From the dust, a two-story-tall stone creature was slowly approaching him. Erik felt terror as he saw the giant grow nearer. He was too injured from fighting the wolf, and now there was another creature who wanted to join. There was no way he would be able to handle it.
Due to how far the wolf was sent flying, Erik had guessed that this stone giant must have been a Crystal rank at least. If that is the case, then he doesn't stand a chance.
Even so, he turned to face the stone giant, preparing for another fight. But when it was only a few meters away from him, it stopped and looked at him. What it did next, Erik would have never believed.
The stone giant spoke, but what it said surprised him even more. The stone giant said, "Erik are you okay? It seems that I got here just in time didn't I?"
Erik was flabbergasted. He never would have thought that a stone giant would know how to speak, let alone know his name. But something seemed familiar about it. Erik wasn't sure what it was about it that made it feel familiar, so he took a step back and asked, "What are you, and how do you know my name?"
The stone giant didn't after being asked the question. Instead, it responded by saying, "Oh sorry. I guess you weren't expecting this but it's me, Liam."
Upon hearing this, Erik was given a shock. He found it hard to believe that what stood before him was Chief Liam. But soon he'd see that it was indeed the truth.
A moment later, the stone giant's chest began to open. The thick stone plates that made up its chest moved in different directions to reveal Chief Liam sitting in its center. The inside of the stone giant looked more mechanical.
But before Erik could get a better look at the inside of the giant, its chest began to close. While it closed, Liam said, "I'll explain more later. All you need to know is that I made this contraption for combat."
After hearing that, Erik understood that Liam had come to help him with that device. But before he could fully trust the capability of the stone giant, he asked, "How powerful is your machine?"
Liam hastily responded, "Its attack and defensive power are in the upper crystal rank, I think. But it lacks speed."
"Understood," Erik didn't need to know more. Instead, he said, "I need a moment to patch myself up. Do you think you can fend off the wolf for a few minutes?"
Liam looked at Erik's bloody arm and said, "Don't worry, I got thi…" Before Liam could fully respond, a large root slammed into the stone giant, sending him back a few meters.
In the distance, Erik could see the faint image of the wolf approaching. He wasn't ready to continue the fight, but even so, he stood up and entered a battle pose. But soon he saw a large stone heading for the wolf from behind.
As it got closer he realized that it wasn't a large stone. Instead, what was heading for the wolf was what appeared to be a large hammer. The head of the hammer was made out of stone, but the handle looked like it was made of wood. However, the wood was giving off a bright blue light as it traveled.
The wolf didn't seem to notice the hammer heading towards it until it saw a shadow being cast in front of it. It noticed that something bright was shining behind it so it turned around. If it didn't turn around at that moment, it would have gotten hit by the hammer's handle. But since it noticed the light on time it was able to duck, avoiding the attack.
However, the hammer did not stop moving forward. It kept traveling in the same direction, heading towards another blue light. Upon a closer look, Erik saw that the other blue light was coming from the stone giant's right hand.
A moment later, the hammer landed in its hand. The handle of the hammer was a perfect fit for the stone giant. It wasn't too long or too short.
Once the hammer landed in its hand though, the stone giant threw it at the wolf. The wolf was ready this time and quickly dodged the attack. But as soon as the hammer flew by, the stone giant's hand began to glow. When its hand started to emit the blue light again, the hammer stopped moving forward and started to back. The wolf wasn't fast enough the second time and was hit by the hammer as it flew back to the stone giant.
Seeing that Liam's machine was able to fight the wolf, Erik began to treat his arm. He quickly ripped a piece of his shirt and stuffed it in his mouth. Afterwards, he summoned some fire in his right hand and placed it over his wounds.
The pain he felt was almost unbearable. He thought he was going to pass out from the pain but managed to hang on enough to stop the bleeding. Once he was done, he had to take a moment to recover some of his energy.
He unsummoned his sword and sat down to rest. While sitting on the ground, he decided to examine himself. He could barely move his left arm but so long as he had one working arm he could fight.
Back on the battlefield, Liam was having a hard time fighting the wolf. He couldn't seem to land a single attack. The wolf was easily able to dodge all of Liam's attacks even though there was a lot of power behind them.
No matter how strong Liam's attacks were, it didn't matter if he could land a hit, and Erik knew that. Watching the fight, he could clearly see that Liam's stone giant was only as fast as a silver rank. The only way Liam was going to land a hit was if he caught the wolf by surprise, or if Erik stopped the wolf from dodging.
However, while watching the fight, Erik also noticed that all of the wolf's attacks had little to no effect on the stone giant. Whenever the wolf used lightning against it, the stone giant would absorb it. When it used the roots against the stone giant, the wolf would only be able to push it back a few meters. The roots were not strong enough to damage the stone plating. When it came to the wolf's wind element, the stone giant seemed to be too heavy for the wolf to blow back. However, it was able to leave tiny scratches on it.
Almost any attack the wolf used against it was useless. The only attack that did some damage was thanks to its lightning claws. But even so, the stone giant's armor was too hard to break.
After resting for a few minutes, Erik was able to stand up without any difficulties. He had stopped all of the bleeding and with that, he would be able to join the fight. He quickly summoned his sword again and rushed into the fight.
Liam saw that Erik was headed back into the fight so tried to grab the wolf, hoping that Erik would be able to land a killing blow. But the wolf dodged that as well. However, since it dodged Liam, it wasn't able to dodge Erik's attack fully.
Erik appeared next to the wolf as it dodged Liam and swung his sword at it. The wolf watched as the blade came down towards it, but try as it might, it would not be able to avoid taking damage.
The sword was heading for the wolf's head so it tried moving it away, hoping to avoid major damage. The sword slashed downwards, missing the neck, but it managed to cut the wolf's left eye.
