Gale blurred forward, silver spear gripped tight in his right hand, eyes locked on the path ahead. He weaved through the charred and broken corpses littering the magma-filled ground, each step launching him forward with explosive speed that tore him through the air.
The fight against the Great Tyrant had dragged on for too long, and his head was already spinning from his Flaw. Thoughts flooded his mind -scenarios and countless approaches were calculated at the same time- an overwhelming need to act, to move, to do something.
Processing countless thoughts in mere moments wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but the issue was that he couldn't stop. His mind refused to shut up and let him fully focus on the battle. And this battle demanded all of his attention.
[Second Skin], his Transcended armour, clung tightly to his toned frame as he appeared before the Great Nightmare Creature's massive, scaly front legs. Their thick bases coned down into unnaturally thin wrists and hands filled with grotesquely long, clawed fingers.
When a devastating roar erupted from above, he knew that was his cue to attack.
Boom.
Something crashed into the Nightmare Creature's colossal skull like a falling meteorite, sending tremors through the battlefield. Gale spun his spear in both hands, its sharp tip slicing through air and space itself.
Elfenlied's lizard-like head crashed down with another earth-shaking explosion, hurling chunks of stone and magma into the air. Its massive body stumbled forward. This was the perfect opening he was waiting for.
Gale clenched his jaw, forcing his focus past the chaos that was his mind. With all his strength, he drove his spear upward, piercing deep into the Nightmare Creature's long, scaly neck. It took him all of his strength to pierce the thick skin.
It yanked its maw open to unleash a screech of agony, but Gale was already gone.
Abandoning his spear, he activated [Flash Step] and vanished in an instant, outrunning the explosive force of Elfenlied's screech before the sound could even reach him.
Gale shook the ground as he appeared behind a towering stone statue, the transformed body of a Saint. Pressing his hands against his ears, he tried to block out the echoes of the screech that were flying toward them.
'This fucker is too strong for a simple Great Tyrant!' Gale cursed in his mind, 'Even Masker is here, and we still taking this goddamn long!'
When the devastating shockwave from the screech faded and crashed against the distant walls of the crater, everyone exploded forward once again.
Rumble -the stone giant Saint in front of Gale- rushed forward with explosive speed, shaking the ground and sending rock up. He was gripping a thick, heavy metal barrel in his sculpted arms. The thick barrel was actually a Memory of his. A black staff that could change its size and weight.
The ground trembled as the Great Nightmare Creature was struck by a relentless barrage of attacks from the Saints.
"Is the spear in it?" Merlin asked landing softly next to Gale, rather annoyed by having to trouble Masker. He didn't really care about the other Saints though; their opinion meant nothing to him.
Gale nodded, already summoning another polearm as he prepared to dash forward. "Not now. Let the Puppets in. We can't let you risk dying," Merlin said, halting him with a single raise of his hand.
Puppeteer wasn't anywhere near them. He was far in the back, safely weaving something from his silky threads that floated around him with grace, ready to dismember anything that would get too close.
But his six Puppets -two Saint and four Master corpses- fought on the front lines, ruthlessly attacking the creature's impossibly sturdy limbs.
Anora was also participating in the fight, supporting everyone from above in her blazing, devil-like form. Her beautiful, silky skin was tinted red, mostly exposed. Two horns jutted from her head, giving her the appearance of a succubus.
Shaking his head, Gale pushed aside his wandering thoughts and focused on the battle once more.
Before him, Masker -in his Oni Ogre form- was wrestling the Great Tyrant with raw fury and wrath. It was hard to believe that the same old man who runs a small boutique with two adopted boys was out here, casually battling a Great Nightmare Creature without losing his ground.
The other Saints were also busy, attacking from every side they could, but the Great Tyrant fought back fiercely. Its body was covered in countless mouths, each one blending perfectly with its skin. Whenever someone got close, they would snap open, whispering mind attacks into the offenders' minds.
Realistically, anyone present could have defeated a Great Nightmare Creature. Even Anora, who typically played a support role, was still stronger than a Great Beast.
The new era of Nightmare Infected was truly terrifying after all.
