With a simple flick of her hand, an entire army of rocky Rathe thugs spawned around the Fiends, encircling them on all sides, and they didn’t even hesitate to begin their attack.
“You’re not the only one who can make clones!” Jaid sprung into action, summoning her own elite squad that surrounded the rest of her comrades, cutting off the main attacking force and holding them at bay, clashing around the edges.
“So it does work!” Kada bubbled with glee when she placed her hands on the floor. The outer walls around the great room began to melt away, layer after layer of rock liquifying to stoney water. And now it was all under her control. The Mermaid started a flood, circling around the room, making a whirlpool of her own as she wiped out the farther reaches of Rathe’s army, while not letting it get too close to those in the middle.
With the bulk of her forces quickly decimated, with any new ones she’d make meeting a similar, the opposing demigod tried a new tactic. She once again used the ceiling to rain down rocks from above. But instead of stalagtites or boulders to try and crush the group, it was a downpour of new minions, all bearing their clawed hands down at the Fiends as they plummeted.
Yet they never got the chance to strike out with a single swipe. Those closest to impact were all blasted away. And before the rest could get any lower, Xard met them in the air, ready for an aerial battle. A few tried to latch onto him, but any that dared were met with a swirling tempest of energy that shrouded the redhead, making him a floating mass of destruction.
Since her direct attacks weren’t working, Rathe tried a bit of subterfuge, spawning more of her soldiers in the midst of the Fiend clump, trying to catch them off-guard with surprise attacks. But now someone else was able to see through it all. “Ooo, impressive, Phon,” Roque couldn’t help but compliment her work. “It’s like you’ve made a factory line.”
The Vixen was holding out her spinning yo-yo, having made the string rigid, perpetually whirring the buzzsaw. In an endless loop, she was snatching away the infiltrating stone demons and putting them to the gnashing blades, only ever pausing briefly for Mallea to sweep away the ever-growing pile of rubble that was interfering with her teleportation placement.
Though extremely effective, unfortunately the defense of the Generals wasn’t perfect. Eventually, a few of the Rathes broke through—slipped past Jaid’s line of defense, dodged Kada’s tidal wave, fell beyond Xard’s protective gales, spawned more than Phon could abduct. And from there it devolved into a full-on battle with each Fiend engaging without exception.
And it wasn’t just the ‘people’ looking for a fight. While Tize was scouting around for whomever would most need his assistance, he suddenly found his shoestrings being tugged at. At first, he swung down his gun, expecting it to be a small rock gremlin trying to attack his feet. But instead, he found Pox.
The koala-fox was staring up at the veteran with a look he’d never seen before from the creature. Though the small ball of fluff was unable to say any words, Tize swore he could understand him, hearing the silent cry for help. “Okay!” The Refuge knelt down and placed his hand onto Pox’s head, giving him a gentle pat. He then dissolved into orange light and wrapped around the small monster alien divine familiar.
But there was a slight problem. 『Synchronization Rate: Incalculable』 【Huh? That’s strange.】 Tize was perplexed. It wasn’t like with Rusa where the system had to find an alternate path to sync. Rather, it was like there was a door blocking the way, refusing to let him through. 【Let’s try again!】
『Synchronization Rate: Impossible』 【Impossible? No, I don’t believe it. We can do this!】 The symbiotic light refocused itself, applying as much strength as it could, exerting Tize’s will while clinging to Pox’s consciousness.
『̷̨̧̖̾S̷̙͍̏̽̾͜y̸̤̜̎́͜n̸̄̔͜c̷̩̔͋̀ͅͅh̵͉̏r̷̡̰͖̈́ǫ̷̤̘̂̿̾n̸͎͋̍̃î̶̦͈z̶̲̺͓͗͆̔ḁ̸́̇͊t̶̪͌͊̓i̵̩̒͑͊ö̴͍̠́̐̐͜n̶̡͖͛̅̈́͜ ̶̟̙͕́̌̈́R̶̹̩̊͠a̴̛̫̗͊̚ẗ̸̩̺͓́ĕ̵̩͇̲̕:̶̨̡̋ ̴̙͗̅̓Ű̴̜̺̋̆n̵̪͈̭͊̀͝s̷̠͒͛̃ṭ̵̖͆ͅa̵̰̩̤͝b̴̖̪̲̆l̶̥̣̅́e̸͇͋̎̀』̸̹̳̖̓̐ The system began to glitch out, and Tize’s mind was relentlessly scratched with a bombardment of artifacting. It was as if his own power was desperately trying to stop him and prevent him from trying further. Yet at the same time, there was a breakthrough.
