Shadowbane

Lunaria and I were waiting for Luna to finish probing my soul as Xi channeled onto Victoria and Aresa's crystals nearby. She was making sure they were capped on mana so that in the event that something happened to her, we'd hopefully make it to Gaia before Aresa broke out of stasis.

Luna appeared out of my chest and floated up onto my shoulder, "Mom, it's very weird! Belfos is like, symbiotically linked to her."

Lunaria hummed while tapping her chin, "You mean the same way he was linked to the wellspring?"

Luna nodded, causing her mother to look at me with a weird expression on her face.

"If I'm following this correctly, he's going to spawn out of me at some point?"

"... Probably."

"Can you tell me anything else? Like how this is annoying you for some reason."

Lunaria sighed and looked down, "I'm not annoyed at you, it's more about how..."

I waited a bit for her to continue, but she just sat there in silent. And when it became clear she wasn't going to say anything more on the matter, Luna flashed a wide smile at me and said, "She's sad and jealous!"

"... I'm glad to see that my daughter is so much more outgoing now, but did you really need to tell her that?" Lunaria said.

"Jealous I understand since that's a lot of extra power I'll have one day instead of you, but why would that make you sad?"

"Power has nothing to do with it. Belfos has always been there for me, even if he barely spoke." Lunaria continued, "You have to understand, he was a staple in my life from birth and all the way up until a month ago. No matter what future awaited me, it was nice knowing he was there, protecting Termia. But now that he's gone, everything feels so..."

I can understand where she's coming from, but I'm definitely not passing Belfos over if she asks for his soul. Assuming I even can decouple him from my soul. This is a new phenomenon for me and as usual I have no one around who'd understand how my core works. Maybe the Abyssal monsters could tell me, but would they? The only one I know that might is the monster girl in the museum, but returning there would be really difficult and a major time sink. It's still an option for me going forward, but---

Xi fell backward and laid down on the ground, "I-I'm dooone~. Taking care of two crystals is so tiring!"

"Why is Victoria still in stasis? I thought you purged her of the Abyssal creature inside her skull. Otherwise what the hell was the point of that ritual you did when I brought her to you?"

"Ew, don't call it a ritual! That makes it sound Demonic in nature." She continued, "We did release her from the crystal when we arrived at this cave, but she was... Broken. Her mind is a complete mess after being controlled and tortured for years. She was flailing around and screaming, so we decided to seal her up again and pray there is some way in Gaia to make her forget what happened to her. But odds are that won't happen and I'll need to keep her crystallized for a long time while we try and find someone skilled enough in soul manipulation of memories."

I'm good at reviewing memories, but I don't know the first thing about editing memories. So I can't help them there sadly.

I stood up and began to walk toward the back of the cave, near the portal. Luna flew over and landed on my shoulder.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going over there to be alone so I can work on my armor in peace. The Tengu said we'll be pulling the Versha back to us in seven days. He suspects we'll need five days of rest after that, which gives us two days of travel time to get away from Ultros. That's the initial plan anyway. And so before the battle begins I'm going to work hard at creating the best heavy armor I possibly can. With the amount of mana regen I have, I should be able to pour a tremendous amount into the armor as I craft it."

And it's not just that, so many parts of me feel different after absorbing Rai'ga. I must've broken through to a new level. I even know that I could create the tomb my creator died in. I need a name for it... What did Xi call me again? A necromancer or something? I'll call it 'The Necromancer God' then.

I reached the back of the cave and sat down, placing my back against it. Although I'm not even sure of what I'd do with a big black building. It'd take me a long time to build, and if I ever do know I'm going to die, I'm sure as hell not going to build myself a massive tomb.

"Oh, Luna. Can you do something for me? Go tell that angry old man to come see me. I need to give him something."

"Aye aye!" Luna flew off toward Godwin.

After she left I raised my right hand out in front of me palm up before cutting a little slit into it. I was going to take this slow, so I didn't need a big wound.

I focused on my palm, forcing the blood to form around my entire hand. And once it was completely covered, I began to channel mana into it while refining the blood. Yeah... it's definitely going to take a long time to make a full suit of armor, but it'll be more than worth it.

