Vespertilia's puppet brought down its oversized boney foot with a burning hatred for the pink amphoran, but the stomp found itself a target bigger than Woh. The monster posed with a leg up akin to a triumphant statue was now stepping on Michael who was curled up over where Woh was. The boney hill of the giant foot cracked down on the back of his head and the clawed skeletal digits dug into the middle of his back.

The young man had just arrived to witness the oozing black meat monstrosity rear up its foot and with a desperate sprint, Michael was scrambling to it. He saw Woh below it, his heart struggling to pound fast as it ached with pain at the thought of Spek and at the horrendous idea of someone else dying.

"Well, looks like the Daeman is offering himself up, how lucky for you, mud eaters." The puppet cackled as it spoke Vespertilia's words as it dug its foot claws into his back, which warranted a growled cry of pain from the human.

Runhar and Zurra had paused as the brute now had Michael as a hostage basically. The guard captain grew silent as he opted to weigh his chances and to come up with some valid solution. Zurra seethed angrily in her armor at the situation as she had to force herself to hold back, knowing that a wrong move now could spell disaster.

Woh split apart her digits and looked up in terror as she realized her demise had taken quite a bit to come down upon her. Instead what she saw was Michael gasping for air, blood dripping from the back of his head and down his abdomen, pooling up at the front of his clothing, from the wounds on his back.

"M-michael... are you... ok?" She croaked a whisper between hiccups of muffled crying.

"Y-yeah... no... I c-can't... huff-... can't breath and this hurts so much, I am trying to not piss myself from the pain." He grunted back with a pained tired chuckle.

Woh whimpered a small laugh herself. "T-thank you..."

"W-woh... there'll be time for thanks after... b-but now..." He said taking a moment to catch his breath and looking at the amphoran with only one eye as the other had streaks of blood converging over it, from the back of his head. "I-... I need the poison... a-and a lot... I kn-know you don't wanna... I know you are scared it might kill me too, but... I..."

The tiny pink frog reached up with both hands to his chin and she then pulled herself up to place a tiny kiss right on the side of Michael's throat. Once done she let herself go down to the ground with an afraid smile on her face. "I-... I know... d-do your best, yeah? And... you aren't a monster. Like we t-talked before... Heh... Y-you owe me s-some juicy vurms, after."

Michael held himself silent as he looked down at Woh, blood dripping off of his face onto her. He could feel his skin burn up like was a frog boiling alive in a pot. His eyes teared up as he gave Woh a silent smile with gritted teeth. His heart began to pound madly at a steady pace against his sternum, a pounding he could feel in his ear drums. The small veins on his eyed once more began to pronounce clearer and his tears dripped with a reddish hue to them, the capillaries in his nose leaking blood.

Vespertilia grinned with a mad glee from her tent, far away from the fight as she peered through the eyes of her creation. 'Finally... finally I get my-' Before her thought of triumph could complete she saw her behemoth move without her input.

Michael was pushing up with one palm digging into the dirt and the other pushing wrapped in a fist around his knuckle duster, digging into the mud as he tried to lift up his back. Every joint in him creaked and popped as he pushed against the massive weight. He growled and quickly it turned to a roar akin to a hurt mad beast wailing its death cries. His eyes seemed to bulge in their sockets as they were accompanied by a furious scowling brow, his teeth squeaking from how hard he was gritting them together.

Vespertillia looked down at the struggling pink Daeman and she growled annoyed. 'How much do you dare to defy me?!' She thought to herself as she dug the claws of her construct deeper into Michael's back, yanking from his throat another octave of pained angry screams.

Still, this unintentional taunt was good enough to keep her attention off of Runhar, who has been slowly moving to flank the undead minion. With a heavy footed sprint coming from him, he casted once more his Earth Avalanche and in a blur of movement and force he smacked his shield and himself into the behemoth, tilting it to the side and back.

Zurra broke into a run as well, squealing mad as she charge with her green flaming spear and she thrusted it right into the chest of the creature shoving it hard off balance. As the monstrosity began falling back, Zurra clambered onto it, using her spear to get a grip and smashing the side of her shield into its head. The falling undead thudded onto the dirt making dust rise, obscuring itself and Zurra, only the echoing of the pounding shield remaining clear.

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Runhar rushed to Michael, wrapping a hand under his left arm and helping him to his feet, his eyes widening when seeing the human's expression. His pupils were tiny and focused, small voids at the centers of his eyes' iris which swirled like a sea of hazel and emerald green. Then the guard captain saw in his right palm, Woh and her mangled leg.

