Appearing in the Ironmarsh Village, I didn't have the time to react before a wolf tackled me from behind. I'd been caught totally off guard, my shields down. For the first time in a while, I felt the sting of pain as it bit into my back ferociously.
"FUCK THAT HURTS!" I screamed, gathering Lightning Elemental Energy. The nice thing about having wolf eating your back is that you don't have to worry about aiming. A moment later, the wolf's whimpering sounds as it twitched in pain was accompanied by a spear of ice shooting from Patrice's phantom form while she screamed in anger.
Quickly creating a Storm Energy barrier, I turned to find the entire village burning. Screams echoed throughout the area, and as I watched a massive explosion blew up the Adventurer's Guild. Alex, the manager of the guild, exploded into view grappling with a 12 foot tall bear that reeked of corruption.
Before I could make it to Alex, the bear fell to all fours and opened its mouth wide. Growling, a ball of corrupted energy formed in it's mouth and shot into Alex. As I watched, Alex lost control of his body and he fell to the ground like a puppet with it's strings cut. The bear didn't let go of it's chance, it went to bite his head off.
"Elemental Strike!" I yelled as loudly as I could, aiming at Alex I created a massive gust of wind that blew him several feet to the side just before the bear could decapitate him.
Roaring in anger, the bear went to finish him off but was too late. Rick jumped in front of the bear, his massive shield blocking it's path. Activating his Holy Energy, the corrupted energy in the air became visible as it fought against it's natural foe. Now, I could see the corrupted energy that was trying to eat through Alex's consciousness, turning him into a corrupted being. Without second thought, I gathered some Lightning Elemental Energy in my right palm and slammed my hand down on Alex's head.
With a sound of sizzling energy, I watched as the corrupted energy was expelled and purified by the lightning. Watching as Alex twitched, a grimace of pure pain on his face I could only hope that I hadn't done any permanent harm to him. While Lightning Energy may be good at purifying corrupted energy, it's also incredibly destructive.
Alex passed out, twitching and groaning but I couldn't afford to spend anymore time worrying about him because another bear appeared. Sauntering through the exploded guild hall, a nearly twenty foot tall bear came into view. It's shaggy brown hair had turned a purplish-black color, while it's muscles seemed to have been unnaturally strengthened. As it came closer, the feeling of corruption increased exponentially.
While I'd been busy with helping Alex, Connor had appeared and pulled out a broken sword. With a lazy swing, an image of a phantom blade appeared on his broken hilt and he somehow decapitated the first bear in a single strike while yelling at Alexandra who was behind him. "Don't worry about fighting, just burn these things after we kill them and watch our backs. Until we find the source of corruption they'll just keep on resurrecting."
Behind me, I heard Beth's war cry. "DECAPITATORS!" Glancing over, she was in the middle of a hoard of all kinds of beasts. Covered in cuts and scratches, she laughed as if she was having the time of her life as she smash, chopped, and slammed her way through the hoard.
Rick stepped forwards, raising his shield while gathering Holy Energy around him. Closing his eyes for a brief moment, when he opened them again they'd disappeared behind a blinding light as he yelled out, "God's Judgement!" His holy energy transformed into bunches of runes, creating a circle of Holy Energy that surrounded the 200 feet around us.
The massive bear roared in agony as the Holy Energy surrounded it and I watched in amazement as wisps of corrupted energy started flying from it's body before being purified by whatever formation Rick had activated. Within moments, the bear had lost 5 feet in height, and a stone appeared in it's forehead. Flashing with a dark-purple light, the gem created a barrier of some sort that counteracted the purifying affect of Rick's move.
"That stone is the source of corruption! We have to take it out before it recovers!" Rick yelled as started to rush as quickly as he could towards the bear. We were too late, because the source felt threatened it gathered all the corrupted energy that it'd forced into the beast hoard back to itself.
Just as Rick slammed his mace into the bear's head where the stone had been it expanded in size again, reaching nearly 30 feet tall this time while it's muscles were so huge that I doubted we could do anything more then bruise the beast. The corrupted energy kept poring in, and Beth came back from her rampage among the hoard along with a woman wearing leather armor and carrying a bow and arrow.
