Chapter 104: The Gap in Stregth

During the same time when Zeke finished destroying the second fortress, the Elites have continued doing a decent job of prolonging the battle against the general. But the gamer cannot assist them just yet as, he is still looking for more data on the item he needs.

But Zeke needs to be quicker because, the same set of chosen humans are about to get massacred by their enemy.

The Demon General [Grat'zie], without any armor on, sustains no damage from any of their attacks. With only his duals words aiding him, the general has effectively brought ruin to the Elites and, there is a good explanation as to why he could perform this.

Right now, the Demon General [Grat'zie] is in a form which is called [Primal State]. Something which all of the generals could transform into. The metamorphosis itself is easy to describe. It is simply a forced evolution which turns any general into a creature which could rival any [S+] ranked Evolved Monster.

This is the reason why Glade could leave so nonchalantly from Mythos. He knows that, aside from Zeke, there is no natural inhabitant of Mythos which could rival his generals. And, even if the main deities bring new humans, they could never hope to match a general in the [Primal State] – walking calamities which destroys everything in their path.

However, the skill is not without its consequences. Since the flow of power reaches this much, a general has a high chance of dying after activating this skill. With the forced evolution and the forced progression of growth, they would naturally receive a backlash greater than the amount of power they gained. And even if they live after the skill's duration ends, they will basically be incapacitated for the remainder of their lives.

Due to all of its negative effects, the skill is something which only serves as a last resort. With their own capabilities, every general is strong enough to challenge the former General Erio. That is how strong they are, or rather, how strong Glade made them to be.

"Any plans Quinn?" Jake said, pointing his javelin toward the enemy even though most of his muscles scream for him to run away. But, with everyone steeling their resolves to stay, he couldn't muster any strength to perform this.

Quinn shook his head and, tried to come up with something. But even with the multitude of plans he prepared, there is nothing he has in store for something as illogical as this. Thus, he froze in place, unable to give any commands.

"Let me tell you what your combination lacks." The demon general uttered, walking carefree as if nothing could destroy him now. A thought that may just as good as true.

"You are too organized with your attacks." He continued, not getting any response from the group.

One of their archers, Gawain, tried shooting him down through a headshot, placing a condensed amount of mana onto a single piercing attack. The arrow created such a strong gust of wind that, everyone's eyes got dust on them, making them blink for a while. Yet as soon as they opened their eyes, they saw the general holding on to the same arrow using only two fingers.

"Hey, this doesn't even pass as a joke." The archer said. Feeling both his arms go numb from the sheer amount of force he needed to pour onto that single strike.

"What a rude bunch." Grat'zie said, releasing a single swing with his left blade. This targeted the three vanguards who created a barrier for the townsfolk. Immediately, their defenses got shattered and, so did their shields and armor. The three men got sent flying, making the residents all run away for their lives. Some children stayed behind, protecting the unconscious defenders.

Then came Horus who did his best to distract the general – releasing more summons of lower caliber. But these summons only created enough damage to irritate the Demon General as they couldn't actually produce any decent damage. Yet, the tamer didn't stop here.

He created his ultimate summon, sacrificing some of his blood which he forced to drip from his wrist. Out came a [Hellhound] the same creature which Zeke himself used while he was on Yaeger's realm.

The creature's strength got fueled by all the deaths around the area and, everyone thought that the monster could deal some lasting damage against the general. Yet, as the [Hellhound] pounced at him, Grat'zie simply dropped one of his blades and punched his fist right into the mouth of the monster.

"Blaze." He said, releasing purple flames as the summoned creature squirmed in agony. Again, the elites are at a loss for words as, their enemy continued moving towards them. With a look on his face that tells them, the demon is bored with them.

"I'll give you till the count of three to give me a good fight." He finally said, releasing so much killing intent that, some of the elites got their knees shaking from fear.

"Quinn what do we do!" Kaguya said but, still having no response from their leader. Then, the monster finally began counting.

"One."

"Quinn!" Kaguya shouted at him, getting disappointed that their leader still has no plan.

"Two."

Kaguya bit her lip and began gathering dark mana once more. She could feel a faint whisper of evil that is mixed into it but, she didn't have time to think of something so trivial.

"If you won't do anything, then I will." She said, using [Oblivion] forcefully. The general saw this and, tried moving out of range but, the pull of the skill is so strong that even he is stuck in place.

"That's more like it! Make my dying moment entertaining!" The general continued. He released a massive amount of purple flame targeting oblivion. The general laughed as the skill simply absorbed it and, slowly pulled him in.

"That's it, we can win!" Amare said, hoping that [Oblivion] could kill their opponent. But the general simply used the same skill again and this time, did not stop from pouring it out. Yet again, [Oblivion] kept absorbing everything which gave the elites a sense of relief until, Kaguya began screaming in pain.

"AAAAHHHH!"

The healers immediately went to her. They began performing heals for Kaguya but then, purple flames began coming out of her body. Quinn finally acted up, telling Kaguya to stop the skill and yet, the female elite refused to do so.

"IF I STOP THIS, HE'LL BE ABLE TO MOVE FREELY!" She screamed as pain continued overflowing from all the veins in her body. The flames crept up from time to time, giving more burns on her body which the healers tried remedying as quickly as they can.

