They made their entrance just in time. The ogre was bearing down on the frontline. The backline support and their mages still weren’t recovered, and the warriors and fighters found themselves having a tough time keeping the ogre at bay.

The beast was just launching a heavy swing when a thunderbolt from Will exploded in full force against the side of its face.

The beast roared horribly. Lightning cracked and jolts were dancing across the ogres red skin. It clutched its face, taking a stumbling step backwards.

Messy used the moment of distraction and placed a pair of arrows directly above the monster's kneecaps. Marcel wasn’t sure what skill she used to enhance her arrows, but since both of her shots burrowed themselves deeply into the beast's flesh, her skill seemed far superior than the other archers. They had barely left surface wounds.

The twins had given the fighters enough time to regroup a little. Marcel made his way over to join them on the frontline, trying to also get a small window of opportunity out of the ogre’s confusion.

Unfortunately it didn’t last long though. Will’s attack, the lightning strike that had felt the giant cat in the jungle in one strike, had left nothing more than scorch marks on this ogre. Marcel shuddered when he remembered the sizzling, seizing predator, and now looked at this giant.

He pushed his fear down though. Deep, deep down. He couldn’t deal with nerves now. Anxiety couldn’t take the reins now, there were lives on the line.

He activated his “Heightening” skill, and stepped next to some of the other warriors.

“Who are you guys?” The closest warrior asked him.

“Help.” Marcel said simply.

A few of them threw uneasy glances at their golden armored leader. The man simply looked at them, giving Will a flat stare. After a while he nodded.

“Alright, you are allowed to join.” His voice was high and distant. “But you won’t get a share of the loot.”

As he was arguing, the ogre brought down his giant fist again onto the ground. The warrior he aimed at evaded him easily. But now, standing close, Marcel realized the terrifying force behind that punch for the first time.

The impact of the ogres fist almost shattered the floor.

It was only a lazy irritated swing, but for them it was also a sign. They needed to get serious now.

Immediately the whole group, including their leader sombered.

Marcel cycled into the group's frontline tactics. Their job was to draw the ogre away and keep him away from the damage dealing backline. He didn’t even try to attack the ogre seriously by himself.

They had lost four of their members though, so it was only a matter of time until the ogre pushed forwards again.

One of their mages fired a red beam at the ogre. It was only a small concentrated pillar of light, but Marcel could feel its heat from almost a dozen meters away. The monster's flesh immediately started burning underneath the spell. The smell of burnt skin hung in the air..

This time the beast didn’t cry out though. There was no howl of rage, or shriek of pain. The thing grit its teeth and stormed forwards. Directly at the nearest warrior.

The guy's eyes got wide, and Marcel could almost see his stomach dropping. He was off position and had no way to defend.

Pushing his [Heightening] skill to the limit and activating [Rhea’s Boost] Marcel barely managed to jump over and push himself and another warrior out of the beast's mad dash. They rolled on the ground.

“Thanks,” the guy said, his voice somewhat shaky.

The ogre continued forwards and turned his sprint into a hulking leap. The monster soared towards their backline, both fists cobbled together over his head.

For a moment Marcel had a sinking feeling in his stomach, but these guys were professionals.

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The first one to move was their leader. The man in the golden armor just simply blinked out of existence and reappeared some dozen meters away. The rest of the backline also scattered. Some with spells, others with skills or simply the power of their legs. One of them even summoned a small wave that carried him and a few others away with ridiculous speed.

The ogre hit the ground and sent a giant shockwave. Luckily none of them was hurt. The warriors rushed onto the monster again.

The golden armored man suddenly appeared next to Marcel though. “Don’t ever open up the frontline again you idiot.”

“What?”

“When you see the beast running at you, it’s your job to stop it, not to get out of the way or pull the others out of the way.”

“This thing would’ve squashed us!”

“And it would’ve almost squashed us afterwards because of your cowardice,” the man spat. “Get your act together.”

Before Marcel could say anything else the man had vanished again.

Shaking his head Marcel went back into the battle.

They lost another two people over the course of the next hour. In return they inflicted various grievous wounds onto the beast. Finally the monster started showing signs of attrition, its swings went wide, its breathing came raggard and a few times it almost stumbled. But so were they.

A few of their mages had retorted to downing mana potions in between almost every spell. Half of their frontline was injured by now. It was in no state to continue much longer. But still they did, slugging at it endlessly with their foe.

At one point Messy had raised the question of retreat.

“I could give us some cover. Enough to create enough space for the backline to draw back and the frontline to follow after.” She called out.

A few of the mages even looked somewhat uncertain, their losses sat heavy. But the golden armored aristocrat shut it down immediately.

“We will not retract,” he pressed forth between his teeth. “What a fad we would be if we couldn’t even handle an ogre. I couldn’t show my face at the guild lounges anymore. We will stay.”

Marcel couldn’t believe what he was hearing the man say, but as it seemed the group around him had somewhat resigned to him. What was it about him that made them follow?

Another one of their frontline was hit by a swing from the ogre. The man slid over the ground several meters, before coming to a painful stop. They needed to do something, and the thing was, he had a plan. Or almost a plan.

It was foolish and dangerous. But he didn’t believe they had any other way in this situation. He turned towards the water mage that had extracted the backline earlier.

“Can you summon another one of those waves?” He asked.

The man seemed perplexed. “Sure, why?”

“I need a big one. Pointed straight at the guy's head,” he gestured towards the ogre.

“I don’t think I can make it that high. Not with the bit of mana I have left.”

“That’s fine. Just make it as high as you can.”

After a reluctant moment, the man nodded. At that moment Marcel had thought it was nothing but desperation that made the mage listen to him. But he later learned that there had been something else. Something the man had seen in Marcel’s eyes that had given him hope.

“Ready?” Marcel asked.

“Ready.”

Marcel started running towards the giant ogre. It was currently in a little skirmish with two of their warriors. Then the wave flooded after MArcel.

He jumped straight into it. THe cold embrace greeted him. He was carried away somewhat, but he wasn't lost. He felt home, he felt confident.

He activated his “mInor shape water” skill” and rose to the top of the wave. With his trident his “water Boost” and “Aquatic restoration””had been active the whole fight. They were the reason he had even managed to stay that long. But now as he was truly immersed in water, he could feel them both kicking in fully.

He rode the wave straight towards the ogre. He was fast, shockingly fast approaching the beast.

It turned towards him with surprise, and for a moment Marcel could also feel the surprise rippling out through their own party. He thought he had heard Messy shout something. But that was far away from him now, he was fixated on the ogre.

Marcel was almost upon the ogre, when the beast started thundering his giant hand towards him.

In the last moment though, Marcel leaped. He gave the wave a command with his “Minor Water Manipulation” skill, and let it throw him higher.

Marcel propelled himself forward with all the skills that he had. The ogres arm crashed into the wave, but it was too late, Marcel was already somersaulting over it.

He landed on the beast's head. Before the ogre had even registered that Marcel was there, he activated “Thrust” and rammed his trident into the monster's eye with all the force he had.

The trident sank in surprisingly easily. What wasn’t easy, was the part that came after. The ogre let out a shrill roar that made Marcel’s ears hurt. A stark headache set in immediately and it felt like the sheer sound would make his head burst.

Then the monster started buckling. It shook its head around violently, trying to shake Marcel off. His hand darted upwards, but a barrage of spells and arrows stopped the ogre.

Marcel pressed his trident even deeper. He felt the resistance of flesh, had to fight for every inch he moved his trident closer. Then there was a pop and his weapon slid down another two inches into mushy flesh.

Then the beast fell down, finally dead.