Among the many reasons why John liked being a generalist was the advantage of sensory overload. There were many fighters in the Abyss that John would have called his peers or even superiors. Liakan was certainly among them. The demigoddess would have easily squashed John on his own and probably defeated him even if he had all of his elementals around.

That was why he wouldn’t have fought her just with his elementals. What John did, what he almost always did in his fights, was to use villain tactics. In fiction, particularly the kind Rave kept showing him, the hero had a set of tools and the villain a deck of cards that could have been however thick. In fiction, that was entertaining, because the hidden deck allowed for tension.

In reality, John had no interest in ever being the one with his tools on the table. His way to fight was to have everything at hand, preferably in a surprising fashion, because everyone had a limitation. For many, for most, a resource they had in less supply than John’s multi-pronged plans demanded was attention.

It hardly mattered that Liakan knew that most of his familiars could teleport over instantly. When one was too focused on something, even obvious threats could slip. Everyone had a limitation to their attention bandwidth.

And so it was that Aclysia rammed Eclys straight through the chest of the dragon.

Liakan backed off a second later. A motion started before she had been skewered and finished on instinct. It was too late already. Where the katana had penetrated, Black Ice bloomed. Another timer added to the fight, this one in their favour.

The demigoddess kept stumbling back, until there was a generous distance between them. John let her, both to let the Black Ice spread and to give Rave’s bodysuit a chance to restore her midsection to functionality.

The fog was playing around their feet, slowly rising further. Liakan laughed. John thought he was mishearing at first. He had never heard her laugh before. Amused, yes, but not laugh. It was a choked, choppy sound. The gangly dragoness wagged her finger at the trio.

“Alright,” she hissed. “I understand. Come, then… Claim what you can…” Liakan gripped the fog. “…NO MORE NICETIES!”

“That’s a bluff, right?” Rave asked.

“Afraid no-“

Lightning struck Liakan. Arcane plasma, arching from the twin torrents that filled the Illusion Barrier with light. The manifold wings of the daughter of chaos grew in size dozens of times over. Her maw split into its four segments, to a degree that robbed her of the classical dragon appearance and made her appear like a horror game end boss.

Draconic in appearance or not, the arcane elemental unleashed her breath attack. Aclysia Aided John, putting her body between him and the torrent of concentrated mana. She held Tiemarath up, blocking the attack with the side of the bulky blade. The oversized claymore was sliced straight through. The attack continued to drill through Aclysia’s chest. John barely had enough time to teleport to the side even with all of these delays.

Liakan’s maw split even further, until her neck was splitting. The previously focused ray became a torrent of raw arcane outpour. Fog and lightning poured out of the throat of the arcane elemental. John tried to outrun it. It mingled with the already present fog.

Rave charged in. The brash assault forced Liakan to end that attack. The chaos dragon grabbed the fog beneath her and dragged it up like a curtain. Rave leapt. She cut through the fog. Liakan was gone.

And the fog devoured Rave from sight.

John teleported out of the way of the halberd thrust. He emerged again behind Liakan. Against other enemies that would have bought him at least some time. Against a serpentine dragon, well…

Ice cracked as Liakan ripped around in an instant. Aclysia caught a tail whip. The impact finished off Tiemarath, the blade breaking off at the halfway point. The Indestructible enchantment was all that kept the thick metal from shattering completely.

Deep purple lightning struck around John, each flash crystallizing into a pillar, boxing him in. Another lightning strike was grasped by the dragon before it impacted. Energy surged through the swirling sands of her arm, swelling the strength of the attack.

John teleported again, robbing him of the last stack he had. From that point onward, he had to cast it on the 10 second cooldown. He doubted he would be allowed the breathing room. He wasn’t even allowed to stand where he stood after this one.

Ramming the lighting spear into the ground, Liakan unleashed the inbound energy. To John, she was just a silhouette in the fog, wreathed by arcane electricity. The same energy exploded in every direction like a thunderclap. The Gamer was thrown backwards. Aclysia dodged the attack by turning intangible, then stabbed with Salver. The dagger only caught mist.

John reached into his inventory and pulled out an Ego Blade. He wanted to at least try to get an additional viewpoint in the fog, but the Baelementium weapon began to melt the moment it was exposed to the fog. He cursed when arcane lightning struck the earth near him. ‘Great, she got an environmental effect,’ he complained in his mind, the tone belying the smile.

