Red was a pretty colour.
When he lived in the wild, Baoba's less hated part of the day were when he sank his blade in his opponents, or when he climbed that small hill everyday to admire the sunrises and sunsets. The colour red was synonymous to victory, rest, or healing to him. He had a lot of time to think during those days, and he often came around to appreciate the colour red.
He always tried pretty hard to dwell on the rare joys and wins he came across.
Today, too, the colour came to greet him like an old friend.
It was a shame he absolutely did not have the time to appreciate it right now.
Before the two napes that he just killed fell to the ground, the next beast, a monger, revealed itself with a commanding roar. This one, although it seemed at the present more akin to a rolling boulder, looked related to a tiger.
Sabertooth, to be precise.
'That's not his natural habitat at all.'
Its existence was also anachronistic, but Baoba had maxed out his allowed sarcasm in this situation. These monsters never made sense in the first place anyway. There was not nearly enough herbivores in this whole place to feed them all, not to mention they didn't show any reproductive capabilities.
'And they show up out of nowhere. That's a nasty one.'
Running at full speed, he took advantage of the beast's inertia to slide under its huge legs, and firmly planted his sword under its belly. Unable to stop, the monger's belly was cut on the whole length.
Baoba used his sword, still stuck in it, as a hold to get up quicker. In front of him, two more mongers and a bunch of hidons were now in range of attacks.
He summoned a pillar of the strange black metal to stop one monger, then made quick work of the other one with a bow and arrow he promptly discarded.
He then produced a two-handed longsword intricately made from tough scales and cut down the hidons two by two.
But the next wave was already upon him.
He could distinctly hear the two others having just as much, if not more trouble behind him. In this battle, he would not be able to receive or send help. It was him against a third of the world.
Until the main enemy force arrived, of course. Then there wouldn't even be a fight.
Pando had said that a huge army arrived from outside of her detection range. This meant that an abnormal amount of monsters had gathered just outside of view, and patiently waited and coordinated to completely encircle the squad. At the same time, the monsters that were already in detection range but previously acted normal suddenly started to swarm their position, getting a headstart from the main army.
These monsters, only presenting a normal, non-alarming number were the ones the team was currently struggling against. In a few minutes, a tide of reinforcements would hopelessly swallow them.
Baoba slit the neck of a mynx with one hand and skewered a jumping hound with another. He then summoned a huge wall of that metallic material in a precarious balance, and pushed it down on a number of beasts, too densely packed to dodge it properly.
As it fell with a disgusting crushing sound, he retreated with fast backwards jumps and prepared himself for the next bout.
A galopade was charging full speed at him. This horse-type monster was truly difficult to deal with, usually killed with a trap. Which is why it was a good thing Baoba had heard it coming from a mile away.
As the hellish steed was running with full intent to crush this puny elf and chew his bones, it slipped on the copious layer of grease Baoba had summoned as he jumped back. Now slipping on its side back first, its neck and backbone were crushed by two firmly planted metallic pillars.
It did not die on the spot, but it sure was paralysed.
Jumping over the inconveniently huge corpse, Baoba landed with a downwards slash that split a hound's head in half, and immediately summoned a short dagger which he planted in a beast's head right away. His brown eyes darted around the battlefield, absorbing information with impressive speed.
One dodge, one more counter, two more kills, then a dodge again...
It really didn't seem to stop. Worse than that, it actually progressively got worse and worse.
Because of the nature of a circle, the more time passed, the more beasts could reach them at once. Therefore, even before the final wave arrived, the pressure would gradually increase.
As he finished a great lateral slash, was found himself in a position where he could afford to check out the progress of the tasks he assigned.
Venus had only nailed two slabs together.
To be fair, this material was basically as strong and dense as metal. To be able to sink a few nails in there in under a minute, her unnatural strength was absolutely necessary.
Still, it would have been greatly appreciated if she picked up the pace !
