While Eros, Darian, and Liro had just entered the cave, Vane was already locked in his duel.
Mantblast was incredibly strong, Vane could barely do anything against him.
Mantblast swung his massive sword forward.
'I won't be able to dodge this!' thought Vane, bracing himself. He reinforced his body, but the blade still managed to cut across his skin.
Now in the form of a polar bear, Vane leapt back, blood running from a scratch across his stomach. He charged again, but Mantblast quickly raised his shield. Vane's claws raked against it, but it was useless, the shield was covered with small spikes and forged of impossibly hard metal.
"This is all you've got?" Mantblast mocked, slamming his shield forward. Vane was crushed beneath its force, pushed backward step by step.
'I need to come up with something' Vane thought as his back nearly touched the wall of Bladekruk warriors.
"Oh, don't worry. I've got more!" Vane shouted, shifting suddenly into an owl to slip free. Mantblast didn't flinch, he simply paused, watching.
In the next instant, Vane shifted back into a polar bear mid-air, crashing down on Mantblast's body. He snapped at the warrior's throat, but his fangs closed on nothing. Mantblast vanished in a blur.
'Where is he?!' Vane spun, only to see Mantblast already behind him, sword arcing down.
Vane barely managed to block with his claws, but the force threw him backward. The Bladekruks forming the arena walls stepped aside for a moment, then closed again.
"It looks like they aren't actually interfering…" Tauren muttered, squinting.
"Allen, can you see more?" he asked.
"Barely. There are too many enemies," Allen replied, stretching his body to sense vibrations.
Mantblast still didn't press the attack. Instead, he waited calmly.
Vane transformed into a buffalo and charged. Mantblast held his ground until the very last moment, then seized Vane's horns and leapt onto his back.
"I heard humans used to do this! But I've got something white on my back, not red. Is this how it's supposed to go, little buffalo?" Mantblast mocked.
Enraged, Vane bucked wildly, hurling him off. Mantblast slammed his sword into the stone, spun midair, and landed perfectly on his feet.
"Let's play more!" Mantblast grinned as Vane charged again. This time, as he reached for the horns, Vane transformed mid-stride into a polar bear. Mantblast's grip closed on empty air, throwing him off balance. Vane lunged to bite, but Mantblast wedged his sword between the bear's teeth.
Both smirked. Mantblast blurred away again, but this time Vane caught the movement. He turned quickly, expecting a strike, yet the sword bit only into stone.
Mantblast's blade scraped against the stone floor with a shrill, echoing sound. At first, it looked like he had simply missed Vane and struck the ground, but then he kept moving, dragging the sword across the rock in a wide arc. Sparks burst where steel met stone, leaving behind a shallow glowing line.
Vane growled and lunged forward, but every time he tried to close the distance, Mantblast moved faster, his blade extending the carving. Step by step, the circle was being completed around him.
Allen, watching from outside the duel, narrowed his eyes.
"He's not missing… he's cutting through the ground itself," he muttered. "Vane, he's enclosing you... move!"
"How can you tell?" Tauren asked, alarmed.
"I can sense the vibrations through the ground… Vane, you have to move!" Allen shouted.
But Mantblast was already finishing the last stroke. The final spark connected the lines together, sealing Vane inside a perfect ring etched deep into the rock.
"Too late," Mantblast said with a grin. He planted his sword into one of the grooves and leaned his full weight on it like a lever. With a deafening crack, the stone circle separated from the rest of the floor.
The ground beneath Vane trembled violently, then rose. Mantblast's sword heaved the circular platform upward, tearing it free as if the battlefield itself had become his weapon. In an instant, Vane found himself standing on a floating slab of rock, launched high toward the ceiling of the cavern.
Vane, still in bear form, panicked. The rock rose too fast for him to react. He shut his eyes, bracing for death—
—but the platform halted midair. Allen's body stretched and latched onto it, stopping it from colliding with the ceiling. The chamber was high enough to allow the maneuver. Without him, Vane would have been crushed.
The Bladekruks immediately shifted, creating a gap between Mantblast and Allen.
"Look here…" Mantblast growled. His voice trembled with anger.
"Allocen!" Vane shouted, relieved.
Furious, Mantblast hurled his shield. It smashed the floating platform to pieces. Vane plummeted, crashing against the cavern wall.
"You should not have done that," Mantblast said coldly, glaring at Allen.
Tauren rushed to Vane's side. His body was broken, his chest heaving shallowly. Tauren tried to heal him, but the Bladekruks closed ranks, forcing him back.
Inside the arena now stood only Mantblast and Allen.
"Bring him somewhere safe… I'll handle this," Allen said firmly.
"You think you can win? Then show me!" Mantblast bellowed, charging with terrifying speed. His blade cleaved Allen in two, but the slime reformed instantly. Splitting into two halves, Allen shaped each into a blade and struck.
One was caught on Mantblast's shield, the other blocked by his sword or so he thought. Allen's slime bypassed the blade, forming a weapon after slipping through, and left a scratch on Mantblast's armor before he leapt back.
"Well… looks like you're stronger than I thought. I want to kill you with my own hands now," Mantblast sneered.
"Already mad that I stopped your duel? Face it, it was over," Allen shot back.
Mantblast didn't answer. He lunged, furious, his sword cleaving down. Allen liquified, slipping beneath the strike and sinking underground.
"Now you're running? Come out and fight like a warrior!" Mantblast roared.
Allen surged up behind him, latching onto the shield, eating away at it. Mantblast slammed it to the ground, smashing Allen into the stone. A hole burst open where his body struck.
"Arghhh!!" Allen cried in pain.
Mantblast swung his sword downward, aiming to crush the slime. Allen kept shifting his core mass, moving it around his body so that the blade never struck his vital point.
"Stand still!" Mantblast roared.
Allen slipped underground again.
Meanwhile, Vane stirred awake. Tauren was still tending him.
"Tauren… what happened?" Vane whispered, his body wracked with pain.
"You almost died… Allen is fighting now. Don't worry. It will be alright," Tauren said, bandaging him.
"That enemy is too strong… Allen can't—"
"Don't say it," Tauren interrupted. "Allen has never lost a battle. You don't understand how his body works. He won't fall so easily." He gave a reassuring smile.
From what little he could see past the Bladekruks, Tauren watched.
"You need to trust him. He isn't human anymore; his body works in ways you can't imagine."
The fight raged on. Mantblast slashed again, but Allen dissolved and split, dodging easily.
'Every time I strike, he divides himself. Tch… but I'll figure this out' Mantblast thought. 'I have never lost a battle. And this won't be my first.'