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As the dust settled from the explosion, Melpomene came hovering down on a broomstick. She set her sights straight away on Yamin.

A snake of mana slithered from out of her hand, tangling around Yamin’s neck and dragging her up a tree, letting her hang helplessly.

I tried to prime my mana cannon to fire at the branch to break it, but the witch waved her hand at me and dispelled all the collecting mana.

Instead, I jumped at the branch and kicked it hard enough to snap it, letting Yamin fall back to the ground.

Using the momentum from kicking off the tree, I struck my fists forward at the witch, but she summoned animal paws around her to catch my hit.

A bear paw retaliated and smacked me backwards.

CRASH!

I landed hard into a tree, shattering its bark.

“Little One, stay out of this!” Melpomene ordered.

Her attack hurt, but not enough to crush my resolve.

“Negative! I won’t let anyone come to harm!”

I just had to defuse the situation, preferably before those inquisitors showed up. Otherwise, even Melpomene might end up being in danger.

Nobody needs to die here.

“Melpomene, church inquisitors are on their way here. You should leave before they arrive,” I suggested, hoping that threat would be enough.

“Your trust in that godless institution is misplaced. You’ve made a grave mistake.”

She had no intention of heeding my warning. The only option we had left was to subdue her by force.

Indena dove at her and started sending out a volley of kicks, purposefully avoiding using her wounded hands.

Melpomene dodged all of Indena’s attacks while still on her broom. She finally summoned the head of a bull to strike Indena.

Indena went flying and hit the ground like a rock. The force of impact would have killed a normal person, but she tossed and turned, still alive.

“Stupid witch!” Indena growled. “Why do you even wanna’ kill Yamin?”

“One who revels in the fruit of knowledge could never possibly understand,” she replied.

“Oh yeah, wanna’ try me?”

Indena was still trying to get back up, brute forcing herself through the trauma like she didn't even recognize her own pain. I ran to her and primed my Lesser Heal magic.

“Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man! I’ll heal you up as fast as I can!” I recited as a pulse of healing light radiated around Indena.

Her wounds were starting to close up, but her body looked like it needed to rest. Somehow she summoned the strength to stand again anyways.

Fire exploded around her, then it clung tightly and formed into flame-like armour.

“I’ll finish this!” Indena charged at Melpomene, much faster this time.

Her punches and kicks were like blurs of light. My eyes couldn’t keep up until I tightly focused on the fight.

Melpomene couldn’t handle the swiftness of Indena’s attacks. Even her ability to dispel magic was falling behind.

She quickly left her broom and jumped back to bring out reinforcements.

Something that looked like a cheetah jumped on the scene, racing at Indena almost lightning fast. It caught Indena’s arm with a bite, and tugged on her. Another came in and did the same with her other arm.

Melpomene brought back that bull, in full form this time, letting it stampede at the vulnerable Indena.

“I hate cats!” Her hands erupted with flame and blasted open the heads of the cheetah, causing them to vanish into a haze of mana.

The bull was right on her now, so she grabbed it by the horns.

“And I hate cows too!”

What she lacked in strength, she made up for in pure firepower. Her hands, still grasping the spirit bulls horns, jet upwards with flame, taking the bulls head with them. This same maneuver allowed her to twist herself up into the air, forcing the bulls head around too.

SNAP!

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The bulls neck was broken, and it disappeared into a cloud of mana.

“Stupid cow! Now I got beef with that bitch.” Indena glared at Melpomene, who had already summoned a troop of chimps to leap at Indena from the treetops.

She didn’t have much trouble swatting them away with fire fists, but many of them would leap on her hair and start pulling on it. She’d be at their mercy if they kept playing dirty like that.

I summoned a stardust disk, something that resembled a sharp plate, then calculated a trajectory that would cut Indena’s hair short enough to protect from the chimps.

“Stay still!” I announced as I threw it.

The disk cut right through Indena’s hair, just as I calculated. Now she had something close to a bob haircut.

“What the hell?!” She fell forwards, being released from the chimps grasp. “How did you…!” she torched the spirit chimps, then got to her feet to face a variety of woodland spirit animals “I hate animals! I hate them all!”

It seemed like the angrier she got, the more she focused on the battle. Her attacks became stronger and faster, but this was definitely hard on her body.

That was irrelevant right now. Two giant vultures arrived to start attacking Yamin, who was lying on the ground, badly wounded after scuffling with a spirit snake.

