God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

A moment of realization...

As he swung his blade, he felt the heaviness dawn on him.

The sweat rolling down his face...

The dust rising into the air that suffocated him.

The stuffiness of his armor.

His blistering palms.

The roars of Ruby and the shrill hisses of the {Argent Amphithere}.

Cain realized he had been so lost in the idea of surviving the ordeal, he had forgotten what this was.

'Right... This is a battle.'

His heart thumped excitedly. All the fear he previously felt washed away and was replaced with raw excitement.

He parried the blade of the {Stone Bloodknight} once again then promptly fell to the ground, dodging Ruby who came barrelling forward with the intention of biting into the giant stone knight's neck.

The Collosus responded fast, and her teeth chomping down on the rim of the stone shield instead.

Then it twisted its wrist and smashed the pommel of the stone sword against her head.

Ruby let out a pained yelp as she fell to the ground.

Although he felt bad for her, Cain didn't hesitate to take advantage of the opening her reckless advance had caused.

The {Stone Bloodknight} was an incredible fighter, and it was able to stand against all of them without losing ground.

However, it was still at a number's disadvantage.

Not only that, but it didn't seem to have plenty skills and spells, or any for that matter.

In fact, Cain realized the only thing magical the Collosus had pulled off was the transformation it had undergone a little while ago.

Cain on the other hand, not only had a lot of comrades to rely on, he also had a plethora of skills, spells, abilities, and weapons to choose from.

'It's time to switch tactics.'

The {Lonely Dragon} was enveloped in layers of tumultuous energy.

A monstrous amount of Demon Matter surged forth like black ooze with streaks of blood within, giving it depth.

Darkness seemed to fall upon the world for a moment, and even the {Stone Bloodknight} was forced to pause for a moment.

Taking the opportunity, the {Argent Amphithere} swooped down from the sky and held the Stone Knight in place. The {Dark Soul} lunged from the shadows as well and tightly bound the Stone limbs as well with numerous inky black tendrils of darkness. The {Dark Soul} had long since given up on trying to attack the Stone Knight with its pathetic mimicry, as it seemed to piss the Collosus off for some reason.

A phantom image of a black dragon appeared in the sky behind him for a split second as he slashed down, cutting the world with the might of his blade's edge.

BANG!

The wave of concentrated energy slammed into the breastplate of the immobilized Stone Knight, forcing it back. Its smooth, polished armor, cracked.

Cain felt the bones in his hands vibrate as all his muscles became numb.

Heaving heavily, he called out to Evangeline,

"We don't have much time. We have to take it down before it goes through another upgrade."

Evangeline turned to him, "What do you have in mind?"

Cain grinned,

"Buy me some time. A minute will do."

Evangeline huffed then twirled her daggers in her hands,

"I'll give you two if you ask."

Then she blitzed forward, as swift s a shadow.

The shadows around her became alive as they surged forward as well.

The glow in her crimson eyes had never gone out as she unleashed an onslaught of swift attacks at the Stone Knight.

The enormous Stone Knight blocked, shattered, and dodged the many shadow whips and chains aimed at it, but it seemed unusually apprehensive of Evangeline's daggers.

Despite her powerful attacks though, she could not suppress it on her own.

Luckily, she was not the only one fighting.

Jenny fired another bolt of concentrated mana at the Stone Knight, targeting the gap between the helmet and the cuirass in an attempt to strike a weak spot.

The Stone Knight instinctively responded, throwing its arm overhead and blocking with its shield.

The mana bullet exploded with a thunderous bang and into a rain of shrapnel that shot out haphazardly towards the ground.

Her feet moving like the ground was in fire, Roselle dodged the m as she approached the Stone Knight.

Her goal throughout the fight had been to weaken the Stone Knight's legs as much as possible.

Standing at her full height, her head didn't even come up to its knees. Despite that, the narrow blade in her hands could pierce right through the cracks in the armor of the Stone Knight.

She moved like a trained assassin, striking swiftly, then quickly moving out of range so the others could attack before she dove back in again.

This process has gone on for some time now, and she has managed to avoid drawing too much attention. Your next read awaits at My Virtual Library Empire

However, that didn't mean the Collosus didn't notice her. No, far from that...

She was just the lowest priority on its list.

