Grand Saint Alloy

Several wooden poles slammed into the tier five anima elemental. It was strong, and not all five stakes hit the organ sack, but three did. Five stakes tore it apart, it was more durable than the fire version, but it did not matter. These bolts were made to kill civil protectors in a single shot, so the elemental did not stand a chance against five of them.

Siren followed the shots in. The other earth elemental was a tier four, and he wanted to keep it away from his men. With all the earth essence scattered around it would both be harder to damage and heal substantially faster. Jumping from the edge of the pit, Siren made sure that the roof of the cave cloaked him in darkness.

The elemental never saw him coming. Siren wrapped himself in diamond plate that increased his weight by around three hundred pounds. He hammered the stone skeleton into the ground like a nail. Now that he was in direct sunlight, his shadow cloak would not work, but he had other tools.

The elemental shoved Siren off and staggered to its feet. Scorch marks and hairline fractures covered its body, and the blood vessels that normally framed the bones were pounded to powder. Siren knew that as long as the heart was intact, the body would reform, good as new. He drew his trusty maul.

It was a diamond bladed axe, originally used by a lumberjacking family. Siren had seen value in a tier three artifact that focused entirely on durability and self repair. He paid three talents for it, and it had saved his life many times over. There was something about a thirty pound slab of sharpened stone that solved most violent encounters.

The elemental’s jaw creaked open like it was releasing a battle cry. Siren grinned and copied it. It charged, but Siren held his ground. His reach was longer, he swung his maul in an intercept path with the elemental’s skull. Any real opponent would have dodged or tried to block. The elemental charged madly into the maul’s path.

Its stone skull was blown apart, scattering fragments that started dissolving into brown smoke. The elemental did not need its head, so it did not stop. It was what made them so dangerous, even a fool could be dangerous if there was only one way to put them down.

Siren relied on the power of his armor, it was diamond, but despite its density, it was still brittle. Still, it was enough to resist the attempted grapple from the elemental. His fingers sharpened into obsidian blades as he stepped into the grasp of the elemental. It grabbed him by the shoulder and head, while he sunk his hand into its chest cavity.

The elemental tore his helmet off as he tore its heart out and crushed it. It collapsed dissolving as the focus for its entire existence was removed. Siren caught the helmet and placed it back on his head, it cost most of his earth essence to manifest this armor from his kern. It felt good to tear apart elementals that used to be a terror to his men. In his youth, he had always pictured himself as a shield, but then he had gotten a perfect assassin's kern. He had chosen to be a shield anyway.

“Siren watch out!” Someone on the pit’s wall yelled.

He barely had time to turn before the anima elemental barreled into him. The first thing that Siren thought was, that this thing hits way harder than the elemental lord did. Its mass was far higher than it should be, Siren was two heads taller and in armor. Despite that, this anima elemental weighed slightly more.

How was this thing alive? Siren punched it twice in the face, shattering the plates on both his knuckles, but also driving the elemental a step back. Five bolts stuck out of it, feathers sticking out one side and sharp metal protruding out the other. The sack had been penetrated, but like many warriors would leave an arrow alone to prevent blood loss, this elemental had done something similar. It was leaking essence, it would die, but it also wanted to take Siren down before then.

The elemental stepped back in, throwing in a meaty fist. Siren blocked. The fist powered through the block, its weight and the difference in tiers enough to force its way through. Siren tried to sidestep, but it took a lot to get his armor moving. Most of the time it was not an issue, this time it slowed him enough to take the hit directly to his chest plate.

Siren would have died right then without his armor. The plate shattered, launching Siren back. He bowled right over the water elemental. Evidently, it was tier three, getting pasted by Siren’s bulk. Shakily, Siren took a deep breath, that punch had at least fractured a rib or two.

The anima elemental lumbered forward. It was slow, but force was a combination of speed and mass, giving it plenty of striking power. Standing straight, Siren felt something scrape across his back. He looked over his shoulder, then back at the elemental. These ones showed a startling degree of intelligence, he wondered how far it went.

