As if guided by a sixth sense, the Gohkamorian whirled on his feet, axe coming up in a deadly, two-handed arch. Profound Toxin was already gushing from Viper Fang, drawing a luminescent blue line through the night.

The lethal blade made brief contact with the giant’s skin and penetrated into flesh at the depth of about three finger spans, but although the head of the war axe didn’t align properly with Eik’s body to bisect him, the hard, metal belly of the weapon took him in the side and sent him flying into the elastically fleshy trunk of a mushroom at speed where he bounced off like a pinball.

He had delivered his toxin, but with a small dose like that it wouldn’t have a significant effect before the Gohkamorian could wreak havoc on him and his team with that wicked axe of his. As he struggled to draw air back into his lungs, the giant came for him like a rushing bull, already winding up his axe for a decisive strike.

Triggering Movement Boost, Eik employed the dumb, but ultimately effective tactic of darting towards and through the legs of the six-eyed freak. On the way through, he took the opportunity to drag Viper Fang along the barbarian’s inner thigh, leaving behind a small dose of Profound Toxin to take hold. He heard the thunk of the edge cleaving the mossy ground but he had already nearly reached his friends.

Sonja was nowhere to be seen, but the injured swordswoman had rejoined the fight with her right arm hanging limply at her side. But while the use of only a single arm severely hampered her speed and mobility, her long and hefty sword still came down with frightening weight.

Even the misaligned attack from the Gohkamorian had taken its toll on Eik’s fragile ribs, so he popped one of his own healing creations along with a clump of homegrown poison as he hopped into the battle.

While the golden boy kept going for frontal attacks in order to put pressure on Heath and prevent him from dishing out offensively on his own, the woman attempted to dance around the tank to get at Michael in the back. His positioning and ability set clearly identified him as a support and his hands of healing constantly tending to Heath’s gashes and bruises made it all the more obvious.

Growing more alert and decisive with every fight they survived, Michael saw her coming the moment she moved sideways away from Heath’s shield. His fingers weaved a manipulation pattern and beckoned the golden cords of Bind to wrap around her ankles.

Seeing her unbalanced, Heath grunted and kicked her hard in the chest, sending her stumbling back with arms flailing frantically.

Eik was upon her in an instant, taking her back with Viper Fang plunging deep into her trapezius muscle. She gasped in surprise as copious amounts of Profound Toxin invaded her body eagerly like ferrofluid attracted to a heart of iron.

From over her shoulder, Eik saw the golden boy’s sword enveloped in bright, golden light as he slashed into Heath’s armored leg, expert blade work somehow finding purchase and reaching flesh. The tank moaned in pain as the blood poured from the gash in his leg, staining his trousers and boots red.

“Heath!” Eik shouted and leapt off the woman, using her shoulder as a spring board and triggering Accelerant just as he was about to lose physical contact with her. It was the first time he had activated the ability properly since the test with the massive B-rank ogre.

Her much smaller body pulsed violently, centered around the injection site, as a deep, smoky thrum resonated from within her body. The shock wave was small as the toxic dose was small, but it sent her to the ground nonetheless. An arrow wound, a knife wound, and the poison in combination had been too much for her E-ranked body to handle.

Eik didn’t know if she was dead, but she certainly was unconscious. Well, so long as she was down and accounted for, that was what mattered for now.

Goldilocks saw his chance to get in a fatal blow on the tank and leapt into the shield while Heath was off balance. In a desperate struggle, Heath stabbed upward with his thick sword, but his opponent slapped it away with the cheek of his weapon with little difficulty and swept it into a downward thrust of his own.

Yelling his defiance, Michael was there, a metallic clang ringing out as he bashed away the blade with the heavy mace. With his F-rank strength he managed to prevent the point from taking Heath in the chest but only enough for the sword to penetrate through the tank’s already injured thigh instead.

With a roar of pain and fury, Heath used the stability of having his butt and hand on the ground to slash across the golden boy’s torso, opening a bloody slit in his abdomen.

Hissing and cursing, the agile knight jumped back with a palm pressed hard against his stomach. He pulled a small vial from his belt and downed the contents in a single gulp, glaring at Heath on the ground and Michael behind him who had already offered his friend a red orb of healing potion.

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Michael supported Heath’s back with his shoulder and followed the potion up with his own healing, the Galvanic Fortification evolution giving Heath a slight edge against future attacks, if only for a little while.

Eik hadn’t been able to get to his friends to help before the Gohkamorian had intercepted him. Charging in from the side, the giant had swung his axe in a simple overhead chop but the force behind the attack left no doubt in Eik’s mind that a single unfortunate hit would be enough to end him.

Only a hasty activation of Movement Boost saved him by displacing his body from the position his attacker had predicted. The brute’s strength was frightening indeed, but Eik could tell that his own agility and speed supported by the Noxious Invigoration and Movement Boost was superior.

