Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

After briefing their plans with Hesings and the current leaders of the survivors, the teams from Delta set off using the armored bus.

They were lucky that there did not seem to be any airborne monsters in the beyond, this meant they had the air supremacy. Which was better for them.

In the dim twilight of the beyond they could not see the streets anymore, as they were covered in a roving mass of monsters. Like a sea of bodies and limbs, they surged against the barrier of The Wards.

"We should hurry," Mina muttered at the sight.

With the number of beasts steadily growing, they might have less time than they thought.

Hesing had given them a map of Sigma with the locations of the towers marked on it. Using this they had come up with an order to destroy the 12 nearest towers. It didn't take long for them to reach the first location, but the tower was not immediately obvious.

"Is it the small one over there?" Fin asked, squinting her tiny eyes to see through the dark mist.

"Yes, that should be it," Idyllin affirmed it.

The fairy had spotted the small tower in the shadow among the modern high-rises. As mystical and magical as this structure of terror was, it was simply dwarfed by Urth's megalomaniacal architecture.

"Let's hope not all of them are hidden like this," Bulko commented as the shuttle landed on a neighboring building.

The crude spire the people of sigma called "Tower of Trials" resembled a rock spire with a big gaping entrance and many irregular windows spread across the surface.

After Idyllin made a few movements as if casting a spell he spoke up.

"Okay, I found the location of this tower's core. You guys should get ready while I prepare the teleport formation."

While Yulecat's Fur, Yvette, and Cade checked their equipment, the magician started drawing a magic circle on the rooftop. With this, he would transfer the assault team directly into the core room of the spire.

Once everything was ready, Mike, Mina, and the others stepped into the circle. With a flash of bright light, they vanished. Idyllin would stay on the roof and keep the teleport ready to extract them once they were finished inside and to protect the shuttle.

The party appeared in a dark hall, dimly illuminated by grotesque fat bugs that gave off a sickly orange light. Their light did not go far in the thick black mist that filled the room and enveloped anything past an arm's length from them in darkness.

Mina cursed as it was not only that failed her, but all of the darkness did not count as true shadows. Her use of darkness as a shadow mage and shadow assassin was limited in this place.

"If it's like this, it's better to expose our position than to face our enemy blindly," Mike stated with a sight.

Yvette, Fin, and Bulko all cast a light spell to illuminate the core room. Balls of magic traveled high in the air and a hick holy light managed to penetrate the black mist to some degree. Finally able to see the room they had entered, they wished they could have stayed in blissful ignorance.

The circular room had walls of melded together bodies, covered in deeply unsettling carvings. On one hand, was the entrance, a hole leading into darkness, on the other, stood a giant. Not the nice kind of giant Seth had talked about meeting during his journey. Not even the terrible kind of mountain giant he also talked about.

This was a massive being, easily 20 meters tall, with a tar-like skin covered in boils and warts. The deformed creature looked at them with three wrathful eyes of different sizes. With a huff of the creature the room filled with an indescribably disgusting stench.

Mina's eyes teared up and she was close to throwing up. It was especially hard on the beastmen with their fine noses. In the back, she could hear Lixiss and Yvette coughing, while Mike groaned similar to herself.

"Get in formation." they heard Mike's voice.

Yulecat's Fur instinctively got in their positions while Yvette and Cade joined them with some delay. Mike, Fin, and Cade were in the front, while Lixiss, Yvette, and Bulko got some distance from the giant. Mina would wait for an opportunity to strike the beast from its blind spot.

They had just started moving when the thing started moving. With unprecedented speed it lashed out at the three in the front, forcing them to evade. A wave of black sludge splattered in all directions, almost hitting Mike, if not for the quick acting of Bulko who gave him a magic shield.

The massive priest also summoned a giant turtle monster with a bear head to act as the party's temporary tank to bolster the front row, while Cade's Jinn joined the back row to add more damage.

Charging forward after forcing the front row apart, a wave of fireballs forced the sludge monster to stumble back again by a few steps. In the back stood Lixiss who had just finished a double cast, with two spirits to her left and right.

One was a medium-tier fire elemental and the other a low-tier wind elemental. She had managed to contract them after growing her secondary class as an elven Elementalist. One could mirror her spells while the other could strengthen the damage of fire- and wind-element magic.

