Failing to kill the giant bull and rhinoceros hybrid in one try, the group stood ready to react at anything thrown at them.

"It's still alive!"

That failure was a real shock for Eric, who expected to quickly dispatch the beast.

"I was expecting that from the beginning. There was no reason to believe only three cores were formed inside a body like this. There should be at least one very well hidden somewhere inside its body."

The Corrupted Lord finally recovered from its injuries, its cores healed from any damages.

It moved its head rapidly toward them, and glared at them with furry in its eyes.

"Oops... It doesn't look very happy."

Said Caroline, returning to the group.

Orion looked above the beast, and noticed that Karteira was having trouble maintaining her flight.

'She's going to fall isn't it?'

The moment Karteira's steam storage were empty, her body fell toward the back of the enemy, who didn't miss that opportunity. It fired multiple boulders at her, trying to remove her before the other.

'Don't even try.'

His expression darkened, remembering him a recent memories. He extended his arm toward her, creating a warping portal below her.

"OOF!"

She fell through, falling directly in his arms.

"Oh. Thanks."

Over his shoulder, she looked at Amelia.

"I need more heat."

Both women looked at each other, until Amelia threw Leima in the air, replacing it with Vesta.

"Sure, come here."

Karteira's feet touched the ground, before walking toward her.

While this was happening, Amelia let her guard down, as one of the boulder managed to bounce over the metal wall, directly toward May.

"A-"

"Shit!"

Amelia cursed her inattention and jumped in front of her, trying to defend with Ceres and Vesta.

She forced Vesta to use a lot of magic creating a beam of powerful fire, which managed to stop the boulder made of the toughest rock in the world over their head.

It wasn't hot enough to burn it down, but this was all she was able to do.

Little by little, the boulder got closer and closer. That was until Orion warped in mid-air and kicked it back to the Corrupted Lord's face.

"You're alright?"

Orion dropped in the snow and looked at a stupefied May, who stared at him like a puppy.

"I-I am fine."

"Amelia?"

*Huff* *Huff*

"I'm good, thanks. I've just used too much magic on this one."

While recovering her breath, she smiled at Orion.

"Take a break after helping Amelia."

Checking the protective wall, Orion noticed that it was about to break down.

"Eric, do something about the boulders."

Orion's expression wasn't pretty. He felt strongly that Eric was hiding his full potential, and he didn't understand why.

"I... can't. I don't have a the strength you expect of me."

He started at his axe.

"Bullshit."

"What?"

To say that Orion wasn't happy would be a terrible lie. In fact, he was furious.

"That's pitiful if that is true. An Apostle not able to lift a finger? Are you sure you've not usurped the title? Who fought Monolavir twenty years ago?"

"I can't believe it was a weak person like you. In the end, Florian carried the whole defense alone?"

Eric's eyes opened wide.

'I knows about Florian? And what with that familiarity?'

'Did they meet after their encounter near the Talviera mountains?'

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

He was still older than Orion, and didn't liked being taken lightly, but he also didn't want to show his cards.

That was until Caroline walked to him.

"You should do it."

"Caro-"

"I know how hard you try to hide it, and I know how painful it is. But sometimes, you have to make sacrifices, right?"

She smiled, preparing herself for his answer.

"Do you really want me to?"

With only the sound of the boulders hitting the walls Amelia created, she nodded.

"..."

Eric looked at Orion with anger, before switching to the beast.

"I hate you for making me do that. Having to sacrifice my life for something this stupid."

In a loud bang, Eric slammed his axe in the ground and put Balmung back into the holster.

Orion began to doubt if what he did was the right decision, from how heavy the air began and how important it sounded.

"Sensory Overload."

Grabbing his head in pain, he gritted his teeth, until his eyes changed to pure void. There was no sign of his personality anymore.

"Eric..."

Caroline looked incredibly pained looking at his state.

Like a machine, Eric grabbed his axe, and lifted it in the air. He proceeded to slam the hilt of the two-handed axe on the ground, making the soil around him break and float toward him.

An armor made of rock, dirt, and mud, compacted into a thin layer of extremely solid protection enveloped him.

Without saying a single word, he began to run toward the metal walls that were on the verge of breaking. The axe that he held with two-hands now glowed in his hands.

*Swing*

With a simple swing, he cut down the walls, and continued to mindlessly slash the incoming boulders.

"So that's his strength?"

Said Karteira, interested in testing the man's strength. Caroline nodded to that, but didn't look very happy. May too, looked slightly bothered.

"What's the drawback?"

"Is that so obvious?"

Orion couldn't ignore their reaction. There was something going on that he didn't knew.

"It is. Was it a mistake to make him go all out?"

"Yes and no. This is a powerful ability in its right way, but there is also the fact that every time Lord Eric uses it, he loses a third of his existing memories."

Astonishment appeared on Orion, Amelia, and Karteira's face.

"How... many times?"

Amelia asked carefully.

