The noise that Yaga's body made when it abruptly hit the crystal floor was something horrible, sadly for those present the image of the blood of their partner now staining their clothes and armor was something even worse, the inert body of the giant was now lying behind Leered and Claymore, right in front of Anvil who quickly tried to go for her wounded companion in the hope that the group's healer could do something to help him, but there was no time to grab the giant as quickly the Trollid kind shout caught everyone's attention.
"Watch out!" - Igra shouted as she launched herself at full speed, in the blink of an eye she launched herself at Claymore, throwing him far to the side of the cavern for while most had been left in Shock, the Trollid kind managed to watch as a strange sphere of energy formed in the creature's bloodied hand.
"Granite skin!, vitality in vigor!, wild endurance!" - shouted the young Ergo as he channeled at full speed a plethora of spells, all of which were spells that enhanced the target's defense and resistance, the target being no one more and no one less than Igra.
Igra stood in front of Yaga's defeated body, firmly gripping her swords, she put together the edges of her weapons to fuse them, from the steel of those huge swords a pair of grips were now visible, Igra's huge weapons were ready to become a massive shield if it was needed, after an instant that quartet of lethal weapons had now transformed into a large and heavy shield larger than the woman carrying it and as the multicolored aura caused by Ergo's constant enhancement spells, Igra only stood tall and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Ergo, use all the mana you have left to heal Yaga, Anvil, take them both and get them out of here! " shouted Igra with great bravery as she held the shield right in front of the imminent energy blast that was approaching at full speed and after a few seconds, it finally arrived, crashing hard against the shield.
"Maximum Personal Status: veil of our copper maiden!" - Igra shouted as a copper-like color came out from her skin, starting to spread across her armor but more importantly, her shields also became to acquire this color, Igra's unique talent was the ability to coat things with an opaque color, this technique was called "Protective Veil", this coating greatly increased the hardness of anything coated with it, the Maximum Status of this talent was this reinforced coating to the maximum level, named in honor of a saint to the Trollids.
"Back off!" - Claymore shouted as that blast of energy seemed to have no end, tigra's feet were beginning to dig into the floor as the glass beneath her cracked, slowly she began to back away involuntarily, behind her the healer was doing his best to stabilize the injured giant.
Anvil had managed to move him enough so that Ergo could begin to conjure countless healing spells which seemed to be having results, Yaga's chest slowly began to close the wound, and a little blood returned to its interior but, the giant did not wake up, his skin was losing more and more color, to which the young healer panicked.
"I-I'm almost out of mana" - said the young Ergo as his face reflected great despair, gritting his teeth as his hands were losing more and more of that yellow glow of healing magic, slowly fading away.
"Shit, Shit, Shit" - Beo and Pain were saying as both Anvil and Ecate looked for a place to take shelter.
"I have a plan." - was all Adamante ranked heroes heard, it was Claymore using the remote communication spell, quickly telling them the strategy to follow.
This was the plan, this creature seemed to have no intentions to stop its magical bombardment of the larger group, Igra would not be able to resist for long and Ergo not much mana left, a magical shield would be as durable as a piece of paper with his resources, taking advantage of the monster's focus, Claymore would seek to get behind the beast to have enough time to cast one of his higher power spells to help the wounded, Leered would combine his Maximum Status technique to maximize the damage of his combo, while these two gathered the necessary energy for their combo attack, the larger group's mission was to evacuate Yaga, hoping that there would be a team of healers with enough mana on the surface to help him, Pein being a summoner would use his most versatile summoning, a beast known as "Night Eater" with a sinister appearance, like a bat without eyes of an enormous size, a monster with a pointed tail, sharp teeth and purple skin. It would be summoned to take Yaga and Ergo and take advantage of Claymore's wind spell, followed by Anvil and Ecate, who would join forces to make an emergency exit to the surface at great speed, all of this had to be done in just a few seconds.
"One more thing, Anvil, once far enough up, you must carry Yaga to the entrance, or at least far enough so that someone just as strong as you can give you the relay." - Pein the demon said as he held up a summoning crystal.
"What?, You expect me to leave you all lying here while fighting that thing? We should stick together, after Leered, Igra, and the idiot, I'm the biggest physical strength in this group!¨- Anvil shouted angrily as she swung his hammer.
