From behind the mana barrier, Krumtor sneered, his yellow tattoos turning jet black and writhing across his skin like a tangle of snakes. Ink bubbled out of the broken stump on his brow and shaped into a vicious horn as long as his forearm. Silas detected his aura changing into something far more menacing, its nature reminding him of Raven.

His mind dashed to connect the dots, remembering the warning that Krumtor had given long ago about Themir’s magic always eating the mind while referring to Raven’s powers. At that time, the ogre had been a dim-witted beast, nothing like the monster thundering forward now. Clearly Krumtor had been victim to the same insanity and mind degradation that had taken Raven, only he had somehow recovered. Silas’s gaze shifted to the willowy nymph, and he instinctively knew that she was the answer to the mystery, as well as the answer to the fifty who had been wiped out just west of them. He knew enough about the Order of Tyr’s lore to recognise the monsters ahead of him: the nymph was no doubt Karaes; Krumtor was likely Foltrus; and the sneaky figure skulking around had to be Dimas.

Floyd must have arrived at a similar conclusion, or perhaps he simply grew excited at the sight of the powerful foes, as he charged ahead of his allies, his eyes gleaming with battle lust. He looked as if he would cast Sacred Arena on either Karaes or Krumtor when suddenly Dimas appeared directly ahead of him, lunging forward from a crouch and sinking two manastone daggers into the Champion’s stomach.

Gasping, Floyd flicked his head down, and his face stretched into a caricature of shock. However, even in his disbelief, he was still a battle-hardened warrior of power. His leg simultaneously whipped forward and would have crashed into Dimas had the satyr not leapt back as quick as lightning. But Floyd wasn’t finished as he followed with a bellow of primal fury, casting Sacred Arena to trap Dimas in there with him: only one of them would be leaving here alive, and it wasn’t going to be this little sneak.

All the same, by doing so, Floyd also threw away his numbers advantage as his allies could no longer help him. Perhaps Silas could have shouted out instructions to him again, but the Duellist was not at liberty to do so since Krumtor was making his way to him. The ogre stepped out of Karaes’s mana barrier and the gunfire began again in its earnest. However, the bullets simply ricocheted off his skin until finally the gunners withdrew in fear. The shielded troops moved to step in front, but Silas shouted at them to back away, aware of the power the ogre had in his great, iron-thewed arms.

If it truly had been Grum and his fellows who had wiped out the other company, then it meant he had already smashed several heavily armoured humans into pulp, so urging more to face him was simply pushing meat into the grinder. Instead, Silas glanced back at Brigette.

“Play your song as loud as you can,” he said with a tightness to his voice, before turning to Mia. Words weren’t required for her as she nodded in understanding on sight, and Bandit hooted from above.

Sucking in a breath, Silas bolted forward, keeping low with his spear clenched in his grip, arm tense and ready to swing. Krumtor was only a foot taller than him, and yet the ogre seemed a towering monster of the night at that moment with his diabolical appearance, coal-black smoke billowing out of his mouth. As expected, Krumtor blotted out last peeps of light above him the second he stepped into range, lifting and swinging down the bludgeon overhand in one smooth motion.

Nevertheless, it was too slow as Silas slipped to the side and swung, his spear glancing off the ogre’s skin but still applying a stack of Harrying Blows. The second after, the bludgeon hit the ground with an explosive crash and Krumtor rolled it off the ground for a follow-up right in Silas’s direction.

Silas tried to backstep but meaty void tentacles sprouted from the ground and shot towards his legs. He was fortunate that the runified mana barrier was active since otherwise they would have clasped around his ankles, locked him in place, and made him a splatter of bloody meat paste before he could take another breath. Instead of this, the tentacles slid off the thin mana barrier and failed to grip him, allowing him to stumble back and dodge the deadly blow.

All this time, he had been hesitant to use Luminous Land, aware that once he did, he wouldn’t have enough mana for the rest of the assault on Lyfort. But this one near-trip up was enough to soak his back with cold sweat, and he activated the ability without wasting another moment, becoming totally aware of his surroundings in the following heartbeat. He saw a dozen tentacles slithering towards him in his mind’s eye, squirming and thrashing like they had lives of their own.

Silas released his conscious hold over his body and let his mind slip into a flow state. His limbs moved by themselves in perfect harmony with each other and even the tentacles coming for them, dodging here and parrying that, striking Krumtor in a low blow and leaping immediately over a hasty kick.

Frustrated, the ogre suddenly roared in an attempt to throw him off, but Silas ignored the clamour, just like how he simply closed his eyes when the ogre tried to blind him with a splash of ink to his face. The voidwater should have melted through his skin, but instead it sizzled across the mana barrier and dribbled down.

While the two titans fought in this manner, others tried to assist Silas but found themselves totally helpless. Right after Silas and Krumtor had made contact, a giant dome-shaped mana barrier had risen around them, sectioning them away from all external influence. It was obvious who had cast this as Karaes smugly smiled at the humans.

Bandit soared into the sky and plunged down on the nymph, swooping low and dragging its ferocious claws across her barrier, but this proved as futile as bullets. From the back, Mia formed water jets and barraged Karaes, joined by the various mages from both Silas’s and Floyd’s companies. Until now, Karaes had taken a passive role, simply blocking interference to her fellows’ fights, but the direct magic attacks aimed at her brought her out of her shell.

