Small chunks persistently crumbled off the sides of our pillar, crashing at our sides as Derrick passed over a mana potion from his storage space. Whatever crimson energy surging through our deteriorating pillar was beginning to grow unstable, magnifying in concert with the towering abomination footfalls strolling over on a fours. The massive red beam of energy firing into the demon's portal grew substantially as well, resembling the thickness of the Sequoia tree trunks back home.
"How the fuck are we supposed to kill this thing?" Derrick asked, his voice shaking just enough for me to catch on to his nerves. Eying the titan of a demon casually strolling on all fours before me, no clear answer could come to mind. It wasn't the biggest monster I'd ever seen, yet something about it screamed 'danger'. A faint urge to engage tinged in my gut as the demon's small, razor toothed jaw slowly opened wide, leaking a stream of dark red liquid. Its thick slimy head riddled in tiny flailing arms reared back, a massive surge of Flow almost instantly compounding through its chest and into its neck in a flash.
"MOVE!" I yelled, grabbing at Derrick before Water Stepping away. My hand grasped air, sending a rush of anxiety before an ear-shattering boom blasted behind me. Behind it hung a constant, high pitched metallic whirring. Looking back, a massive stream of spiraling red flames beamed where Derrick and I stood. All at once, the beam dissipated, leaving the monstrous demon slumped and breathing heavily. Reliefwashed over me peering across the small fissure separating Derrick and myself.
"You ready?!" Derrick hollered, clutching on his Halberd with shaky hands. My eyes locked back onto the towering demonic monster stil catching its breath, running a quick Identify before answering that question.
[Infernal Emplectus (Level 18)]
"Fuck no, but we don't have a choi-"
*BOOM*
Flinching, my head shot around catching the tail-end of a massive bright green explosion from the neighboring group of competitors in the distance. Stone shrapnel pelted the canyon, some reaching within 10 meters of me. Before turning my focus back toward the Emplectus, the outline of a hooded figure sprinting away from the explosion caught my attention.
Wait, how are they still here if their Pylon just blew the fuck up?
My chest rattling under the Emplectus' bone rattling screech shook my balance before its roar abruptly cut out altogether. A large shadow on the ground rapidly expanded around me before Water Stepping back toward Derrick.
*BOOM*
Chunks of tan dirt and stone shrapnel crashed to the ground at my sides as the demon slammed its wretched body onto the floor, creating a crater around its legs and body. Its short, tooth riddled maw shot open, blasting a beam of dark red energy in Derrick and mine's direction. Water Stepping again, I avoided the Empluctus' whirring beam of hot liquid energy while making a dash towards its front leg. My blades danced around my body, spinning to gather more momentum into my slash. All focus dwelled solely on my form until the moment my blades hit, activating Flow Sever in hopes to take away this beast's balance.
Rather than cutting through its front leg however, my blade broke a layer of thick scales that swelled a moment before I landed my strike. The momentum recoiling though my blade knocked me off balance, forcing me to fire my grapple hook into our disheveled pillar to avoid being stomped out. My hands slammed onto the pillar, wafting the heat leaking from the red energy pouring from its cracks across my face as I slid down. Turning back, my eyes shot open watching as the Eplectus charged another beam of energy in its mouth. My heel slammed into the pillar behind, boosting me forward hoping to Water Step away from our objective before the demon monster spat out its terrible attack.
Just as my front foot fell, a bright flash of violet energy under the Eplectus' open maw caught my eye. Derrick manifested in air, extending his open palm under the demon's chin. A dim red light shined through the beast's cheeks for an instant before it suddenly fell forward. Rearing its head back, a stream of dark red sludge poured from its neck as it shrieked between gurgles. Derrick appeared back on the ground a couple feet away from the writhing demon before beelining back towards me.
"Your turn!" He yelled wide-eyed. My heel dug into the dirt preparing to make a push when I noticed the demon's frantic body language abruptly settled into a standstill. Its head remained aimed to the sky, with only its small arms covering its head still moving. 4 of said arms lining the side of its jaw suddenly clamped onto the demon's skin, shaking with strain. With a burst of dark red fluid, the Emplectus' arms pulled themselves free from its head and began climbing down its chin. The beast lifted its head high, revealing a massive open wound in its fleshy, slimy throat.
The arms climbed across the monster's open wound, locking hands and sinking into its flesh. A dark red flash illuminated the arms, melting them almost instantly as they spread over the wound and sealing it completely.
Oh yeah, that's definitely fucking fair.
Sharp pain shot through my eardrums as the Eplectus leaned forward letting out a bellowing shriek. Dark red fluid poured from its face where the arms ripped themselves free, pouring into its open maw. Steam billowed from the dirt below as its fluid began glowing a sharper crimson. With two violent stomps, the enraged Eplectus shot forward towards Derrick and I. Derrick poofed into a cloud of void energy while I was forced to Water Step to the side, feeling the immense heat emitting from the beast's body burning through the back of my cloth robes.