A few minutes later Godwin returned with Luna on his shoulder. "What'd you need? I was just about to eat before diving into my soul realm. This is going to be a hell of a battle, so I'm preparing well ahead of time."

"I have a weapon I want to give you. It's a powerful artifact greatsword I took from the Crotia. Luna?"

Luna nodded, "I know where it is! Mom was still holding out hope that you'd give it to her, but hehe, I knew that wasn't going to happen." She then pointed toward the makeshift tents Aresa and Victoria were laying under, "That way, angry old man!"

"An artifact sword huh? I haven't had one of those in several decades... Funnily enough, that fucker Rai'ga absorbed my last one. Someone stole it and I didn't find out who it was until a year later when a friend of mine in the church told me that Rai'ga was the one who took it." Godwin laughed, "Well shit, I really appreciate the gift! That's going to help a hell of a lot in the coming battle. I'll be sure to return the favor one day, and I'll tell my son about it so he doesn't feel bad about losing an artifact armor while not getting paid. Although I doubt he actually gives a shit."

Godwin turned around and walked in the direction Luna was still pointing. With them gone I went back to fully focusing on the blood covering my right hand. Seven days should be enough time. If not, I'll just roll with whatever I've completed up until then.

~One week later~

"Rei, I found one, but I don't want to do this again..." Luna said, dropping a dead bird at my feet.

I exited my meditation and looked at the bird, "I know, little one. And don't worry, we shouldn't need to do this again."

I reached out and touched the bird before pouring my mana into its tiny bones. Just like back in Xethra, it took almost no time at all for its core and new muscles to grow. Once the bird's new body had fully formed I sent it off toward the Tengu who was talking to a few people near the cave exit. He was leaving in a few minutes to pull the Versha.

A lot of people protested when he designated himself as the bait, but he saw no reason to have me be the one pulling them. While he was confident I'd be able to outrun them, there just wasn't any point to it since he has access to the same warp marks that Nisha uses. Thus, it made a lot more sense for him to do it, so I didn't argue with his decision.

But I still wanted to see the Versha before they arrived at the cave, so I asked Luna to check the surrounding area for any dead birds. I hadn't expected her to actually find one, so it was a nice surprise. Plus, it'll be a great scout to have for the rest of the journey to Gaia. And I want to know who the fuck was sending sacrifices in our direction.

The bird landed on the Tengu's right shoulder. He continued speaking with Varuna while giving it a slight glance and nothing more.

Once he was done talking to Varuna he hastily said something to Lunaria before walking out of the cave. And immediately the entire cave went quiet. Looking around I could see that everyone was in their designated places, just waiting for what was to come.

"Luna, can you help Godwin out? The middle group is going to need the most help, and it might be a bit before I'm able to aid them."

"Aww, okay..."

I know she wanted to aid me again, but this was for the best.

The lakeside had flourished quite nicely. It was surrounded by all sorts of strange coral plants, and the ground itself reminded me of images of the seabed I had seen as a child. And while there were plants growing out of the lake, which I assumed were the ranged support Tam was referencing before, I was more surprised by the massive bipedal toad relaxing on the back side of the lake.

I could only see its top half, as its bottom half was under water, but even its top half was over thirty meters in height. It was currently resting against the cave wall with its arms behind the back of its head. And the most surprising thing of all was just how ripped it looked. It reminded me of the Xerathian pack leaders I saw back in Telebron, except on a much larger scale. Also, I couldn't help but chuckle at how smug the creature looked. Everyone else was completely on edge, but this toad creature didn't look worried even a little. It was obviously here to put the Versha in their place and nothing more.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Tam said after approaching me.

"Is it a Lord?"

"Nope, and not a God either. It's a special type of spawn that requires a large amount of effort to create. But as you're about to see for yourself, they're worth the effort."

"Do I even want to know how much it cost the Tengu to purchase his aid?"

Tam laughed, "If only we were paid for him! His name is 'Skewalla', and he came here of his own accord. Our God saw no reason to interfere, as the Versha are a plague upon all of us. Although they do have their uses so we don't go out of our way to attack them, but thinning their numbers like this every now and then is also necessary."

