Jacob, without delay rushed in at the frozen creature with a thrust of his sword, going for a pinpoint stab at it's abdomen.
The creature could not move, so it had no choice but to watch Jacob go for it.
As soon as Jacob's sword connected, it resulted in an explosion again. This time however, he poured an enormous amount of divinity into the attack, causing an enormous explosion that sent the creature flying.
They watched where the creature landed, not daring to let their guards down. Knowing that it would get back up. Knowing, it could never be that easy.
Sure enough, when the dust and the smoke started clearing up, it emerged from it, walking towards them slowly.
It was a horrific scene. Guts and blood flowed out of it's torso, the bones that protected around that area, shattered and nowhere to be seen.
It had a hole in it's chest, and an even messier hole in it's torso… yet it still kept moving.
Jacob fell to one knee, panting and sweating, his hands torn at the skin around and full of blood.
He smiled, his hair hanging messily around his shoulders, a portion of it covering some parts of his face.
"You're still moving after all that? The old man's body will shut down soon!"
Jacob's voice was raspy as he spoke.
The creature laughed loudly, pus and blood dripping in loads on the ground while it did so. It didn't seem to care at all though.
"I know… but…I will kill… one of you…before… that happens… and have… a new… body."
Jacob's brows lifted when he heard this.
So I was right.
Drake turned his head to Jacob with a confused look. Beatrice just as confused.
"What's he talking about?"
Jacob answered Drake's question, his head still faced in the creature's direction.
"He's the one that killed Tarth. He's also the one who sliced off Manther's legs. That's probably why none of us could sense the wind element until it was already done."
They listen with calm expressions, and after he revealed the truth to them, he continued to speak, this time to the creature a few meters away from them.
"But how did you do all of that?"
The creature paused for a second, looking directly at them with hollow eye sockets that had blood spilling out of them.
"I… I'm a wraith of divinity. My divine… ability will be…complete… control over…corpses… and… body alteration."
Jacob tilted his head slightly.
"Wraith? So you're a spirit possessing that body? I see… then…"
Before he could finish speaking, the creature cut him off, sprinting at him at full speed!
It took less than a second for the creature to complete close the gap. It moved at an incredible speed.
A second however, was more than enough for Drake.
He stepped infront of Jacob and blocked the creatures swinging attack with his arm, following up with a high kick counter!
This set into motion a sequence of back and forth close combat attacks between the two, Beatrice throwing herself in and joining Drake.
At first, their hopes were for Beatrice to move in unnoticed. But that wouldn't work twice, so they abandoned it after succeeding the first time.
As they move quickly across the massive crater that they battled on, Jacob stood slumped over his sword on one knee— his consciousness fading in and out… he was about to lose it.
The lord has guided me so far… I have faith in his control over fate. If I fall here, our chances of defeating that thing plummet. I won't let that happen!
Lord, give me just a little more strength!
His legs were shaky, but he stood up, back to his feet. Reaching for his sword… standing up straight… every step he took; he let out a pained grunt, his entire body screaming out in pain.
bloody hands shook and shivered as he tightly clutched onto his sword, a strange grin plastered across his bloody face full of cuts and bruises.
"The sun has already set, old man! We need to get you to bed already!"
His voice, his face, his body language… it all showed something too obvious to miss about the young boy at that moment.
Excitement!
Drake and Beatrice both glanced back to look at the haggard young man shouting behind them, failing to mask their expressions.
His words… they couldn't help but smile.
Jacob jumped into the battle, his presence making a clear difference. They seemed to be finally getting through to the creature body.
Every attack Drake and Jacob used had small scale explosions barely noticeable to Beatrice— but it was a second shift nonetheless, it made an enormous difference compared to what it would've been if it were regular punches and slashes.
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you and help you."
These words echoed in Jacob's mind as he fought fiercely—the words his master once read to him from an ancient book he often spoke of. A book that contains the words of The Almighty Father.
The words, that specific line, bouncing around in his head, formed a solid belief in his mind and his spirit, strengthening his resolve to go all out and see this battle to the end!
Bone kept cracking, new wounds kept opening up… injury after injury they fought relentlessly. Blood splattered on the ground, new craters formed and strength and divinity, all quickly fading…
Yet they all continued to fight, their powerful wills to fight until the creature fell; the only thing keeping them going!
