Threads of the Soul

Let us rewind our little tale by a few minutes. Such an amount of time may not seem like much, although it is more than enough for some to complete certain tasks, a lot of different events can happen within the span of a mere minute.

Whilst Alexandra was battling her own mighty foe, it wasn't as if others were simply sitting around scratching their behinds and enjoying the show. Any behind scratching of any kind was simply out of necessity.

The simple fact of the matter was, that the Abominable Ogre was not the only one to flow in through the temporary breach in their defences, before the mighty Omelette, the Roaming Shadow of Death, put a stop to such a thing.

In total four Hobgoblins, not including the Ogre, had breached their shield wall by following its charge, and dozens of cannon fodder level Hemogoblins had flooded in through the gab before it was plugged.

The Hobgoblins, while they enjoyed slaughtering the weak like the blood sack cattle they were, had been commanded to focus on the stronger of the enemy combatants, especially their mages.

Although it seemed that these... Pink things, whatever they called themselves, did have mages, it was easy to pick out the strongest of their kind. The superior stock of their breed. All they had to do was look for the ones with the best equipment.

If they had earned Requitals, especially if they possessed multiple of them, then they had no doubt that meant they had to be the strongest. Following this somewhat intelligent, although slightly unreliable, train of thought the four Hobgoblins split apart and each chose their own opponents.

Those opponents ended up being the Living Storm Astra, the Golden Knight Erik, The Raven-cloaked Corvus and, surprisingly, the Scent Master Alfie. While the final opponent may seem odd, it made sense in these creature's twisted minds.

With no idea of their opponents powers prior to engagement, other than the flashy one's such as Astra, they truly were basing it entirely off of who had armour, and could not optimally pair off to counter each others abilities. It was only because of Seth's gift to Alfie, an armour received in turn from Astra when she slayed the rat king, that the Scent master was even chosen.

However, it was also thanks to that same armour that he was able to get out of trouble, even if it was the only reason he was getting into said trouble in the first place. The armour in question was fashioned in the style of half plate. With armoured plates covering the top half of his torso, his shoulders and the top half of his forearms. Not to mention covering his shins, thighs and a nice pair of boots.

The plates themselves, were forged from a deep grey metal that seemed to be scored with small lines in such a way that made it resemble fur from a distance. The gaps between the plates were not left undefended though.

Between the grey metal plates, he wore a pinkish, woven outfit of sorts composed of thousands of rat-tail tendrils knitting each other together to create a living chain mail. A chain mail that he was able to shift and adapt in particular ways.

His main method of altering the chain mail, was forming tubes composed of swirling tendrils from which he could spray his gas attacks.

It made it easier for Alfie to blast rancid clouds of cow fart based methane into the Hobgoblins face when it attacked him, as well as ensnare its weapon when it landed a blow on his living chain mail.

It was safe to say that surrounding the Hobgoblins head with gas and then lighting the fuse, was more than enough to dispatch his opponent. The poor hob didn't even get a proper chance to display its ability.

When it came to Astra's battle, it seemed as if the Hobgoblin facing her was possible the worst match up. Not because its ability conveniently countered hers, it didn't. It was actually because of how similar they were in one particular aspect, which was how they used their differing abilities.

Astra, not wanting to electrocute any of her comrades accidentally as well as trying to conserve energy for emergencies, was once again relying on her two fingered rail-gun. Blasting coin after coin towards her opponent, leaving blue streaks through the sky with every shot.

Even still, Astra made use of odd angles when she could, so that her shots would embed themselves into the ground or fly off into the sky if dodged instead of into the back of the defenders head.

The issue came in the form of how her opponent used its abilities. Mainly that, it also used a finger based projectile. If one were to look close at its index fingers, they would see that it was actually hollow and rigid.

The projectiles the Hobgoblin launched were not electrified coins, but small bullets formed entirely of hardened blood.

All in all, this meant that they were both fighting in an extremely similar manner, dodging the others shots and returning fire, all whilst leaping around the battle field trying to get the optimal angle of their target and gain the edge.

However it also meant that, in an embarrassing turn of events, if one were to look at this fight from a particular distance, so far that they couldn't see the fatal projectiles being constantly fired at each other, that they might not assume any battle was happening at all.

Yes, from that distance, it would simply appear like two children playing pretend, leaping around the battlefield playing finger guns with each other, while everyone else was fighting for their lives.

It was a situation that Astra was painfully aware of and was constantly causing her mental anguish. The longer the battle went on, the more flustered she became simply out of sheer embarrassment. However, anyone who watched this battle was too busy marvelling at her speed and the streaks of light she was casting through the air to even notice the possible ridiculousness of it all.

By the time she was utterly humiliated, at least in her own mind as she was the only one to notice and care, Astra simply resorted to getting up close and personal. Using a sizzling coin based bullet, she kited the Hobgoblin towards her.

It was a situation that the Hobgoblin let itself get into, thinking that it could definitely beat her up close as its shots were faster and less telegraphed. It was that line of thinking that meant, when Astra slammed her sparking hand square into its chest, it still had a cocky and self assured smile on its face as it was cooked alive.

The most curious case of all, however, was Erik. The knight in the gleaming golden armour who led the cleaning crew.

As it turned out, the magical and utterly pure water his ability allowed him to manifest acted like acid towards Hemogoblins and Hobgoblins alike. It didn't melt them into a puddle from the smallest spill, like they were the wicked witch, but when he gave the Hobgoblin a face full of water, like he was trying to baptise him, it was more than enough to cause a reaction.

One moment the Hobgoblin was lunging at him, its weapon ready to tear him limb from limb. The next moment it was screaming bloody murder as it clutched at its face, as the skin schlopped from the bones and its flesh seemed to liquefy. Its head sizzled violently, as steam curled off of its burning and melting flesh as it writhed on the ground in abject horror and agony until it finally succumbed to the horror of its wounds.

Yet even that was not the fastest kill of them all. There was one amongst them that was able to slaughter these creatures, even if it was the lowly cannon fodder Hemogoblins, faster than the Erik with his melting water or even Seth himself, with his flying arrows.

The most perfect warrior of them all, was Benny. The living sponge and vanquisher of all that was stained and unclean.

For whatever reason, the Hemogoblins simply fell apart when they came into contact with him. With a single punch, even the weakest he could manage, he was able to pierce through their bodies as if they weren't solid in the slightest.

Anything that came into contact with his perfectly clean, porous being simply dissolved and was absorbed into his spongy existence. The only side-effect being, with every blow he dealt, it dyed his skin a more and more red, until he could finally find a moment to ring himself out.

It was safe to say that, because of this display, that the members of the cleaning crew drew the ire of the Hemogoblin horde. Many of them did everything in their power to attack their new, most hated enemy and those whose very existence countered their own.

Whilst all of this was unfolding, Seth himself was occupied doing what he seemingly did best. Multi-tasking.