“So uhm…why did you call us here?” Rango asked, looking directly at Zerinia while standing next to Tharia and Maura. All of them were questioning why they were called here to this area in specific. An area of the castle at seemed like some kind of battle colosseum, a place with it’s own night sky with many stars and all somehow. It only made this castle all the stranger to everyone inside.
“Yes, I do apologise for the short notice, but I wish for you all to…assist me, if you will. What I require from you is simple. I need you to fight an opponent shown to you and you must work together to defeat the opponent.” Zerinia responded, standing in the spectators area while looking down at all of them.
“This should help me identify just how strong they all are…I made sure they’re using the Mithril weapons they got from me…or Edilia, but I gave it to her creator who gave it to Edilia who now gave it to Maura, so I did technically give it to Maura…anyway, what should I have them fight? A blood knight would be too much, maybe something a bit weaker…actually, with mithril weapons, it would be unfair on the blood knight. Maybe a Revenant of Rage? That could work…if I’m trying to scare the ever-living crap out them…wait, why does it have to be an undead? A strong enough elemental should be enough! Let’s do…an Ice Golem, see how they deal with that!”
With that, Zerinia lifted the staff in her hand, and the light blue pearl made a light glow. Behind all the trio, energy burst through the air and the temperature dropped significantly to what felt like freezing.
Turning around, they saw a beast of ice and cold manifested, it had the head of what looked like a demon and the torso of some kind of humanoid with great claws of ice and from the waist beneath was what seemed to be a tundra working as a propeller by pushing a wind downwards to keep it up.
“Woah, that looks way stronger than the one Very-Kael fought, then again, they all do have Mithril weapons, two of which shouldn’t do much as they would, after all, this Ice Elemental is a tier 4, meaning fire damage is the equivalent of any other damage type except ice, which is obvious what would happen in that case.”
Zerinia thought as the monster made the first move, choosing to attack before they could. Lifting it’s hand into the air and slamming it downwards as to crush them, testing the waters of how competent its opponents are while also seeing if it could kill them quickly.
Despite the monsters quick movements, all 3 were more than capable of evading in time. However, none of them had expected to be doing a fight to the death like they were now, all of them ignorant to the resurrection wand just behind her robes, a rare item that she had gained after days of quests and struggles, but capable of resurrection over other beings as long as their body wasn’t destroyed and their souls left intact. It had helped in battles more times than she could count, but then again, she only had one and for that, keeping it close at anytime was the main requirement.
“What the heck?! What is this thing?!” Maura thought, getting out her bow and pulling back the string after getting an arrow ready. “Did, did I just read her mind?” Zerinia thought, looking directly at Maura. “What is Tharia thinking?” “What kind of monster is this?! It’s fine…I can do this; we can do this. We have Mithril after all.” “Confident, I suppose that’s ideal when you’re out of your depth.” She thought, wondering how they would work together against their enemy.
Rango, ever the agile one, immediately moved against the foe as to destroy it quickly, slashing the creature in half almost immediately. “That was easy…” He said out loud almost shocked by how easily he was able to win the fight.
But instead of disappearing like an elemental usually does, it’s body healed itself, moving the separated parts of his body back into place with ease before reeling it’s fist back as to launch an attack of it’s own.
“Oh no…” Rango said just as the fist of the creature flew towards him. “Barrier!” A sound yelled out, it was Tharia. It wasn’t strong, but a glowing barrier seemed to manifest around him, shattered against the impact of the elemental’s attack.
“Barrier, huh? Not bad for a novice. Didn’t seem that strong though, likely took a good portion of her magic energy. Probably a discipline of 750 to 850. I’m assuming 800 which is not bad for a demi-humanoid.” Zerinia thought to herself before looking to Maura, already firing an arrow that moved through the beasts body, doing no damage whatsoever. “Will they figure out how do beat it effectively or just drain it’s energy?”
Choosing to use a new attack, the creature opened it’s mouth and fired some kind of beam of cold. A temperature known best as ‘Absolute Zero’. “BARRIER!” Tharia yelled again, shielding all three of them. Somehow this time, the item not breaking immediately. “What? She blocked it? But the last one was destroyed instantly, unless…she knows how powerful she needs to make these barriers as to both protect allies and preserve magic energy? Likely a Discipline of 1000 at least.”
Rango, being ever the shinobi, kept moving around the creature, dodging physical and elemental attacks to an inch of his life. Literally. All the while Maura kept firing arrows that seemingly did little to nothing despite it being a Mithril weapon and Tharia casting ‘Barrier’ as to protect Rango, Maura and herself.
“Maybe I’m pushing them too hard. This strong of an elemental is resistant to fire and it’s discipline is pretty high, I think around 40 thousand last time I checked. Rango seems to be doing well, discipline for around 1300 to 1500. I’m going to assume 1400 just to be sure.” She said, getting ready to de-summon the elemental.
The elemental charged it’s beam, looking directly at Rango stuck in mid-air, and being a Lizardfolk, cold was already extremely dangerous. Absolute Zero? That was as guaranteed death as it was for a human to be decapitated. “Now! Quickly Tharia!” Rango yelled, not looking at the ice elemental, rather, at his teammate.
“Swap item!” Tharia shouted again, holding a handout between Rango and Maura, both almost immediately swapping positions in that very instant. Zerinia only watched with widened eyes at them. “Swap item? She knows ‘Swap Item’?! And she actually tried using that on a person?! That could kill both of them and destroy their bodies, wand of resurrection wouldn’t be able to bring them back!”
“Fire shot!” Maura yelled with a sense of determination, shooting into the mouth of the cold monster as it charged it’s attack. The arrow hitting it directly and causing it to explode inside it’s face. Finally killing it successfully.
“My my…they are determined.” Octavian commented, it was beyond obvious but that’s just the kind of guy he is. “I was starting to wonder why they required so many forest animals, perfecting the capability of transporting not just an object, but a living creature from one spot to another.” “Since when did…wait, they could only have done that before the attack on Rearil…how did he know about that?”
“YAY you three, you did it!” A voice cheered, it was Heiliel. Standing in another part of the spectator area and cheering for them, in her hand a chocolate milk once again. While all of them were fighting for their lives, she was sitting back, feet up with a good beverage in hand. Then again, she isn’t a warrior or magician, so she probably would have died immediately if she partook in the battle.