CRACK!
The bad sound of Jin's body hitting the tree went through the open spot. It was a sound that broke the team's brave feeling. He fell to the ground without moving. One of their best fighters was out in one hard hit.
Fear that was cold and strong wanted to take them all. Derek's team was like a good working group for killing. Their skills made a full trap of curses, gravity areas, and fake things. They were not just fighting them. They were breaking them down one part at a time.
Dante's mind went fast. It cut through the fear with cold exact thinking. 'A straight fight will kill us. They are like a perfect tool. You do not fight a tool. You put something in to stop the parts.'
"Eric!" Dante yelled loud. His voice was like a help in the fight. "Do not think about blocking! Use all your power for Shield Bash! Make Derek lose his balance right now!"
It was an order that could get him killed. To drop his block even for a second could end him. But Eric did not wait.
With a deep loud sound, he put all his energy into his shield. It had a bright white light that hurt eyes as he ran forward. He did not stop Derek's next swing. He hit his whole body into the bigger man.
BOOM!
The hit was like a loud thunder.
Derek was not ready for it at all. He made a sound and got thrown off his feet. His greatsword went wide. It was just two seconds open, but it was all they needed.
"Talia!" Dante yelled loud. "The one with gravity! Do it now!"
Her face showed hard work. Sweat was on her head as she fought the heavy spell.
But her Kinetic Eye was still on. In the short mess, she saw her way. She did not try to beat the spell. She went with it.
She pushed hard off the ground with all she had. She used the fake gravity to send herself forward in a low turn. Her foil was led by her seeing ahead. It was not to kill.
Shnk!
It went deep into the Graviton user's leg. The mage made a loud cry. His attention broke. The heavy feel on Talia and on Jin who was far and down went away right then. The spell ended.
"Masha, do not try to find the real one with fake things!" Dante told her. "Cover all the back part! Use Absolute Zero now!"
It was an order from being in need. Masha had been bothered by fake pictures of Derek. She bit her teeth and did what he said.
She stopped trying to point at one. She pushed her hands out and sent her power not as an aimed hit. She sent it as a wild big wave of cold.
The air froze fast.
A storm of sharp ice bits came out. It cut the enemy's back line. The fake things moved and went away as the Phantasm user made a high sound. He went down to hide.
The curse user who had been taking from Erica had to stop his spell to not get cut up.
The field for fighting was now a big mess. Their work as a team was broken.
"Rina!" Dante yelled. He turned to their healer who was trying hard to keep Eric standing. "Stop fixing! The boy with the snake mark, the one with poison! Use your life magic on the ground under him!"
"What?" she said loud. She did not get it.
"He uses Toximancy! His power comes from things falling apart! Change it! Use your life magic on the plants! Make it too much for him!"
She got it then. Her eyes showed she understood. It was a wild good way to use what she could do. She hit her hands on the forest ground. Not to fix, but to give.
A bright green light came from her hands in beats. It put life into the dirt. The moss, vines, and roots around the poison one and the one keeping him safe grew big and fast.
Thick vines with points came up from the ground. They went around their legs and arms. They held them in a box of fast growing life. The Toximancy user got his magic from bad things. Now he was getting stuck by the thing that was the other way.
"Erica!" Dante yelled. His throat hurt. "You are not held! Burn him to nothing!"
Erica looked up fast. The taking curse was gone. Her eyes had anger and bad feelings. They looked at the stuck poison one. 'You made me no use,' she thought. Her mad feeling was like a hot fire. 'You made me just look.'
All her fear and bad thoughts came into one point of hot hate.
She put her hands together. The air between them got tight and started to burn. It made a bright spear of pure hot stuff.
"Go away," she said low.
She pushed her hands forward. The spear of light went across the open spot. The Wardcraft user was still fighting the vines. He tried to make a wall, but it was too late.
The hot spear hit the stuck Toximancy user right in the chest.
There was no big bang. There was just a quiet white light that took everything. The boy did not have time to make a sound.
His body, the vines, and a part of the ground around him turned to air right away. It left just a hole with smoke and hard glass.
One gone.
The shock in their minds was as strong as the hit. The enemy team stopped. Their eyes were big with fear.
Derek got very mad. He made a loud angry sound. "You will pay for that!" He did not look at Eric. He ran toward Jin who was getting better. His greatsword was up for a kill hit.
But Talia was there already. With no gravity spell, she was like a shadow. Her foil was a silver fast move. She hit not at Derek, but at the fighters who tried to help him. She cut the leg of one and took the weapon from another.
As Derek's blade came down, Eric stopped it. His shield hit the greatsword with sparks. He was not just blocking now. He was in the fight.
The mess got to its top. Masha's storm kept going. It made the enemy ones with magic stay apart. The team had hurts but fought with a hard one mind.
And in the middle of it, Dante had what he needed at last. A new dead body.
He stepped out from the rock that had been his place to tell what to do. He held a hand out to the hole with smoke where the Toximancy user died.
He could feel what was left of it. Its mark in the world. He pulled on that mark with all he had. He put his cold power that wanted things into it.
"Get up," he told it.
From the sides of the hole, dark things started to come as one. Dust, burned stuff, and black dirt moved in a circle. Pulled by a force no one saw.
The shape of a person started to come. A dark outline made of full black and hate. It got hard into a full dark copy of the dead Toximancy user.
Its eyes opened. They had the same purple light that was not right like the goblins he made before.
The ones left in Derek's team stopped. Their blood felt cold.
The Wardcraft user had just got free from the last vines. He looked with full fear as the dark copy of his dead friend turned to him.
The fight was not done. But their good way of breaking things was gone.
And now, they would face the bad cry of their own dead friend. Led by him.