Sam tore it off him with his free hand and threw it away. It extended its staff as it flew, landing on its tip. It balanced there for a second and then leaped off, flying through the air at Sam. The monkey bared its teeth at him in a vicious grimace, before thrusting its staff towards him. Sam already knew what was coming and he dodged to the side.
The staff lengthened in the blink of an eye, sending ten feet of its length through where Sam had been standing. Even worse, the end was pointed. It seemed that not only could the monster control the size of the weapon, but also its general physical shape. Well, there was only one way to win this. To not get hit.
Sam whipped his arm out towards the staff, but missed as it retracted. He had not met many things that could outperform him in speed, and this was a humbling experience. Growling, Sam pushed off the ground, flashing across the ten feet of distance between himself and the monkey within a span of seconds. He raised Mjolnir high, and started to push his energy into it, watching in satisfaction as it began to crackle with pure white electricity. The clone in front of him planted its staff, and caused it to expand to its full size in a second, forming a solid barrier between it and Sam. Sam sneered. He would not alter his attack now. He had faith in his abilities, and this would prove that he was not some weakling in this fight to be disregarded, but one of the main combatants. Sometimes, ego was useful. He could certainly have ample opportunity to cultivate it in the future.
Time seemed to slow down as Sam fell, and he watched the individual strands of lightning dance around the head of his hammer as he brought down. The monkey braced for impact, and the hammer made contact. Sam was momentarily blinded as the power was discharged, and as his sight slowly returned to him, he saw an expanding nova of power struggle for dominance against the staff. Perhaps if it had been the true weapon of the Sage, it would have been an even match, but this poor cousin of a clone could not hope to stand up to one of the Seven Seals.
The metal warped backwards, and then was blasted into a flying cloud of shrapnel that perforated the monkey a thousand times over. It shuddered, and then blinked out of existence. A stream of essence entered Sam, and his eyes widened. That explained why it had been so powerful. The true owner of the clone was using his essence to fuel it.
On that matter, Sam noticed that the monkey was doing poorly against Johannes. Both the original and the clone were struggling to land any serious strikes on the implacable form of the man, who was laughing bitterly all the while. People like Johannes only truly found joy in the suffering of others.
Sam took a deep breath and started to cautiously make his way towards the fight ahead of him. This was not something that he could just run into, guns blazing. Both of his opponents were quite a bit more powerful than him, at least on paper, and they were most definitely so while fighting together. Sam would have to wait until they were both weakened until he could strike.
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The Sage noticed that Sam had defeated one of his clones, and the monkey snarled. He pointed at the sky and snapped his fingers, summoning a trio of dragons from beyond the edge of the circle. That allowed Johannes to get a hit in one the monkey, but he shrugged it off.
As the sinuous figures of the dragons flew over the edge of the divide between forest and open ground, Sam got ready. He wasn't sure if he was up to this, but there was no other option. He would have to deal with these monsters before he could deal with the other ones in front of him.
Behind him, Sam heard a faint pattering noise, along with a low rumble, and he turned to see Rax and the others racing towards him. Behind them was a stampede of monsters, all howling for their blood. Sam was frozen for a moment, and then he found his bearings. Perhaps this could be used to his advantage. As his friends approached, Sam ran towards them, building up power within his mace and body.
“I’ll take their attention! Split off to the sides,” Sam shouted as he passed them, before slamming his hammer into the front lines of the monsters.
The others took the brief pause in the movement of the monsters to follow Sam’s advice, and they were quickly out of the way. Now the monsters all were focused solely on Sam. He smashed his hammer against his gauntlet and roared at the creatures, imbuing it with just enough aura to fire up their bloodlust. Then he turned tail and fled, running straight towards Johannes and the Sage. Both fighters were so engrossed in their battle that they did not notice anything untowards until Sam was barely a hundred feet away. As they looked up, Sam grinned. By that point, it was already too late.
Sam could close that distance in a matter of seconds, and the monsters behind him were not much slower. He jumped over the heads of the two fighters in front of him, and the monsters crashed into them a moment later. There was a series of agonized howls and screeches as Johannes and the Sage laid into their assailants, but they were quickly buried underneath the frenzied stampede.
Every strike that they sent out only served to antagonize the creatures further, and they were surrounded by a milling throng of frightened monsters, all trying to grind the source of their pain down into dust. It was at that moment that the dragons came barreling out of the sky, their bluish scales reflecting the sun. One of them swooped down towards Sam, and he resided himself for impact. The other two headed for the monsters, and carried off two of the smaller creatures on the edge of the circle of monsters. The rest of them didn't even notice.
Sam on the other hand had his eyes locked on the dragon in front of him. He fielded his aura, his full aura, at the last moment, and the dragon flinched slightly. Sam expanded out his aura and was able to read the dragon’s Dao from that, finding that it was some sort of air related one, as expected. There was no feasible way for a wingless creature to fly without some sort of magical aid.