At that instant, Mares looked around, trying to identify which of the students would need his help the most.
Luo grabbed Calon and Venissino, putting them on his back as he started to run, ignoring his injuries.
"To the right, then left, jump, left, jump, and to the right again!"
Calon was giving directions that Luo followed without question. The most astonishing thing was that all of Calon'sinstructions were on point.
Winna spread her wings and used bursts of wind to fly around, avoiding the debris and the legs. At a certain moment, it looked like she was about to get hit by one of them, but with another burst of air, she managed to avoid it, with the consequence of losing her balance and almost falling out. Mares was about to go help her, when she just retreated her wings and adjusted herself midair, falling on her feet.
Lhian and Clest had a harder time. Clest being the one with the least resistance among the group, she was the most injured after the first shockwave. And Lhian on the other hand, while agile in battle, was not enough to avoid everything that was falling unto them, plus the random attacks of the Orest.
Seeing that Mares' decision was simple.
With a jump followed by a blast of Astral Energy to get more speed, the silver-eyed appeared in front of the two, sending slashes of air rings up, to destroy the debris that was falling around them.
Then he looked at the two, and they knew what was about to come.
"Hope you don't mind."
He said, stretching his hands, asking them to hold it.
"I don't." Clest fastly said with a smile.
"Me neither." Lhian also added even if she was a bit more bashful than Clest.
Since he got their permissions he got her holds and pulled them closer. For a moment it seemed like he would embrace the two, but instead, he threw Lhian on his shoulder and kept hold of her waist, and hold Clest around his left arm.
The two were not sure what they expected him to do, but to hold them as sacks of food was not what they thought.
Not wasting any more time, he started to move, avoiding the remaining debris to not hurt the two.
However, before they could get too far the Orest's two legs came down at the trio. The right one was coming from above, while the left one came in a diagonal.
For the first one the silver-eyed jumped, trying to go over the leg, and did a back flip middle air to get a better position. He then uses the technique he copied from Elaso and rejected the air around his feet, propelling himself to go further away from the legs.
It seemed to have worked to dodge, even if Lhian looked a bit sick with all the motion. Clest was fine though since she was quite used to high-speed maneuvers like these.
Unfortunately, the Orest followed the attacks by throwing thorns at them when Mares thought they escaped and had his guard down. He was about to move around so that only he would be hit by the thorns. That was until some shining blue crystals and a knife hit all the thorns, making them all miss.
"You're welcome."
Clest said with a grin, as her knife came back to her like a boomerang.
Lhian said nothing but smiled proudly.
After that last attempt at hurting Mares, the beast stopped, retreating its legs for a bit. Its knees were bent and Mares could swear it looked like it was breathing heavily. The poison might have helped with that, but the Orest current state was probably the result of overusing Astral Energy.
The seven also made use of that small break to reunite and take a breath.
Their clothes all had small rips over them and some parts were much dirtier than when they had first entered the cave, but in general, it was fine. The Battle Crow Academy uniform had its value after all.
The students themselves were not so unscratched. While they all managed to avoid bigger injuries, the shockwaves from the Orest's screams had done some damage, plus some of the thorns or debris falling could not be totally dodged. In summary, cuts and injuries covered the students, plus the already dried blood.
Weirdly enough, even if not being used to it, they did not seem to mind too much. That whole trip was making them more into warriors than some of the professors might have ever believed they would be.
"So…" Luo started while catching his breath. "What now?"
"We finish this."
Mares said as he started walking forward to the beast.
"Heh, boss seems to know what he's doing, so we should help him."
Calon said as he took a bomb out of his space ring, clicked, and threw it in the air, aiming at the beast's face, taking its attention.
The Void Beast sent the two legs to destroy the bomb, before it exploded near its eyes, however, instead of an explosion, the bomb released a bright and blinding light.
The pain of its eyes burning made the beast scream in agony, and waver its detached legs randomly. But, because everyone else knew what was coming, they didn't look at the light and now had an easy time predicting how to avoid the legs.
The six students wondered what should be their next move when Mares acted.
The leg from the right was making an arc from the top of the left side of the beast's body, going down to the floor, and the silver-eyed jumped to intercept it in the middle.
