(William's POV):
Malech had went towards the two traitors who began this major issue. I took out a mirror glove and replicated the Whip sword I have.
"Lester, your abilities will be important here. Use the leeching skill when you think you're having health trouble. You'll be taking the vanguard role."
"That's crazy, but I have no choice." - Lester
"Thrish, focus your abilities on supporting us. Use your magic to block any stray magic around. Keep an eye on both Denzel and Rika because you might get targeted."
"Got it." - Thrish
I dashed to the side and activated my opening skill...
"Astrorift Essence!"
When I had collected essence to boost my stats, I noticed Rika holding both her hands up.
"Copy!" - Rika
Rika had copied my ability... I immediately tried to cancel her move, but my whip sword was stopped by Denzel whose eyes turned pure black and is emitting black miasma off his body.
"Astrorift Essence!" - Rika
While extending her arms towards Denzel, Rika activated my opening skill to boost Denzel in the same way. No way, this duo is just...
When I started thinking, Denzel dashed at a high speed while leaving large dark crystals on his tracks.
I retracted the mirror whip sword and attacked him once again. Lester moved in front of me to block his approach.
"Ghh!" - Lester
Lester managed to stop Denzel's advance with his navy blue broadsword. He was pushed back by the amount of force and shock Denzel applied which made me step back for a bit. I jumped up and launched two strikes immediately with the whip sword.
Denzel's gauntlet turned into half of a coffin sized shield and blocked one strike. I dealt some damage to his leg using the mirror whip sword. I landed down to the ground and recovered the swords.
"Soul Snare!" - Lester
Multiple souls appear from the ground and snared Denzel's movement. Rika's hands once again tried to copy the ability, but I actually had a countermeasure for that.
"Space Vacuum!"
I removed the sound for two seconds within the entire area. This ability will silence anyone within the area, preventing them from casting any form of magic unless it's a silent cast.
Rika's copy didn't occur and lost the chance to snare one of us down.
Lester who seemed to understand what I did drained Denzel some life. Navy blue light was drawn out from Denzel's body and made him twitch a little bit. He changed his shield into the sniper cannon and blasted Lester away.
"Lester!"
Lester was blown away and landed horribly. He stood up like he didn't receive major damage except from shock.
"Damn, that's a dangerous attack!" - Lester
I used the magic storage to change my weapons. I took out the crossbow and my meteor blaster to try once more.
Denzel dashed in with twin swords this time. Lester desperately tried to block both swords at the same time. Thrish was still supplying Lester with support magic and focused more on his well being. That's right, keep at it...
I fired the rocket towards Rika who is trying to create some sort of spell.
"Lester!"
Lester kicked back as I fired a barrage of lasers towards Denzel.
"Mirror Pads!" - Rika
Multiple angled mirrors were created around Denzel and reflected all attacks around.
All of which weren't aimed towards Lester or Thrish, but were aimed to the rocket going after her.
The rocket blew up mid-flight which made my ranged attacks useless...
I switched the meteor blaster into five daggers and threw it towards Rika. She had dodged by moving around to ensure safety. I blinked towards one of the daggers as I change the crossbow into a double-sided sickle. I picked up the dagger that's closest to Rika and spun around while extending both arms around.
"Wh!?" - Rika
Checkmate...
"Zel!" - Rika
Or not! She can control him?!
"Kh, Astroburst!"
I fired my astroburst towards Denzel, a black sphere generated multiple branches to ensnare Denzel who is still moving fast despite being leeched and snared by Lester.
"Copy! Astroburst!" - Rika
Crap! I forgot to silence her!
The astroburst Rika copied moved around to attack Thrish who was focused on Lester while he's trying to stop Denzel. Oh no, she just noticed!
While thinking of what to do Denzel starts closing into my position despite having all limbs locked by two snaring spells. Impossible! Just seriously impossible! What am I supposed to do here!?
While panicking internally, the sight of an acquaintance dying again enters my mind as I almost activate Evil Cosmos accidentally. It was stopped when Malech dived in and carried Thrish in a princess carry. Phew... I guess he's done there now... Crap! Now's not the time to think!
I noticed just now that Lester was blown away again. He was hit by Denzel's weapon in gauntlet form. He landed towards a tree flatly and received major damage this time. How does he still have that much power?!
"Lester!" - Gayle
Gayle seems to have arrived and started healing Lester up.
"Malech!"
I blinked to another dagger that's near Rika and spun around once more. I landed multiple cuts on her which made her lose face.
"Y-you!" - Rika
Seeing that my astroburst and Lester's soul snare dispelled. I wasn't able to perceive Denzel closing the distance between us.
