The two dark figures began their fight during midday, under the deep blue skies and a bright yellow afternoon sun. One was dressed in a dark skin suit while another was wearing an assassin's suit and a hood that covered his head.
The elf found it strange that Diego was battling him while his skeleton officials watched, especially since a soul of such high rank was delivering only basic strikes, basic strikes that boasted immense power.
He didn't know whether he was lucky or if this was all the soul being had planned all along, however he was determined to win.
So he he continued moving his scimitar with perfect grace as he tried slashing the dark suit and hoping to deal critical damage to the bone structure of Diego while parrying critical blows from the soul being.
However after a while, Diego stopped hitting him and said:
"I was just giving you playful jabs, to test the suit limit and how long you would last before your inevitable demise."
The elf's eyes narrowed with a trace of confusion. Why is he talking to me as if I'm already dead? he seemed to wonder.
However when the series of strikes came next, the elf had no time to wonder about any thing as a moment of respite could mean the end of his life.
After testing the elf, Diego stepped back into the shadows while six of his best skeleton officials attacked: three were skeleton knights, while the other three were skeleton liches.
***
Momon's mind went blank; the battle he had meticulously planned was, to his assailant, nothing more than a 'playful jab', worse yet, his assailant kept talking to him as if he had already lost and there was no way for him to win.
Watching the entity vanish into the dark to call upon its troops, Momon felt the weight of its mockery; every movement suggested that the creature gave terrifying weight to its claim—it hadn't even begun to take him seriously.
As Momon watched his mind breaking apart and his insecurities kicking in due to the sheer weight of the words the soul-being had shared with him, he gained great resolve and determination and chased his doubts away before the first strike of the skeleton knight landed on him.
He calculated the trajectory of the strike, making him parry the ghost stiletto dagger aimed at him, however before he could counter the next enemy the skeleton knight that held the stiletto rushed behind him.
Despite the imminent danger, Momon aimed for the enemy approaching him and those who were preparing to attack, the skeleton that was about to attack looked like any other normal skeleton knight, but Momon's mind was prepared for any surprises the skeleton would undoubtedly impact.
He countered the hand technique the next skeleton knight used to attack him, but when he added some force to the side of his scimitar in order to push the skeleton in front of him away, the skeleton didn't budge, he just maintained his ground, worse yet it seemed the skeleton liches were about to attack and the skeleton that was behind him was very close to his back was about to attack with the stiletto.
Momon gasped softly, sweat already beading on his shrouded head. Though his body showed signs of fatigue, his mind had locked into a peak combat state. With an uncertain expression, he unleashed a sword technique—a desperate 360-degree spin-slash, but the moment he did, the unexpected happened.
As the technique concluded, two massive brown boulders materialized from thin air. The first slammed into the stiletto-wielding skeleton at his back, launching it deep into the distance. Simultaneously, the second rock caught the hand-to-hand combatant in front, hurling the skeletal figure in the opposite direction and clearing the space around Momon.
However Momon wasn't out of the woods yet, the three skeleton mages appeared at his front immediately the space was cleared and Momon had to engage in combat once again.
Throughout Momon's ordeal, Diego watched his display of combat prowess and his resilience against impossible odds with a wistful smile. It seemed he was enjoying the show.
Compared to the knights Momon had dispatched, these liches were a different breed. Their coordination was absolute, each one a gear in a larger mechanism. To face one was to face the entire machine, as their combined power transformed three separate shadows into one unstoppable force.
In mere moments, Momon had an expression of dismay and disbelief as he somehow succumbed to the will of the liches.
When the first lich attacked she seemed to be controlling the remains of an Argentavis, the bird was about three times larger in wingspan and up to sixteen times heavier when compared to a modern Bald Eagle.
Momon tried to parry the huge claws that was about to grab him, however he could only perform a clumsy dodge under the wings of the massive bird, unfortunately at the other side of the wings was the next skeleton lich, she seemed to have a transformation ability, one that made her assume the figure of a massive centipede.
It had two large pools of darkness for eyes, onyx-black plates of armor, and legs that resembled large needles. It used them to attack so fast that Momon wondered how such a gargantuan being could move with such speed.
He dived beneath the skeleton so as to hide from the gigantic mandibles and unleash and attack at the belly of the centipede, however, before he could get there the last skeleton lich appeared at his front.
The lich seemed to command dark flames with ease. Though bright and lethal, the fire crept forward with a deceptive slowness—until the Argentavis appeared. Emerging behind Momon, the beast began fanning the supernatural blaze, transforming the slow burn into a lightning-fast inferno.
The forest had long since lost its beauty. A wild, unquenchable fire erupted at its heart, trapping Momon in the center. Behind him soared the dark silhouette of an undead Argentavis; before him stood a massive centipede. Within the flames, a female figure appeared to command the inferno.
It seemed Momon was doomed.