Gremlik lunged at Lith, who deflected the attack with Ruin that was now back into its bastard sword size while pivoting on his feet to use the opponent's momentum and move out of his trajectory.
'If I took flight as well, I would have lost one breath's worth of Invigoration. I don't know when I'll get another opportunity to use it, so I must make this count.' He thought.
'I strongly disagree.' Solus replied. 'The Thrall was nothing compared to the real thing and I've already told you why. In their mutated form, a Grendel becomes one with their blood core.
'That guy's mana flow has fused with his life force with amazing effects. Sure, he can't use magic anymore, but his entire body is now made by mana and elemental energies.
'It's like your fusion magic, except that instead of infusing his body with the elements, he is now one with them. It explains a Grendel's resistance to magic and their lack of healing abilities.
'Undead have no light element to start with and now that the life force is mixed with mana, he can't rearrange his flesh to close a wound without undoing his transformation.
'To keep the balance between the two forces, feeding is the only way he has to heal since it grants undead both nutrients and mana. He might be just a brute, but now his physical prowess is close to Faluel's.
'One breath of Invigoration is not worth risking your life.'
Lith was about to reply that he needed all the power he could gather when reality ended their argument. Gremlik managed to use Lith's sword as a fulcrum to change his direction.
His body moved as if it had no joints, freely rotating the hips in mid-air so that now his feet were touching the ground. It allowed his claws to dig deeply into the rock-hard wooden floor and perform a 180 in the Grendel's charge.
'Definitely not worth it!' Lith thought, noticing that even though he was stepping back, the creature's fingers never left Ruin.
Lith had infused the blade with all the darkness magic he could, but the same element coursed through the Grendel's body, to the point that Gremlik could physically interact and repel darkness as if he was a living spell.
Wielding a sword was supposed to give him the range advantage, but between the length of his claws and arms, the undead had the upper hand nonetheless. Lith released a powerful tier three bolt of lightning and a Plague Arrow stored inside his rings.
'He has had no way to dodge them from so up close without exposing himself to Ruin. No matter if he dodges or tanks them, I should get some space.' Lith thought.
Yet Gremlik ignored both spells and swung his claws at the enemy, aiming at Lith's major arteries with surgical precision.
'Those spells were both charged up to the rings' maximum capacity. How the heck is this possible?' Lith was amazed seeing that his rings appeared to be useless.
'The guy is a mass of living mana. If you don't hit him with more energy than that stored inside his body, the conflicting elements will simply nullify each other and he will take no damage.' Solus said.
'The bad news is that it makes him nigh-invulnerable to magic, the good news is that to do that, he has to consume his own mana so he can't last forever.'
'Are you telling me that Grendels work like Silverwing's Hexagram?' Lith asked.
'Yes. He is no Awakened, so if you stop him from feeding, the time he can sustain his transformation gets reduced with each spell he takes.'
Being three against one, Lith could now see a path to victory thanks to Solus's analysis. The problem was that he had no way to convey the message to his two allies. To make matters worse, the martial mastery that the Grendel had honed through the centuries required Lith to use his full focus just to not get ripped to shreds.
'If only I knew spirit spells outside of cantrips, I could establish a mind link.'
Meanwhile, Friya was cursing herself for choosing Javvok as her vacation spot. Dimensional magic was sealed and light magic would only strengthen the undead. The only specialization she had left was Mage Knight which was aimed at defense, not offense.
She was supposed to buy time for her allies to deal a critical blow, but amid the chaos of battle, she was alone against many. Luckily, she had activated Full Guard at the beginning of the combat, allowing her to dodge both incoming attacks and friendly fire.
She was used to either coordinate with her group or fight one on one, whereas now she was experiencing the chaos of war. Each time a spell missed its target, each time an attack was dodged, it might strike another enemy as well as an ally.
She was fighting a vampire Redcap, one of the most vicious combinations of plant and undead skills. Her opponent, Tyria, looked like a woman about 1.75 meters (5'9") tall, with green skin and arms almost as long as her legs.
A row of sharp fangs came out of her protruding jaw that together with long pointy ears and glowing red eyes made her look like something out of a nightmare. The red mass decorating her head was shaped like a red cap, but it was actually a bunch of vines filled to the brim with blood.
Tyria had filled herself before the fight, to exploit her double nature to its fullest. She could use that blood as a Redcap, drawing from it the skills and spells of her victims, or feed upon it as a vampire, securing herself extra juice in case of need.
She wielded a two-headed halberd that could be split in the middle, becoming two battle axes. Despite Tyria's brutish appearance, Friya had never seen anyone moving with such grace.
She moved amid the ensuing chaos like a dancer on stage, using her weapon as a polearm whenever Friya managed to step back and as axes the moment she came too close or the space around them became too crowded.
The fight had started from barely a handful of seconds and yet Friya was already covered in cuts and bruises. If not for Lith's Skinwalker armor and Orion's weapon, she wouldn't have lasted that long.
'I can hold a bit longer, but if I keep being forced on the defensive, I'm dead. Not only can she Blink freely, but she will also never tire.' Friya thought as she stepped back to relieve her conjured shield from the vampire's relentless onslaught.
She had waited for an opening, but her enemy was too experienced to fall for the tricks of someone so young.
Quylla was faring better than her sisters. She had been left behind in the lab, together with Professor Manohar in the case that things went south. To be extra safe, they had assigned her a bodyguard, Trouble the Balor
Lith had restored his body for his experiments, even forging for him a Gatekeeper so big that it resembled a steel slab. It was just a prototype, so it could channel only two elements, fire and darkness.
Lith had designed it to match two of the three eyes of the Balor. Yet it was Kalla the one controlling him.
