Elder Grimsbane rolled backwards on the floor after hitting a fairly large object. Lucky for the elder, It was Ulrik's back instead of that big ass shield. Ulrik's reaction was on point, He saw the elder caught by the chain and quickly placed himself between the two of them. There was nothing else he could, at least he manage to save the elder's Life.
After rolling a couple of times, the elder stood up extremely fast and acted like nobody saw what happened.
"N-not Cool boy, Not cool at all"
Rhaen knew that he need to be relentless if they were to survive this fight. He followed the pull with a combat art acquired through his mastery of the shield, It was called Shield Barrage. By supplying the energy necessary to activate two Savage Blows, the shield wielder could moved forward battering all the targets in his path with his shield.
Ulrik stood his ground in front of Rhaen and activated the shield skill Stand Fast. Stand Fast was acquired by all the shield wielders and it increased the area of defense around the shield as well as reinforced the defensive value of the shield.
Rhaen had the advantage in terms of momentum. He was in motion while the opposite party was trying to gain a little bit of traction in the snow. By the time shield met shield, the force of Rhaen's charge was doubled. Ulrik's felt that he was being hit by a gigantic Rhino. Even though he was not sent flying backwards, he was forced back again and again by the Barrage.
Grimsbane threw himself to the side to avoid being hit by the fast approaching Ulrik and end up once again covered in snow.
This was Rhaen strategy all along. The purpose of his attacks was not to defeat his two opponents but to tied them up long enough so that his teammates could finish up the other enemies. If Rhaen had another Level 20 on his team, all of his efforts until now could have generated plenty of opportunities to finish the fight. Sadly, this was not the case and the fight was just starting.
Having a higher level Shaman in the group was very advantageous. It was very logical that the quality of the spells cast by Elder Grimsbane was superior. In the case of the group Ward cast by both of them before, Elder Bear's ward absorbed a bit less damage.
On the other side of the battlefield, the Berserkers had finally engaged in battle. In addition to the ward from Elder Grimsbane, their Berserker received two more enhancements from his teammate.
With the threat from the beastlord's warder pet removed from the equation, the warlock was able to cast two enhancement spells on his friend. The first one was called Aspect of Darkness and the second one was called Rune of Bexenar, The Plaguebringer. The first spell increased the amount of energy capacity a fighter had as well as the resistance to harmful effects of the poison and disease variety. Rune of Bexenar enhanced a weapon by adding a special magic that would transfer bacteria to any cut done by the blade. If not treated or controlled it could start spreading to the rest of the body damaging the cells of the host.
When a person looked at the blade, a brownish colour cloud would be swirling around it.
The bigger the cut, the bigger the amount of pathogen delivered and the higher the possibility of spreading. It was very similar to an assassin coating his blades with poison but in this case the Rune contained bacteria.
This weapon augmentation made it very difficult for a Berserker to fight. Usually, Berserkers would allow damage to go through their defenses in order to build Rage and use devastating abilities. Thanks to the rune spell, the delegation's Berserker was at a disadvantage.
As soon as both started to fight, Elder Bear tried casting Weakness on the enemy's Berserker but it was resisted. All of Ulrik's party employed the use of poisons and diseases to inflict damage, and just as they could ditch out damage base on this two elements, they were well equip spell wise to boost their party resistance. Therefore, spells such as Weakness base on pathogens had little effect on their group.
Elder Bear did not get discourage and cast Icy Winds on the Berserker to slow his movement speed and this time, he was successful.
Elder Bear was very intelligent, he quickly realized that any spells that used poisons and diseases as their bases would not be effective on the other team. There was no point on using them. He could still assist with his cures and healing and if the opportunity present itself, he could enter the fray using his Bear Incarnation.
The two Berserkers did not bother to evade each others attacks and used Savage blows chained with Resolute Strikes. Each attack hit harder than the previous in the Combo Chain. It only took a couple of combos to destroy the ward cast by Elder Bear and when the third Savage Blow came straight at the delegation Berserker, he got his first wound. Ignoring the wound, he continued with the second part of his combo onto the opponent.
