Ascenders Rift

The day was beginning to grow darker as it seemed that the sun had started to set, the previous scene of gory battles outside of the old temple now being one of calmness. Currently, the earth had a myriad of fissures in various areas as the dark grasses were drenched in a pool of two distinct types of blood, both being of a green and bluish color. Many different goblins and crocomen corpses were now lifelessly laying down in these puddles, each carrying a foul stench as the buzzing noises from insects that prowled around their bodies sounded.

It hadn't been too long ago that the battle between Fatty Joe, Layla, Breya and Emilia against the dozens of monsters had come to an end. Having fought such a terrifying battle, the team was now exhausted, they sat on a few rocks before the old temple gazing at the black ball of dark energies that shrouded it as they strived to recover their strengths.

"Man, I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired... I wonder if we should call it a day and leave the rest to Evan and that bastard," Joe said as he wiped his sweaty forehead while looking at the others and shifted his eyes towards the dark ball of energy.

Emilia and Layla shook their heads at his words; they didn't bother to reply. Breya, on the other hand, glanced at Joe from the corners of her eyes as she scoffed, "Hmph! And here I was beginning to think of you as a true man, you fought so bravely just now, and at this time, you choose to act cowardly. What's wrong, can't keep up anymore?"

"You!" Joe shouted in anger as he heard her words, he wanted to say something but Breya cut him off by speaking again.

"Well then again, you are well beyond the normal weight, I suppose even fighting like you did could be considered a miracle. You're at least barely able to keep up with us women..." Breya said in a teasing tone.

Joe wasn't going to take this lying down, in an instant, he jumped to his feet like a likely ape while beating his chest in a manly manner as he replied, "Like hell I am! If I wanted to go, I could last all day!"

"Of course, I believe you..." Breya said in a nonbelieving tone as she rolled her eyes.

"Pfff..." Both Emilia and Layla couldn't help but snicker as they saw the two's interaction; it seemed that after watching two's drama, they were able to release the previous tension from the battles.

'This girl... just you wait, one day I'll teach you for sure..." Joe said to himself as he stared at Breya deeply, Breya seemed to have sensed his gaze, she looked at him directly not showing any ounce of shyness or fear.

Joe was a bit startled by this; he didn't dare to continue staring as he didn't want to figure out what would happen.

Breya looked at his reaction and found it a bit funny; she made a victorious smirk before she rose to her feet and spoke, "Well, we've already rested for about an hour, we should go and help them out before anything unexpected happens."

"Right, we should hurry and get this over with, I don't like this place one bit," Layla said as after getting more attuned with surroundings, she began to sense more horrible feelings from the area.

"Me too," Emilia said as she was most certainly not feeling any better, the spirits from nature seemed to be warning her of something.

Joe, hearing this, recovered his haughty mood, he promptly bounced from his seat, causing his armor to shake due to his mass. He then raised his shield and rested the shaft of his halberd on his shoulder before he took a few steps forward headed towards the old temple as he spoke, "That's right, we should hurry and go save them, after all, who told them to be so brave to challenge the two bosses by themselves."

Breya gave the now distant Joe a look before she glanced at Layla and Emilia and whispered, "Let's go, we don't know what this fatty will do now that he's all hyped up."

"Hehe, fine," Layla and Emilia replied with a smile as they saw Joe walking ahead of them with confident strides.

Soon, the team of four began to make their way over to the ominous ball of energy, as their mission here was finally complete.

***

It was a picture of darkness; a view obscured from all light. Within this domain, only the dark had reigned supreme. If one listened carefully, they would hear the rapid sounds of moving objects along with footsteps, followed by the shuffling sounds of strange oddities that were rustling about as if they were chasing something.

Occasionally, one would see a few sparks that came from a spear colliding with a staff, which quickly faded as only a few blurry figures appeared before vanishing.

These sparks flashed about various areas as if the two clashing were in a constant state of teleportation. A distance away from this battle, one would hear a few crushing noises as if a heavy object was smashing apart the earth. The loud clanking noises of metal and the crushing sound of the earth resounding in this chaotic zone as if they were the symphony of ruin.

Suddenly, a few whooshing noises sounded, as from a distant corner of this space, a few balls of dark light had lit up. Not long after, a few glowing black rays fired from the obscure edge of this space towards two separate directions. The areas were these rays traversed lit up a section of this world, showing the terrifying scene behind it's covering.

Instantly, the image of countless monstrous tentacles swooshing about after two indistinct figures appeared. The rays seemed to have a mind of its own as they swept towards both with high accuracy. Still, as they were about to collide with them, the two used a stylized movement, causing their figures to be distorted and turn into many after images allowing them to not only dodge the ray attacks but easily maneuver through the countless tentacles trying to bind them.

As they missed their marks, the beams collided at different directions creating an explosion that lit up those areas before the scene once more faded into darkness.

Yet, as those lights vanish, a brighter light shone into existence against one of the individuals whose movement halted. It was a hammer glowing in a greenish hue which smashed towards a brown-haired young man, causing a whooshing sound to be heard.

As this hammer descended, the figure of a vicious looking crocodile man appeared with a sneer on his face as he shouted, "This time it's your end human! Suffer death!"

The breeze from this strike pushed back the handsome brown-haired youth's hair due to its overwhelming power, but as if he didn't care, the youth's eyes were merely calmly gazing at the direction of the other young man as if he was pondering.

'It seems that Rick's now gotten the grasp of using his senses, allowing him to avoid that beam attack perfectly. Still, even so, he is no way capable of fighting this kind of Boss on his own, especially since he lacks the power to catch up to him. Since it's like this, I suppose I can proceed to wrap things up here.' Evan said as he saw how Rick was flashing about the area while trying to keep up with Gragtaasz.

Dreadtooth was angered as he saw Evan's distraction, but he didn't say anything, he merely watched as his hammer descended to smash him into nothingness.

A pity for Dreadtooth, he didn't realize that his technique through Evan's eyes was no different from slow motion, allowing him the leisure of wasting time to think.

Evan then glanced at the attack that was now almost upon him, he smirked and pulled his fist back causing his crimson energy to rise around his body, it gathered towards his fist as he spoke, "You seem to be a bit mistaken, the one who will die now is you..."

Suddenly, Evan's energy exploded as his fist struck towards Dreadtooth at alarming speeds. Soon, his attack had smashed into his hammer, causing a loud boom to resound, followed by a dreadful shockwave of energies that scattered about the area.

BOOM! With this explosion, the tentacles that were shuffling about exploded into bits as waves of scattered energies ravaged about in a wild manner.

The previously battling Rick and Gragtaasz paused as they looked at the scene in shock, as Gragtaasz exclaimed in horror, "What? How could this be possible?"

Rick was also a bit surprised, following their sights, one would see a strange picture. The view of a giant holding massive a hammer as if he had struck the earth, only to be impeded by a small human's fist.

Much like Gragtaasz. Dreatooth's mind was similar, reeling in shock as he looked at Evan below him in terror as he spoke, "You... you! How could--?"

Dreadtooth wanted to ask more, but sadly, he didn't get the chance.  Evan's figure flashed appearing at Dreatooths head as a star-like transparent sword formed in his hand, Evan then swung his sword, causing a flash of light to appear only for an instant before vanishing.

Not long after, Evan fell on the ground a few distances behind Dreadtooth as his cold voice filled the air, "As I said, the one dying isn't myself, but you..."

His voice carrying a cold intent, as a wave of chilliness spread across the air, filling the shocked Dreadtooth whose vision was slowly changing along with the terrified Gragtaasz with fear.