeted him. The scout's rifle barked loudly. BANG! The sorcerer stumbled. Clutching his forearm. The scroll was dropped.
BANG! Another shot. Piercing right at the cultist's forehead. He dropped to the ground. Dead. Three more to go. All were the primal sorcerers from the Black Market Syndicate.
Jack's team worked with ruthless efficiency. They were all practical. Each understood their role. And each executed it with incredible accuracy.
Two of the remaining opponents were soon followed their team mates. Dead being pierced by Reina's and Ned's bullets.
Soon, only one hunter remained. A shapeshifting primal sorcerer who was currently in the form of an enraged boarman. This particular opponent was in a frenzy mode. Mindlessly charging toward the obviously-more-powerful Judge Jack.
Jack stomped the ground. Causing the earth to vibrate wildly. The boarman sorcerer stumbled and Jack's massive hand struck his neck accurately, with considerable restraint. Enough to drop him to the ground. Unconscious.
"Good! Not dead." Jack rumbled in his low and guttural voice.
Jack reactivated his [Incarnation Shift]. His rakshasa form slowly began to recede. Just within a second, he was human once more. Though still radiating an aura of barely contained power.
"The damned controller of this realm truly squeeze everything dry." Ned grumbled. He had dropped down the tree and was now walking up to Jack.
"What's wrong?" Barnaby asked. He had also left his hiding place.
"One of the cultists from the Circles of Wealth had a teleportation scroll." Ned replied. "I did my best to force him to drop it, before finishing him. But now..."
"It's gone?" Barnaby looked around at the dead bodies that slowly disappeared into nothing. "Just like these bodies?"
Ned sighed and continued grumbling. "It was a teleportation scroll. An expensive teleportation scroll. Not to mention the defensive artifact possessed by another cultist. They should be our loot."
Barnaby pat his back to show his sympathy. "Maybe, next time we should knock them down and loot them first before sending them to the afterlife."
"Yeah!" Ned immediately agreed. "Let's do that."
"We can try that." Jack agreed. "But for now, let's get him somewhere quiet." He gestured to the unconscious shapeshifting sorcerer who had reverted back to his human form.
They moved deeper back into the forest. Finding a small, secluded clearing hidden behind a cluster of thick, luminous red-barked trees.
The cold air, heavy with damp earth and the strange floral scent, felt even more isolated here. The unnaturally large reddish moon seemed to watch them with silent intensity.
Jack propped the unconscious sorcerer against a tree.
He then reached into his coat. Pulling out a strange, intricately carved medallion. It was made of dull, dark metal and amber. Both materials pulsed with a low, almost imperceptible spatial energy.
Reina leaned closer. "What's that, Dear?"
"This..." Jack began. Holding the medallion up. Its spatial pulse seemed to momentarily intensify. "... is a relic from my organization. I've told you about it, right? An exclusive organization I belong to... the Circle of Jacks."
He watched their faces. Reina's expression was calm. Aella and Barnaby tilted their head, curious. Ned's eyes narrowed slightly, intrigued.
"Only members of the Circle can use it." Jack continued his made up story. His voice was steady and confident. Giving no indication at all that he was fabricating the story.
"This thing allows us to communicate across vast distances, and to... switch places..." He paused, letting the implication hang in the air. "...with another member."
Jack looked at Reina. "I'm going to switch places with Jack Lantern. He's one of us. A living puppet that was incredibly adept at... extracting information. His methods are unorthodox, but effective for this type of situation."
Reina's eyes, while still calm, held a flicker of amusement. She knew Jack had many tricks and many identities. This 'Circle of Jacks' and 'switching places' was clearly a convenient cover for something deeper, but she played along.
"Another member? Just like the ghost and the weasel speedster?" She asked.
"Jack Mystery is a specter, Love. He'll be upset if you call him a ghost." Jack also played along. "And Racer Jack is a kamaitachi, not exactly a weasel."
Aella chimed in, looking a little confused. "Switch places? With a living puppet? We're in a different realm, you know? Will it be alright?"