Covered in wounds from head to tow, I watched in amazement as she used some special ability and her blood evaporated, turning into Elemental Energy as it rushed into her wounds and she healed visibly. "The hoard just keeled over, most of them dead in an instant." Beth said, glaring at the massive beast in hatred as it continued to evolve.
While I'd been examining Beth, Connor had approached the beast trying to use his phantom blade to break through the barrier of corrupted energy that had appeared to contain the corrupted energy. I watched as shining Elemental Energy gathered on his blade before slicing through the barrier as if it didn't exist. Unfortunately, the beast wasn't so easily vanquished. The sword dug half an inch into it's hide before the massive muscles enhanced by corrupted energy swelled and Connor was thrown back nearly 15 feet.
Rolling, he got back up as he glared at the beast and yelled, "Anyone have any ideas?"
Rick backed off and closed his eyes, focusing on maintaining the formation of Holy Energy despite the corrupted energy that was bombarding the runes constantly. "Injure it in anyway you can. If we can break that barrier of corrupted energy the formation will purify it!"
Gunthar appeared out of nowhere, a rage I'd never seen before on his face as he yelled, "YOU PROFANE THE SPIRITS!" An image of a bear covered him, and he transformed into a bear nearly as big as the corrupted one as he slammed into it. The spirits of all the beasts he had bound himself to roared in fury, tearing into the corrupted bear in a rage fueled frenzy.
They weren't doing much damage, but as I watched I realized that the barrier wasn't containing the energy perfectly anymore. Small strands of corrupted energy were being drawn into and purified by formation that Rick was still operating.
Thinking for a moment, I decided to give Patrice access to almost all of my Elemental Energy as I sat down cross-legged to gather more. In the past, Patrice had always been the one to gather energy for us while I fought, but now I didn't have to worry about moving because Gunthar had the bear pinned down and Beth was standing next to me in case I needed help.
The phantom of the dark-gold storm cloud became more and more substantial as it slowly expanded to cover the entire area above the formation of God's Judgement. After about 30 seconds, it suddenly contracted as a single bolt of lightning slammed directly into the head of the beast.
*CRACK*
A shockwave of power blew Gunthar and his summons off the beasts back and he landed nearly 40 feet away. Exhausted, Gunthar lay on his back panting as he transformed back into a human.
I didn't have the time to rush over to check on him as the beast rushed towards Rick as it visibly began to shrink. Patrice's lightning bolt didn't seem to have damaged the beast in anyway, but it had knocked out the barrier completely. Somehow, I knew that as long as we held it off of Rick we'd win.
Connor realized it too as he rushed forwards again, moving his sword to parry an attack. A barrier of Elemental Energy seemed to surround him as he blocked a swipe of the bear's paw. Then it disappeared as it flowed into his sword and coated the blade in light as he slashed the beast across it's neck and blood mixed with more corrupted energy poured from it's body.
By this point, it had shrunk back to only 20 feet tall and it seemed to have trouble moving properly. The remainder of the Lightning Elemental Energy continued to coarse through it's body, purifying it further while causing it's muscles to twitch.
Beth left my side, rushing over as she pulled out the Spiritual Battleaxe that I'd given her. Jumping as high as her small frame allowed her too, she spun as she slammed the axe into the back of the bear's neck, forcing it into the ground just as it was about to take a bite out of Connor.
Before it could move again, the girl with the bow and arrow attacked. While we'd been fighting, she'd been gathering more and more energy into the tip of her arrow and as it traveled through the air it began to burn with a white fire. The arrow pierced through the skull of the beast as if it were butter and slammed into the stone, cracking it slightly.
The beast roared in pain as it began roiling around, unable to control itself as more and more corrupted energy leaked from it's wounds. Taking advantage of the bear's inability to fight back, Connor took a moment to gather his strength. His phantom sword flashed and solidified as Metal Elemental Energy poured into it and gathered at it's tip. Screaming his war cry, he stabbed through the damaged stone, breaking it into pieces.
The bear collapsed as a massive wave of corrupted energy erupted from it's body. It tried to take over Connor, but found itself being sucked into Rick's formation and purified. As I watched, Rick's body began to glow with a holy light inside and out before it suddenly expelled tons of impurities.