Out of everyone’s notice, the flames birthed from Isha’s spell vanished out of existence, as if ushered into some mystical dimension. No one had time to mind them. Articores had frozen two of them, one from utter shock, and the other from abject terror. For others, only a small amount of drowsiness weighed on them. All the concentration they had on their hands, they used it to focus on the Articores.

Una yelled, “Damien you are strong enough to kill all of them. Snap out of it,” Damien didn’t react, and Christian snapped in reality.

To Damien, three Articores, in that dark corner of the world, stained in blood and gore, ran straight for him. Their red eyes shone with bloodlust when they flickered through shadows. Dim light beams -source unknown- which escaped from the canopy of darkness above unveiled their reddish-purple charred bodies.

One of the Articores had its maw where must have been its bladder if it ran upright, the other two ran on all four. Behind them ran Christian, holding the longsword vertically above his head, as though it was a hammer.

Damien had both his swords out, but their posture was slumped, tips kissing the ground. His eyes were seemingly dead and dead-on the incoming Articores.

Unlike him, his teammates weren’t immobile.

Isha was standing 5 meters behind Damien but not immediately after him, he was no obstruction. Her short-chant fireballs still sent the Articores a foot or two back on their tracks, rendering already charred creatures with more red and brown texture. If she missed her mark, a meter-wide scorched land ensued on the mishit.

Although she was no swordmaster, she knew Damien’s wasn’t a defensive pose nor was it an offensive one. Hurling all the spells in as quickly as possible succession, she tried to keep the monsters away from him.

Her efforts weren’t alone, it was Ghun who supported her role. He switched to bombs that had small AOE, lest he blow himself and the teammates apart. If not for them, Christian wouldn't be able to land the hit which he did. That too on a fallen Articore, which got thrown back by the Ghun’s Scarred-Mist bomb.

The glass contraption had soaked the creature’s upper body and the head -which only had a huge eyeball- with melting alchemic poisons in a bang. Corrosive purple liquid with silver fumes seeped into its eyes and upper body, making a sizzling noise. After hitting his target, Ghun focused on the other two. Christian was a hindrance for Ghun to keep focusing his attack on the one left behind.

The Articore wriggled in pain, yet it wasn’t enough to kill it. Its tennis-sized eyeball made a thud sound when Christian’s hit had landed, but that ball’s shell was a million times harder to crack than any human male's.

Regardless, the creature wasn’t ready to receive another such hit. It stood up, darting stead-fast before Christian could even lift the longsword up again.

In the meantime, the other two Articores had crossed Yu. He was a tanker. Tackling a raging bull running mindlessly towards him was much easier for him than to impede nimble Articores who did their best to avoid him. Not to mention his agility was comparably worse than the Articores due to his metal gears. To pour dense mud on him, their presence mentally weakened him, making him feel like he was really fighting in swamps. Frustrated that he got outplayed, Yu raised his huge shield toward the one that Ghun and Christian had played with.

Simultaneously both the other Articores reached Damien. Their big eyes manifested white pupils in the shape of creepy smiles with no teeth. Chills ran through his body, his swords dropped as both Articores latched onto him as if long-lost lovers. The swordsman went into paralysis due to fear.

Isha halted her spells, in fear of hitting Damien, and yelled at the melees of her team “Get them off of him,”. Focusing her attention on the wounded Articore she started pre-charging a stronger spell, “IRAS-..” This time her chants were slow-paced and different than the one she had used earlier.

“Ghun, keep your focus on the last one. I will try to fend off the ones on Damien away.” Una swung her spear in a crescent arc and one of the Articores went dangling on him from hugging him.

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Bloody leeches, She snarled inwardly. Leaving the miserable to its misery for a second, she spun around and checked the status of her team. Yu was butting heads with the wounded Articores, while Ghun tried to aim at the same creature with his basic bombs as per her orders. And Isha had just started casting her spell.

“Yu out of their way, that one is a done deal. Help me help Damien.” Una took a few steps back. Switching from one-handed grip to two. She swirled her spear like a propeller. All the while her legs went tracing certain patterns in fast tempo. After her 5th step, the Silvery tip started illuminating in a blue hue. Lining mesmerizing traces wherever it went.

“Take this,” in the last sequence of her attack she thrust her spear straight into the Articore which she hit earlier. The Articore unlatched from Damien in one fell swoop taking a superficial damage. Una scowled at her attack's damage effect.

The Artiocre landed a few meters away from Yu, who thrashed his shield into it using one of his rage skills.

“Fucking hell! Mental suppression from these thins’ affecting my movements.” Yu complained and went barbaric, abandoning system-assisted skills and hitting the Articore with brute manual movements.

“VIARASKO” Isha’s spell completed and several lightning bolts originated from her feet. With a sonorous thunderclap, they darted on the ground like snakes toward the Articore which was getting bullied by Christian and Ghun. Before them, Yu had kept the wounded at bay until its handler changed to Ghun who started using his pushback bombs. Assisting Christian to pour hits on the wounded creature.

And lastly, the serpents seeped into the creature’s body, lifting it two meters in height using a pillar of lightning that connected from the ceiling of the Cavetree.

As an aftershock, Christian dropped his longsword statically. He had died, just to resurrect on the spot, a consequence of having no progress to save. Befuddled, he closed his eyes in long stretches and opened it again. Did it a few times and picked up the sword while jerking his head to clear his mind.

What just happened? He muttered to himself, before finding his target lying on the ground trying to crawl towards Damien.

“You hit Christian as well,” Ghun whispered while throwing another Scarred-Mist on the crawling Articore.

“I didn’t see him standing behind it,” She really didn’t. As Christian seemed fine, she came out of her daze and hurriedly turned toward Damien. Her face turned gloomy.

“Hurry, he needs our help,” Isha panicked.

Both Ghun and Isha turned their focus from the near-dead Articore, leaving it to Christian.

The swordsman was as pale as a Ghost, sweating bullets, yet still standing straight up. His Articore lover was giving him all the support needed to stand still. Damien was getting emotionally eaten by two Articores. Both Yu and Una tried their best to separate the monsters away from him, but they were akin to hound dogs. Snapping back at the miserable Damien once detached with brute force.

“Una what should we do?” Isha asked.

“They are not taking damage for some reason. I tried hitting them with all the abilities possible without harming Damien. Did you check their stats?” Una replied back while still jabbing her spear in one of the Articores.

Fuck Why didn’t we from the start? Isha cursed and inspected them as there was no time to appraise them mid-fight. They were complacent because of Karo’s presence.

[Name: Damien](Level 75)

Racial Index: 231 (Human)

Health: 441,149.12/524,948(84%)...

446,205.8/524,948 (85%)...

441,149.12/524,948(84%)...

………………………………(85%)...

[Alka’s Coress] (Level 59)

Racial index: 198(Articore)

Health: 209,091.36/326,819 (64%)...

215,148.04/326,819 (65.8%)...

323,550.81/326,819 (64.8%)...

……………………………….(66.6%)...

“Th…They are feeding on his health. But his health is persisting at 85% for some reason.” Isha stuttered with wide eyes.