The Patriarch opened its mouth wide and sent its tongue flying out like a bullet, snapping through the sound barrier as it went. Jonathan ducked under it, and raked a blade of Voidlight down its base as it went by. The monster roared in anger, the noise muffled somewhat by its extended tongue.

As the tongue retracted, Jonathan, Alastair and Branth grabbed on, riding it back towards its owner. They let go about fifty feet away from the monster, and used the momentum to power their attacks. Jonathan’s fist sunk into its brow, while the other two went for its eyes. Although it shut its eyes in time, their impact still was devastating.

Jonathan’s Void coated fists tore through its flesh, sending destinations of purple energy through its form. Alastair’s ax cut through the flesh like butter, carving off a great strip of foul smelling skin. Branth tore into the monster like a man possessed, sending welters of foul blood into the air. The two mages sent bolts of fulminating lightning alongside great spears of water towards the creature, searing and cutting at its body.

“Enough of this!” The monster croaked, its voice sounding like it came from a great distance. “You ants do not deserve to sully my flesh with your taint!”

Jonathan hadn’t been expecting for the creature to speak, but it made no difference. What did however was the shockwave of pure force that erupted from the monster, carrying the three fighters back upon a wave of muck.

Little harm was done, but it gave the monster space to attack. As the other Muck Munchers thundered by, heading for the main bulk of the mercenary company, Jonathan and his unit got to their feet, only to be met with a spinning cyclone of filth that rose from the murky waters around them.

The tornado exploded into a wave of water blades, which Jonathan erased with a quick application of his element. However, when the haze cleared, it revealed a strange, squat monster made from mud and rock where the cyclone had been. It looked like some sort of elemental, and it oozed concentrated power.

The Patriarch laughed, and its tongue shot out once more, curling around the two mages, who were too slow to dodge. It flicked them up into the air, right into the path of a beam of mud from the elemental. Shields flickered into being around them, but the attack shattered them in an instant, sending the mages rocketing away. They were still alive, but injured.

Jonathan gritted his teeth and charged the elemental, telling the other two fighters to deal with the Patriarch. With his Void powers, he was the best at dealing with any sort of elemental attacks. The monster turned its featureless head towards him, before sending a wave of filth rocketing from its body and out into the swamp. It rose to towering heights before striking Jonathan, but he carved through it with his elemental mastery. Streaking forwards, his stamina coursed through his body like fire, letting him reach the monster before it could attack again.

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His fist blossomed with purple fire, and a patch of nothingness crowned it. Driving it into the monster, he was rewarded with a spray of mud as the creature lost much of its motive power. Purple veins played across its form as the Void warred with the elemental matrix that sustained it, causing the creature to seize and shake.

A black hole formed over Jonathan’s right hand, and he thrust it forwards into the monster’s body. A dull thump sounded as the attack imploded, then detonated, blasting mud everywhere. No essence entered him, as it had simply been a construct made by the Patriarch.

Turning towards the massive toad, he joined Alastair and Branth as they weaved around snapping assaults from the beast’s tongue. The monster was covered in layers of blubber, rendering most attacks useless. Although its flesh came off with ease, it barely did any damage to the monster’s core. Wet chortles burbled up from its mouth as it expressed its amusement with their weakness.

The other fighters were beginning to flag, and their movements had become a lot less refined. If Jonathan had to guess, neither had passed the second threshold in Strength. They both were more agility focused, especially Branth.

Realizing the danger as the monster’s tongue impacted Alastair, almost caving in his armor, Jonathan triggered Smite. As he did so, he coated his body in the purple energy of the Void, masking the golden energy of his skill. Strength and power surged through his body, and he erupted forwards, layering on his stamina manipulation abilities as well. The sound barrier broke many times over as he sped towards his foe, his right fist cocked back and burning with the devouring light of nothingness. Then it hit home, and the Muck Muncher Patriarch was blasted off its feet, its flesh rippling with the blow.

Jonathan skidded along the putrescent ground, his fist smoking with the friction that he had generated. As the monster tumbled backwards, he blasted it with a barrage of Void enhanced projectiles, teraring chunks off its flesh. The others followed suit, with the mages getting revenge for their injuries.

As the Muck Muncher Patriarch got to its feet, it roared in rage, spraying foul spittle, marred with blood, over the ground. Stamping its feet, the monster caused great geysers of filthy water to erupt all around it, creating a cage of liquid that hemmed in the fighters. With an evil glint in its eye, the beast collapsed the cage, swamping them all with fetid muck. The compression drove all of the air out of Jonathan’s lungs, and although his stats meant that he could go for a while without oxygen, he still needed it at this stage of progression.

He gritted his teeth and blindly felt out with his perceptive sphere, relying on his sense of touch to read the ripples in the water. Something came at him from the left at high speeds, and he met it with his fist. His fist rebounded off of rubbery flesh, and the Muck Muncher was knocked off course. Jonathan shook off his fist, and concentrated, sending out tendrils of the Void into the water around him. Feeling around, he could detect the rough presence of the monster. To his surprise, channeling his elemental came easier while he was holding his breath, a reminder of the cultivation technique that he had found for the element.