"Feather burst!" shouted Catripple as she grabbed three feathers from her back and threw them at Ashikunz, jumping mid-air. The attack traveled at an extreme speed, but even if some water was still in front of his eyes, Ashikunz was ready, and with a clean strike, he made the feathers explode before they could actually hit him.
"Don't back down!" shouted Martheel as he noticed Catripple taking a small step behind when she saw that the feathers weren't able to hit. "Tsunami!" With that, another huge tsunami appeared in front of Ashikunz and devoured him before the Krukin could actually touch the ground and move safely.
'And I wonder why I don't have any animal that can enter the water… it would have been easier,' thought Vane as he dived at an extreme speed towards the Krukin, who simply remained still inside the water. The moment Vane was about to enter the water, the liquid opened, leaving the perfect passage for Vane to enter and strike Ashikunz.
"Arghh!!" shouted Martheel as he spread his armor wide. His whole body was going through a lot of pain as he had to keep the water open; it was like he was in the middle of the sea and had to resist countless waves trying to split his body in half.
Vane dived inside the water, but that was when Ashikunz turned around and blocked Vane's attack with his spear. The eagle's beak crushed against the spear and Vane felt a lot of pain hitting his face. "I can't… stop… now…" whispered Vane as he tried to do everything he could to win against the pressure of the spear. With that, Ashikunz gave him an annoyed look.
"But you will." Ashikunz put a lot more strength into his hands and Vane was slowly losing against the pressure of the spear.
"I can't…" Suddenly, Martheel fell on his knees as he began to bleed after the use of magic. The whole water disappeared, and now Ashikunz, mid-air, had a better chance to put more pressure on Vane's body, who couldn't resist and was crushed onto the ground.
"VANE!!" shouted Lily as she had finally finished her lap around Ashikunz. Suddenly, countless roots emerged from the ground and all of them rushed against Ashikunz at full speed. 'He will escape once again… annoying.' Rather than being hit by the roots, Ashikunz decided to go for the roots.
With a clear hit, he sliced all the roots rushing at him together, but Vane hadn't escaped yet; he had remained under Ashikunz. "TAKE THIS!" Suddenly, Vane turned into a polar bear and, with all the strength in his paws, he was able to push Ashikunz with his paws.
"NOW! EMBER CORE!" shouted Orechin as a huge red crystal appeared right on top of Ashikunz. Vane, hearing Orechin's attack, turned into an eagle and rushed away, scared that he might get hit, too.
'You can't dodge it, Ashikunz… or you crush against it… or if you leave it like nothing, it will fall on the ground and hit you!' thought Orechin while smirking. Ashikunz noticed the smirk on Orechin's face, and the moment their eyes met, the expression on the Krukin's face changed into an amused one.
'What?' This was the only thought that appeared in Orechin's mind before Ashikunz, before he actually hit the red crystal, gave a small and weak hit to the red crystal—not sending enough kinetic energy to actually smash it, but it was enough to send it flying, and the crystal ended up right on top of Catripple, Martheel, and Orechin, who were all close.
"Shit! WATER WALL!" shouted Martheel. To prevent the huge red crystal from crushing them, a huge water wall appeared between the group and the crystal. "I can't resist for longer!"
"Orechin, make it explode now before it gathers too much energy!" shouted Catripple. Orechin, who had taken a step back, scared, nodded with his head.
"Oh, you won't!" Without even caring about the roots that were rushing for his armor, Ashikunz launched the spear towards the red crystal. Orechin didn't have enough time to make it explode before all the kinetic energy brought by the spear was sent to the red crystal, and as it was extremely huge, the explosion shattered the water and sent the three humans behind the wall flying away.
The humans' bodies ended up in front of Darian and Tyel, who kneeled down in front of them, scared. "Are you alright, everyone?" shouted Tyel. As the smog disappeared in front of the bodies, he noticed that all of them had started to bleed and they had a small part of their skin charred.
"We're alright… it just hurts…" whispered Orechin as he returned to his feet.
"I can still fight…" said Catripple as she tried to return to her feet. Behind her, some wings were missing as they got burned because of the explosion.
"And we got lucky that your feathers didn't explode while they were on your back… it would have been the end," pointed out Martheel as he let out a soft laugh.
"Oh, don't worry. As long as I don't remove them from my back, they can't explode… they can just break… as you're seeing." Suddenly, Catripple began to regenerate all the wings on her back, but that was when her body began to bleed and she fell on one knee.
"Sis, are you alright?" asked Martheel as he helped her return to her feet. She nodded with her head.
"Don't worry… I just need all of you to defend me… I'll try one of my spells," said she. Suddenly, on Orechin's expression, a horrified look appeared. "Don't use all of your feathers… you'll just remain completely destroyed… and you'll barely be able to move."
"I know, I know. Let me just try it." With that, Catripple was able to return to her feet with Orechin's help.
"What spell are you all talking about?" asked Darian, confused.
"Exactly… what even is it?" asked Martheel as he didn't know either. Tyel, next to Darian, smirked.
"Oh, just see… she'll be able to remove a lot of stamina from him." With that, Tyel turned his head again towards Ashikunz, who was fighting against Lily and Vane.
The moment the root wrapped itself around Ashikunz's armor, some of Lily's poison began to enter inside the Krukin's body, and he slowly became weaker, and his stamina was being lowered.
'My stamina is still at seventy-seven percent… I still have a long way to go…' Ashikunz pulled his arm away, completely shattering the root blocking his armor. 'Still, they're doing more than expected… have they spent these hours training?' thought Ashikunz as he rushed to grab the spear, not caring about Vane, who was a buffalo and tried to crush Ashikunz with the strength of his horns.
