Three horses galloped to the direction of the crying beast.
Rud and Heimer shared on one horse, he was the only aether wielder of suitable height and strength to hold up Heimer who was tied up to him.
Paul the other viable option was on another horse, he shared it with Laura, while his copy Saul remained behind.
And on the third horse were Leo and Dan.
They all had their aether released, their eyes glowed in respect to the colour of their halos, their weapons were holstered on their back.
"How far can you see" Leo asked Dan.
"About thirty metres around me, perfectly clearly, but after then it just fades out.
And you?" Dan queried.
Leo was getting chills just staring at it, his eyes were infused with a lot of aether as they glowed crimson.
He could see nearly seventy metres in radius.
"Well…a little bit more." Leo replied.
As it wailed it poured acid from its mouth everywhere around it.
The great sword Heimer had summoned was directly lodged directly into its spine, staking it to the ground.
It bled, yet it was not dead, in fact it was now more ferocious.
With a tongue that stretched outward more than twice its own length flailing around, and a long massive tail doing the same, there were hardly any openings.
The range it could inflict damage from was more than thirty meters, but that only applied to its front.
"Follow around it,...I- need to get my shield." Heimer grunted.
"Yes sir.
Why not just summon another?" Rud wondered, but he went along with the order nonetheless.
Rud maneuvered the lead horse around the beast, the others followed.
[Keuk!] Heimer spewed out more blood as he attempted speaking.
"Sir you're overdoing it" said Rud with a worried tone.
Heimer smiled and shook his head as he gently gave Rud orders to dish out.
Heimer's gold eyes were fading, the same with his halo.
They stopped metres away behind the corrupted beast, it was still flailing and wailing in agony.
Heimer's shield rested just beside it.
"Everyone…come close!" Rud said.
They immediately gathered around the horse Heimer was on.
"That thing, its cries may bring more if there are any." Rud said calmly.
"More? Of that?!" Paul pointed out in sheer absurdity.
"We don't have time for this, he is on his last legs and so is it." Rud responded as he looked at Heimer who was tied to him.
Heimer nodded at him.
Rud shifted his gaze back to address them.
"Our main goal is to retrieve his shield, follow the plan…make sure to avoid the liquid from its mouth, it is avery potent acid.
Laura…notify us of anything new is coming through.
Dan, run around it and aim for the eyes." Rud ordered.
"I only have ten knives on right now.
What if I miss, no?" Dan questioned as he demonstrated by speeding his arms.
True to his words the holster around his body only had ten knives.
Rud looked him straight in the eye.
"Then don't." He replied.
He turned his gaze to Paul.
"Can you attempt cutting the tail?" Dan asked Paul.
It was one of those questions with the falsehood of choice.
There was only one reply Paul could give;
"Yes!" He said.
Now he looked at Leo.
"Untie me…" He said.
Leo heeded the command and did so, they gently rested Heimer on the ground.
"You're the fastest amongst us, i"ll keep the tongue at bay…somehow.
While I do that…" Russ voice faded into the night.
–
The attack had began, they were positioned at all angles.
Dan was the first to start attacking.
He ran around the beasts frontal area, distances away from it.
He looked it straight in the eye, his palms were sweaty beneath his armour.
Then took a look at the shield that was right in front of him beside it.
"let's do this
Yaaa!" With an explosion at his fingertips, he threw an aura infused knife at it, aiming straight for the eye.
It flew straight at it, cutting through the air at incredible speeds.
[Fwoop] The beast wiped the knife away with its tongue.
"What is Rud doing?!" He questioned internally.
He threw two more knives, the next had the same outcome as the one that preceded it.
While the second lodged itself into the tongue, but not deeply as it dropped out and fell to the ground.
"Tch!" Dan was getting frustrated.
–
At the same time as Dan's attack Paul dragged his scythe along the ground walking towards its tail.
"It's just a tail.
I have the easiest task of all." Paul muttered to himself to keep calm.
"But is that really just a tail?
It is taller than I am even it its shortest point, how does Rud expect me to cut that." Paul's mind was riddled with questions.
He watched the tail carefully, watching its movements, it was sinusoidal yet unpredictable.
Paul ran calculations within his mind without any time to spare.
He coated himself in a very thick blue aura which flowed through his scythe as well.
He charged at the beast, with mustered up determination.
At his final step he took a short leap to the beast, taking a huge swing at it.
!
[Clang!] It felt as if he had hit a block of steel, as his blade grazed the metal like plating sparks flew everywhere and not a single dent was left on it.
Those were the least of his worries, the tail took a hard swing to the opposite direction.
Its eyes protruded outwards from the side of its head, it turned its eyeball, now looking straight at Paul.
"What the…" Paul was shaken.
?!
He looked to his right and immediately held his scythe against his body, putting all his aura in it and even managing to manifest a thin layer of pure water.
The tail hit him with such unbelievable force, sending him flying through the air, with his scythe and aether mitigating some of the damage.
[Thud thud thud] He skipped through the ground away from the general direction of everyone else.
He groaned in pain.
If he didn't feel the maximum brunt of the hit, he most definitely did from the fall.
He wasn't left unscathed this time as he sustained multiple injuries and a concussion.
The last thing he saw before falling unconscious was a red line of light cutting through the body of the beast in a near instant.