Jake and his party were faced with a choice… run away and drag things out until the Twinhead Emperor’s empowered state ended, or try and fight back while buying time. Directly confronting the boss was definitely not advised, something they were all in agreement with. Jake usually wasn’t a fan of just running away, but if his party decided to do just that, he wouldn’t object.
“We should retreat for now. Fighting directly is too risky,” the Sword Saint quickly said as he received some emergency healing from DIna. She couldn’t restore his resources and fatigue, but she could get him back in temporary fighting condition… or at least well enough to launch one more good attack.
“I concur,” the Fallen King instantly agreed.
“Me too-“ Dina tried to say but was cut off by the boss.
“You wish to flee? To drag things out? You all seem to thoroughly misunderstand something,” the Twinhead Emperor said as his staff began to light up. Jake felt the entire environment shift as the mana all around took on the aura of the ogre. “It’s already far too late to run.”
Then, Jake felt the pressure as his body felt far heavier. The ground all around them cracked as everything buckled, even the mana in the air itself getting pushed down. It wasn’t suppression of aura or anything like that, but something far more tangible. Gravity magic...
A fucking complicated school of magic that was, needless to say, pretty damn strong. What’s more, the shaman clearly wasn’t done as he pointed his staff toward Jake and the three others around him. A massive flamethrower flew out, unaffected by the increased gravity that weighed everything else down.
Reacting quickly, four barriers appeared. One golden, one green, one of water, and one of stable arcane mana. The flames washed over the four attempts to block the attack, as each was burned through in moments before finally the flame shattered the final one and sent all four of them scattering in four different directions to dodge the attack.
The Twinhead Emperor wanted to follow up, but just then, a blast of wind descended from above, making the staff’s head smash into the ground, resulting in an explosion that sent the boss stumbling back. It was naturally Sylphie who went on the offensive.
Several more bullets of wind shot down, the boss raising a hand to block them with his own barrier of wind – only to then have an arrow strike him in the shoulder, as Jake took the chance to launch an attack of his own.A long, thin blade of water also struck the boss mere moments later, followed by a blast of force that pushed Jake’s arrow further into the ogre’s shoulder. These attacks were not done with the intent to try and deal damage to the Twinhead Emperor but to try and limit his mobility and disrupt his attacks at least a little bit. Plus, dealing damage should help hasten his demise still.
Sadly, their attacks proved to have little effect as the ogre stomped down, making the ground erupt as ten large boulders flew up, and with a hand motion, each condensed into small stones. Pointing his staff once more, the stones all began to glow molten as cracks formed all over them before he sent them flying toward the four non-birds in Sylphie’s party.
Jake quickly reacted as he shot down three of the approaching boulders that were aimed for the Sword Saint and Fallen King. When he hit them, all three exploded, sending sharp obsidian shards flying everywhere. This gave them some early warning as to the nature of the attack, so when the remaining seven arrived, everyone was ready as they erected barriers and made good distance.
Even so, the Sword Saint failed to deflect every obsidian shard, as one tore straight through his stomach and another through his thigh, while the Fallen King had over a dozen join the black metal shards already sticking out of him.
Bobo, Dina’s living armor, managed to block every single one of them while Jake dodged and prepared to continue his own counterattacks. He shot several arrows that were all sent flying by a blast of wind as the ogre swept his free hand upwards.
A large plate of earth was lifted and flipped over right on top of Jake and his party, but before it could crush them, a tree sprouted from the ground smashed into it, and tore it in two. Dina was back for a bit of action as she channeled mana into the otherwise dead ground, making it explode with life as hundreds of vines shot up.
However, the boss easily responded with a scoff as the gravity around him increased, crushing all the vines back into the ground. Raising his staff toward the sky, the shaman mumbled something silently as a single bolt of lightning shot upwards.
Once it got high enough, it exploded into a massive black thundercloud that instantly began rumbling. During this magic, Jake managed to land a single arrow, as he found himself struggling with the increased gravity, but luckily, Unblemished Arrows made things easier as it made his arrows less affected. The Sword Saint and Fallen King also shot their ranged attack, but all to little effect.