The man had made contact with Pox’s mind, though unlike the others, the creature had indecipherable thoughts. But at the same time, he could feel the being’s unbridled determination. And that was enough to push him forward. 【One more time!】 And at least, the particles of light began to materialize.
『Synchronization Rate: UNLIMITED』
Rather than creating armor for Pox to wear, it was like the creature’s very existence was stripped away, each aspect of his body replaced with metallic sheen. And with it, the monster grew in size, until he reached the height of everyone around him. Soon, an entirely new being was born, rather similar to Thievius in structure: a Mecha Pox, or rather, a war beast.
The robotic koala-fox lunged forward out of the group, landing in a pile of rocky Rathes with splattering thud. Pox then jerked his head forward, his jaw opening wide. A second later, a handful of stone clones were snapped up in his maw then swallowed whole. And then that only empowered him further.
Once more, Pox grew in size, and as he continued his gravelly feast, it only added to his mass. Each minion consumed was immediately recycled, but rather than excreting a new product, the divine familiar was adding the energy to his own power.
After realizing they were only magnifying his strength, and finding that their attacks did virtually nothing to scratch his reinforced body, the Rathes decided to retreat. Pox grabbed after them, but even in his enlarged state, his arms were still rather stubby compared to the rest of him. But when he reached out, the limb extended, creating new length where needed until he managed to catch up to the fleeing foes.
He snatched a handful of them and brought them back to be devoured. And then he repeated the process until he was at a size where he felt he could really achieve his goal. Pox then bounded from place to place in the room, covering massive ground with each hop, making sure not to land on any of his Fiendish friends and allies.
The main Rathe took a swing at him when he drew near, thinking he was targeting her. But Pox just dodged, or rather, shrunk away the side of his body that was about to be hit. Otherwise, he entirely ignored the demigod, since he wasn’t interested in her in the slightest.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Pox’s actual goal was the corner of the room. With one final jump, he leapt up towards the ceiling and grabbed hold of the cage where Drimini was being held captive. Then with the raw strength he’d harnessed from consuming his buffet of demigods, he crushed the rigid bars, smashing them to pebbles in his paws.
“Babuu!” the plant-girl flew out, ecstatic to be free, where she stretched and spawned flowers in all directions as a semblance of her joy.
Pox then let go and crashed back down to the ground. He then had a moment of reservation, unsure of how Drimini would react to him in his current form, so he didn’t try to call out to her.
But the floral fairy felt no such bother, and she rushed down to the monumental metallic monster and wrapped her arms around his neck, extending her vines so she could get a better grip—happy to hug her brother and thank him for the rescue.
Then after the nice moment, the two properly joined the fray. Drimini flew around, snagging stone minions with her vines and flying them back to Pox so that he could feast and grow even stronger. Meanwhile, the mecha war beast rampaged around, doing as much damage as he could while grabbing more snacks.
As the battle raged on, or rather, since it had started, Drim continued his journey to try and reach Rathe’s main body so that they could properly have their showdown. Since the path ahead was perpetually blocked by her soldiers along with the king’s own forces, he’d been struggling to gain ground, let alone get close enough to face her head on.
The Slayer had been using his vines to stay above the crowd and travel a good distance in a single movement. And Phon had been helping him as well, teleporting him whenever there was room ahead, usually created by Kada gushing away the enemy and now Pox creating craters anywhere he hopped. But ultimately, his sister was preoccupied with her own fights and regrettably couldn’t focus solely on propelling him forward.
And not only that, it was like all the forces in the world were directly against him. Which they likely were. It seemed Rathe was finding amusement in blocking him at every turn, interrupting each new path he tried to take. Whenever he landed, stone hands would reach out and claw at his ankles to try and snare him to a single spot. And when he would zoom through the air, he’d be met with clones flung right towards him to intercept his trajectory.
But he fought back against every obstacle, slicing away any attempt to restrain him, sniping those that would attack him as he moved before they could land a hit. While it was a never-ending nuisance, he remained committed and hopeful, taking each inch of progress as a victory.
