Olua realized that she had been checkmated, but that didn’t mean she had also been defeated. Unlike in games, the rules of a real battlefield could be changed. The Roc ignored the shaman and abandoned her position, opening a clear path of retreat for the monster army.
The creatures had yet to raise the first yell of victory that Olua unleashed her next barrage of spells against the reverted monsters who were restricting Bodya. A hail of fire and thunder bought the Nidhogg the time he needed to dive underground.
The flabbergasted shaman did her best to rush toward her enemy, but the Roc didn’t wait for her and moved even farther away without ever ceasing the dive bombings. The only way Se’Haan had to keep up with Olua’s speed was to fly, but fighting a Roc in the skies was beyond madness.
Without the sacrifice of her soldiers and the protection of earth magic, the shaman knew that she would barely last a second.
‘A creature that big needs just an opening to swallow me whole.’ She thought while chasing the Roc.
With the Nidhoog gone to heal his many wounds with Invigoration, Olua darted back and forth, hitting wherever the monsters gathered to keep them from coordinating their efforts.
Unfortunately for Se’Haan, she focused so much on Olua’s movements that she failed to notice where the Roc led her.
The ground opened under the shaman’s feet, letting her see the opened maw of the Nidhogg and the black abyss filled with venom that was his throat. Se’Haan conjured the earth dome that had protected her from the Roc, but it barely slowed down Bodya’s charge.
Even rocks empowered by her crystal were frail compared to the lesser Leviathan’s body infused with all the elements. The dome crumbled on impact and Bodya swallowed her whole, drowning the shaman in so much acid that she didn’t feel any pain as she died.
Westhar felt his connection with the violet gemstone disappear and knew that everything was lost. A Nidhoog’s acid could destroy inanimated matter easily, allowing them to feed on anything.
The shaman’s death had not only deprived the Puppeteer of his second in command but it also caused him the loss of his most powerful mana crystal. Without it, his orc body was nothing but a sorry excuse for an Awakened.
Westhar focused his fury on the hybrid in front of him, using his wand to neutralize all of Lith’s spells while his soldiers struck at him in weaves. Each one of their attacks was weak, barely able to put a dent in the Scalewalker armor but he took dozens of them at the same time.
The Abomination had dispelled Lith’s Necromantic spell as well, turning the undead into food for his warriors. With each clash, Lith killed several opponents, but more stepped forward to take their place, without giving him a single moment of rest.
‘Fuck me sideways! I had prepared to fight an Abomination, the shaman, or the army, not all three of them at the same time plus a bunch of reverted monsters. Where are the others?’ He thought while attempting and failing to cast a fireball in the air for the eleventh time.
It was the convened signal for help in the case any of the Emperor Beasts was in trouble.
‘They are winning their battle but it would take them a while to notice your situation.’ Solus said. She had tried as well to cast any kind of spell that could help Lith but Westhar had negated them as well.
The Puppeteer was so focused on Lith that he didn’t even bother getting out of the darkness sealing array, thinking that it would protect him from Chaos spells. He was unaware that even though Lith smelled like an Abomination, he had no such skill.
‘Dammit, I really didn’t want to do this. Solus, keep an eye on my life force.’ Lith took a deep breath and unleashed a stream of Origin Flames all around himself.
It burned the troll’s constructs and the ogre’s vines alike, but it wasn’t enough to stop the incoming wave of enemies. They smothered the flames with their own bodies and pinned Lith to the ground, leaving him open to a death blow.
Lith’s scales lifted, allowing him to release the Origin Flames he had left not from his throat but from his whole body, burning all those who touched him to a crisp.
‘That was bad. Emitting Origin Flames while keeping them from burning yourself took a huge toll on your body. You need a break to recuperate.’ Solus could see Lith’s getting weaker by the second.
Her only hope was that the enemies wouldn’t notice.
“Keep attacking. He’s almost done.” Westhar said while conjuring the world energy through his wand and making it take the form of an energy blade comprised of all six elements.
Despite its form, it wasn’t a means of offense so much as of defense. By keeping the elements at his leash, the Puppeteer needed but a thought to counter any spell from a distance, no matter how powerful it was.
The other orcs used their crystals to bury Lith under a hail of ice and thunder that the trolls ignored, covering themselves with hard light armor to not give the enemy a moment of rest.
Each one of their fists had the strength of a charging bull but Lith gritted his teeth and activated World Mirror, one of War’s abilities. He snatched the control of the spells from the orcs and used them as his own, killing all the nearest enemies before Westhar could dispel them.
“Simply amazing. Your weapon will make a fine addition to my collection.” The Puppeteer said without lowering his guard. “I admit that I had underestimated you. If not for my minions I would have already lost.”
The hybrid had killed over a hundred of his reverted minions, but Westhar only needed to sacrifice a handful of crystals to make more of them. Without wings, Lith couldn’t fly and without magic, he could only use Origin Flames, getting weaker with every breath.
Solus did all she could, but the Puppeteer didn’t take any risk nor created any opening she could exploit. He focused solely on dispelling their magic thanks to the ability of his crystal blade to detect and counter any alteration in the surrounding world energy.
Lith’s life forces went into disarray as his human side collapsed under the strain of the fight and that of the cracks which plagued it ever since Lith had saved Protector. Even his superior strength and his deadly blade were no match for the relentless attack of the monsters who sacrificed their lives just to let their companions strike at him.
Monsters filled with juicy life force and more light element than any Abomination could eat. Between his weakness and desperation, Lith allowed the abyss inside of him to take over.
The beast and the human life force stopped suppressing their Abomination counterpart, allowing it to feed for the first time. Lith’s scales disappeared, turning into a liquid mass of darkness that devoured even sunlight.
Another wave of monsters hit him from every side, yet the damage they dealt was nothing compared to the nourishment they provided him with. Lith felt his strength returning as the pile of monsters turned into a pile of desiccated corpses.