She lifted her manastone staff and banged it down, causing dozens of glowing blue doves to flutter out of the ground. They shrieked like ghouls and streaked off, some heading for Bandit who abruptly turned directions and zipped off, while the rest went for the mages. Of course, the mages simply used the nymph’s tactic back at her, raising mana barriers of their own and blocking her attack. Or at least they should have…

Instead, the doves kamikazed into their barriers, the first cracking them, the second shattering them, and the third and fourth diving into their bodies and detonating into vile explosions of flesh and bone. The panic this wrought was not to be understated as the large columns of men and women suddenly panicked and fled, cowering for their lives. There were only two mages who managed to stand up to this attack: the first being Mia who used her telekinesis to slam all the birds back into the ground and detonating them there; the second being a New Derbyian who shot bolts of lightning from her fingers, zapping the bombs intended for her and some more mid-flight. This only brought them further to Karaes’s attention, which was not an enviable position to be in.

On the other side of the plaza, Dimas toyed with Floyd, flickering in and out of sight, occasionally laughing harshly and stabbing the Champion. Floyd had no chance of touching his foe, flailing and floundering like a fool, his greatsword clanging over and over again against blood-stained, stony ground. Perhaps if he could make a strike, but no, it seemed an impossibility since this could no longer be classified as a fight, rather a lab experiment with Dimas testing how much punishment the Champion could take before falling. There was no glory in their duel, no honour, but even so Floyd refused to open up his Sacred Arena and accept help.

While the humans were taking a battering from Dimas and Karaes, it was another case entirely with Silas who slashed and cut away at Krumtor. Although his efforts only earned him small leakings of blood from the ogre’s ironhide, it regardless stacked up his Harrying Blows and fatigued Krumtor in both mind and body until he too was floundering like Floyd, only lacking the copious amounts of gore.

At this point, Silas no longer perceived the outside world as he fought with all his focus on Krumtor, aware that one slip-up was all it took to waste the entirety of the work he had done. Sensing his mana beginning to run dry, Luminous Land slurping more than its fair share, he resolved to end the duel but that was as far as his mind got. Sure, he had the conviction, but there was no point when he lacked the capability to even lacerate Krumtor, let alone kill him.

But Silas had no time to think of an elaborate plan as the perfect opportunity served itself up in the following moment when Krumtor took one more clumsy strike, overreaching far and toppling over. The ogre crashed into the ground and lay there a moment, struggling to muster the energy to rise back up. Without thinking, Silas jumped over and rapidly stabbed at the ogre’s neck, putting his all behind every blow and yet only sipping blood each time. Crying in frustration, he swiftly jumped back when Krumtor roared again in a sudden surge of energy and lifted himself. His voice sounded across the plaza, “Bloody Them, I admit it: you’re right. Just get me the fuck out of here.”

From across the plaza, Dimas scoffed and closed the distance to Floyd in a heartbeat, roundhouse kicking the Champion across the face and dropping him to the ground. Still, Floyd desperately held onto his life as the Sacred Arena remained up, only that it didn’t matter. Dimas slipped out of it like it was never an obstruction in the first place, at the same time that Karaes lowered all her mana barriers except the one directly around her and released another wave of explosive doves.

Krumtor trudged back towards his fellow Avatars, swaying on his feet and dripping blood. Silas tried to follow, but he had to hastily back away since the large part of doves came for him, forcing him to sprint for his life. He dodged them and made them explode against cover, and just when the last few came for him with no nearby cover remaining, a giant translucent hand swatted them before they could blow his guts out.

Knowing Mia’s work when he saw it, he searched for her and found her leaning against the wall of a building, cradling a savaged arm with blood all over her clothes. He flashed his gaze to the Avatars in terror, fearing that they would look to finish her off, but instead he saw they were completely ignoring the humans, so he rushed to help her.

Just as he did, Krumtor reached his fellows and entered under Karaes’s barrier, greeted by Dimas who cackled openly, and Karaes who smiled smugly. Groaning at their reaction, the ogre dragged his broad hand over his face in shame and exhaustion. They were at the edge of Silas’s hearing, but he managed to listen in on their exchange.

“I’ve used a lot on these barriers,“ Karaes said idly, “I won’t be able to do much more if we still intend to teleport out.”

“It’s fine. As long as the fool’s learnt that he’s not a hotshot here,” Dimas replied offhandedly.

Krumtor grunted and gestured at the nymph, refusing to speak. She whispered a few words under her breath and a man-sized portal of swirling purple and blue appeared next to them. Dimas entered at once, followed by Karaes right after. The ogre hesitated to follow them and turned to face Silas once more, looking past all the other humans peeping up from their cover now.

“Remember my name - it’s Krumtor Godhand. Today you’ve bested me, human, but tomorrow I’ll return and wipe away this pathetic display from the slate with your blood,” he said in his rumbling voice, pointing at the Duellist. He slowly began to turn. “And yours, and yours, and all of yours. Don’t forget it.” With that, the ogre followed his fellows, and the portal winked out of existence after him, leaving only a war-torn plaza with collateral and corpses littering its once seamless stony grounds.