Inner eye (II)

"Kill them all!" Jergorien bellowed. He blew his horn again and watched the fight that happened around him.

"Aren't you going to join in anymore?" asked Reiwin. He was sitting on his pony next to Jergorien in the battlefield. They had just broken away from a small skirmish a couple of minutes ago.

"No. I am not needed in this skirmish. My duty now is to protect the horn." Jergorien steadied his horses. "What I do want to join in is that boss fight."

"Then why don't you. You can go in and fight? Just give the horn over to me." Reiwin stuck out his hand towards Jergorien, motioning him to hand it over.

"I told you. The horn doesn't work like that. Only one person is able to use this horn until that person dies, whether by a natural death or assassination. Even resurrection will allow it to transfer owners. The only downside is that the horn won't be able to be used for a whole day. By that time we would have lost this quest."

"I see, but you could still go in and bring it with you to fight the boss."

Jergorien shook his head. "No, the swarm would make it harder to kill the boss and the undead land sharks. We're aiming for fewer deaths, not more."

"You really have thought this out, haven't you? And here I thought you would go for the kill for the boss."

Jergorien smirked. "Not today, my friend." He huffed and frowned. The battle continued fiercely.

"What just happened?" Agnis asked, stupefied. She was holding her sword in hand and was looking slightly out of place like everyone else that was just fighting a moment ago.

"I'm not sure." Zero bolted after the swarms of undead creatures that streamed out of the city like mad bulls. They were all headed towards where Jergorien was standing surrounded heavily by his guild mates and the other teammates.

In the center of the group like the eye of a storm, Jergorien stood blowing his horn. His guild members were the ones that protected their leader. The BlackTurret, Rangerz, Zoulz, and Zenith guilds herded the undead like sheep towards a location where they could pick them off easier.

Thousands upon thousands of the undead land sharks and the new undead ran forward. They ignored all other players and headed straight for Jergorien.

"Keep Jergorien safe!" Reiwin yelled. He pushed back an undead manslaughter from encroaching upon Jergorien. A couple of times the formation was broken through but was quickly patched up by one of the four independent guilds.

While the five guilds were taking on the massive numbers of the undead, Lilith was still creating havoc. Her giant hands swiped downwards, bulldozing past the Hercules guild and the city guards.

Zero and Agnis were stopped short by Lilith who blocked their path from going after the undead land sharks. Whether they liked it or not, they were forced into fighting Lilith with Hercules guild if they wanted to make it to Jergorien forces.

Hot molten lava spewed from both ends of Lilith's mouth, one in her back and one in the front. Trees and crops burned to the ground, and even unlucky guards became trapped underneath the blazing lava.

"I don't think it's possible to get past her," Agnis yelled. She was not too happy with the circumstance she was in, but it was ten times better than fighting an undead land shark apparition that kept on switching hosts without dying. She fired a wind arrow at Lilith's face.

Black wings sprouted out of Lilith's back, and with a powerful flap of her wings, the arrows were sent flying. Even the guild members had to keep themselves grounded or they too would be blown away.

"Tear down her wings! Don't let her go airborne!" Aldran yelled at the top of his lungs. He braced himself and picked up a spear that was lying on the ground. Throwing his hands backwards, he fired with all his might. It flew through the air like a soaring hawk and made a bone crushing impact.

A large gaping hole appeared on her right side, and she fumbled and fell. Hundreds of Hercules guild members ran forward with swords, spears, pikes, and other weapons in hand. They viciously tore through her wings, making them look like Swiss cheese.

Aldran and his guild mates were keeping her in check: one group distracted Lilith's front face while the other distracted her back face, which followed every movement they made. A third independent group attacked her blind spot, making it difficult for her to concentrate.

Zero rushed in with tooth and claw shredding her wings to pieces, while Agnis continued to aim at tight spots where it was a lot more difficult to aim. Around them the brave guild members fought and died, but with their constant ferocity they were able to bring down a large amount of her health.

Aldran's white gryphon aura covered him with its wings like a shield when Lilith's fist pounded downwards to strike towards him. Upon impact, the ground broke apart. One after another, Lilith's humongous fists pounded continuously into Aldran, pushing him deeper into the ground. The white gryphon did not move, and stood proudly defending its master.

With a bone-shaking roar, Lilith spewed out molten lava on top of Aldran's shield. It oozed and splashed against his shield, but no harm came to him in the process. Instead it hardened around him, trapping him in the rapidly cooling lava.

"Aldran!" Gullifer dashed in with his spear in hand and

with all his strength sent it flying into Lilith's eyes. She screamed and stumbled backwards, trying to pry the spear out of her eye. Lilith's back erupted with hot black steam and lava, which flowed forth onto the ground to protect her from any possible ground attack, but she was still vulnerable to aerial and magical attacks.

The Hercules fighters launched many more arrows and spell one after another, trying to chip away at her enormous strength. Gullifer hacked away on the hardened lava with his sword until Aldran could emerge. His armor claws broke off the rocks, breaking his way though.

"Throw in Freya's chain hounds now!" Aldran yelled.