Before they knew it, it was approaching morning. They had spent hours in a non-stop battle with this powerful creature which was now only one step away from advancing.
They all understood this.
While they grew weaker by the minute, the creature— only seemed to grow stronger throughout their clash!
Exhaustion and pain felt blinding to their minds, but they continued to leap into battle every single time.
Finally, the creature took a step back and separated himself from the three. From the distance he created, he could see properly for once. Panting, struggling to stand up straight, they were even very low on their divinity levels.
However they too could see the creature from that distance. It had cracks all over it's exoskeleton and the two holes in the middle had only gotten worse.
Both sides had fought hard. Both sides had given their all and any witness would be able to tell this was true.
The enormous crater had smaller craters in and around it and the ground was crushed everywhere.
There were blood stains everywhere on the ground, and not just coming from the disgusting figure with two holes in it's body, dripping loads of it everywhere.
"The sun is out. This is it. We need to take him down now if we want a good chance at recovery."
Beatrice lifted her eyebrows when she heard Jacob's words.
"What do you mean?"
"Only the weakest creature roam the planes at daytime. If we were to defeat it at night, we would've been exposed to too much danger while injured."
Beatrice's eyes widened, clearly in shock.
He's right, why didn't I consider this?
"But if we couldn't take it down all night, then how are we going to do that now?"
Jacob continued to look forward when he heard Beatrice's question, not losing sight of the creature.
"You won't do anything…"
He paused for a second then spoke again, softly, almost whispering.
"Drake, use the first shift and just shoot them at him, but keep one flame back and shoot it at the right time."
Drake nodded his hand without hesitation, displaying the hand sign immediately.
After speaking, Jacob wasted no time either.
This time however; instead of the prayer sign with one hand, he used both hands.
"Flame shift, fourth: flame strings"
From the tips of his fingers, strings of black flames extended out— not long enough to touch the ground, they hung from his finger like black wires.
Beatrice turned her head in confusion.
Black strings? Is this even the flame element?
Her question were answered shortly after.
Jacob sprinted forward, reaching the wraith quickly before jumping to the side.
As he did, Drake shot his fire balls at the wraith possessing the disfigured body of the old man.
All of Drakes shots missed, however soon as they did, Jacob went in again, swinging his strings at the creature, giving it no chance to counter.
It was all in a smooth motion. The creature expected the flaming balls to be sent his direction. He expected Jacob to come close. He expected Beatrice to stay back.
What he didn't expect was Jacob using a shift he hasn't seen yet. Knowing how low Jacob's divinity levels were running, just activating something powerful would be considered a risk to his own life.
However the shift didn't seem all that powerful, and that's exactly what the creature thought. This thought lead to him deciding to engage in close combat and take the risk.
He… needed help from those…red flames… this power of his… must…be weak then.
A short moment into it's hand to hand combat exchange with Jacob, it quickly realized it was wrong.
The string hanging from Jacob's right index finger suddenly extended in length, successfully catching the creature off guard.
It quickly moved it's right arm to block the string swinging down on it from above, however the string just cleanly went through the creature's arm.
The string sliced right through the thick layer of bone and flesh and removed the creature's right arm clean off.
The creature leaped back in shock! Blood gushing from the wound along with sticky and slimy pus painting the ground red l with a little bit of yellow and green.
Jacob immediately fell on one knee. It felt like his heart was about to burst as blood poured out of his mouth.
With great difficulty he swung his left arm, extending all the strings towards the creature's legs, causing the creature to jump in order to evade.
Just then, Jacob snapped his finger. As soon as he did, a small ball of red flames flew past him landing straight on the creatures throat!
At it's throat area was what seemed like a very thick layer of bone that didn't stand out.
However, as soon as the ball of flame landed, the white bone layer disappeared, the flame ball easily piercing right through and exploding inside it's throat.
Jacob kept his consciousness up until he watched the wraiths he get blown up. Then, as the creatures disgusting body fell to the ground, so did he.
Nice… that thing is finally down. I need a bit of sleep.
That's when Jacob lost his consciousness.