'It's just eight... let's try to take it' Eros thought, seeing the number of a small enemy that had just appeared.
The group was at the entrance of the cave, with the portal in the middle of the room. Sappho stood in front of it, and next to her, many new enemies kept rising.
"Defend me for a moment," Eros said. The other two nodded. Darian positioned himself in front of Liro and kept shooting, while Liro created an illusion of a hole next to Eros so that enemies would not get closer.
Eros focused on one enemy. His power, Numerus, allowed him to see a purple number above a living creature's head. He could lower the number using different mental tricks. As he watched a Krukdill lean closer, the number dropped to three. Then he thought of something, sending a message directly into the Krukdill's mind: 'You have already lost.' As Eros thought these words, the number dropped to zero, signaling that it was time to use his power.
Eros's eyes turned purple, and he lost control of his own body, but gained control of the creature's. The Krukdill rushed toward an enemy. As it hit a Krukspy, the number on its head rose by two. Once it reached its original number, Eros would lose control of the body.
"Oh?" Sappho looked at the Krukdill doing something she hadn't asked it to do and became extremely angry. "Take it!" she shouted. All the Krukins nearby immediately rushed at the Krukdill Sappho was pointing at. Darian, realizing this was Eros's power, cast multiple ice shards on top of the attacking enemies.
"Thank you!" Eros said, now only able to speak. Darian nodded and began to run around the room, keeping close to the wall.
"Ice Shard!" Darian shouted, creating a shard that flew directly toward Sappho.
"Reaper's Fur," Sappho said. Her body became covered in the same fur all the Krukins had. This spell helped her tank many hits, and the shard simply shattered after it touched her. Her body became black, and she was covered in a huge coat of fur.
The Krukdill controlled by Eros rushed against Sappho. She tried to hit it by slamming her fist on it, but her hand passed right through.
'Huh?' Sappho thought, confused. Then, the real Krukdill appeared behind her and began to charge at her protective armor. "Stop playing with my toys!" Sappho screamed, furious, as the Krukin tried to get through her fur.
Sappho's power was called Umbra Marionettis. It allowed her to control the bodies of people who had died in the same place she was in. This meant that she couldn't control bodies in a graveyard, but this battlefield was different; the guards had killed tons of Krukins, giving her plenty of "toys." She considered all the creatures she summoned her toys.
Darian was now far away from Liro and Eros, killing all the dead Krukins coming toward him. 'It doesn't matter if we kill them... they'll keep coming' Darian thought, creating more shards. A Krukdill tried to hit him from behind. He was able to create an ice armor just in time, but another Krukdill rushed in, destroying the armor and piercing his skin.
"Argh!" Darian screamed in pain. Then the enemy randomly stopped. Darian looked toward Eros, whose eyes were purple, and understood that he had saved his life.
"Go!" Darian shouted, creating an ice path for the Krukdill, which charged forward at an incredible speed. Sappho, still furious, sent many enemies after it.
The enemies all swarmed the Krukdill, but they weren't able to hit it because it was a Liro's illusion. The real Krukin was on the roof and was slowly falling on top of Sappho's head. She immediately looked up and rolled on the ground at the last moment. Darian then created a new ice shard to hit her. This time, he was able to pierce her skin. Some blood was red, but other parts were black. The entire group was shocked.
"Can you still be defined as human?" Darian asked as he created more shards toward Sappho.
"I never was human... but these ones were once human," Sappho said. She raised her arm, and new creatures came out of the ground. They weren't Krukins, but the soldiers who had been sent here before. "Let the real fight begin!" She opened her arms, and more Krukins came out of the portal. Most were Bladekruk, but there was also a Krukmongbee.
"Focus on the bigger one!" Eros shouted, referring to the Krukmongbee. Its number was forty, which was extremely high. As Eros watched it, the number dropped to thirty-eight, but it wasn't enough.
Darian didn't have time to think, as many Bladekruk rushed toward him. He created an ice wall to stop them and another to get himself up. He jumped onto the wall that was being attacked and hit some of the Bladekruk with his shards. The Krukins were surprised and couldn't defend themselves, so they were killed. One Bladekruk jumped very high and slashed its blade across Darian's body. He fell back, bleeding, with a scratch on his stomach.
'Tch, I wasn't fast enough to create the armor... damn it hurts a lot...' Darian thought. Many more Krukins rushed toward him, including Krukdill and Krukspy controlled by Sappho. The Bladekruks were still normal, or at least not all of them. Sappho had just raised some from the dead, and they rushed toward Darian as well.
Eros had just noticed something about the Bladekruk that had been raised: their number was lower than when they were alive. When a Bladekruk was alive, its number was thirty-one, but now it was only twenty-four.
Liro was distracting the soldiers that Sappho had just raised, creating an illusion of another human. Liro understood that the only purpose of these creatures was to hit and destroy, but what if they couldn't hit and kill their enemy? They would simply keep going, so Liro used this to his advantage.
"Darian, help me kill the Krukmongbee!" Eros shouted. Darian rushed toward it, but he had too many enemies behind him. The Bladekruk almost reached him.
Now, while Darian was running away from the Bladekruk, the fight in Vane, Allen, and Tauren's room had just ended. They gave Allen to one of the guards, who took him back to the city.
