Gods, it's strong, I thought as my arms shook as the force bore down on me.
The giant pressed harder, forcing the sword downward inch by inch. Sparks erupted where black steel scraped against my claws. ''You resist my aura,'' the figure rumbled. ''Let's see how long your body lasts.''
Suddenly, Lagertha attacked from the side with a furious roar. Both axes swung toward the giant's ribs with enough force to split a man in half. The armoured warrior twisted at the last second. One axe scraped across blackened armour in a shower of sparks while the other buried itself shallowly into its side.
The giant retaliated instantly. Its armoured fist slammed into Lagertha's stomach like a siege hammer. The warrior was launched backwards hard enough to smash through a dead tree trunk.
''Lagertha!'' Evangeline shouted.
Seconds later, a dozen glowing projectiles appeared around her as mana surged through the clearing. ''Magic Missile!''
The spells shot forward like streaks of blue light and slammed into the giant's chest one after another. Explosions tore through the clearing. Smoke and dust swallowed the armoured figure entirely. Then a heavy footstep echoed through the forest. The giant emerged from the smoke completely unharmed.
Not a single scratch marked the armour. Evangeline's eyes widened. The horned figure slowly raised its sword again. ''Pathetic,'' it growled.
I watched the blackened blade swing toward Eve, prompting me to force strength into my legs and burst forward. The moment I reached her, I shoved the Half-Elf out of the way just as the sword connected with my arm. Pain exploded through my body. My left forearm was severed clean off.
''Ahhhh!'' I roared in agony.
Blood sprayed across the clearing, but I ignored it and drove my right fist into the knight's chest with everything I had. The impact boomed through the Deadwoods, and the enemy was sent skidding backwards across the dirt. At that moment, Lagertha reappeared, looking enraged.
The blonde warrior slammed into the knight before it could recover. Her fists were crashing against the armour repeatedly. Each hit exploded like thunder through the forest as the knight was driven backwards, smashing through several dead trees beneath the sheer force of her assault.
Meanwhile, agony tore through me. I dropped to one knee as burning pain spread from the stump of my arm. Flesh twisted violently while bone, muscle, and skin rapidly began rebuilding themselves. The regeneration devoured the mana stored within my inner pool to fuel the process, causing my chest to tighten as exhaustion hit me all at once.
Seconds later, a new arm reappeared as I let out a roar before rushing at the enemy. Lagertha and I tag-teamed the knight while Evangeline pelted it with Magic Missiles, causing explosions to erupt all around us. Lagertha was already on the knight again, axes spinning in brutal arcs, each strike ringing out like a hammer against an anvil.
I joined her from the side, claws flashing as I carved toward the gaps in its armour. The thing didn't even stagger. It moved instead, just slightly. That was enough, its blade came around in a clean swing. I barely saw it, cold steel kissed my throat. Then everything went wrong at once.
Air vanished from my lungs as the world tilted violently sideways. I dropped, hands flying to my neck out of instinct, warm blood spilling through my fingers. My knees hit the ground hard, but I didn't fall all the way. I couldn't.
Not yet.
At the same time, something else gave way—a second strike, low, brutal, efficient. My balance disappeared completely. I hit the dirt and felt it then: the absence—the severed weight. My leg was gone. ''Prince Arthur!'' Evangeline's voice cut through the ringing in my ears, distant and sharp.
But I couldn't answer, blood choked the sound out of me. Still, my body moved. Instinct. Rage. Something deeper than either. My regeneration ignited like fire under my skin. The wound in my throat screamed as flesh tried to knit itself back together while I was still bleeding out.
My missing leg began to reform in violent, burning pulses that made my vision fracture white. I forced myself upright anyway. One hand dug into the earth, the other clawed forward. I dragged myself back into the fight on sheer refusal to stay down. Lagertha was enraged but got sent flying by a punch.
***
(Evangeline's POV)
I couldn't stop shaking as the prince was still moving somehow. Even after losing an arm. Even after having his throat ripped open. Even after regenerating so much flesh that the mana inside him should've been completely exhausted. He still stood. No... he hunted. The moment he forced himself upright again, something changed.
''How is he still standing?'' I muttered, shocked to the core.
I felt it immediately. The pressure in the air thickened until breathing became difficult while mana rolled off his body in violent waves. Blood dripped steadily from his torn clothes and freshly healed wounds as his blue eyes locked onto the towering knight ahead. For the first time since the battle began, I saw the enemy hesitate.
That's when I watched the prince charge. The ground shattered beneath his feet as he burst forward with a roar filled with pure rage. Lagertha moved at the same instant, attacking from the opposite side as a raging storm unleashed. The two slammed into the knight together with enough force to shake the entire clearing.
The enemy swung its massive sword toward the prince's head, but he ducked beneath the strike by inches while Lagertha's axe crashed into its ribs. Sparks erupted across the battlefield. Before the knight could recover, he drove both claws into the crack she'd created in the armour, forcing the creature backwards.
''Don't let it breathe!'' Lagertha roared.
Arthur answered with a savage snarl as he attacked again immediately. It was terrifying to watch. Lagertha fought brutally, every axe strike carrying monstrous force, while the prince hurled himself at the enemy without the slightest concern for his own life. They moved together perfectly now.
Whenever the prince forced the knight's guard downward, Lagertha attacked high. Whenever she drove the creature backwards, he was already there to carve into the weakened armour.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The knight was losing ground. Hope surged through me so suddenly it almost hurt. I raised both hands toward the sky and released a pillar of blue mana high above the Deadwoods canopy. The signal flare exploded overhead like a second moon. Please hurry, they need your help, Lady Selene, I thought.