"And what are they good for?"

"For one, they would have attacked Ultros without a second thought. They would most likely lose, but their victory over him isn't what matters, it's that they attack everyone regardless of what or who they are. They're a force of nature that takes out some rather vile creatures from time to time."

Kind of a shame we're helping that Ultros Eldritch out, but it is what it is.

Tam looked down at my torso, "Speaking of amazing..."

I chuckled, "I only completed the finishing touches on it about an hour ago, so I made it just in time. I knew I'd be cutting it close but not that close."

Of course, I wasn't referring to only my new armor. I had created a sword from my blood as well. I couldn't channel as much mana into it as the greatsword I handed over to Godwin, or most artifact weapons for that matter, but it's pretty damned close, which was honestly shocking.

"Can you make armor and weapons like that for us? We'd reward you handsomely." Tam said.

"I can, but there would be no point. Only I can repair them. So if you want I can try and make a couple of good weapons before we leave, but just know that when they begin to break, there won't be any way for you to fix them."

I could be one hell of a scam artist with this ability though. Handing out powerful artifact knockoffs for a high price. But I do have one idea that may allow them to repair any weapons or armor I make, which is leaving a Lich and some ether carriers here.

I just don't know if that would actually work. After breaking off from my soul they'll carry out their last orders until they die, but what if something goes wrong? And it's not like any rewards they can give me would matter right now. Not for what I could produce in less than a week anyway.

So instead of bothering with requests like that, I'm going to focus on making sure these people get to Gaia. Knowing Aresa will survive and Shana can be brought back will be more than enough for me. So after I've escorted them there, I'll be heading off to another place alone. And I can tell that it'll be the final stop of my journey.

... It's kind of fitting that the Elven lands would be where it all ends for me. Not that I know exactly what is going to happen after I find the codes they've been coveting for centuries. It's just this weird feeling in the back of my head that's telling me it'll all be over after I'm done with Caedrus.

"That's a shame... It's hard to get artifact equipment here after all." Tam said.

"What? But there's Eldritch everywhere?"

"All the more reason they're hard to come by! What do you think Eldritch do after they find artifact equipment?"

"... Right. They're absorbing them all, aren't they? That should've been obvious in hindsight."

Tam nodded, "Another Eldritch soul sitting there unable to flee is basically just a free meal for them. And Demons actually use the equipment, while Xerath... I'm actually not sure what they do with them. I've never even seen one before, nor has any of my kind. Demons are sometimes stupid or brave enough to traverse through Mother, but the Xerath are practically fictional creatures here."

Would've been nice if I ended up here after being sacrificed. This place has its dangers and horrors, but the Xerath realm is absolutely vile. I'll never forget the time that the local God corrupting the area outside of my cave had reached its final form. The vegetation outside was monstrous in size, and any little noise or disturbance would catch their attention.

My feet absorb most of the sound I create, but not everything if the area is ripe with things that make a lot of sound as you walk. And because corruption was so rampant throughout the land, it was almost entirely covered in pustules, eggs, ooze, and Xerath growing out of the ground. Leaving my cave to find souls was a nightmare during that time. I'd make one little noise and a dozen or so Xerath would all turn to look at me at the same time. And the closer ones would bite at the source of the sound, even if they couldn't see me. Thanks to that I had a lot of close calls back then...

Tam walked away and entered the lake before disappearing underneath the water. It appears he didn't plan on joining the battle, not that I expected him to. And with him gone I tested my armor one last time. No matter which way I twisted or turned, my heavy armor would turn soft in certain areas like my knees, allowing me the same mobility I'd have if I were wearing light armor.

The defenses were really simple, as we didn't have much time to create much of anything. The backright side of the cave was hidden behind my camo, so it appeared like just any ordinary part of the cave. And that's where all of the non-combatants were hiding, which sadly made up a large portion of the people here. At most we had two hundred people throughout the cave at different points, waiting for the Versha.

Most of them were doing nothing except staring at the entrance in silence with weapons in their hands. The only good news in all of this was the amount of firepower Telebron had brought with them. Most of it was magical guns sadly, but according to Tam that was fine. We needed people to pin down the ranged attackers on the Versha's side.

