Siren stared at the being, trying to comprehend it. It had intelligence, how else could it talk, it also looked like the skeletons and other two types of elementals had merged into a complete creature. He had never seen anything like this before.
“So are you an elemental lord?” A voice said.
The excitement in the voice caught Siren off guard. It took him a moment to place the voice. It was Luke. Siren was about to reprimand him when the creature spoke.
“Indeed, and what might you be,” The elemental lord sounded menacing, however he also hadn’t spoken in over a thousand years. Speaking eloquently was an acquired skill if you did not have lips.
“I am a human, are we going to fight, cause I would rather leave if we’re just going to stand around.”
Siren would have killed Luke as a traitor then and there if he hadn’t been a civilian. He sank into a fighting stance, after all he was not sure how dangerous the elemental lord was. It had a lower tier than he did, but it was composed of three overlapping tier three essences. If the power of all three stacked, then it would be as strong as a tier six , meaning it could match the grand elder.
It started chuckling, “No, no, we don’t want to fight, the Lord of the Underworld needs to be freed, we will remove his shackles.”
“Who is this underworld lord, “ Siren asked. If it was going to talk, he was going to get some information from it.
“Lord of the Underworld, its a name not a title. He is the elemental lord composed of the commanders under Vulcan, the deceased admiral. We are soldiers, we heed our Lord’s call.” The elemental lord’s voice was full of passion.
A cold chill went down Siren’s back. Had they been facing off against the civilians this whole time. What was the warrior caste if civilians had an average tier of three. He was sure that a militia composed of elemental lords would be a world ending threat.
“So does this Underlord.” Luke was interrupted
“Lord of the Underworld,”
Luke raised an eyebrow, “Undie Lord.” The elemental lord ground his teeth, “Well does he have a metal essence somewhere in his mixture.”
The lord perked up, “You know where he is?”
Siren realized what Luke was referring to. They had almost dug up this Lord of the Underworld themselves. Olfred seemed to discover all of their problems. Siren was just to dumb to leave those problems alone.
“Luke, shut up,” Siren said, “I apologize, but we cannot allow you to release the elemental we found,”
The elementals all around the party started to become more hostile. The brains started releasing black fog and the skeletons picked up the nearest weapons they could. Siren did not know that elementals could use weapons. Fortunately the weapons were metal bars not swords or spears.
“This is not a debate,” The lord said, “Either you tell me, or I rip apart your entire world until I find someone who will.”
“Big talk from a baby lord!” Luke yelled.
“Someone gag him!” Siren roared. He sighed, he did not want to die, but he valued his duty above his life, “Elemental Lord, I cannot tell you, it is my duty to protect my nation.”
He saw something like respect in the lord’s eyes. It was a soldier as well, it understood duty, “Very well, kill them.”
Siren had hoped that the elemental lord would act like the elders, always standing back and letting their subordinates fight, then take the glory for the victory. Unfortunately the lord was a soldier, not an elder. It went from sitting to charging in a second. Black smoke condensed into plate armor and an artifact sword was held in both hands.
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The lord was the same size as Siren, but much stronger. The curved blade crashed into his ax, Sirens weapon held, but his arms did not. He staggered back activating the earth essence in his blood to make himself heavier.
The next strike was taken on his shield allowing him to counter with his ax. He had expected the armor to stop it, but it seemed to be made of simple fog. The ax cut deep into the lords hip, only stopping at the bone. A shove with the shield caused the lord to stagger back.
“Earth essence,” The lord hissed. His injury was already healing, the abundant dark essence was quickly fixing him, “Let me show you the power of dark essence.”
The lord vanished. Siren cursed, this was the one ability he wished he could figure out. None of the warriors with dark kerns could use it, so he had hoped that tier four would allow him to use it. With no other choice he backed up to the ring of light created by the illuminators. The light was constantly being eaten away by the fog. Light essence was a counter to darkness in the same way that water was the counter to fire, unfortunately enough fire could destroy water.
Siren kept an eye out for the lord, but he as not visible. A piece of the workout equipment hurtled through the air. Siren could see it, as the fog did not completely obstruct him. The others were oblivious.
“Watch out,” was all he could yell before the heavy object crashed into the shield wall. Siren wanted to check the damage, but several weights came like frisbees out of the darkness followed by the bar that previously held them. He raised his shield, taking several impacts. It saved his face, but blocked his vision.
Black fingers wrapped around the rim and Siren was thrown across the room. He hit the far wall and bounced off. Quickly, he braced for the follow up. One that did not come.
The lord had thrown him, then charged into the gap that the gym equipment had created. Two lights went out, shrinking the yellow pool of light. Kale and another soldier were cut and a third tried to punch the lord. The concentrated black fog armor caused the mans hand to bubble and rot. Siren missed what happened next. A flash of blinding white light tore the fog apart and threw everyone away. Several lesser elementals were instantly eliminated from the conflict and the Lord was blasted back like a meteor.
The lesser elementals would cause trouble on the surface, but they had bigger issues. Another illuminator was knocked out while the last could barely keep the fog back. Siren had no idea that the light kern allowed an offensive attack of such magnitude, but it had disabled the stealth of every elemental. He would have to check how his soldier managed it after they survived.
The lord slowly regained his feet, only to see Siren chopping the brain elementals. They were pitiful in a melee fight, acting more as weapons of mass destruction. They primed an area for other elementals to fight by creating the optimal environment for them Fortunately, after he had finished off six of them the fog started to get thinner.
“No, Gale,” the lord yelled.
Evidently he knew who this used to be. He charged Siren with murderous intent. Siren hefted his shield to receive the impact. The lord kicked the shield, and tried to slice Sirens legs with the sword. His ax intercepted the blade, however it caused him to completely miss the punch that smashed into his face.
Siren crashed back into the equipment, getting tangled in some metal chords attached to pulleys and steel weights. His face burned and when he tried touching it all he felt was teeth. The rotting effect of the armor had taken all the skin that it touched. Siren pushed the pain aside, he was full of earth, unmovable, unstoppable, the greatest force in existence. He was also full of darkness, hidden, empty, the most devious force in existence.
The lord seemed surprised that Siren was still alive. He barely got his weapon up in time to block. His stance was wrong, his form was wrong, and the block failed. The artifact ax smashed the sword into the lord’s face. He swung the steel rim of his shield into the lord’s skull. It did not break, but it was smashed back. Siren next swing was dodged, but the kick landed, staggering the lord.
The lord looked at the boot which was barely damaged by rot, “dual elemental?”
Siren did not answer, he just kept attacking. He was like a lumberjack and this lord was his forest. Stamina showed itself to be Sirens greatest weakness. The earth was unstoppable, but he was not. All the shadow essence around healed the lord, its body was completely made of essence, with fewer vitals the lord could afford a riskier approach.
He narrowed his eyes and kept swinging. Just because the elemental lord was three times stronger and faster, did not mean that it was three times better. It had been sitting on its throne since its birth, while Siren had been fighting from his youth. He had not always been a peak tier three powerhouse of the caldera.
A lucky strike allowed him to cut the elementals arm off. He took a jagged cut from a thrust that went just over the rim of his shield. Both of them ignored the injuries. A few minutes later the elemental lord had regenerated its arm, while Siren had been losing blood.
The duel became a battle of attrition, where only one participant could even bleed.