CHAPTER 3 – PART FOURWhile Caltec was fighting, Mor and Jon were also doing their thing. Unbeknownst to Caltec, Jon and Mor already took off the accessories the moment they felt overwhelmed by the number of opponents they faced as unlike Caltec they still have not much experience facing a lot of opponents at the same time.
[Haaah!] Jon yelled a loud as he made a hit-and-run approach. Although this took a lot of time with too little damage, at least he was doing something to keep them busy. He already killed one of the fiends but was unable to decisively kill the other two as his strength was reduced the moment he took off the accessories. Instead of having a lot of fire power in his arms and legs, he now had a lot of speed.
Unlike Caltec, he doesn"t know how to utilize his speed to produce greater damage. That is until he was. .h.i.t in the gut and was blown away with blood on his mouth threatening to burst out of it. He was angry; the fiends he fought with were two b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. They were not explicitly working together and yet the result of their attacks always hindered Jon"s movements and his speed was getting useless.
The impact from being hit by one of the fiends made his insides bleed and he was gritting his teeth. He drank a potion on him and was already feeling better; however, inside he was really seething in anger.
He wished he could tear these fiends limb from limb from his anger. As if answering to his wish, for the first time, he also entered the same state that Caltec entered, this time as well unknowingly. The difference was that Jon noticed it, and was secretly amazed at how slow the incoming fiend was in getting towards him. So he moved. He stood up and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and slowly observed his enemy. Without further dilly dallying, he materialized his desire and tore the fiend limb from limb and tossed those aside before holding its head and giving it his all to pluck it off. Unlike dishing out greater force through wearing the accessories, their sustained strength from the compression of their muscles does not change at all and is retained even without the accessories so he had the strength of someone Mythical. Plucking heads off of necks is as easy as picking his nose.
After doing that, Jon turned towards the last fiend and reveling in the feeling of having this absolute advantage over your opponent. However, because of that his focus swayed and the world turned to how he normally perceives it, effectively losing his advantage over the last fiend.
[s.h.i.t!] He noticed that change and the fiend also did. The fiend was confused for a second because Jon disappeared from its sight then abruptly appeared just a few meters away from it. It was startled and because of that it pounced very quickly towards Jon as if afraid that he"d disappear again with its companion getting dismembered without seeing who or what did that to it.
The pounce was fast and full of pressure and Jon was getting even more nervous every second that pa.s.sed, however, he knew that being nervous will not help him. So he turned serious again and this time, confronted the enemy in front of him without panicking.
Pouncing, the fiend arrived just above Jon and was striking him with a slam of its claw from above. Seeing this, Jon took a step back to dodge it and was getting ready for the next rush of attacks from the fiend. As predicted, the fiend followed up with a swipe of its left claw horizontally towards his torso. With another step he dodged that attack and still got ready to dodge yet another attack, and so this happened until the fifth swipe of the fiend when it showed an opening after swinging its claw too wide which also brought its balance to be disrupted. Capitalizing on that opportunity, Jon made a counterattack with his hand turning into knives. He thrust it towards the fiend"s neck where if this were a human was where the thinnest skin and muscle as well as bone were located. His thrust was true and accurate hitting its target right on. *splash* *crack* The sound of flesh tearing and bone cracking resounded as Jon retracted his hand and swung it to get rid of the blood on it.
The fiend died and Jon was feeling tired, however, he still had some other job to do so he went and did it before he let go of his will and his body collapsed. He closed another hole and with this at this time, there were only two holes still open outside the city. Mor was still fighting to close the hole he was trying to close.
Jon was in no shape to move, but quickly, he popped another potion into his mouth and his energy again came to him. The advantage they had was that their kind of fighting did not expend mana as much as Isaac did, so they only had to replenish their physical energy to enable themselves to fight again. Caltec decided to join Isaac in closing the hole that Isaac tried to close while Jon supported Mor in closing the hole he was supposed to have already closed.
Mor finished dealing with his opponents faster than Jon because of the way he fought. Every attack was parried and every blow was redirected towards another fiend or to the ground. It was his usual fighting stance and he has already mastered it so he only had to get used to fighting many opponents at once to totally make it level up to a new height. Mor achieved this and killed the fiends via redirection of attacks and making the fiends attack themselves. With the speed boost it was also easier to do.
However, when the moment he wanted to close the hole he was watching over, it suddenly expanded and a bigger fiend slowly stretched its hand out towards him. This surprised him greatly and so he jumped back in fright. This change was because of Jon, closing his end of the hole causing this hole to become bigger than earlier. It was a headache if they thought about it, at it is.
[Dammit! If only we"d set a time to close the holes together instead of closing it in our own time, this wouldn"t happen! Now a big-a.s.s monster is before me again.] Mor was complaining in his mind.
The monster that came out was a fiend that had horns as sharp as a sword and was edged. Its face looked like an animal"s while it was standing on all fours. Meaning it really was an animal type fiend. Mor had his breath a bit clogged up and was heaving his chest up and down quite irregularly. He was nervous and he could feel that this monster in front of him was not something he could face alone. He was getting even more distant from the hole as fright gripped his heart. Then *Pak*, a slap resounded as Mor was facing the ground already. It was a slap that someone gave him, when he looked up to see who it was that had such gall, he saw Jon; grinning and then saying, [Hey Mor, are you scared of that one? I am too. So let"s face it together and die together if need be, don"t show everyone such pitiful look though, they might just laugh at you again like always.] It was Jon his voice was shaky as well, evidence of how scared he was feeling instinctually while facing the enemy.
