Just above the dense forest, the sun could barely be seen slowly finding its way into the vast sky. The moon had long since vanished and the darkness was gradually withdrawing.
The forest life was slowly coming awake to start another day under the support of the vast powerful flora that surrounded them, well almost every life.
BAM!
BANG!!
CRASH!!!
Amba was sent to the floor after failing to properly block an attack from the skeletal giant. He proceeded to quickly dodge to the side to escape a foot stomp and didn't hesitate to grab the leg and pull his opponent down with him.
CLACK! CLACK!
CRASH!
The giant stumble to the ground much to the dismay of the necromancer. Deqi was at this point, thoroughly crazed!
All he wanted was vengeance against these people that caused him so much pain, he didn't even care how it was done.
First, they had destroyed his work of countless years. Still thinking about his lost army and all the time, resources and sacrifices that went into them sent twinges of pain down his soul that enraged him the more.
Then they had stormed his hideout of many years and even forced him to destroy it in a bid to escape. All his property and money that he was not able to recover were now buried underneath the rubble of a hill, forever lost to him.
He had lost his strongest specimen that he had gotten only with immense luck. There was absolutely no way he could see himself getting his hands on a specimen that strong again and the thought of that made him want to tear at his hair, if he could still use his hands!
The damned assassin had completely poisoned his arm with a compound he could not recognize. Although he had been ignoring it, the truth was that he had been biting down hard on his teeth to keep from screaming!
The poison not only paralyzed his body, it also sent the occasional pulse of hand biting pain through his arm. His stomach that was attacked wasn't free of the pain either and if the needle was just a little bit deeper, he would have probably died from lung paralysis.
His other hand was also hanging uselessly at his side as the muan had broken every single major joint on it. All these factors caused Deqi to throw all caution and rationality into the wind.
He simply couldn't keep on living if he didn't rip every single one of them into a thousand pieces!
BANG!
He had the giant land a heavy hit on the golem's jaw to throw it off and he proceeded to get his specimen to stand up.
He turned his eyes onto the people who had caused him so much pain standing in the back, talking as if this had nothing to do with them.
He gritted his teeth as he cursed at them viciously. He would make sure he caught them alive and use their bodies to breed carnivorous maggots!
BAM!
His undead stumbled as the golem had risen to deliver a revenge punch on him. The 6 meter tall giants battled on through the rising dawn as they scattered the environment around them.
Rastel looked on anxiously as Snow casted her buffs on him. He periodically heard the system pings followed by the notification for a buff.
DING!
YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED!
DEX +3 FOR 3 MINUTES
DING!
YOU HAVE BEEN BLESSED!
END +3 FOR 3 MINUTES
DING!
YOU HAV....
He received buffs to his strength, agility, dexterity, mentality, endurance. She was just about to cast another spell when he suddenly stopped her again.
"That should be enough, I need to end this fight quickly." He said to her before facing the raging battle with a weird thought crossing his mind.
'How many buffs does she have? That's five out of six stats! Damn, she's so useful as a cleric. And as a mage, all I have are these disgusting low tiered spells that can only ward of animals and there aren't even a lot of them. Am I not useless as a mage like this?' In the midst of finding a way to quickly end the battle, these were the thoughts running through his mind.
Even now he had to use an unconventional method for someone of his class to take down an opponent.
"O powerful Immortal spirit wherever you are, you wouldn't mind sending me an overwhelmingly destructive mage spell into that little book would you?" he mumbled as he took off into the battle aiming for the giant skeleton.
The necromancer also noticed his approach and tried to turn his attention to him but Amba quickly tried to block him.
"Sing, give me fire cover!" Rastel yelled back as he neared.
He dodged the stomping feet of the two giants as he sought an opening to scale the skeletal frame of the undead.
Deqi realized his intentions and started stomping down while fending off Amba to try and squash him under.
He dodged agilely with many uncomfortable near misses as he sought a way to climb.
'This was tougher than I thought' he grimaced as a foot landed closely just beside him.
Sing's arrows were smashing at the undead's frame from time to time with resounding impacts or loud explosions as he swapped between two spells but the undead just kept shrugging it off.
There were numerous cracks on its body which were all caused by clashes with Amba but it still held on without any sign of going down.
Rastel finally gained enough time to launch himself onto the giant's legs and grab onto a small crevice at its joints. He quickly proceeded to scale up the body as he aimed to get at the necromancer from the inside.
