Karl struggled to his feet and felt [Eternal Lightning] slowly refreshing the stamina that he had burned through to keep all those [Hellstorm] spells active.
As long as he didn’t go overboard, he should be fine.
But with that in mind, he switched to his two-handed blade, which was already humming with the stolen energy of hundreds of slain enemies.
He didn’t need to hold it for the sword to do its work, but he did need to use it for the ability to transfer energy back to him.
The influx of power sent a pleasant tingle through his body, and Karl launched himself into the boars. Many were blinded by the fire, their vulnerable eyes scorched and destroyed.
So, what followed was not the sort of vicious battle that he should expect, but a one-sided slaughter, basically harvesting the boars.
The blade seemed almost happy today, soaked in the blood of the Giant Boars.
But when another of the Monarch Rank Cyclops came for him, the blade was nearly thrumming with excitement.
The cyclops held out a hand and a massive blade appeared in its hand.
It was beautifully crafted, and covered in some sort of magical runes that Karl was unfamiliar with, but the blade in his hand seemed to take it as a personal challenge, a fight between champions.
The Giant was half again as tall as Karl was, even with his skills enhancing his size, and not as night blind as most of his kin.
His first strike was remarkably swift and deadly accurate, aimed to take Karl’s head off.
[Flaming Body] pulsed as the two blades met in a shower of sparks, and the Cyclops twirled his blade with a flick of his wrists, as if the massive weapon weighed nothing.
Three more strikes arrived in the next second, forcing Karl onto the defensive.
[Chain Lightning] forced the Giant back, and it roared in pain, but its attacks didn’t slow.
The Cyclops’ blade began to glow with blue energy, creating a bubble where the giant could see clearly, and where Karl noticed that nothing cast a shadow.
The light came from every direction, not just from the weapon, rendering Shadow-based surprise attacks useless.
Against Rae, that would be inconvenient. But against the average Rogue, that would be lethal. An inability to hide and launch sneak attacks eliminated nearly all of their most dangerous skills.
But that wasn’t Karl’s specialty, and after sending a [Disintegrate] at the Giant’s face, forcing it to protect its lone eye, he went for the legs, cutting deep into the left knee and nearly toppling the stronger attacker.
“You’re a tricky one.” The Cyclops grumbled, using the common language.
Then his body surged with power, and a suit of golden armour appeared on his body, replacing the crude leather armour that the giant had been wearing.
Karl backed up a few steps to plan, and the Cyclops smiled.
“The Cyclops Clan are the finest smiths in the world. You won’t be making it through my defences.” He boasted.
Karl was certain that claim was highly disputed, but with Monarch Rank armour on the Giant, this battle had just gotten exponentially more difficult.
The Cyclops moved forward and the two exchanged blows while the Lamia pair circled to look for an opening.
But his back was covered in a chain link cloak with a hood that was down, but protected his neck.
In short, the Cyclops had turned himself into a walking tank. One whose movement wasn’t hindered by the mass of magical metal.
Karl cast [Disintegrate] over his blade, as it was the only Monarch Rank skill he had, and went for the lower stomach joint, where hard plate met chain.
The cyclops was slow to parry, but twisted just enough that Karl’s blade skated along the abdominal plate, leaving a deep groove in the golden metal.
Then Karl was forced to roll to the side as a massive blade came for the top of his shoulder, glowing brightly with blue light.
It glanced his left arm and [Eternal Lightning] shattered, while [Flaming Body] was forced aside.
But there wasn’t enough power left to harm his armour, and the barriers were recharged in the next second.
Against a direct hit, Karl would not be so lucky.
The Lamia pair hurled [Rend] attacks to distract the Cyclops while Karl charged again, going for the armpit joint, which was always a vulnerable spot for practical reasons.
The Cyclops got its arm down in time, and [Disintegrate] cut another deep score in the plates.
It snarled in anger at the fact that Karl was destroying its hard work, but the Cyclops species had poor peripheral vision and even worse depth perception, so dealing with three attackers at once was forcing it to constantly move to keep everyone in sight.
“Stupid snakes.” It mumbled, and Karl smiled behind his visor.
The creature was thinking out loud, and the Lamia pair had already realized it was about to turn on them, so they backed off a few more metres.
Power surged in the Giant’s feet, and Karl recognized it as [Earthquake]. So, he jumped to avoid the incoming strike, but that wasn’t something that a Lamia could do.
They could launch themselves in a direction with their long body, but it was not easy for them to get entirely off the ground.
One of the two took a series of stone spikes to the belly, which left it punctured and bleeding as it retreated. Trollish Regeneration would fix that in under a minute, but the Cyclops was pleased with the result.
Normally, that would be a lethal blow to a Lamia spell caster, and this giant seemed to have the experience to know it, as it completely stopped paying attention to that side for a moment.
Karl attacked, pulling energy from the blade to empower [Disintegration]. He attacked high, aiming for the throat, and the Giant lifted his blade to parry.
Karl went for the knee kick, hoping to strike the blind spot, but the Cyclops shifted its weight and Karl’s kick met a golden shin plate.
“I know that trick as well.” The Cyclops chortled.
“It’s always worth a shot.” Karl agreed, and the giant smiled, just visible through the slats of its helmet’s visor.
They circled for a few seconds, trading testing blows.
Karl was a Rank lower, but faster, and [Disintegrate] on his blade had no problem parrying the Cyclops’ attacks.
After five minutes of testing each other, both sets of armour had taken multiple strikes and were showing their wear, but the Cyclops was beginning to slow, while Karl was maintaining his energy with [Eternal Lightning].
If he couldn’t take the enemy out with overwhelming power, he would rely on teamwork to grind it down until they could force it to make a mistake.
Karl twisted a strike to go for the wrist, while the Cyclops went for the base of his blade, sending both blades flying out of their wielder’s hands.
Neither hesitated, and [Disintegrate] on Karl’s fist was met with the glowing blue gauntlet of the Cyclops.
Neither skill faltered, and the backlash of the strikes sent both of both combatants flying backwards.
They rolled to their feet in unison and called their weapons back to them, then summoned them to their hands.
The Cyclops attacked to its left, and sent a Lamia flying. The bodyguard was twisted and broken, clearly dead. But Karl just summoned them again to appear behind the Cyclops, where the enemy wouldn’t be able to tell if they were healing or preparing to attack.
Karl plotted his next move for a second, then movement behind him and a surge of power in front of him made him momentarily forget that there was a Cyclops present.
Overlord Leafa appeared at his shoulder, glowing with ethereal blue power, at the same instant that an enormous portal opened behind the Cyclops.
A four-armed Titan stepped through the portal and glared down at the Haint, then sniffed and turned to face the Cyclops.
“You are coming with me.” He announced, then grabbed the startled Cyclops and pulled him through the portal, which immediately closed behind them.
“What the hell was that?” Karl asked.
“That was a Cyclops Forge Master. Or if you mean the other one, that was Overlord Chronos Maximus the eighty-fourth. He’s a major pain in our ass, and now he’s abducted a Forge Master to make weapons for the Mountain Giant armies.”
That was not good at all. Who knew how many of the Forge Masters were going to appear in this monster spawn, but the Mountain Giants would likely get a chance to claim another before it was all over.
The Golden Dragon Nation was having enough issues with the Mountain Giants without giving them weapons armour at the quality that Cyclops had been using.
