The mont Logan struck the guardian serpent with his hamr, an orange flare of heat burst from his hamr and sent the beast flying. The blow engraved a sizzling mark on its forehead.
"Oh, these things are weak to fire!" Logan rolled to the side, avoiding another guardian’s sharp claws. A strange mixture of serpent and beast attacked the pair.
Seven of the beasts remained.
Zahir swung his blades in elegant arcs, creating a beautiful, dance-like swordsmanship as the wind enveloped his curved blades. This style created a makeshift wind barrier that allowed him to react faster to the enemy’s attacks.
With a sweeping arc, his blade cut through the chest of a guardian. The next mont, two struck at him with their sharp claws, breaking through the montary gap.
After the guardian fell, a light shone on the third circle.
Clang!
Logan’s shield shimred with sparks as he slamd into the two guardians.
"Ngh, damn monsters Back!" He swung his mace, and the blood of the guardian sprayed across the floor. Its colour was strange and resembled the veins in the walls, a turquoise green.
Four deep indentations remained on his shield, the monsters able to tear the tal buckler apart with ease.
A second light shone.
"Lad, we need to be careful." Logan clenched his shoulder, where his blood started to hiss, a strange purple colour seeping into his wound.
"Logan, it’s poison!"
Zahir’s eyes sharpened the mont he noticed, his blades cutting across the air to widen the gap between them and the five guardians that remained.
’Where did those lights co from?’ Logan thought as he steadied his shield and prepared to fight further.
"Lad, we need to work together to defeat those bastards. I’ll charge in, then get their attention, while you use your guardian spirit to help you ."
Unlike normal mages or warriors, the desert folk believed in their guardian spirits. So doubted their existence at first, but during the first Continental War, they proved the spirits existed.
"Understood!"
Logan slowed his breathing. His heart pounded against his chest with each mont. The fear, anxiety and twisted excitent coming together as one. This state was sothing he began to learn from eting Asmodeus.
Mace lifted and shield ready.
He rushed into battle, his body enveloped in a faint orange light as he slamd the first guardian with his shield, while slamming his mace into the shoulder of the second guardian, both of them screeching from the pain.
’They feel pain!’
"Zahir cut them up!"
As three guardians rushed to aid their fellow monsters, while Zahir’s blades thrust like daggers, copying a skill he saw from Asmodeus. ’I hope he isn’t mad...’
Shing!
Zahir cut the necks of two guardians.
But the last one ducked beneath his wind blades and took a sharp swing at him.
Bang!
The wind barrier that protected him dulled the blow, but he flew back while vomiting spit. Zahir hit the floor with a loud sound, but... in doing so, he fell onto the second ring.
A light shone, and Zahir gasped.
He finally saw there were four lights on the central circle, but the second circle was now ho to the huge monster and two massive crocodiles.
"Logan, don’t follow and end the last guardians!"
The old dwarf looked back at the kid.
Deng!
His body slid back several tres as the remaining guardians focused their attacks on Logan. With a slightly bent shield and his muscles aching, the pressure grew as he faced three of the half-serpents alone.
"Haa... this is stupid, if I knew this would happen." Logan grumbled to himself. His hope of saving his son beca small. If he needed to fight monsters at this level back-to-back, then he worried whether his heart and soul could take it.
’Son, can you forgive this useless father?’
He slamd his mace into the crotch of a guardian. The strange little sack contained their testicles and shaft... "RAAAAAAA!" The guardian scread in anger as the shredded remains of its manhood poured with blood.
"Heh, don’t fuck with a dwarf, peh!"
Logan spat on the floor as he faced the remaining guardians.
"Another light!" Zahir’s voice echoed as he pulled back, the crocodile’s sharp maw able to tear him apart if he got caught. Zahir’s chest tightened. He didn’t know what would happen, but with five out of seven stones lit up.
However, the mont the fifth light opened, the flesh of the stone monunt cracked.
He saw the dwarf glowing orange from the corner of his eye, leaping in the air towards the weakened knights. "Damn it, Ancestors give your power!" Zahir’s wind vanished as he crossed his blades and entered a purely focused state.