"That's exactly why it must be you, Ergo can barely stand upright and you know well that if a summoning goes a certain distance away from its summoner for a good while it simply disappears, you are the only one in this group that can accomplish this task." - Igra said with great effort in her voice as she was still holding back the dungeon master's attack.
"Anvil, the faster you get back the faster you can help us defeat this thing!" - Leered shouted from the other side of the catacomb with great determination.
After a few seconds, the dwarf finally agreed, and everyone got ready as best they could, Beo tried to help Igra hold the shield even though it was at a temperature that burned just being close to it, Igra was even holding it with her face, the beast-men had no right to complain. Pein prepared the summoning crystal by injecting some mana, Anvil got rid of the heaviest parts of his armor and Ecate began to prepare his wand while expanding her wings, ready to fly away as soon as she felt the wind at his back, Anvil had some time to make a kind of improvised stretcher with sticks, cloth, and ropes to drag both Yaga and Ergo without so many problems after a few seconds finally everyone started the plan once a scream was raised.
"Maximum Status Personal: Loki's Venom and Fenrir's fangs!" - Leered shouted at the top of his lungs behind the monster as he held a singular pose, his arms formed a cross on his chest, with one of his axes wielded in each hand, the edge of his axes glowed as if he was holding two stars, one blue and one red, his muscles widened as he hunched over, veins began to pop out from between his hands, as his grip grew tighter and tighter, enhancement technique after enhancement technique had been stacked on top of each other, killer instinct was what emanated from that warrior's aura as behind him his leader stared at him in disbelief, with distrustful eyes Claymore simply readied his hands in the form of a bow as a green aura surrounded him.
"Great Wrath of the Windbreaker Goddess Aer!" - shouted the leader as, in between his hands, at an overwhelming speed, a tornado began to forge, or rather, countless discs of air began to collide, fusing into a projectile of concentrated storm wind, Leered launched himself at full power against the dungeon master, finally he released a powerful cross-shaped slash that not only pierced the beast's armor but those slashes pierced the stone walls in the catacombs they were in, a blue and a red glow shattered the walls of the place, they even pierced part of Igra's shield but luckily this had been enough for the beast to finally stop the attack so at last Igra and Beo could let go of the shield that had been hurting them.
"Now!" - They all shouted at the same time.
Leered's unique talent allowed him to separate his special strikes into two types, one that allowed him to pierce any defense and the other that like a poison could weaken the opponent's resistance, the Maximum Status of this technique was the pinnacle of these two special strikes, allowing him to do combined damage that managed to pierce to the monster's insides and mess with the defense of the objective, showing that inside that armor was a shiny and opaque colored substance. The dungeon lord did not even have time to groan because right after that cut in the shape of an X, a powerful projectile of wind hit it right in this new opening of its defense, hundreds of gallons of compressed storm wind exploded right at that point at the moment in which the projectile touched the beast, instantly a huge explosion shook everything, but it was not time to be surprised by great techniques, in the instant in which Pein managed to see a large amount of wind enhanced magic, immediately crashed the summoning crystal, the beast was summoned, with a quick whistle Pein pointed to the giant and Argo tied on that improvised stretcher made by the dwarf, the beast quickly took them both and took flight at full speed taking advantage of the strong gale that now made them boost through the air, right behind him, Anvil quickly jumped on the back of the Yokai, Ecate bowed his body for a moment, whispering "Light weight, grace of the wind, Maximum effort. " as she held her wand tightly, quickly her body was surrounded by a colorful aura, those were all spells of speed which she had cast both on herself and on the dwarf, waving her wings with destructive speed, Ecate shot out like a lighting, surpassing even the speed of the beast and once she had reached the place of the downfall her wand raised up and like a glorious sun began to glow.
"Maximum Status Elemental: Lumine Echoes!" - shouted the winged Yokai women as a small spark was released from her wand, this Maximum status had been one of elemental type, and the elemental affinity of Ecate was to the light deity, Illumine, this was the result of the maximum connection with a natural element, in this case, the maximum understanding with light as she had created a sun from scratch, as that small spark advanced in front of the Yokai, it quickly began to expand exponentially until its size was so large that it even illuminated the catacombs where the rest of the team was, once it was as big as a small mountain that projectile hit the rubble wall, normally it would explode but this time that was not the plan, Ecate left her wand pointing in that direction while on her face the sweat began to drop as she was holding back her exploding spell.
