*Boom*
*Boom*
*Boom*
Continuous booms resounded as the Possessed was forced back repeatedly. Its rod had long been knocked out of its grasp, and it (the rod) lay forsaken at a deserted corner of the battlefield. True to his word, Dominic – the Master – didn't interfere with their battle. He sat wordlessly and watched everything with a cold gaze. As he watched, he analysed everything he saw.
"Two shooters, and two close combat wielders. The one on fire seems to be the leader, and his energy is the most robust of them all. The other one who joined late on is in the late stages of the profound realm. And his battle suit looks good. One more gift I would happily accept. But I am baffled about that one factor: if he was this strong, why didn't he jump in earlier on?" Dominic tried to understand the reason behind Abe's decision to wait behind initially. Selina and Frederick's energy signatures were in the mortal realm so Dominic didn't worry about them.
"Regardless of what the reason was, if they cannot kill it, they would run out of energy. But it doesn't matter. Whether the Possessed kills them or I do, the result of today's encounter would be death for them all. After I capture and interrogate them of course" Dominic revealed a cruel smile under his hood and turned his attention to the bout once again. He could feel Mane's energy waning, which was strange because it had only been 4 minutes since the battle started.
"Are his techniques that draining?" Dominic wondered. He didn't know that it was because Mane's energy merge was close to its limit. A loud boom shook him out of wonderland.
"True Hubris" Abe growled and struck the temple of the Possessed. He was covered from top to bottom in his black battle suit, but refrained from using the axe. He wasn't skilled enough to use it in a battle of this scale. The Possessed grew madder as the battle progressed. It could heal its injuries but the pain always remained. Gradually, its movements grew more animalistic and its attacks became more careless. It started to trade blow for blow and even disregarded bone breaking injuries. The Possessed ignored the pain radiating from its temple to the rest of its body and struck Abe's abdomen.
*Bam*
Abe grunted and struck its jaw with an uppercut in return. His fist was covered in earth and his anger was transferred through the blow to the Possessed.
*Bam*
Without waiting for it to respond, he struck it again and crossed his arms to block its kick.
*Bam*
Abe was pushed back by the sheer power of the kick. His arms trembled in pain. "If it wasn't for the earth elements strengthening my body, that kick could have snapped my arms in half" Abe calmed his rioting energy and thought fearfully. He finally understood the power of a Heaven Realmer. Just a casual kick without any techniques could have easily injured him without the help of his body armor and the earth elements.
The Possessed tried to get to Abe but was stopped by a punch to its shoulder.
*Bam*
It flew back in pain. Its arm hang limply on the side, showing that it had dislocated its shoulder. Before it could push its arm back in and heal, a fire arrow struck that very same shoulder and blew his arm off. A water arrow quickly followed and struck the empty hole where its arm was initially. The water arrow flew through the hole and lodged deeply in the Possessed, before exploding within its body.
"Arrgh!" it screamed in pain. By now it didn't know whom it hated more: the sneaky little archers or the two close combat wielders. Before it could choose the most spiteful of the four, Mane came flying in with a hefty blow. It shifted its head to avoid the punch and threw out its remaining arm in a furious counter. However, its punch didn't meet the intended target. It heard an explosion and became disoriented, halting its movements temporarily.
"Now!" Mane screamed. What he did was to use outer energy to disorient the Possessed. Although his attack missed, his outer energy chose to explode at the right time. The exploding outer energy hit the Possessed right on its ear. Although he couldn't use a lot of outer energy, and it wasn't dense due to his low body wielding stage (above-mortal realm), it was more unstable than inner energy. It wasn't strong enough to injure the Possessed, but it stunned it magnificently. As for his command, it was meant for Abe.
Abe activated his glow – Incomplete Transformation [Wyvern]. His body quickly embraced the wyvern form and his transformation was complete in no time. Unlike his first transformation, this one was quick. He flapped his blade-like wings and dashed towards the Possessed. In this form, he was able to use and manipulate fire to some extent. He had been waiting for this moment.