Jack grinned. "Don't worry. It's safe. Anyway, Jack Lantern is a little bit childish and mischievous. But, he should be alright as long as no one offend him."
He held the medallion higher. It began to glow. Faintly at first. But then, it was rapidly escalating. The low spatial pulse grew into a high-pitched sound that vibrated through the very air.
"This might be a little bright." Jack warned. "Better close your eyes."
The medallion flared with a blinding, incandescent white light. It filled the small clearing. Obliterating all shadows. Making the glowing red trees seem impossibly vibrant for a split second. The accompanying cracking sound was like a rupture in reality itself.
Then, just as quickly, the light collapsed. Everything reverted back as it used. Except for... Jack.
Where Jack Night the human had stood, there was now a tiny figure. A doll-sized object. Huggable even by little children of Aella's age or younger.
It was an intricately crafted puppet, with cute yet creepy appearance. Its head was a small, perfectly carved pumpkin. Glowing with an internal orange light.
It wore a small, pointed wizard hat and a high-collared mantle of dark, rustling fabric. Its tiny, jointed limbs didn't stay motionless. They moved with a surprising grace instead.
This was Jack Lantern. Another one of Jack's incarnation. He had used the bright light and the cracking sound to hide his transformation.
Jack Lantern tipped his wizard hat with his miniature, stubby hand. A disarming, almost cheerful, nasal voice emanated from the pumpkin head. "Greetings, Night's team mates!"
Reina merely smiled to see the puppet. A knowing glint was in her eyes. Aella, however, let out a small gasp. Her voidfire sparks were flickering around her fingers.
Ned, though surprised, quickly masked it. Nodding respectfully to the puppet. Barnaby, on the other hand, chuckled gleefully. Already thinking of a new verse for his songs.
None of them seemed to realize that Rune, the fairy, had also gone. In her place, there was now a hovering, tiny lantern. Pulsing with pinkish glow of amusement.
"Er... you are Jack Night's team mates, aren't you?" The puppet awkwardly continued. "Sorry! It's the first time I did this... place switching thing. So, do you know what I need to do? Night told me it's about interrogating or something like that."
"This guy..." Reina said. Pointing at the unconscious sorcerer placed against the nearby tree. "We need to ask him some questions related to his secrets and plots."
"Already unconscious? Nice! This one will be easy." Jack Lantern chuckled. His glowing pumpkin eyes were focused on the unconscious sorcerer.
He then reached into his miniature mantle. Pulling out a marble-sized sphere. A dark colored pearl.
He threw the sphere. It formed a shimmering distortion in the air. Then, it transformed into a creature that looked like a plush toy. A plump, round baby panda with the fur in the color of a bizarre mix between dark crimson and vibrant yellow.
"This one is Sloth." Jack introduced the panda plushie to the others. "Ah, in case Night hasn't told you... I am Jack Lantern, a bizarre puppeteer. Sloth is my bizarre puppet. Specializing in sleep-related abilities."
The rest of the team, other than Reina, looked at the pumpkin-headed puppet with strange expression. A living puppet whose class was a puppeteer was already ridiculous. Added with a panda plushie named Sloth with sleep-related power... That was too weird.
Jack Lantern grinned. Enjoying the irony he'd created. He mentally nudged Sloth to move closer to the unconscious sorcerer.
The baby panda puppet moved awkwardly, in a sleepwalking manner. Approaching its target.
"Sloth! Use [Dreamy Truth]!" Jack Lantern commanded in his nasal voice.
The baby panda's eyes glowed brighter. In light purple color. A soft, melodic hum emanated from its whole body.
A faint, shimmering purple mist enveloped the unconscious sorcerer. His eyes fluttered open. But they were unfocused, glazed over. Then they were closed again.
The skill was successful. The target was pretty much... 'hypnotized'. Utterly susceptible to questions. Unable to lie or hide the truth.
The grin on Jack's pumpkin head went wider. "It's done. You can have a chat with our friend here. He will definitely answer truthfully... if he knows the answer. So, who want to ask first?"