WIth [Absolute Body Enhancement] no longer active Ajax had to rely on his armor’s enchantments to protect him from the crushing grip of the vines that wrapped around his body. As much as he wanted to go, the edge of his vision had already started to slowly darken from the lack of Mana and Stamina. As a last ditch effort Ajax used all his strength to move his arm close enough to his mouth that he could bring the flask out of his spacial ring close enough that his mouth could latch on to the bottle to drink.
The rejuvenation elixir should help Ajax recover about one thousand Mana and Stamina over the next few minutes but until then all he could do was stay put and hope nobody was going to come and finish the job.
Looking at the devastation around him Ajax could tell his final attack did its job but it didn’t finish it, the mage’s enchanted gear was enough to throw his attack off target enough that it hit the beastkin in the chest, just missing the heart and pinning the champion to the tree behind him. The king on the other hand was hanging helplessly on the tip of the spear slowly but surely bleeding out. The only being really moving around their battlefield was Auraxion who was slowly but surely starting to get up.
The rest of the battlefield had clearly been keeping an eye on the battle that was going down there but since they were all engaged in combat nobody was paying that close attention so when no clear winner presented themselves both sides were starting to worry.
“My king…” The words all but slipped out of the high general’s mouth. With the battle in front of him he couldn’t even extend his senses to find out what happened all he knew was that the fighting in that area had stopped for now.
“Don’t let up now!” The prince’s voice echoed over the battlefield. “It’s almost over!”
The prince himself was extremely worried about Ajax, unlike the high general however he a small bit of insight as to what had happened during the fight, he knew just how draining Ajax’s Pseudo-Mythic Skill was so he expected that Ajax wasn’t dead just dead tired. All he needed to do was to make sure no enemy champion got to him before Aurexion picked him up. And the best way to do that was to kill the enemy and make sure nobody had time to go check on the results of the battle.
With Ajax taking on four champions including three of the strongest enemy champions as well as an entire high elite squad the battle between the rest of the champions had also been going more their way. The number of dead had climbed above the initial five that the beastkin had lost to Aranor’s spell. Over the last few minutes of combat Evelyn as well as two more of Gryndor’s champions had been injured badly enough that they had to retreat to heal, the Republic lost two champions as well. In return however they had killed another five from the beastkin and five more had been forced to retreat for healing , not accounting for the two Ajax had killed or the other two he had left dying.
The numbers had started off as fifteen against thirty five and now they were looking at seven against thirteen. The tide was clearly turning and the elites of both armies were finally starting to get close to the battlefield now that both sides were reaching a point where their mages had exhausted most of their Mana and the elites could actually make a difference once more against physically based champions only.
Just because the beastkin still almost had a two to one advantage however didn’t mean that the odds hadn’t changed from how they were when the battle first started. Almost all of the beastkin champions were wounded, the ones that remained were simply the ones whose wounds weren’t so bad that they were forced to retreat.
Aranor’s breathing was labored, his entire body felt heavy and his Mana was down to close to one thousand yet he couldn’t help but glance in the direction of where the battle between Ajax and the king took place. As much as he trusted in young Duke he was expecting the king to show himself at any moment considering the odds Ajax had faced, he could only take solace in the fact that Aurexion wasn’t showing any signs that his bond had died and keep fighting to ensure that remained so.
“Ambush!” Glandir’s words came out of nowhere a moment before Aranor felt himself be thrown by his friend followed closely by an explosion adding more power to the throw, Aranor’s enchantments were the only reason he didn’t have any broken bones after bounced off the ground a few times before he regained his footing.
“Finally the cowards show themselves.” The high general spat to one side, blood mixing in with the saliva as he looked to the edge of the battlefield. “If we didn’t need their help I’d have made sure they were the first ones to die.”
The prince and the entire battlefield reacted as one as the cloaked presence of four champions appeared on the edge. Four short silhouettes, three of them almost as wide as they were tall.
“Highmountain.” The prince said, a hint of fear finally creeping into his voice. The bad feeling he’d had ever since the high general hadn’t looked worried despite Ajax heading over to kill the king and the beastkin champions were being whittled down. “They were waiting until Ajax and Aurexion were out of the fight and Aranor was low on Mana.”
“Like I said, cowards.” The high general was quicker to adapt to the situation as he had been expecting the arrival of Highmountain’s champions, using their entrance as a distraction to not only put some distance between himself and the prince but also free up two of the more injured younger champions. “Go check on the king.”
The prince tried to stop the two champions from heading in Ajax’s direction but the high general didn’t let him. The rest of the champions on their side also couldn’t stop the two of them as they had to brace themselves for the four champions that were about to reinforce the beastkin.
As the fighting began anew the remaining champion fighting for the Republic were quickly forced to huddle together for protection. The four new additions to the battlefield weren’t like a large number of the beastkin champions, they were the average power champion with hundreds of years of experience climbing their way up to levels past one hundred and seventy a century ago.
Aranor had taken out a potion from his spacial storage and downed it despite knowing that taking another potion so soon would have permanent consequences for him should he survive the battle.
“To think that Highmountain had fallen so low as to work together with the likes of them.” Aranor taunted the new additions in hopes of buying a few moments for his potion to take effect.
“You've nobody but yerself to blame, you knife-eared bean sprout.” the clear leader of the Highmountain champions answered back. “We would’ve been happy to stand back and watch the lot of youse kill each other. You can only blame yerself for working together to help grow that abomination. His level of power was already worrying during that tournament and then you let him delve two more kingdoms wurf of dungeons.”
“I’ll go make sure he don’t get back up.” another of the Highmountain commented before he headed off after the two beastkin champions.
Neither Aranor, the prince nor any other champion there could do anything to intercept the champion. The only thing they could do was hope that Ajax was alive and that Aurexion would have recovered enough to protect him by now.
Both armies had been forced to retreat once again as the champions had clustered together making their attempts at helping their own side useless. It was too soon for the champions that had managed to retreat in time for healing to rejoin the battle just yet but the first few to have retreated would probably be able to retake the field soon if the battle dragged on for much longer.
“Buy me some time and I’ll give you an opening.” Aranor’s words were but a whisper in the wind yet all the champions around him heard him and knew this was their best chance to make it out alive.
The battle heated up once more, this time the battlefield condensed as spells and champions clashed with a protective circle being formed around Aranor who once again started chanting and channeling large amounts of Mana.