Chapter 34: All-out battle

“Hey, what’s Pete doing?” Rand asks, as bewildered as me.

“I… I don’t know...” It is hard to admit that I didn’t know what my own minion is doing, but I honestly don’t have any clue. It’s not like I can talk with it.

I can’t be, right? It is almost as if Pete was having a friendly chat with the boss. I mean, they are side by side, growling and shouting at each other, not exactly friendly in our human terms, but who knows if it is for ogres.

“Shouldn’t he have already hit the boss?” Dorian says, voicing the same doubts we all have.

“Yes… at least that is what I sa- Look!” I immediately point when I realize there’s been a change. “They are moving!”

Pete, the boss, and even the other 4 are walking towards the fire. Quiet. Ceremonial even. There is an order to their movements, to their positions. The four ogres stop midway, their backs to us, and stand still, not moving even the slightest bit. Pete, facing the boss, takes a few steps back. The other reciprocates the movement.

“Did Pete just arrange some kind of tournament? Or maybe he somehow challenged the boss?” Rand’s voice is a mixture of amusement and astonishment.

“No, no no, that can’t be, Rand! They are stupid! Pete is stupid! There’s no way he could have thought of it by himself. Come on! He even got the other 4? There’s just no way!” My shock and stupefaction evident.

“But… look, they are about to go at each other! It’s a challenge!”

“It’s a coincidence. Definitely. It must be.” I repeat, mostly to convince myself.

“Hey… shouldn’t we go?” Dorian, taking all of us out of our trances, points out.

“Fuck! True! Let’s go! let’s go!” We all start running at the realization. “Rand left one! Lillia, next one. I’ll take the third, my spirit the fourth. And Rand, keep an eye on Lillia!”

As soon as he is in range, Rand starts his charge, leaving the rest of us behind. Even the spirit advances us in its full speed charge.

“Mike, go all out. Don’t worry about mana; we can use my staff.” I say as I already see the formation taking place under the boss’s feet. “Dorian, you help Lillia!”

A clash resounds as Rand crashes into his target, which doesn’t fall to the ground even after being hit from the back. How sturdy are these creatures? Everything they lack in intelligence, they have in muscle.

Another loud crash, louder than the previous one, comes with my spirit’s arrival. Unlike Rand, its Ogre at the end of the charge kisses the ground. Ha, Rand must be swearing inwardly!

I purposely slow down a bit to give my enemy time to turn around and locate me. I want to bait him, of course. It’s been infallible so far.

Lillia also reaches its target and starts dancing around it. She’s getting better at it. Before, she would have had to use skills to dodge some of the strikes, but now… she’s on a whole new level. Maybe she has all its patterns memorized or has gotten their tempo; whatever it is, I’m glad we have her.

I should be focusing on my own pro- Materialize! A club goes right through my head and creates a hole right below my feet. Fuck my life; that was way too close! I should try to provoke it a bit, in case it gets it can’t hurt me.

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I brandish my staff against its body a few times, trying to inflict some damage. It sure can’t be worse than tickles to it, but apparently, it doesn’t like them! Two strikes in quick succession, from left to right and back to the left, go through me.

Lillia seems to be holding quite well; judging from her health, she’s only got a few scratches. Rand’s new armor sure helps with his endurance. He’s taking all the hits head-on with his hands or punches, and yet it drains at a much slower rate than before. “Mike, target Rand’s ogre!”

“Fireball!” The spell crashes into the Ogre I just said. An excellent way to confirm he got it. “Fireball!”. Another one. “Fireball!”. What? Has he gotten the cooldown to one second? “Fireball!”. Fuck me! But he can only cast 20 of that? He’ll use all of them? “Fireball!”... “Fireball!”

A continuous stream of fireballs perfectly aimed at the Ogre’s body continually hit it. By the 14th of them, without even hinting at looking for the source of the fireballs, the scorched body of Rand’s enemy falls to the ground.

“Rand, come get mine! Mike, Lillia’s Ogre! Heal!” I cast one heal for Rand, who only had to tank about 5 hits and decide to also boast of my own cooldowns. “Heal!” This time for Lillia.

Pete’s fucked… he is down to 50hp… waaait! If I can immolate him, why shouldn’t I be able to heal him? Why haven’t I thought of this before? “Heal!” Indeed, not only it goes through without any problems, but Pete recovers 20 something hp.

These beasts sure are stupid; I exchange a look with Rand, who raises his shoulders in resignation. The enraged musclehead, with gravel for a mind, even having Rand in reach and right before it, is still trying to hit me. Madly trying, with passion even.

“Mana!” I hear Mike shout from behind. Now? “I can’t come with this thing swinging at me like this! It could hit you! I’ll toss you the staff!”

I take a good spin and let the staff go mid-swing. It flies erratically until it lands near Mike’s foot.

“Heal! Pete’s got about 5 seconds left!”

A blue circle with intersecting lines drawing arcs surges from below Mike. Him and the staff standing at its center. Veins of mana visible to the bare eye, fruit of its high density. Beautiful.

“Rand, charge the boss, now!” With Pete about to die, I decide to at least make its last breath meaningful. “Immolate!” You did us a good service Pete!

“How are we with Lillia’s one?”

“About to fall!” Mike says between fireball and fireball. The combined efforts of Lillia and Dorian, coupled with the fire projectiles, take it down barely 3 seconds after I ask the question.

My Ogre seems to be thrilled about having an opponent so durable. Either it doesn’t notice that I’m not taking any hit, or he hopes one will eventually squash me to a pulp.

As for my spirit, they are in a cat’s fight. Both of them swing the clubs non-stop at each other. As long as it goes like this, my ghost slave will win.

“So… let’s focus on the boss?” In my mind, right before we started, I picture a much different scene. Hectic and close.

“Fire voley!” Is that Mike? Three fireballs rush towards the field boss. One straight, as it was the case until now. The other two arched in opposite directions.

“Is that a new spell?” I ask him, just to confirm.

“Evolution!” The short answer shows he is too concentrated to talk.

“Really!? We’ll talk later!” I don’t push the conversation further.

“Heal!” I cast once more to help Rand a bit. It’s pretty apparent the boss deals way more damage than its underlings. But man, I’ve got to find some new clothes by myself. Just two days ago, I could barely keep him alive, up to the point we all almost died. But today… those hits that took more than 20hp, are only damaging for 5hp.

“I’ll only be able to cast one more heal, but it should be enough!”

The barrage of magic, fists, sword, and daggers goes on for another half a minute until the boss drops dead. Everyone relaxes at the sight and sound of it, Dorian even dropping his blades to the ground.

[You have gained a level]

“Hey guys… remember there’s still these two?” I say while looking up to mine and pointing to the one battling my spirit.

Their expressions turn ugly, almost as if they were about to tell me to handle it by myself. Tiredness combined with exasperation.

“Please?” I beg of them, even rapidly closing and opening my eyes.

Unable to resist my charms, they straighten their backs and come for my aid. And indeed, they kill the one bugging me quite hastily. As for the other one… we just let my specter deal with it. The battle drags on for a few more seconds, but at the end, only the obvious happens.

“Not bad! We’ve won!”