A figure came through the fog. John reached out his hand. Aclysia grabbed him by the wrist. He was ripped backwards; Rave was launched by the other arm of the powerful maid. Foot first, the feline Lightbearer slammed into the face of the dragon that had just been about to give John an answer on how good her dental care was.

Liakan was pushed together, her serpentine neck bending into a wave. Black Ice had reached her shoulder, slowing her response for long enough that Rave could launch herself from the snout of the arcane elemental. The fog covered Liakan again.

The fog was gone.

They were in the jungle.

Everyone from Liakan to the trio blinked in rapid confusion. They glanced up. The iridescent dome was gone. ‘The Illusion Barrier ran out,’ John realized first. The speed of his thoughts was the edge that allowed him to deploy his countermeasure first.

Dozens upon dozens of ripples in the air announced the activation of Arcane Ascension. Mana Chains launched at the unobscured dragon. Liakan hissed. The ground under them glowed. What restrictions she had for that arcane torrent spell of hers, John still hadn’t worked out in total. He knew that the number was limited, and now that they were in a new environment, that number had been reset.

Mana Chains shot at Liakan from all around, while the trio retreated to a position outside the upwards explosion of energy. “Now!” John shouted at Rave. He did not like their chances, but they were out of time. If Singed and Karia weren’t here soon, any one of the other parties would be. The last John needed in this scene was Xipe-Totec or War.

“A solemn reign, for the few that rise up high…” Rave began to chant.

Liakan’s priorities immediately and absolutely shifted. The dragon emerged from the pillar a storm of arcane mist, far less stealthy while there was nothing of its kind around them. Aclysia positioned herself in front of the feline Lightbearer.

“…and we all fight…” The elemental energy around Rave created a refraction around her. The first light of dawn fell on her through burning canopies, set alight by arcane lightning and the solar light wreathing the cat girl.

Liakan manifested. A circle of white spread around Aclysia, outlining the chaos dragon when it hit her. Master’s Shield was confirmed, yet Liakan only bothered to hit Aclysia with her halberd, swiping the maid aside.

“Let our worlds colli-“

On the last syllable of the last word, Rave was ripped off the floor. Clenched in Liakan’s bone-thin fingers, the feline Lightbearer was raised up. Several Blast Rays slammed impotently against the mana scales of the dragon, who opened her maw and basked the feline Lightbearer in a cone of fresh fog. John could not see the extent of the damage until Rave was dropped. Even then, all he saw was her bodysuit covering her face to regenerate the burned skin.

The smile on John’s face dropped, replaced with thunderous annoyance. “I empathize.” Liakan beat her chest. Black Ice splintered and fell off in huge chunks. Even after the gesture, more than half of her torso was covered in the frozen matter. “Even knowing the brutality of battle, it is never good to see a loved one hurt.”

John just wordlessly stared at her and let this next part be a surprise.

Aclysia raised Tiemarath. The broken blade was still capable of activating its enchantment. The maid poured her life energy into it, then brought it down. The crimson shockwave that followed was aimed squarely at Liakan.

The chaos dragon had been prepared for an attack, even a powerful one. Master’s Shield informed its targets of what was going to happen when they ignored the impulse to attack the artificial guardian. It did not inform them just how absurd an attack boosted by 1000% looked like.

The slice was not a precision tool. It was the broadest possible attack Aclysia could have gone for, the one most likely to hit, and between the Black Ice and Aclysia’s slowing aura, the chaos dragon only managed to twist mostly out of the way before the attack connected. The arm and much of Liakan’s left foot were sliced off in an instant.

Sounds of other combat were approaching. Nothing about this exchange was stealth. Singed could not be pinned down by five elementals and trying to keep Karia in a position was completely impossible.

Aclysia bridged the remaining distance and landed a quick succession of three strikes on Liakan with her Cutting Flurry. Each attack added yet more spots where the Black Ice was spreading. Every time the dragon moved, she did so under the duress of restricting sheets.

John managed to swoop in while Liakan and Aclysia were locked in an exchange of sword versus halberd. Grabbing Rave, he carried her over to a relatively safe spot, outside the electrified fog. “Hey?” The Gamer shook her.

The parts of the bodysuit on her face peeled back, revealing regenerated features. Her eyelids quivered. “Wow, that fucking sucked,” she cursed. “Did we lose?”

