"What kind of monster is this?" Kneeling on the ground, with his right arm bleeding profusely, Avirus was looking above at the massive armor standing in front of him. Spitting the blood he had in his mouth, the Hero from Avenio quickly jumped backward, to avoid the large sword that pierced the ground where he was previously. He only regretted now to have underestimated his enemy, too focused on slaughtering the skeleton warriors.

At first, they had managed to pierce the first line of the undead, with the disciples of the Archmage managing to block the arrows from that hidden sniper. But even he could see that they could not divert their attention to anything else while doing so, otherwise, those metallic projectiles will claim the lives of many. Therefore, facing only mere undead, he charged right into the middle of them, crushing their bones into dust. That was the moment when he heard that cold voice.

"Hello, general Avirus."

Nearly double his size, the armor described by the reports was calmly walking toward him, the skeletons quickly avoiding him without slowing him down. Soon, a small empty circle was formed around them, and a few soldiers used this at their advantage. Avirus did not even have the time to shout at them to not do it before their heads were flying in the air. The charging humans behind them followed the example of the undead and let the two alone.

"What is it monster?" Still a bit perturbed by the fact that his enemy knew who he was, he unconsciously relaxed a bit. After all, if he could get some information from the armor, that would help greatly the coalition. However, the helmet blocked his sight, otherwise, he would have seen the small smile that Davion harbored when Avirus reacted as planned. Counting down the distance between the two, the orodil talked until he was just 5 meters away from his target.

"You shouldn't have attacked us. You could have all lived peaceful liv..."

CLANK

The Hero barely dodged the sword that cut in half one of the headless bodies on the ground right behind him. Feeling furious to have nearly be taken by surprise, Avirus was now fully angered. "YOU SLY BASTARD! DIE NOW!" Unfortunately, he only realized now that he was facing someone even the Sword Saint would seek to learn from. To this moment, the former general of Avenio still had not a single weapon capable of surviving more than five hits, making him fight with his bare hands most of the time.

But now, he could only grit his teeth when his flesh hit the sturdy black shield. After a minute of fighting, he could see something red shining on the dark shield, only to realize it was his own blood. "After you faced him, we made some changes." The same cold voice spoke methodically, but for the human, it was only taunting him. He understood that the monster was talking about when he became a Hero and fought that giant.

Not backing down, he exploded, rushing madly like a bull at the armor. But even then, he could only see a shield in front of his fists or nothing. And the sharp glint on the sword was getting closer and closer to his own body, something he did not wish to. When they were still engaged closely like that, he did not have time to think, but apparently, the unknown dark god had. "That was a shame, those magicians are already out."

Hearing this, even the hardened general that was Avirus slightly panicked and couldn't help but sneak a peek at where the disciples of the Archmage were. Only to find out they were perfectly fine, albeit a bit pale. Seeing this, he realized too late what was really going on, when the sword finally cut open his right arm. But that was not the end of it, with the monster not giving him any time to rest. With his new injury, Avirus began to be sloppy, sometimes receiving the tip of the shield on his chest. Leaving the circle that was formed, he knelt while seeing his soldiers stalling for time.

"[EXPLOSION!]" For a brief second, every human that was not fighting looked at Three that was extending his hand toward Avirus. The Hero did not even think before getting away, leaving the armored monster alone amongst the corpses. A blue light blinked inside the underground room, and a projectile was thrown with great speed at Davion, who only had the time to lift his shield.

BOOOOOOM

The ceiling began to shook, but nearly nothing fell off. If it had been a natural cavern, everyone would have already been buried under tons of rocks. Even then, the ground that was supposed to be as resistant now had a small hole of many meters in it, with everyone surrounding the monsters being blasted off. The cries and shouts of the injured and dying human soldiers broke the daze of those watching this, especially when they realized the undead were completely unfazed by what happened.

Approaching the crater, Avirus looked down to see the armor on one of his knees. The shield that managed to inflict damage to his skin was barely covering the hand of the creature, and a blue skin could be visible in the cracks of his helmet. If his condition was not looking good, it was still better than the one that casted the spell. The old magus was laying on the ground, without even the strength to move his head to not eat dust.

Seven was quick to slightly turn his body to have his back on the ground, allowing easier breathing. From the looks of it, it seemed to not be the first time he did that. But that still provoked a great loss of power in the magic shield protecting the magus, and a new volley of metallic arrows arrived to prove it. If before, it was so durable that not even a fissure was made, now, the light had begun to dim and holes appeared after each hit. They only had the time to fix it before another arrow landed.

Jumping downward, the Hero looked closely at the blue creature, approaching carefully. If the big shield was broken beyond repairs, the sharp sword also showed signs of breaking down. Focusing on this, the human began to think about focusing on it, to break it with his two fists. Because the room was like the second one, with the end controlled by the skeletons higher than the side the humans were, Avirus could still see the liches casting spells even as he was in a hole. But he could not think more about that before he heard something that immediately put him on his guard.

