Down With The Gods

Anish propels Team A away from the tree while Christine summons snow pillars, and Yu launches a stream of water from his blade toward the enemy. Reacting swiftly, the boberbearboar tightens and enlarges its leg muscles, dodging toward Team One. Wyn sends a cyclone filled with chakrams at the creature, but it tightens its arms and hooves to block the attack, bouncing off the weapons. Both teams seize the opportunity to move to an open field, separated by a river.

The boberbearboar focuses its leg muscles and leaps into the river, causing a massive splash that obscures all six fighters. As water settles, it raises its hooves, aiming at both squads. Water orbs form around its hooves and launch forward, and when an orb breaks, rocks scatter like shrapnel from a grenade. Team One erects pillars to block the rocks, while Team A opts to dodge, not wanting to obstruct their view. Despite their efforts, the blunt rocks strike Team A, with one piercing Christine's thigh.

Hearing Christine’s scream, Wyn dashes blindly through the pillars, chakrams in hand. As he breaks through James’s chipped ice pillar, he realizes the beast has already lunged toward him, hooves enhanced and thrust forward. The impact forces Wyn’s hands to retract, causing his own blades to lodge into his chest. The boberbearboar’s dash pushes them both toward Team A. Using its beaver-like feet to stabilize, the creature absorbs the impact, while Wyn is sent skidding backward across the ground.

Mira quickly wraps her whip around the beast’s smaller arm, triggering an explosion as the metal tip makes contact. James stabs his rapier into the other arm and attempts to freeze it. However, the boberbearboar buffs its arms, shaking off Mira’s whip and dislodging the rapier. It suddenly punches the ground, summoning shockwaves that form rock pillars under Mira and James, knocking them upward. They crash down onto the pillars, taking significant fall damage.

Anish hooks onto the creature’s leg, diverting its attention. As the boberbearboar turns, a floating snowman punches it in the snout. Though weak, the punch triggers the creature’s instinct to reinforce its head. It summons a rock in front of a thickened hoof and punches through the snowman. Yu takes this chance to execute a fountain slash from behind. A downward stream flows from his blade as it strikes the creature's head, but the beast thickens its head once more. Without even turning around, it launches a rock pillar up from the river, hitting Yu’s front legs and flipping him over, causing him to slide along the creature’s big head before falling.

As the boberbearboar buffs its arms, readying for an attack on Yu, Anish pulls Yu to safety with a gust. Simultaneously, Wyn sends a cyclone hurtling toward the beast’s back, causing it to fall.

Wyn, having checked on Mira and confirmed she’s unharmed, returns just in time to witness the exchange between Team A and the boberbearboar. A thought crosses his mind – why doesn’t the creature fully envelop its body in rock for protection? The question reminds him of the gazillot, which also never covered itself in rocks, except for its eyes.

“Everyone attack at different parts!” Wyn yells.

“No! Everyone wait! Let me freeze the river first!” James interrupts.

“Ugh, you should stay passed out. LISTEN TO ME! Yu and Mira, go for the arms. Christine and James, aim for the legs, or freeze them, whatever. Anish and I will attack the body.”

While the strategy sounds great in theory, both squads find it challenging to get close or launch their weapons without being interrupted by the boberbearboar’s counterattacks. Its pillar shockwaves not only can thwart incoming attacks, but also break ice that James and Christine work so hard to achieve. The rock water grenades are effective at limiting the souls’ offensive attempts.

For the first time since the beginning of the battle, the boberbearboar leaps toward Team One. Wyn launches away the whole squad with a slanted rock.

“That hurt, you son of a…,” James says.

“Incoming!” Mira says.

Water grenades are flying toward them. Wasting no time, Wyn summons a large pillar, and with the emergence, they’re quite high in the air.

“How do we get down, Oppa?”

“ANISH!!!”

Team A has been following the creature. Anish brings Team One, dodging more attacks, to his location for a much needed regroup.

“Let’s try the same thing we did with the millipede centipede,” Wyn says.

On Wyn’s command, the team relocates to stand in front of a large tree, leaving significant space between themselves and the tree. Given the current distance between the team and the beast, Wyn expects it to either leap or dash toward them at some point. Wyn’s anticipation materializes as the creature dashes toward them, again, with strengthened hooves and rocks in front. Midway, Wyn fuses with Christine to summon a well-timed pillar. The fused pillar strikes the legs, causing the boberbearboar to finally stumble after crushing through a couple of them, sending it rolling across the ground. A snowy, watery descending cyclone carrying the chakrams comes crashing down onto the struggling creature. The weapons lodge. A fiery gust blows in front all the way to the downed beast. Eager to contribute, James launches a barrage of icicles at the target.

