The gray tentacles within Karn's body appeared to be ripping him apart from the seams as they continued to funnel out of his body as though there was secretly an unfathomable depth within.
Jack simply let out a laugh, getting rather excited over it. He rushed over with only the knife in his hand.
Karn himself was unable to form intelligible speech anymore, instead letting out strong distorted screams and groans that echoed more than they should've. Once Jack got close, the gray tentacles combined with each other, forming countless different hands.
And to make matters worse, dozens of katanas appeared within their palms, all ready to attack with a mind of their own. Jack let out a peal of chaotic laughter, not slowing down in the slightest.
"HAAAAHA! AHAHAA."
In fact, it seemed as though he was speeding up. Dozens of katanas shot towards him from every direction, at angles that would prevent him from dodging without getting hit at least once. Even the leftover hands all reached out to restrain him.
Yet, despite all that, Jack didn't even try to dodge any of them.
Karn seemed to briefly feel some confusion but soon capitalized on that opportunity.
Blood flew into the air among the sounds of rending flesh. Jack's body was torn apart like a piece of paper, with countless fatal wounds, whether it was the slashes in his neck, or the sword going straight through his heart.
To go even further, the free hands bound his body in place while the blades were still inside him.
But strangely enough, while Jack did suffer many lethal wounds, not a single part of his body had been cut off, not even the fingers, some of which had a blade halfway through them.
Though without being perturbed himself, Jack forced his arms to move, despite the fact it deepened the wounds in his body. And he slashed at the tentacles, only severing a small cluster out of the countless around him.
But as small as it was, he continued moving, tearing apart another cluster of tentacles as his blood splashed out of him, splattering the floor. Karn attempted to tighten his bindings, but it didn't seem to have any true success, even finding that his tentacles were beginning to burn up. And Jack continued to tear through the gray tentacles one after another.
But not without raucous laughter.
"Hee... Ahaaaa... HAHAAAHAAHA!"
Slowly, but surely.
Karn almost didn't believe it, but realized he was going to lose at this rate, retracting his bindings and katanas.
At the same time, Seedy was realizing that his vines could no longer hold the giant gray glowing leech. In the end, he opened his petals wide, revealing the teeth, and intended on eating said leech.
Unfortunately, the glowing leech wasn't going to just let itself get eaten. Out of seemingly nowhere, it opened its own mouth, which continued to grow in size, quickly surpassing the size of Seedy's jaws and reversing the situation, swallowing Seedy instead. The many vines still outside struggled, trying to push the giant thing away, but in the end, they were all slurped up like noodles.
Jack was in a slightly better position but had wounds all over his body. But they didn't last very long, as many of them magically began healing themselves among steam and sizzling sounds.
A strange growl came from what remained of Karn's body.
The tentacles that were originally free hands, merged with the arms holding the katanas, while some of the katanas were retracted, leaving only ten. As for Karn, he gradually reverted back into a more human state, save the tentacles coming out of his ripped arm and torn torso.
He then spoke words, though they were still distorted.
"It appears you are quite frightening. But is that enough?"
The ten katanas all slashed at Jack with far more precision and technique than before, each having a mind of their own. Dim, but deadly flashes of light appeared around Jack like a firework show. In a matter of seconds, many deep wounds had formed on his body. While he was also healing those injuries, it wasn't fast enough to keep up with how fast it was being damaged.
But Jack himself hardly panicked, just standing there and observing them.
He tilted his head to the side with a giggle.
"Dad always said the same thing! But I don't know... it doesn't really feel like I'm scary. Especially when I think of what he said his friends were like."
A katana slashed at his mask, but only bounced off like it was actually a beach ball.
"I really do like having fun with you! But my Dad said it was bad to do this much. I will have to end things here, sorry! Before I go though, I will show you one of Dad's friends!"
His bloodied hands went down to his playing deck. Karn himself didn't think too much of it. Although his current state made his mind go haywire, it wasn't nearly as bad so long as he maintained a human-ish form.
