Chapter 50: Triangle Fight

It was a statue of some kind of saintess, wearing elegant long robes hiding nearly all of her features.

As it grabbed behind its head, pulling out two long marble staffs, it wasn’t finished, as the marble started reforming itself.

Turning two staves into scythes, spinning at great speed as the statue approached them.

On his other side, where the two diamond hunters were on their way towards them, Lumiel was already casting a flaming ring hovering behind his back.

Meanwhile, Edward was holding something that looked like a spear made out of pure light.

They were trapped between the two forces, which meant combat was unavoidable. So Steven readied himself by collecting water from the air and reforming it into a short sword.

"Come here, all of you. I am waiting." He yelled while Merency was already setting herself up to cast an emerald-level spell as flames started dancing around her body, heating up the air.

The statue had been the first to reach them as its weapon swung towards Merency, who was still standing still, but Steven intercepted it by hitting the top of the marble directly with his sword, letting it crack.

But the statue already restored its weapon while the second one came down towards him. Steven sidestepped it, letting it ram into the ground, but the force was strong enough to simply split it open.

And by just turning its arm completely in a circle around its shoulder, the weapon came down a second time to Steven’s surprise, who could barely block it.

The statue’s mana usage was extremely unusual, making it difficult for him to predict its attacks. Instead of letting mana flow through its body, it only uses it for the initial activation of the movement.

Which meant afterwards he could only feel cold marble with his mana sense, forcing him to look at his target.

"How utterly annoying," it said, while stepping back, letting its weapon hit the ground after losing its momentum. And with a simple kick to its chest, which was blocked by one of the staff, sending it flying.

But he didn’t even get a single second to rest because Edwards was already shooting out arrows of light towards Merency, which forced him to step towards her, activating his barrier to block them just in time.

As she was finally able to release her spell, creating a spiral of flame towards Lumiel, who barely had time to dodge, burning his right arm slightly and stopping his momentum towards them.

Giving Steven a single moment to breathe as everyone slowly draws closer to them, waiting for him to set his focus on the wrong person.

Even the statue waited with its next attack, acting a lot smarter than it should, worrying Steven only more as it reformed one of its weapons into a bow; meanwhile, some parts of its robes reshaped themselves into a third arm.

"Really, another range fighter?" He cursed under his breath while using parts of his water weapon, forming them into ice shards and sending them towards Lumiel.

As they barely flew over the head of Merency, who didn’t even move at them, she too had already summoned a flaming staff in her hands.

’’What do we do? They aren’t going to come close so easily." Merency spoke while redirecting another of Edwards’ light arrows.

"Then we are going to bring them. You take care of Lumiel; I will get the rest." He spoke already, dashing towards Edwards, while the statue followed him.

"Just hold on until I am finished, Steven," Merency spoke softly, also making her way forward.

But Steven could only smile; after all, he had been waiting to find out what this disgraced royalty could do.

Edward let his bow disintegrate into a flashbang towards him; closing his eyes, Steven threw another of his ice shards towards him.

Opening his eyes just a moment later, Edwards had already created a new spear of light, which he used to thrust towards Steven chest in a deadly attack.

Who just parried it to the side, but before Steven could counter, he could feel the mana of the statue activating for just a moment.

As he spun around, the scythe was already inside of his shoulder as a blinding pain shot through him as he grabbed the weapon, pulling it over him and sending the statue towards Edward.

As the marble statue crashed against the boy, Edward could only activate his barrier as he got sent tumbling to the ground.

Steven watched the statue trying to attack Edward with a stone arrow, but the boy barely evaded it as he sent the statue flying off him with a wind blade.

The three of them stood in a triangle, their weapons raised. Everyone hesitated, not wanting to let themselves be open.

"Steven, I think you should surrender. I promise it won’t hurt too much." Steven spoke, his tone still cocky, but he was sweating heavily, showing the strain on him.

"Nah, I think you should surrender; I need a few more points for my collection." He smiled at him as the split up his only shorter growing sword completely.

Sending a wave of icicles towards Edward, meanwhile, he took a leap towards the statue, which missed his body as he jumped over it, grabbing its head and smashing it towards the ground.

As Edwards’ spear flew right past his head, Steven could feel himself losing a strand of hair.

Standing now behind the statue, it wanted to keep its focus on him as it turned around, raising its now three swords and beginning to spin them.

But Steven only raised his arms in the air laughing.

"Behind you," he spoke.

But the statue couldn’t understand him.

As a blinding light cut its head clean off.

As the marblehead rolled over the ground, its body began to collapse.

Stepping beside its dead body, Steven stared at Edward.

"You ready?" he said while already summoning a flame in his hand.