Chapter 183: All Enemies
A colossal wolf with three blazing heads ran across the broken ground of Antarctica. A large broken sword was embedded in its back, and it led a pack of hell hounds towards Falcon Scott with blazing Fury.
On the other side, a Towering giant with a hundred muscly arms and a hundred more heads could be seen, leading a horde of headless golems... Almost as if their body parts had been taken away from them by the towering giant.
Those were the two corrupted tyrants that came out of the Erebus Field gates, both of them were racing towards Falcon Scott, leading an army of dreadful abominations with them.
On the walls of the great city, the Awakened and mundane soldiers readied their bows and weapons, and unleashed dozens of projectiles at the approaching enemy.
Hugo and Sunny were among them. The former was using an arm canon connected to his left arm thanks to the [Mechamorphic Asura], while the latter was masterfully using a long bow that shot out lightning.
Master Winter, the most skilled archer of them all, was unleashing waves of arrows alongside her cohort, each one enchanted with various powers.
Hugo grimaced and lowered his canon after seven minutes of shooting, and shifted it into a regular arm again.
He clicked the button on his Omnitrix and begun scrolling through his aliens.
At the same time, the abominations had closed most of the distance, making the projectiles far less effective.
Saint Bloodwave leaped off the wall and fell down like a raging comet of destruction, eradicating the Golems and rushing to challenge the giant.
Jet leaped off as well, summoning her scythe and brandishing it against the army of golems.
Sunny just disappeared into the shadows and moments later, a towering four headed demon appeared in the battlefield, destroying everything in its sight with its dreadful jade blade.
Hugo, on the other hand was going to choose another old Alien of his, one that he had not used in a long time.
An explosion of blue light engulfed the world, and suddenly the soldiers atop the wall were hidden from sight by magnificent black wings.
A giant raven like creature flew across the sky, its eyes drowning in avarice and frenzy.
It dove down towards the three headed tyrant wolf and clashed against it fiercely.
This form, of course, was none other than the blessed herald.
Hugo had not used this transformation in years, well technically from his perspective, it was probably around a year or two, but that did not matter much right now.
He had struggled to control it for a long time, but now that he was older, more powerful and more experienced, he had learned how to manage the effects of his flaw so that he won't go crazy and attack everyone.
The hellhound army, ferocious and mighty suddenly grew weaker and sluggish, and their soul cores were emptied of essence.
The dormant abominations fell to the ground and died, while the Awakened struggled to walk.
Only the fallen and corrupted abominations survived and resisted the effect.
That was because Hugo was using the ability of the [Blessed Herald] which was thievery.
It was a strange ability, capable of stealing mundane items, memories and echoes... But also mystical things such as vitality and soul essence.
He disengaged the tyrant for a few seconds and descended upon its minions instead, grabbing three hellhounds, then rose to the sky and dropped them from a great height.
It was a treacherous tactic but alas there was no honor among beasts.
The corrupted tyrant stared at him with dark fury burning behind its eyes. The sword embedded into its back was pulled out, drawing blood with it.
The three headed hellhound carried the blade using its mouth, and at the same time, its orange fur was engulfed by flames.
It leaped to the skies rising like a missile to meet Hugo.
He flapped his body and changed directions, barely evading the blade of the abomination. Hugo turned around and rushed towards the tyrant with his beak, hitting its body and causing both of them to tumble to the ground.
He pinned it down and attempted to rip it to shreds but before he could, dozens of its minions, fallen and awakened abominations, slammed into Hugo, allowing the tyrant to escape his grasp.
The horde of abominations surrounded him, and in moments, all of them were upon him, launching at him with their fiery abilities.
One would assume that the cold of Antarctica should have weakened them... But that wasn't the case at all.
'Mystical abilities don't exactly abide by the laws of this world...'
Hugo dodged another burning hellhound and grabbed it mid leap using his beak, swallowing the abomination whole.
[You have slain an awakened monster: minor hellhound.]
Fighting as a giant bird was not easy, but it was not impossible.
With each step Hugo took and with each attack made by his talons and beak, his mastery over this form grew, showcasing his exceptional adaptability.
The minions were many, however they were not a problem, instead it was the tyrant leading them who was.
The abomination was carefully using its minions like puppets, sacrificing them to take down its enemy. It was making them take hits for it and also exploding them using its fiery ability to burn Hugo's body.
He winced slightly, feeling the flames spread through his body... And soul.
'Soul damage... This is problematic...'
Hugo had only gotten his soul healed yesterday and so he did not want to damage it any further. Thankfully, the [Mechamorphic Asura] provided a decent amount of protection against soul attacks.
Still, as an Ascended devil, he could not kill the tyrant alone.
Back when he was a titan, killing tyrants one rank above him was a grueling task, one that required the full use of his abilities and intelligence, but now that he lacked those abilities, he was simply not enough.
Hugo might have lost his Titanic powers, however he did not lose everything.
His shadow wiggled for a few moments then manifested in a physical form with an explosion of dark light.
A stone saint made of shadows and dark stone, wielding a dark blade, appeared and clashed with the minions of the tyrant, swiftly beheading them with its blade of darkness and giving Hugo some time to recompose himself.
At the same time, a blue alien wolf manifested from white Sparks and in a flash of red, it transformed into a two headed sabertooth like creature with dark and crimson fur.
Zed and his shadow joined the battle, each assuming different forms for the confrontation.
The alien launched at the tyrant, using the power gained from the Nemetrix to her advantage and slashing away at it viciously.
Zed was a Transcendent devil, thanks to the [Metamorphic Crystal], which allowed her to battle the tyrant with much more effectiveness than Hugo.