Someone who was luckily not struggling at all was the lightest and smallest person in their party of five. A barrage of wind blades fell upon the shaman, making him groan in pain as he tried to use his staff to block. Using his staff, he shot several large blasts of fire toward the hawk, trying to hit her, but Sylphie simply transformed her body into wind time and time again to avoid taking any noticeable damage.
Having realized her plants couldn’t do much, Dina had also shifted her attention to helping Jake and Sylphie with buffs and defensive barriers whenever necessary. She was also still helping the two oldies recover, allowing the Fallen King to not be entirely out of commission as he soon landed a barrage of golden beams and blasts of force, making the ogre stumble and for Sylphie to land another good attack, sending blood flying.
The problem was that the Twinhead Emperor didn’t care about taking damage, simply tanking everything. He was fully on the offensive, as he quickly stopped bothering to deal with Sylphie and went after the slowest people in their party.
Dina was prepared, but she could only do so much. Fireballs began raining toward her, the ogre lifting a hand as cold energy began to condense. A massive spear of ice was summoned and thrown, Dina barely managing to make a tree shoot up and block in time. Meanwhile, Sylphie and Jake continued trying to attack the boss, but all they could do was slightly delay his casting at times.
Things were getting bad… and Dina knew it.
“Jake and Sylphie…”
“I got it,” Jake assured her, giving her the go-ahead.
“Ree!” Sylphie also agreed.
Without further hesitation, Dina did her thing. Pushing herself, she once more entered her empowered form as trees began shooting up all around her, each of them bending and surrounding herself and the Sword Saint and Fallen King. Just before the entire thing fully closed, the two of them sent out a final goodbye.
A large golden beam shot out toward the boss, hitting the ogre before he could react. For a moment, he stopped, and using Mark, Jake saw the Soulshape of the Twin Emperor temporarily look as if it was wrapped in golden chains. Not for long, but enough for the next attack to arrive, as the Sword Saint exhausted the final energy he had.
“Glimpse of Spring: Erosion.”
His second use of a Glimpse of Spring instantly made him cough up blood, but his attack was not weakened. The stream of water soared toward the head of the Twinhead Emperor, and Jake decided to also lend a hand as he tried to use Gaze.
Sadly, even if the boss was frozen for a moment, the gravity magic in his immediate surroundings proved too strong, and their ability to stop the ogre too weak. He managed to move right before he was struck as he jumped. Combined with the gravity, the ogre managed to dodge a potentially fatal blow, but he couldn’t avoid the attack entirely.
The beam of water struck him in the right knee, blasting off the entire leg beneath it. Landing on the ground again, the shaman used earth magic to form a new temporary leg quickly before turning toward his attackers.
With an enraged gaze, the boss looked toward Dina and the two with her but found a dense dome of wood had formed to protect them. Taking out his anger, he pointed his staff as a torrent of lighting descended upon it, along with a flamethrower from the staff. Taking advantage, Jake released a Powershot, striking the Twin Emperor in the arm, making him nearly drop his staff, as Sylphie did a quick fly-by and left a deep cut on his shoulder, the ogre barely avoiding getting a nasty neck wound.
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The shaman’s attacks had all washed over the wooden dome, but once the smoke cleared, the Twinhead Emperor grimaced as he saw a burnt wooden dome that was rapidly mending itself.
Unfortunately for the boss, even in his empowered state, he couldn’t pierce Dina’s powerful defensive technique. At least not within a few seconds only, and while he could likely get through it within a minute, he couldn’t do much with Jake and Sylphie actively attacking him. The problem with this technique was that Dina couldn’t do anything else when using it, nor let anyone out. Something the shaman quickly realized as he didn’t bother attacking the dome again. Instead, he turned his attention to the two people remaining outside still with him.
“And then there were two…” the Twinhead Emperor said as he regarded Sylphie, who had returned to the sky, and Jake standing a few hundred meters away, an arrow already nocked. The ogre wasn’t wrong either that it was only the two of them left… because Jake felt that the Sword Saint was practically unconscious, while the Fallen King could barely maintain himself with all the damage he had taken. Once the dome expired or was destroyed, and if the boss still lived, things wouldn’t be good, and unless the Sword Saint wanted to take the massive risk of using his full Transcendence in his current state, the three of them had little other choice than using the escape tokens they still had saved from Minaga’s Labyrinth… so things were up to Jake and Sylphie now.
