After that declaration of war, the three monster sprang into action.
The Grim Shrieker began to take a deep breath and glow with a purple light, but before it could cast a technique, the Wooly Rammoth charged into it, body alight with a red glow and tusks glowing red as if on fire. The Wooly Rammoth was quite a bit smaller than the Grim Shrieker, so the two monsters fighting looked like a goat charging at a bear. The burning red tusks made impact with the Grim Shrieker right in its chest, just as it was about to let loose another screaming technique. That same white minute flash from earlier occured again, but quickly disappeared again.
The other binders cheered at the sight of Agiros' monster taking the initiative to attack first, marvelling at the sheer brute strength of the gold grade behemoth. Agiros on the other hand, frowned at the sight.
The Grim Shrieker appeared momentarily stunned by the sudden charge, but recovered quickly as I saw it lift one of its massive claws that began to glow with the telltale white-green light of a wind technique. Feeling of dread crept up my back, sensing that the raw might behind that technique would seriously injure the Wooly Rammoth. possibly turn back into aether too.
[Voxea]!
[I sense it], Voxea replied before her left hand began to glow with a white-green light. The words [Skyfall] flashed through my head before Voxea's left hand curled into a fist and she punched straight into the ground, forming a magic circle on impact.
An even larger magic circle similar to the one that formed under Voxea's fist soon appeared under the feet of the Grim Shrieker a few moments after. A powerful gust of wind erupted from the magic circle and knocked the Grim Shrieker into the air and away from the Wooly Rammoth. As it was soaring through the air, another magic circle similar to the first manifested and fired off another blast of wind that launched it back into the ground!
The Grim Shrieker impacted the ground with a loud crashing sound as the force of the technique hit it with enough force for it to cause a crater on impact. Once again, a huge amount of dust was kicked up by the forces of the technique, but our vision wasn't as obscured as last time. We watched dumbfounded as the Grim Shrieker slowly picked itself back up from the crater.
[Not good], Voxea commented, [Our attacks appeared to have done nothing and will continue doing so unless we pull off some insane shenanigans].
[What]?
[Take a look. It's getting back up].
As the dust settled and our vision cleared, it became clear why it wasn't hurt from the previous attacks.
"It has armor?!", I couldn't help but exclaim
The Grim Shrieker was now wearing ice-white, form fitting armor from head to toe. The armor's design had imagery on it depicting scenes of rage, madness, carnage and every unspeakable horror that could happen under the sun. Most disturbing however, was the helmet covering its face had the facsimile of a screaming little girl that I was all too familiar with. I felt a mixture of bile and rage build up in the back of my throat. The Grim Shrieker began to shake off the debris and dust that had sullied its armor, right before the armor disappeared again.
"No wonder those attacks felt wrong earlier...", Agiros grumbled under his breath as his Wooly Rammoth took on a defensive stance.
"What the hell?! How can armor like that just appear and disappear like that?!". one of the mercenary binders shouted in surprise.
One of the smarter looking binders, a Scholar if I had to guess, produced what appeared to be a book shaped relic and quickly skimmed through the pages. After a few moments, he closed the book and a look of despair appeared on his face.
"That Grim Shrieker has aether armor".