Divine Beast Ascension

615 Pushing Toward the Forell Forces

“Thank you, Lizbeth, but give me just a moment.”

Hearing Lambier’s comment, Lizbeth stopped a few bromes away from Lambier’s and Rakan’s duel. “Very well. But don’t forget your job.”

Rakan, unlike Lambier, let his justified worries begin to set in. He knew exactly who Lizbeth was, to an extent. After all, they had met many times as children to leaders of neighboring territories. And while Rakan hadn’t seen Lizbeth in years, Rakan understood that she was an early-perennial way back then. So he would bet that she was at least a low-perennial. Rakan even considered the chance of Lizbeth being a mid-perennial when compared to Rhyner Trighton’s recent rise as a regional king.

Chting! Crunch! Fwirrrl!

Bits of sharp wind sprayed off their blades while Lambier mostly evaded Rakan’s hammer. Neither combatant was faster than the other. And Rakan’s only advantage was his additional essence type, if Rakan could attack fast enough without wind essence at least.

“... Why are your techniques so different?”

Irked by that comment, Rakan swung his hammer and saber again. When Lambier parried the saber and ducked by the hammer, Rakan barked, “Says the man unable to attack. All you can do is dance around to delay the inevitable.”

Lambier narrowed his gaze. “An unstoppable hammer. The fastest saber. That the pride of Prodson, at least for the Prodson Family…”

While those last few words reached Rakan’s ears, Rakan’s awareness spiked anew. And Lambier suddenly shot himself forward in a straight line.

.....

Crack! Fwirrrip! …

Barely hopping to the side, Rakan evaded Lambier’s speeding charge while swinging his hammer forward, forcing the attacker to defend himself.

But Lambier accepted the hammer blow in exchange for slashing into Rakan’s side.

Lambier landed on the other side of Rakan with a persistent, subtle grin. He maintained his coat of wind and stared back at Rakan, raising his sword again while ignoring his broken ribs and internal injuries. “I may not be able to stop your hammer. But I might be faster than your saber.”

Rakan’s face tensed up. Two of Rakan’s ribs had been slashed in half along with the deep gash in his side. Presenting his earthen hammer first and readying his saber as a tool to only deflect and parry, Rakan changed his strategy.

“... If you’re a man, you’ll fight me alone,” stated Rakan. “You wouldn’t need the help of a woman in that case.”

While Lizbeth repositioned herself to the area now behind Rakan, Lambier replied, “I have my own reasons to fight you alone. You know that, Rakan, but you’re too cowardly to admit it.”

*********

Frrip! C-Crack!

“Stay away from the ice!” a low-perennial shouted.

At the same time, the second low-perennial present broke the spikes that were now appearing along the icy wall. While the earth-wielding elders dug around the ice without touching it, the ice continued to spread. Now, it had started attacking anyone nearby as well.

Finally, one low-perennial attacked the ice, occasionally. That was the only way to keep it from growing and further impeding the tunnel-building elders.

The first low-perennial shouted again, “We’re close! Soon, we’ll be outside with Commander Ephar flanking the Iron-Forell forces!”

On the opposite side of the ice, Kuldar and Opal were abundantly pouring essence into their glacial wall. They didn’t care about how much essence they wasted in the process. Their only goal was to delay Prodson for as long as possible.

“They’re digging in that direction!” Kuldar announced.

In the meantime, the Forell army was repositioning itself. Based on Kuldar’s and Opal’s directions, the Forell army formed a semicircle. So the moment Prodson broke through, they would be immediately surrounded.

Behind the Forell army, the path was mostly blocked due to Hurdo destroying a cliff. But that didn’t deter the Forell morale in the slightest. If anything, they were ecstatic to see a ballista or two among the cliff’s rubble instead of having those ballista firing from overhead.

Further down the road, Ocker and Hurman had backed off from the others.

Ocker was glad to have no other perennials joining in. And Ocker was elated to see that Kuldar Libarn was already busy with other duties, keeping Kuldar away from Ocker’s duel with Hurman.

Hurman, on the other hand, just liked having Ocker away from the army. That way he could throw a few stray attacks toward them.

CH-CHTING! Cr-Cr-Crack! Crunch-ch…

Ice cracked apart without end as Ocker’s frosted halberd clashed with Hurman’s ice-laced shortsword. And Hurman’s blade doused in earth essence seemed to get more threatening by the swipe, leaving crevices and cracks in the ground far deeper than the sword itself.

Ocker’s professional gaze was forever locked onto Hurman. He refused to downplay the dual-wielding swordsman in any way. In the back of Ocker’s mind, he thought, *Hurman’s a late bloomer with phenomenal talent. No matter how he got here, he is at this level.*

Similar thoughts swarmed General Ocker’s mind to keep him on his toes at all times. Ocker didn’t even ask about the strange ice wall Forell dared to put up.

Hurman took note of the rare acceptance Ocker had for Hurman’s strength. But Hurman didn’t say much either. He felt similarly about the general, thinking, *He’s been in charge of Prodson’s army for decades. Ocker’s a high-perennial with ice, and he wields a halberd in a similar way to Kuldar and his spear…*

Chting! CR-CRACK!! Crunch…

When Hurman’s chainsaw of a blade pressed down on the enemy halberd, the ice surrounding both weapons rapidly deteriorated. And Ocker was forced to narrowly sidestep the following strike of Hurman’s earthen sword.

CR-CR-CHTING!! Crunch…

When Ocker lunged with his halberd, Hurman chose to block first with his saw-like blade before guiding the halberd into Hurman’s earthen sword. Then, Hurman quickly stepped forward. The icy sword was pulled back while the sword clad in dense earth essence swiped down the shaft of the halberd.

Ocker immediately pulled back to let the earthen sword stab the ground instead of Ocker’s arms or torso.

But Hurman easily controlled the shortsword, stopping the thrust the moment Ocker backed off. Though he didn’t fully extend and leave an opening, the earth essence at the tip of Hurman’s sword still barely carved into the untouched ground. And Hurman’s stance was rebuilt that moment, keeping Ocker from gaining even a sliver of an opening.