"We're here!" Vane shouted. He was in his buffalo form, and Tauren was on top of him. Darian smiled as he watched them go toward the Bladekruk and send them flying. Vane's body was still bleeding. Tauren had not used much soul, only about fifteen percent, but Vane was at forty percent. His vision was becoming blurry, and his body was bleeding more.
"Don't worry about me, Darian!" Vane said. Darian nodded and rushed toward the Krukmongbee.
Tauren then got down from Vane and emitted a powerful sound. All the living creatures in the room turned toward him. Sappho tried to resist the effect. To avoid being hit by her own enemies, she was able to recall some soldiers and then command them again. They were not affected by Tauren's spell and would defend Sappho.
Eros saw all the numbers drop drastically after Tauren used his spell. He focused on one of the dead Bladekruks. Liro could safely remove his illusion, as his body was starting to bleed.
Sappho herself was now bleeding because of her spell. As she slowly transformed into a Krukin, her soul became stronger. The number above her head was four hundred, so Eros couldn't lower it in any way. As Eros gained control over the Bladekruk, it started to hit all the enemies getting close to Tauren, who just got on Vane's back and began riding him around the cave.
"It's useless! You'll just waste your strength! I can give life to my toys as much as I want!" Sappho shouted. She was now able to free herself from Tauren's spell and sent the guards next to her toward Darian. One of the three soldiers could use earth magic, while the other two used water magic. Water began to flow beneath Darian. He simply smirked.
More and more water flowed, and soon about sixty percent of the enemies had their feet in the water. Eros, Liro, and Vane were in the water, too. Sappho moved to get out of the water. Darian had to dodge some stone spikes before it was time.
"Radial Freeze!" Darian shouted, jumping up. All the water turned to ice, and tons of enemies were frozen in place, unable to move.
After this huge Radial Freeze, Darian started to breathe heavily. The Krukmongbee rushed toward him. "You won't!" Liro said. He created the illusion of a spike falling from the ceiling. The enemy, scared, dodged it. Darian then created many other shards, all of which hit the Krukmongbee, and its number reached zero.
Eros finally gained control over the biggest one, and it started going around, slamming its hands and killing everyone. Tauren got down from Vane, who retreated because he was too tired.
"Sorry guys... I can't..." Said Vane, his whole body bleeding and his eyes turned black now. His soul had just reached 78% of use, he did not want to risk, he was able to go away helped by some guards that just reached the battle field.
"You don't get it... it's useless!" Sappho shouted. She was breathing heavily now, and her body was bleeding more. Her vision was blurry too. The number of enemies she could summon was getting lower; she was slowly losing her strength.
'How much longer are you guys going to take...?' Sappho thought, worried. She had to wait for the signal, but it hadn't arrived yet.
The Krukmongbee's number returned to normal. It was confused at first, but it was standing next to Liro, so it rushed toward him. Liro was not able to move away in time. The Krukmongbee hit him with its claws.
Tauren's roar split the cave.
"Thorn Heart!"
His chest blazed with a jagged light as the krukmongbee's claws came crashing down. For a heartbeat, it seemed he had turned into a wall of steel. The strike that should have torn Liro in two instead ripped across Tauren's shoulder, hurling him back with bone-shaking force.
Blood sprayed. He slammed into the ground, coughing, his whole arm trembling and useless. Yet his eyes locked onto Liro. "Not… on my watch," he forced out, staggering even as his knees buckled.
Liro had been spared the fatal blow, but only barely. His face was pale, sweat dripping as his illusions wavered and cracked. The strain of holding so many against Sappho's army consumed him. He stumbled, his legs failing, then collapsed right beside Tauren, one hand clutched to his chest.
"No… no, damn it," Tauren rasped, dragging himself across the ground. His sacrifice had bought seconds, nothing more. The krukmongbee loomed above them, wings buzzing like a storm, its claws rising again.
But before it could strike, a wave of shouting filled the chamber. Guards burst in, rushing to their side. Shields locked, they threw themselves between the two wounded men and the monster. Sparks flew as the krukmongbee's claws slammed against their defenses.
"Pull them back!" one of the captains barked. Two guards grabbed Liro under the arms, another lifted Tauren, blood staining their armor as they dragged them toward safety.
The krukmongbee hissed, its wings cracking the air, but faced with the sudden press of shields and magic, it lashed out once more and then pulled back, beating its wings furiously. With a final screech, it darted away from the defenders and returned to Sappho's side, circling protectively around her like a vengeful shadow, also if this krukmongbee was still not under her control.
Tauren, barely conscious, spat blood. His fist pounded weakly against the ground. "All that… for nothing," he muttered, as his vision dimmed.
"It's just us, Eros," Darian said, walking closer to him.
"Yeah... let's try this, Darian," Eros said, walking next to him.
Other guards joined the fight. Now there were many of them, and some grabbed Liro and Tauren to help them. All the humans were breathing heavily. Eros and Sappho were bleeding. Then there was a huge explosion. Everyone heard it; it was coming from Nysira and Jaune's room.
'Tch, it might be bad' Sappho thought. She closed her eyes and calmed herself.
"Let's do this," she said. All the Krukins who had died on the battlefield were called once again. But now there was an equal number on both sides. The humans were just fewer than the Krukins.
"Let's start this final rush!" Sappho shouted. She opened her arms, and the fight began again.