I immediately blinked to another dagger to escape a powerful strike from his weapon in shield form. He stopped his momentum easily that it created a shockwave that made a tree from behind lose a whole bunch of leaves. No way! I can't survive that!
I took out my mirror glove and changed it to a double-sided scythe after retrieving all daggers while dodging Denzel's merciless attacks.
I can't keep dodging forever
"William! What do we do to him?" - Malech
"Try to lock him down with your hook. Keep your distance and watch Rika's movements!"
"Got it!" - Malech
Malech immediately circled around Denzel and threw his hook towards him. It pierced through his arm and latched onto it. I immediately closed in the position between me and Rika to try and knock her out.
"Crap!" - Malech
When I looked around, Malech was pulled by Denzel's extreme force and had to drop his weapon. He then flung the chain scythe towards me.
"!!"
I instinctively dodged to the side and avoided a painful disaster. I jumped up and made a mid-air summersault.
"Aerial!"
I created some invisible footing to allow me to head back towards Malech.
After landing gracefully... I saw Denzel helping up Rika. This guy! I thought he's only manipulated by the body. He's being manipulated by the mind!
Malech looked at me with a clenching fist. He seems to have some crazy idea but I had to go with it. So I returned both weapons and took out a musket. He's clearly trying to reference something here.
I loaded the musket with a special bullet which will temporarily cripple Denzel's movement.
Since I had multiple cripple rounds I shot the first one at Rika who was trying to boost Denzel's movement more.
Being unable to notice, her arm was shot off and she started bleeding while agonizing over some pain I inflicted.
"Kuh!!" - Rika
She went to cover her bleeding arm and activated some healing magic. Denzel turned towards up with severe pressure aimed at us. Scary!
My fingers start trembling as I try to aim the musket at Denzel who was running towards us leaving crystal trails.
I shot another crippling round and struck his leg, making him kneel down for a second.
Malech charged in and prepared his clenched fist. He lowered it and fully timed when Denzel looks up to land an uppercut.
Denzel was splendidly struck on the chin and was knocked upwards. He stood up once again and created hundreds of frozen spikes.
"Malech! Retreat!"
Malech dashed back immediately towards Thrish who seems to be in danger. He then starts flinging his chain like a fan. I moved away and changed my weapon into the Earthshaker staff and a battleaxe connected to a chain.
The spikes started going towards us at a high speed.
"Pulsation!"
Most ice spikes aimed towards me were dispersed around and converted to controlled atmospheric mana. I used it to increase the speed of my chained battleaxe speed as I flung it towards Rika.
Malech seems to have used his time cloud and threw back Denzel's ice spikes towards the two of them. I changed my Earthshaker staff but it was also when I noticed Rika using her copy magic.
"Pulsation!" - Rika
The battleaxe I flung was knocked off and started flying towards Malech instead. Crap! I have to pull it in!
Just when I started to pull it in. Denzel had prepared another wave of ice spikes. Wait no, all of which came from Rika this time! Earthshaker is in cooldown! I can't dodge!
"Khah!"
I got myself jousted by multiple ice spikes on my body.
"Ghh!" - Malech
Even Malech is hit... The two of us probably can't handle an enraged Denzel alone. No... I think we can never be able to defeat him enraged at this moment.
"Kuhahahahahaha!" - Rika
Rika starts laughing as I see Malech being socked in by Denzel in his gut.
"GHhhah!" - Malech
"Malech! - Thrish
"You two, I'm sure you finally know... That it's already impossible to stop him, specially if you are trying to not kill him." - Rika
"Mom! Why are you doing this!?" - Gayle
Thrish starts to treat Malech with her support magic.
"Rika, you did this to your own savior?" - Lester
"Savior? I can't doubt that but, it was very difficult setting up this plan." - Rika
"What do you mean plan!?" - Gayle
Denzel seems to have returned to Rika and faces us.
"A plan? That's a secre- Khu!" - Rika
While she was answering, she was interrupted by a sudden strike to the head. From where? She seems to have passed out from shock instantly... Crap!
When I noticed, Denzel was immediately running straight with a powerful punch. I tried moving my body but I was frozen in place. Shit!
I closed my eyes in resignation to face my incoming death, but all I heard was a sound of flesh being crushed without feeling anything.
I opened my eyes and noticed Seymour, gripping the punch that was supposed to be aimed to my face.
Seymour launched a right jab to his face which made him get knocked back for a few meters back. I noticed that some of his hand is trickling blood.
"Y-your hand..."
"There's some damage but... Everything is good now." - Seymour
I hope so...