The elemental started building up speed. Siren got into a fighting position, both fists raised and balancing on the balls of his feet. He dismissed his armor back into the essence it was made of, reabsorbing it back into his kern. Wearing it had actually caused more issues than assistance. The elemental hurtled towards Siren, it was now going too fast to stop, it was the downside of having high mass.

Siren rolled aside, gritting his teeth at his rib’s protest. The elemental crashed directly into the line of spikes behind Siren. It had been designed to stop charges, and it worked marvelously. The elemental impaled itself on three different steel spikes. Siren knew this would not stop it, so he placed a foot on its back and grabbed two bolts. One by the head and one by the fletching.

He strained his back and arms, shoving away with his foot. Slowly at first the two wooden stakes slid out. The elemental realized that the removal of those stakes signified its death. It tore itself off the spikes and tried to reach back and grab Siren. The lack of joints made it relatively easy for the elemental to reach Siren.

So Siren stopped using the hardness of his earth kern and activated the stealth of his dark on. He released the elemental and ran around it. The anima elemental was familiar with the camouflage and kept groping behind itself for Siren. He had gone around the elemental and chose to focus on a single bolt. Using both hands he ripped the bolt out.

Glowing brown intestines slopped out of the hole. Siren staggered back to avoid a punch that shattered the ground when it impacted. The metal spikes pricked his back, drawing some of his thick blood. Quickly, he ducked under the spike as the elemental reached for him again. He was trapped, there was no way he would outmuscle this thing, and he did not have the time to outlast it.

He watched the hand approach. A boom echoed in the cave and the elemental staggered back. A sixth bolt pierced the area where the heart would normally be. In any other circumstances, it would have been a great shot. As it was, this one was good enough. Siren slipped between the spikes and back to relative safety.

The anima elemental still tried to get to Siren, but it was too late. With whatever these things had in place of a kern spilling all over the dirt, it collapsed and started to dissolve. Wearily, Siren climbed the side of the pit, he would get his maul when Luke was done with his.

Siren turned towards the intense exchange between the air elemental and Luke. It was very even, Luke had quite a few scratches and the elemental was still moving unhindered. Why wasn’t he using his lightning? This elemental was known to be weak to fire, it could be eaten alive if the flames were strong enough.

Luke staggered back after getting the worst of the exchange, he saw Sirens fight conclude and yelled, “Everyone, get out!”

At first, Siren was confused. Why, they could help. Even if the elemental was releasing a toxic gas, they had cut a hole in the roof to reduce the efficacy of that exact situation. Shaking his head, he remembered who Luke was, he was crazy, not stupid.

“Everyone out!” Siren yelled pointing up at the sky.

The dozen warriors, Siren, and Henry, scrambled up the ladders to the surface. Most of the warriors were slightly scared of the boy. It was disconcerting to be manhandled by someone barely old enough to grow a full beard. They did not want to be in the middle of what was about to happen.

Siren got to the top and helped Henry with the last part, “Why are we leaving him?”

“He knows what he’s doing,” Siren then cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled, “CLEAR!”

Henry flinched away from Siren, then staggered back at the conflagration that lit up in the cave. Luke went from a normal warrior to some sort of lightning demigod in less than a second. Hestia’s Sickle boosted his abilities and he moved faster than even the civil protector could follow. The sparking flaming crescent of metal rammed through the elemental’s heart and the creature composed of combustible essence exploded.

The fireball rattled the viewer's teeth. Siren could only hope that the sickle gave Luke some resistance to fire. After a few moments, a breeze picked up and the smoke started to slowly get pushed out. It took a few minutes for visibility to be reestablished. Siren had expected black soot marks to be coating the room, Instead, there was a black mark in a starburst pattern with Luke slightly off center from it.

He was coughing, waving his hand to get some sort of smell out of his face. He looked up a Tristan who was staring wide eyed at his friend, “You remember when we thought it would be cool if we saw an air elemental.”

Tristan nodded, “We thought it would be invisible.”

Luke grinned his white teeth and gem green eyes made him look a little deranged. A look that was not helped when the boy started laughing, “They’re just farts with an attitude problem.”

Henry looked over at Siren, “You people are all crazy aren’t you?”