“Well, you’re down to just one. Heads, that is. At least ones that aren’t just for decoration at this point,” Jake taunted the boss, trying to get an emotional reaction and drag out time with banter while charging his Arcane Powershot further.
The Twin Emperor didn’t respond with words but shot a flamethrower toward him instead, making Jake release the string of his bow. The Arcane Powershot pierced through the flames before finally getting deflected by the staff. The ogre had not attacked with explosive anger but more a seething hatred as he proceeded to launch several more attacks.
Sylphie dove down and mimicked him, attacking plenty on her own. Erecting an ice barrier, the boss blocked the wind attacks while continuing to launch spells toward a quite frankly struggling Jake. Under normal circumstances, he would be able to dodge something like this… but the gravity magic was really fucking with his movements, making everything he did slower and more cumbersome.
Small cuts, frost burns, and seared flesh soon began to cover his body, but nothing lethal ever landed. Jake’s senses were focused like never before as he kept track of every single shift of mana in the atmosphere, moving before the magic even manifested. As his read on the ogre got better, he even began to launch a few counterattacks here and there, especially when he chose to use Eternal Shadow to also dodge a big blow.
Throughout, Sylphie also kept attacking the Twinhead Emperor, avoiding all the lightning strikes he tried using to keep her in check. Her assistance was one of the reasons Jake could still manage dealing with the constant assault.
Seconds ticked by, and Jake saw the shaman’s Soulshape seem to almost shrink in density. It was odd to describe, but Jake felt as if he could effectively see the soul slowly fall apart. With the poison and accumulated damage, the ogre would die soon no matter what happened… so all the hunter and the bird had to do was hold on.
Also, realizing he wasn’t going to achieve his goal of revenge in time if things continued like this, the Twinhead Emperor seemingly made a decision.
Without any warning, the ogre suddenly flew over toward Jake, seemingly wanting to get in melee combat now. Jake naturally retreated as an answer, making sure not to get caught by any attack… which was when the shaman did something entirely unexpected. With a flick of his wrist, the staff he had been holding flew toward Jake, who dodged away, only for it to suddenly slam into the ground just beside him.
As it slammed down, the ground dented, and Jake felt the pressure instantly as he smashed straight into the ground from the gravity field suddenly increasing in power several times over. The ogre was still holding out a hand as it glowed with magic, holding down Jake and the staff.
“Killing you in time… does not seem feasible,” the ogre said while blood poured out his mouth as he turned his head and raised his other hand toward Sylphie in the sky. “But the odd elemental… I have experience killing elementals.”
“Ree!” Sylphie responded by pushing down a dense wave of wind. The Twin Emperor looked at it as his hand began to glow with power. At the same time, his entire body began to shine as every single set of runes enveloped him in light. His body practically burned as his soul was set aflame, blood dripping from his eyes.
“Wind, bend before my will!”
Jake felt the sudden rush of power as the atmosphere changed. The blast of wind Sylphie had shot down toward the boss was somehow caught in his hand as if Sylphie had lost control of it. At the same time, the thunderclouds above suddenly became hyperactive, as all the lighting was shot down within mere moments, Sylphie dodging by spreading out her body into wind as she normally did.
Seeing the smile on the shaman’s face, Jake got a bad feeling.
The raised hand of the ogre began to slowly clench into a fist as the sky above moved. Wind began to gather as a giant spinning sphere of dense wind magic condensed. The stormcloud was already gone, scattered by the wind, as the sphere began to grow smaller.
Sylphie, who was caught within the sphere still in her pure wind form, began to shoot out wind blades to cut it open, but all her magic was simply absorbed by the wind sphere. Jake saw her try to control the wind around her, but it looked as if it no longer responded to her.
The sphere kept growing smaller and smaller as it condensed the air further and further. Sylphie struggled, and Jake tried to stand as he looked up, and his eyes opened wide. Somehow, the wind was getting so condensed that Sylphie began to forcibly reenter her beast form.
Jake saw her struggle, the ogre grinning as his hand closed tighter and tighter. Sylphie was soon entirely forced back into her physical hawk form as Jake saw something he never thought he would. The wind began to cut her, slicing through her feathers. Flashes of red began to appear as blood was drawn, Sylphie having no way to escape or avoid the attacks.
