The distance between them was reduced to a few meters. Ainsley was the first to open the charge, closing the distance with a single powerful leap. Clenching his gigantic and monstrous one-handed battle hammer’s grip, he opened with a vicious lightning elemental swing to the faceless one’s face. But much to no big surprise, the latter, before the hammer reached his face, with his bare hand catching the hammer's face, put an abrupt halt to the powerful swing.
"Not bad, but you’ll probably need better."
"Freak..." mumbled Ainsley beneath his breath, before violently bashing his shield onto the faceless one's chest.
The Faceless One used his forearm to shield himself from the blow, displaying monstrous reflexes. Though the blow did not appear to have inflicted any physical damage on the faceless one, the mere thrusting force of the blow did cause the faceless one to back up a few steps.
Intent on not leaving the Faceless One with a single instant of respite, Nikolai leapt above Ainsley from behind and came swinging down with his two-handed spiked hammer.
Though the young man managed to avoid a direct hit from Nikolai's hammer, the magical event that occurred when the hammer crashed to the ground was too fast for even him to avoid.
As Nikolai's hammer hit the ground, in a deafening burst, countless crystal spikes sprouted from the ground with an impaling might.
Several of these crystal spikes hit the faceless one, thrusting him upward a few meters from the ground, but, pretty much like eggs being thrown at a wall, the crystal spikes failed to achieve anything but stain the faceless one's clothes.
Not even giving Nikolai time to ponder his failure to land a single scratch, Ainsley bolted lightnings onto the still-in-mid-air faceless one, engulfing him in an explosion and a cloud of incandescent smoke.
Knowing that this was far from enough, Ainsley was preparing another wave of lightning to unleash on the faceless one when the latter, who just a mere second before was engulfed by the explosion, dove to Ainsley, fist raised, like an eagle to its prey.
Left with just enough time to raise his shield against that punch, Ainsley attempted to hold his ground. But that was all he could do: attempt. The punch that seemed so mundane was simply powerful enough to shatter Ainsley's shield to smithereens and, along the way, send him flying into the distance.
Though the blow was not strong enough to knock Ainsley out, what was about to come at him would certainly knock him out, if not put him to rest for good.
The faceless one leaped into the air and landed directly over Ainsley, preventing him from shielding himself with his hammer by pressing Ainsley's hands beneath his feet with one hand and his chest with the weight of a mountain with the other.
The Faceless One raised his arm, fists clenched and ready to deliver a deadly punch to Ainsley's head. But before he could land the blow, Nikolai arrived and swung his lightning and fire-embedded hammer, striking the Faceless One and sending him flying into the distance.
Ainsley narrowly avoided certain death, thanks to Nikolai's timely intervention.
Nikolai, without even sparring a glance at his comrade, ordered, "Stand up, old man, this is far from over," after his timely intervention.
"I know," Ainsley sighed as he noticed the Faceless One standing a few dozen meters away, seemingly and utterly unharmed.
After exchanging a glance and a nod, both men charged towards the Faceless One, the ground shaking and sinking beneath their speed and the weight of their stomp. The Faceless One also charged towards them.
As the distance between them and their opponent closed, Nikolai leaped over Ainsley and violently greeted the Faceless One with the crushing weight and force of his elementally-infused warhammer. The Faceless One, shorter and bolder, merely crossed his forearms in an "X" to protect himself.
Despite the absurd defense his opponent took, Nikolai knew his blow would be successfully absorbed, so instead of relying solely on brute force, as he made himself appear to be, he used a cheap and old trick.
As the thorny head of Nikolai's warhammer struck the Faceless One, he sank to the ground, not only from the force of the blow but also because the ground beneath him turned into a puddle, sinking him to knee-height and even lower when Nikolai delivered a second, more vicious blow. Ainsley also joined in with a lightning-infused bludgeoning strike from his hammer.
Ainsley and Nikolai swung their hammers with primitive and animalistic roars and grunts, as if taken by frenzy, and with all their might as if there were no tomorrow. They took advantage of the brief window of opportunity to unleash everything they had on the Faceless One at that precise moment.
For a minute straight, the earth shook, fire spread in all four corners of the area, and lightning wildly struck, sometimes one after another like dooming footsteps, sometimes simultaneously like two drumming heartbeats.
It was then, in the midst of their rampage, that suddenly a blast occurred, not caused by them, engulfing the whole area. Both men were keen and reactive enough to withdraw a hairbreadth from having it explode in their faces.
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"Even that... wasn’t eno–"
Before either man had the opportunity to catch their breath, the earth beneath Ainsley suddenly cracked open, revealing a Faceless One emerging from beneath. The Faceless One grabbed Ainsley by the neck, lifted him several meters into the sky, and launched him into the distant scenery with a single punch.
"Ainsley— Dammit!" Nikolai cursed, seeing his comrade so easily discarded.
Nikolai quickly summoned great fireballs and unleashed them all on the Faceless One falling from the sky, but the latter simply dismissed the fireball thrown at him with casual backhand motions.
"Tsk."
Recognizing that using fireballs was a waste of mana, Nikolai chose to enhance himself with aina and infuse his body with elemental magic before charging at the Faceless One, who stood waiting for him with palpable arrogance. Nikolai dragged his warhammer across the ground and swung it towards the Faceless One's face, but instead of meeting his face, it met his fist, which shattered his hammer into smithereens.
