Thragg stepped forwards with his four bare hands spread out to his sides, inviting the adventurers to strike at him. The flames wreathing the feathery tendrils at his back lapped at the surface of the basin's water, causing it to steam up and cover him in a threatening fog where the glow of his blue eyes was made ever the more apparent.
"Arav, what do you propose?" said Federic as he stepped up to the forefront of the group, slamming his massive steel shield down in front of him like an impenetrable wall.
"Shed Skin Formation," said Arav with a heavy terseness to his voice, and a silence befell the team as they understood the gravity of that formation. It was a formation meant to be used in last ditch efforts when they encountered a monster that far outclassed them.
One involving putting up distractions so that at the least, one or two team members could escape and report to the League.
That Coiled Serpent had a plan like this that its members were willing to engage in was indicative of its status as an accomplished team, for in lesser teams the bickering over who would sacrifice their lives and who would live would make such a plan impossible to implement.
Thragg, of course, could not understand what these humans were saying for he had never learned Common, but he could perceive their body language well enough to know they were plotting something. That did remind him: he should probably learn Common as well, likely with the elder's aid.
"[Iron Wall]!" shouted Federic as he crashed his shield into the water. Grey circuits lining his muscular arms glowed through his mail weave and plate armor, and in fact, his armor amplified his connected spirit roots, granting them stronger output.
Small pillars of metal emerged from the ground and shot forward at Thragg, aiming to slam into him and drive him back.
While this happened, Yua leaped into the air, and her black wings spread outwards as flames blazed around her body, allowing her to hover in the air. She drew back her bowstring and in her empty hand, an arrow of manifested flame formed, solidifying into a flashing orange and red construct.
"[Razor Petals]!" said Ais as she too hovered in the air, evidently believing that Thragg had no airborne capabilities. Her green mana sparked around her, forming into the shape of multi-colored rose petals that floated for a second before shooting forwards, their edges lined with whirring saw-like edges of infused mana.
Thragg crossed his arms in front of him and casted [Guard], concentrating his golden mana defensively throughout his tensed muscles, solidifying them against any and all impact.
The mana affinity of Root was one that was best described as adept at concentration. Like the roots of a mighty tree, it is most efficient at firmly gathering and anchoring mana. Thus, it was best suited for defensive fighters and applications like [Guard] which involved concentrating mana.
Unlike Chaos which can freely flux from defense to offense in powerful bursts, Root has little malleability. One cannot easily shift their concentrated mana from a [Guard] to a [Flow Acceleration], and compatibility with moves that require incredibly fine detail tuning such as [Dispersal] also becomes more difficult.
Thus, for most Root affinity users, they will either be specialized in concentrating their mana for offense or for defense, but in general, Root affinity fighters are known for their hardiness and usually tend towards being physical fighters for a durable body with an iron hard fist was still a sizable offensive threat.
Thragg was, surprisingly, more geared towards defense, and he showed his power now.
The cloud of sharp sawing petals from the faerie scratched against his iron hard skin, skidding out sparks as they deflected harmlessly before dissolving into remnant mana.
Yua's flaming arrow managed to eke out a shallow dent in Thragg's shoulder, piercing just enough to draw a trickle of blood, but no more.
Federic's pillars of iron crashed into Thragg's arms with the solid impact of metal slamming against incredibly durable flesh, and it was the iron pillars that broke, not Thragg's skin, shattering and crumbling against his defense.
As the iron pillars shattered against Thragg, they formed a natural cloud of debris that temporarily blocked Federic from rushing in and slamming his mace down on Thragg's head.
Thragg lifted up one of his arms and blocked the mace strike, holding the head of the weapon up with a palm. His arm trembled slightly from the initial impact, and he got a feel that the armored adventurer had enhanced his strength greatly for this attack.
But nothing out of Thragg's capability to deal with. The water around Thragg and the adventurer parted from the downwards shockwave of the strike.
"One hand? He blocked that with one hand?" asked Ais in disbelief.
"Focus!" said Yua as she knocked a triple volley of arrows this time. "Remember: suppression!"
Ais nodded, snapped back to the situation at hand, and cast another spell. "[Sleep Pollen]"
From her pale hands, a cloud of glimmering green sparkles trickled down, gathering around Thragg in a haze of misty, green-speckled air.
"[Iron Priso-]" began Federic as he tried to cast a spell to bind the mighty goblin before him to let the sleep inducing pollen to take effect, for a powerful monster like him was more than likely able to inhale the pollen for some time without falling under it.
