I had managed to sever the deeper darkness within Scorlax, which he had been using to heal himself. He had only done that once, but once was enough. Raziel turned towards Scorlax, I could see the dark aura around him growing weaker, it wouldn’t be long before he vanished from this world like Cutter had.

I began panting as the light faded from Raziel’s sword. I felt proud of myself, having managed this while being blinded, but now I felt quite weak, sensing Larana’s fused armour had dispersed leaving my body feeling heavy again, it would take a few days at the least to recover from this.

“How are you holding up, Master?” asked Raziel.

“Not good,” I shook my head. “That purification seems to have taken a toll on my already weakened body.”

“Your first big one,” he commented. “You’ll get better.”

“That was so cool.” Dash came speeding over.

“Impressive,” said Zack, letting out a little gasp when he saw I had covered my eyes. “Are you alright?”

“Nothing Mila can’t fix.” I waved my hand as if it was nothing.

“You should be more careful,” commented Link. “Now then, allow us to finish off Scorlax, rest.”

“He should fade away on his own,” I mentioned.

“No.” Link shook his head. “Darkness never fades on its own, grows weak, but does not fade completely.”

“Then I need to purify it,” I said ready to finish it off.

“No.” Raziel stomped his paw, flicking me off his back onto the ground. I felt a paw on my chest, Arata.

“You have done enough, anymore and you will struggle even more to recover, leave this to them,” he snarled, removing his paw. I slowly sat up, realising that he worried about me in his own way, even though he would never admit it. “You have lackies to finish jobs for you, use them.”

“Link can handle the left-over darkness,” commented Raziel.

“Go,” I ordered as I sensed them leave me. Raziel sat next to me on my right, his great head coming to rest on my shoulder. I raised my hand to stroke him, he was purring. Arata sat down on my left. I wanted to stroke him to, bringing my arm up, just to stroke his cheek, he snarled with displeasure but let me do it anyway. “You worry about me really.”

“Just watch through the wind,” he growled.

I shook my head, focusing on the energy around Scorlax, he was weakening further, without that deeper darkness, he had nothing to feed his power. “Get back!” I shouted as they had arrived closer.

There was an explosion of dark energy from within Scorlax. “You think I am finished, before this body fades, I will have it destroy you all, on an endless rampage, perhaps I’ll destroy Desvulp first.” The darkness was more condensed this time, was it coming from the remaining energy of the crystal he devoured.

Scorlax began stomping the ground, banging his pinchers before moving quickly in my direction. Oh crap, I wanted to get up and move, but I felt a pulse go through my body. I couldn’t move, Scorlax’s poison was in full affect.

“Trust,” said Raziel, seemingly unalarmed by the coming danger.

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Link darted in front of Scorlax, holding a claymore, he swung it with such strength, seeing a small portion of his dark power coming through as he smashed it against Scorlax’s, damaging one of his claws.

I noticed that on contact, Link had adsorbed some of the dark energy surrounding Scorlax, just like a dark crystal. He quickly twisted the claymore to his left side as Scorlax swiped his uninjured pincher at him. Link held strong, his defence solid, absorbing more of the energy.

“Zack, Dash,” he called for backup.

Dash jumped over on to Scorlax’s back, supercharging his dagger, heating the metal up, so he could cut into the exoskeleton on his back. His tails flickered, one coming down to strike him. Dash sensing the danger moved, Scorlax stinging himself. I let out a cheer, but Raziel quickly ended that.

“A scorpion is immune to their own poison.”

“You’re kidding me,” I sighed.

“Dash has much more control, than I thought,” admitted Raziel.

Dash dug his blade into Scorlax’s tail, running circles around it, until the whole head of it dropped off, wasting no time he headed for the second.

“He no longer holds the power to put up a defence to their attacks,” I said.

“That form was brought on by dark power, with it fading, he is becoming weaker, but be warned it will not be so easy to find the deeper darkness within the others,” responded Raziel.

Dash had made quick work of the second tail, as it thrust down at him, fast and accurate, but as the second tails tip hung by a thread, the first swiped in, still covered in sharp barbs, it cut up Dash’s back, pushing him off of Scorlax’s back and to the sand, he rolled in pain, barely getting to his feet to avoid being stood on by Scorlax’s shifting feet.

Zack threw his dagger into multiple places around Scorlax, summoning up his power, the shadows grew longer and strangely upwards. Zack used them to jump higher above Scorlax, raining down a shower of daggers. Each one tore through Scorlax’s exoskeleton, showing that he was increasingly weakening, but still a danger.

Zack drew a second dagger from his side, the dagger I had retrieved from the Latrodectus, the one who had claimed his father’s life. It glowed as he poured his power into it, the size changing, growing as he dived downwards, the now claymore sized dagger aimed at the back of Scorlax’s body. The blade piercing it with such force, Scorlax’s legs buckled under the power and blood spluttered up around Zack.

“Move now!” shouted Link, breaking his defence position, twisting his claymore, thrusting it forward into the mouth of Scorlax, twisting the blade a second time was enough to finish Scorlax off.

A dark aura began to leave his body. Link held out his free hand, making it all come towards him, absorbing into his body like he had before, but could he really handle that much dark power.

“Link!” I called over as Scorlax’s body began to disappear, the crystal he devoured was all that was left and that crumbled away. Link’s claymore vanished and he collapsed. “Link!” I tried to move to go to him but couldn’t. His dark energy was a swirling storm, he couldn’t possibly handle all of it.

“He should be fine,” reassured Raziel. “His body just needs some time to properly absorb the energy, considering I doubt he has absorbed such a concentration of dark energy before.”

“Dash, you okay?” I heard Zack.

“No,” he cried out in pain. “What about Link?”

“He passed out,” commented Zack.

I sighed. “Zack take charge, I can’t do anything right now.” I couldn’t see, couldn’t help Dash or Link.

“Alright,” responded Zack, who acted quickly, first he patched up Dash with some bandages he kept in his pouch, replaced my torn sleeve with some too. “Must hurt.” He commented.

“Not really, Mila can nullify pain,” I answered as he helped me onto Raziel’s back, then begged Arata to carry Link upon his back. Arata seemed reluctant but after a word from Raziel he agreed by that time I was getting quite hot, the sun beaming overhead.

“Do you still have enough energy to keep us cool?” asked Zack.

“I do,” I nodded. “Doesn’t take a lot for a cooling breeze.

“Good.” Zack had managed to get us moving along quite quickly, returning to Desvulp as soon as possible was the best option for us, couldn’t stay out here any longer.

Travelling back to Desvulp was a quiet one. I could sense everyone was exhausted from the extended fight, especially in this heat. Had I been too rash in chasing after Scorlax. We won so not a complete mess up, but in future I would need to think before jumping in. I had been too rash, but Tigra being in danger seemed to have that effect on me, I would need to be a little more cautious in the future.