"SURPRISE!" The tall dark god threw his shield on the ground, capturing the attention of the former general. But to his surprise, the monster did not get up immediately, even if they were only a few meters apart. Raising his hands to defend against anything his enemy could throw, the Hero completely forgot that the disciples of the Archmage were now busy.

PEW

The sound of an energy rifle was maybe foreign for the local population of this planet, but not for Davion. Without even looking at the new hole the Hero had on his chest, he rushed forward and use his sword for one last attack. Piercing directly the throat of Avirus, he could see his red blood gushing from the wound. The human was now terrified, his eyes pleading for mercy, but that was not something that would happen. The two hands that managed to destroy countless undead began to lose strength while they were gripping the sword. Putting everything on his arms, Davion finally managed to cut entirely the neck.

Thud

The still scared face of Avirus landed on the ground, the corners of his mouth filled with blood. His two hands that were stuck on the sword managed to definitely broke it, leaving only half of a side filled with cracks. Starring at the magus that were extremely dangerous for them, the orodil waited a few seconds, only to see them retreat safely. He did not turn to look at where Kardel was, but he guessed the duvodiad had a problem with his new weapon. Picking up the body of the fallen Hero, he scanned the battlefield to see the results.

If none of the liches were destroyed, the losses in the ranks of the skeleton archers and warriors were more important. A third of them had been destroyed, and the ramparts in the wall were severely damaged by spells. Remembering the might of the magic that hit him, he wondered how many times it could be cast in a single day. Because he was in the hole, Davion did not know that the one that cast that spell fell directly to the ground afterward.

As he walked back, he could see the skeletons from the other rooms coming in and carrying the corpses of the humans. They knew that the latter won't be as foolish as doing the same thing as before, and it was now more important to let Malakov and Leilade have as much mana as they could get. Feeling the air flow carrying ashes in the small holes in his helmet, the orodil could smell that it was made out of human bodies. Even during the fight, some magicians only cared about destroying the bodies of their former comrades.

Before going to the command room, Davion still took another way and arrived where Kardel should have been. But even before, he could see the smoke accumulated above him in the tunnel, and dark traces all around the entrance. Knocking on the wall, he caught the attention of the duvodiad that was cleaning the rifle the best he could.

"Good kill Davion, very good kill. Even from where I was, I could see the despair that was written on the face of that human. I only wished it was me a week ago that had done it." Nearby, a lich was carrying a waterball in his hands while another one had a small flame. On the ground, many pieces of the energy rifle were organized and display clearly, allowing Kardel to take them easily.

"And the rifle?"

SNAP

The lich that was carrying water approached and the duvodiad took a small part that was completely burned and put it in it. "Honestly, it's a wonder it even fired once. Do you see this, look, do you think it is normal to look like that?" The orodil shook his head at those words, especially when he noticed that a lot of those pieces were in the same state. "Also, those ammunitions are really bad. Definitely not adapted for this model. I will stay here and try to do my best but tell Leilade it can fire just one more time. Maybe. Actually, I have no idea."

Leaving Kardel that was drying the wet part with the help of the lich, Davion did not wait any longer to reach Leilade. Bypassing the skeletons that were carrying bodies, he put the one of Avirus on the pile and only kept the head for himself. When he arrived, only Meridiana smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up. She was wearing her armor, only leaving the helmet on a table nearby.

"Excellent work Davion. That's one less Hero for the future. But those magus have escaped untouched by Kardel, and Malakov is saying that the weapon was broken?" Before he could remove the pieces of his armors that were planted in his flesh after the explosion, Leilade began to interrogate him.

"It is true. He is working on it,but he can't assure you that he will have another shot. Also, he noticed that the ammunitions Master Agnil prepared may not have been adequate for this type of energy rifle." When she heard this, Leilade couldn't help but have a talk to talk with the ghostly dwarf. Seeing the little girl stiffening and then relaxing, the orodil knew what was happening.

Slowly removing each piece of his armor carefully, he noticed the damage dealt on it. His legs had been completely protected thanks to his shield, but the higher it was, the more broken it became. As he was having a hard time removing one of his shoulder-guards, a small tender hand did it for him. "Thank you, Meridiana." Like that, before Leilade came back, Davion could finally gaze at all the damages his armor received.

"Huhg, blaming Kardel for that? He is a member of the Noctulis Temple, why did he not asked for advice? Can't anyone work together without any problem?" Murmuring her disappointment, Leilade also knew that the dwarf was really not an expert on weapons. And they had already killed a Hero, so everything was not horrible. Glancing at the magus that returned to studying the portal she left in the entrance, she also wanted to get rid of them before any new Heroes arrived.

"Malakov, call Kardel. Tell him he can eat magician flesh today."