He said they were half the size of normal Versha, and they're all going to stay at the far side of the cave near the wall after entering. They create spears of bone from their bodies and then charge their arms over the course of thirty seconds before firing. It's a long time, but Tam said the force at which the bones are thrown is powerful enough to easily pierce the Tengu's barrier in one shot. So while they were obviously a major threat we needed to dispatch as soon as possible, we were fortunate in the fact that they are mostly unarmored. That's why it doesn't matter if our side is using magical guns, since they'll all be aiming at the ranged fighters in the back anyway.

I even handed over my Crotian gun to someone who was on the ceiling of the cave waiting for the Versha. The Merfolk had created webs for our people to crawl onto the ceiling and there is several large catwalks up there where all of our ranged support is waiting. Again, we're trusting Tam's word, but he says so long as we take out the Versha's ranged support, then they have nothing to worry about up there. Even if the fighters throw their axes up there, all that will do is open them up to counterattacks from our fighters, including me.

About thirty minutes later I could see the Tengu stop through the bird's vision. He knelt down and created one final mark on the ground. Knowing he was about to begin to charge it, I made the bird fly into the sky toward the Versha's location.

It was night time and raining out, so visibility was limited even with my vision. That's why I could barely make out one of their camps until the bird was extremely close to it, and the Tengu must have began to channel mana into his marks, because immediately I could see hundreds of eyes light up a bright white as they all turned toward the Tengu's direction all at the same time. A few moments later all of the eyes began moving at a tremendous speed past the bird. Tam said they were fast but god damn...

I told the bird to fly back to the cave, but it was clear that the Versha were going to arrive much faster than the bird could move, so I instead redirected it toward a tree so I wouldn't accidentally lose it.

About ten minutes later the Tengu re-appeared through the cave entrance and he wasted no time in taking his place at the front of the fighters. And as soon as they saw him, Jasper's group(Jasper, Hera, Lunaria, Varuna) at the back left side of the cave began to channel their mana together.

This Tengu Lord is more of a caster than his brothers, but he unfortunately has be at the forefront to support the front line, as Humans aren't exactly built to battle abominations like the Versha, regardless of how much mana they have.

Through the bird I could hear the beat of drums commence. They slowly faded into the distance as the horde moved away from the bird. Ahh, there it is, the other enemy our ranged support need to take out according to Tam.

Aside from the sound of the rain and thunder, the cave itself was deadly silent, and it stayed that way for another fifteen minutes.

That's when we heard a low rumbling in the distance, but it didn't stay in the distance for very long. It quickly approached the cave, changing from a low rumbling to sounding like a stampede in no time at all. Even the ground itself began to shake as their hooves and drums echoed throughout the cavern.

And then, all at once, it stopped.

The Versha produced no noise as we watched the torrential downpour through the cavern entrance. We waited for around a minute before the first one appeared through the rain. Judging from the amount of armor it was covered in, it was clearly one of the elite. And the others were all right behind him. One after another they entered the cave and took up positions next to their brethren. Shoulder to shoulder they lined up, forming two and a half lines of Versha, with a smaller pack behind them that were hugging the wall.

The first one that entered paced back and forth in front of the Versha while tapping the top of his palm with the shaft of his large bone mallet. His face was completely covered in bone armor, so I couldn't see his eyes, but his head was turning to all different sides of the cavern. From the Merfolk and Toad on the right side of the cavern, to the gunmen on the ceiling, to the forces on the back left side that were already channeling onto a singular spell. He must be the Alpha. I can't see a single bit of fur on him because of all the armor.

The Versha Alpha snorted. He motioned toward the Versha behind him and pointed up. They looked up and chortled a strange laugh before saying something loudly to the rest of the Versha. They all began to laugh after that, and it sounded like a weird mix of a hyena and a bear laughing.

Their cheerful demeanor was cut short when a loud smashing sound occurred near the lake. We all looked over there and saw that the toad had crushed one of the Versha who was approaching the lake. He picked the Versha's corpse up and used its horns to mockingly clean his teeth before flicking the corpse into cavern's wall. With all of the Versha looking at him he leaned back and relaxed against the wall again while turning his palms up. The derisive look on his face was basically saying 'What are you going to do about it?'

