Jaune could barely move. At the sight of the Hollowroot his legs were completely immobilized, his whole body was shaking and sweating extremely hard.
'It can't be… why is there another one of them?' thought Jaune as he could barely move his head up. Darian, Vane, and Allocen immediately turned towards Jaune after hearing his knees hit the ground.
"JAUNE, DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT THING IS?" yelled Darian, scared. The Hollowroot was in the middle of the battlefield with Garwhole on top of it, smiling and laughing.
"Me and Nysira were barely able to defeat him… his skin is just too hard to pierce into that… ARGHHHH!!!" As Jaune screamed at the end of the sentence, he put his hand on his head and the others felt that he was about to break down.
"I suggest you don't get distracted!" shouted Garwhole, laughing at the sight of the desperate humans. Then he touched the Hollowroot with his claws, and it immediately rushed towards the humans.
"You try to calm him down!" said Allocen as he created the golem right in front of the Hollowroot. Allocen had to make the golem bigger this time, so after the golem rose from the earth, he fell on one knee.
Usually Allocen's golem was around 9 feet tall, but now it was over 15 feet tall. Still, the golem was smaller than the Hollowroot, who was normally around 17 feet tall.
The golem, with all his strength, tried to hold back the Hollowroot with his hands. It became a struggle between two titans, but the Hollowroot was gaining the advantage.
"Woah, that one looks so cool! I wonder if it will be able to hold against this one, hahaha!" laughed Garwhole, clearly enjoying the sight of the golem falling under the pressure of the krukin.
Allocen turned to see his friends and saw that they were trying to comfort Jaune. After he returned his eyes to the krukin, he closed them for a moment. 'It will just be for a single moment,' thought him as he rose from his knee. As he raised his hand, the golem's hand became black, blacker than even the krukin's skin.
Garwhole watched the hand changing, surprised, and he felt the Hollowroot losing strength.
"What?" said him, confused as he could feel his own strength draining too. He then looked down at the Hollowroot's body and saw small black spikes growing on it. As he saw the spikes near the hand, he immediately struck against it and, with his wings, Garwhole was able to cut down the golem's arm.
'As I expected…' thought Allocen as he saw Garwhole falling to the ground because of the speed. He immediately opened the ground under him and Garwhole ended up buried underground.
'This will stop him just for a bit… I have to be faster,' thought him once again as the golem now had only one hand.
On the other hand, Darian and Vane went near Jaune to comfort him, but it was totally useless.
Jaune could not even speak, his whole body was shaking, and he could not even look directly at Darian and Vane.
"Jaune, please, it will be—" Darian tried to comfort him, but Jaune didn't even let him finish speaking.
"No… it won't be alright. Me and Nysira were able to destroy it because we were working together. With her I was at least useful… but right now, what am I even doing here?" said Jaune, breaking into tears. Darian didn't know how to comfort people, he was never good at it. He glanced toward the huge golem Allocen had just created.
'What can I do… I don't even know how to fight by myself. The only one I can fight together with is Nysira…' thought him as tears kept flowing down his cheeks. Then Vane kneeled next to him.
"You think you're only good at fighting with one person, Jaune?" asked Vane with a reassuring look on his face. After Jaune heard his calm voice, his eyes met Vane's.
"It's totally alright if you don't feel like fighting against this creature, but you were helpful before. Every time we fought some krukins you always knew how to use your ability." As Jaune heard these words, he was able to calm down a bit, and the tears almost stopped.
"That is why you were always helpful in our fights we did together. Probably right now Tauren and Allen should have prepared the route for you. Go and get her," finished Vane, and he touched Jaune's shoulder with his hand.
'He's right… I was able to help them somehow, but now my role is that I have to go and save Nysira…' thought Jaune as he got up. Vane smiled happily.
"Thank you, Vane," said Jaune after his tears stopped flowing down his cheeks. They both shook hands.
Vane nodded. Jaune immediately went away, reaching Tauren and Allen in the fight against Mantblast. Darian was both relieved that Jaune was alright and surprised because he had never seen Vane like that.
"Let's go, Darian," said Vane as he immediately reached the battlefield. 'Yeah, Vane… we will be able to destroy him,' thought Darian as he saw Vane running in front of him. He reached the battlefield too.
The moment they arrived, Garwhole was just buried underground by Allocen. "For how long do you think he'll be underground?" asked Vane as he turned into an eagle and started to fly toward the krukin, who was busy with Allocen's golem.
"Not much… we have to finish this fast!" yelled Allocen as he created a new arm for his golem, which was not black now, but the usual brown. Some black spikes were already on the Hollowroot's body, slowly draining his energy.
Darian, seeing that the krukin was winning the strength matchup against Allocen's golem, created a huge and resistant ice wall right behind the golem to help him resist and not fall. Vane, on top of the Hollowroot, still transformed into an eagle, tried to enter its skin, but it was just too hard for him to pierce through.
After Allocen saw the ice, he thought of something. "Darian, create a small ice path under that krukin!" yelled Allocen after seeing that the krukin was slowly being pushed away.
"Alright!" Darian immediately rushed forward. "RADIAL FREEZEEE!" shouted him as a long and large ice path formed under the krukin's feet.
'Let's become one, golem…' Allocen stopped for a moment, closed his eyes, and after he opened them, he was watching with the golem's eyes. His body was still there, but now it was extremely vulnerable.
"Darian, take care of my body!" the golem spoke for the first time. Darian, a bit shocked, understood that it was Allocen. He then reached Allocen's body.
After Vane understood what was happening, he flew away from the Hollowroot's body. While flying, he found Garwhole right in front of him.
"I must say that you have surprised me… but let's see if you'll be able to handle my speed!" As Garwhole started to speak, he immediately flew towards Vane, who flew away. 'I have to resist… at least until they're able to kill that thing,' thought him as he started to fly away, baiting Garwhole.
As Allocen pushed the krukin onto the ice path, the monster, not used to it, completely fell down. Furious, the krukin emitted a sound, and tons of bladekruk rushed to the battlefield.
Some of them, seeing Allocen's body standing in the middle of the battlefield, rushed toward it, but Darian immediately created tons of shards to hit the bladekruk, who jumped back.
"I can take you all!!" shouted Darian as all the bladekruk rushed towards him. He created armor and immediately started to gain some high ground by creating walls.
The krukins could barely reach him, so they simply hit the wall, which was too resistant, so they were barely able to deal any real damage.
'You won't come here!!' thought him as he kept shooting tons of ice shards. That's when he saw other bladekruk coming nearby, but what he saw made his heart freeze for a moment.
Before coming to the battlefield they fought against the krukmongbee and the bladekruks. Darian remembered that he hadn't killed one—the shard was stuck in his body, then the krukin got eaten by Allocen's golem, so Darian thought he died… but there he was, running toward him.
'HOW CAN THAT BE? No, wait… it must be one of the shards I threw before…' thought him, but he soon realized that it wasn't important right now, especially because the bladekruk were slowly destroying his wall.
In the sky, Vane and Garwhole were facing each other.
"I will kill you soon… running is useless," said Garwhole as he showed his claws again. Vane gulped. 'I just have to resist…' thought him as he saw Garwhole flying towards him once again. He flew away, and they were both going extremely fast. The clouds at the passage of the two creatures simply disappeared. They were almost as fast as a jet, but neither of them even knew what a jet was.