"True Hubris!" he activated his only breath and opened up his fist. His extended fingers were reinforced with magnificent wyvern claws that tore through the air with a sharp whistle. Abe willed for flames to cloak his claws and the fire elements heeded his call.
The dizzy Possessed was suddenly overcome with a cold feeling. It felt like it had been damped in a sea of frost and left there overnight. Even without seeing what was going on, it knew it was in trouble. It instinctively brought up its arms to its chest to protect itself. But that was just the instinct of a creature which used to be a man. It hadn't fully settled into its abilities as a Possessed and was still growing. It didn't know that it wasn't the chest Abe was aiming for. Abe was aiming for the area housing its core – its abdomen. If the Possessed had more time to fully fit into its new body it would have been able to freely manipulate the positon of its core, and its instinct – even in this situation where it couldn't see a thing – would have been to shield its abdomen or move the core. However, it wasn't able to do that yet, so its core was moving solely on instinct.
*Puchi*
Abe clawed his way through the Possessed's abdomen. He could see the core because he had marked it. The fire that covered his hand burnt away at the flesh of the Possessed and prevented it from healing. He sliced the core with his claws and cut it into two.
*Bam*
Abe was kicked back by the Possessed. It looked frightened and held its abdomen with a painful look on its face. The regenerating left arm (that was blown off by the twins) stopped all activity. It had grown to a third of its usual length but it grew no more. The Possessed tried to fall back after feeling that its energy was fading.
"You cannot let it go!" 1st hastily reminded Mane. "Your friend didn't crush its core, hence it will live. The core is more difficult to heal because it houses its regenerative abilities. But as long as it feeds on someone, it will heal" 1st quickly explained.
"Feeds?" Mane asked, startled by the new information. This information meant that the Possessed had killed several people to regain its abilities when they thought they killed it the first time. Mane seethed in rage at the thought. "Yes" 1st replied and urged him to close the Possessed down
"Do it now"
"Star Flicker" Mane activated his high class technique and appeared in front of the Possessed almost immediately. The Possessed was initially moving towards Selina and Fred. Mane didn't need to think much to realize that it wanted to feed on his friends. However, the Possessed seemed to anticipate this and quickly span around. It began to move in circles.
"No!" Mane screamed. The Possessed had already studied the advantages and disadvantages of Star Flicker in this short exchange! It was remarkable. It used this knowledge to avoid Mane and had closed the distance of several hundreds of meters within a few seconds. As it was in the Heaven Realm, it was naturally faster than Mane. Mane had been able to bridge the speed gap between them by his use of leases and Star Flicker. But this time, he had failed.
Abe looked at the direction of the Possessed's charge and realized what was going on. His face grew pale in fear as he witnessed the Possessed get within a few meters of Selina and Fred. He and Mane had made sure, throughout the entire battle, to keep the Possessed away from Selina and Frederick. But a moment of carelessness had revealed a gap. The Possessed's kick caused him a lot of pain and broke a few bones. There was no way he'd be able to catch up!
Fred quickly pushed Selina out of the way before the Possessed could reach the duo, shoving her to safety and leaving himself in harm's way. Frederick smiled bitterly when he saw the look of disbelief and fear on Selina's face. His smile grew resplendent when he realized her fear wasn't for herself, but for him.
Looking beyond the Possessed, Frederick could see Mane and Abe closing it down with hopelessness etched on their faces. They looked at him in grief, their faces apologetic. Frederick knew they wouldn't get here in time. But before Frederick could bring himself to say some pretty final words, two arrows struck the Possessed on its bleeding abdomen. The two archers everyone seemed to have disregarded came to the rescue.