He made the multi-weapon go back to glove form, and embraced himself, in a position ready to catch the leg, even if said leg was at least three times thicker than him.
'Hoh, you are so creative Mars.'
Esen complimented, as silver crystal covered Mares' arms, but they did not stop by simply covering the arm as armor, but growing until he had two massive crystal arms and hands, allowing him to hug the leg, that otherwise might have sent him flying from the impact, had him no be able to hold it properly.
The impact did push him meters from where he originally stood, which rapidly made him decide to create crystals spikes on his feet, to hold himself better. All his strength was also applied to his arm to hold the leg. It was possible to see the veins bulging in his arms, and after going straight through at least three rocks, Mares managed to stop and keep hold of the leg.
Lhian's eyes shined at the unusual manner to use her innate techniques. As her fighting was more of a cross between a mage and a warrior, using her powers like Mares was using was unlikable for her.
"Can you do that?"
Winna asked with curiosity.
"Without his strength, the size of the crystals alone would make me fall."
The silver blue-haired said, shaking her head.
The two talked while moving, to use the chance created by Mares to further harm, or defeat for once, the rank four Orest.
Luo's body had changed even further, he had grown a full head taller and his limbs were more animalistic, with fur covering his arms and legs, large and sharp claws in his hands and feet, and just as sharp fangs in his mouth.
Calon had a modified weapon in his hands. Lhian prepared one of her biggest crystals yet, and Winna was halfway through a spell of great offensive power. Venissino and Clest were the only ones that stayed still, as they lacked the means to fight huge enemies.
Without communication, Lhian, Callon, Luo, and Winna had the same thought.
While Mares kept hold of the leg, obligating the Orest to stay in place, the four moved to behind the beast.
In that instant, having recovered from its momentary blindness, the Orest did not take lightly from Mares keeping hold of it and ignored the students. It aimed its remaining leg at Mares and attacked him with it.
Baring his teeth at the upcoming attack Mares used all the strength he could, in the process making his muscles bulge in what seemed unnatural ways, just in time managing to move the leg he was holding in front of the one that was about to him, as a shield.
One leg hit the other like a spear hitting a shield. A huge cracking sound was heard throughout the cave as the member Mares kept hold of is stabbed through the other leg, with the armor in both legs showing huge cracks, and piercing through it. A few meters from Mares' head there was now what looked like a gigantic needle through his "improvised shield".
The miserable pain the Orest felt was manifested through the loudest roar it ever gave, with shockwaves of sound spreading through the area.
"NOW!"
Lhian used her technique to create a big crystal as a shield for them. It broke as soon as the shockwave passed through it, but it did its work of avoiding that the students were affected.
Callon triggered his weapon, which looked severely modified. A projectile is shoot by his weapon with a trail of energy following it.
Lhian had huge crystals above her head, perhaps some of the biggest she ever made. There were cracks on it and they seemed like they would collapse at any point, but Lhian ignored that and threw them at the Orest.
With the lack of time for a complicated spell, Winna went for the simplest option, directly converting her Astral Energy into wind. It was not as optimal as using a spell, but it would do the job.
And Luo was even more straightforward. His body now was half humanoid and half wolf, and he had two meters of height. Taking a boost with Winna's wind, he jumped, attacking directly with his body.
Callon's projectile and Lhian's crystals hit, causing a huge explosion that shacked the already unstable beat. The final straw was Luo's body hitting with every ounce of strength he had, added to Winna's attack, which would be able to knock down a rock.
That was the last impact needed.
The pain clouding its judgment, being in four legs instead of six, and the impacts at its back all added together and resulted in the Orest falling in Mares' direction.
'Timbeeeeeer!'
Esen playfully said, floating around in her beloved mind space.
Mares greeted his teeth, ignored his muscles spamming and burning in pain, and readjusted the leg he was holding, aiming its tip in the direction of the injury he made earlier.
The result was inevitable. The leg pierced through the small cut, creating huge cracks through the armor, piercing through the beast's skull and brain, and showing through the Orest's nape.
Blood dripped through the leg and fell in Mares, bathing him on it. His mask and cape were covered by the lava-like liquid, but it didn't burn.
His eyes shiny seemed enhanced by the contrast between the dark red blood covering him, and how bright those silver eyes wore.
He truly looked like a demon.