Trying to help, Jake used Touch of the Malefic Viper to intensify the poison, exploded his Mark to try and deal some more damage, and even used Gaze… but all it did was make the boss pause for a fraction of a second, barely giving Sylphie any respite.
Everyone in their party knew what was going on, and Jake’s mind temporarily blanked as he heard Dina say something through her Golden Mark. He heard her mention his name, but he could only stare as the small hawk struggled in vain, slowly getting sliced apart as the sphere of wind was still getting smaller and smaller, crushing her… killing her.
She… she did have the Phoenix Feather gifted to her, but it was risky to use… maybe… no, he shouldn’t tell her to, but… Jake didn’t want to know what could happen if she didn’t get out. He finally stopped doubting what had to be done as he yelled through the Golden Mark. “Sylphie, use your escape token!”
He yelled… but nothing happened. “Sylphie! Now!”
Jake tried again, as did the others, but all they got in return was a rush of feelings from her. Fear… indignation… confusion…
Gritting his teeth, Jake resolved himself. He didn’t have much after Valdemar, but Jake had regenerated some of that special energy over the last many years, and even if it wasn’t his life in danger, he would-
Sylphie’s desperate mix of emotions suddenly stopped… paused… and an overwhelming sense of fury rushed through the Golden Mark, washing away everything else, as an ear-piercing screech echoed out… sounding almost scolding in nature.
As Sylphie found herself surrounded by the wind, forced into her physical form, and unable to fight back… she didn’t understand what she had done wrong or why this was happening.
Sylphie fought well, at least, she thought she did. She had done everything Uncle and the others had told her to do. Sylphie was really good at doing that! Maybe Sylphie was even the best at doing what she was told to do because Sylphie knew how important it was to listen.
She had learned that back when Uncle had to save herself, Mom, and Dad from the bad sun bird. Learned to listen to what her parents told her. When she left on adventure with him, her parents had told her to always listen to Uncle, because even if Uncle could be very dumb, he was still pretty smart sometimes.
So, she did what she was told. Even if Sylphie was her own hawk, she did what her Uncle and her parents told her to do. That’s just how things were and how they should be.
But… in the fight with the two-headed big bad ogre, things weren’t as they should be. It was a super hard fight, but Sylphie had been in many super hard fights before, so it wasn’t that. No, it was that something acted like it shouldn’t. Things were wrong.
In the same vein as how Sylphie did as Uncle or her parents told her, the wind always did what Sylphie told it to do. That’s how things were and how they should be. But now, against the big bad ogre… the wind stopped listening to her.
It ignored her, no matter how much Sylphie tried to tell it what to do.
The wind… her wind attacked her from all sides. Trapped her, cut her, injured her. It closed in on her as she struggled but couldn’t do anything.
Why wasn’t the wind listening to her? Why did it do as the big bad ogre said? Why was what he wanted more important than what Sylphie asked?
That was just… wrong. Not how the world worked. The wind was supposed to listen to her. It was hers and not anyone else’s.
For the wind to act like this, refusing to do anything she said, and even attacking her just because someone else told it to was just… just…
So rude!
Sylphie had always been nice and always asked the wind to help, and it had always listened… but now, it seemed like that wasn’t enough anymore. It was rebelling, so she did as her Mom had done when Sylphie acted up.
She got angry and channeled that anger toward the indignant wind, acting up like a rebellious child. If it didn’t want to play nice, fine. No more niceties at all, and definitely no more asking politely if this was how the stupid wind was going to act!
From now on, Sylphie was going to make it very clear how the world was supposed to work and who was in charge here. Make it clear this was a world where the wind did exactly what Sylphie told it to do, without any complaint or talking back. To put it nicely, she was no longer making a request as she opened her beak, and with the wind attacking her from all sides, the injuries rapidly accumulating, Sylphie focused on nothing else as she screeched out her first direct command, leaving no room for disagreement.
”REE!”
And as her order came, the wind responded as it rightfully should when the Sylphian Hawk exerted her authority.
*Skill Upgraded*: [Sylph Wind Whispering (Legendary)] --> [Sylphian Authority (Mythical)]