As he turned back his attention to his battlefield, a small feline monster almost gouged his eye out. He got away with just a scratch thanks to his reflexes, but this was a clear sign to stop messing around.
He made spiked knuckle covers appear on his hands and punched the mynx right into a hidon's face. Temporarily blinded, it could not dodge the deadly blow that followed.
Suddenly, from Pando's side, a very loud thud attracted a bit of the attention of everyone here. Baoba took the opportunity to gain a bit of ground.
He couldn't stop himself from thinking a bit about it, though.
'Was that a huge body falling, a huge monster hitting the ground, or a huge monster hitting her into a tree ?'
In this chaotic warzone, the subtlety of different sounds kind of got lost in the ever-present overpowering rumble.
Regardless, he could not afford to check. After all, it's not like he could do anything about it.
If Pando just got killed, then they were doomed anyway !
So he refocused while blocking a blow with a turtle shell, and threw a small javelin through a monger's neck.
He just had to keep fighting. So that's what he did.
For the next couple of minutes, he dashed, killed, blocked, dodged, trapped and killed. His fighting style was very calculated, always finding an unexpected solution to every problem. He used metal masses to control the battlefield, projectiles that came out of nowhere, and often discarded his weapons to be just a bit faster.
As the pressure increased, his movements had to get faster and faster, his mind spinning and juggling all the different strategies and movements he came up with second after second. If he had any time to think, he would probably marvel at how focused he was.
So focused, in fact, that he almost didn't hear Venus shout at him : "I'm about to put the top on !" That snapped him out of it a little bit.
'Now it's time for the hard part...'
In a burst of energy, he suddenly started killing much faster, pushing his body to the absolute limit. On top of that, he got a bit more careless, suffering a few cuts and blows.
His entire body immediately stared hurting, every muscle fiber begging him to stop right now.
For the sake of speed, he also stopped breathing for a little while.
Thanks to these destructive efforts, he managed to buy himself a full second of free time.
He instantly put it to good use and dropped to the ground. Entirely submerged in pale blue light, he sunk his hands underground.
Multiple thick metallic pillars arose very quickly from the ground up. Then, some more appeared, filling the gaps. Then, even more came forth and supported the whole structure's weak points. He made sure to leave just enough gaps to keep his assailants focused on him.
The wall was wide and curved outwards, so monsters began accumulating there. The pillars were not anchored deep in the soil, so this makeshift barrier would only hold them for a little while.
For Baoba, using his blessing only cost him concentration, there wasn't usually any drawbacks from using his power. However, this material was hard to visualise, and he created an insane amount basically all at once. Not to mention the wall had to be structually sound.
So he was a bit dazed from all the efforts he just had to provide. However, they bought him about twenty seconds of absolutely crucial time, so it was worth it.
He got up and stumbled to the almost finished box. He then started filling it with water. His breathing was in a dire state, but he instructed Venus anyway :
"When..huff..when I'm done, ..eugh... Put one of capcsium's balls in there, ...few... Seal it fast, then call me back."
He paused, his chest rising and falling fast, and manually blinked a bunch.
'It'd be cool if those stars got out of the way so I could see what I'm doing..'
As his view cleared up, he took the chance to look around.
First of all, Pando was alive. That was good news.
A truly huge gorilla-adjacent body laid pretty close from where she was fighting. It still bled profusely from a deep wound on his lower chest, a seemingly mundane spot. The lack of other wounds than this comparatively shallow cut made Baoba think Pando had sensed a weak spot and struck it quickly.
She was currently weaving through a frightening amount of beasts, always doging just a bit before the attack actually got thrown. Her eyes were unfocused, yet she moved with remarkable precision and grace. Every cut she inflicted spewed out enough blood to quickly immobilize her targets, so she was unfortunately drenched in it.
It didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. Truly, having dependable subordinates was a godsend.
She was nearing the end of her rope, though. It was hard to see under all this blood, but she actually received quite a few cuts and bruises herself. They were no doubt the results of reasonable trade offs, but they still added up.
