The Homeseeker: Elemental Adventurer LitRPG [Isekai] (Series Complete!)

Dimak threw a slab of Elemental Earth above them to defend against Morloch's lightning, but the bolt twisted around the earth and landed squarely in Dimak's heart. The Elemental Earth user bellowed in pain and fell back clutching his chest tightly. His body twitched involuntarily on the ground as he writhed in pain.

"I could never start a heart with this Element," Morloch told Zalan. "But I may have managed to stop one with this."

He jumped high in the air as eight different counterattacks shot his way, each standing fighter trying desperately to leave a mark against him. Morloch sent down another two bolts of lightning, shocking Yelsa both times, forcing her to drop her weapon.

"Gorb, send me up," Zalan demanded.

Gorb stomped on the ground and fired Zalan upward like a bottle-rocket. Zalan imbued himself in blinding light and fired with all his energy, trying desperately to blind Morloch. He reached out to him as he attacked, hoping to grab hold in the air. If he could just touch him, he could connect the mask of light onto his face and blind him permanently. But Morloch maintained his distance by flying backward and held out a shield of sand ahead of him. As Zalan went falling back down, Rep shot up, throwing several shots of flame on his way to try and overwhelm Morloch as he rose. Morloch blasted him back down in a powerful wind. Gorb caught both of his friends with a basket of wind as they came down.

"By God, what is that man?" Moss asked.

"Moss, make a rope. And make sure it's thick like oak. Something that we can tie onto him to keep him to the ground," Zalan said. "So long as he's in the air, he has the advantage. Enzo, when the rope is complete, douse it in as much water as possible!"

Moss nodded and ran behind the closest outcropping of broken stones to hide while he manifested a dense rope as fast as he could.

"His Elemental Water and Sand are weaker than ours," Enzo said, referring to himself and Magnolia. "But he enhances every strike and redirection with his other powers. We are all outmatched."

"Slauson, try and get him with some sort of Elemental Ice Power," Zalan said desperately. "It's the only power he doesn't have control over that can do blunt force damage to him. He keeps blocking my light."

"Understood," Slauson said, forging a small blizzard between his hands.

The six allies on their feet scattered as a rain of fire and lightning shot into the ground exploding on contact. Zalan's heart went ablaze with adrenaline, every explosion feeling like it could mean death if it was an inch closer.

"Gorb, send up some of my ice, I need to attach it to him," Slauson said urgently.

"It will be done," Gorb said, creating a funnel of air directed upward.

Morloch swam around the sky, wondering how best to attack the floundering group of fighters below. With Gorb's assistance, Slauson sent a fine powder of ice up, connecting as much as they could to the flying man above. Morloch sent down a spray of water, creating a shallow puddle across the quarry. Then he blasted it all with lightning summoned from the sky.

Enzo threw the water away from everyone in a desperately fast move, over exerting himself and becoming too sluggish to dodge the direct blast of lightning. Blinding energy coursed through him, his body flailing and teeth grit. He fell to his knees, his eyes screwed tight. Zalan was thankful—as much as he could be mid-battle—that Morloch had taken his Lightning Element at a relatively low level. Any higher and the damage being done would have been fatal.

"Zalan?" Dimak groaned, doubled over in pain. "We need a new plan."

"I don't know!" Zalan said.

"I have him!" Slauson announced.

Morloch's body went stiff and he came crashing down, thudding against the ground. Gorb and Zalan darted toward him, preparing to deliver final blows. When he touched the floor, water exploded from his body, spreading more water across the battlefield. Morloch imbued himself in lightning, conducting the area around him with deadly sparks and causing Zalan to stop short in hesitation. Gorb flew over it, but lightning sprouted from above him and shot him down from out of the air.

"How can he attack so much when he is immobile? Where is the water coming from?" Slauson asked, baffled.

"Just get him!" Zalan screamed.

Morloch imbued himself in a quick shot of flames, unfroze, then jumped up. He locked eyes with Slauson and darted across the quarry in a blast of air, slamming into him and dragging him across the ground while sending lightning through his body.

Enzo and Magnolia rushed in front of his flight path. Magnolia created a wall of sand while Enzo fired water in a wild spray behind Morloch. The hits had taken its toll on him. Morloch stopped short of the wall and turned around, away from the two, continuing to drag Slauson across the ground. Moss dove out from behind the rock he hid behind.

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"Let him go!" Moss demanded, stabbing Morloch's shin with a wooden knife he produced from his palm.

Morloch screamed and kicked Moss away with a boost of air, sending him flying across the quarry and slamming into an outcropping of a broken building. Moss slid to the ground unconscious. Morloch threw Slauson's body aside and raced into the air, only to be caught tightly by something on his leg. He yelled out in pain, having pulled against his leg hard enough to finally cause him some form of injury. Morloch's eyes raced to his feet, and were stunned to see ropes wrapped around his leg.

Moss wrapped him at the same time as he stabbed him, the latter distracting from the former. He was stuck hovering about twenty feet in the air.

Reacting immediately, Morloch pointed his arm at the shackles, and burned them with targeted flames. When his fire relented, he saw he was still chained down.

