Passing above the center of the central island Gregory leapt off the floating island, keeping the rope taut he used the rope as a swing and passed just above the goblin knights. They attempted to cut him down, swinging their weapons at him futilely as they yelled at him.
Approaching the dark lord, Gregory expertly twirled the looped end of the silken rope lassoing the dark lord just as it raised its head.
Jumping up as the rope settled around its neck it was just in time for Gregory to land firmly on its snout. Grabbing the spear with both hands he yanked as hard as he could but was unable to pull it out. No wonder the goblin knights hadn't been able to pull it out, it was stuck deeply into the bony ridge just above its eye, pulling it out would require great strength or the right technique.
Feeling pain, the dark lord bucked back trying to throw off this gnat that dared to harm it. Knocking over a few goblin knights in the process.
As he was being thrown around Gregory carefully timed the bucking to match the direction he wanted to go then he used an [Impact] to shatter the frontal lobe of the dark lord.
With that he was released and thrown right towards Chronos, while flying through the air he vaguely wondered how Chronos kept talking him into these crazy ideas of his.
Oh well, landing safely he took off running to the edge of the island.
"Squuueeal!"
The dark lord squealed in pain before charging after Gregory as fast as it could, it was truly enraged now. It was insulted that a mere gnat had harmed it so badly, even that wolf from a few days ago hadn't managed to injure it this much.
Knocking over anything in its path, including the goblin knights, it tore through the buildings that Gregory had ducked between determined to kill this gnat for its insult.
"This is bad. I might have made it too angry, I hope Chronos is ready when we pass by, otherwise, I'll be a dead man." Gregory thought as he ran faster than he ever had before.
Turning a corner to run along the edge of the island, he saw Chronos just ahead with what looked like 7 ethereal hammers above him. His face looked like he was struggling against the world just to hold them up.
"I'm almost there! Just 3 more seconds!" Gregory shouted as he ran.
Booom.
The building behind him exploded as the dark lord barreled through it.
On the other side of the square the hobgoblins and goblin knights had turned to assist the dark lord only to have 70% of them fall flat on their face.
"Attack now that spell won't keep them down for long!" Sariah yelled at the paladins as she stood up.
She had activated the final ability of [Lingering Misfortune], which had a chance to cause an instance of bad luck, to cause chaos and stop any enemies from reaching Chronos and Gregory. This would be their only chance to break the crystal right now and if they failed, they would be forced to retreat until Vice-Commander Adam arrived.
Few if any of the paladins would survive that.
Taking advantage of the chaos, the paladins struck every enemy they could reach, killing half of them before they were able to stand. Now they outnumbered the goblins and were able to push forward once more.
The goblin knights stood guard around the crystal, certain that the dark lord would return and kill these arrogant men. They deflected and slashed at every paladin that came too close, easily holding off the sudden uncoordinated rush.
Gregory ran past Chronos as the eighth ethereal hammer formed, one of the veins on his forehead pooped as he held onto them a few moments longer.
The dark lord was passing right in front of him when he released Echoforge with eight [Impact]'s attached to it, activating all of them in a single second.
Booooom
Slamming it into the boulder in front of him the boulder was launched faster than the speed of sound, flying like a cannonball it struck the dark lord solidly in its flank. At the same time Chronos was thrown backwards into the broken building by the backlash of holding more echoes than he was capable of.
Being knocked off balance when it was running at full speed caused it to hurtle off course right above the void. They had succeeded in pushing it off the island and into the void!
Squealing in pain once more it glared in the direction the boulder had come from only to see that annoying wolf from a few days ago. Oh, it was really mad now.
The dark lord thought, "That wolf will be the first one I'll stomp when I get back!"
It wasn't worried about the falling off the island, any dark beast that fell off of an island would immediately be sent back to the island after falling for a few seconds.
Zrrrp
The rope around its neck rapidly tightened, unable to slip over its skull and tusks, it hung the dark lord from the floating island.
"OH NO, it couldn't get back to the island if it didn't fall! That small wolf must have known that it would return right away and plotted this to keep it attached to an island and not technically falling into the void. This would stop it from returning until it got this damnable ropeoff." It fumed as it struggled against the rope.
The dark lord burst into flames to burn through the rope as fast as possible, but it would still take several minutes or more to burn a silken rope.
Seeing their plan succeed Chronos stood up from the ground, ignoring his injuries from the backlash, and turned to the center of the island.
The paladins were doing their best to bypass the goblin knights and the hobgoblins they had rallied. Lyla and Sariah were under attack by several hobgoblins, but Gregory was already running to assist them.
In front of him was one goblin knight in between him and the crystal, the same one that had taken his axes from the dark lord. It was already calling for help as it stared at him.
Chronos charged forward to kill it and break the crystal. Pulling out the two small falchions he clashed with the goblin knight again and again, it didn't take long for him to realize that he wouldn't get past this goblin easily with how injured he was.
He was barely keeping up with it right now and he could see 3 hobgoblins turn to assist the goblin knight.
Chronos decided to do something he knew he would regret tomorrow. He used the [Blood-Scent Surge] technique from the Fangbound Martial arts, a technique that would boost his strength and reaction speed to ridiculous levels but caused target fixation and could only be used after first blood was drawn.
The whole world slowed down as his eyes turned red, the goblins in front of him seemed so...insignificant surely not worthy of the blood-scent state, as this state was called. Then he saw the crystal protected by a whole group of goblin knights, now that was a worthy target.
"Hooowwl." Letting out a deafening howl that was imbued with [Roar] he shoved the goblin knight in front of him to the ground.
Leaping past him three hobgoblins now stood in his way, without hesitation he threw his two falchions at them. They flew so fast that both targets were impaled before they could react, one weakling left.
When Gregory heard that distinctive howl, he turned just in time to see Chronos plow through three goblins heading straight for the crystal.
"Chronos catch!" Calling out to Chronos he threw the spear he was carrying ahead of him, then turned back to assist Lyla again.
Seeing the spear flying in his direction Chronos became more excited as he charged inside the last hobgoblins sword range. When it swung at him the [Fang Within the Arc] technique activated, sending out a small bolt of aura that struck the hobgoblin's wrist delaying his swing for less than a second. But that was enough time for Chronos to use his claws and rip out its throat.
Catching his spear Chronos thrust forward with [Aura Edge] enhancing his spear.
Claang. kchrk.
The spear had damaged the crystal but not broken it.
Thunk. Thunk. "Ugh."
Behind him the goblin knight had chopped down planting both axes into his back. Tasting the blood in his mouth Chronos ignored the goblin knight and took a step forward driving the spear deep into the crystal and using [Impact] to shatter it from the inside out.
The side closest to Chronos exploded sending shards into his body as the void around them broke with massive cracks crossing the sky. Their surroundings dissolved and reformed in the real world as Chronos heard an angry beast behind him.
"Squeeaal!"
The dark lord had returned in the last few seconds of the battle. It was now standing right behind Chronos, and it was angrier than ever before.