Allen was waiting for Mantblast to make the first move, he was simply there waiting.
"If you don't want to start…" started Mantblast, rushing towards Allen, who was surprised to see him already this close. "I guess I will make the first move!" shouted Mantblast, using his blade to immediately cut Allen's body.
Allen, surprised, was able to recreate a blade on his body at the last moment and he blocked Mantblast's blade. The sound of the blade clashing with hard slime echoed across the battlefield, but since it was already a mess, no one heard it.
Mantblast started to push Allen back with his shield. Allen made his body liquid and was able to pass under Mantblast's legs. Once Allen reappeared behind Mantblast, his body was smaller. Mantblast, confused, saw some parts of Allen on his legs, slowly climbing up.
"Arghh, what is this?!!" yelled Mantblast. He immediately jumped back, predicting that Allen had just swung the blade trying to hit him. While he jumped, he tried to remove the slime from his body, but it was useless, it wasn't going away.
As he landed, the impact was so strong that the liquid fell from his body. The parts touched by the liquid were somewhat corroded, and his skin started to open.
"What is this? You didn't use this the last time," said Mantblast in a playful tone.
"There was no need," answered Allen with a serious tone.
"Then I guess I'll show you something I couldn't do the last time too," added Mantblast. Allen returned to his normal height, or at least that's what it looked like to Mantblast. In fact, Allen's body was just a bit smaller compared to its original form.
Mantblast immediately threw the sword up.
'I have to create a shield, I don't know how he will attack,' thought Allen as he saw the sword in the sky and got ready to defend. But what happened surprised him. Mantblast threw his shield towards Allen and jumped to the sword.
Allen, taken by surprise, dodged the shield, but then saw Mantblast hitting the sword with his feet. It was moving at an incredible speed. Allen was able to create a shield at the last moment, but there wasn't enough strength to hold the sword. The main problem wasn't the sword, it was Mantblast, who was on the sword's handle, pushing it harder.
The shield was stopped by some bladekruk, who simply left it on the ground.
'How can he balance himself like that?' thought Allen, but he could barely withstand the pressure of both. The sword was pointing directly at his core, so he had to move somehow. He started to slowly shift it by putting his core at the bottom, but Mantblast noticed that the part he was aiming at became just like the rest of Allen's body.
'He's moving the core…' thought Mantblast.
"I won't let you do that!!" he yelled. Mantblast used the sword to jump up really high. The sword lost power and fell to the ground. The sound of it hitting echoed across the battlefield, mainly because Mantblast had used all his strength in his legs to jump.
Allen could barely breathe before he saw Mantblast landing next to the shield. He immediately grabbed it and threw it at extreme speed towards Allen.
'Does he never get tired?' thought Allen as he immediately hardened the slime and pointed it towards the shield. But right behind it was Mantblast, who jumped on top of the shield. It fell to the ground and Mantblast jumped right on top of Allen.
'How is this even possible?!!!' thought Allen, surprised. 'Was he ever this strong?' Allen immediately split his body into two different parts: the one behind with the core and the one in front of Mantblast with a blade.
As Mantblast landed, he grabbed the sword on the ground and started to strike really hard. The other part had to walk back. The part with the core slowly moved away. He could not get out of the arena, and he didn't attack Mantblast because he wanted to rest for a moment, everything that happened was just too much.
Mantblast noticed the other part with the core retreating, but he didn't stop striking the front part, forcing it back. Then Mantblast noticed something, right behind his clone was the shield. Mantblast's shield had some spikes on top of it. The other part wouldn't be destroyed, but regenerating it would take a lot of time, so Allen made it liquid.
Mantblast, seeing the part becoming liquid, grabbed the shield on the ground and looked at Allen.
"Wondering why I got stronger?" asked Mantblast playfully.
"I'm simply freer to move! Without the ceiling of the cave I have much more liberty!" yelled Mantblast, opening his arms towards the sky.
Allen made all his body parts return to the main one, except for a small part that was underground.
"Mhm? I don't feel it. I bet I can take even more hits from you," said Allen, knowing that once the part he guided underground reached Tauren, he would be alright.
Mantblast smirked. "Go ahead…"
Allen's part randomly stopped, in the ground there were tons of krukdill, who immediately turned on their drills and rushed towards Allen's body part. He felt all the pain of drills piercing into his body. The part exploded into multiple pieces.
"You have to fight by yourself!" shouted Mantblast as he rushed once again towards Allen.
'Why hasn't Allen arrived yet…' thought Tauren as he kept fighting against many krukins. Luckily, they were all level 1, but he was never good at fighting, so he could only kill a few. Still, he needed someone else to help him.
Before starting the fight, Allen and Tauren had spoken about the strategy…
"Allen, are you sure you want to do this? It's obvious that he's waiting for you," said Tauren, watching from the woods as Mantblast stood among all of his bladekruk.
"Yes, we still have the same tactic we used in the last fight," answered Allen with a serious tone. You couldn't tell if he was focused on speaking with Tauren or on preparing for Mantblast.
"But you know what Eros says… the enemy will always expect the same tactic," said Tauren, remembering what Eros usually told the team.
"Eros isn't here with us, Tauren! We have to think for ourselves!" Allen almost shouted.
"You're right…" said Tauren, lowering his voice.
Allen, realizing he might have been too harsh, tried to calm himself. "Still, if what you say is true…" Tauren widened his eyes.
"I will go all out, without hesitation," added Allen.
"Are you going to throw 3 bombs? I'm sure you remember that when you used 3 bombs together, how vulnerable your body became," said Tauren, recalling what happened the last time.
They had been fighting against 5 krukmongbee, one workin, and 5 krukspy. Everyone was at their limit. Eros' body was bleeding, his leg hurt badly, and he probably broke a bone. Tauren could barely stand. It was around 5 years ago, so Nysira and Jaune were not yet in the team.
They had just lost one of their friends, who was eaten alive by the workin. Its tongue-spear pierced into his body and killed him painfully. Tauren could only remember two things about that fight. The first was this—his friend's death, his blood splattering onto his face. He couldn't believe what had just happened.
And the second was Allocen's 3-bomb attack, it was the craziest thing ever. The bombs went in different directions and killed literally every krukin there. Some trees were corroded and destroyed too. But the main problem was Allen's body, it became so small, only his core remained, and it was so tiny it was smaller than a newborn puppet.
Tauren knew that if it happened again, Allen would be too vulnerable and could die. But once Allen decided something… no one could change his mind.
Allen noticed the look in Tauren's eyes. He knew that look well—it was the look when one of his teammates might die in the next fight. But he also knew this was the only solution if the other plan didn't work.
Allen then got up and started walking towards the battlefield.
"Let's go, we have a battle to win." Tauren followed him.
Tauren could now hear Mantblast's voice too, when he said "you have to fight by yourself." And before that, the ground had shaken a bit. Tauren understood that Allen was in a really bad position, but he couldn't help him in any way.
There were too many krukins near him, he could barely get closer to the bladekruk and enter the arena.
'Allen, I won't be able to help you… I'm really sorry,' thought Tauren as he slammed his hand against the approaching krukins, tears running down his cheek.