Zalan now saw that Enzo had been firing his water at the rope, not a random spray. The rope was too dense and drenched to be burned through, but they couldn't trust that it would last long.

Rep and Zalan fired on Morloch's head with their respective powers, but he shielded himself in a helmet of sand. Magnolia ran under the rope holding Morloch and tried to pry the helmet of sand open from a distance, pulling with strained muscles. Just as it looked like a hole was forming, Morloch sent down lighting right into Magnolia's head, striking her down immediately. Her eyes rolled into her head as she fell face first to the floor.

Dimak hurtled two boulders at Morloch from opposite directions, but the powerful enemy dipped beneath them. Gorb, his face covered in charred outlines from a direct strike of lighting, shot up and tackled Morloch, slamming him into the ground. He shot a blast of air like a massive industrial fan on Morloch, using his weight and power to keep him pinned on the ground. His two arms pushed hard on Morloch to keep him in place while the air blasted through Morloch with enough force to keep him focused just on redirecting the one Element.

Zalan ran after him, just a few seconds needed to close the gap. Rep, Dimak, Enzo, and Yelsa ran with him. With dread in his heart, Zalan realized just how many people had already fallen. And Morloch looked like he was ready to continue fighting for much longer.

"You insufferable savages! You have no chance against me! Power is everything and you have none!" Morloch bellowed.

"Zalan! The Artifact!" Gorb reached his hand out urgently.

"Do you think you are at such an advantage that you do not need both hands to hold me down?" Morloch asked, offended.

Morloch kicked Gorb off of him powerfully and held him in place with an orb of air around him. Gorb struggled in the barrier of air, flailing to try and redirect it away from him. Before Gorb could get his bearings, Morloch zapped lighting and fire into the orb, sending Gorb into a fit of pained screams. Dimak imbued himself in earth and tackled Morloch. Morloch shifted his weight around and zipped around the force of the tackle using Elemental Air to maneuver around the rock-armored man. But the change of focus did allow Gorb to fall to the ground, no longer accosted by multiple Elemental attacks.

Zalan, finally having reached close quarters with Morloch, ran at him fully imbued with his sword raised high. As he brought his weapon down, he was slapped aside in an immensely powerful wall of wind, sending him tumbling ruthlessly along the quarry. He came to a halt when his foot kicked painfully into one of the rocks in the quarry. Several newly formed wounds on his arms and legs. Ignoring the painful stings from his muscles, it took Zalan a precious few seconds to reorient himself and regain his vision.

Dimak was under a torrent of Elemental Flame while Rep and Yelsa hid behind a rock that Morloch threw lightning at. Enzo kept trying to jet water into Morloch's eyes, trying to hinder his ability to defend if only for a moment. Morloch barely looked like he was breaking a sweat keeping four fighters off his back. His leg was still tied by the rope, but it would only take him a few seconds to free himself if he was allowed to focus on his restraints. Looking around at the others, Zalan got a view for how dire the situation was.

Slauson was bleeding from the head, face down on the other side of the arena and not moving. Moss had reawakened, but couldn't stand up, his hip angled and likely broken. Eyes disoriented, he was repairing the rope whenever the twine broke on a given layer. Magnolia was totally out of commission, a stream of smoke rising from the center of her charred head. Gorb was trembling, struggling to try and raise his head from the floor with grit teeth. And Zalan was certain his ankle had been shattered.

With all the Levels he had gathered, he didn't hold a candle to the flame of Morloch's untenable power. The only people he could think of standing a chance were Ma and Gorb's parents.

Enzo was smashed into the floor by a dense meteor of flaming sand, and Morloch turned his attention to the three that remained standing. Yelsa backed up, firing arrows in quick succession, but not one hitting their mark as Morloch bobbed and weaved around her efforts.

Zalan crawled forward desperately, wishing he still had lighting to throw at a distance. The focused beams of light worked against monsters that didn't know any better, but Morloch reacted so quickly to all attacks. Dimak threw a fist of pure stone at his chest and Morloch absorbed the blow in a shield of sand, then placed his hand on Dimak's imbued face and blasted it with immense heat from Elemental Flame, then kicked him away with an equally intense blast of air. Dimak's outer layer of armor shattered and his body bounced against the floor once before sliding to a halt. His head sagged to the side, totally unconscious.

Morloch turned menacingly to Rep and Yelsa.

"Do you understand just how foolish it was to ever try and face me? In my own home?" Morloch demanded.

"This is my home too!" Yelsa said.

"Not anymore! You forfeited the right when you joined up with the savages of the surface!" Morloch screamed.

"So long as I live, you will not know peace," Rep said, imbuing his fists with flame.

"Then I suppose you all need to stop living," Morloch said, his voice cold.

With a horrifying pang in his heart, Zalan wondered if he finally understood Madam Hikma's warning.

He was told the fight would cost him everything. He thought it meant it would cost him his life, but now he wondered if it meant he would lose all the friends he made along the way. All the healing he had fought so hard to achieve. Conquering the Monsters of the Mindscape. The only reason he felt as strong as he did was because of his friends.

With a heavy heart, he gripped onto the Oculus of Annihilation in his pocket. He would have to use it before Morloch had a chance to kill every one of them.