From so close, the Grendel’s long arms lost most of their strength, forced to hit from an awkward position. The razor-sharp claws pierced through Vastor’s skin and it was then that he stopped restraining his Abomination half.
‘My dear black core, if you really want to destroy everything, I might as well put you to good use.’ He thought as the black streaks slithering over his body moved to a foreign and juicier target.
Chaos was unfettered destruction but it was also eternal hunger. The Grendel was filled to the brim with life force and Blood Maelstrom, making him a hearty meal. The Chaos covered the claws and spread along the undead’s arms, making him scream in agony.
Dead bodies were supposed to be insensitive to pain but Chaos didn’t just create wounds, it attacked its target’s very essence. Vastor let the claws rip his flesh as he moved forward, letting go of the golden wand in order to deal a double palm strike infused with more Chaos.
The Grendel was sent flying for dozens of meters, his hands and chest tainted by the blackness that kept eating at him even after being separated from the main body.
The Master would have loved to finish the Phresia off, but there was no time for it. The other three assassins were already upon him, needing but a single strike to sever his head from his neck.
On top of that, Filia and Frey were screaming again, calling for his name and begging for help. Grimbark shot two more spells, aiming solely at targets that were too close to dodge a darkness spell.
Four more undead died just to be replaced by four more as the staff consumed more spells.
Vastor gritted his teeth in frustration, trying to bridle the Chaos before it started to consume his own body. His arms and back were pitch black and if he didn’t stop the cursed energy, he would be soon limbless and his organs exposed.
“You are pathetically weak for someone who defeated the Horseman of Chaos.” Dervalos said while breathing a burst of crimson Blood Flames.
“And you are pathetically stupid for someone who went this far to corner a single old, out-of-shape man.” Vastor replied, shielding himself with the still-blackened parts of his body.
The mystical flames ate at the Chaos, weakening it. The rampant cursed energy ended up taking the brunt of the damage, defending Vastor from the Blood Flames and becoming weak enough to be easily restrained.
“Had the four of you attacked me at the same time, I would have been done. You guys lack teamwork!” The Master’s Chaos-infused hands ripped the Flames apart and along with his words, his mouth conjured a tier three Chaos Spell, Howling Void.
A pitch-black spear the size of a small tree pierced through the body of the Blood Warlock and then moved on to the next target on its path. A hole appeared in Dervalos’ chest but he had been smart enough to move his heart away.
The heart was the source of the blood flow and also the weak point of a Blood Warlock. The White Lady trying to open the Dominator armor and lure the children out of its protection, however, wasn’t so lucky.
The hypnotic powers had already lulled Filia and Frey into stopping Grimbark’s attacks when Howling Void pulverized everything from the shoulders up. Without her voice mimicking Zinya’s, the children snapped out of it and reactivated the offensive protocols.
“Infiro!” Filia shrieked and Grimbark obeyed.
A White Lady could regrow her head in seconds, her weak point was the water stored in her lungs. The same water that she had used to drown her own children before taking her life.
Yet they were also incredibly weak to fire. The Yggdrasill staff took Filia’s chore magic flame and boosted it via its wood and mana crystals. Without the mouth, the undead couldn’t hurl water to protect herself.
The flames shrouded her and she burned like gasoline, wailing in death throes.
‘Good girl.’ Vastor inwardly smiled.
Bytra’s masterpiece was imbued with a power core capable of understanding human language and the Master’s last order had been to assist the kids, not just to protect them.
Grimbark wasn’t sentient but the order granted the kids a certain degree of autonomy over the staff’s spells despite not being the ones who had imprinted it. Teamwork was a key element in the Organization and Vastor had taught to his children the importance of delegating to those you trusted.
Both his Eldritch and adoptive children.
“It’s still not too late old man!” Quomar, the Vampire in Chiropteran form swept down from the sky with his claws while Resnian the Wendigo came from the sides, his hands filled to the brim with concentrated frost aura.
He also roared a second Chilling Wail to turn the sweat covering Vastor’s body into an icy prison.
“Idiots.” A flick of the Master’s hand activated his tier five personal War Mage spell, Tetrastrophe. “Were you my students, I would fail you all.”
Four tier five spells, each of a different element, manifested themselves from his skin, hitting the Chiropteran and the Wendigo at the same time. Earth blocked their attacks, pushed them back, and then pinned them to the floor like flies.
Fire burned at them, dealing little damage but removing the cold aura and warming Vastor. Water absorbed the Wendigo’s power, trapping both undead into frozen coffins.
Since he was draining the Wendigo’s cold, Vastor had only conjured a massive amount of water, leaving to his unwittingly enemy to do the rest. The result was a thick cage of ice strong enough to resist their strength while darkness magic ate them from the inside out.
“You cretins!” Dervalos roared while fixing the damage to his chest. He could speak with air magic but he needed his lungs to breathe Blood Flames. “He was lying! Were we to attack all at the same time, he would have killed us all.
“We aimed for a combination attack exactly to avoid such an eventuality.”
“Too bad that- Oh, shit!” Vastor had just finished conjuring the tier five Chaos spell, Howling Rain, when the worst-case scenario took place in front of his helpless eyes.
The Grendel was back and at his peak condition. The elemental energy spread throughout his body kept him from casting spells but it also countered any magical attack.
The light element stored in his blood core had turned the Chaos back into darkness that had then been neutralized by the darkness coursing through Phresia’s body. To make matters worse, Dervalos had just activated his bloodline ability, Blood Tide.
It sucked out the world energy from his surroundings, dispelling Tetrastrophe and turning Howling Rain from a checkmate move to a waste of mana. With no darkness element, the Chaos couldn’t manifest and it would just eat at Vastor who was forced to release it.
The four undead were now reunited and Vastor was left solely with Spirit Magic. It wouldn’t have been so bad if not for his opponents being all much stronger than him and wearing a full set of enchanted equipment whereas he was in underwear.
The space-compressing array preventing him from taking anything out of his dimensional ring was the icing on a cake that he had no idea how to swallow.
