It was a dangerous battle, one that required all my attention.

Clang!

Strikes would come out of nowhere, and I had to rely on my own sense of danger screaming in my ear to react in the nick of time.

It did affect the shield in fact, as I had to constantly shed parts of ores shield to respond.

It didn't affect the metal as much, but a sliver was still a sliver, an important factor in a battle.

The metal replenished itself, but it did so from my mana.

I don't know if I could keep this up long tern, and it only takes one mistake for me to get hit with a serious side effect of petrification.

"I wonder what you really are." came a taunting voice, and I quickly swung the hammer in that direction, only to miss.

The voice continued, as the sound seemingly weaved in all directions.

"You're not a druid, that's for sure. If you were one of that level, you'd have crushed me already.

A shapeshifter of some sorts? Someone who's studied the art of form changing. But you used skills seemingly unique to the beast form, so it can't be a low level of shape shifting."

Narrowing my eyes, I focus the mana into small potato mines.

"Perhaps a race specialized in shapeshifting? I could see it. Then that means you're not an elf at all. To go so far for someone that is not one of your own. How commendable." came the voice again, as one of the mines reacted, the two in seperate locations far from one another.

Voice throwing.

Immediately, I react, throwing the hammer, bound to one of my vines, as it hits the elven rogue, before being yanked back quickly.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"That hammer. It just ate away at my magic circles." The elf appeared briefly, as his eyes narrowed in greed before disappearing.

"I'll enjoy having that melted down into something more useful. Something so useful is wasted on you."

Despite this comment, he returned to the previous conversation as if he had not made such a threat mere moments ago.

"What did they offer you? Money? Glory? Perhaps that weapon you're holding is courtesy of the royal elven family? It is foolish to accept deals from a failing dynasty." The voice taunted, and I responded back curtly.

"It is equally foolish to accept advice from cowards who cling to shadows."

Sensing the opposing sides irritation, I added on. "I don't refer to being a rogue, assassin. I refer to you being a coward. Do you think you're special, rebel? " I chuckle. "That it is fine to do this, to eliminate a child because of your background?"

"Corruption is often like that. They think they're entitled to this right to power over others, these things that the government cannot help but turn their eyes away from, but let me spell it out to you. This is not your right, it is your rot, the way you fester and infect a government, and slowly destroy it from the inside.

You are an infection, something to be weeded out and doused in weed killer. If they're a dying dynasty, all that makes you is a scavenger. A vulture. I don't listen to vultures." I taunt.

Sensing the reaction, I immediately swing to intercept.

I can see his hatred as he glares at me.

"What? Hit a nerve?" I mocked.

He didn't respond, instead launching a few quick strikes in a flurry.

I parry them with ease.

His skills aren't that bad, but he's a rogue. His skill isn't in head on confrontation.

He merely smiled cruelly, attempting to return his face to before. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

"They all say that." I shoot back, as he glares back and walks back into the shadow.

Seeing him trying to sneak back into the shadow, the kobold Philly takens action, throwing a flash bang, forcing the assassin out of the shadow

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The large kobold sneered. "By all means. Now that you've come out, feel free to stay here!" He shouted, ordering the formation to rush him.

The group moved fluidly, entangling him in their formation.

The flash bang was still there, lighting the surrounding area, and stopping the assassin from slinking back into the shadows.

The rogue's face was gloomy as he responded coldly. " You believe that I'm hiding from you? My skill with the blade may be lacking, but it's enough for the likes of you, worm!" He mocked, before throwing a set of poison daggers at the group around him with precision, even managing to avoid the few elves left on the battlefield.

I blocked with my shell, but the kobolds were not so lucky, forced to take it head-on.It showed an immediate effect on the other kobolds, as they fell over, clearly poisoned, while Philly merely grunted, the blade clearly making a shallow scratch at best.

"A wyrm? I'll wear that badge with pride, tree lover!" He complained while taking out an antidote, only for it to be shot out of his hand.

The elf chuckled, but there was a cold look in his eyes. "Did you think you could act so freely before me? In the end, an A-rank is still an A-rank." He said this as he attacked Philly quickly, overwhelming him.

Philly may have been strong, but he had been a blacksmith, first and foremost, and his body was still weaker than the elf.

I compensated for my lacking stats with appropriate skill, but Philly could do no such thing, especially since he is currently without active teammates, save for cheese steak, who had been hit with the poisoned dagger, but was still moving anyway.