Erik was disappointed with the results. He wanted to end the fight since he didn't have enough strength to last him for a long time.
He quickly swung his sword at the wolf again while at the same time, Liam brought down his hammer upon it.
The wolf didn't have enough time to dodge both attacks so it decided to put up its wind shield. Erik's sword clashed against the shield but was unable to slash through. He didn't have the strength to break through it. However, when Liam's hammer came into contact with the shield, it immediately exploded.
The blast from the shield blew Erik away and slowed down Liam's hammer enough for the wolf to escape his attack. Though the wolf managed to avoid Liam's attack, the hammer kept moving forward until it slammed into the ground
The impact of the hammer had enough power to create a small earthquake, leaving behind a 20-meter-wide crater. Liam lifted his hammer and continued his assault on the wolf. Erik took a little bit longer but eventually made his way back into the fight.
With Liam and Erik working together, they managed to suppress the wolf in almost every way. Whenever the wolf tried to attack them, Liam's stone giant would step forward to tank the hit.
On the other hand, when Liam couldn't land a hit due to the wolf's speed, Erik would sneak behind it to land a hit.
After fighting for a few minutes, Liam was finally able to land a hit. While the wolf tried to dodge Erik's attacks, it stepped into Liam's path. This allowed him to swing his hammer into the wolf's side, sending it flying into the forest like a speeding bullet.
Seeing this, Erik took a moment to gather himself. He kneeled on the ground as he held himself up with his sword, trying to catch his breath.
Liam on the other hand, didn't take a moment. He stood in front of Erik preparing for what was to come. He knew that one hit would not be enough to kill the wolf and he was right.
The wolf sluggishly walked out of the forest. It was covered in its own blood which made it look more like a red wolf than a silver wolf. It looked like it was on its last leg and would be finished in a few more hits.
Liam wasted no time and threw his hammer at the wolf. However, due to how wide the distance between them was, the wolf had enough time to dodge.
As it dodged, the wolf let out a loud howl into the air. Liam didn't know what it was doing so he quickly summoned back his hammer. But right as the hammer landed back in his hand, a massive bolt of lightning crashed down upon him.
The lightning bolt was as wide as Liam's stone giant, encompassing the entire thing. Even though Liam was protected by the stone giant's armor, he could still feel the amount of power behind the attack.
The attack lasted for a few seconds but once it was over, Liam's stone giant fell flat on its face. Inside the stone giant, alarms were sounding off as Liam struggled to gain control of it. The screen in front of him kept flashing the words, "SYSTEM ERROR," as he tried to reboot the stone giant.
On the outside, Erik was left in shock as he watched the stone giant lay on the ground not being able to get up. He didn't think the wolf would be able to damage, let alone knock out the stone giant.
However, with that thought, Erik turned to look at the wolf and saw that it had collapsed on the ground. He noticed that he had a golden opportunity and couldn't waste it. He picked himself up and rushed towards the wolf.
Even though the wolf was laying on the ground, it had not passed out. It watched as Erik ran towards it and quickly moved out of the way to dodge the incoming strike.
Erik didn't care that he had missed his attack. Instead, he launched into a flurry of attacks. The wolf dodged as many attacks as it could but slowly more and more cuts started appearing on its body.
The wolf was too tired to keep its thunderclaws and lightning aura activated, while Erik was too exhausted to activate his Crest Family Aura. However, he did keep a hold on his ice sword, even though he knew that keeping it out would drain his energy much faster. The two of them were equally as tired making them an even match.
Back at the stone giant, Liam finally managed to get the system running again. But as he checked all of the stone giant's systems, he noticed that the battery was badly damaged and would run out of power soon. By what the system was showing, he would only have five minutes of power left to use.
Liam wasted no time and quickly stood the stone giant up. He grabbed its hammer and ran over to help Erik.
Erik was still sending multiple slashes at the wolf hoping to end the fight. His ice sword looked like it was having a hard time keeping itself together as Erik was about to reach his limit. He was so tired that he was starting to stumble around.
When the wolf noticed that he was stumbling, it decided to use the opportunity to smack him away and escape. As soon as Erik missed his next attack, the wolf used its tails to send Erik flying away.
After Erik traveled a few meters away, the wolf turned to make its escape. However, the moment it turned around, Liam's giant hammer landed directly on it. The wolf tried to get the hammer off of its back, but it couldn't muster enough strength to pick itself up.
Liam saw that the wolf had been pinned and started running towards it. When he arrived in front of it, he quickly picked up his hammer and the wolf.
With the wolf in one hand and his hammer in the other, Liam threw the wolf into the air keeping a close eye on it. As the wolf fell, Liam held on to his hammer like a tennis racket, waiting for the right moment.
Once the wolf was directly in front of him, he swung his hammer onto the wolf's bloodied and tired body. The impact sent the wolf flying in the direction of Erik. The wolf's body spiraled like mad as it flew through the air.
Erik watched as this all happened and knew what Liam was trying to do. He quickly gathers his remaining strength, waiting for the wolf to fly closer. Once it was almost above him, he jumped into the air, resummoned his sword, and slashed at the wolf one last time.
The sword moved towards the wolf's body, ready to slice through it. However, Erik was slashing at it aimlessly. He could not focus on a specific part of the wolf. But he knew he would land a hit.
At this point, the wolf was right in front of Erik. His sword came slashing down upon the wolf. He didn't know what part of the wolf he had cut, since he was on the verge of passing out, but he felt his sword slice through it.
As soon as he finished his swing, Erik's body went limp and started falling towards the ground. As he fell, he watched the wolf's body also fall towards the ground. However, he noticed that the wolf's body was missing its left front and back legs. At that moment he understood what he had cut off. But before he could process anything else, he blacked out.