Seris opened her eyes, her body aching from the force of Chad’s throw. He hadn’t exactly been gentle, and judging by the distance she had travelled, he had sent her much farther than even he had initially intended.
She could barely make sense of her surroundings, her vision blurred and her thoughts sluggish as she struggled to recover from the impact. The cold ground beneath her offered little comfort, and the pain spreading through her body made it difficult to gather the strength to move.
By the time she managed to lift her head, the Storm Blizzard God had already moved on. Its enormous body had disappeared into the distance, leaving behind little more than a faint bloodstain on the frozen ground. Seris stared at the mark, her eyes searching the surrounding area as though she might somehow find the person responsible for it. She already knew what it meant, but accepting it was another matter entirely.
“Chad.”
His name escaped her lips in a soft whisper. Whatever strength she had managed to gather finally abandoned her, and her body slumped against the cold ground.
…
Damien and Andrea were clinging to the side of the Storm Blizzard God, their original plan to attack its head having been interrupted when the enormous creature suddenly looked down and sent its entire body plummeting.
Damien was certain they were about to fall, and the thought of being crushed beneath the feet of a god was hardly an appealing way to end his life.
“The mighty Round Table members, and not one of us can bloody fly.” Damien lamented their unfortunate circumstances, glancing down at Andrea, who was still gripping his leg. She had managed to hold on through the sudden movement, but that did little to reassure him. With the Storm Blizzard God moving around so violently, another unexpected shift could easily send her tumbling into the depths below.
He was surprisingly interested in finding out whether she could survive a fall from this height.
“Don’t you have some rare Vestige that can one-shot this guy?” he asked, looking for any indication that she had been keeping something useful in reserve.
Andrea shrugged. “I was kinda hoping you had some insane plan to save the day.”
Damien’s expression immediately darkened. They were clearly outmatched, and neither of them had a reliable answer for the monstrosity they were trying to kill. Their usual methods weren’t going to be enough, and the fact that they were hanging off its body rather than fighting on solid ground only made their situation worse. He had faced plenty of dangerous opponents before, but this was an entirely different problem. The creature possessed both the strength and the sheer size to make their individual abilities seem insignificant.
“Rise.”
Black miasma churned around Damien, spreading over the creature’s enormous body as dark figures began to materialise within it. His undead army emerged once more, their arrival providing some much-needed assistance.
The undead frost-bats swooped towards them, latching onto the two of them and helping them regain their footing against the Storm Blizzard God’s scales. With their assistance, Damien and Andrea could finally continue their ascent without relying entirely on their grip.
“We’re almost at its head. We just need to keep going,” Andrea said before running ahead of him.
Damien watched her go, then let out a quiet sigh and followed. “Running a goddamned marathon just to fight this guy.”
His complaint did little to change their circumstances, and it didn’t take them long to reach the creature’s head. However, the moment they arrived, a colossal figure came crashing down from the sky, its immense shadow passing over them before its body descended on the Storm Blizzard God.
It was Elias.
Damien couldn’t help wondering how the man had managed to get so high in the first place. His body was composed of a copper-like material, and his current form was larger than a multistorey building.
“The Storm Blizzard God’s scales are more powerful than the Divine Priest’s. We need to use powerful Vestiges to break through them,” Damien advised, not bothering to acknowledge Elias’s dramatic entrance.
Andrea glanced back at him. “You met the Divine Priest?”
“Yes. I beat him half to death with my ritual staff and fed him to my undead lich.”
Andrea pursed her lips, seemingly at a loss for words. There were several questions she could have asked, but Damien’s casual explanation made it difficult to decide which one deserved an answer first. Ultimately, she said nothing.
“Even with powerful Vestiges, we’ll need some serious power to break through its scales. I have that power, and my body is more or less comparable to a Vestige.”
Elias’s declaration carried the confidence of someone who had already considered the difficulty ahead and believed himself capable of overcoming it. His transformed body possessed tremendous strength, and its metallic composition offered a degree of protection that ordinary flesh could never provide. If there was anyone among them capable of forcing their way through the Storm Blizzard God’s defences through sheer physical power, he was certainly one of the better candidates.
Andrea listened attentively, considering his proposal before identifying its most glaring flaw. Elias’s body might be comparable to a Vestige in terms of durability, but that alone didn’t make it one. It lacked the runes that distinguished a true Vestige, and without them, there was no guarantee his attacks could penetrate the god’s scales. Raw strength was useful, but they couldn’t afford to mistake one advantage for a complete solution.
“No.”
The single word immediately drew their attention. Hearing Andrea reject a proposal so firmly was unusual enough, but what followed left both men with reason to reconsider their approach.
“We’re no match for this god, at least not while fighting it like we would a normal beast. We need to learn from the ancient humans.”
Damien nearly cursed out loud. They were in the middle of fighting the same god that destroyed the ancient humans, Andrea had just suggested learning from people who were no longer alive.
“Learn what? They’re all dead.”