The Price of Hesitation

'I shouldn't have gone ahead of the army' was Kalgar's only thought as he starts to realize just how much of a pinch he is in.

Kalgar stands across Glut and Ren, all three of them having taken their weapons out and have prepared themselves for battle.

Kalgar reached out his one hand then whispered, [Pestiius] manifesting more than a hundred fireballs behind him.

Glut, aware of the danger of the attack, rushed forward with a loud bang trying to get to Kalgar before the spell finishes.

Just as Glut was about a body's length away from Kalgar, the fireballs launched, focusing on him and some on Ren.

Glut jumped back, creating walls of Earth as he did.

[Petrifem] Ren shouted creating a shockwave that made all the fireballs approaching her turn to dust then flew in the wind.

Without stopping, Ren quickly followed by another shout [Petrifem Maxima] materializing a concentrated beam of mana from her going straight for Kalgar

Noticing the spell, Kalgar whispered [Summon Undead] creating 12 undead which caught Ren's spell, turning 11 of them to stone.

"That was too close for comfort," Kalgar mumbled to himself.

Noticing that the fireballs chasing Glut were quickly diminishing in numbers Kalgar cast "Hellfire" making 16 small blue fireballs that melted the surrounding air. Then after a few moments, he waved his hand then the flames flew towards his two opponents.

'Crap!' Ren exclaimed in her thoughts then faced Glut, with the fireballs still on his tail.

"GLUT!" Ren shouted.

"YES" Glut replied.

Waving her towering totem, [Firiato]! Ren shouted. Glut turned into dust before appearing in front of Ren.

'Ren can do Earth magic?!' Kalgar thought to himself.

[Pesula] Glut calmly whispered as tens of earthen walls formed a dome surrounding both him and Ren.

[Split]! Kalgar breathed, splitting the flying fireballs to 32 pieces as they blasted and melted their way through the Earthen dome.

"Speed me up," Glut faced to Ren.

Hearing Glut, Ren planted her totem to the ground, creating a wave of magic that highlighted Glut with a green hue.

"Stay like that and trust me."

"I do, Glut." Ren smiled weakly.

"Are you hesitating Ren?"

"But I love him." Ren replied as a teardrop fell on her beautiful cheek

To which, Glut simply patted Ren's head with his metallic hand. "I don't know how to comfort."

Wiping her tear, Ren fiercely looked at Glut, "Get ready Glut the dome is almost destroyed. We shall end this now."

While the two were still in the dome, Kalgar looked back and noticed the quickly approaching army of the undead.

With a blank face, he continued to bombard the dome with flames.

Right when the last earthen wall is destroyed, a bright flash came out, blinding him, then the moment he opened his eyes, Glut is hurling himself towards him at unfathomable speed.

With a racing heart, he shouted, [Ascend!] lifting him very high.

But when he looked down, he saw Glut hurling at him then swung is huge axe, barely reaching him but still causing a huge wound on his stomach.

"CRAP!" Kalgar shouted while holding his wound then saw Ren gracefully dancing with mana around her totem to support Glut.

For a moment, Kalgar wanted that to be the last thing he sees.

Steeling himself, Kalgar whispered to himself, "I need to get to the army"

The army is not very far from him now.

He kept on evading Glut's earth-shattering slashes as he descends to the direction of the army.

Not far from the army, he chanted, [Devour me, Dragon's mouth!]

Suddenly, the earth shook when from the plains, a huge mouth came out and devoured Kalgar and landed on the plains while Glut stopped midair and retreated to Ren.

"Are you fine, Ren?" He asked

"Still holding up, the mandrakes should be done now. Let's retreat to the forest and wait for them to enter then kill them there."

"Understood."

After being devoured by the mouth, Kalgar immediately cast heal spells on himself.

The mouth opened, revealing the lich making his way to Kalgar while the undead pass by them.

"Sir. Kalgar, shall we proceed to the forest?"

"Yes, keep casting fire magic as you go."

"Yes, sir."

"He could have killed me there with the dragon mouth" Glut grumbled as he and Ren entered the forest then started regaining their mana.

Facing Glut, Ren rebuked "You could have killed him as well"

Shortly, Anwen (the Queen mandrake) arrived, together with two mandrakes that look just like her but smaller and with different faces on their masks.

"Our preparations are done, Ms. Ren."

"They will probably start burning the forest, be careful."