Hundreds of long white chains were brought forth. The chains glowed baby blue and had hooks attached to the ends that were thrown, which dug deeply into Lilith's skin. The chains snaked around her and held her in place. On the other end the guild mates pulled down with all their strength. Lilith raised her left hand, causing the guild members to be lifted into the air. They dangled like caught flies from the web of a spider.

Magical hounds appeared at the end of the chains where the guild mates were pulling, helping to keep Lilith down. Freya's chain amplified with magic as each dog gained the strength of ten men. This was the legendary chain that the Goddess Freya had personally made and blessed, and no man or beast had ever escaped from the chain's clutches. Lilith's left arm was brought down with a loud thump that shook the ground.

"Bring her down!" commanded Aldran as he broke the rest of the hardened lava into fine dust with his hands.

Agnis and Zero bolted over to help tie Lilith down. Agnis stashed away her sword and grabbed hold on the cold metallic chain, while Zero chomped down with his jaws. His hind claws were embedded deeply into the ground, stabilizing him against Lilith's pull. His veins felt like they were bulging out of his neck from the strenuous effort.

"She's too strong!" Agnis yelled, sweat forming on her hand. The heat coming off of Lilith's body was making everyone sweat.

"Don't let go!" Zero mumbled with the chain in between his teeth. His claws skidded against the ground just from Lilith's slight leg movement.

Do you need any help? I can give you a strengthening spell. Sylph's voice resounded in his head.

"No thanks. You didn't help last time." The effects were already gone from the last spell that Sylph had cast.

Hmph. That was nothing. This is my best one. A feeling like static electricity ran through Zero's body, and Zero felt both his strength and his magic leaving him. In just a few seconds, Sylph sucked dry every single bit of magic that Zero had left.

Zero could feel his legs becoming like jello and losing his grip onto the ground; even the magical dog that was pulling on the other end was failing to keep hold, because of Lilith's strength.

Oops, said Sylph. Oh well. Good luck. And Sylph became silent.

What did that stupid ring do? Zero thought, but before he could ask, Lilith's right leg rose up, taking both Zero and Agnis into the air. Lilith's leg thrashed around wildly, trying to get the magical chain off of her, but instead the players were thrown off and the magic chain held on tighter.

Zero clamped his jaw down tightly onto the chain. A couple links away, Agnis too was holding on for dear life.

"Zero!" Agnis yelled in fear. Her hands had begun to slip from her sweat.

Zero was swung from side to side, and from the momentum he let go. He flew towards the next chain that was flying towards him. Grabbing onto the chain with his claws and teeth, he once again jumped to another like a monkey swinging through the jungle.

Agnis was slipping fast. She grasped with both hands around the end of a dog's head, but the heat crawled up from her foot and reached towards her face, making her sweat even more. Her grip became too slippery to hold, and she fell towards Lilith's burning hot body.

Mustering up all of his remaining strength, Zero swung towards her and caught her in mid-air. His arms stretched outwards and pulled her into his slender body to protect her. Curling into a tight ball, he fell towards Lilith. They fell hard onto Lilith's stomach, rolling towards her head. Finally they came to a halt near her collarbone, and Zero let Agnis out. A sharp pain erupted on his side of his chest—he'd either broken a few ribs or gotten some wicked bruising. He stood shakily.

"Thanks, Zero. You really saved me there." Agnis pushed herself up and pulled back her hair.

Lilith's movements made it very difficult for them to stand. She rocked back and forth, almost making Agnis fall forward.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow!" Agnis jumped up and hopped around Zero. "My foot's on fire!" She tried to shift her weight to keep her feet from burning.

"Get on. I don't feel anything."

With a bounding leap, Agnis hopped onto his back, and he winced. She shook her legs, trying to cool them off.

"I can't thank you enough. Her skin is way too hot. I think I got a first degree burn." Agnis wiped her hands against her head. Beads of sweat fell down her pretty face, and her white hair stuck to her like glue.

"This is becoming a problem." Zero walked to the warmest part of Lilith's body: her heart. "I can feel that most of the heat coming from here. Maybe we can destroy it." He began to claw his way into Lilith's skin, but barely any deep wounds were created. Instead it was protected by a thin sheet of black ooze which irritated his claws.

"Not good, my claws can't get to it."

"Let me try. Step back." Agnis pulled out her bow and nocked an arrow.

"You're kidding me, right?" said Zero, shocked at what she was going to do.

"It's worth a shot," she said and pulled back the arrow. Swirls of compact tight wind energy swirled to the tip of the point, making the wind blow harder and harder around her. Zero couldn't help but step back a bit more and he had difficulty keeping his eyes open.

When Agnis let it go, a powerful gust of wind shot forth, pushing both of them back a couple of feet. Like a shooting star, the arrow burst forth and hit its mark. But only the half of the arrow made it through her skin.

"You're kidding me, right?" Agnis's jaw dropped open in astonishment. "That was my strongest wind arrow magic. I even compacted it into the end of the arrow to make it pierce through."

Zero jumped sideways high into the air to dodge a burst of Lilith's fire bullets. "We need to find a different way around this. We need something stronger to pierce through her skin."