"ARGGH!!!!" Deqi roared in fury when he noticed him going up his specimen like an invading pest.
He proceeded to use one of the giant's arms to continuously try to smash Rastel into a pulp as he jumped from one bone to another to reach the hip.
The rest of the team were watching with bated breath and had their hearts in their mouth as they saw what was happening.
Sing had to stop shooting for fear of hitting Rastel and Amba was desperately trying to limit the undead's movements but it was futile with its now weakened body and mana reserve, Rastel was now out of mana!
Rastel was now in a dangerous situation as he tried desperately to keep himself from under the palm of the giant undead.
Deqi kept on screaming in rage, fending the weakened golem with one arm as he tried to kill the intruding muan with the other.
"You people ruin my work, destroy my property and try to kill me all in the name of 'Judgment'? Do you truly understand the world we live in!?" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Every power in this world, from the strongest mercenaries, to renowned mages and warriors, Kings and Emperors. Every single one of them have mountains of corpses piled beneath them!" Amba went down with a thud as Deqi had the giant land a rage filled punch at his head.
He lost his large transformation as he went back to his 2 meter size and could only look on at Rastel's figure.
"Do you think the world would still function if every single one related to those corpses stood up to seek 'Judgment'? No!!!"
BAM!!!
Rastel narrowly dodged an attack as he finally passed the hip and went up the spine to the chest cavity.
"You people come here spouting nonsense of 'Judgment'. If you were that determined to do anything useful you would have used your time to get stronger, but instead you decided to opt for revenge and came to ruin me. You will all die a cursed death!" Deqi's shrill voice echoed into the dawn with rising tempo.
Rastel showed a wry smile at his words and he looked down at him through the rib cage. He was standing on some platform made from bone that was sitting in between the chest and the spine.
Deqi also paused his attacks to look at Rastel with bloodshot eyes and a murderous glare. This was the face of the person that had pushed him so far to the wall.
Rastel opened his mouth as if he was about to say something but then closed it again. He jumped down from his high vantage point on the giant's spine as he went for the necromancer.
There was some time of barrier spell protecting the front of the rib cage but the back was exposed, the undead was not perfectly made.
Rastel prepared a lightning blast on his right hand as he free fell the short distance towards the defenseless elf.
Deqi just stood and watched as his assailant came for him, he had no means to cast spells and his mana reserves were already quite low. He couldn't attack the muan now that he had reached this far and honestly, he was tired.
"You may be right" Rastel suddenly said in a low voice as he landed on the platform near the elf.
"But the fact now is, even if just by a little, we were stronger this time." He looked the elf in the eye and he also stared back at him with baleful but tired eyes.
"And I already promised someone, I will give them their judgement!"
And with that note of finality, a lightning blast was released from his hand and with an expert chop in the right location, Deqi fell down like a wet sack of sand.
The giant skeleton lost its owner as it suddenly tumbled and was about to fall to the floor with Rastel still within its body.
Amba forced out the little mana in his reserves to double his size as he reached up to stop the giant from collapsing. Using one hand, he removed Rastel and the unconscious Deqi from within before losing power and reverting back to a core which flew into Rastel's hands.
Rastel looked gratefully at the core before putting it into his inventory. From protecting Myra to helping him against the necromancer, Amba had really done a lot for him and really deserved his gratitude.
He turned to look at the rest of the team who were all silent but had obvious expressions of relief on their faces. Snow was even smiling as she diligently healed Iron who suddenly started grinning like a fool.
It was actually Sing who voiced out their inner thoughts this time. "I can't believe it but we narrowly escaped that one!"
Rastel turned his attention to Doe who was standing and staring at Deqi's crumpled body with a lost look in her eyes. She lifted her eyes when she noticed his gaze and Rastel simply smiled as he opened up his arms a bit.
"I promised you, didn't I? I didn't let him escape!" he said with a smile.
She stared at him, then at Deqi's body once more before her eyes moved towards the collapsed hill mound.
With a thud, she fell to the floor and laid down before covering her eyes with her arms. Slow tears rolled down her cheeks as she cried.
Under the forest canopy that was only now being infiltrated with dawn's first rays. Doe cried for the first time in two years and not in pain, remorse or self-hatred, but in relief that her rage had finally been appeased.
And also, in mourning.