Lach tried standing up but his crippled legs refused to cooperate, knees buckling like wet paper under the strain of his own weight.
The elf collapsed back onto the scorched dirt with a heavy grunt, breath sawing in and out of his lungs as fresh pain lanced up through his thighs and calves.
The team swarmed him again in a tight knot of bodies and clinking armor, hands pressing gently against his shoulders and back to keep him steady while the smell of sweat and burned leather hung thick in the air around them.
Victor, the big guy with the melted axe, dropped the ruined hilts with a soft clink against the ground and cracked his knuckles one by one, the sharp pops cutting through the low rumble of bubbling lava in the distance. He turned toward Argile, voice low and steady despite the chaos.
"How long do you need to charge up an attack big enough to weaken War? Be honest with me. No holding back. I'll buy you every second."
Argile's headless form shimmered faintly as power gathered in the empty space above his robes, the air around him humming with building energy that tasted metallic on the tongue.
"One full minute, Victor. Sixty seconds of uninterrupted focus. Any less and the spell collapses. The rite demands complete concentration or it backfires and takes us both."
Victor nodded once, jaw set like granite, eyes locked on the distant figure of War across the lava field.
"Then sixty seconds is what you get. I'm not letting that thing walk away from this."
His voice carried the weight of finality, the kind of quiet resolve that made the rest of the team fall silent for a heartbeat, their breaths catching as they watched him square his shoulders.
John grinned wide, the expression splitting his face as recognition sparked bright in his plasma eyes.
"OH I RECOGNIZE THAT REFERENCE! MY NERD BRAIN IS TELLING ME YOU'RE ABOUT TO HERORICLY SACRIFICE YOURSELF HUH!?!? INTERESTINGGGGGGG!"
War's red plasma skin now bubbled and rippled across his chest and arms with visible excitement, the surface shimmering hotter like molten glass longing for impact, the air around him warping with waves of dry heat that carried the faint ozone tang of superheated ions. The longing for a real fight thrummed through every fiber of his form, a deep, vibrating hunger that made his fists clench and unclench with audible creaks of contained power.
Victor looked at War one last time and came to terms with it deep in his gut. He would have to die here to give Argile even the smallest chance of winning.
The surrounding square mile had turned to churning lava, orange and black and spitting sparks that popped like distant gunfire, the heat rolling across the battlefield in thick, suffocating blankets that made skin prickle and eyes sting with every breath. Victor leaped across the entire molten expanse in a single bound, massive legs propelling his eight-foot frame over the glowing sea with a whoosh of displaced air that left faint ripples on the lava's surface below. He landed on the small safe patch with a thud that cracked the obsidian under his boots, then walked forward slow and deliberate until he stood face to face with War.
Victor towered over him at well over eight feet tall and built like a strongman, shoulders broad enough to block out the horizon and arms corded with muscle that flexed under scarred gray skin.
John estimated his own height at about six-foot-six in this form, so the size difference was staggering, the giant's shadow swallowing him whole, yet anyone with half a brain knew size did not matter here.
John needed to aura farm, to let the fight stretch and build the pressure, so he opened the system window with a casual flick of thought and unequipped the full knight armor in one smooth motion.
The metal plates vanished from his body piece by piece, clattering to the ground before disappearing entirely, followed by the sword that winked out of his grip. He stood bare-chested now, plasma skin glowing faintly red under the lava light, the heat from the surrounding molten rock licking at his exposed torso like invisible tongues.
Victor grinned, teeth flashing white against his muted gray features, and they got to boxing. The big man threw the first punch, a huge uppercut that whistled upward with the force of a trebuchet.
The impact connected clean under War's jaw, lifting him clear off the ground and sending him flying backward in a spinning arc.
Victor winced as a chunk of his own skin on the knuckles melted away from the contact with the superheated plasma, raw pain flaring hot and immediate, but pain was his only opponent now and he shoved it aside with a growl.
He leaped upward without pause, closing the distance in a blur, and brought both fists down in a giant hammer slam that rocketed War's body straight downward.
The force drove War into the obsidian patch like a meteor, creating a deep crater that spiderwebbed outward with sharp cracks, dust and shards exploding upward in a choking cloud that stung the eyes and filled the nose with the dry grit of pulverized rock.
The hit was hard enough to make War bounce back up from the rebound, body lifting involuntarily, and Victor used that momentum to drive a vicious body shot straight into his midsection. The punch slammed War hundreds of meters across the safe ground, his form tumbling end over end before he rolled violently into the tree line at the edge of the lava field, bark splintering and branches snapping under the impact with loud wooden cracks that echoed like gunshots.
Victor spun toward Argile, chest heaving, voice booming across the distance. "ARE YOU ALMOST DONE?"
Argile's voice rang out steady from the far side. "3 MORE SECONDS!"
Three...two…..one—
Victor looked down at his stomach and all he saw was a hole. A perfect, fist-sized tunnel had been punched clean through his torso, edges cauterized and smoking faintly, the missing flesh gone without a trace. He stood dazed for a heartbeat, like someone had rocketed straight through him at impossible speed, the world tilting slightly as warm blood poured out in thick, pulsing streams that soaked his pants and pooled steaming at his boots.
The metallic scent flooded the air, thick and coppery, mixing with the sulfur stink of lava. He grabbed at the gaping wound with both massive hands, fingers slipping in the hot slickness, trying to hold the edges together as if sheer will could close it. "
No...no…nonononononno NOOO!" Victor screamed, the sound raw and guttural, tearing from his throat as panic clawed up through the pain.
"I'LL BE DAMNED IF I DIE LIKE THIS! I'LL BE DAMNED. I'LL BE DAM—"
Before he could finish, he was decapitated.
The head flew off in a clean arc, tumbling end over end with wide eyes still locked in shock, a thin spray of blood trailing behind it like red mist before it hit the ground with a wet thud and rolled once.
The massive body stayed upright for another second, blood fountaining from the neck stump in rhythmic jets that pattered against the obsidian like heavy rain, then it toppled forward with a heavy crash that shook the small patch of ground.
War sighed. "wayyy to noisy"