The strange creature slowly rose to its feet, each breath sending hot steam from its nostrils. The beast's entire body was blood-red, with three horns protruding from its forehead, two at the sides and one at the front. It had no hair on its entire body, and two fangs protruded from his mouth, being too big to fit inside it.
So far, Nathan had only encountered calamities that were not at all unusual, but the one before him was unique, it looked like an ogre almost three meters tall.
Nathan took a deep breath, but couldn't stop his hands from sweating with fear, while a nervous smile was plastered on his face behind his mask.
'Well... shit. I have no idea how we're going to get out of this'
Nathan looked at Maya, who was on the other side of the ogre, and saw that the young woman had a tense expression on her face. This was definitely not something they could face alone, not if they wanted to live.
The blood ogre looked around, turning his large torso to focus on the two small figures, one behind him and one in front of him.
Nathan froze as his gaze met the ogre's full red eyes, and it was then that the calamity roared into the sky and began to run towards Nathan.
'Why me!?'
Without hesitation, Nathan ran to the side to avoid the onslaught of the ogre, which lowered its body slightly and attempted to attack him with its left arm.
By a few centimeters Nathan was able to dodge the ogre's wide attack, but he didn't stop and continued to run away from the ogre as it began to chase him, trying to catch him.
Nathan realized that he was faster than the ogre, so he was able to dodge it... but he couldn't dodge it forever.
Nathan turned and faced the ogre, who just kept running towards him before swinging his whole arm to knock him down. Using his greater agility, Nathan narrowly dodged the ogre's arm and sliced off its leg with his sword.
Nathan felt as if he had hit a wall. His sword did not penetrate the ogre's thick skin, nor did it even leave a mark.
The blood ogre's resistance was absurd, and Nathan realized that without essence, his attacks would have no effect on the calamity.
'Shit...'
Undeterred, the ogre turned and continued to attack Nathan, who began to run again.
Meanwhile, Maya, who had been watching from the beginning, decided to do something. She was a poor opponent for the ogre, as her strength lay in her blows, but the ogre also excelled in physical strength... and much more than she did.
Either way, she had to try something, or they would never defeat the calamity... let alone get out of the realm.
Nathan watched as Maya slowly approached and quickly tried to think of a way in which they could both defeat the ogre, but no matter how hard he thought, he could see no way.
The ogre roared at the sight of Maya's approach and changed targets. Maya was faster and stronger than Nathan, she was a third category for a reason, so she was better at dodging the ogre's attacks and returning the occasional blow.
Nathan was able to catch his breath as he swapped places with Maya, but he smacked his lips as he felt so useless. He watched as Maya dodged the ogre's attacks with more fluidity than he could, and as she occasionally landed a hit or two.
But no matter how hard she hit him, the ogre seemed to ignore her blows, as if he didn't even care.
They were walking a tightrope where any failure would result in death. A single blow from the ogre would leave Maya badly wounded... and Nathan, who could not yet strengthen his body with essence, would be killed instantly.
With each passing second, Nathan noticed that Maya was finding it harder and harder to dodge the ogre's attacks, so he didn't hesitate any longer, tightening his grip on his sword and running towards the ogre's back.
The ogre saw Nathan coming out of the corner of his eye and growled, trying to hit Maya before swinging his fist at Nathan.
They both quickly dodged the ogre's attacks and Maya, whose back the ogre had turned, swung her fist at the ogre's thigh.
The ogre grunted slightly, as if it had felt the blow this time, even if only slightly.
Turning again, the ogre struck at Maya, a moment Nathan used to raise his sword diagonally and slash at the ogre's calf.
As before, his sword bounced off the ogre's skin as if it had struck steel. He quickly stepped back as he saw another of the ogre's fists come at him.
As if they were fighting alternately, Maya struck the ogre while it concentrated on Nathan and vice versa.
But no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't hurt the blood ogre.
Nathan became increasingly frustrated, but with each attack he began to feel the flow of essence within him. The problem was that he couldn't concentrate on feeling his essence when a single mistake could cost him his life.
The ogre began to get fed up as he watched the two humans dodge his blows and the fight dragged on pointlessly. The calamity wasn't that clever either, his blows were only instinctive, but as easy as they were to read, it was a mistake to underestimate the ogre's strength.
With no progress on either side, the ogre suddenly extended its two arms, each pointing at one of them, forcing them back in time. The ogre used that second to duck back and shatter the ground again, creating another shockwave that hurled rocks at them.
As at the start of the battle, both were forced to dodge backwards to avoid the debris. This gave them a few seconds to catch their breath.
Still, the situation did not look good.
Suddenly, instead of attacking them, the ogre raised both arms and a ball of blood began to form between his hands.
Nathan and Maya paled, neither of them could really feel the power behind the orb that was beginning to form, but for some reason they both felt a pressure in their chests.
Nathan noticed it immediately, it was a feeling he knew very well. They were afraid of that sphere.
Nathan paled and screamed.
"Stop him!"
Neither hesitated and they both ran, ignoring the fear they instinctively felt, trying to stop the ogre.
But it was too late, the orb had finished forming and the ogre took no more than a second to crush it with both hands.
Dozens of streams of blood spread across the area, streams as sharp and thin as spears, cutting and slashing everything around them.