The Versha all stared at him for a few short moments before the Alpha raised his right hand. The drums immediately began to play again, and it wasn't hard to tell why Tam had said we needed to kill the drummers. The aura around the Versha spiked hard, and even the untalented could see the wavy blue aura around them now. It kind of looked like they were engulfed in a transparent light-blue flame.

Skewalla aside(the toad), the first attack came from our side. The Tengu aimed its staff at the Alpha and fired something air based that was moving so fast I didn't even see it. And the Alpha didn't either apparently, because the only thing he did was fly backward into the two Versha lined up behind him. And without slowing down even a little the three of them then slammed into the ranged fighter before crushing him into the wall.

With that all hell broke loose. Everyone on the ceiling began to fire down at the mini-Versha along the back wall as the fifty or so plants in the lake fired off hundreds of toxic needles at the Versha.

For their part, the Versha split up in an even one-third on all sides. The only surprising part was the amount of Versha attacking the lake side. Tam said they'd completely ignore it and just let the toxins build up, but Skewalla must have really pissed them off, because he had over fifty Versha heading straight for him.

My original plan had been to help the Tengu battle the elites in the center by resurrecting any Versha I could pick off on the lakeside, since they were obviously going to come after him the hardest, but with this even split it was probably going to be much more difficult. Still though, I needed to do it. After the Versha lined up I had charged my halo so I was more than ready to go on the offensive.

I ran toward the right side and the moment I neared the group waddling through the corals one of the Versha leaped at me with his greatsword made of bone high above his head. I could have easily dodged it, but this was one of the chances I had been waiting for.

I readied my sword to the left side and swung it in an arc toward the right above my head, hitting the bone greatsword directly. It altered course and slammed into the ground before sliding along it as the momentum of his attack almost yanked it out of his hands after my deflection. I was given no time to attack the Versha though, as he quickly leaped backward, landing near two of his brethren.

The three of them then attempted to circle around me as I saw several bone spears pierce Skewalla. He was already fighting off dozens of Versha(although thanks to the toxins they were moving slower by the second), so he wasn't prepared for any outside attacks. They went straight through him, with one piercing his gut, and the other his left forearm. However, he merely flinched and continued to fight off the horde of Versha attacking him in the lake. They were all standing on the water as if it was solid ground, so him being near the back of the lake didn't matter at all.

I took a quick glance toward the back wall and I could see all sorts of explosions and bullets raining down on the ranged fighters, and while it was hurting them, they were mostly ignoring it and somehow healing large portions of the damage at a rapid rate. However, there was some casualties, but it was purely through Kai. He was the only melee fighter back there at the moment because it was too dangerous to attack them head-on without it being a blitz attack, which was quickly proven true as I watched a spear eviscerate the top one-fourth of his body, head included. But I knew he was fine thanks to his ability, so I refocused my attention on my attackers.

The three Versha had fully encircled me while I was checking the backline. They rapidly turned and bolted toward me before raising their weapons in different directions, clearly not planning on allowing me to parry them all at once.

The first attack came at me from the right side. I ducked under it and swung high again, deflecting the second attack from above before leaping into the air while raising my knees up to my chest as the third attack came at me low from the left side. Just as it passed under my feet I kicked the weapon down hard, causing the Versha to stumble forward. I quickly leaped back at him as he tried to right himself and flee, but my sword was cutting through his throat before he could even fix his posture.

I then grabbed onto his fur, swung around his back, and pulled him hard toward the ground. As soon as he landed I jumped onto his chest and pierced his heart, praying he died the same way more biological creatures did, and sure enough he didn't last long after his heart was pierced.

The two Versha were preparing to attack me again but they stopped when they saw I was doing something strange to their dead comrade. Their eyes lit up a bright white as they watched their comrade's fur fall out, its skin and organs disintegrate, and a mass of black liquid spread throughout its bone structure. I was halfway through the process when they went on the attack again. This time there was no plan of attack, they merely wanted to prevent me from doing whatever it was that I was doing to their allies corpse.

