Erica's desperate plasma blast had saved Dante but the cost was high.
Neil, their smart archivist, lay dead.
Juno, their soul-seer, knelt in the dirt, holding a broken arm. His face showed strong pain from the curse that connected his wounds to Eric's.
They were hurt badly, full of grief, and close to total defeat. The short silence after Erica's attack felt thick like it carried the sign that death was coming soon for them.
Derek's laughter, rough and nasty which broke the quiet. "Is that all you have? One last shot before it's done?" He stood up again, his smirk back. "Your strategist is no good now, your healer is too busy, and your top fighters are losing blood fast. It's done."
He was correct. Dante's mind felt stuck.
The curse from the Maleficium user was a steady, strong push that turned every plan into hard work. His idea had not worked. His team was getting broken down part by part. They could not win this battle. Not in this state.
It was in that time of deep hopelessness that he saw it. In the center of the mess, Juno looked at him. His face was white, marked with tears and dirt, his body shaking from the pain he shared with Eric's injuries. But his eyes were focused, bright, and held a scary kind of last resolve.
He was not only looking at Dante; he was sending a message. His eyes moved from Dante to the curse user who was laughing loud, then to the ground near him where a rough rock was.
And then Dante got it. Juno's skill, Soul Etching, did not just find weak spots; it found links too. He had seen the way the curse that tied him operated. It was not only one direction. He planned to end the link on his own.
It was a sacrifice. A last, risky step.
"Juno, no," Dante just acted inside he was happy to see a sacrificial piece dying to save his king.
Juno gave him a weak, sad smile. It was a last goodbye. Before anyone could move, he took the sharp rock with his good hand. There was no delay.
With a last, hurt shout that was part sorrow for Neil and part fight back, he pushed the stone deep into his own chest, right above his heart.
Shunk.
The result came fast and bad.
The Maleficium user, who was setting up another hex, screamed suddenly. It was not a win sound, but real, strong pain.
He fell to his knees, holding his own chest, his eyes big with the leftover pain of a deadly hit.
The "Hex of Shared Pain" had turned into a tool that hurt both sides. He felt the complete, strong pain of Juno's end. He was not dead, but his mind was wrecked by the feel of a killing blow, making him fully stuck.
The cloud in Dante's mind went away like it was never there. Sadness could wait. Now was for payback.
"MASHA!" His voice was sharp like a whip. "THE ILLUSIONIST! HE'S OPEN! ICE COFFIN!"
The Phantasm user, surprised by his teammate's fast fall, was half a second late to act. Masha, her face full of cold anger did not need more words. She put her sadness and anger into one spot of very cold air.
CRACKLE!
The ground near the illusionist broke open. A thick ice box covered him right away, freezing him hard in a quiet, forever scream.
Two down.
"PUPPET!" Dante ordered, moving his focus to the other part of the fight. "GO THROUGH THE SHIELD!"
His shadow creature, still scratching at the Wardcraft user's wall, did as told. The shield shook as the one who made it looked in fear at the frozen spot of his friend.
In that short time of not paying attention, the puppet changed to a shapeless shadow, going through the magic wall. It got solid again on the inside.
Shnk!
Its shadow hand went deep into the Wardcraft user's chest, ending his life before he could turn.
Three down.
The fight had not just changed; it had become a big rush.
"Talia!" Dante called out. "The Graviton user is for you!"
Talia, now out from the illusion mess, moved fast.
The injured gravity mage, seeing his help fall apart, tried to run. He had no shot. Talia got close in a second, her rapier fast. One exact push to the back of his neck, and he fell down.
Four down.
In under thirty seconds, their full back group was gone. What was left was Derek and his four fighting pals, still in a hard fight with Eric.
Derek shouted in anger, watching his team break. "You will all die for this!" He turned on the full strength of the artifact on his sword. A strong, red light came out around him as he ran, not at Dante now, but at the closest one—Talia.
But the team was not spread out and weak anymore.
"Eric, with her!" Dante ordered.
Eric, bloody but steady, faced Derek's run, his shield taking the main hit of the artifact power. The crash made waves in the ground, but he stayed put.
Talia was there already, her rapier going in fast, making Derek block, her quick moves a good fight against his big strength. They held him, a two-person block of guard and exact hits.
"Edgar, keep saying!"
"His right side is open after a down swing! The artifact makes him reckless!" Edgar called, his voice strong and sure now that the close danger to him was past.
Masha and Erica, her mana coming back slow, handled the group control. Masha put slick ice on the ground near the four left brawlers, making their steps risky. Erica, keeping her power, sent small fire shots that hurt a bit, making them move away and lose their pattern.
And then, Dante showed the real bad part. He put out his hand, not to one body, but to three. The dead Phantasmist, Wardcrafter, and Graviton user.
"Serve me," he ordered, putting his power into their new dead bodies.
Three new shadow puppets, their shapes bent outlines of the boys they were, came up from the ground. Their violet eyes opened together. They were a group of spirits, a sign of their hard win.
He pointed at the four brawlers, who were falling on Masha's ice, trying hard to battle Eric's last foe. "Overwhelm them."
His three new puppets moved ahead, a quiet, scary flow of dark. They hit the brawlers, who yelled in fear as they got covered by the shadow faces of their dead pals.
The battle was done. It was a rough, bloody, and high-cost win. Dante looked at Juno's still body, the sharp rock still in his chest. His last, risky move had saved them. He had found the way to win when Dante's cursed mind could not.
Sadness was a cold, heavy thing in his stomach. But as he saw Derek getting broken down by Eric and Talia, and his last men getting pulled apart by the spirits of their friends, he knew one fact for sure. They would not waste Juno's sacrifice.