Hoggle and Delorie are both mid-tier 6, and definitely not slouches when it comes to combat ability. Fighting off both of them at once is somewhat of a tall ask of Uncle Moren and Garut, but hopefully they’ll be able to manage.

I decide to stay out of the way as much as I can this fight, as I’m more of a liability than anything. If nothing else, I can hopefully deter some of the clearly watching soldiers.

Delorie Swing his quite larger axe fiercely, hoping to use his raw strength and size to his advantage. Unfortunately for him, Garut doesn’t allow him, and uses his smaller relative size to maneuver around the wide blows.

Hoggle quickly back up, trying to gain as much distance as he can away from the two axe wielders. This is to be expected as Hoggle doesn’t exactly strike me as the close range-type.

Uncle Moren, deciding it not to be wise to allow a long-range fighter to use his range rushes him down, hoping to keep him out of the fight between the two giants.

Hoggle tries to keep him at a distance, using some sort of smoke grenade to help separate the two. Uncle Moren remains unfazed though, and rushes through the smoke. In a second, a purple light flashes out from the smoke, and the smoke instantly disappears like it was never there.

I continue to watch as the distance between the two get smaller and smaller, until Uncle Moren ends up in striking range. He swings a wide haymaker directly at Hoggle face, but instead of seeing him get sent flying like I expected, instead he doesn’t budge inch.

Upon closer inspection, he seems to have some sort of helmet around his face. It warps and shifts clearly indicating what the helmet is, that being what seems to be hundreds of cockroaches.

Surprisingly, instead of continuing to retreat, Hoggle stands his ground and looks ready to brawl. Almost immediately after Uncle Moren punch, Hoggle begins gathering more and more cockroaches around his whole body, until they completely cover every inch of him, almost as if it were some sort of weird old-world medieval suit of armor.

Meanwhile, Garut and Delorie have continued their all-out axe battle. Blow after blow fly by each other, each attack going so fast that it’s almost impossible for me to track.

Garut is on the backfoot, constantly being forced to dodge wide, sweeping strikes. Delorie clearly using his superior reach to his advantage, keeping Garut away and constantly moving.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The rest of the battlefield seems to be continuing its standstill, but it doesn’t look like it’ll last long. The two powerhouses in the middle are breathing heavily, and both are clearly looking to put an end to the battle. Once that happens, we’re screwed, no matter who wins.

Uncle Moren’s fight with Hoggle as seemingly come to its own standstill, with Uncle Moren throwing haymaker after haymaker, but either not landing or hitting Hoggle’s seemingly indestructible armor, all the while Hoggle pelts him with random weapons that he is somehow pulling from out of nowhere.

Clearly deciding that something need to change, Uncle Moren pulls some sort of spherical device from out of his pocket. He clicks a button on the top of it and instantaneously some sort of barrier appears around him.

Uncle Moren then instantly closes his eyes and standstill, obviously intending on using his third eye to find any weaknesses in Hoggle’s armor.

Hoggle, not willing to wait for him, moves in on Garut, sending out a wave of random bugs and critters at the green axe-wielding man.

Garut, not wanting to die by a thousand bites, opens a wide gash in his own arm. Blood rushes out of it, swirling and rushing through the air. Finally it circles Garut, and settles. What’s revealed is his own set of blood-red, intimidating armor, alongside a now similarly blood-red axe.

‘What the hell?! Does everyone just have some sort of secret armor ability now?! Where my super cool armor?’ I exclaim to myself.

Garut then brings his axe high into the air, before swinging it rapidly, causing a gust of wind to ring out. The gust was enough to hold the wave of creatures back, who now all scatter in various directions.

Charging fiercely, Garut’s speed and strength seemed to have almost doubled with his menacing new armor, sending Delorie on the defensive this time.

At the same time, Uncle Moren finally wakes up, and begins to look around and take stock of the situation. Quickly finding Hoggle, he turns off the device before once again charging directly at his target, this time with a distinct third eye placed on his forehead.

Hoggle confidently holds his ground, assuming Moren incapable of penetrating his ‘roach armor’ I as I’m now going to call it.

I watch in shock and awe and Uncle Moren’s fist glows brighter and brighter with a sickly black. He winds up widely and throws a punch that sends wind flying at his face. Finally, the punch connect, landing directly on Hoggles solar plexus. Unlike last time though, this punch sends him careening through the air, only stopping when he hits the outer wall of the cavernous room.

Hoggle remains unmoving for close to five seconds before he finally manages to get up. I watch as he struggles to get his shaky feet under him as he constantly struggles to breath. His once covered chest is now completely bare, and now sports a nasty looking crevice that would kill most people.

Hoggle then begin to twitch. Small twitches at first, either his fingers to his eyes, but it rapidly shifts into something more disturbing. His bones cracking and his face shape morphing violently, it’s quickly revealed what he is turning himself into.

‘He’s becoming a goddamn cockroach! What the hell is wrong with him! Why in the FUCK would he want to be a cockroach!’

This isn’t just any cockroach either. No, instead it’s clearly some sort of monstrous version of the creature, easily standing taller than me and maybe even Garut, with a beautiful golden carapace that contradicts its monstrous form.