But Ashikunz didn't care about him; he simply rushed towards the spear and he thrust it towards Vane, who was rushing at him from behind. 'If we had fought in the night, I would have barely used any stamina…' As Ashikunz looked up at the sky, and his eyes stopped for a moment at the sun, he realized how much he was sweating.
'I have never been able to fully remove the pain…' Ashikunz in all these three hundred years had spent a lot of time in the desert, and he had learned to resist the pain, to fight against it, but he never ended up fighting this many opponents in the desert with the sun up in the sky.
'The moment I decimated the old rebels, I was on the mainland… it was easier…' Ashikunz kept pressing his spear against Vane, and because his stamina had lowered and Vane was putting a lot more strength, he was able to resist the pressure of the attack.
'Other roots…' noticed Ashikunz as he realized countless other roots were appearing next to him, rushing directly for his legs. 'They're going for the right one…' Ashikunz suddenly put a lot more strength, and with a powerful hit, he gave a kick with his right leg at Vane, sending him flying multiple meters away.
"Vane!!" shouted Lily as she noticed that Vane had turned human again; his whole body was bleeding and his vision had turned blurry as he was now laying on the ground.
"Don't worry… I can still do it," said Vane as he returned to his feet, while Ashikunz, with his leg mid-air after the kick, slashed the other roots on the ground with his spear, and with a perfect movement landed on the ground without any problem.
"Still prism!" shouted Orechin. Suddenly, a small blue crystal appeared under Ashikunz's feet.
"You should have waited for an attack… this is useless." The moment Ashikunz lowered his head to pierce the blue crystal on the ground, he noticed Catripple flying with her wings that were literally burning. Now that he noticed it, too, it felt like Catripple's body was burning down, too.
"Phoenix recoil!" Suddenly, not just a single feather got away from Catripple's back, but countless of them, and as they flew towards Ashikunz, they shattered again into multiple small parts.
'What even is this?' thought Ashikunz at the sight of the attack. 'I can barely see the feathers… did they become smaller?' Ashikunz, thanks to his armor, could see perfectly even the smallest things; if he focused, he could even see single molecules, but never atoms.
'Are these smaller than atoms? No, they're even smaller!' The moment these feathers arrived in front of Ashikunz, they exploded, and even if he had positioned himself in a defensive pose, he wasn't able to hit and smash the feathers, and they exploded in front of his face.
Other feathers regenerated instantaneously on Catripple's body, and the same attack happened once again. "I will not let you attack me once again!" shouted Ashikunz as he rushed towards Catripple. The cuts given by the use of magic became even stronger, and more blood started to drip from her skin.
Catripple remained silent as another huge portion of her feathers got away from her back, and the moment they shattered, they crushed again towards Ashikunz, creating countless explosions that were able to create some charred parts over Ashikunz's skin.
'The temperature… is rising, too…' pointed out Ashikunz as he noticed that he had started to sweat harder. 'I thought I had learned to resist higher temperatures… but this is too much…' Ashikunz, who couldn't resist, fell on his knees while all the explosions created multiple cuts over his body.
"It's so damn hot…" pointed out Tyel as he had started to sweat really hard.
"I agree… still…" Darian noticed something strange; he felt like the others were feeling more heat than himself. 'Let me check how high the temperature actually is…' Darian grabbed a thermometer from his backpack, and the temperature was around one hundred and ten degrees Celsius.
At this sight, Darian blinked in surprise. 'Okay, all of humanity has received a mutation and has been able to adapt to this kind of temperature… but why me? I'm supposed to be a normal human…' With that, Darian looked at Snowy.
'Are you doing something?' asked Darian, waiting for a reply that never arrived.
After a good thirty seconds, the temperature had reached its max, and it arrived at almost seventy degrees Celsius, and soon enough the heat disappeared.
Ashikunz was now on the ground standing on his knees while breathing heavily. 'I… I can't believe… what even was that?' thought Ashikunz, confused, as he couldn't find an actual explanation. "I had never seen this spell…" whispered he as he slowly returned to his feet while his whole body shook.
"It's now or never!!" shouted Vane as he rushed in eagle form towards the Krukin. Right before he was about to hit him, Vane turned into a polar bear and was about to slash his claws towards Ashikunz until Ashikunz smiled creepily.
"Vane, no!!" shouted Darian. With a clean hit, Ashikunz created a cut all over Vane's body, and he was sent flying, returning to human form with a huge scratch across his stomach.
"VANE!!" shouted Lily as she immediately rushed over to him, trying to press on the injury with some of her clothes.
"And two are gone." With that, Ashikunz finally turned towards the other humans, who all took a step back, except for Catripple, who was laying on the ground; her eyes had become black and she would soon reach the latest stages.
Ashikunz passed right next to Catripple, and as he noticed that the woman was barely remaining conscious, he simply walked over her.
"She has done so much… how is it possible?" thought Orechin, scared, as he took a small step back.
"How is it possible? Well, I must say… she surely has done a lot," answered Ashikunz as he walked slowly. The other humans, scared, took some steps back. "In fact, with that attack… she has been able to drop my stamina from seventy percent to fifty!" shouted Ashikunz as he glanced behind at the unconscious Catripple.
"NOWW!!" shouted Martheel as he rushed with his arm pointed towards Ashikunz. "Water bubble!" Multiple bubbles came out of Martheel's armor; he pointed them directly at Ashikunz's armor, especially the parts in which his skin was charred, and a lot of pain was sent all over Ashikunz's body.
"MARTHEEL!!" shouted Tyel before Ashikunz turned around and pierced Martheel's stomach with his spear.