*SMASH*
Peering back, the Eplectus had flown straight past both Derrick and I and crashed straight through what remained of our unstable pillar. The top half ripped off entirely, allowing the deep red energy struggling to escape to blast fully through the top. That same energy beamed straight through the Eplectus' body, as it lay shivering atop the destroyed stone structure. Suddenly, the energy beam ripped through the hellish beast's spine shooting straight up to the sky. Rather than screech in agony however, the Eplectus' glowing red eyes closed softly as its head leaned down.
*RUMBLE*
The ground underfoot began to shift and rattle once more, as the beam of energy firing from the portal built into the massive spire at the center of the canyon exponentially expanded. The red portals reflected energy poured into the massive beam, draining the light from the center of the spire as it burned through the prone Eplectus' body. The image of our neighboring pillars explosion ran through my mind as my eyes locked on to Derrick. He struggled to keep his footing, his head switching back and forth from the demon and myself.
"We got to go!" I yelled, rapidly shifting my weight trying to mitigate the ground's movements. Derrick didn't bother disputing, shakily jogging past me toward our neighbors who, based on the explosion earlier, I assumed already lost their pillar. I gripped Derrick's arm hard and pointed the opposite direction before sprinting forward myself. With any luck, these folks have had it easy enough to st-
*BOOM*
A thunderous explosion blasted behind me, making my ears ring and cutting off my own thoughts. My eyes shot over my shoulder remembering how slow Derrick was, my anxiety immediately subsiding seeing him striding no more than 6 feet behind me. Our pillar, however, was completely gone. The portal in the massive spire disappeared as well, along with that damned Eplectus. Nothing remained, not even stone shrapnel could be seen strewn across the now empty canyon floor.
"Why are we not eliminated? We just lost!" Derrick called between breaths. I slowed down just enough for him to catch up, so I wouldn't have to whip my head back to address him.
"The objectives to seize and protect as many of those pillars. We only seized one so far." I said, recalling the survivor I spotted fleeing their combusting pillar.
"Fuck, you realize were probably not the only ones fighting monsters like that, right?" Derrick asked, a hint of annoyance hovering over his tiresome tone. My eyes narrowed in search of a pillar, finding only dirt where I'd assumed another neighboring squad would reside.
"Counting on it." I replied, picking up my pace realizing there was nothing dangerous in our vicinity. If both our nearest opponents already lost their pillar, I'd just have to catch up to whoever's left before they lose. Cutting towards the massive spire, my eyes locked onto a distant flash of bright white light. The outline of a pillar stood below a beam of rose colored energy, leading straight toward the spire 15 meters at my side.
"Keep up!" I yelled over my shoulder before beelining toward the assumed battle at hand. The small figures rapidly moving amongst each other quickly assumed details as I neared, revealing a lone hooded man bouncing from the heads and bodies of countless beasts made completely of what looked like blood. Wolves, bears, tigers, even a cherry red elephant charged after the hooded figure, who leapt off each leaving a bright white flash from his feet each time.
Damn, he's quick as fuck.
Blonde hair fell from the sides of the man's eggshell cowl as he bounced from one strange blood beast to another. As my foot clapped onto a chunk of stone laying on the dirt floor, one of the many blood wolves spotted my speedy approach. Without making a sound, a blood tiger positioned closer to me spun around and charged straight towards me. The fluidity of the beast's movements more than resembled that of the species it copied, covering far more ground with each stride.
Unwilling to preoccupy myself too heavily with the first foe, my blades clapped together as I mentally shifted back into a more offensive mindset via channeling Lightning mana. Sliding to a halt, the edges of my blades slapped together unleashing a jagged Lightning Bolt. The blood tiger leaped to the side attempting to evade my strike, the bolt clipping its cherry red liquid leg and blowing it off at the hip. A puff of red mist dispersed behind the tiger as I Water Stepped forward, aiming for its midsection as it crashed to the dirt.
Blue pulsing energy flourished around my twinblade slicing across the wounded blood tigers chest with a Lightning Strike. Its body sundered while maintaining its animalistic form, roaring angrily as its bloody form split in two. Almost immediately after rolling across the dirt, each half jumped onto its respective paws and began shuffling together. Not willing to risk this pillar's health for the sake of putting this blood Tiger down, I turned heels back toward the hooded figure fending off 4 other blood animals.
*BOOM*
The ground rattled hard for a full 2 seconds as a massive orchid colored cloud filled the sky to our southeast, followed by the same color beaming out from the top of the towering spire at the center of the canyon. I cursed myself internally for allowing the rumbling to knock me out of my Fluidic Fighter Stance, resenting the wasted mana points used to reactivate it. Of course, getting into Flow with the intent to use the skill wasn't difficult, allowing me to apply pressure on the hulking blood bear still staggering back to its feet.