I rushed in, while yelling at Cheese steak. "Cover us!"

The rat cursed and screeched, but went to kill the enemmy elves regardless.

Sliding in, I thrust the hammer forward, intercepting the dagger and then throwing it out of his hand, disarming him, causing the rogue to curse.

He lunged for the dagger, only to find a potato mine in front of his head.

BOOM!

A full frontal impact occurred, with a potato mine charged with a fifth of my mana. It forced us back.

When we saw the result, it was clear the bomb had did some serious damage, by the way his face looked, as he glared at us in hated, with his one good eye, the other having been taken by the blast.

" This has grown tiresome quickly. You made me do this. Remember that." He said, before taking out a different weapon. A whip.

It was a whip clearly made out of a vine of sorts, yet staring at the weapon gave one a bad feeling. It had an incredible sense of foreboding which caused me to use appraisal on it.

[The leeching finger: A whip that saps the life of the foe before them. Made from a vine of the usurper who seeks the throne of life. Saps the life of the one who touches it to strengthen the user. ]

Clearly I wasn't the only one who saw the description, as I saw the look on Philly's face.

There was a rather worrying implication behind the description that implied that this was far more than the average example of corruption, but one of heresy.

Thank Anubis I have the recorder on.

We watched in shock as he used the whip, not on us, but rather the dying elves around him and with a grim understanding. The elves withered rapidly vs our very eyes, and the presence of the elf before us became more powerful.

My thoughts run rapidly, thinking about how to deal with it. There's info there that is confusing to say the least, but...

Usurper.

Throne of life.

I don't know what those are, but I can guess.

Hey stupid. Those are god related right?

[Yes]

So it could be countered by other Gods as well then?

[Also yes]

Good. In that case we do have something.

Placing my hands together, I begin praying fervently, much to the confusion of the elf and the kobolds, until an aura spread around me.

An aura of death.

Smelling it, the elf wrinkled his nose, as did the kobold, but the way they reacted was vastly different. The elf had a grim look, while the kobold Philly had a look of realization, before he began praying too, and soon the smell of sulfur and steel surrounded him.

Yes, they were both the favoured of Gods, so being able to call upon the power of the Gods wasn't unusual. It wasn't even that huge of a blessing, given that I never studied the more complex spells and rituals.

But for a weapon like this? It was a great counter.

I change shape, turning back into a turtle.

Though confused at first, Philly understands my intent soon enough, when the whip came down.

Thwack!

It landed, and the elf frowned.

Though life sapped, it was far from the amount it should've been.

The main ability of the root is clearly the ability to suck life.

It likely wasn't fully negated by the blessing, but it was still mitigated.

And now that I'm a turtle, my shell's able to endure the whips base damage, ignoring the whip's life sapping ability which was diminished by the blessing.

The kobold acts quickly taking shelter behind me, and taking out a crossbow in response to my chat suggestion, swiftly loading and shooting arrows at him.

The elf dodges cleanly, only to turn in surprise as the arrows turn around and pierce him.

"Heat seeking. Parry that you filthy casual." He grunted.

The elf quickly attempted to weave around me and attack the kobold, only for Philly to quickly weave around me, and whenever he tried to use the whip, it bounced off of me, doing little damage.

I wasn't merely standing there either, using wooden stakes erupting from the ground to force him back.

When I can't move, environment control is important.

Unfortunately, the bad side of transforming into a turtle is that I can't use weapons, leaving me to use my innate abilities.

it's quite the drawback when I have two powerful weapons, neither useable in this moment.

Despite his seeming increase in strength, we were able to push the elf more and more thanks to our current advantage.

"Friend-dwarf-thing! "ve plundered-stolen their precious root-thing! Blown-blown the vile knife-eared things circle!"

We all turn to look in response to the shouting voice, as a rather loud skaven rapidly approached us.

And in hand was a large root.

Seeing it causes a rapid change in expression in the elf, as horror and fervent fury flashed through his face as he practically oozed hatred, wasted on the skaven, who gleefully ran over.

"YOOOOUUUU!" He roared.

[Root of the usurper]

[A root of the would-be-god that contains an immense amount of mana, and is highly valued by its worshippers

They would do anything to get it back]

Watching the elf voluntarily wrap the whip around his arm, he could not help but have an ominous feeling that this fight had become far more serious than he had expected.

The only thing more dangerous than an A-rank, is an A-rank fanatic willing to risk it all for his faith.