The bird descended like a bolt of lightning, and Beirut put himself in front of the attack again. The moment that the attack hit, Beirut was hurled away, everyone attacked. I released the black ball of fire, Silver struck with a lightning arrow, and Lily formed a sphere of water to contain the bird.

The Abyssal waved his halberd and reflected the arrow, released a powerful aura and destroyed the water attack and tried to slash the ball of black fire. His defense was pretty good, but I was preparing for that. When his halberd touched the ball, it exploded and the bird collided with the ground, skidding for a few meters.

The dust settled, and I saw the dead bird. However, the demon was standing beside it without any scratch. His defense was pretty good, reacting quickly enough to evade the damage of my attack. The bird burned to a crisp, and all the feathers were gone. I was sure that he avoided my attack because it was too powerful for him not to be burnt.

He looked toward us with a wicked smile on his face and said with a dark voice. “Ohh, see what you have done to my mount… I will make you pay for it!” His voice distorted between being sarcastic and being full of rage. I couldn’t identify which emotions he was trying to convey; however, I still entered in position and concentrated my power.

He hurled his halbert toward me, and I quickly sidestepped to avoid the weapon. Cold sweet flowed through my neck. If I hadn’t activated my soul field previously, I would surely be dead, the attack was too quick for me to follow with my eyes.

The spear vanished in the air and appeared in his hand again. The demon made a surprised face and squinted his eyes. I made my body reinforced by everything that I had and dashed toward him.

Lana transformed with her mutation, and red wings grew from her back while horns appeared on her head. She wielded her sword and attacked together with me. She activated her fire domain while I activated my death domain. We attacked from both sides, while Lily and Silver supported us from the back.

The abyssal didn’t panic, and rotated his halberd, deflecting both attacks. His rotation was not so strong, but there was something else, he was using some concept to strengthen his attacks. We skidded on the ground for a few meters, and he attacked us. The abyssal disappeared from his place, and he was instantly upon me. This time, even my soul field couldn’t identify his movement. It was like he teleported to me.

He attacked with his halberd, and I defended myself with my Purbás. I used the concept of destruction to form a black shield, that would explode upon contact. He cut through my defenses, and I was thrown backward.

I feel on the ground with blood spurting from a big wound on the right side of my chest. I sealed the wound with soul energy and looked back to him. The abyssal tried to finish me off, but Lana entered in his way and stopped him in his tracks.

The wound in my chest was not closing, some energy was not allowing it. I felt it with my soul, and realized why he could attack in such strange ways; he was using the concept of space!! When he struck me with his halberd the first time, the attack was so fast because the space folded before the spear, and it went much faster than before. He even teleported before me to attack.

“HE IS USING THE CONCEPT OF SPACE, WATCH OUT!” I alerted my comrades, knowing the enemy was already a step taken toward victory. The wound on my chest was not closing because the space on it was “open”, and until the space energy was erased, it would remain that way. Knowing the properties of his attacks, I realized that he was at least at the earth level to use the concept of space with such finesse.

I got on my feet and threw myself toward the battle again. By now, Beirut was already up and fighting against the abyssal as well. Somehow, Beirut was using some ability to keep him at bay, without letting him attack Silver and Lily.

I approached the battle entering a formation with Beirut in the middle, and me and Lana at the sides. I involved myself with black fire and attacked. Lana attacked from his other side at the same time. The abyssal stepped backward and distorted the space, almost making both me and Lana attack each other, we realized his intentions and stopped just before we did that. The battle proceeded in a stalemate. The abyssal was truly powerful, and if any of us were alone, he could take us out in seconds. However, now that we were in a formation, we could at least hold for a while.

One full minute passed, and the battle was more heated than ever, but it was clear that we were on the losing side. There were many cuts all over my body, nothing so big as the first one to my chest, but I still had to use the soul force to seal the wounds, making my battle power lower.

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Lana’s and Beirut's situations were worse than mine. They couldn’t use ki to hold their wounds together as well as I could and were all bloodied, as the wounds wouldn’t close. The abyssal was still in his full glory, and there was no wound on his body. He could even avoid my destruction fire by bending and twisting space.

A huge tremor was coming from the forest. Their armies were approaching!

“WE HAVE TO RUN! THE ARMY IS APPROACHING!” Silver screamed from the back, but doing that would not be possible in our situation. We were barely holding him down with our formation, and if any even of us were missing, deaths would inevitably happen. Even Lily’s support was valuable, as it could restrict his movements.

I looked around and realized that there was only one way to escape from this hell, climbing the hill where the cave was, and escaping to higher grounds, where the army movements would be restricted.