"Aaaah!!" Nikolai screamed, as along with his shattered hammer, he felt, inside his armor, the bones of both his arms being shattered.
Yet despite the pain, he still closed the distance. In a desperate attempt to wrestle the Faceless One, he first thought of pinning him to the ground, but aware of his own limitations and his opponent's strength, he instead chose to grab him and lift him up to his shoulder, which the Faceless One arrogantly allowed. Fully intent on taking advantage of this new opportunity, Nikolai charged at Ainsley, who was coming at them from where he'd been blown to.
"AAAAARGH!!!!"
With Nikolai charging at him at full speed and the faceless on his shoulder, Ainsley, fortifying himself with earth-magic, charged toward the embedded hammer of his mightiest lightning and struck the faceless one stuck between Nikolai and his lightning-embedded hammerhead's upcoming blow.
As Nikolai charged toward Ainsley with full force, Ainsley, understanding the assignment he'd been given, fortified himself with earth magic and prepared to strike. With the faceless one stuck between Nikolai and the incoming blow of Ainsley's lightning-embedded hammerhead, the latter struck with all his might, determined to take the enemy down, even if it meant striking his comrade along the way.
"EAT THIS!!!" Ainsley roared, striking with the strength of the mightiest of lightning strikes that came along with the loudest of thunder.
The force of the strike was so great that it was felt for miles around, causing the ground to tremble and the air to vibrate with the force of the impact. As for the Faceless One and Nikolai, they were blown into the distance.
Wasting no time, Ainsley ran to where his comrades had landed. Nikolai laid his face against the ground. He flipped him over, only to see the man's armor completely shattered.
Concerned, Ainsley freed the man from his now-ineffective armor and asked, "Oi, Nikolai! You're still in there?!"
Ainsley was met with relief when, inside his helmet, he saw Nikolai look at him with a dozing expression.
Gasping in relief, he said to his friend, "Next time, at least say something when you’re alive. I thought I had killed you and that you had abandoned me to deal with—"Speaking half-jokingly, Ainsley's words suddenly froze at the sight of something. Despite his pitiful state, Nikolai lifted himself up to a semi-sitting position to see what Ainsley was looking at.
When Nikolai saw the Faceless One approaching, his left arm was bent at an unnatural angle, his heart filled with dread, similar to the fear he had experienced during the lightning calamity. It was the feeling of being confronted with something he knew and understood could not be overcome or defeated.
The Faceless One took a moment to glance at his arm, a strange expression on his face, and commented, "Oh, a twisted elbow. How nostalgic."
It was far beyond the point of being called a twisted elbow, but the faceless one, with a sneer on his face as he looked at Ainsley and Nikolai, nonchalantly returned his arm to its normal state as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"So, gentlemen… is that all?"
In response to the Faceless One's provocative words, both men looked at each other.
"How do you feel?"
"Beaten, old, and obviously exhausted, but I still have just enough energy for this," Nikolai announced, resolute.
"That’s the spirit," smiled Ainsley, offering his hand to Nikolai to help him stand up. A hand, which he gladly accepted.
As Nikolai finally stood up, Ainsley got ahead of him and spoke just enough for Nikolai alone to hear, "But... just sorry. I’m sure you would’ve preferred a different outcome, knowing how important revenge was to you."
"It is what it is. I wish I could’ve seen it with my own two eyes, but as of now, taking care of the monster in front of us should be our very utmost priority."
Ainsley nodded in agreement with his friends' words, his hand tightly gripping his hammer as he looked ahead at the faceless one. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward and led the charge once again.
He swung his hammer, and probably his hammer would've met the same fate as Nikolai's—shattered to pieces—had he not simply let go of it right before meeting his Faceless One's fist.
Ainsley charged towards the Faceless One, taking advantage of the surprise caused by his unexpected move to grapple his arms and waist in a locked position. Trusting in his armor, the little remaining mana he had, his mana-wielding abilities, and his own strength to save the day or, if at all, just a couple of seconds.
"You know you can't win this game. Not against me," the Faceless One stated, already starting to break free from Ainsley's locking embrace.
"Yeah, I know, we know, which is why..."
Nikolai suddenly appeared behind the Faceless One with Ainsley's hammer in his hand, which he proceeded to use to garrot him. "Which is why we will take you with us." He screamed while using both elbows to increase the strangulating force behind his choke since most, if not all, of the bones had been broken for him to even use his hands.
In that moment, everything changed —the winds, the pressure, the temperature, and even the light around them. It was as if the world had suddenly gone dark, but that only lasted for a brief moment. Then, something bright, white, and blinding came from the east, specifically from the eastern fortress, and swept away everything in its path, including the wrestling trio."
The main light hadn’t yet reached the trio, but countless hairbreadth-sized and hairbreadth-lengthened shafts of igniting light, along with countless glitters of light, had already begun to ignite the area around the trio on their own.
The faceless one, looking at the tight and resolute grasping and choking the duo were holding him onto, understood what the two of them were up to.
"You didn’t dare—"
"DIE!!!"