I dove in and grabbed both the birds of prey by the beaks, then spun them around and threw them away from her. I charged up the mana cannon and fired a shot at both of them. They erupted and vanished away.

That bull was back. And he was charging right at us.

Marek leapt in and grabbed the bull in a headlock. He lifted the whole thing up into the air and pile-drove it into the ground with all his strength!

Incredible! I never imagined a non-mage human could be so strong.

“Every bone in my body is broken!” He shouted, passing out.

That may not have been an exaggeration. His rib cage was in critical condition. I stabilized his wounds with my healing spell, also healing Yamin too.

If only I could have helped Indena in battle, but these two needed medical attention.

Indena managed to fend off the animals, but now she was back in direct contact with Melpomene.

It was clear that Indena was the superior close quarters fighter. The witch couldn't dodge enough of Indena's attacks at once to protect herself.

Melpomene went for a hit, a glowing purple aura surrounding her, but it was a miss.

In retaliation, Indena swung her hand up and struck Melpomene in the jaw.

Sacrificing a hit, Melpomene used the close proximity to press her glowing purple hands against Indena’s chest. The purple aura around her spread out across Indena’s body.

“What the hell is this?” She backed off, looking sluggish. “You got poison magic too!? I should have figured with those damn purple eyes.”

“My element may be poison, but I assure you it won’t be the last I have to offer.”

Indena was struggling to stay standing now. She was breathing heavily, holding back from throwing up.

I took a quick look at her vitals. She currently had the 'poison' affliction.

“It’s gonna’ take a lot more than that to hold me back,” Indena smirked through the struggle.

Indena jet back to Melpomene with an explosive speed.

By the look on her face, she was panicked about how close Indena was, but that panic quickly turned back to a serious glare.

Melpomene summoned a spirit bear between her and Indena, the bear quickly dove in for a few swipes. Its claws raked across the air, sending sharp waves of mana to my ally.

But Indena used her fire magic to send a flare of flame outward to block the energy attack, then she quickly followed it up by striking the bear with her fist in the stomach. Her punch sent a shockwave through the bear.

Then she jetted up into the air and kicked the bear right in the jaw.

The bear wasn’t phased much. It went in for a grab of her, catching her mid air and attempting to crush her in its deathly grip.

But she sent out a repulse of fire, blasting out of the bear's clutches.

As she continued battling through this grizzly situation, Melpomene had slipped away and was heading for Yamin. But Indena was wise to her and made a plume of fire spawn out of the ground where the witch was.

“Not so fast!” Indena announced.

Melpomene was able to use her own magic to warp the fire away, but by that point Indena had freed herself from the clutches of the bear.

A spirit hawk dove at Indena.

I fired another two shots from my cannon, destroying the spirit hawk and the spirit bear.

Now freed of any mana animal, Indena launched herself to Melpomene and started to wrestle with her.

Melpomene's arms twisted, nearly breaking. Then Indena sent out a volley of calculated punches that did a number on her. It looked like Indena stood a chance here, even in her poisoned state.

“Fool!” Melpomene desperately growled as she failed to defend herself from Indena. “Don’t you realize you will be betrayed?”

“Who you callin’ a fool? You’re the one trying to kill us for no damn reason!”

“There is great evil in that one. I’m trying to protect all of you!”

“Funny way of showing it!”

Indena’s palms lit up with flame and she smacked it down on the witch’s face. Melpomene went down to her knees.

The spirit rhino returned, and it was about to stampede right into Indena!

I had to fire one good cannon shot at the rhino to destroy it. More power would be necessary then I'd been using up to now.

The charging sequence began, going to about the same percentage I used against the Reaper. My body prompted me again that I’d have to shut down after using the cannon like this. I acknowledged the prompt, and the energy began pooling over my heart.

With my body already having used this once, it was able to finish charging a lot faster now. The cannon was ready to use in seconds.

A piercing screech hit the air, whistling as the beam primed to fire.

“Mana cannon firing in…”

“3…”

“2…”

“1…”

“Firing mana cannon!!”

BWWOOOOV!

The shot hit the rhino! Mana burst out in a massive explosion that painted the whole area blue! Luckily, Indena’s fire aura protected her from the damage.

Regretfully, my body began to shut down quickly. I couldn’t go under until I saw the end of this fight, so I fought off my hibernation.