Drew’s glaive lights up as all the Eani around him are turned to Uua and absorbed, forming a temporary void around him. Eani rushes in to fill the void as he swings the glaive, unleashing an arc of energy that made the air surrounding it tremble as it flashed towards the Majin. At the same time, David leaps behind the Majin and throws his swords toward the Majin’s head and Torso while Emma throws several needles, each moving almost as fast bullets toward the Majin, making sure he has no way to dodge. Either he gets stabbed by David’s swords or the needles fill him with holes.

As for me, the deer controls my body to manipulate the Eani around the Majin, using them to form two noers, one under and another above him that worked in conjunction to restrict his movements. Even if he had the ability to dodge the other three’s attacks, the noer would prevent him from being able to do so. In the face of our combined attack, the Majin reacts calmly. He waits for Drew’s attack to almost reach him before he unleashes his Uua, letting it flow out and form a dome around him before he pulls it back and focuses it. Almost immediately Drew’s attack disperses, even without touching him. As for David’s and Emma’s attacks, the moment they touch his focused Uua they are repelled. He got through it unarmed.

He then pushes outward and his focused Uua suddenly explodes, blasting all of us away. The deer reacts quickly, forming a Hilla’s Barrier to prevent us from being shredded by the resulting explosion. The moment it dies out, we are back on our feet and attacking the Majin once again.

Against four Laen with their third eye open, the Majin is not disadvantaged. Instead, he fights even better than he had done so far. He threads through our attacks, easily blocking or deflecting them while unleashing devastating attacks of his own. Should any of us make a mistake at any point, we are going to die, or at least be seriously injured. Which, I guess, is why Daniel does his best to stay away from the fight, his eyes on us like a hawk. Should any of us get injured, he will move in to save our lives.

The fight drags on, and we begin to lose badly. As for the Majin, disregarding the occasional pained moan coming from his mouth, he seems to be having fun. Then he stops and opens his mouth wide once more. We feel that familiar suction force, but it disappears before it could separate us. As for Drew and the rest, they are affected. The noer the deer used on them before was single use, so it had to cast it again.

As the deer stirs up the Eani to free them, a pulse of telekinesis is released by the Majin, throwing backward all of us, except Emma, who the Majin pounces at. Grabbing her by the neck, he focuses his suction spell on her, releasing the rest of us from its effect.

With its full force directed at her, Emma is paralyzed as blood streams out of her and into his mouth. As he feeds off her blood, I feel its aura grow stronger. The deer acts fast, preparing a noer. If things continue as they are now, Emma will be dead in seconds. Just before we activate the noer, We sense a powerful presence approach us rapidly from behind.

“Get away from my kids!” Hugo roars angrily as he appears in front of the Majin. The tattoos on his body come to life, shifting and rearranging themselves as they begin to glow. Boosted by whatever it is they are doing, Hugo punches the Majin once.

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I hear the punch hit the Majin twice before it is catapulted away from Emma like a rag-doll. Ignoring the Majin who lies collapsed on the ground, Hugo crouches near Emma and examines her, an anxious expression on his face. As he does so, Lathia appears with a worried expression on her face and a phone in her hand. She looks around, taking note of how battered we all are before closing her eyes a letting out a relieved breath.

Done with his examination, Hugo relaxes a little and calls Daniel to take care of Emma. Then he turns to the rest of us and begins to look us over. His eyes stop at my arms and the copious amounts of blood I have on my cloth, then they move on to Drew and David. As he sees the damage each of us has sustained, an expression of pure rage appears on his face.

Breathing heavily, he says, “Assume the Truman positions. I’ll down the Majin.”

“We’re only three. Daniel’s taking care of Emma,” Drew says.

“I can take the last part,” the deer says with my mouth.

Hugo nods and then turns to face the Majin who is now getting up. “Then let’s send it to the abyss where it belongs.”

The happy expression on Majin’s face is gone, replaced by something more serious and calculative. It looks over Hugo and then begins to laugh. The next moment it rushes at Hugo, a crazed smile on its lips. Contrary to what I expected, Hugo did not rush to meet it, instead rushing towards its left, he get to a particular point and turned, grabbing something with his hand as he does so.

The crazed Majin disappears, and the real one appears, its face held tightly by Hugo hand. His muscles flexing, Hugo slams it headfirst into the ground with enough force to make it bounce back up a few feet. He then kneels it in the abdomen, and just like before I hear the one attack land twice.

The Majin flies into the air, but Hugo isn’t letting it go that easily. He pulls it back toward himself, but then the Majin opens its mouth and spits out an orb of energy with a fearsome aura. With how close they are, Hugo has no opportunity to react before it hits him, consuming both of them in a fiery explosion. My heart clenches. If Hugo was injured by that, then we’re screwed in a million different ways.

The dust clears and I see a strange being grabbing the Majin by its neck. The being is completely black, with familiar-looking tattoos scribbled all over its body. It has two rows of golden spikes on either side of its spine, going from its waist, all the way up to its neck. Apart from that, and its muscular humanoid shape, it is completely featureless. Even its face is a pure blank slate with golden noers shifting and pulsing randomly.

My answer as to what this thing is is answered by the deer. I am looking at Hugo’s True Body.

Hugo raises his hand and punches the Majin, causing it to fly backward before it is pulled back toward him by an invisible force only to be punched again. Without giving it any breathing space, Hugo begins to pummel it. Like before, each hit strangely produces two impact sounds, as though he were punching it twice instead of once.

As I watch this, I can’t help but feel sick to my stomach. Even though this is currently the only way to fight the Majin, what Hugo is doing must still undoubtedly cause agony to the man the Majin possessed. Should the Majin leave him now, he’ll be nothing but a broken mess, if he doesn’t die immediately.

During all this Drew, Lathia, David, and I position ourselves around Hugo and the Majin. One by one we lay a noer on the ground. The Majin, noticing this, begins to panic. Once again its combat prowess increases a notch, but it is no match for Hugo.

It tries to punch Hugo, but he deftly dodges the attack, before countering with one of his own. Realizing that physical attacks aren’t effective, it focuses its Uua as Hugo launches another attack. In response, Hugo focuses Uua around his arm, enough to enable him to break through its defense and land another hit.

Tanking the hit, it grabs Hugo’s arm and opens its mouth, releasing a beam of energy from it. The beam hits Hugo squarely in the face, and for a moment he freezes. Then he uppercuts the Majin, shutting its mouth and stopping the attack. As I watch all of this, I can’t help but marvel at Hugo’s defenses. For him to be able to tank all these attacks without injury, what kind of crazy defenses must he have?

We activate the noers and they rush toward each other before collapsing themself and the space around them to reveal the Abyss.