Strength

A deafening roar rang throughout multiple battlefields, the spawned creatures and the soldiers all stopped for a moment, the roar chilling the first in momentary fear before their duty as mindless animals and monsters brought them back to reason.

For the second, they felt a deep unease, not daring to believe what they had just heard, it was a terrifying howl for certain, it reverberated through their bodies and shook their bones to the core but it was also desperate.

Understanding who it came from only made them trembled before gritting their teeths and fighting back with a renewed fervor, they couldn't linger on their own battlefields any longer, they had somewhere else to go.

They needed to destroy the enemy as quickly as possible, with newfound strength they pushed against the tidal waves of flesh and brutality, responding in kind to the feral attacks thrown at them.

It seemed like nothing could break their spirit as they began making extraordinary progress, fueled by nothing but sheer willpower and a deep sense of duty, something their opponents lacked.

Meanwhile, after roaring like a mighty dragon would have, the sword saint of Amor, stared down at the wretch, determined to accomplish something, no matter how futile it may be.

None of them had known the other for any longer than the length of this fight and yet, it seemed like they were two arch enemies, the guardian and Axio's offsprings had stepped back from the roar, seemingly frightened by the capacities of this dying swordsman.

Axiolypito hadn't moved a centimeter, but something had changed in his expression, his ugly face had contorted into something even more dire, his teeth gnawing against one another, the scars on each side of his face appearing as if they would rupture once more as they formed a profane smile on his visage of hatred.

For some reason, the saint's resolve before the inevitability of his loss and death to Axio had profoundly pissed him off.

It simply wasn't how things were supposed to go, it wasn't by his design.

"Kill him!" he spoke coarsely, saying his order aloud without paying attention, sending his offsprings to charge in an instant, soon follow by the tower guardian, since it wasn't under the wretch's direct control but only wired to work in his favor.

Being already broken beyond usage, the draconic saint used his wings as shields as he moved forward to, slithering gracefully in between the large monsters, all carbon copies of the offspring Axio had used to crush an officier's head.

One of them would have been no problem for the saint, even with their atrocious regeneration, since his flames could cauterise the wounds and prevent anything from regrowing or reattaching.

However, with so many of them, guided by Axio in their minds, he wasn't able to put any down, anytime he made progress on one, it would just retreat behind its brethrens and rip off the burnt part to regenerate in peace.

Not to mention the guardian, who was simply hanging back most of the time, looming over the saint and forcing him to pay attention to it, unless he gets struck unexpectedly.

Using the curve on his blade, he hooked the ankle of one of the offsprings as he spread his shattered wings into the faces of two others, the pain was beyond mesure but he held on, there were more than three of them but with their sizes, they couldn't all attack at once without bumping into one another.

He used this to his advantage, with three bodies as cover, he began to prepare a breath attack, only that no flames came out at all, only smoke.

The cloud covered the view and Axiolypito prepared for a dodge at first, but sharing his senses with his offsprings, he quickly realised that the sword saint wasn't going for his head, he had learned his lesson and wasn't betting on being able to take out the master.

Instead, quite literally burning through his life force and everything else that he could use to fuel this elaborate dance of carnage.

In the smokescreen, which barely lasted a few seconds, the saint had given his all and the results were certainly impressive.

One could only wonder what else he could have done had he not been severely injured just before, right now, everything piled up on him and he had no strength left, but was still standing.

Axio's offsprings, the ones with flesh clothes, were quite resilient indeed but their regeneration was still the most basic, only tremendously enhanced.

If their vitals were targeted, they wouldn't regenerate well at all or die, if their injury was cauterised as well, there would be no questions about their fates.

All of the offsprings were dead and the guardian was slumping to its knees, the orb embedded in it cracked beyind repair.

Despite having nothing left, the sword saint, with blood seeping from his mouth, most likely due an internal blow from the hits received by the guardian, he pointed his still sharp blade at the wretch, as if challenging him to finish the job.

"Are you... Not strong enough to kill a dying man?" he taunted, before finally dropping to the ground.

Surprisingly, Axiolypito wasn't fuming right now, instead he simply opened his hand and let two other of his offsprings out, the last he had that could go on the offense, after that, it was just a bunch of scouts.

He could only store so many of his offsprings inside of himself, but it was enough.

"I am strong enough" he simply responded, a nasty grin on his face, his children, born from the defilement of enslaved women from species much higher up the ladder than his belonged to him, were an extension of himself.

They were his strength and the saint had fallen to his incredible power.

He had been outwit first and thus, even his incredible display of power meant nothing, Axio had won the first interaction, that's all there was to it.

As he sent his offsprings to finish the job, the suddenly fell to the ground, inert and someone else was no standing above the dying saint, grabbing him by the collar and shaking him out of his unconsciousness.

"You are?" the wretch asked without thinking, dazed by the fact that someone had been too fast for him to pick up on sooner, not only that but to kill the offsprings in one swift slash...

And also cut off one of his one hands!

He had only been able to react when the man had arrived to him, solely because he had taken the time to kill his offspring beforehand.

"Solitar, Sir Solitar for you"