"Yes, Ms. Ren," Anwen replied as she started crawling at an unprecedented speed.

"You think they can handle the undead?" worried, Glut asked.

Hearing that, Ren could only smile. "I would pity the undead, mandrakes eat human bones for breakfast for heaven's sake, this would not be more than a buffet for them."

"But there's too many of them."

"Don't worry Glut, Anwen is a spell caster, she uses the elven language as well, same as us."

"I see, I shall keep moving now while Kalgar is wounded, you stay there and regain your mana"

"Alright."

Outside the forest again, Glut held his axe that suddenly became double his size. Holding it with two hands.

He ran towards the army, dragging the axe and leaving huge cracks on the soil he passes by.

When he arrived at the position of the undead, he swung his axe like a paperweight, cleaving tens of skeletons and undead as he passes even cleaning hounds in half.

Suddenly a hound managed to hold his feet, disturbing his balance and making him fall. He smashed the ground, creating a tremor that toppled every skeleton near him. He made his axe smaller due to the loss of momentum then proceeded with slashing and hacking skeletons.

Then, a biting cold slid through his neck armor.

'Ice magic?!' He thought as a lich separated itself the mass of skeletons and started creating sharp icicles aimed at him.

[Liquify] the lich said as he touched an undead, turning it into water. After that, he whispered, [Freeze] turning the water to icicles and proceeded to throw them unto Glut.

This continued on, Glut getting assaulted by skeletons from all sides while avoiding sharp icicles.

Then suddenly, the icicles disappeared. Only for him to see the lich already beside him at it whispered, [Freeze]. Turning Glut into ice.

Afterwards, the lich conjured a blue flame and pointed it towards the forest, and when he pointed the flame, the undead started to rush towards the forest.

"Sleep now, Sir Glut," the Lich said then turned to the forest.

Just as the undead started entering the forest and setting the trees on fire, hundreds of hands came out of the ground and grabbed the undead, dragging them underground one by one.

"Sadly, the forest's soil is rich in water, [Freeze]." Freezing the soil together with the hundreds of skeletons and mandrakes under it.

After freezing the soil, hundreds of mandrakes just a little taller than the skeletons appeared and came out of the unaffected soil then started massacring the skeletons, eating them and tearing them apart. However, they died shortly one after the other as the lich created hundreds of icicles targeted at each and every mandrake.

Then, roots and vines came out, destroying the flying icicles, going directly in the lich's direction. The lich managed to evade and destroy every incoming root and vines.

But just then, the lich's right arm got cut. Surprised, the lich quickly liquified a skeleton then formed a barrier of ice around himself, only to be destroyed as soon as it got created.

[Purifiato Maxima] a soothing voice said behind the lich. He was not able to check the source because as soon as he heard the voice, he met his death, entangled in thousands of vines shining with a bright light.

"Get rid of the remaining skeletons, my children," Anwen shouted as she devoured the lich in one bite.

In a few minutes, barely any skeletons and some hounds remained. They were either eaten or eaten twice after being erected. Looking at the hounds, Anwen frowned before killing them all with one spell.

When the lich died, its magic on Glut wore off and the big hunk of armor was thawed. "Good thing it wasn't a curs- AGH"

Glut got interrupted by a sharp pain in his chest.

Looking down, he could see a hole where his soul core would have been.

"K-Kalgar?" Glut whimpered.

"I'm sorry it's come to this, Glut."

"Kal..Kalgar, D-do you remember when" Glut's light is starting to flicker.

"When?" Kalgar replied.

"When we wou-would play with the masters. When they were young..." Glut mumbled with a child's voice.

"Yes Glut, I do remember."

"I-I dearly wish they would happen aga-"

"Rest now, Glut. It would comfort me knowing you won't experience what happens in this world." Kalgar interrupted.

"It seems I really never grew up, Kalg-" Glut whispered before he turned to dust, flying freely in the sky.

"Only your armor did," Kalgar said with a light smile while watching Glut's dust fly away.

Meanwhile, in the forest, sensing the disappearance of Glut's magic signature, Ren flew as fast as she can to where she last sensed Glut only to see Kalgar looking at her in the eyes without a hint of emotion, Glut's soul in his hand slowly crumbling into dust.

Seeing that, Ren looked at Kalgar with only disbelief and hatred in her eyes, "Y-YOU"

"I'm sorry, Ren. I would do anything for my Lord," Kalgar dispassionately replied before manifesting hundreds of fireballs.