Master Blood Armor watched as Baron Bones summoned his vast army of skeletons in preparation to fight the strange giant that was about to break through the barrier isolating Rafael. He turned to the last surviving puppet: Master Greed:
"Quick, Greed, where is the Red Sage?"
The Master with Earth Affinity didn't answer; instead, his eyes glowed yellow as he activated a basic spell and surveyed the ground within the barrier.
"He's 30 meters deep, 7 steps to your right!"
"Can you get him out of there?"
"I don't have any advanced spells that can remove that much earth without risking killing the target. Remove at least 15 meters of earth, and I should be able to get him out of there."
"Damn it!"
Walking the indicated 7 steps, Blood Armor's tentacles changed shape, becoming giant hands with pointed claws.
"Wuh-thhh"
"Throw!"
With swift movements, large amounts of earth and stones flew as he dug rapidly.
"BANG!"
"Crack!"
"Crack!"
"Crack!"
The giant struck the barrier with his terrible axe for the fifth time, and as if it were illusory glass, the barrier shattered into several electric purple pieces, which disappeared before even touching the ground.
The giant's appearance was finally revealed, twice the size of a northern giant, his entire body wrapped in strips of cloth soaked in a greenish oil with several stains of dried blood.
A terrible stench of decaying corpses spread across the battlefield, quickly distracting Master Blood Armor, but he soon returned his attention to continuing to dig, leaving Master Baron Bones to deal with the intimidating newcomer.
Along with the giant, an army of thousands of Shadow Souls entered the barrier, clashing with the army of hundreds of skeletons, transforming the region into a veritable battlefield on a scale of thousands. Baron Bones did not retreat and summoned a bone dragon that clashed head-on with the rotting mummified giant.
Meanwhile, Greed aided him by casting an advanced spell similar to Raphael's "Great Quagmire" with the help of a Relic and sank the giant into the ground.
About four minutes after he began digging, Master Blood Armor shouted:
"Greed, I'm finished!"
Master Greed cast three different spells in quick succession, and after removing large amounts of earth, finally pulled from the subsoil a large cluster of rocks that formed a circular barrier the size of a human.
"Bang!"
With a powerful punch from Master Blood Armor, the stone sphere created by several earth basic spells shattered, revealing a two-meter-high blood cocoon.
"Slash"
"Crack"
With a precise and controlled strike, one of the tentacles of his living armor hit the red cocoon, revealing the right half of Rafael's face.
He opened his right eye and observed from inside the blood cocoon, Master Blood Armor smiling at him.
"Now I've got you!"
The pupil of Rafael's single open eye dilated in despair. He really thought he had time, but seeing Greed, who had an affinity for Earth, still alive on the battlefield, he realized the mistake he had made…
In his closed left eye, there was a timer with a black background:
[Time until racial change is complete:]
[29]
[28]
[27]
[26]
[25]
As time passed, he saw Master Blood Armor begin to fight the mummified giant and Master Baron Bones grin as he approached with the terrifying translucent tree, ready to transform him into one of his puppets…
[22]
[21]
[20]
Rafael tried to use Gravity Control to forcefully push the Necromancer Master away, but all he received was bad news from the system:
[It is impossible to use spells during racial change!]
At that moment, Master Baron Bones got close enough to him.
On the translucent tree he held, with several souls hanging from it like fruit, a miniature figure of Rafael began to take shape on one of the tree's stems.
Rafael felt his whole body go numb and his mind begin to slow down. That symbol on the tree meant he was now transforming into one of the Necromancer Master's puppets.
[17]
[16]
[15]
Enormous tremors occurred on the battlefield, but Rafael knew that before the time for the racial change ended, he would already be a puppet.
"Rrrrrrr"
"Rrrrrrr"
"BOOM"
In the final seconds, the tremor intensified, and an explosion occurred. But the tremor and the explosion hadn't come from the giant fighting Blood Armor, but from underground.
"ROOAARR"
Along with the explosion of rocks, a powerful roar shook the battlefield, and a large red creature with black streaks emerged from the earth. It opened its jaws, revealing its jagged, misshapen fangs, and devoured Master Baron Bones' entire body, while the remainder of its serpentine body, tens of meters long, slowly emerged from the ground.
After regaining control of his body, Rafael's right eye landed on the creature that had saved him in the final seconds, and his eye closed slightly as if smiling upon recognizing who had saved him:
"VULCANO!"
At the same time, his left eye saw the final seconds of the racial change end and new alerts arise…
[3]
[2]
[1]
[The Racial Change is complete!]
[A new Primordial is born!]
****
Special thanks to the Patreons:
Sage's Supporter: Jan, Vinnie, frimorigo, Parsa, Scott Robertson, Pato Senalima, Lily Monarch, and Adriele Rodrigues!
Magic Apprentice: Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Takatchi, mandeep singh, Austin, Kobe Robertson, Paul Gaslac, Niteo akuma, 704Corleon, Rodrigo, WhoisMitch, Leery Falcon, Grave Walker, adam, Evil King, and Emotional!
Senior Magic Apprentice: Cole Bromley, Avacus, and TabbyRabbit!