Which was exactly what she wanted it to believe.

Hearing Cain's words, she concluded that of she was going to do something, it had to be now or never.

And so, she put all of her heart and Ki into this strike.

Dodging the enormous sweeping stone blade by a hair's breadth, she sucked in a deep breath.

The legs of the {Stone Bloodknight} were like two incredibly stocky tree trunks planted into the ground.

The creature sensed her approach, but didn't move at all. Instead, it blocked a gust of blue flames spat out from the maw of the {Argent Amphithere} with its shield and kneed Ruby in the snout. However, this time, the resilient Mutant Bear didn't relent.

Instead, she shrugged the pain off and bit down forcefully onto the knee guard. Then, both paws slapped into the greaves of the leg that had nearly broken her about off.

Her razor sharp claws shot out like daggers. They were so sharp and strong, they scraped and cut into the stone armor with relative ease although they could not pierce the stone flesh beneath.

However, Ruby had already accomplished her goal of holding the Stone Knight down.

With her weight, it would be unable to shrug her off any time soon...

A tremendous amount of Ki suddenly exploded forth from Roselle's lithe frame.

As a Beastman, every corner of her body was packed with raw physical strength.

Despite being labeled a 'Beastman', she had no idea what beast she had inherited her physical characteristics from.

Others inherited characteristics of creatures that made them incredibly agile, or granted them immense physical strength.

Some Beastmen even possessed the ability to fly...

However, she was different.

Her power was grounded in control. Control of her strength, body, and energy.

Her control, as well as her perception and agility.

She moved as elegantly as a leaf in the wind, and struck with the wrath of a hurricane.

Taking full advantage of the opening Ruby provided, she poured power into the soles of her feet and shot up.

The energy swirling from the top of her sword to the hilt turned into a vortex.

The moment it hit the stone armor, it exploded.

The armor, the stone flesh behind the armor, her sword, and her hand...

All of it exploded.

Roselle was thrown back like a ragdoll, slamming into the ground multiple times before coming to a stop.

We injuries were severe.

The force of the explosion had turned her hand into a mess of broken bones and mangled flesh, while a few pieces of shrapnel from the stone armor and her sword had pierced parts of her body, with some making their way into a few organs.

Susan rushed to her side and immediately began chanting to heal her wounds.

It had been a drastic, reckless move, but it had changed the tides of the battle.

The Stone Knight stabbed its sword into the ground as it fell to one knee.

Roselle's atta k had met its knee, and had completely shattering it. Because of her incredible control over her energy, most of the force behind the attack has been absorbed by the stone flesh hidden behind the armor.

The force that could not be absorbed was what destroyed her sword and damaged her hand so badly.

Then, one could only imagine the havoc she had dished out in return.

'Its leg is completely damaged.' Jenny thought to herself as she lined up for another perfect shot.

Just before she could squeeze the trigger, she felt overwhelming danger envelope her.

With a stifled curse, she rolled out of the way.

A second later, a boulder landed where she had been.

The Stone Knight has picked up a small boulder and chuckled it at her yo prevent her from lining up a shot.

Jenny couldn't help but be impressed.

Even now, the Collosus was still tightly bound by Ruby, the {Argent Amphithere}, and the {Dark Soul}, with all their might.

Despite that, it had still found the next greatest threat and had attempted to remove it from the equation.

She quickly positioned and lined up another shot.

A split second later, she felt the world around her spin.

'Eh? What just...'

Her mind has been unable to register it. It had happened so quickly, it took a while for her to realize what was done.

And by the time she did, it was already too late. The Stone Knight's real attack was not a single boulder. Instead, it had grabbed and thrown an entire handful of them from the ground that had shattered after its continuous heavy strikes.

One of the smaller ones managed to hit her in the head.

After the realization, there was no pain. Before she could even fully register it, she was unconscious.

However, her life was till in danger as a thousand more rocks of various sizes were falling from the sky as well. Some were bound to meet their mark.

The boulders crashed into the ground.

The ones aimed at Jenny struck the body of the large {Light Guardian} Susan had summoned.

Gritting her teeth, she extended a hand towards Jenny as well.

The battle was not over yet, and they had already lost two of their fighters.

Things were looking rather bleak.

Just then, a change enveloped the world...