( Karna's POV )
Karna had accepted the likelihood of death when he decided to assist the god Cassius, mentally preparing himself for the possibility of losing his life on this battlefield.
He knew that his chances of safely retreating when surrounded by relentless swarms of undead were slim. Nevertheless, Karna resolved to fight fiercely until his last breath, determined to vanquish as many of the undead as possible.
His situation was so bad, that let alone looking towards the wider battlefield and trying to figure out what was going on at the front lines, Karna could not even focus on how Cassius was faring beside him as the only thing he could focus on were the hordes of enemies closing down on him.
At first, Karna moved with a fluidity that belied the direness of his situation, his blades slicing through decayed flesh and brittle bone of the undead enemies charging towards him, however, as a few minutes passed and more enemies took a shot at him, Karna finally began to accumulate injuries.
When a group of undead ghouls lunged at him with gnarled claws, Karna's blades met them with precision, severing limbs and heads with each pass.
Yet, with the undead shamans chanting in the background, he kept being caught up by troublesome magic like dark vines gripping his feet and restricting his movement, or random curses taking effect on his body that debuffed his physical stats, making him vulnerable against even weaker opponents.
At first the hits that they managed to land on him were only bruises, as Karna kept pushing through the stamina deficit and kept slicing at top speed, however, after over 20 minutes of fighting in a frenzy, he finally started to run out of breath.
Soon, he made his first major mistake and picked up a serious injury as an undead champion's mace crashed against his side.
The force of the blow was so strong that it dented his armor and bruised his ribs, causing his tongue to taste the flavor of blood for the first time in this fight.
Pain flared, but Karna's resolve did not waver as he retaliated with a high kick, sending the champion staggering back and then finished him with a swift decapitation.
As the fight wore on, a ghoul managed a lucky swipe, its filthy claws raking across Karna's thigh, causing his legs to buckle, sending a sharp sting of agony searing through him, yet he continued the fight while limping, adjusting his stance to rely more on his upper body strength.
Durahals, towering over the rest of the undead troops on their mounts, with their massive great swords in hand, swung their weapons with such brutal force that forced Karna duck and weave to stay alive.
Yet with his movements slower now after the thigh injury and fatigue etching lines into his face, Karna could not dodge every slash and was forced to parry a few.
He parried their attacks with his triple swords, sparks flying as steel met cursed iron. However, as he defended against a particularly heavy blow, he made a slight slip up leading to his third sword slightly slipping between his teeth.
Although he adjusted it hastily, ignoring the taste of his own blood as the blade cut into his cheek, this injury added with the rest slowly took its toll on Karna's body as he inched closer and closer to death.
Each enemy that he killed was replaced instantly by two more, as Karna fought an almost endless tide of rot and malice alone.
Behaving like an unstoppable battle machine, the duo slashed and hacked at their opponents with such fury that the two of them alone, produced an output comparable to the next 50 best True Elites fighters combined.
"Twenty One....Twenty Two....."
"Nineteen.....Twenty...."
Counting their kills while fighting, they maintained the spirit of healthy competition as the duo went wild with their attacks for the first time in a long time.
*********
( Meanwhile Cassius )
After Karna's brave intervention saved him, Cassius felt a deep pang of guilt. When he left Karna behind to battle the Lich alone. Nonetheless, he proceeded with his decision.
Cassius understood that allowing the Lich to cast spells from afar while both he and Karna engaged his minions would result in certain, gruesome deaths for them both.
Thus, making the calculated choice to confront the Lich directly, Cassius left Karna to hold off the lesser foes while he ventured to engage the Lich in close combat.
Since both himself and the Lich were not adept in close combat, with him being a mage and the Lich being a necromancer, their close combat fight was a comedy fest of slowly casted spells and weak punches.
This spectacle of clumsy blows and awkward spellcasting continued for some time, with neither combatant able to gain a clear advantage.
Cassius, usually more comfortable wielding his arcane arts from a distance, had to adapt quickly, casting protective barriers and low level spells like fireballs just moments before the Lich's dark spells could hit him, however, the Lich was not faring much better either.
At times the Lich would randomly throw a roundhouse kick, or a wind gush spell that was the most basic wind spell to counter Cassius's threat, as the battle between two godly beings looked anything but a divine battle.
The breaking point, however, came when Rocky, Pope Cole and Paladin Patrik joined the Fray alongside Cassius against the Lich, as with the arrival of additional help the Lich was finally forced on the backfoot.
"I'll counter his spells, you three keep him busy-" Cassius commanded as Patrik and Pope Cole did their best to keep the Lich tied up and unable to cast anything except defensive spells.
Ironically, the strength of attacks that Pope Cole and Paladin Patrik could conjure were not strong enough to break through the Lich's protective barrier, as although the two of them were vastly stronger fighters compared to Rocky, in the end the three of them were equally useless in trying to land a hit on the Lich.
However, for them, hitting the Lich was never the goal, as the goal was to buy enough time for God Cassius to cast a major spell, which they accomplished successfully.