However, the problem was, while this abyssal was holding us here, there was no way to escape!

***

Beirut was on par with the situation and knew that if they stayed here for longer, the whole ground would die. Lana was more inclined toward attacking, and couldn’t hold the man down. Ullach, while powerful, could not resist the man for long. And Silver and Lily shouldn’t even be mentioned, they were long-range attackers, and couldn’t even phantom stopping me man.

The way he saw it, there was only one way out of this situation.

Beirut remembered the day he discovered that his brother went to lower floors of the abyss fortress, and didn’t return. The sadness in his brother’s wife, the soft crying of his nephew. There were moments in life, where losing someone was a sad moment, but sacrifices were inevitable some times. He remembered all the happy moments when he laughed with his companions and the happiness that they have brought him.

A steel determination appeared in Beirut’s eyes. He knew that he was the only one that could hold the abyssal long enough so that his companions could escape. Making this decision, his heart knew that there was no coming back. Loyalty was something that a man should never back down from.

“AHHHHHHH” he shouted on top of his lungs, and used a forbidden Ki technique to burn his life force to strengthen his body. His mutation evolved to the next stage at this time, and his brown body made from rocks began to have a deeper color. The vastness of earth invaded his mind, and he ran toward his enemy.

The abyssal saw Beirut running like a train toward him, and stabbed forward with his halberd. Instead of using his shield to protect himself from the attack, he let the attack pierce his body, and tightly grabbed at the abyssal, he sealed him with his own rock body, making a dark brown glow appear around them.

“RAN!! DON’T DISREGARD MY SACRIFICE!!! DON’T LOOK BACK!’” His companions were shocked by what they were seeing. The abyssal struggled inside the seal that Beirut made using his life as collateral, frantically trying to escape.

***

Lana was shocked for a moment and didn’t know what to do. Seeing one of her best friends making this, she was tearing down on the inside. She hesitated only for a second, and tears appeared on his eyes while she steeled her expression. “Let’s fall back,” she said with a sad voice.

Lily was looking at the scene full of shock and tried to say something. “Bu…”

“NOW!” Lana screamed on top of her lung while turning around. Everyone could see the sadness on her face and the tears falling from her eyes. Beirut saw this happening, and a broad smile appeared on his face while he said. “Survive!”

The group quickly climbed the hill and disappeared in the forest while running for their lives.

***

I looked at the scene happening in front of me and didn’t know what to do. Beirut's sacrifice let me shocked. He was willing to sacrifice his life for his team. I saw the determination in his eyes, and couldn’t refute his will.

A companion with such a determination to protect his team should be respected. I quietly listened to what Lana said and retreated with the group.

My heart was throbbing in pain, and I felt powerless. I understood why Beirut did what he did. He was the only one that had that capacity. If he didn’t do that, the whole group would undoubtedly die. His sacrifice had meaning.

We quickly climbed the hill and scaped toward the forest. The group quietly ran with all they had. Sadness was evident in all faces.

I remembered what Beirut told me about his brother. It was a sad destiny, he would disappear on this hell, just like his brother did.

“One day, I will come back, and retrieve your remains, so that you can be honored.” I thought to myself while remembering all the things that we went through together.

***

While the group retreated, Beirut held the abyssal in place. The abyssal was furiously attacking him while trying to get rid of the seal. He waved his halberd around and used his concept of space to destroy it. The halberd slowly broke through the seal, and Beirut threw himself on top of the abyssal. The weapon perforated his body and ravaged him. Despite the furious attacks of the creature, Beirut used his body to earn even one more second to his team. The halberd cut toward his neck, and Beirut used his left arm to protect his neck.

The arm was cleanly cut off, and it fell to the ground. The creature attacked again, and the weapon pierced Beirut’s chest. He used his right arm to hold the weapon in place, not letting the man take it back. He used what was left of his energy to seal the weapon so that he couldn’t take the spear out with his concept.

Instead of taking the weapon out, the man released even more energy through the halberd, destroying Beirut’s insides. A gush of blood escaped through Beirut’s mouth, and he kneeled on the ground, slowly losing his strength. He clenched his hand and didn’t let the weapon go.

Beirut fell sideway and laid on the ground while the energy destroyed his insides. He looked toward the red sky and remembered all the happiness that he had in his life — growing in a small village while having a good big brother, having many friends during his life, and all the people that he helped in some way.

“It was a good life, big brother.” He thought while the darkness slowly encroached upon him, and his life escaped from his eyes.

Even until the last moments of his life, Beirut didn’t let the halberd go, and even after the light escaped from his eyes, his hand tightly held it!