*Boom*
*Boom*
As was the process throughout the entire battle, the fire arrow arrived first and exploded upon impact. The Possessed screamed in agony as its already severe wound became even worse. Since it couldn't regenerate, the gaping wound on its abdomen was like a large bullseye for the twins. The water arrow arrived next. However, this time it didn't explode into little drops of water. The water froze – it froze the Possessed's entire abdomen! The Possessed groaned in discomfort and slowed down, giving Mane and Abe the chance to catch up.
The young Supreme quickly rushed to its front, to shield Frederick and Selina, and unleashed his anger onto the Possessed.
"Extreme Burst!"
"1st move"
"2nd"
"3rd"
"4th"
"5th"
"6th"
*Bam*
Mane struck every part of its body, with the exception of its frozen abdomen. He left it out for something special. The rage in his eyes hadn't subsided; rather, it had grown stronger.
"Flickering Burst" he forced the words through his gritted teeth and sent a blindingly fast kick towards the Possessed. It was the attack he created by combining Star Flicker and Extreme Burst. This time, its abdomen was his target.
*Boom*
The ice broke apart, and so did the Possessed. It was directly broken into two! Its eyes looked lifeless and its mouth was opened wide; yet no words were said.
"Where?" Mane asked as he watched the Possessed's body – well, the two halves of its body – fly freely in the air.
"Trunk" Abe knew what Mane was asking. Mane wanted to know where the core was. Mane nodded and jumped after the upper half of the Possessed's body. He kicked it towards Abe and screamed, "Get it right this time!"
Abe nodded in response. He knew that he messed up the first time. It wasn't like he knew that the core had to be destroyed completely, but it didn't change the fact that he didn't finish the job. In a sense, it was Mane's fault for not telling him. But Mane himself didn't know until just now.
"True Hubris" still in his wyvern transformation state, Abe located the core and penetrated the Possessed with his sharp claws. He held the core, which was now in its chest, between two of his claws. It was a half core now since Abe had sliced a part off. He clamped down hard, and destroyed it. Then he set it on fire.
*Crunch*
The Possessed was engulfed in Abe's flames in no time. Dominic watched on, surprised by what he had witnessed, but not bothered in the least.
"Everyone in this team is exceptional, huh" he praised silently. He was surprised by Abe's transformation – surprised and envious. Surprised because he had never seen anything like it; and envious because he could tell it was a glow. He was also amazed that Abe could use two elements – fire and earth – but he noticed that Abe could only use his fire in his transformed state. Mane didn't use any other element except fire, so Dominic didn't know that Mane was the actual all-rounder.
But even Abe's abilities didn't impress him like the twins'. Ice elementalists were not just rare, they were extinct. So seeing one here and experiencing his abilities was amazing.
"A pity he'd have to die" Dominic sighed pretentiously. There was no pity in his voice. But Dominic didn't know that there were others who were also surprised by John.
"To think that he could call upon the ice elements" 3rd sighed in Mane's mindscape. "Even I didn't know he had such abilities" Mane stated. Mane had mastered the four basic elements, and was striving to understand lightning. But there was a point in his life, when he tried to understand how to ice wield, but failed spectacularly. So he knew how difficult it was to conjure ice.
"Ice wielding is on the same level as lightning wielding. Both elements aren't easily learned. They are birthed by bloodlines" 1st explained and Mane nodded. This was what 1st told him when he couldn't ice wield. But it seemed that John had it encoded in his bloodline.
"I don't think even he knew" 6th said. "It may have been because of his spiraling emotions" 6th continued. Maybe he was right. Maybe John had been so terrified of the prospect of losing his friends that he had temporarily called upon the ice elements, and they listened. But that would have to wait. It would only become a topic for discussion if they were able to leave this place. Mane's powerful aura receded as he reached the limit for his energy merge. He had long cancelled Takeover, but his leases were still active. He was exhausted, but he knew the battle wasn't over.
"Amazing. Even I cannot kill that thing, yet you people succeeded" the glee in Dominic's voice was unhidden. And Mane and co realized that the man dubbed Master didn't like the Possessed. Why did he create it then, they wondered?
"I guess it's my turn now"