Eric glared at Disaster as the latter created light orbs above its wings.

He was ready to continue is struggle, until, in the corner of his eyes, he noticed Kamala moving her arms toward the bird.

Covered in sand from top to bottom, she focused her aim on the wings, before sending her magic at full blast.

Thousands of spinning sand bullets flew through the air, tearing holes into the Corrupted Lord's body.

The instant a volley was fired, another one formed and followed shortly after. Death pellets shattered his bones, removed its flesh, and perforated the organs.

Without giving it a chance to realize her intent, Kamala used the opportunity that Eric had created to eradicate the enemy.

While it did cost her a large amount of magic energy, it was everything or nothing at this point.

Even with an imperfect Elemental Mastery, she gave everything she had.

'That's for Florian!'

With a death glare, she gave back what her friend had endured, not twice, but dozens of times more.

The attack finally stopped, forcing her to kneel on the ground in exhaustion. May, standing near her, caught her before she fell down.

In silence, the two watched the hole riddled corpse of Disaster crash on the ground, throwing ash in the air.

Its large body was turned into a mess, with blood, organs, and parts everywhere. The light in its yellow eyes were dark, confirming that Kamala had successfully dispatched the enemy.

Yet, for what it was worth, the three did not breathe a sigh of relief. Without lowering their guard, they kept a close eye on the corpse.

Eric carefully walked sideways to join with the women, his eyes focused on the corpse.

'This is not the end.'

May and Kamala knew too.

'We're entering the next phase...'

'If only it was so simple.'

As Eric stopped in front of Kamala with his axe in hand, dark blood seeped through the openings of the corpse.

That blood merged into a dark puddle further away, before a dark shadow emerged from its center, rapidly flying through the air.

*KYYYYYYYAAAAA*

Opening its wings once again, the dark shadow of Disaster appeared, signaling the second phase of the battle.

Orion gave them a complete detailing about what had happened in Noctelagia, making information a real treasure in this setting.

If they had not known about the return of the enemy in a more corrupted form, they would have lost without being able to fight back.

The effect of surprise and false sense of accomplishment was a death sentence to those unprepared.

Kamala forced on her legs to stand up, helped by May. They had very little time to get ready, as Disaster immediately returned on the offensive.

Covered in a bright light, it dived toward the ground while spinning, before changing direction at the last second.

Eric clenched his axe with his working hand, and worked on receiving the attack head-on.

"My turn."

May suddenly jumped in front of him, her sword in hand.

Since her arrival, she hadn't been useful at all.

'This is my chance! Thanks to it being a flying creature, my fire is useless...'

With a deep glare, she placed her other hand on the sword's hilt, holding it at her forehead's level.

Closing her eyes to focus for a brief moment, flames enveloped the blade, before she took a single step forward.

Her leg bent slightly, before she opened her eyes. Disaster was right there, spinning uncontrollably, a few meters away from her.

Following a swing of the sword so fast no one behind her managed to see, a wall of flame erupted from the ground, and continued toward the shadow.

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The two met, unleashing a terrifying blast that pushed both sides away.

Disaster fell to the ground and rolled a few meters backward, while May simply slid a short-distance away, still far from Eric and Kamala.

With a flap of its wings, Disaster took off to the sky once again.

'...'

May felt uncomfortable fighting this beast. It was a very difficult opponent to deal with, as she had scarcely any opportunities to strike back.

While the enemy flew freely above her and attacked from a distance, she was unable to do so.

All she could do was defend.

'Even if I fired another one of those fire beams, there is no certainty I would hit it.'

There was a possibility to blast it away with the attack she used at the beginning of the war, but this one was too smart to fall for it.

It would easily dodge it, leaving May in a precarious state of vulnerability after. Anything that would consume her elemental energy was to be avoided, except when she was sure to strike the target.

'You know what?'

Cracking her neck while exchanging a glare with the bird, she positioned herself in an attempt to do something absurd.

'If I can't hit you in the air...'

She suddenly rushed forward, and stomped on the ground with all of her strength.

"May?!"

Both Kamala and Eric exclaimed, as they noticed a red spot under her foot. May brought her sword to her side, and postured herself to strike at the bird at any moment.

The red spot under her foot glowed brighter, until an explosion launched her into the air.

"I'll come to you instead!"

Launched past the bird, which was in a state of surprise, she dropped toward the ground.

