The air inside the main cave grew heavy, charged with the tension of the imminent confrontation. Ling, Victor, and Melissa now stood face to face with Crismon, the giant with swine-like skin and twisted horns, who watched them from his improvised throne. He didn't seem impressed, only mildly amused.
"So, the rats finally crawled out of the sewer to face the cat?" Crismon growled, his voice a mix of grunts and mockery.
He rose to his feet, and the ground trembled slightly beneath the weight of his four-meter-tall frame. The energy sword in his hand hummed with threatening power, looking almost like a toy in his gigantic grip.
"Humans. I heard a rumor long ago that your kind always sticks its nose where it doesn't belong. I never understood your fascination with other people's problems. And on top of that, most of your species is weak and fragile... with a few exceptions, like humans with powers such as yours."
"Fragile, maybe," Victor shot back, his hands already engulfed in flames, fire dancing around his fists. "But we're not stupid enough to underestimate anyone. And you seem to have underestimated us."
Crismon let out a laugh that made the stalactites vibrate.
"Underestimate? Me? My dear boy, I've seen empires fall. I've watched planets burn to ashes. You are nothing but a nuisance. An insect that needs to be crushed."
Ling stepped forward, his sword unsheathed, the pale blue glow still pulsing in his eyes.
"We won't be crushed. And we're taking the girl back."
His voice was firm, without a trace of hesitation.
Then, with a movement surprisingly fast for someone of his size, Crismon lunged forward. The energy sword came down in a devastating arc aimed directly at Ling.
Ling reacted with lightning speed, dodging the strike that would have split him in half. Crismon's blade slammed into the stone floor, opening a deep crater and sending dust and debris flying everywhere. The force behind it was absurd.
Ling immediately realized that Crismon's raw strength far surpassed his own superhuman power. He would need to fight smarter.
"Melissa! Victor! Attack!" Ling shouted as he dodged another swing.
He tried to keep Crismon occupied, but the giant was too fast, and his wide, powerful attacks covered an enormous area.
Victor unleashed a torrent of fireballs at Crismon. The flames struck the giant's body, but they seemed to have little effect. Crismon's thick, leathery skin appeared to absorb the heat, or perhaps he was simply resistant to fire.
He grunted, more annoyed than hurt, and swung his sword toward Victor, forcing him to leap backward to avoid being crushed.
Melissa, meanwhile, tried using the environment itself. She caused pillars of stone to erupt from the ground, attempting to trap Crismon's feet, but the giant simply crushed them beneath a stomp as if they were made of clay.
She tried to knock him down by shaking and splitting the ground beneath him, but Crismon's colossal mass made him seem immovable, standing firm like a mountain.
Her earth and metal attacks, which had been so effective against the henchmen, now felt like nothing more than scratches against Crismon's monstrous durability.
"It's useless, insects!" Crismon roared, his voice dripping with disdain. "You are nothing to me!"
Ling was the only one capable of getting close enough to inflict any damage. Using his agility, he slipped beneath Crismon's massive arms, delivering fast and precise strikes with his energy sword.
Each hit left a glowing mark across the giant's skin, but the wounds were shallow, barely bothering him.
Crismon, meanwhile, tried to crush Ling with either his bare hands or his sword, forcing the swordsman to keep moving constantly, leaving no opening for a more focused attack.
"We need a plan!" Victor shouted while dodging an energy blast fired from Crismon's sword. "He's too tough!"
"He's slow!" Melissa replied, raising a wave of stone in an attempt to throw Crismon off balance, without success. "But his strength is overwhelming!"
Seeing that direct attacks weren't enough, Ling tried a different tactic. He unleashed a series of cutting energy waves from his sword, not at Crismon, but at the cave ceiling, attempting to bring the stalactites crashing down onto him.
Crismon merely laughed, dodging some and smashing others apart with his blade.
"Cheap tricks!"
The battle turned into a desperate dance of evasions and ineffective attacks. Though Crismon wasn't the most agile fighter, he more than compensated with brute force and the massive range of his strikes.
He almost seemed entertained by the trio's frustration, toying with them like a cat playing with trapped mice.
Ling was exhausted, his muscles burning from the effort of maintaining his speed and precision.
Victor was draining an enormous amount of energy, and the flames around his hands were beginning to weaken.
Melissa was frustrated, her control over solid matter seeming useless against Crismon's immovable bulk.
In a moment of distraction, Crismon managed to slam Ling with a powerful shoulder strike.
The impact hurled the swordsman into a stone wall, which cracked under the force.
Ling collapsed onto the ground, dazed, his sword slipping from his hand.
"Ling!" Victor shouted, launching a wave of fire to distract Crismon, who turned toward him with a furious glare.
Seeing Ling in danger, Melissa acted on instinct.
She focused all her energy, causing the ground beneath Crismon's feet to harden and rise into a massive sharpened platform, attempting to impale him.
Caught off guard by the intensity of the attack, Crismon leapt backward, avoiding the worst of it, but the tip of the platform sliced across his leg, leaving behind a shallow wound that oozed a dark green liquid.
The giant stared at the injury, then at Melissa, his face twisting into savage fury.
"You scratched me!" he roared, his voice now filled with hatred. "I'll crush all of you!"
He charged forward again with renewed speed, his energy sword humming louder and brighter than before.
Still recovering, Ling realized they couldn't win this fight—not now. They needed a strategy, an advantage.
And above all else, they needed Zugiy.
"Fall back!" Ling shouted, struggling to stand. "We can't defeat him here!"
Though reluctant, Victor and Melissa understood.
They unleashed one final combined attack — Victor's fiery explosion and Melissa's storm of debris — creating a curtain of smoke and distraction.
Using the cover, the three turned and ran, while Crismon roared furiously behind them, his energy sword slicing through the air as he gave chase.
They were being hunted, but they were not defeated.
The cut on Crismon's leg was proof that even at a disadvantage, they could still wound him.
The battle was far from over.