Another scream was heard at that height, this time it was Anvil's turn.
"Maximum Status Class: Full trust!" - shouted the dwarf as she leapt with the help of lightning thanks to her elemental affinity with the electric god "Ektro", propelled with lightning speed, Anvil began to swing her hammer, swing after swing of her hammer was given with force in the air as she approached that huge sun that was piercing the rock with heat, finally the dwarf was close enough to burn but also to hit him, her Maximum status category "class" was the maximum technique in the arsenal of certain classes, in this case that of a warrior because it allowed her to charge her weapon with the inertia of her own movements and once ready, launch a powerful blow enhanced with an additional multiplied force, so Anvil quickly wielded that huge hammer on her back, charged the blow and after letting out a mighty shout, that blow finally pushed that sun at great speed through the remains of the collapsed dungeon, opening a red-hot tunnel through which the summoning could continue its path at maximum speed, Anvil held onto the beast's back once it reached them.
"Just wait long enough!" - shouted the dwarf as she sped away on the summoning's back, leaving behind her companion who had descended back towards the catacombs.
After a few miles, the summoning finally turned to dust, leaving Anvil and the wounded falling at great speed, but Anvil would not allow them to lose any speed so after securing her hammer with the Injured, she quickly used her elemental affinity to imbue herself with electrical energy, gaining great speed thanks to the lightning, she jumped up and quickly grabbed the straps of the makeshift stretcher and began to run while holding the straps like a thundering horse pulling behind it a chariot, Anvil ran with all her might, her muscles burned, sweat evaporated from her skin thanks to the electricity, her boots began to tear at a terrifying speed but she was strong, strong but nothing more than a living being, and like any living being, it didn't take long for her to reach her limit.
The lightning disappeared, sweat began to soak her skin, her feet burned, her muscles screamed in pain and tears fell from her eyes but a small noise caught her attention as the speed became more and more lost, it was a faint cry, a faint cry that continued for several insufferable minutes as Anvil pulled with all her might on the incapacitated.
"Mistress Anvil, why, why am I so weak?" - Young Ergo said as he barely had enough energy to stay conscious.
"I-if only I was stronger if only I were more useful, I could have healed Lord Yaga by myself, I'm not even able to conjure a support spell to make you regain your energies." - the boy was said as the tears kept dropping from his eyes while his body was so weak that he couldn't even shake from helplessness or anger, although, quickly the healer noticed something, the ropes that held him did shake.
"Kid, at least you have the consolation, that this is your first Adamante rank mission." - said the dwarf as her grip trembled slightly and tears began to fall to her feet, but it was no time to mourn, a light quickly illuminated the dwarf's face, a large piece of rubble had been destroyed a couple of meters away from her, it was Muramasa and Wado, both had come down to make sure the rest of the team were ok after the dungeon collapse, quickly Anvil hurried the pace, she had no energy left but now she couldn't fail, she could go back, she could save the wounded, She could prove to herself that she was worthy of being one of the faces of the hero corps, these thoughts were getting stronger and stronger in the dwarf's mind and they only grew as she noticed how her two companions approached running at full speed, They seemed to shout something, the dwarf was so tired that she could not hear them, moreover, her vision was so diluted by fatigue and so irritated by her own sweat that she could barely distinguish silhouettes, although something caught her attention, why Wado's chest was reflecting light? .
It was normal that the helmet or the hilt of the sword reflected light because the source of it was behind them, but no, the light was reflected from the chest, it was not comforting and warm like the sunlight that came along with her companions, it was cold and unnatural, it was then that she turned her head over her shoulder, it was not necessary to be in her full five senses to know that something was not right, a huge mass of energy was taking over the tunnels she was coming through, all she could hear was "Anvil, Move! ", immediately after, a huge grey glow devoured her along with the wounded, Anvil lost consciousness with only one word repeating in her mind "failure."