It had started to rain, as if the world itself was crying over the unfortunate human's situation.
The dire situation.
The abominations were mad.
And the circle they had created had closed.
"I'm completely, utterly, hopelessly surrounded."
The air was thick with the sound of them, twelve bodies pounding the earth in a furious rhythm, twelve throats screaming their hunger into the dusk. They came from every direction, a closing wheel of teeth and rage, their eyes burning like coals fanned to life.
The monsters, five massive snakes.
The demons, six massive bears.
The devil, a centaur with a massive and fantastically wide greatsword.
And far in the sky, high above, wheeling through the sky a great, ungainly shape, all ragged black wings and pallid bodies that gleamed like bone in the sun. A flying abomination.
"Spire Messenger."
Caster stood at the center of it all. The sword rested loose but ready in his right hand, its edge catching the dim light with each shallow breath he drew. In his left, the book quivered, its pages whispering against one another as though eager for release.
Dust swirled in the circle, stirred by their charge. The ground trembled. The air carried the stench of fur, blood, and madness. There was no path left to flee, no gap in the tightening ring.
And still, he did not move.
Not yet.
His stance was calm, and his gaze was steady as he watched the storm of monsters draw near.
The space between heartbeats seemed to stretch forever, until the only sound was the thunder of their approach.
Caster's grip tightened, and he smiled crazily with soft, menacing chuckles in between.
As the devil, the centaur, grew closer, Caster took off in the direction of the massive bears in the opposite direction of the centaur, causing Caster to be sandwiched between them.
The bear's fur hung in patchy tufts, mottled with sores that oozed black fluid. Their jaws had split wider than any bear's should and their teeth jagged and grown too long. Extra limbs, twisted and half-formed, jutted from their sides, some ending in clawed paws, others in useless, twitching stumps.
"Creepy!"
One of the bears eventually got in range to lunge at Caster.
Seeing that, he positioned himself between the bear and the centaur, and as soon as the bear lunged at him he activated his charm and aspect at once, taking off in a random direction.
The bear clashed with the centaur causing it to get angry. It caused the two to start fighting it out.
'I need to eliminate the centaur as fast as possible. But if the bear can buy me some time, it would be better to use this chance to get rid of the others... or at least as many of them as possible.'
As soon as he said that, Caster turned on his heels and lunged towards another bear who was swinging its terrifying claws at him.
Barely dodging to the left he swung his sword upwards stabbing the ugly bear's chin.
Just then one of the snakes caught up to him and collided with him with insane force, which launched him a dozen meters behind.
He dismissed his sword that was stabbed inside the bear and resummoned it as he was flying backwards due to the force.
The book of books was hindering his movements a little, but he needed it ready at all times for emergency. But that caused him to take a massive hit, and then colliding with a massive tree.
He also couldn't just spam it due to lack of 'funds', the cores, so he was trying to get rid of as many of the others without using it.
Caster kneeled and supported himself with his sword. He was bleeding from everywhere.
He was in terrible shape.
But he got up again.
He had no choice. He had to.
All the beasts charged at him again, apart from the bear and the centaur who were mindlessly fighting it out.
Caster was cornered once again. His back was against the tree. The ground beneath, still dry, protected by the tree. He grounded himself there and looked at the approaching abominations.
The situation is worse than before.
"OR IS IT?? HAHAHA!"
Caster shouted out, grabbing the attention of all of the abominations. They hoarded together further. Each gone completely mad.
Afterwards Caster opened the book of books, rapidly flipping through its pages to reach one specific place.
'Lighting Strike. 10 Cores.'
Afterwards, he swung his hand, which was holding his sword, downwards with extreme force. The action was filled with rage and excitement.
"DIVINE JUDGEMENT!"
'I really like this name, Kayden.'
Instantly, the clouds collected themselves. Almost as if they were listening to Caster's will. Then, a crack formed in it and in an instant, the heavens split with a blinding white scar, and the world is thrown into a silence so sharp it seems to hold its breath.
Then came the roar. From the abominations. Their bodies became a conduit, flesh tattooed with branching burns, nerves seared beyond repair. When the bolt descended, it did not strike them as flesh, but as abominations to be purged.
Four.
That is how many got hit by the initial lightning stike.
The amount of abominations who were hit with the full power of the lighting.
The lighting was incomparably more potent, massive and destructive than before. It felt more than just 5 times more powerful, it felt exponentially more powerful.
Then, through the rain and the puddles beneath them, the lightning chained itself from one abomination to another.
Its power diminished with each chain but it eventually hit nine of the twelve. Four with full power.
But even in the rain, all of them got caught on fire. And the fire spread further.
[You have slain an awakened demon...]
[You have slain an awakened demon...]
[You have slain an awakened monster...]
[You have slain an awakened monster...]
Looking at the burning dead abominations in front of him with another crazed and menacing smile he spoke again:
"HAHAHA! Lightning does not merely fall, it tears the sky apart and where it lands, it annihilates everything!"
The scene in front of Caster was extremely exhilarating to him. He had reached a stage of craze.
The surviving abominations looked at Caster with fear. They had experienced unprecedented power. Their already crazed minds weren't working further due to the lightning but they still felt fear. They still froze in their place.
But the Spire Messenger... it was still looking at the site from far away, indifferently. Like it only wanted to observe.
'I hope at least.'
Caster had no hope of going against the spire messenger, but it wouldn't fight Caster either if he showed himself to be a not-so-easy prey. Or so Caster prayed.
Looking back at his closest threats he intook all of their conditions.
Two of the eight abominations left were in a near death state, and both of them were the bears, the stronger ones. The snakes were somehow still alive, in a decent condition.
"2 bears near death, a majorly unharmed bear, 3 snakes in okay condition... the centaur is completely unharmed and the bear fighting it will die soon. Great."
'The centaur is about to win his battle against the bear. I need to hurry.'
It wasn't a very good news. But the abominations didn't know that.
He wasn't nearly in a good enough condition to finish the fight off so fast. Especially when he was in a six verses one for the moment.
So far, if the monsters didn't hoard together so much, they wouldn't have taken so much damage, and they wouldn't have lost a third of their numbers in one attack. Would they keep doing that? Perhaps if their brain didn't recover properly, but unlikely.
But what if he took advantage of their current state? The state of fear.
The fight would be much easier at least.
This was his only chance to victory.