In comparison, Urtica was doing a bit better. His now purple sword ended the lives of his victims like a strangely colour coded reaper, but something else was strange. The monsters were less violent, and slower to attack him. They almost seemed... scared ?
It made sense, in retrospect. Any creature merely touched by his blade died instantly, and even the ones who had managed to hit him died shortly after making contact. That was enough to make the most mindless beast understand this simple fact : that elf meant death. All it took was a light touch.
No wonder they were a bit more hesitant.
'Still, it's been too long. None of us are going to hold out much longer.'
Baoba took a couple seconds to steady his state, then turned to Capcsium, who had not opened her eyes this whole time.
"That's enough. Give each of us one of those, and help me not drown under these monsters."
The beasts on the other side of the black barrier were trying their very best to sneak through the gaps, clawing at the pillars and screeching at the three in the middle.
All the pillars leaned more and more, making no promises to hold steady much longer.
The box was now full of water. Capscsium had opened her eyes and threw the balls she had been charging up with her blessing to Venus and Baoba. They were very luminous and could almost be felt vibrating with energy. The former put it in the box and started working her hammer again, while the latter simply put it away in his pocket.
This much energy in such a small vessel was sort of an unstable combination, but it was alright. He planned on using it shortly.
Twenty seconds had not been nearly enough for Baoba to rest, but once again, it didn't matter. The monsters certainly weren't going to wait for him.
The pillars were leaning dangerously, it would not hold too much longer. The brief respite was over.
If he fought against all of the accumulated monsters behind this collapsing wall at once in this state, he would surely die. Fortunately, Capcsium was done.
She took out a wooden ball from her pouch, happily shook it like a dice in her hand and vigorously threw it though the widened gaps.
Her aim was stellar.
Right in the middle of the pack, a huge fireball arose, dispersing the less determined victims and killing those who persisted. There was still a lot left, though.
'One last stretch before the next one, come on!'
They rushed to the left and right of the barrier, buying all the time they could get for Venus to do enough of her freakish hammer strikes, which had provided a loud rythmic beat to the scene since the beginning, for her to finish sealing the box.
Baoba's muscles were tired. His breath was still ragged. On top of that he was now rather hot. But he kept fighting again. This wouldn't last too much longer now.
"All done !"
Hearing this, Baoba shouted : "Detonate the one in the box ! Everyone retreat slowly !"
Right away, an immense heat radiated from inside the central metal box. Capcsium could charge matter with heat, then release it remotely. And the amount of energy in the two spheres she cultivated for three full minutes was actually terrifying.
As the team got closer and closer,bthe pressure and temperature inside built up. All the water turned to steam pretty quick, but the box was perfectly sealed. That energy had nowhere to go.
At the same time, a sound, wich came from all the directions, previously pretty weak, started to grow louder and louder.
'1...'
'2...'
The sound no longer permitted any doubt. The main army had arrived. Meanwhile, the pressure just kept building up.
'3...'
The problem at hand was a complicated physics equation, but Baoba had had ample time to do the math.
'4... Now !'
He created another sheet of metallic material and put it over the top of the box, which was the weaker side by design.
"Get on right now !"
Their time was out. By now, the wave, a litteral wave of every abomination they could think of, was surging towards them from every direction. Every team member followed Baoba's example and got on the wide metallic sheet without doubting him for a second.
"Lay down as flat as possible !"
As they followed the instructions, the circle of monsters got closer, completetly surrounding them. Pando was right, there really never was any path of escape : all the directions were blocked.
Well, except for one.
As the top of the box heat up, it gradually lost strength. Until the pressure eventually overcame the strength of the material.
In a single instant, at the same moment the first crack appeared, all of the pressure and energy inside burst outwards, carrying formidable force and heat.
It exploded.
And the plaque on top, carrying the whole squad, shot upwards instantly, sending them flying.