In the fire, the black diseased-looking skin became dried out and crusty. Similarly, when Mike used this chance to slash the creature's back with his flaming sword, covering it in a column of fire, it also became a dull hardened crust.

Cade on the other hand used her claws to send several volleys of energy blades, mangling the other leg. Despite looking promising, the mangled parts simply melded back together again.

At that moment a pale gray circle appeared around the beast almost completely halting its movements. Yvette had finished casting her holy magic, catching the sludge beast in a stasis spell.

"Melee fighters, concentrate on destroying the walls. These signs should be the core of the space formation. The beast is just a guardian." the saintess called out.

"Okay, but some of the casters should keep firing at the beast. Fire magic seems to work on it!" Mike gave back a set of instructions.

While Fin, Cade, Mina, and Mike started demolishing the embodiment of bad taste that was the walls, Lixiss and the Jinn started enveloping the motionless beast in a whirling storm of fire.

After holding the beast in place for almost 30 seconds, Yvette's magic finally lost its light, revealing a gray burnt statue of the sludge beast. About a third of the walls had lost their light when the melee fighters stopped warily to look at the beast.

None of them believed that it would be this easy. And they were proven right. Black cracks appeared on the gray shell and everyone was covered in a golden barrier mere moments before the shell exploded outward, covering them in a hailstorm of debris and dust.

"Mina!" the high-pitched voice cried out.

From the dust cloud in the darkness, the beast, now smaller and faster, had appeared beside Mina and Fin. Its still giant fist was already aiming for the beastwoman's head. The golden shattered like glass and the shadow assassin had just enough time to lift her arms to block the attack.

She was hit hard and her slender frame was smashed into the wall.

"Nooo!"

The rest of the party could not see what was going on past the dust cloud across the room. But they heard her high-pitched cry as it warped in grief and became a deep, bone-shaking growl.

Suddenly, a black muddy figure shot out of the dust cloud and smashed into the opposite wall, several meters above the ground. Like an ink splatter, it started to slowly slide down the wall.

Accompanied by three massive frost moths, another giant figure charged after it. 15 meter tall and with the bulky physique of a dwarf, the boulder-like fists started massaging the guardian into the wall.

Like a steam hammer, the quick consecutive hits fueled by rage didn't allow their victim to react or move. Every third or fourth hit a bunch of giant moths spawned that also sieged the sludge beast. The frost moths froze it and the fist broke it apart, over and over. Bits and pieces kept flying everywhere.

Following Fin's sorrowful cry, accompanied by the drumming of fists, Bulko charged into the dust cloud. He registered that her situation was bad and he could only save her directly. He found Mina lying on the ground.

Her arms, ribs, and some other bones were broken. Her inner organs also suffered heavy damage. Fortunately, she was enveloped by the light of a healing spell that was slowly mending her injuries and preserved her life so far.

The massive priest hurriedly kneeled down beside her, prepared several ingredients, and got ready to cast his strongest healing spells on Mina. Knowing that just healing was not enough, he also began to use one of his special skills as a Mirror Cleric. Her ability to transfer her injuries to himself.

With his massive endurance and part-troll lineage, he was able to manage this degree of injuries a lot better than the frail assassin. Feeling his own organs rupture and bones crack, he calmed down when he saw Mina's face relax.

He transferred roughly half her injuries onto himself, before proceeding to heal her and himself to the point that they were not in danger. In the meantime, he had no capacity to care for the ongoing battle.

The priest trusted his comrades to take care of it.

And when the dust settled, the and Bulko looked up, the guardian and the giant that had attacked it were gone. Mike and the others approached him with a worried look.

"How is she?" her brother asked.

"She will make it. I just finished treating her." the priest answered tiredly. The relief on everyone's faces was visible, but someone was missing.

"Can I trouble you to look after her, while we finish off the room?" the party leader asked

Showing his hand, there was an unconscious Fin sleeping on his palm. She looked sick and a little haggard.

"What happened?" the priest asked surprised.

"She is the one that beat the guardian," Mike answered a little unsure.

"How?" Bulko exclaimed.

"I think that is something she will have to explain."