Deciding to take a risk, he dug his heels into the soft moss and turned sharply while the Gohkamorian was still yanking out his axe. Eik narrowly avoided a kick and delivered a quick slice to the enormous thigh. The giant’s outfit resembled that of Boulder Fist Gary and his donkey-headed son Rock Fist Bart, consisting mainly of animal hides and bare skin. Unfortunately for all of them, such flimsy equipment lent itself particularly poorly to fending off Eik’s skill set.

Eik ran a couple circles around him, putting another four shallow but toxic cuts into the man’s hips and legs. He couldn’t stay still to pump in a proper dosage. The opponent was too dangerous to risk getting caught for even a single second so he activated Movement Boost in short bursts to avoid hitting the cooldown. He was already playing with fire, but if he lost that edge it could very well be a death sentence.

After a few useless swings of the axe, the Gohkamorian suddenly let the massive weapon fall to the ground and lunged for Eik in an attempt to take him to the ground. He got three fingers under Eik’s leather armor and stopped his much smaller body dead in its tracks.

As the giant tried to get a better grip on the outfit Eik plunged Viper Fang into the back of his hand with as much force as he could muster with the inconvenient angle. This forced his attacker to release his grip as the glowing Profound Toxin completely coated his hand.

With a guttural howl of pain, the Gohkamorian kicked Eik hard in the stomach, expelling all air from his lungs for a second time in less than a minute.

Sliding through the soft moss, flattening the luminescent plants and ripping them up at the root, he came to a stop only a few paces from Heath and Michael’s fight with the young knight. Unless Sonja returned from wherever she had gone or Heath and Michael brought down goldilocks, this could become a dangerous battle of attrition.

The Gohkamorian tried desperately to shake off the viscous poison that seemed to stick to his wound with a strange hunger. It just wouldn’t come off. In this Eik saw his chance to make a break for Heath and Michael.

The swordsman was moving to engage with them, golden light once again enveloping his blade, when Eik triggered Movement Boost to fling himself up and over the advancing man. Letting his ability fade, Eik caught the bastard by the golden pauldron covering his shoulder and ripped him from his feet to slam him into the ground with a metallic clang. Golden boy gasped as his equally golden helmet came loose and fell down over his eyes.

“You coward!” he yelled, grasping for his sword, whose light had gone out completely, while simultaneously struggling to wrestle Eik off his body.

“The damn cowards are you guys!” Eik shouted and batted away the knight’s hands and slammed the butt of Viper Fang into his temple with as much force as his mounted position allowed. Even through the helmet, the impact rattled the man visibly and his struggle became a weak, disoriented flailing that never stood a chance at preventing the next attack with Viper Fang that took him in the neck, Profound Toxin pouring into the wound.

The man gurgled wetly as he spat up blood, strength rapidly leaving his body. Eik swept his knife around to stab the man in the other side of the throat, just for good measure.

“Eik! Watch out!” Michael screamed, already halfway to Eik. Eik’s eyes whipped up to see the Gohkamorian rushing at him again. He just couldn’t catch a break from this guy. Dark veins of sickness were already starting to spread from the wounds on his legs and hand, but it hadn’t reached a point where it was stopping him from coming for them.

Michael’s fingers waved a complex pattern, summoning the bright strings of Bind to tangle the giant’s feet. Throwing himself forward in a tiger leap, the healer slid through the cool moss toward Eik and threw up a Single Protection on Eik that hummed into existence with a silvery pulse of light.

Their opponent must have been too heavy to be felled completely by the flimsy things but he stumbled as they tore nonetheless. He momentarily fell to his knees but was up again in a moment, continuing toward them with his axe raised.

A zoom like that of the wind sounded as an arrow appeared out of the darkness and slammed into the Gohkamorian’s stomach, but instead of faltering he seemed to get even angrier. A pulse of murky green light, not unlike that of Michael’s Heal ability, enveloped his body. He yanked the arrow out as he ran but little blood followed from the wound.

Eik scrambled to get away as the giant raised his twin-headed blade, but Michael wasn’t fast enough to react so Eik hit him with a low tackle and carried him out of the path of the weapon with the momentum of his body. Michael made it out safely but Eik wasn’t quite so lucky.

A second arrow took the Gohkamorian in the shoulder, taking some of the strength out of the strike, but the edge got Eik’s calf nonetheless, his escape not fast enough.

The crunch of the impact was nauseating and horrific, like stepping on a packet of dry crackers. It was accompanied by the pop of the Single Protection breaking. The pain was overwhelming but his scream of agony was silenced by a jolting gasp of shock.

“Eik!” Michael and Heath shouted as Eik went down, Michael falling and rolling backwards.

A third arrow thunked into the large man’s knee on the other leg and he was forced to stop. None of his legs could bear his weight but Eik still had one that could bear his.