"Urla's comin' take Woh to her..." Michael said, his flared nostrils taking in air in forceful snorts as if he was trying to fuel a roaring flame.

"That thing's too big for Zurra and you to handle, we need as many hands on-..." Runhar said in a decided tone, but the human almost seemed to gaze holes into him, possibly not even on purpose. He paused as he saw the quiver of his lip as he was about to retort his order.

"I know, but w-we can't have her here. At least leave her out of harm's way." Michael paused as well to get another big breath of air, his bloody eyes shining at Runhar's earth armor. "C-can you do that again? On me?"

The tuskir captain nodded agreeing with Michael about Woh's situation and he blinked as he thought quickly of his request. "I don't think I got enough left for that one."

"Use my mana, can you make it continuous? S-so... cough ... the armor repairs itself when broken?!" He asked as his eyes darted towards the dust cloud as the noise of metal slamming stopped, instead the sound of a struggle and fervor fueled Tuskir swearing started to replace it.

Runhar almost seemed to wish to deny his request as he knew very well what could happen, his mother had informed him in detail of the human's situation. Still as he looked at Michael, the desperation in his eyes made it hard to deny him. Behind the blood, the pain and anger, he could see the hopelessness and struggle of someone trying their best against the odds. The captain could almost see a piece of himself in the human, when he was younger, when his father was still alive and when his current position was something he tried to earn despite himself lacking what was needed.

He began muttering under his breath and with his hand still on Michael, his bracelets light up and spun around his wrist. Earth began grasping at Michael's body, crawling and covering the human.

The young man took off his glasses and folded them handing them to Woh as the dirt was now half way up his form. "Hang onto these for me. If they break, I'll be in real trouble." He smiled a strained expression as he gingerly and with trembling arms handed her to Runhar.

The pink amphoran croaked in pain at the slightest jostle, bur she wrapped her tiny digits around the big pair of glasses and held them close to her. "R-remember you promised me vurms." Woh added as she stared at Michael, with worry in her bubbly gaze.

As the armor of Earth finished crawling up his body it would wrap over his throat and then his face, leaving only the eyes visible, the swirls of brown-green light. The full suit made him look like a brown jagged silhouette of a humanoid,almost like a golem. The packed dirt got thicker around his chest and abdomen as well as his back. The forearms and hands looked as if he had thick gauntlets, the metal edge of the knuckle duster peeking from the left hand that now looked more akin to a shifting rock.

Michael nodded silently as he took off into the plume of dust, Runhar retreating with Woh at a quick pace. The human continued his course through the fog of dust trying to follow the sound, without his glasses he could see even less now. 'Blue light. Blue light. Blue light.' Ran through his mind as his senses tried to grasp at anything for direction.

It didn't take long for Michael to hit his head upon a hint, in this case more literally. With a loud sound of impact on metal he began seeing a large shadow coming at him quick. Leaning forward and digging his hills in the dirt with a slightly squatted position, Michael intercepted the large projectile in his arms. The armor began hardening under tension, where he could feel his arms and legs normally giving out, instead they locked firmly in the position he wanted them in.

"Ugh... hah... good catch... boy..." Zurra said as she peeked behind herself, where Michael was, blood splatter clearly on her face and helmet.

"Zurra!" He exclaimed relieved she was alive. As he stood straighter he noticed the woman's armor bent heavily inwards into her gut.

"Ghah... this is... huff... one tough nugget to pound." Zurra replied looking back forward as she stood on her own two feet, the metal armor in her legs rattling with her shakey legs.

The young man immediately went to her front and grasped the bent plate at the edge, prying it forward from its harness. This got an immediate reaction of relieved breathing from the old anvil pounding sow. "By the Hunt Father... that feels better."

"Good. Urla should be at the front gate soon to aid. You should-" The young man didn't finish his sentence before his head got rocked by a decent palm to his earth helmet.

"Ya daft?! I ain't leavin' you alone against the thing. I'mma take me spear and shove it so far up that drippy cunt's arse, I'll be able to sear the back o' her throat. Yer tellin' me to go back. Pfft... ye were spillin' more blood than a Gusha fruit spills its juices when ya bite it." Zurra replied immediately, the fire in her voice not having dimmed one bit.

Michael's hidden expression gave a tired smirk at the reply, at least once he came out of the confused stupor that the sudden palm strike put him into. While looking at Zurra, he could spot a blue hue at the corner of his eye's vision, which quickly warranted the young human's body to turn and his guard to be up.

"Hah. You can certainly try, you unwashed despicable truffle sniffer." Vespertilia's booming voice spoke as her minion's blue eyes shined like spotlights through the dust, upon Zurra and Michael.