The fiend roared, yesm roared this time instead of shrieking. Now that roar woke them all up and gave courage to them thinking that if this fiend gets to the city, people might just die, somehow momentarily forgetting that Clay was out there protecting the city. However, that act of forgetting that made them steel themselves to face the fiend in front of them if only for a moment.
On the other side, it was Isaac and Caltec working together to kill the fiend that came out of the hole that just got bigger. Actually, Isaac was already fighting it when Caltec arrived and the fiend already had traces of being covered in frost but it was not enough to slow or hinder the fiend that Isaac was facing. It was not something that was weak enough to be affected by the frost.
Isaac was despairing for a second when Caltec arrived and gave the fiend a punch to the face which made it look towards the right. His full powered punch only did that much damage to the fiend. He was imagining it being blown back and giving them both some time to talk and strategize but reality slapped him in the face with that result.
The fiend was obviously angry when the next moment; instead of roaring to show anger it actually opened its mouth to shoot a breath attack. They were familiar with this move as the dragons were actually recorded to have this kind of attack which was handed down in human history as something to look out for. Caltec and Isaac did a three-sixty and ran in two directions separately. The breath attack they knew could not follow its target so they a.s.sumed that as well. Fortunately, it was just like the description they knew, or else they would have died without knowing how foolish they must have looked.
The breath attack landed on the center of the place where they both were standing just seconds ago.
[Huu.] Both breathed out in relief as they regroup and whispered.
[That was what I thought it was right?] Caltec asked. While Isaac answered, [Yes. I think it was and we both know what that was, which saved our lives, a good thing to thank our ancestors for.] Isaac had a wry smile on his face.
[Yeah. If not for that knowledge they pa.s.sed on, we would have died just now. Look at that hole in the ground from its attack. d.a.m.n! We should fight to strive not to get hit by that right?] Caltec suggested as they breathed out. Caltec was not wearing his accessories while Isaac was still wearing them. Then Caltec told Isaac about the boost in speed that it brings just by taking it off.
They did not have much time to strategize as the fiend moved towards them utilizing all its legs to run towards them at break-neck speed. It arrived in front of them as fast as a blink of the eye and they were both surprised.
[[!!!]] In Caltec"s mind he shouted, [What the f.u.c.k!] as he moved his body away from the fiend"s range. Isaac on the other hand formed an Ice Blade with his innate ability to produce and control ice. His Ice Blade had the st.u.r.diness comparable to steel and so he mostly relied on this to face human opponents. This time, they were fighting a fiend with ability far from theirs already. He knew this blade was useless, but the eyes would surely still be vulnerable right? Isaac thought.
However, he was wrong, deadly wrong and he found this out bitterly.
He attacked the fiend"s eyes as Caltec distracted it while also always on alert to dodge a breath attack from this fiend. Isaac jumped up and gave the fiend a piece of his mind by stabbing the blade where he intended to. However, *Ping!* the sound of his blade breaking from the force of impact with the eye of the fiend gave him a fright. That"s just not right, this is utter cheating! Isaac thought as he quickly retreated and gave Caltec a look.
Caltec was still distracting the fiend without it even minding Isaac who tried to stab its eye. It was that strong of a monster.
*BOOM*
The ground broke apart as one of its limbs slammed onto the ground trying to hit Caltec with it. The shock wave it produced from that was enough to blow Caltec away.
Isaac immediately went towards where Caltec landed and helped him up. Whispering, [What do we do? Even my Ice Blade was not effective against its eyes!] Isaac felt stifled by how useless his technique against it was. Then Caltec chuckled and gave Isaac a look as if looking at a fool.
[Hey Isaac, do you think your Ice Blade is stronger than even our skin? Have you forgotten how even a piece of Orichalc.u.m blade can"t pierce our skin? Much less your Ice Blade. Let"s use our body to deal damage to it instead and use your innate ability to distract it instead. That way, we"ll be able to deal with it. Since you are still wearing your accessories, you probably have more power to impact that fiend, so use all your speed to send a palm towards its abdomen and make it bleed from the inside as taught by Sire.
[See me? I am not wearing the accessories anymore since I need the speed to dodge the attack of that guy. If we do this, then I"ll serve as the distraction while you give it a beating, okay?] Caltec laid it out in the open for Isaac. And Isaac, as if understanding where he went wrong, opened his mouth as round as an egg with [Ohhh!] coming out of his mouth.
They both looked each other in the eyes and as if telepaths moved according to their roles.
Caltec distracted the fiend with his nimble movements that did not really surpa.s.s that of the fiend but was making it unable to catch him as well, while Isaac made some distance before running with all his might towards the fiend and readied his palms behind him. He ran towards the fiend as if a certain rubber man would make his "Bazooka" attack.
Silently, Isaac ran and made his attack. If Clay were here he would have given Isaac thumbs up already. It was what he taught them. He told them to never yell out when trying to attack because that makes the opponent ready to receive your attack instead of hitting him squarely. It"s only done by foolish show offs to scream and attack at the same time. It"s very life threatening to attack like that. Not for the one being attacked but for you who is attacking.
As Isaac reached the side of the fiend to land his attack, the fiend"s eyes moved sideways and looked towards Isaac. Oddly, Isaac could feel something resembling their lord"s intimidating presence, but still not enough to stop him from his attack and the fiend was already too late to dodge anyway.
Isaac gave it his all and landed his attack. *BOOM* a sonic-like boom reverberated throughout the entire forest that started not just the birds but also the normal animals that lived there.
The flesh of the fiend visibly rippled from Isaac"s palm strike. The ripple came from his hands that connected with the fiend"s body and finally a result showed itself. The fiend was put to its knees as Isaac made distance again. He would not make that weakened state to fool him and so while the fiend was distracted with him, it was now Caltec"s turn to give it a piece if Caltec"s mind.