Following that, the battle became even more vicious. The knight smashed its armoured elbow into Arthur's face hard enough to send him skidding across the clearing, but before it could follow up, Lagertha buried an axe deep into its shoulder. The giant roared in fury as he lunged back into the fight instantly despite blood pouring down his face.
The sound of their attacks thundered through the forest. Steel crashed against steel. Shockwaves shattered dead trees. The ground cracked beneath their feet. Arthur was bleeding everywhere now. I could see his regeneration slowing as exhaustion consumed him, but he kept attacking anyway.
Every strike carried suicidal force behind it, as though pain no longer mattered to him at all. Then the knight's blade tore across his stomach. Blood exploded outward. ''Arthur!'' I screamed.
To my surprise, he didn't fall. Instead, he grabbed the black sword with both claws while blood streamed down his body and roared directly into the knight's face. ''The warrior who still stands wins!''
The enemy tried to pull its weapon free, but he held it in place through sheer fury alone. Lagertha grinned like a madwoman. Then she slammed both axes into the knight's knee. The giant dropped lower for half a second. That was enough. Arthur ripped the blade sideways while Lagertha smashed another strike directly into the creature's helmet.
Cracks spread across the black armour like spiderwebs. The knight stumbled backwards. For the first time in this fight, it looked afraid. A cold wind swept through the clearing. Two figures suddenly appeared at the edge of the battlefield. Selene and Sahara didn't move forward.
They stared at the destruction unfolding before them because Arthur and Lagertha didn't need help anymore. The knight roared and charged desperately toward the prince, its massive blade descending with enough force to split him apart completely. Lagertha intercepted it head-on.
Her axes locked against the giant sword as the ground beneath her feet exploded apart. Veins bulged across her arms while she held the strike in place through sheer monstrous strength alone.
''NOW, MASTER!'' she screamed.
Arthur moved instantly. Mana erupted from his body so violently that the entire clearing trembled. Black energy wrapped around his claws in unstable waves while cracks spread beneath every step he took toward the trapped knight. The pressure flooding the battlefield became unbearable.
Even the giant realised what was coming. It tried to pull away from Lagertha. I watched Arthur draw back his arm as every remaining drop of mana inside him gathered into a single point. Light flooded the ruined clearing, bathing the battlefield in a blood-red glow so intense it almost blinded me.
For one impossible moment, everything became still. Then the prince roared. ''CLEAVING STRIKE!''
The world split apart. A colossal wave of Old Human power erupted from his claws and tore through the Deadwoods like divine judgment itself. The earth ruptured open beneath the attack while hundreds of dead trees vanished instantly in its path. Even the clouds overhead split apart from the sheer force released into the sky.
The knight's glowing eyes widened, then the slash hit, and it was carved apart instantly. Not cut. Erased. The black-armoured knight disintegrated beneath the overwhelming force of Arthur's attack as the wave of destruction continued far beyond the battlefield, leaving a massive scar through the forest itself.
Silence followed. Complete silence. The Third Prince of Verona remained standing in the centre of the ruined clearing while crimson mana slowly faded around his broken body. Steam rose from his skin. Blood dripped from his claws. Then his legs finally gave out. Lagertha caught him before he could collapse into the dirt.
He's like a legend in the making!
As I stared at the devastation surrounding us, one thought echoed relentlessly through my mind: I had just witnessed a monster destroy something even more monstrous than itself. I shook off the shock and sprinted toward the prince, but before I could reach him, a figure suddenly stepped into our path.
The stranger's appearance was so abrupt that everyone froze. Selene and Sahara reacted first, instantly breaking away and charging at the newcomer. Yet with a mere flick of power, both were hurled backwards as though they weighed nothing. Then the stranger spoke, their voice calm and unwavering. ''I am here to heal the one who will bring light back to this world.''
''Who are you?'' I asked, unable to suppress my curiosity.
''Virella,'' the stranger replied, turning toward me. ''Though you may know me as the Wandering Mage.''
My eyes widened in shock, horror and amazement. Every aspiring mage had heard of the Wandering Mage, Virella the Slayer.
''What are you doing?!'' Selene roared as she lunged forward in a blur.
Her strike was effortlessly blocked. Sahara attacked from the opposite side a heartbeat later, while Lagertha crouched, ready to pounce. But before any of them could move again, Virella's voice cut through the chaos. ''A man so far from home… yet he will be the one to drive back the hordes descending upon Lumira.''
I watched as she leaned down, her movements almost impossibly gentle against the devastation around us, and let her fingers glide along his jaw as though she were tracing something written into fate itself. At her touch, torrents of radiant mana surged forth, golden, overwhelming, alive, pouring into his shattered body and dragging him back from the edge of death with terrifying precision.
The battlefield itself seemed to hesitate. Flames stilled. Smoke slowed. Even the wind felt reluctant to move. As if the world understood it was in the presence of something greater than war. Then Virella spoke. Her voice was quiet, but it carried across the clearing. ''Ladies… you must ensure he does not die.''
Her eyes never left him, not even for a heartbeat. ''He will unite all the Free Peoples of this world. He will stand against evil, mysticism and tyranny. He'll bring them to their end, and from their ashes usher in a world brighter than anything we can imagine.''
Virella stood up and turned to us with a big smile. ''Now let me show a fraction of what he'll create.''
She waved her hand, and we were hit by a vision, a vision that would forever change our lives.