Thragg, however, countered. He punched forwards with his two right arms, aiming to gouge out two holes in the armored adventurer's stomach. The armored adventurer understood this and stopped casting his spell mid-way, shoving the shield in front of him.
Thragg's punches sent Federic flying backwards as if blown back by a bomb. His armored form clattered as it splashed heavily in the basin, crashing into the ground with a solid impact that sent geysers of water upraised around him.
"Lighter than it seems," said Thragg as he now held the armored adventurer's shield in his right arms. He knew immediately that something was off: the adventurer with the blood draining weapon had disappeared from sight.
Likely in a bid to save his own life while utilizing some form of stealth based spell, it seemed. But Thragg did not worry. There was no way the adventurer could have managed to travel so far in this short a span of time.
Instead, Thragg leaped high into the air, escaping the cloud of green around him, and closed his eyes to hone his senses. The Shockstrike Eel embedded in Thragg's form was capable of detecting fields of mana given off by beings even when they tried to hide it – a necessary adaptation to survive in the depths of darker, lower visibility waters, especially with the eel's own near blind eyesight.
If that adventurer had escaped through the trees, then he would have splashed out a path in the water. If he had teleported outside, there would have been some noticeable tell of mana activation. No, more likely, the adventurer had turned invisible through some item and was now trying to scale the hill while the rest of his team distracted Thragg.
With his magical sensitivity, Thragg confirmed that the adventurer was trying again to scale the hill wall, his body's physical visibility obscured. But no matter.
Thragg gripped the shield in his arms tight and then tossed it forwards as a deadly, spinning projectile that whirred in the air, whistling with impressive speed.
The shield smashed into the invisible adventurer's legs with a sickening crunch of impact, and the adventurer's body became visible as he fell down from high up on the cliff, crashing into the waters below with two legs so broken that bones jutted out from the knees.
That one, Thragg had identified as the leader and one likely with the most information. His weapon, too, Thragg desired. That one, he would keep alive for information.
The rest would die.
"Escape with your lives!" shouted Yua. She charged up her magical energy, and it flared out in flames all around her, her breath steaming. She gathered the flames into her three arrows and fired them. "There are no formations anymore, only survival!"
Thragg intercepted the arrows with his hands, but as he gazed curiously at their flaming forms, they exploded in his face, completely covering his form in smoke and fire.
With that, Yua flapped her wings and began her own escape. Ais, the other flight capable adventurer, did the same, immediately turning to follow Yua.
Thragg surged out his own flames, fanning out the smoke from around him to reveal he was unharmed. He saw now that the adventurers were attempting a full on, shameless escape. The two flyers were trying to escape in the air where the other goblins could not reach.
The armored adventurer was far slower and could not fly, it seemed, and he merely ran towards the hill face, trying to scale it.
Thragg acted quickly. He dealt with the flyers first. Before they could gain much more altitude, he aimed his hands at them and channeled the Shockstripe Eel's capacity to generate electricity. The golden, crystalline fins lining his arms shone brightly, conducting magical energy that arced into bolts of yellow power that screamed and crackled chaotically.
Thragg took in a deep breath and focused, remembering how the Sovnar could channel mana so beautifully. The Sovnar had such a massive pool of mana that fluxed with raging chaos most of the time, and yet he could channel and direct its flow with such grace that it reminded Thragg of a gentle stream.
Though Thragg's own Root affinity meant he had difficulty fine tuning his mana flow, he tried his best, flowing the electrical energy into stretched out fingertips that he then fired the energy from.
Twin streams of lightning shot forth, slamming into the faerie.
The faerie seized up in the air as she lit up in a cascade of shocking power before falling to the ground. The other one, the black winged one, was more agile, and managed to dodge at the last moment.
Thragg steadied his breath again. Focus on the flow.
Remember the Sovnar. Remember how he breathed and how he maintained his calm at all times.
Thragg generated another bout of electrical energy and fired it from his fingertips once more, and this time, he struck true, hitting the black winged adventurer straight in the back and sending her hurtling down.
Thragg congratulated himself with a closed fist and a nod. Surely, if the Sovnar had seen this, he would have praised Thragg.
But it was not time to dawdle. There was justice to be made.
Thragg surged forwards to kill the armored adventurer, punching a hole straight through his back before the human could muster up any real resistance.
The two flying adventurers splashed into the water, paralyzed by the energy bolts that Thragg had fired, and the stronger adventurer that had tried to run groaned in pain as he looked at his shattered legs with widened eyes.
Thragg had won. Now, he would have answers.
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