I stood up and continued channeling into the corpse with my feet while entering a ready stance. I knew in that moment why most of the Versha didn't have much armor on them. It was clear that large amounts of them were just stupid and didn't have a single tactical thought in their head. All they were doing was one brute force attack after another, which is why Skewalla was managing to fight off so many of them at once. Although things were admittedly starting to look a little dire over there.

Before the Versha's attack even finished I threw my sword at the one on the left, piercing him right through his heart. He began to fall over lifelessly as I leaped onto the other Versha's chest, punching him as hard as I could several times where his heart was. On the first punch I felt his bones crack hard, and the second one shattered his ribs completely. It must have killed him because he dropped his weapon and fell toward the ground as well.

I jumped back onto the first dead Versha and began to channel into him again, but I was barely on him for two seconds when a bone spear slammed into my chest. It sent me flying backwards into the cavern's walls, but my armor had prevented it from piercing me. However, the chest area was now crumbling, so I had to make sure I didn't take another attack to my torso. Thank god I made this armor! My last suit needed to be enhanced and I would have lost all of my mana just preventing that attack. And even then it might have still pierced me...

I stood up and ran back to the three Versha corpses while eyeing the battlefield. The ranged Versha who attacked me was currently being bombarded from above, but that freed up others to attack again. The Tengu and his warriors(Godwin included) were struggling hard against the elites, even with the fairies support. The Tengu was channeling a spell while dodging the Alpha's attacks, but he was clearly struggling. The Alpha was swinging his massive mallet around as if it was a toy, so all of his attacks were narrowly missing the Tengu.

And to my surprise the left side was holding their own... Kind of. It's more like it was a stalemate, as Jasper's group was slowing them down with some type of gravity spell, which was allowing their side to avoid the Versha's attacks, but as Tam had warned us, it wasn't sustainable. He said that debuffs worked on the Versha but thanks to all of their anti-magic, even the regular Versha warriors would require much more mana to debilitate with magic. And that was made clear from a single glance at Jasper's group. They were swapping people out to meditate but the amount of people actually channeling was dropping to a dangerously low level. It was probably only thanks to Varuna and Lunaria that the channel was still going.

... Alright, while they all need help, there's one group I need to attack above all else.

I reached the corpse on the right side and pulled it onto the first corpse before doing the same with the third dead Versha. Once they were all together I began to channel into them. The first one was already mostly done, so when it finished forming I could tell that three was definitely going to be my limit. These things were way too big to be building an army out of.

One of the elites saw what I was doing but had apparently deemed it as a mere curiosity and nothing more, as he returned to attacking the Tengu's group soon after that. However, when he saw the three Versha corpses stand up, he said something to the Alpha who stopped attacking the Tengu to take a quick glance at me.

But I wasn't about to wait to see if my threat level had been raised enough to warrant elite attention. I jumped onto the shoulder of one of the Versha and commanded them to run forward through the Merfolk area. I already knew their toxins didn't affect me so my summons would be fine too.

I heard the Alpha yell something out in his guttural language as I passed through the coral reef near the lake. The ranged fighters who weren't being attacked turned to look at me, and so did my targets, the drummers.

The drummers leaped to the side over and over at an annoyingly fast pace, creating distance between us, but the summons were still faster than them. We were gaining ground as a couple of spears ripped through my summons, but their cores were still intact so all that happened was one of the summons needing to repair the tendons on his right arm, which was easily accomplished before we had even reached the drummers.

Behind me I could hear hooves approaching, but even without glancing back I knew they wouldn't make it in time. There were three drummers but instead of splitting my forces up, I made them do the same attack they did against me to make sure it couldn't leap away, and it worked wonderfully. The first one was cleaved into several different parts before we ran after the second drummer, which was moving a little slower than it had been before.

As we reached the second drummer I looked back and saw that it was an elite pursuing us, and he was going to reach us in a couple of seconds. So I told my summons to kill the drummers and then help Kai finish off the remaining ranged Versha(he had managed to kill a third of them so far with support from above).

