"Run, Boriat!!" Arthur yelled when he saw that the giant warrior had fallen behind him. He had to keep pushing the monsters away.
"Go ahead! I will be following you in a moment!!" Boriat exclaimed as he pushed away a few demons with his ax before he used his power to send them into chaos. At the same time, Ani's ball of fire grew so massive and hot that it started incinerating the grass beneath it.
The temperature of the area increased drastically.
"I can't… Hold it… hng, any longer!" Ani's face was twisted with pain as she tried to delay the launch of the attack as much as possible so that her team would be able to escape it. However, that was easier said than done as the crushing pressure of the fireball threatened to break her bones.
Coupled with the fact that Ani was completely exhausted, it made her nose bleed. Her body started swaying left and right as she tried to keep herself together.
'Come on, come on, faster!' Arthur used every ounce of strength left in him to run toward the hill. Meanwhile, Mino had completely lost consciousness and allowed Arthur to move him as he wished. The hero had done his role and opened their path to escape.
As they approached the hill, finally, Ani couldn't hold on any longer as she finally fell down to the ground. At the same time, the fireball started moving swiftly toward the hordes of monsters.
"Oh no!" Arthur realized the disaster that was about to happen. Boriat was still behind him. If he didn't escape now, he was as good as dead.
'What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?!' The situation was completely bad and nobody could do anything except for him.
'I have to do something! Goddamit, I can't pussy out now!' Cursing under his breath, Arthur quickly grabbed Mino with both arms.
"Sorry, this is going to hurt!!" He said before he threw Mino with all of his power. Since Arthur had strength above average, he was able to pull that off.
Then, without waiting, he quickly used the last ounce of mana he had before he submerged himself only to reappear again next to Boriat who was still fighting with all his power.
"Huh?! Arthu-"
"No time for talks!" He said before he pulled Boriat along with him into the shadows again. Although it was possible for him to carry someone along with him using shadow step, it was still a very mana consuming feat.
"Blurgh!"
Arthur coughed a huge mouthful of blood as he felt extremely stinging pain in his heart that almost knocked him out completely.
"Oi, get a hold of yourself!" Boriat floated next to Arthur inside the shadow realm.
"I'm… hah, fine… Let's go." He said before he started pulling both of them to ward the farthest shadow possible.
When they emerged again, Arthur fell down the ground as he heaved up and down.
"We made it… We made it…" He murmured as he looked at the bright light in the horizon.
The fireball, glowing with an intense, searing heat, hurtled down from the sky, trailing fiery tendrils lashing out in every direction as they burn it everything around them. Its circumference engulfs the sky, painting the clouds with hues of crimson and orange as it descended rapidly.
The monsters saw the incoming attack and they started quickly dispersing as their howls echoed in the skies. As the fireball grew closer and closer, the closest unlucky monster had their skins starting to melt and fall down. Fire caught into their bodies from the sheer heat that engulfed them.
The howls quickly turned into hoarse cries of pain that would make anyone close their ears from how repulsive it was.
The monsters that tried to escape ended up falling to the ground as they slowly died. Their blood boiled in their veins. As the fireball neared the ground, its immense heat radiated outward, distorting the air around it. The collision was simply inevitable.
Crashing into the ground with an ear-splitting explosion, engulfing the stampede in an inferno of blazing flames. The demons' agonized howls blended with the crackling of fire, filling the air with a symphony of chaos. The ground trembled violently as the impact sent shockwaves across the desecrated landscape.
The once ferocious horde had been instantly incinerated by the all-consuming blaze, their twisted forms reduced to ash as the fireball raged on, its fury gradually subsiding into a smoldering aftermath.
The whole area, once overrun with malevolent creatures, now lied scorched and eerily quiet, as if everything that happened was merely an illusion. However, the trace of the explosion was still there, a clear proof of what occurred. Along with a few monsters that didn't die instantly from the explosion and were still suffering the consequences of their injuries, limbs and many other parts of the monsters covered a large area.
"Hah… Hah… Hah… It's over…" Inhaling and exhaling with clear exhaustion, Arthur stared at the sight with widened eyes. He couldn't believe what he just saw as it was simply too mind-blowing.
"Haha… Hahahahaha!! Hahahahaha! We did it! Boriat!! We did it!!" Slowly, Arthur's face went form shock to smiling and then to outright laughter as he turned to look at Boriat who was laying beside him.
"Oi, boriat!" Approaching him, Arthur nudged him worriedly. However, the giant man didn't move. His body was covered in numerous injuries, deep and shallow. However, he wasn't bleeding as much as Arthur thought he would.
"Are you there, man?!" As he kept shaking him, Arthur's face started to pale as he went to his neck to try and sense his pulse. However, at that moment, right before touching his neck, he heard a few coughs.
Boriat had suddenly started coughing out of nowhere as he bent to the side to find some air to breathe.
"Fuuuh… You scared me there, bastard!"
"Haha… Cough! Cough! I'm fine! Ouch, my ribs hurt!" He exclaimed.
Seeing that he was fine, Arthur was very relieved. However, he still found it weird how he was completely out of it a second ago. For a second there, he thought he was dead which really scared him. This rough, giant man was one of the nicest people he ever met. In fact, all this party were the best people he met in both worlds.
"I-Is everyone ok?" As they were like that, the two heard Ani's voice as she crawled toward them.
Arthur quickly tried to stand up to approach Ani, only to feel extremely disoriented before falling to the ground.
"Huh?..." The feeling he had right now was akin to someone who's sugar level was extremely low. His limbs felt cold and his mind was alert yet also exhausted.
"We're… fine… I think Mino is fine too… But, Kali…" Arthur looked around him, searching for Kali but wasn't able to see her.
"We need… Ugh, to go to Kali!" Ani exclaimed.
"I can't move my limbs and Mino and Boriat are unable to move a muscle too!"
"She needs our help! If you can't go to her! I will!!" Ani said with a furious look as she started dragging her dead tired body toward the direction she thought Kali was. Her fingers dug into the dirt and moved her dead tired body.
"Kali!! Wait for me!!"
At some point Ani's fingers started bleeding from the sheer stress she was putting on them.
"Oi, Ani… You're hurting yourself. Stop!"
"No! Kali needs us! We can't let her stay alone!"
Her determination to drag herself through the mud to reach her was surprising to Arthur.