Gale, Anora, and the Puppeteer were perfect examples of that. But -just like with Merlin- no one could say for certain whether Anora was a Master like the two of them or a Saint. When asked she always said something about a lady having her secrets.
Still, the Nightmare Creatures they faced were just as deadly, if not worse...
Elfenlied shook its massive head, desperately trying to wriggle free from Masker's grip, as the Oni Ogre held the beast in a powerful chokehold with his four arms. Meanwhile, Rumble slammed the thick metal barrel into the creature's front legs with the fury of a madman.
Beneath the Nightmare Creature's belly, something suddenly shifted and exploded outward with a sharp shriek, silencing the countless mouths on the lizard's body and thus the mind attack that was aimed at Masker.
It was one of the Saints under Puppeteer's control. With a surge of Essence and will, he forced the Puppet to transform, its body squirming and elongating into that of a gigantic, green, winged serpent with feathers on its head.
The Saint coiled tightly around the Tyrant's body, his massive form denting the creature's scales and crushing half of them. Four sharp fangs sank deep into the lizard's neck, nearly breaking under the pressure as they somehow managed to pierce its tough skin.
Elfenlied tried to screech, but Masker held its maw shut with two of his arms, while the other two kept its head firmly in place.
Gale, shifting from one foot to the other, turned his gaze toward Merlin.
His mysterious friend spread his arms and floated up calmly, defying the laws of physics. Sharp gusts of wind battered against him, making his brown hair and similarly coloured garments whip around wildly. He looked, if not divine, then at least breathtaking.
"I wish for the weak to become strong," he said calmly, his voice echoing through everything, even the particles of air.
The moment he spoke, a javelin made of fine silky threads shot past him from where Puppeteer was, flying straight into the Nightmare Creature.
Its speed wasn't anything extraordinary -any normal human could have followed its movement- but there was so much force and energy packed into the white javelin that even Gale felt it.
Masker looked up, his lips curling as much as they could around his thick fangs.
The old Saint strained the muscles in his titanic arms, lifting the lizard's head so it would get pierced by the javelin, its eyes widening in panic and fury as it closed in.
Rumble and the snake Saint also increased the intensity of their attacks, pushing harder against the creature.
"Gale, your turn," Merlin called from above, his eyes closing as he began channelling his strange powers once more.
Gale grinned and shot forward, the ground exploding beneath him as he blurred out of existence.
"I wish for the skin on Elfenlied's neck to become extremely vulnerable," Merlin uttered, his voice steady despite the strain. As soon as the words left his lips and interacted with the world around them, his eyes bled, the crimson flowing down his beautiful face.
Elfenlied still struggled, refusing to give up, but as Merlin finished his second wish, the creature couldn't help but finally buckle. The snake's fangs were still buried deep in its nape after all and with its whole neck becoming vulnerable, the snake Saint did much more damage.
Overwhelmed by insane pain, it thrashed wildly with its tail, but it was held in place by a vile pool of dark-red, decaying meat. It was "Meaty," the second Saint Puppet that his friend controlled.
Meanwhile, Anora battled against the Tyrant's sound attacks, pushing them back the moment they shot from the human-like mouths. Her powers were just as strange as Merlin's. One moment she was supporting her allies, and the next, she was deflecting mind attacks that didn't even have a physical form.
Gale appeared in front of the spear, still impaled deep in the Tyrant's throat, now bleeding from the wound as the damage surpassed what it should have been able to cause.
But just as he was about to grab it, something both ridiculously expected and yet completely unexpected happened.
The snake atop Elfenlied's body was suddenly yanked back. The Saint shrieking as it was hurled hundreds of meters away, crashing into the distance like a falling star. The ground it fell onto exploded upwards, hill-sized chunks of stone and dirt flying into the air and raining down.
For a moment, everyone was left slightly dazed, watching as the lizard's newly grown tail swung toward Rumble. Without hesitation, he raised the thick barrel and managed to block the tail, which sliced through the air like a deadly blade.
Stumbling back a few steps, Rumble drove the thick barrel into the ground and made it gain more weight and density, using it to steady himself. The ground trembled and magma flowed into the long dent he created on the surface beneath him.