The blood beast roared in agony, collapsing back down having suffered a Flow Strike to its front leg as I dashed past. Not willing to let it gather its bearing, my blades spun back around with several following Flow Strikes, cutting its bloody nose and half its skull off entirely. The blood tiger I left behind leapt into vision as I turned back, forcing me to evade and Water Step away immediately after cutting down the bear. 2 other blood wolves spun around from their attacks on the hooded contestant, racing past the massive blood elephant constantly spraying red liquid from its trunk at the dexterous hooded man.
One blood wolf leapt into the air while the other continued its beeline towards me, splitting their attacks on two levels. Water Stepping to the side, blood splattered off the end of my blade landing a slash across the leaping wolf's chest. Its body collapsed and spilled like a broken glass of blood, while the wolf sprinting under flew by having just missed its maw-snapping lunge. Spinning back, my blades flourished around me slicing across the wolf's face as it repostured to attack.
A violet flash illuminated the crimson puddle remains of both blood wolves from over my shoulder, causing me to whip my head around while instinctively using Water Step. Behind, Derrick teleported between me and the flanking sanguine tiger. His halberd buried deep into the tiger's red liquid spine before cutting through like butter, spilling another large pool of blood from the draining tiger form.
*BOOM*
Once more, the ground shook underfoot. Luckily I've apparently acclimated to its rhythm nicely, not finding myself stumbling much while pressing up toward the blood elephant. If these smaller blood beasts don't stay down, maybe the elephant's some sort of boss keeping them alive like that fucking undead boss rat from day 1. Quickly closing in on its backside, Identify activated hoping to officially categorize this big bloody beast as the boss.
[Hemoplasmic Elemental Vessel (Level 11)]
Yeah, so I don't know what that means.
Disregarding the elemental's odd species title, its relatively high level indicated this red liquid elephant form was priority number one. A hint of resentment towards the beast tinged as I dashed past, slashing across one of its thick liquid back legs. The beast trumpeted high in the air, raining down a shower of blood from above. A portion soaked into my pant leg on my calf as I Water Stepped away, accompanied almost immediately by my energy sapping from my leg. Thankfully, the strange new splashing that occurred when I Water Step diluted much of the blood, leaving only a stain to burn through with a charge of lightning mana.
That bloods not to be fucked with.
Derrick rushed past me as I finished cleansing myself of the energy sapping blood. The Elephant Elemental swung its red wriggling trunk around, whipping it at Derrick as he neared. Not seeing reason to leave him hanging, I dashed after him to assist in attacking the beast as he disappeared in a puff of Violet dust. Within seconds, he reappeared beside the towering Hemoplasmic Elemental, slashing his glowing Halberd into its belly. A massive spray of blood spewed from the wound, covering Derrick entirely before he teleported away. The elephant trumpeted an ear piercing shriek, one uncanny to any I'd heard from this mammal on earth.
A flash of white light streaked across the monstrous elemental's face, ripping off one of its liquid tusks and removing a chunk of its trunk at the base. The hooded figure zipped back to the floor, kicking off a blood wolf's snout and spinning into a heel kick to the jaw of that pesky sanguine Tiger. Seeing a window of opportunity, my feet glided across the blood soaked dirt towards the badly wounded Hemoplasmic Elemental. Waves of blood poured from its open stomach and face, though its shape was quickly reforming as blood soaked into its legs.
As I approached, the towering blood beasts dangling trunk swung around towards my head. Flow Inverse surged through my front leg, shifting my momentum back instantly and evading the end of its liquid trunk by a hair. It's iron-like aroma wafted through my sinuses as I lunged forward once more, leaping towards the beast head on. Lightning mana surged around my arm as I finally tapped into my second affinity, piercing through the elephant's liquid skull sending multiple rippling bolts of blue electricity through its sanguine body. The towering elemental mimicking a rather beautiful beast began convulsing, as steam billowed from its outer layer.
"Tom!" Derrick's panicked call disallowed my urgency to simmer, planting hard on the blood soaked dirt and sprinting back towards his voice. His armor was completely soaked in blood, his hair and face stained and pale. His movements looked labored, swinging wildly at the pair of blood wolves constantly taking bites at him as they ran by. Sliding to a halt, my blades slapped together in a flash of blue light as a Lightning Bolt blasted into the blood wolf leaping at Derrick's back.
*BOOM*
Once more, the ground shook rapidly as the massive beam of energy firing from the spire intensified even further. Massive chunks of stone debris cascaded from the top of the spire, exploding onto the tan floor. Derrick's already trembling legs folded under him, right as a blood wolf landed atop his chest. My blades flourished across the beast's liquid spine and legs before slashing across its neck in several fluid strikes. The wolf collapsed into a puddle, right on top of Derrick. My eyes shot open as a rush of guilt for covering him in that terrible liquid filled my chest, one that quickly subsided as I knelt beside him. Because as I went to grab his hand and help him up, Derrick's head flopped over revealing the massive gash in his throat.