“Still in it, you were out for like half a minute,” he told her.

“Fuck, everything hurts,” Rave hissed. Getting her Babel Phrase interrupted right at the end must have dealt its own share of damage to her internal organs. That kind of power had to go somewhere in some part. Getting crushed and burned at the same time did not help. Long incantations always left the user diminished in their defences.

“Think you can do the chant again?” the Gamer asked.

Rave made a sour expression, but nodded. One arm over his shoulder, he helped his first love stand. Her left, the hand with the claws, stretched out to the side, she started the incantation, “A solemn reign, for the few that rise up high…”

Liakan tried to swat Aclysia aside again. One arm down and covered in glacial frost, she did not manage to get the necessary force behind the swing. Aclysia blocked the attack then gripped the wrist of the dragon. Physical motion was all Liakan had left. It wasn’t just the trio that was running low on emergency measures. Even an arcane elemental must have had a limit to their mana.

“…and we all fight…”

‘Please surrender, please surrender, please surrender,’ John heard the prayers of Momo in his mind. He couldn’t blame her, the amount of destruction that was about to slice through this jungle was quite worrisome.

Liakan drew in the surrounding mist. It was the first time he had seen her do that. Was she trying to recoup mana? It appeared to work, manifesting in that sphere of gathering mana in her open mouth. It grew and grew until… she let it go.

“I surrender.”

Rave stopped her chant with a relieved sigh and dispersed the energy in a controlled manner. The Gamer double-checked the Quest, then also let out a relieved sigh when he got a checkmark. “Can you be a little less dangerous, maybe?” he requested.

“Said the victor,” Liakan drawled sarcastically. Singed came breaking through the nearby trees, sword in hand, and charged straight towards Aclysia. “You’re too late!” she accused him.

“Wha- Shit!”

“Yeah, shit!” Liakan agreed. It was the first time John had heard her curse. It was twice as funny because she was still a tall, bipedal dragon with flowing streams of wings on her back. Her tone was softer when she addressed him again, “If you could release me before my head freezes over?”

There was a consideration to leave her covered in Black Ice, but that would have meant a lethal confrontation with the other two. John also wasn’t sure how deadly it was for an arcane elemental to remain frozen. A signal later, the Black Ice fell off Liakan like a shed carapace. “You lost this…?” Singed said and offered the chaos dragon her arm.

“Thank you… I apologize for the cursing.”

“Losing always makes you grumpy,” Singed remarked and smiled warmly at her.

“You wouldn’t know, futile little man,” Liakan joked and, arm loosely reattached, reverted to her regular form. Surprising both John and Singed, she leaned against the tall man for support.

‘Are they…? Huh.’ The Gamer did not feel like questioning how that worked. Elemental intercourse still confused him on several levels, when it came to anything outside of human forms. Aclysia wandered over to help carry Rave, who was barely hanging in there. “If you take my word for it, I just needed to surprise you once.”

“I have known you to be elusive, not a liar,” Liakan responded. “Will you at least save the jungle?”

“Already on it,” he promised. The moment they had stopped chasing Singed, the elementals had started on dealing with the fire. “Well… I’ll leave you to it, then?”

“You know, I will punch you in the face for this sometime, buddy,” Singed growled and protectively put an arm around the metal-faced woman.

‘Strange type to have,’ the Gamer could not help but think. “Careful, last time someone decided to call me ‘buddy’ frequently, we became-“

“Gay lovers,” Rave managed to squeeze in.

“…Why are you like this?” John asked his girlfriend.

Singed was amused and waved off. “Go away before Karia stabs you,” he told them. “We’ll fight again soon enough.”

There was further teasing and banter to be had, but John chose to take this out. The two parties separated on terms that were not any worse than before. ‘Fighting junkie diplomacy… All things considered that went pretty well. We got lucky with that first stab. I don’t see us replicating that fight reliably.’

‘You have more resources available, Master,’ Aclysia stated. ‘Overclock, various emergency teleportations, additional bodies…’

‘In a desperate fight, I would have been dead twice,’ John answered, counting the times Liakan had pinned him in deliberately non-lethal means. Before Aclysia could bring up his current lack of Particle Skin, he continued, ‘I agree that I’m more powerful if I bring everything I have down on her, but I am trying to stay in reasonable confidence here. No need to blow up my ego.’

‘As long as we agree that you are the greatest,’ Aclysia remarked.