'I need to move!' Gale cursed inwardly as he gripped the spear's shaft, cursing again, 'How long does this fucking javelin take to hit?!'
As if answering his frustration, the world around them shook. His grip on the spear tightened, and with a violent jolt, Gale was thrown backward, the spear dragging through the now vulnerable throat and cutting it open.
Rivers of hot, steaming, red blood showered down on him.
Gale tried to regain his footing and Flash Step away, but the sheer volume of blood was overwhelming, dragging him back until he found himself underneath the Tyrant's belly.
Apparently, the white javelin had struck, and struck bloodydamn hard.
He struggled to stand, but before he could move, a shriek echoed through the cavern. The Nightmare Creature let out a scream of agony as Gale, still beneath it, felt a blinding surge of pain as his ears bled for a moment.
He rolled to a stop, coming to rest next to one of its massive, scaly rear legs. "Fuck!" Gale screamed as he scrambled to his feet, grabbing the spear and dashing away before the Tyrant could crush him.
How were they getting so unlucky all of a sudden?!
'We had the advantage, Elfenlied was pinned to the ground, and we just had to fucking finish it off!' Gale cursed, still bewildered by how the tides of the battle had turned so quickly. Once it was over, he was going to give everyone a mouthful of complaints.
A hail of blazing spears and projectiles rained down from above as bloodied Gale blurred across the battlefield, trying to get a closer look at what had gone wrong.
It didn't take long for him to notice the brand-new tail on Elfenlied's body, and he couldn't help but furrow his brows. He cursed at himself, 'How were we so stupid to forget these bastards can shed their tails?!!!?'
If he weren't already running and dodging the mind attacks, moving at a speed much greater than sound, he would have smashed his fist into something in frustration.
Masker wasn't holding the Tyrant's head anymore. Standing a dozen meters away from the Nightmare Creature, the old Saint raised his four arms into the air, his muscles visibly bulging as the hail of fiery spears intensified. The flames around them burned hotter and fiercer, feeding off the energy.
Anora, once again focusing on support, empowered the nature of fire through her abilities, her powers and Essence fuelling the flames around them.
Everything was shaking and exploding in pure fire around the Great Tyrant.
Gale's eyes suddenly tracked the winged snake from afar as it shot through the air from the side, its mouth wide open with clear intent to impale itself into Elfenlied's side.
The Puppeteer's control over his puppets was on an entirely different level to the point that Gale sometimes thought that those Puppets had a mind of their own.
"Gale, to my side!" Merlin shouted, flying down toward the ground as seven shining stars appeared behind him, floating around his back and shoulders.
Clearing tens of meters in less than a second, Gale blurred into existence next to his friend, panting and immediately leaning heavily onto his spear.
"Our plan was clearly useless," Merlin said, his focus on Masker, who was relentlessly bombarding the Tyrant, forcing it to protect itself and giving Rumble and the winged snake a chance to close in.
He continued in a calm voice, "That bastard is either making us incredibly unlucky or making itself lucky to the point we can't kill it."
'That would make sense, it's been too lucky lately. Or we've just been too unlucky,' Gale confirmed his friend's words in his mind.
Suddenly Merlin spoke again, "I wish for every non-corrupted being to regain their strength."
His voice echoed through everything once more. Words forced their way into the very ground beneath their feet, as though the world itself was being commanded to fulfil his wish.
Gale suddenly felt a surge of energy and Essence flood his body and Core. The same happened to everyone else fighting against the Great Tyrant, their strength renewed and intensified.
Everyone, that is, except Merlin. He collapsed to one knee, his eyes and nose bleeding from the strain of his wish.
"You shouldn't overextend yourself like that, Merlin," Gale flash-stepped to his friend's side, helping him to his feet.
Merlin shook his head, his voice steady despite the blood flowing from his nose and eyes into his mouth. "We're just getting started, Gale. That ugly bastard still has a card it hasn't revealed, I am sure, but so do I."
"Let's start the second round then!" Merlin suddenly said excitedly after a moment of thought, pushing Gale forward. Something in his bloodied eyes burned as the stars behind his back began to rotate faster.
It was time for Merlin to join the battle directly.