Chapter 337 (2/2)

Coppernicus began to backup, continuing to throw curses and hexes, and the two giant monsters met.

The world was briefly a rumbling numbness, as most of Drake’s senses failed, and he tumbled to the ground. It took him several seconds to reorient himself, finding all of his limbs in order and staggering to his feet.

Leviathan was on the ground, flailing, hissing in rage and pain, his right shoulder ripped to shreds, being chewed on by the monster, which seemed completely able to hold him down. Coppernicus must have righted himself almost instantly, because he was once more throwing hexes, but the monster’s tail came from nowhere as a blurr, lashing out at the skeleton mage, who barely managed to throw up a Mana Shield in time.

Even still, the shield shattered, and Copper was thrown across the battleground, rolling down the hill.

Feeling profoundly overmatched, Drake drew his sword and began to walk closer. Even if there was no hope… he was a soldier, and he had his orders.

*****

“Where is she?” Randidly was almost surprised how delicate his voice sounded, as he faced off with a familiar skeleton with a flaming skull.

“You think I would just tell you that?” The skeleton asked, its jaw clenched together. It appeared it had witnessed Randidly and Neveah’s approach through its forces, and knew how it would end. Good. Hopefully that would make this whole process easier.

“If you don’t I will end you.” Randidly stated, eyeing the creature as he produced a root spear. Casually, Randidly glanced behind him at some people who were trying to interfere, but as an extension of his will, Neveah, baleful and hungry, rose to meet them, stopping them dead.

He turned back to the skeleton.

“An eternally bound existence is intolerable without honor,” The skeleton stated seriously, some of its fear and intimidation falling away. It took a moment for Randidly to understand this, but then he realized that the skeleton never viewed him as the threat, but Neveah.

Perhaps an obvious one, but still a mistake.

Randidly stepped forward, instantly activating Spear Phantom’s Embrace. It had been quite some time since he had really let loose with his spear skills, and it felt good, to lose himself in the feeling of the physical fighting. It was a rarely experienced treat, and Randidly intended to savor it today.

Instantly, the skeleton produced a large bone mace from the ground somehow, and moved to meet Randidly, with large swings. Comically large swings, and way too slow to have enough force to slow Randidly down.

After deflecting a swing, Randidly moved closer, but was forced to stop, as the skeleton used the deflection to increase his speed, whipping his mace around with even more force. Randidly only chuckled, and deflected, again and again and again and again. Now the skeleton was practically a cyclone, whipping around, leaving large troughs in the earth where his mace smashed.

But it was a retreating cyclone, as Randidly continued to casually advance, deflecting the increasingly powerful blows and moving forward. True, these were probably past the point where Randidly could afford to block, but if they were going to be this rough, there was no need to block them. He only had to move through them.

It seemed the skeleton sensed this, because his blows got more frantic, but also more unpredictable and sharper. Annoying, but it wouldn’t be enough.

This time, when the mace whistled towards Randidly’s face he did not dodge. He felt that force, and he followed it, allowing it to spin him around, throwing him forward.

Instantly, he had to activate Haste, Empower, and Mana Strengthening, to withstand the physical strain on his body, but he appeared behind the skeleton’s back, with the other still twisting around in the other direction, unsure of what had just happened.

Almost casually, Randidly reached out and grabbed his spine. Then he crushed it to dust.