"How many times has he forgotten most about us? Three times. I fear that he will definitely forget about us this time."

"I didn't knew... He has the right to hate me for forcing him."

Feeling incredibly wrong, Orion imagined himself forgetting about his parents, Amelia, and Karteira. How strongly his life would be impacted.

'This is not what I wanted. I wasn't expecting that an ability could cause such effects.'

But he remembered Karteira's sudden loss of control while he was close to death. This could be considered as an ability too, and it was pretty similar. It affected the mind of the person.

In Karteira's case, she lost all reasoning, but in Eric's case, he lost his memories the longer the ability lasted.

'I see why Monolavir recognized this man's power.'

Eric seemed to be done slicing boulders, as he began to prepare his body to retaliate. He placed his axe behind his back as if he was holding a bat, and with the flat of the axe, slammed it toward the beasts face, just like Orion did previously.

After the fifth shot, the boulder hit back and broke the Corrupted Lords frontal horn. It looked extremely painful too.

The group was still watching carefully for any sudden apparition of a core that would help them finish it off.

Luckily for them, the Corrupted Lord seemed to keep his distance, not moving from its spot once. Maybe because of its gigantism, it was incredibly slow moving, so the characteristics of the bull or rhino was mostly negated. It couldn't run at them.

It was when the horn began to heal that Orion noticed the last core.

"There! Look!"

In the middle of the beast's forehead, an opening with a dark purple gem appeared. It glowed with a powerful light while creating an ominous feeling to those watching it.

"Scatter!"

Orion noticed in time that it was a powerful attack, and before it was too late, he ordered everyone to move away.

May and Caroline ran to the right, Amelia and Karteira to the left, while Orion ran toward Eric, tackling him in the process to make him fall to the ground out of the way.

The light that finished gathering on the jewel got released toward the tip of the horn, which send it in the straight line where the ground previously was.

That beam of corruption ripped through the dirt and snow across a hundred meters, creating a meter deep trench.

"I said I wouldn't save you a second time, but here I am."

Orion stood up in a hurry, turning to Karteira.

"Hurry up, before the core vanishes!"

Both Amelia and Karteira nodded. Karteira remained in her Storm form, while Amelia placed Vesta on her side.

The dagger began to heat the plates, making her body heat up at an incredible rate. At the same time, Karteira stored a small amount of fire magic inside the armor to make the production of steam longer.

"I'm going!"

Once ready, Karteira immediately went to the air.

"Wait!"

She stopped in mid-air, and stared at Orion, but saw something flying at her. She caught it effortlessly, and noticed that it was Dusk, the dagger form of Orion's dark element.

Understanding that her role was to break two cores in a moment, the core behind the horn, and the forehead core, she nodded at him before leaving in a cloud of steam.

"I'm going to the core on the back immediately!"

Caroline walked away, running at full speed.

"I'll go support Lord Eric!"

May ran toward Eric, who was ready to defend any attack coming at him, still mindlessly.

Amelia stayed behind to look for any other surprise from the beasts, while carefully trying to stay out of danger.

The last member of the team, Orion, stood under the chest of the Corrupted Lord once again.

'Let's hope this is the last core.'

'One, two, three...'

"NOW!"

The moment they heard his command, they moved. Caroline repeated her shockwave attack and exploded the core on the hind leg's interior, Orion pierced through the chest with a spinning arrow, and Karteira destroyed both cores on top of the beast.

She first threw Dusk at the core behind the horn, which spun out of control before planting itself inside it. As if it reacted to an formatted order, Dusk activated itself, extending inside the core, successfully breaking it in half.

For the finish, Karteira went for a powerful kick, using the ability 'Steam Burst', to propel herself by releasing all of the steam she possessed in the storage units.

*CRACK*

All the cores exploded, the Corrupted Lord fell on the ground lifelessly.

Karteira fell to the ground safely with the little steam she managed to regain, while Orion checked for any signs of movement from the beast.

"Did we make it this time?"

Caroline once again spoke her mind openly, making everyone fear for the worst.

And it happened again. The beast opened its eyes, and stood once again.

"The last core..."

Orion looked at the opening on the Corrupted Lord's back. A massive cores had been hiding, disguised as a hump on its back.

The cores were starting to heal, and Orion had only one thought.

"I'll go!"

He warped over the beast, and aimed with Alcyone. But the moment he got ready to shoot, rocks formed around the core to defend it.

'Damn it!'

"Rending Fang!"

A voice Orion never heard before echoed above him, and a person fell from the sky directly on top of the rocks.

The sudden attack destroyed the rocks, revealing the core to Orion.

'I won't miss the chance!'

*Click*

Orion's arrow flew straight inside the core, ripping it in pieces as it spun inside. It broke all the way to the base, and broke the last core in half before the other were healed.

The stranger fell to the ground like a wild animal, while Orion warped to the ground.

Once on the ground, the stranger took a defensive stance with the metal claws he used as weapons, while Orion aimed at him immediately.