*Pshhhhh*

During the short window of time she had, she sliced the chest of the flying birds, leaving a deep gash that stretched from one wing to the other.

Following a loud cry, Disaster recovered its senses, and dived toward the ground again, before turning around.

It thought that May was the perfect target while falling down, as it left her guard wide open.

It grazed the ground, its beak ready to pierce through her delicate body.

"Heh."

With a smirk, Olivia glanced at it from over her shoulder. She aimed the tip of her sword in front of her and fired another explosion from there, launching her body toward Disaster right before meeting ground.

The two met once again shortly after, injuring each other at the same time. A deep cut appeared on Disaster's left wing, while blood seeped through a small cut on May's right cheek.

Her feet slid on the burnt ground, leaving trails of her passage as she turned around for another meeting with her opponent.

Another small-scale explosion pushed her toward the Corrupted Shadow, but this time, she was faster.

The sword, covered in a scorching flame, sliced through the bottom half of the bird, separating its lower body from its torso. As its legs and organs fell to the ground, it dropped too.

It rapidly healed, as May continued her onslaught. With a blast of fire, she flew high in the air, before landing on Disaster with her sword pointed downward.

*PYAAAA*

Her blade pierced the neck of the bird, while her feet crushed its chest. With a sharp movement of her wrists, she sliced the neck of the corrupted in one clean move.

Jumping off the large creature, she swiped her sword next to her side to remove the dark blood flowing down on the blade.

Watching the convulsing beast slowly stop, she felt proud of her actions. Yet, for some reason, the sense of tension was still strong in her chest.

'...'

She glared at Disaster, before clicking her tongue.

"Tsk!"

Jumping backward, she avoided a ray of light aimed at her. The wounds on the bird healed, reattaching its sliced parts together as if nothing had happened.

Slowly raising its body, Disaster focused solely on May this time. It wasn't that it had forgotten about its previous failing, as it carefully judged and acknowledged the level of dangerousness of the ones around.

Kamala was out of commission for a while, having used a lot of her magic energy to bring it down once, so she wasn't a primary target.

Eric was fairly dangerous with his gun, but was too injured to be really threatening currently.

The only one pushing it against the corner was May. She even entered its domain as a flying beast, the sky.

This was an affront it refused to ignore.

Standing pridefully on the ground, it stretched its arched wings widely, creating hundreds of light orbs that it immediately fired at May.

"!"

May sliced one of the first beams with her sword by instinct, noticing that it had lost its explosive attribute in the process.

'Good!'

She knew what had to be done, and how to defend against it.

'---'

'Let's go for a ride, shall we?'

With the elemental inside her focusing on the magic output, she stepped on the ground once again, launching her high in the air.

Not losing its sight of her, Disaster's beams followed her by curving toward the sky.

Defending against the beams, she sliced a few with her sword before creating an explosion that threw her toward another direction.

Dancing in the air while blocking the attacks, Eric and Kamala were dumbfounded.

From the hundreds of light projectiles, only five remained after a few minutes.

'How do you like that?'

With a sudden blast above her head, May threw her entire body toward the corrupted. Seeing that she was coming toward it, it tried to move away, but couldn't as it was in the middle of using an ability that required deep focus.

May grabbed its neck and used it as a poll to step on its back. She pulled its neck and smiled.

"Do you like your own medicine?"

The five remaining light beams shone in Disaster's eyes, as it cursed the woman.

Each beams pierced its body, while she jumped off at the very last second.

Seeing the still body of the giant bird, she refused to miss this chance. As its head fell toward the ground, she jumped under it, and pierced the head from below with her blazing sword.

Piercing through the skull, May was certain that it would be the end of the Corrupted Lord.

Until she was kicked in the chest by Disaster's right talon, sending her flying toward Eric.

The impact managed to break a few ribs, making her gasp for air as she dropped to the ground.

Luckily, as she was an undead, the pain wasn't that bad. Planting her blade into the ground, she stood up with difficulty.

Glaring at the corrupted, she noticed a smirk from its eyes, mocking her attempt at killing it.

'Fucker!'

Removing her sword from the ground, she returned to the assault.

"May!"

Hearing a sudden call, she turned back. Disaster took this chance to fly away, putting some distance between them.

As it watched May, it, noticed her running back toward the two behind her. It thought that it had won the fight, and prepared to finish them off with its light magic.

But, it never expected this thought to be its last.