With their orders given, I leaped off of them onto the ground and faced the elite. He was dual wielding two large bone scimitars, and he wasted no time swinging one of them at me as I landed. I blocked it with my sword and was sent sliding along the floor from the impact, but the damned elite was fast. He was already attacking me from the other side, so while I was still sliding I flipped my sword over and blocked the next attack which then sent me sliding back in the other direction.

This continued for several more seconds, which felt like an eternity as I was hit back and forth. And I would have been more than happy to keep going if my sword wasn't beginning to break. Thanks to that, waiting for my summons to kill the ranged Versha so they could support me wasn't an option.

I was getting ready to leap when a massive ball of water slammed into the elite from the lake's direction. The force behind it sent the elite hurtling forward as he tumbled along the ground several times before managing to stop himself by stabbing one of his scimitars into the loose ground near the cavern's entrance.

I glanced at the lake and saw that the Versha had retreated from Skewalla. I don't know whether the Alpha had called for them, or it was their own decision, but they were all moving toward the Tengu's location. While they had apparently cut down all of the plants firing toxic needles at them, the damage had already been done. They were moving at half their normal speed toward the Tengu.

But it seems Skewalla wasn't about to sit this one out, despite the fact that he was bleeding from all over. He dropped down into the water again for a few moments before surfacing again with his neck and torso area ballooning in size. The reason was obvious as I watched him spit out another sphere of water like a cannon at the group fleeing from him. It slammed into the back of the group and slammed them forward into the ground. They slid along it straight into the Tengu's group, hitting a few of the Humans but also knocking several elites right onto their asses.

Turning back toward the ranged Versha, I witnessed Kai finishing off the last one. The only casualty was one of my summons. It had been pierced straight through its core and I had no time to repair it, as the elite was barreling toward me again.

I ordered the remaining two summons to assist me while leaping to the left. It brought me closer to the elite which made him pause for a moment, but it didn't take him long to figure out what I was doing.

He turned and jumped at the two summons approaching him while raising both scimitars above his head. I maxed the enhancements on my legs and leaped onto his back, shoving my sword between the gaps of his armor, penetrating deep under his right scapula. The elite yelped in pain as he dropped his right scimitar.

He was already mid-air though, so there was no stopping his descent toward the two summons. He brought his left scimitar down and managed to deflect both of their attacks, but they quickly dropped their weapons and clung onto him as he dropped onto them. They then hugged him as hard as they could, draining my mana quite a bit to keep him from moving, but it was worth it.

I stood up and ran to the left-side of his back. Unlike his right side, his left side was completely armored to prevent anything from getting to his heart(his spine and head were fully armored as well), so I began to punch the hardened bone I was standing on top of over and over with my right fist. The first five punches seemed to do nothing, but cracks began to form around the sixth, and by the eighth I could tell that the elite was beginning to panic. But no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't break free from the two blackened Versha holding onto him.

Kai jumped up and landed on his back right next to me. He saw what was doing and began to punch into his armor as well.

It took us about a minute to break through but we eventually did, and I promptly stabbed the Versha in its heart. It stopped thrashing almost instantly.

Wasting no time I sat down and began to meditate while watching the battlefield. Kai ran off toward Jasper's side which was doing much better now that the ranged support from above was shooting the Versha in their backs. They were nowhere near as armored as the elites, and with the drummers dead their regeneration had slowed down quite a bit. It was still abnormally fast, but I could see all types of wounds on their bodies, so the damage they were taking was accumulating much faster than they could heal it.

Meditating multiplies your regen, so the fact that mine was abnormally high now had made it so I only needed to meditate for a minute to refill my mana. And once it was maxed again, I ran toward the middle group which was either winning or losing, it was hard to tell because I could see both Godwin chopping into the neck of an elite on the ground, and the Tengu bloodied and battered as he tried to evade the Alpha.

Surprisingly, there was already four dead elites and over fifty regular Versha on the ground, but there was also a large amount of people on the ground. Some of them were moving, but most weren't.

As I approached the group the Tengu spotted me and yelled out "About time!". The Alpha spared a quick glance at me and that's when the Tengu released whatever he had been channeling the entire battle.