This time, both traded blows respectively and without protective wards they both left big wounds on each other's chest.
Cure Wounds was quickly cast by Elder Bear on his teammate and the disease from the rune was removed from the cut.
Using the Rage generated by the two wounds in his body, the Delegation's Berserker was able to activate the combat Art Fiery Rage. This skill gave the Berserker and explosive boost to his combat effectiveness. Strength increased by 20%, Toughness by 10% and Stamina by 10%. The enhancement lasted 15 sec but in a Life and Death battle it was more than enough.
RAWR!
The delegation's Berseker screamed and after roaring, he spent a lot of energy on his next move. The energy and killing intent merge and created the illusion of a fiery aura around his body. He swung both his axes in a criss-cross faction and two energy waves were generate from the edge of the axes in a frontal cone.
Boom!!!
A massive explosion sounded and the Berserker from Ulrik's team flew backwards with stones hitting him all through out the body. Despite the spectacular sight there was very little damage done.
Elder Grimsbane had stood up after avoiding the incoming Ulrik and with this minor gap in attacks from Rhaen he was able to cast an emergency ward on his comrade. At the same time, a very good use of parry decreased the damage from the very powerful skill. The results were just minor wounds to his skin caused by the rocks and a minor shock to his internal organs caused by the energy wave.
For a Berserker minor damage was his best friend. It was now his turn to Fiery Rage.
Rawr!!!
As he screamed the energy explode also generating the fiery aura around his body.
Not wanting to give any chance to breathe to his opponent, the delegation's Berserker leaped into the air with both axes above his head coming down with momentum. Unfortunately for him, the opposite side was already waiting for him.
Grimsbane cast a Defiler spirit art called Deteriorate. One of the spirits from his BalefuI Aura flew towards the Berserker and landed square in his chest. It was extremely hard to change direction mid air so he decided to suck it up and finish his attack. The spirit art shocked the spirit of the target reducing the ability of the target to control his own body reducing all his attributes by 5%. It was the exact same feeling of waking up and a person's arm is numb and they feel pins and needles when the feeling is coming back to the limb. They can move their limbs but not 100%.
Using his two broadswords and his enhanced strength, Grimsbane's comrade swung both his swords to meet the axes. Elder Bear used his emergency ward to help his friend but the discrepancy in strength at the moment of the clash was considerable.
The delegation Berserker was thrown backwards but it was not over. It was now his opponent turn to use the Rage Aura to unleashed a powerful skill.
AHHH! Thunder Strikes!!!
The two broadswords in the hand of the Berserker stroke Rhaen's teammate 15 times in a matter of seconds. After the 4th strike the Ward Elder Bear had provided disappeared, after the 10th strike the axes in his hands broke and the last 4 strikes landed all across his body.
Splash!!!
Blood flew through the air and 3 bodies fell to the ground, along with the guts of both Berserkers.
Thud... Thud... Thud
In the middle of both Berserkers, a blood covered figure appeared and turned to look at his two enemies and said, " Let us continue."
Ulrik was able to see what happened but couldn't stop it. He saw Rhaen move double his regular speed and Intercept the last hit of his comrade with his shield. Rhaen send the Berserker of balance and then with his sword cut him in two across his waist.
It was quite Brutal. The strength of a Level 23 warrior was not to be underestimate. Specially, one with and iron sword enchanted with the Sharpness Rune.
Ulrik had seen a lot of savage things in his life, but the fact that both Berserkers were now on the floor with all their insides on the snow did not affect him one bit. What really got to him was the fact that his opponent was a follower of a good alignment God. He could had saved his comrade by intercepting the first attack, but he chose to intercept the last in order to make sure, he killed his opponent.
Ulrik realized that Rhaen was not just a high level chump that Level through Alchemy or grinding low level monsters. The combat experience displayed by this Champion in front of him had the shadow of a mountain of corpses.
Whimper!!
AH Ha H...