Tristan mentally understood that a combo of three tier three elementals equaled a tier six physique. He had forgotten that in the heat of the moment. Both of them punched, both of them connected and neither were harmed. The elemental lord rocked back on its heels, while Tristan was sent staggering back.

Something hot hit his shoulder. He had expected the unseen lasers to hit with some force, but instead, they were simply hot. Most of the time they would not hit something they were unable to burn through. The mud was baked dry and the heat started to burn. Tristan righted himself and kicked water up into the beam’s way.

He could not see the beam, but he could see the hole where it turned water to steam. Tristan stabbed forward with Vulcan, the butt of the lamppost was pushed aside by the elemental lord’s free arm. The artifact vanished from Tristan's right hand and reappeared in his left, he was already mid-swing and the elemental had no time to react.

It staggered under the strike, though not nearly enough for Tristan to capitalize on. Another wave of heat washed over Tristan's torso, heating the armor and branding the skin. His healing alloy got to work fixing that, no matter how hot it got, the injury would be survivable. The elemental lord set its stance and let the lamp post hit it this time.

It barely swayed to the side. Though the anima was only tier three, it was solid metal essence. Tristan had never considered how durable metal essence was, it made him glad that the Lord of the Underworld had a fire and stone anima. Metal dented, stone crumbled.

After taking the strike, the elemental stepped in with a sweeping punch. Tristan would just have to be glad that it was only a few hours old and had not figured out the finer aspects of combat. He ducked under the haymaker, charged up a quick gravity blast, and used the pull from the flame to drag the elemental's face into the pointed end of the lamp post.

It worked, the point sank two inches into its cheek. Not deadly, but from the elemental lord's expression, the blow rocked its sense of invulnerability. Tristan shoved, not giving the elemental the chance to remove the artifact. With the extra leverage it granted, Tristan was finally in control.

Arrogance. The fog dispersed and the elemental lord’s silver flesh erupted with the light of the sun. No heat, but it did damage to Tristan's eyes. He tried to blink away the blindness, but his vision did not truly return until his healing alloy started its work. Metal sense picked up a metallic foot rushing towards his knee. Heavy armor would not stop his knee from being dislocated.

Jumping to the side Tristan avoided the foot. Desperately he kept his grip on the lamppost. He heard a cry of pain, but he was not sure whose it was. The smell of burning meat filled Tristan's nose, it was not hard to guess what happened.

When his eyes finally cleared, he found Dane, down an arm standing on the surface of the water. Still, Siren’s elite did not stop, he drove the tower steel blade down into the elemental lord’s arm. The sharp edge did a much better job at cutting into the elemental. It sank three finger widths in.

Reaching up, the elemental grabbed Vulcan and jerked the point out of its cheek. Tristan dismissed it, Dane did not have the same leverage with only one arm, but it should be enough.

“Keep him off balance,” It was not something a highly organized team should have needed to communicate. Tristan was used to relying mostly on himself, so he felt communicating was important, even if it alerted the enemy of his intentions. He charged in aiming to get in close.

Dane did not answer, he sawed the axe out of the wound. The blade dropped once it had been pushed past the shoulder, and when Dane jerked the weapon back the hook of the blade caught the elemental’s shoulder. Neither Tristan nor the elemental had expected the pole axe to be used like that.

The stumble forward caused the elemental to be closer than Tristan had anticipated. It turned a punch into a shoulder check. Tristan’s entire body weight plus armor, smashed into the elemental. The hook of the axe blade dug in and nearly took the arm completely off. Dane had good footing on the water’s surface and that was the only reason he was not yanked off his feet.

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Tristan was starting to truly appreciate the power of teamwork. The elemental was not knocked prone, but the body slam had put it in an awkward position. Grabbed the limp arm and placed a boot on the elemental lord’s chest, just below the ribcage. Then he pushed. The metal was quite strong, but it was a tier lower than Tristan himself. It was the only part of the elemental that centered on durability.

Dane realized what Tristan was doing and chopped at the straining ligaments and muscles. With a twang similar to a stringed instrument snapping its chords, the arm was torn free. The elemental tried to reach around to stop Tristan, but it was unable to reach him.

An arm was not a debilitating injury to an elemental, it would grow back within a few hours. Fortunately, the future of the Caldera would be decided by then, so it might as well have been a permanent injury. The elemental glared at Tristan but held its silence.

Tristan did wonder why the Lord of the Underworld had chosen this elemental lord’s constituent parts. Light would be good for healing, and it clearly could be used for combat. However, beams of light were quite limiting, the fact it was not consistently using them led Tristan to believe it was nearly out of light essence. The dark mind would dramatically boost its ability to assist its boss, but aside from creating a cloud of invisibility for those with dark kerns, it had little use.

It was almost as if this one was designed to serve as a back-line combatant. Whatever the Lord of the Underworld’s intentions were, it was not meant to be placed in melee combat. Tristan took the quick breather that the torn arm offered and glanced around the battle.

Cole was just now getting to his feet. Jenna, Grant, and Kale were holding their own against the other elemental lord, it hadn’t thrown out any more death rays. Siren and Luke were on the losing end of the conflict against the Lord of the Underworld. Both were bloodied and the only reason they were alive appeared to be their opponent's lack of a right arm.

Merrick and Kerri were the only ones not losing their contest. It took Tristan by surprise to see the two weakest members of the team doing their jobs the best. Merrick had made a wall of ice to block the exit of the fortress. To stop them from battering it down, he created a hole large enough to let them through one at a time in a crouch. It made them easy for Kerri to get rid of at that point.

Kill this elemental lord, then help Luke. The elemental lord was fed up at this point, but it had a light kern, making it unable to make equipment for itself. It had a nearby weapon to use though. It charged, and Tristan prepared to receive the attack. He would sidestep, trip it with Vulcan, and then he and Dane would beat it, just like the earth elemental.

It lunged to the side before it got close enough to trip. Dane backpedaled, trying to avoid getting grabbed. He succeeded, barely, but the elemental lord’s fingers closed around the pole axe. The elemental lord spun, axe whistling through the air in a full circle, bringing the blade back to Dane. He was hit in the ribs with a crunch, the mythical beast leather held up well, but still deformed to the shape of the blade.

Dane’s waterwalking failed, dropping him into the water. The elemental lord kicked him into the side of the fortress before Dane could completely pass. Tristan winced at that hit, he remembered thinking that this was a major flaw in trusting leather too much. He did not know if Dane survived or not, but he would not waste the opening.

Tristan stabbed forward at the elemental lord’s ear. It connected and drove through a finger width. Nowhere near enough to kill. Tristan roared and shoved as hard as he could. The elemental countered this by simply stepping to the side pulling the still imbedded lamp post off to the side. It raised its newly acquired weapon, the shaft was longer than Vulcan was.

Certain his armor would be able to take it, Tristan kept pushing. The axe came down, not on the head, chest, or shoulders, but the knee. The crunch took Tristan’s breath away, and only his adrenaline kept him standing. The axe came up again, a smirk now on the elemental’s face.

There was an explosion of water as Cole barreled in with all the grace of a giant toddler. The elemental tried to respond, but Tristan was able to shove off with his good leg. Cole had just the weapon for the job, his earthen hammer smashed into the opposite side of the elemental’s head. The blow did not do much damage in and of itself, but with Tristan braced on the other side, Vulcan was driven straight through the elemental’s brain.

Immediately the brain elemental started shimmering into black smoke and the other two started separating. Tristan and Cole wasted no time in killing them before they could get their bearings.

“These bastards pack quite a punch,” Cole wheezed. He probably had a broken rib.

Tristan could only nod his agreement.