He could smell the blood cards that were inside the storage deck, which only encouraged him to slash even further in a frenzy. It was enough to tear most of Jack's flesh, revealing his bones and even some ruptured organs. Karn believed that while Jack had decent strength and strong regenerative powers, that was it.
Besides, his own pet leech had beaten Jack's, devouring it entirely.
Though, the only strange thing was that his pet wasn't coming over to help him, instead remaining in place.
As for Jack, he pulled out a small statue with the clubs statue, holding it in his hand with his nearly disassembled fingers. Despite the fact his neck was directly cut open, he was still able to speak pretty clearly.
"I like to call this one Clubby! Dad said it was a good name. I think he looks really cool, with all his big muscles! I wish I had those..."
Jack didn't mind the fact that he was being slashed up as he explained his favorite things about the statue. As for Karn, he just accepted it as his opponent being crazy, and decided that would just be better for him.
As for Jack, he let out a small sigh as he continued on carelessly, as though he couldn't realize that his body was being torn apart.
"I've never met Clubby, but Dad told me that he has difficulty controlling himself. But at his heart, he is a good person! Still, sometimes he would do bad things. Do you know why?"
Karn didn't answer. Instead, he was fantasizing about how tasty the blood cards would be after he got them. The smell was strong. Was there just one? Or maybe two? Or even three?
Though while he was thinking that, something red suddenly burst out of his pet leech.
It was a small flower.
However, that flower rapidly grew, its petals growing further, and teeth lining up on it. The leech let out a whine, and at the same time, green vines burst out from its body, only to turn around and pierce back inside, again and again. They almost looked like veins in the leech's body.
Then, another flower burst out from the top of the giant leech's body, letting out a triumphant screech. Although the leech was still alive, Seedy had already taken over, just like a parasite that hijacked the monster's body entirely. Soon, the only thing that would be left was nutrients.
Karn's eyes widened in horror.
"What? How..."
Jack let out a gurgled giggle.
"No, no, it's not that. I'll just give you the answer."
The smile on his mask seemed to widen ever so slightly.
"Anger."
While Karn was still in shock, the flesh appeared out of thin air and wrapped itself around Jack's body, not so much healing, but replacing his injured self with a new body. Karn was still in shock but wasn't that concerned.
After all, Jack always had a strong regeneration ability. It wasn't too big of a deal if he was just able to regenerate even faster.
Karn wriggled the tentacles in his mouth before commanding them to once again slash Jack.
Then several clanging sounds rang out.
All of the katanas bounced harmlessly off of Jack's body. Karn realized that his situation wasn't so good anymore. But that wasn't it either.
The statue in Jack's hand transformed into a rough and barbaric black club that continued growing larger. At the same time, Jack's body began to grow rather violently as well, with muscles bursting out of nowhere, stretching out his clothes.
He gradually became taller as well, just like the Hulk.
As the growing slowed down, his head nearly touched the roof of the cave, and that was in consideration of the fact he was hunched over. It wasn't that the cave was small, but rather the fact he stood at a staggering height of ten meters.
When he had become that absolute giant, the clubs symbol had formed at the top of his mask.
Karn let out a warped gasp.
"What is this magic? I've never heard of something like this! If you're taking it this far, then there's no other choice!"
Perhaps out of survival instinct or panic, his humanoid shape rapidly changed to become a mass of tentacles. All of the katanas were directly dropped onto the ground, retreating back into the original body in order to combine themselves together. An amorphous bulge formed, which continued to expand until it reached a size that was comparable to Jack's.
Two yellow eyes appeared as several giant tentacles burst out from one end.
Karn turned into a giant gray octopus. While holding up his tentacles aggressively, he let out a monstrous roar that reverberated within the cavern.
As for Jack, he looked down at his hands in surprise. It seemed that this form was just as much of a surprise to him as it was to Karn, though it was a welcome one to be sure. Jack let out an excited gasp, though it sounded far deeper and booming than usual.
"Wow! What happened? Is that what Clubby feels like?"
He looked at the giant octopus that Karn had become and smiled.
"Like I was saying, doesn't he look really cool?"