Inside the foggy wasteland, the present times.
Jack and the skeletons that now had a whitish flame exterior that still allowed their black skeleton to be seen walked.
Compared to other areas there was nothing else to stop them from progressing further.
During this time the wasteland became less like a wasteland and began showings signs of life, like some darker grass growing around.
There was still plenty of instability, but at least now it decreased enough so as to allow it to grow.
Some of the sun was shining through the deep fog.
Using the sun Jack was able to distinguish the location of his current place.
Compared to where he went to sleep, where the sun set in the west and the moons began rising.
Here the sun still had some time before setting.
So using his old knowledge of the time zones he learned back in school he found that he was in the Nordic hemisphere and that he was at least six thousand kilometers away.
This pretty much confirmed the fact that right now he was inside the land of instability which Victor taught Jack about, which was north.
In the distance something moved, a fat four legged large creature, It seemed to have detected Jack and the group as it stood on its hind legs to let out a roar.
Its height of six meters tall became three as it went back on four legs and began its charge.
Jack spoke out to the skeletons.
-Danger.
The quickly began to spread out as to avoid the creature.
Luckily for Jack the creature locked onto another skeleton.
Slowly the creature became more and more visible.
It was a humongous bear that was mutated by instability!
It had a combination of brown, black and white fur in different patches, and its eyes were a deep glowing yellow.
It let out another roar, this time it felt as if all attempts to flee were denied and Jack felt the urge to charge towards the bear.
This is..
Its a Devil's Chaos sphere.
How am I supposed to deal with this thing?
The bear charged into the skeleton crushing into it and attempting to rip apart its bones.
To the bear's dismay this ended in failure, the first impact was mostly absorbed by the skeleton's special constitution which was copied from Jack.
I completely forgot about this.
Jack began to charge at the bear while speaking another word to the skeletons.
-Attack, danger.
Moving towards the bear all the black skeletons with white flame-like energy escaping their bodies began to cling to it.
The bear moved on its back trying to crush the skeletons to no avail, then it attempted to bite at them or claw at them with its paw.
All attacks were absorbed and turned into strength by the skeletons.
It was akin to an invading wasp being suffocated by a relentless tide of bees.
But herein lied a problem, while the skeletons were incredibly resilient, enduring and persistent they lacked the most important part of defeating any enemy.
Offensive strength.
Its a standstill.
I can't use magic since the other skeletons will absorb it before it reaches the bear.
And I doubt I could make anything effective anyway..
How do I deal with this guy?
Jack looked at the bear and then at the skeletons and remembered anything that could be of use.
First he thought about using instability to create an attack but gave up on the idea, he didn't want to hurt the skeletons he had grown attached to.
Second was to run, go back deeper in the zone and hope that the bear will not be able to go in.
Third was to fight fire with fire.
Jack not wanting to give up his progress or attack the skeletons chose the third option.
He began absorbing all nearby instability and began warping its body, surprising Jack the bones themselves warped without the usage of instability, it was in their nature to shape-shift.
Slowly the human skeleton became an exact copy of the bear's, the only problem was lack of energy which was resolved by using instability to produce intense amount of heat around him and absorb it.
Now Jack had became an even more terrifying version of the Devil Bear, One with a black skeleton surrounded by what seemed to be a protective layer of white flame!
Charging towards the Devil bear Jack quickly bared its fangs into the immobilized enemy's neck, then Jack clawed at the belly with its hind leg's claws.
The Devil Bear attempted to do the same, but after realizing that the opponent didn't have any flesh it realized its current predicament as it attempted to flee.
Its body was stuck, the relentless skeletons with a white layer of flame coming out of them kept it in place, a copy of its own race was eating and clawing at it slowly.
The Devil Bear let out a roar, its eyes grew watery and desperate.
This went on for minutes, eventually the roars stopped.
The Devil Bear was dead.
Jack stepped back still in the body of the bear.
Without being prompted and surprising Jack the very same skeleton that the bear slammed into at the beginning approached the bear and began copying its structure as it enveloped it and turned it into white energy leaving nothing behind.
This is!
It was a copy of the bear the same as Jacks.
The skeleton used its innate nature to copy to evolve into a stronger version of itself!
But why don't the others do the same?
Jack stood there pondering for a moment as he inspected the Bear Skeleton.
Is it because he was attacked directly and it understands it?
A form of desire to be just as strong?
Do they need the carcass?
Jack kept thinking about it with no clear explanation, this was a clear form of independence that was much unlike what he thought them so far.
Eventually he woke up back in Vast Lehatot Mansion.