Taking the hits, the boberbearboar assumes a crouching position, then thickens its legs. However, the combined attacks are keeping it from achieving the traction it needs for a lunge – that is until the creature tightens its body and starts to rise.

“Anish, this is up to you now!” Wyn says.

Anish takes control of his javelin and Yu’s crescent blade, pointing the sharp tips toward the beast. Instead of launching them, he keeps them afloat at his chest level. The beast strengthens its legs and lunges as soon as the cyclone dissipates. Wyn hurls the chakrams, aiming for the arms. Anish launches the weapons forward, Wyn then proceeds to jet everyone upward with a cyclone, boosted by a large water fountain for a faster ascent. As usual, everyone but Wyn spirals out of control. This absurd strategy, in turn, keeps all the members safe, while the boberbearboar, with its arms enlarged, hits the tree. The clash allows the javelin and the crescent blade to pierce right through the perfectly sculptured abdomen – the javelin’s tip is protruding from the back, the crescent blade’s tip is somewhere deep in the stomach.

During the descent, Wyn creates a number of mini cyclones to slow down. Anish, drifting close to James and Christine, manages to stabilize all of them in the air. Yu resorts to horizontal water dashes to land softly on a tree. Mira uses flame jets to awkwardly fly herself toward Wyn’s myriad of mini cyclones. The team regroups at the river.

“It’s not moving. Landon, go check it,” Wyn commands.

“Why me? I’m not part of your team, remember?”

“And you’ll never be. If you want a share of the essence, go check it.”

“You’re such an asshole!”

“I know, and thanks.”

“Thanks for calling you an asshole or for checking on the bober?”

“Both.”

James carefully inches toward the creature, tossing icicles at it before hurriedly retreating back to the team. The beast doesn’t react. Christine rolls a snowball, and as it begins to fall forward, the handle of the crescent blade stops it from collapsing entirely, leaving it leaning partially upright. Eventually, its arms deflate and the whole body starts to disintegrate. The three-thousand essence reward is shared equally among everyone, including James.

“How are you holding up, Christine?” Wyn asks.

“Like, I’m limping, but I’m alright.”

“What about everyone else?”

“We’re in one piece. What about your wounds, Oppa? Somehow, I’m reminded of your first chest wound at the dojo.”

“I’ll live,” Wyn replies. “Turns out the trees are stronger than the beast.”

“Was that a gamble?” Mira wonders.

“Kinda. Remember how most of the things on this level are indestructible? Thought trees might be too.”

Wyn takes a moment to reflect on the battle, recognizing how much his team has grown since the millipede centipede fight. They've all gotten stronger, and he realizes that the elemental diversity among them played a crucial role in their success. Although three of them wield the blue element, their specializations are distinct. Wyn exhales a sigh of contentment as the team rests beneath the tree where the boberbearboar met its end.

“Dude, I’ve decided. I NEED to be on your team,” James declares.

“I’m not your dude…”

“I want to survive all the way through, eh.”

“Still a no. Anyway, I think we should rest at the campsite,” Wyn suggests.

“And lose our progress?” Mira asks.

“We’ll fly on a dragon to zone two, courtesy of Landon.

“Woohoo! Thanks, James!” Yu exclaims.

“I can’t bring myself through another forest. We’ll skip the Enchanted Forest,” Wyn says.

The others thank James, not giving him a chance to respond. The team returns to the temporary campsite. Despite Wyn’s disapproval, everyone except Christine squeezes into Wyn's tent. Reluctantly, Wyn re-adds James back into the party and mutters as he purchases more sleeping bags and an extra alarm clock.

“I can help pay for these,” Anish offers.

“It’s not a big deal. The bigger deal is you guys sleeping in my tent.”

Yu, Anish, and James share the upper floor, while Wyn and Mira take the ground floor. Wyn can’t help but feel envious of the others, who fall asleep so easily. He flips left and right, as he usually does, his mind drifting into various scenarios. Though content, he can’t shake off a sense of unease – something he can’t quite pinpoint. Then, a what-if scenario starts to form: his team leaving him behind for a better group. He then envisions Yu, Mira, and Anish waving him goodbye. Strangely, this image morphs into him petting his dogs at home, followed by a scene of him whining with Budd about work at a restaurant. The sequence becomes increasingly disjointed and blurry, until finally, Wyn falls asleep.