Axel looked up in the sky feeling 2 presences appearing out of thin air and was confused as to whom it could be.
Suddenly Elysia and Clara appeared in the sky just above Shaman. Spotting that she was heavily injured and without a weapon, Elysia already felt her blood boil. Clara on the other hand was calmer, but she still shared the same feeling of anger with Elysia.
Both spotted the satyr standing across from them and instantly knew they were responsible. Axel smiled in response and beckoned for them to fight him.
Elysia and Clara looked back at each other nodding, communicating without even speaking. Both of them landed on the ground next to Shaman, but they were focused on killing the Satyr that injured her, so they sprinted at Axel.
"Wai-." Shaman didn't want them to attack, but they were already sprinting before she could conjure up words.
Elysia pulled out her spear while going into her hybrid form to increase her speed. Clara also partially did her demon transformation just enough that she won't be exhausted in the first 30 seconds.
"Interesting." Axel stood there observing the 2 girls as they approached.
Elysia was a few metres away and so she stabbed her spear into the ground, performing a vault kick into Axel. Taking a side step he easily dodged Elysia, but while he was moving Clara lashed with one of her whips, wrapping it around Elysia's immobile spear.
She sprinted past Axel while attaching her whips together, forming one extended whip. She then threw the handle at Elysia, who caught the whip and pulled on it catching Axel, but it was all futile as he vanished on the spot. Appearing behind Clara, he tried to grab her neck, but she was able to swing around with a sword made from lighting.
Axel stepped back slightly, barely dodging the lightning sword while also getting a few burn marks from the flickering lightning.
Clara jumped back next to her whips and picked them back up while keeping an eye on Axel. Elysia also grabbed her spear out of the ground and stood next to Clara. But Axel didn't allow them to breathe and charged at them with his fist covered in black flames.
Elysia took a step forward and deflected Axel's fire fist with her fire-coated spear. When his attack touched her spear Elysia noticed that it absorbed some of the flames.
Even though Axel's fist was deflected his control over his body was extreme, which allowed him to completely shift his body and continue to attack. Axel renewed his assault sending out constant punches and forcing Elysia to go on the defence.
She was barely able to block the attacks, but she didn't need to wait long as Clara jumped over her while slashing down with her whips.
Axel crossed his arms to block the whips, but they ended up wrapping around his arms which was exactly Clara's intention. Clara then landed back on the ground while tugging on her whips to pull him in closer to Elysia who was going to strike him right in the stomach.
However, Axel allowed himself to get pulled and used the momentum to kick Elysia in the jaw, sending her flying back into Clara.
Both of them slid on the ground until they hit the palace wall, crashing into it and causing some of the cobblestone bricks to crack.
Elysia felt her head ache from the kick and nearly passed out just trying to get back up, just barely holding on to her consciousness. Clara took the brunt of the force when hitting the wall, her back hurting so much she worried it may be broken.
It took her a second to stand up, but even once back on her feet she knew it would take one more attack to end up with an actual broken spine.
"Round 2?" Axel slowly walked up, hoping they would keep going since he started enjoying the fight even more.
"Shut up!" Clara didn't want to hear it, so she ran up while spinning her whips on either side of her, charging them with lighting. She then swung them at Axel in awkward directions to make it hard to dodge.
Axel smirked and dodged the whips, bending his body in a way so physics-defying that Clara didn't think possible. Clara didn't stop trying to catch him mid-dodge, but no matter what she did Axel found a way.
Elysia during this had switched to her bow and begun to fire arrows, timing them with Clara's strikes, but even then none hit their mark.
*Yawn* "Still can't hit me." Axel had enough dodging so he moved closer to Clara in a flash. Throwing a punch as soon as he appeared, he landed a hit right in Clara's stomach, sending her back to Elysia.
Elysia managed to catch Clara, but she ended up sliding on her feet and hit the palace wall, albeit thankfully not nearly as hard as before.
Clara coughed up blood, her back only escaping dire consequence thanks to Elysia.
"He is strong, if I didn't push myself to the limit I would have been dead." Clara felt goosebumps as the severity of the situation sunk in. Her opponent was so fast she had to rely purely on instinct, not to mention that without her regeneration she would have probably been dead by now.
"I have a dumb idea, but I doubt we will be killing it." Elysia wasn't confident in beating Axel as she had the same feeling when she fought the variant troll boss in Cholden.
"Let's just try it and see if we can run away." Clara didn't care what kind of plan it was, because at this point as long as they could get out with Shaman, then she considered that a win.
"Sling me with your whips." Hearing Elysia's idea, Clara looked at her in confusion and shock, finding it completely insane.
"Enough chatter." While the girls were talking Axel took the time to do a few stretches before his next attack. After cracking his neck, he jumped into the sky and let out a pair of bat wings from his back.
He then suddenly changed direction, aiming straight for the girls while also creating tridents made out of black flames.
Without having a chance to argue why Elysia's idea was stupid, they both dodged to the side into a rift portal that appeared out of nowhere. All of a sudden they were in the sky well above Axel in the perfect position to execute Elysia's plan.
"Shaman?" Clara didn't expect her to participate or have the energy to even use her mana.
"Mhm, now let's go." Elysia actually used Rea to tell Shaman to use her rifts.
Clara shook her head finding the situation inconceivable, but they were already in the air.
While the girls were getting reacquainted with gravity, Axel crashed into the ground in an explosion of black flames that ravaged the environment.
He looked around for the girls, but all he saw was a heavily breathing Shaman, her hands extended outwards. He knew she did something and decided to switch targets knowing she was the reason for the other 2 being here.
However, he suddenly felt an immense amount of mana forming above him forcing him to look up.
Clara spun like a top in the air with her whips fully extended and tied at their end was a ball of blood-red flames. Elysia threw all caution to the wind, allowing the flames to go wild as they naturally formed into a crimson sphere.
Clara could no longer spin any faster, so she retracted her whips which sent Elysia plummeting into the ground. Once Clara's whips were fully retracted, Shaman opened up another rift, teleporting Clara next to her.
Elysia's speed was faster than Axel's own dive leaving him with no room to dodge and forcing him to block.
He created a wall of black flames that was as thick as the palace walls.
Elysia then hit the black flamed wall forcing a contest of fire. Hellfire ravaged the grassy field, easily surpassing the destruction of the previous attack.
Axel struggled to keep up the wall as he felt his mana getting sucked away and didn't know what was causing it.
Elysia on the other hand was only getting stronger, her flames consuming Axel's fire with unnatural thirst. The unique properties of the black flames are based on corrupted souls which count as a form of vitality, allowing Elysia to absorb it.
"DIE YOU PIECE OF SHIT DEMON!" Elysia felt herself breaking through the wall and with one last push of her newly obtained mana, it finally broke. The fire wall dispersed allowing Elysia to have a clean shot with her spear into Axel's chest.
Hit in the chest and crushed into the ground, Axel was then blasted with the full strength of Elysia's flames. The force of the attack made the ground cave in creating an explosion of dirt and dust obstructing everyone's view.
As the dust settled it revealed that Elysia had not pierced Axel at all, only leaving a small mark on his chest. They stood still for a moment, but then it dawned on Elysia that her attack did nothing. The feeling of fear and despair filled her heart.
"Pathetic, you had me worried for a moment there." Axel smiled while looking at the spear that wasn't even able to leave a cut.
Elysia tried to pull away, but her spear was grabbed before she could move. Not wanting to risk her life, she was about to let go of her spear. However just then roots erupted from the ground and restrained Axel.