He slammed the end of his staff on the ground and immediately the Alpha dropped to his knees as shackles of lightning wrapped around him. His arms were left dangling above his head as the lightning encircling his knees shot off into the ground. It was apparently pulling him down hard because the Alpha was screaming in both pain and anger at the same time. However, I could already see the shackles fizzling out. The anti-magic aura from his armor was no joke. Even with my resistance to lightning I would need more time to break out of that spell.

The Tengu sat down and meditated while channeling onto the shackles, doing his best to keep them materialized, but even then they weren't going to last long. So why he yelled 'about time!' at me was pretty obvious. He had been waiting for me to show up and kill him while he was unable to move, but judging by the amount of time it took me to break through the elites armor, I didn't have much hope for this plan.

The summons plowed through several Versha on their way to the Alpha. And one of the elites even tried to block our path, but a water cannon from the lake sent him flying toward the other battle taking place. He tried to stop himself from moving like the last one, but his spear didn't pierce far enough into the rocky ground to stop him. It immediately ripped out of the ground and he began to roll like a barrel away from us.

I jumped off of my summons onto the Alpha's back as we reached it. The shackle holding up his left arm fizzled out and he tried to reach back and grab me but the other shackles were preventing him from moving his back, so he couldn't quite reach me.

My summons then began to stab him in the middle of his back, and when they were pulling their weapons back, I'd jump forward and smash my fist into the same area they were attacking. I'd then leap back just as they attacked again so I could avoid their annoyingly long swords.

"Rei, back up!" Luna said after flying onto my right shoulder.

I did as she said and backed up as much as I could. I couldn't go too far though because the fucker was still trying to grab me.

A concentrated beam of energy drove into the Alpha's back from above. It lasted for about five seconds and it changed the little cracks we formed into several shattered pieces of bone. We were only halfway through but it looked like they had also cracked the bottom half. Ahh, so that's what Cera and her family have been doing. I saw the same damage on the four downed elites.

A bright white light shone out from the other battle as the summons and I restarted our attack on the Alpha's back. I looked over there and saw the conspicuously absent Alicia had re-appeared. She was holding what looked like a bright white mirror in front of her that was firing a large radiant beam of light out of it. Even if they were lightly armored on that side, I was still surprised to see the light was disintegrating any parts of the Versha it touched.

The few Versha who had large shields made of bone were slow to reach the front and block the attack thanks to the gravity spell, but even when they began to block it, some of the Tengu's people grabbed Alicia and flew high above the Versha, which made it near impossible for them to block her spell. Although it looked like they weren't able to fly for long despite those big wings of theirs because of mana dependencies or some other issue, because they had to land on the other side of the Versa soon after taking off, but by then it no longer mattered, as most of them had been killed.

"They were fighting a long slow battle to drain their mana while Alicia prepared her spell, all so they couldn't block it!" Luna said as I continued punching into the Alpha's armor.

The shackles on his right arm and both of his knees disappeared just as we reached his flesh. The very second the shackles disappeared he quickly leaped back toward the ground, intending to smash me into it, but I didn't flee. I instead positioned my sword in the hole we created and waited.

He smashed me into the ground while also causing the sword to pierce all the way through his chest. And just like the others, he stopped moving soon after that. However, I was unable to get him off of me. While the damage had indeed been great and broke large parts of my armor while draining an enormous amount of mana, it was more about the fact that I wasn't in a good position to put power into anything and lift him up. Also, the soften earth spell wasn't working, so I had no choice but to continue the battle through my two summons while turning the Alpha into a third summon.

But at this point he wasn't really needed. There were only thirty or so Versha left, with two of them being elites. And between Skewalla, Cera, the other ranged support and Jasper's debuffs, they weren't even able to attack us anymore. I mean they definitely tried, but there was just too much ranged damage coming their way and the gravity spell was making it extremely difficult for them to protect themselves, let alone allow them to attack us.

By the time the Alpha had fully formed into a new summon, the battle was over. Through a stroke of shit luck on my part, they had managed to kill one of my summons, but it didn't matter anymore. There were plenty of new bodies to choose from now.