Running away.
It wasn't an option before because he was surrounded. But now, all of them were in one direction, he was inside a tough to navigate forest and a third of the abominations were now dead.
Was it an option now?
No.
No it was not.
He had taken way too much damage. He could barely exert any strength, let alone run properly. His legs were probably broken, his ribs were definitely broken, his ear drums had been torn upart, his vision wasn't fully back yet, he was bleeding from his skull, eyes, legs, chest and a lot of places of internal bleeding.
He almost looked like someone who drowned himself in blood.
There was no way he could outrun or outlast any of these nightmare creatures who were many times stronger physically.
Especially that centuar. It was definitely the fastest here.
Caster was sure that unless he used his aspect at full power, he wouldn't be able to outspeed the centaur. And just how long could he last at full power? Not long enough to escape to safety.
'There's no safe place anyways. What would I do if I run over to the outer settlements? It would do nothing.'
Wasting no more time, Caster activated his charm and the aspect ability again, this time at full powe, and rushed towards the near dead bears.
Before any of the creatures could snap out from their fears, Caster reached behind the bears.
He spun on his heels, and twisted his hips to generate more momentum and slashed horizontally at one of the bears neck, killing it in one swift motion.
[You have killed an awakened demon...]
Then he crouched down and slashed at the other bear's legs, tearing its tendons and causing it to fall on the last bear.
Finally the beasts seemed to snap out of it and the snakes rushed towards Caster. They visibly seemed to be having a hard time moving due to the lingering after effects of the shock.
One of the two snakes wrapped itself around another's tail, and that one, flicked its tail as hard as it could towards Caster, launching the snake towards him.
"What the fuck??"
Dashing away towards the bears on the ground Caster jumped up and stabbed his sword downwards, through the skull of one and the neck of the other.
[You have slain an awakened demon...]
Just then, the bear on the ground launched an extra limb of his towards Caster, toppling the other bear from his back to the ground.
Caster had to jump away to not get caught in the bear's arms.
Just then another snake's rear end smacked Caster's head launching in half a dozen meters towards the centaur.
The attack, again, disoriented him a lot. It felt like his skull was about to shatter into pieces. The attack also landed with its full force due to Caster failing to dodge it.
And now, he was once again surrounded... sandwiched between the snakes and the centaur.
It seemed like the bear, that the centaur was fighting was now dead. And now, it was rushing towards Caster at speeds higher than he appreciated.
''Give me a break damn it!''
Using his aspect again, Caster rushed towards the centaur and the last moment, turned his direction drastically. The centaur was swinging its sword down, but due to the unexpected change in Caster's direction, it missed.
The massive great sword struck the groud, splitting apart its surroundings. This caused everyone in the vicinity to slow down.
Everyone except Caster that is.
Despite the ground itself shaking, Caster took the risk of not slowing down and rushed behind the Centaur and skillfully slashed one of its rear legs.
It didn't sever it, but it at least tore a major muscle, nearly making the leg immobile.
The centaur started turning around instantly after that hit, but so did Caster and then he slashed the other rear leg.
This basically crippled the centaur of its mobility.
But during this movement, Caster's back was now facing towards the approaching monsters. Meaning, he was once again trapped between them.
However, he did not turn around. If he did the centaur would kill him.
Caster then proceeded to stabb the centaur's horse-like part of the torso. However it was covered in bone-like armor and resisted his stab, only leading to a slight cut.
Just then the centaur turned around rapidly as it swung its great sword at him. Seeing that, Caster efforlessly, at least on the surface, strode back.
It wasn't effortless at all. It took all of his focus and will just to dodge barely.
But he had no choice. He had to look strong, despite being nearly completely broken. Or the spire messenger may attack.
By now, Caster was actually wondering why the centaur wasn't using its ability. It was a devil, so it should have one.
But he didn't need to wonder for long.
Just the next second a reddish mist could be seen enveloping the centaur's massive great sword.
The mist soon enveloped the entire area, albeit much lightly compared to the sword.
'It's hard to breathe. Fuck.'
Just then, one of the snakes fell from the sky on the centaur, between Caster and the centaur.
'Did it over shoot? Works for me!'
Instantly, Caster turned on his heels and looked at the 3 abominations grouped together and opened the book of books again, flipping frantically to the lightning strike spell and casted it by swinging his hand holding his sword downwards.
This time he used 2 cores, but it wasn't the lightning that descends downwards but the one that launches it self from his hands.
Instantly, the distance between the beasts and Caster was covered in bright blue-white light, decimating everything in its path, leaving behind a trail of destruction on the soil.
The lightning encompassed all three of the abominations at once, due to them being in the same vicinity of each other.
"They didn't learn. Haha."
The lightning was weaker than before. Much weaker. But all three of the abominations had already taken a decent hit from lightning before, not to mention the sole surviving bear had a hole in its neck that Caster gave it so kindly.
Which means, while the potency was less than before, so was their strength left in them.
The lightning burnt through their bodies and exploded the bodies of the snakes from within, instantly killing them.
[You have slain an awakenend monster...]
[You have slain an awakenend monster...]
The bear however, survived. Just barely. It could not move now and was lying on the ground, spasming.
Immediately afterwards Caster turned around again, and what he saw, pleased him.
The centaur had gone mad. It went after the snake that overshot itself and collided with it.
The mist in the surroundings were slowing down everyone. It seems they have properties that makes it harder to think and act.
The centaur swung its sword towards the ground, narrowly missing the snake. The impact shook the earth again, creating a massive rift.
The snake attempted to run away again. However it failed miserably. The centaur caught upto it and swung its great sword down, enveloped in the mysterious mist. And this time split the snake into two.
[You have slain an awakened demon...]
'Whoa, what a timing for the bear to die.'
Now on the field there were only the two of them.
Caster.
And the Centaur.
They both faced each other. Both looking at the other grimly before dashing towards the other again.
This will be the final showdown.
And only one of them will make it out of there.