While the owl was shivering in fear, Jack himself wasn't exactly in much of a better position. He was just a few meters away from the owl that was perched on a branch, but he himself was also perched on a branch in a different way, considering his regrowing leg was skewered through one.
With a smile, Jack reached over to the owl, bending forward. Unfortunately, he didn't even get close, only falling back to where he had been before. He still tried a few extra times, though the actual results weren't better than the first.
The owl seemed to recover its bearings after realizing this fact. It looked around, noticing how only a few branches around it were still up, and several of the trees had been directly uprooted and split into pieces in the ground.
At the same time, Jack continued to attempt to bend forward, reaching. But not for the owl.
As for the owl, it began flapping its wings in an attempt to gain distance, starting the whole charade once more. But Jack pushed the limits of his battered body's flexibility, reaching to his belt.
And opened the clasp of the black deck.
Once more, Seedy appeared in the air above, casting a shadow down on everything below. The owl looked up, wondering what that shadow had come from before letting out a squeak, seeing the massive plant monster once more.
It attempted to fly away, but to no avail, quickly getting clipped out of the air before Seedy looked around with confusion using both heads. Naturally, Jack wasn't spared from the treatment of the owl getting crushed as well.
After a moment, Seedy scratched the side of both heads using a vine each before they looked down. Its vines moved around for a little while before one rose up, picking up a pile of mush that the owl had become.
It seemed rather confused, but also unconcerned, quickly moving on. After digging around a little more, Seedy pulled out Jack, who was also a battered mess. Granted, he was in a several times better state than the owl, but it was still pretty bad.
Discounting the missing limbs, most of his ribs were directly crushed by Seedy landing on top of him. In light of this, Seedy began to panic, waving around its vines almost like a child desperately trying to communicate what they did wasn't intentional.
Still, Jack was alive and fine, though it was solely due to the strong regeneration effect of his Joker card, especially so when gravely injured. In a matter of seconds, he had stopped bleeding, while his more essential parts were starting to be repaired.
Once his lungs allowed him, he let out a wheezy laugh. Even while wearing a mask, it was easy to tell that he was smiling as brightly as ever. Seedy calmed down a bit after that, though was still feeling guilty, not realizing that smashing into Jack wasn't his fault and what was intended.
The man in a suit watched on for a little while before muttering to himself.
"...I've seen people fight in a variety of ways, but I still don't recall anything so ridiculous as this."
He let out a small sigh, looking down at the aftermath of all the destruction.
"Very well, you are the winner. We shall move on to the next one."
Emma had furrowed her brows. For perhaps the first time, she showed a truly frustrated expression. She clearly wasn't happy that the battle was concluded so easily.
"Not even this was enough... is it truly that important of a secret to you? That you would go to such lengths?"
Emma pouted and crossed her arms.
"And I even went out to show my own hand... rude."
Naturally, Jack didn't hear any of that since she was mostly talking to herself. In fact, it was a bit hard for him to hear anything since his eardrums burst, but he was steadily recovering back to health.
Seedy took some time to eventually clamber down the tree with Jack in tow, laying him down on the ground softly afterwards.
As for Mia, she was standing there in both shock and fear. Partly because of the fight, but also because one of the beams that Seedy redirected was a bit inaccurate and almost blasted straight through her. She was quite far away, which might've been her saving grace. Though thankfully, it only landed on the ground next to her, ripping a deep divet into the ground.
Most of the ones that the owl had done a very controlled amount of damage within the area, though it looked far more chaotic with the various other lines in the ground that stretched out into the distance.
While that was happening, Jessica let out a weak groan. Mia let out a small gasp, recollecting herself and kneeling down next to her.
"Are you ok?"
Jessica tried to move her hand, but cringed the moment she did so, putting it back down after a twitch.
"Ah... it hurts really badly. These injuries don't fare well with the ones I already had before. But since I'm alive, I guess I somehow won."
She raised up her head and saw a slight purple swelling on her wrist. It was the hand she had used to hold the sword. With the other, Jessica reached out to gently hold Mia's, who similarly had a purple wrist. A small smile formed on her face before she chuckled.
"Hey, it looks like we match."
Mia smiled bitterly, not knowing how to respond to that comment. She was still slightly traumatized by how Jack nearly ripped her hand off, and had a hard time joking around about it.
As for the perpetrator, he was in an arguably worse state, though he was regenerating relatively quickly. He pointed towards the others while looking at Seedy.
"Can you take me over to them?"
Seedy enthusiastically nodded with a tongue wagging out of both heads before lifting him up and bringing him over.
...Albeit very slowly, but where speed was lacking, passion filled the rest, as Seedy dragged its heavy mass of vines over.
The man in a suit didn't really pay any mind to them, instead tossing a card over to Emma. With disinterest, she caught it as though it was magnetized to her hand. It was a 6 of hearts, though she didn't actually look at the card before moving off into the distance.
Mia swallowed pretty hard, before reaching out to put one hand on her cheek, though pulled back by the time she realized what she was doing.
"Um, can you walk?"
Jessica took a deep breath before pushing herself up off the ground with one hand. Her brows furrowed as she stood up, but was able to in the end. Though after taking a step, her knee buckled, while her teeth clenched hard. Out of instinct, Jessica had put one hand onto her upper stomach.
"Agh!"
Mia hurriedly caught her, holding her up with an arm.
"Oh god... it's ok, I'll just carry you."
After a bit of shuffling, Jessica put one arm over Mia's for support. There was a bitter smile on her face as a hint of despair had colored it.
"This is only the start, isn't it? These monsters... are too strong. Even if there is anything you want here, I'm still too weak to get it."
Mia let out an awkward laugh.
"Well, this is the edge of the floor, so of course it would be hard. I mean, that girl even said that this kind of level wasn't supposed to be beaten by everyone."
Jessica didn't appear to look any better, instead looking down at the ground despondently.
"But what about the higher floors? The things that we saw here were already enough to almost kill us. If it wasn't for Jack... then we would've long been corpses. But it's not like he can protect us from everything."
Mia brought her in closer for a hug.
"But one way or another, we're already here, right? So we might as well try as hard as we possibly can, even if it is futile. At least then when we die, we can say that we did everything we could."
Jessica slowly closed her eyes and mumbled to her.
"Mia, I fractured one of my ribs. I can feel the bone moving around inside where it shouldn't be. Even assuming it can heal on its own, that will take months at least. What am I supposed to do then? I'll essentially be crippled for this time, and even if you are willing to stay while I heal, it's not as though our food supply is infinite, nor is it permanently safe in the hub."
Mia blinked a few times before a small smile formed on her face.
"Don't say it like that. We can just take it slow for a while as you recover. Besides, I need to as well. I'm sure Jack wouldn't mind it much either."
Jessica lowered her head, remaining silent for a while.
"...What if we decided not to move up the floors anymore?"