And he made sure to share that vigor with the rest, calling out to them in an effort to build their morale. “Keep fighting everyone!” the Fiendish King shouted as he sliced through a Rathe clone in the air. “With each one you kill, we’re weakening her! Keep this up, fight hard, and we’ll win!”
Victori then took the opportunity to echo his sentiment, using her Curse to essentially repeat his words and empower the Fiendish army with new resolve.
But not everyone was a believer. “You’re weakening me, are you?” Rathe huffed from her throne. “Are you sure about that?!”
“What the?!” Gatrim suddenly staggered, desperately blocking an attack from a demigod clone that he hadn’t seen coming shortly after her declaration. “Are these mawhgers getting faster?” He then zipped away again, more focused than before, keeping an eye out in every direction.
“They definitely are!” Rusa hollered her confirmation as she stabbed. “Each action they take is using up less of the amount of time I can process. With every new one I face, they have incrementally more speed.”
“Good eye,” The Demigod of Haste chuckled. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in a proper fight, so I had to build up a bit of momentum. Now I wonder, will you be able to keep up?!”
It wasn’t immediate, but it didn’t take long until the Fiends were starting to feel the weight of Rathe’s threat. The speed of each of her minions steadily picked up pace. Each attack was faster than the last, to the point that most of the group had trouble keeping their eye on each one, having to rely more on instinct to block and dodge rather than any visual indicator.
And the opposite was true as well, every stone soldier’s movements became more agile and nimble. They were harder to hit, and each missed attack left the members vulnerable and exposed for counters. Then once the fighters started actually taking damage, it was inevitable when the first few on the side of humanity started to sustain severe injuries.
Drim couldn’t help but be distracted and look back at those that followed him when he heard their screams of pain. And because of this slight lapse of focus, taking away his attention from his goal, he too fell victim to a heavy hand. Rather literally.
Rathe had noticed his blunder and taken advantage. Her main body had jolted from her seat on the throne, blitzing through what small distance of the battlefield remained between the two of them, and slammed her first straight into Drim’s torso.
The king was sent tumbling through the air. He was reeling from the attack, too disoriented and stunned from the pain to do anything to save himself or his progress. And in a mere second, he was back to where he’d started.
But fortunately, Xard saved him from a nasty impact that could have hurt him further. The redhead swooped through the air and caught him. However, it wasn’t a rather graceful save, because the act had left Xard vulnerable as well, not noticing the small gremlin that had landed on his back. And he too yelped in anguish when the mawhging thing bit into his neck.
Both men then crashed to the ground since Xard was unable to recoup and sustain his flight. Fortunately it wasn’t too far, but now they were wounded down in the fray. Thankfully, they had reliable allies, a few of whom rallied to them to ensure their safety as they got their bearings.
“I hate to say it, Drim,” Phon appeared next to him, protecting her brother with her shields. “But we might need to retreat, or at least regroup.”
“Just a break’d be nice!” Itsy added in input as she slammed the rocky clones around like ragdolls.
The king glanced around, and a pit formed as his stomach as he observed the battlefield. A few of his subjects were still doing alright, even thriving. Jaid was holding the line just fine, able to use her clones to make up for slower attacks. Nachi was also doing well with a good rhythm going. And Feyjrusa was of course having no trouble at all, still entirely able to see Rathe’s attacks before they happened.
Gatrim was performing the best out of everyone. After his earlier surprise, he’d locked in, displaying exemplary mastery of the blessing Rathe had bestowed his family. Ironically, he was using that speed better than she was, completely decimating all those that caught his eye before they could even make a move, dominating them in matters of haste. The question was, would they eventually overtake him, though the stone clones’ acceleration seemed to have greatly slowed. Perhaps they’d reached their top speed, or soon would.
But either way, it was still far too much for most. The wounded had been gathered in a cluster, waiting for treatment, protected by a few around them. And they were steadily increasing in number, faster than they could be healed.
“Perhaps I can offer us some reprieve,” Chorus butted into the conversation. “Though I will need our dear veteran’s assistance.”
The king nodded, agreeing to the order, and The Quickchanger held out their hand. “Tize, help me! It’s time for an intermission!”