Grat'zie is still held back by [Oblivion] which is to be expected. Aside from it being an [S] ranked skill, Nisha's blessing gave Kaguya an added [30%] effectiveness on all dark type spells she uses. Yet, Kaguya is not all powerful.

Forcing her body to take in dark mana at a continuous rate and, continually getting burnt by demonic flames, it'd be nothing short of a miracle if she survives the aftermath. With this, Jake finally snapped, punching Quinn in the face and sending their leader stumbling to the ground.

"Get a f*cking grip of yourself!" He said in anger. The other members would've stopped him but, they shared the same sentiment; wanting Quinn to get back to fighting shape.

"You were so cocky in saying that you'll be our leader and this is where you made us end up?!" He continued, pointing his javelin on their fallen leader.

"You're useless." He finally said. And this is one word which Quinn cannot accept. If there is one word which does not exist in Quinn's vocabulary, it is words connected to [useless] and [failure].

"Yeah, like you can do a better job." Quinn finally uttered, regaining his composure and standing back up. He brushed Jake's javelin away and, began taking command once more.

"I'll only say every command once, do it as quickly as you can and we might get out of this predicament." Quinn said in his usual confident tone, to which every other member finally felt relieved.

From the state of things, Kaguya can't hope to sustain the skill for much longer. Any more than what she has already done and, some permanent damage would be done to the female elite. Hence, Quinn asked only one thing and, that is to break the spell after five more seconds. Kaguya nodded in agreement, knowing that Quinn already has everything under control. And she isn't wrong for there are steps to the plan which Quinn has already devised.

The first of which is placing barriers on all of the fighters who'd face the general, Quinn, Jake, and Mirio. The second of this is being given elemental boosts from their mages and, getting some detonates from Zilg placed on some rocks and pebbles. Then came the order for the archers to prepare their strongest arrows.

"He caught it because it would've probably damaged him." Quinn said, making the archer realize that the attack earlier was not completely useless. Then, he made Horus prepare his strongest monsters once again.

"You know how much blood that'd cost me?" He said to Quinn, referring to the blood ritual required to create these summons.

"I know, and I'm sorry." Quinn replied, making the tamer sigh. Horus didn't plan to go against it and, he knows that this is probably the only way for them to get through the fight.

Then, Quinn added a few more instructions and, finally, he the beginning of the end.

"Now!" He shouted, making Kaguya stop the spell as the three fighters rushed towards the general.

"Imma bring you with me to hell!" Mirio said as he used [Ring] once again.

"Transcendence." Quinn continued, overwriting the skill Mirio used and adding more features to it. He increased the number of allies which Mirio can bring forth and, give all these allies the same buff received by the skill user.

Grat'zie was about to swing his blade but, Mirio is already there to stop him from doing so.

"I don't think so." He said, punching the general's wrists and, backing away immediately as both Quinn and Jake began attacking the general.

Grat'zie smiled as he felt the blow of Mirio's attack. The combination of Quinn and Jake didn't fall short of the general's expectation either. The two humans, with all the buffs they received, can now follow the general's pacing.

The general effectively dealt with both using his dual wielding style. But then, Jake backed off, surprising thegeneral as Quinn threw some rocks at his face. Zilg activated detonate right away, making all these rocks explode with Zilg's stronger explosion trap. Then, Quinn followed up by slashing the back of the general's knee, with Jake performing the same. They placed their full strength on the blows but, as expected, the enemy is still standing.

"That's not enough!" Grat'zie said.

"I know." Was Quinn's short reply as a figure came on top of Grat'zie.

It is none other than Mirio who jumped up and, placed enough force on his fists to put a hole through a mountain. He punched the top of Grat'zie's head with this and, made the enemy fall to his knees.

[Ring's] duration ended within this time. Hence more attacks could pass through. This began with Horus using the tentacles of his void summon, making sure that the general is held down.

Quinn sliced through both of the generals' wrists and, Jake followed by using his ultimate skill [Longinus] which made his javelin the sharpest weapon for a few minutes. With these, they were able to cut off the hands of the general who screamed in pain as he dropped his weapons.

Quinn and Jake did not relent. They continued on to forcing the demon's wings to be cut off. Then they followed by doing the same to his horns.

Then, with the interval created, the archers fired from both sides, hitting the left and right temple of the general's head. This sent another strong gust of wind which created a small tornado. Quin rode this and, took Jake's javelin with him.

"Double Longinus." He said, adding more damage to the already fatal skill. And then, he threw it down the torrent of wind, increasing its accuracy through Amare's ultimate skill and, adding elemental damage to it through the mages.

The blow was so strong that, everyone needed to back away. There was a huge dome of light which ate up everything in its path as it continued stretching outward. Kaguya screamed for Quinn to get away but, there was no response.

The light faded slowly until, the area became clear again. Then, coming towards them is the figure of a person, holding in to another in his arms. This didn't make any sense because, the only person who was left with the general was Quinn.

The group tried to go into their battle positions again. All their muscles are sore and, most of them are already on the verge of collapsing. But with the chance of an opponent showing up, they couldn't afford to lose consciousness.

"Get ready." Jake said, as the person finally stepped out of the light.