When he pulled them back, the air gathered around their blades, sharpening and increasing their potential.
"Logan, if we kill them. It will be dangerous!"
"I know Lad, but these bastards want us dead at any case!"
The hamr and twin blades struck at once.
A blinding surge of orange and erald wind tore through the cavern, and the guardians howled before being shredded into pieces. A violent tremor that spread through the entire chamber followed their death cries.
The turquoise veins in the walls pulsed erratically, like a heartbeat losing rhythm.
Zahir’s eyes darted to the lights on the floor and saw that the six stones were now burning, and the seventh flickered weakly as if deciding whether to ignite. "If that last one lights up, we might not walk out of here."
But reality was cruel...
All seven lights lit up on the central circle.
"Lad..." Logan’s breath ca out ragged. His hamr dripped molten blood, each drop hissing against the stone. "That wasn’t the last of it."
Zahir landed beside him, blades trembling from the recoil of his own attack. "You can feel it too, right?"
The central monunt split open, and as it did, the bodies of the crocodile and evil exploded instead. A large white throne appeared in the centre of the circles, but neither the monster nor the crocodiles showed it any attention.
Before Logan could answer, the ground beneath him caved. He fell to one knee as a burst of steam erupted, and the creature encased in stone suddenly resembled the being he saw in the dream world.
"This can’t be..."
The winds of his ancestors and guardian spirit trembled at the strength of the monster that slowly broke free of the stone prison.
Its scales were black glass, reflecting the light of the runes. Its head split into two serpent faces, each chanting in unison. Chains of golden script bound its limbs to the monunt, but they were cracking.
Zahir whispered, "The guardian of the circle..." He didn’t know its na, but this suited it best. The third face of the guardian remained stone. ’Is it not fully active?’ The lights on the third and first circles shone brightly, but the second ring had two lights that remained dull.
The creature turned both heads toward them, one with a fiery breath, the other with poison...
"Logan, we have to kill the big one before the crocodiles!"
BANG!
However, the dwarf’s lips twitched at this comnt, because one of the huge crocodiles held his shield and arm in its mouth. "Lad, summon your spirit now!" The mont Logan shouted, the crocodile slamd to the ground and rolled.
"Ack!"
"Logan!" Zahir pressed his blades together and started chanting in his native tongue. "Desert wind, heed . Azura, Guardian of the Sandstorm! I need your aid!"
The air condensed into a golden silhouette. A tanned male with long raven hair wrapped in wind and sand ford behind Zahir, his form half-transparent, but his eyes burned fiercely with both arms wide.
"Strike with !"
The guardian roared, breaking its chains. Its two heads lunged in opposite directions, forcing Zahir back. He dashed forward while Azura’s form fused with his movents. His speed tripled, his blades a blur of gold and wind. He slashed across the creature’s chest, carving a deep cross-shaped wound.
The serpent recoiled, then released a deafening scream.
"What!?"
Logan’s mace slamd into the head of the crocodile, biting him, and with a wet pop, the point of his weapon popped the monster’s eye.
He leapt onto the crocodile’s back, hamr blazing. "For my son!" The hamr crashed down into the beast’s skull, cracking bone and releasing a flood of orange fire. He slamd once, twice... three tis as the crocodile convulsed and dropped.
Bzzzt!
The dwarf watched as a light opened on the second circle, and his chest tightened.
"The lad was right!"
Zahir’s blades shone with green light as they collided with the huge guardian beast, the third head now half recovered, with an icy chill coming from its eyes. He pulled back and prepared to strike when the guardian’s blue eye shone with a flash.
[Eye of Frost]
"Ah!?"
Imdiately, his body began to chill, his flesh stung as ice wrapped around his body, and the temperature around Zahir dropped to the negatives instantly.
"Lad!" Logan shouted as he watched the guardian and the second crocodile charging at the slowed Zahir.
"I’m coming!"
With a flash of light, Logan’s body turned bright orange, his broken shield and blunt mace held high as he shot towards the charging enemies.
’I won’t let another youngster die!’
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