He made sure to steal essence from the corrupted tyrant, but that seemed to only chip away at its cores.
'A change of plans then.'
Hugo hit his Omnitrix and shifted forms, shrinking down and losing his solid body.
He became a mass of darkness and quickly jumped into the battle between Zed and the tyrant. That was his Klyntar form, the symbiote.
Hugo bonded with Zed, augmenting her Transcendent body and tore the tyrant flesh Apart. At the same time, he shaped some of his dark mass into a hand and created a sharp blade out of it, responding to the blade of the tyrant while Zed navigated the body.
With each swing of their blades, Hugo begun noticing something strange about this abomination.
'It possesses a battle art...'
A Transcendent battle art, at that... Well, in this case, the right term would be a corrupted one.
It seemed that the creature had once been a noble creature who cultivated its martial prowess, or perhaps it had been a powerful Transcendent human who had remained stuck in his transformation after being corrupted.
Either way, the battle art it had developed had been imprinted on its body. A style that fused the usage of its wolfish body, three heads, its physical abilities and its ability to manipulate fire.
But that style was clearly tainted by its corrupted nature and twisted mind, making it far less graceful.
Hugo strained his body and made sure to remake another blade once the one he was using was destroyed, at the same time, Zed made sure to evade the terrible attacks from the tyrant and use her claws against it.
'This is going to last for a while...'
***
Sunny watched as Saint Bloodwave clashed with the golem tyrant, using his Transcendent prowess to shake the battlefield. Each blow reshaped the land around them and unleashed terrifying shockwaves through the world.
Thanks to his shadow incarnation, he was strong enough to endure the shockwaves and continue fighting.
Using the Sin of Solace, he cleaved one of the golems in half and drove his claw into the chest of another golem.
Turning his attention elsewhere he saw Hugo's pet and his shadow avatar fighting against the hellhound tyrant. It did not seem like they had the advantage.
Taking another glance at Saint Bloodwave and Jet, who were fighting the giant and its army, Sunny decided to change his opponents.
Sunny used his hands to tear down another golem, then he stepped through the shadow, and summoned the sacred treasure.
The dark wheel manifested above his head, and a few moments later he appeared elsewhere in the battlefield. Only this time, there was a dark wheel made of shadows floating above his head, and he made hand signs using two of his four arms.
A black elephant manifested from his shadow, radiating a peaceful aura.
This was Max Elephant, a powerful Ascended devil shadow capable of unleashing water attacks from its trunk and manipulating said water attacks.
Sunny quickly pointed at the tyrant and mentally commanded the elephant to use its abilities.
It locked into the hellhound and raised its trunk, shooting water bullets at the tyrant and weakening its abilities, giving Hugo an opening to cut it down.
Zed brought down her claws on the right shoulder of the tyrant, cutting it and injuring the abomination.
Before the tyrant could do anything else, Hugo brought down his symbiote arm on the tyrant's blade, launching it far away and leaving the hellhound without its weapon.
It roared and unleashed hellish flames from its three heads, burning Hugo's body and making him retreat slightly.
It rushed towards him, leaving him no time to rest.
'You just don't stop...'
The two of them raced across the scorched battlefield, moving at an incredible speed, making them look like two powerful trains chasing each other.
Sunny kept ordering his Max Elephant to shoot water bullets, precisely aiming at the tyrant and predicting its movements through shadow dance.
In fact, he had already greatly benefited from battle simply by observing Hugo and the tyrant fight savagely.
Their instinctual movements, their tenacious bodies and their alien anatomy... All of It gave him type of enlightenment, further increasing his knowledge, which in turn would aid him in mastering shadow dance fourth step.
Eventually, after exhausting the tyrant, it slipped and crashed into the ground savagely and Zed launched at it.
***
Zed bit down the head of the tyrant, and crushed it completely, killing the abomination once and for all.
[You have slain a corrupted tyrant: master Hellhound.]
Hugo let out an exhale, feeling his body, and Zed's body, tense from the pain of their injuries.
The tyrant had left many wounds on them... And on their souls, as well.
Hugo unbonded from Zed and extracted the soul shards, crushing them and saturating his cores quickly.
He noticed Sunny from afar, who gave him a taciturn nod and teleported away through the shadows, going to fight somewhere else in the battlefield alongside his elephant.
Hugo took a deep breath and switched forms again, becoming Four Arms and without wasting any time, he used the [Mechamorphic Asura] to create a heavy blade of black and blue colors.
His legs were augmented by Four Arms abilities, and then he leaped high into the sky, rushing to finish off the minions of the hellhound.
Unlike most minions, the hounds did not lose their viciousness after the death of their tyrant, however they still were relatively easy to kill.
Sunny joined him as well, tearing down the abominations even quicker.
His shadow and Zed made the process easier, as well, and soon enough there was no abomination left in the flaming horde.
Exhaling, Hugo looked at the other side of the battlefield and leaned on his blade for support.
Winter and her cohort had managed to deal with the golem minions, and the horrifying giant golem was killed by Bloodwave and Jet, its body now laying on the ground like a small mountain.
The battle was harsh however it was over... But Hugo did not feel calm,not at all.
'Something doesn't feel right...'
He might have been too paranoid and too traumatized by the world of the nightmare spell, but his instincts as an Awakened had never failed him so far... he knew that the battle had not ended yet.
And he was right.
A gargantuan shadow covered the entire battlefield, and all of the Awakened there as well, looming over them like a dark deity.
Hugo, Sunny, Jet, Winter, Bloodwave, Neave, roan all frowned at the sight.
In the sky, thousands of terrifying winged abominations were descending upon them.
The Devouring Horde had come.