As the battle unfolded, the witch revealed a new, horrible surprise: her greenish, wrinkled body began to contort into a grotesque metamorphosis, from which two new arms emerged, transforming her into a six-limbed entity, each moving with its own malevolent intent.

  “How annoying,” muttered Colin.

  “A dark elf with no mana?” sneered one of the witches. “You see, sister, an outcast of sorts.”

  “He's got too many muscles for a dark elf,” replied the other. “It must be something else, his smell is stronger. He and the brat smell different, let's leave them for dessert!”

  Colin, despite the deep cut that adorned his chest, stood his ground.

  The pain sharpened his focus, every beat of his heart was a reminder of what was at stake.

  “Safira! I don't know what that means exactly, but I'm a user of might, it should make my body more resistant to attacks, so I'll go first.”

  He advanced with determination, his blade slicing the air in a precise arc, trying to find a gap in the witch's now vastly strengthened defenses.

  “Me too; I will, Mr. Colin!”

  Safira, for her part, moved with lethal grace, her blows drawing patterns of death around her. Each of her attacks was calculated to put pressure on the witch, forcing her to divide her attention between multiple opponents.

  “Those are beautiful synchronized attacks,” sneered one of the witches.

  “But you're still weak!”

  In a moment of clarity, Safira executed a series of rapid thrusts, each targeting vital points that were skillfully defended or deflected by the witch's additional arms.

  Clang! Clang! Clang!

  “I told you, girl, you're weak!”

  Kylone launched herself at the witch with a defiant roar.

  Clang!

  The creature launched a powerful slash that was defended by Kylone, but not without first shattering her sword.

  “You're just persistent cockroaches!”

  With each stroke of her sword, sparks of the witch's dark magic crashed against the steel, creating explosions of light and sound.

  With her four arms, the witch counterattacked with breathtaking speed, launching slashing spells that Kylone deflected or blocked with her sword, although each defense took tremendous effort.

  Thought Colin

  Taking advantage of her new advantage, the witch began to weave a complex tapestry of magic in the air, four of her arms moving in a frenzy of conjuration.

  “No more playing, brats!”

  From this web of energy, blades of air shot out in all directions, forcing Colin, Safira and Kylone to move with desperate agility, dodging and counterattacking whenever possible.

  Thought Colin, his body riddled with cuts.

  At a critical moment, Colin, anticipating one of the witch's attacks, managed to position himself so that his sword intercepted one of the creature's additional arms while it was conjuring.

  Clang!

  The impact caused the spell to deflect, creating a momentary opening in the witch's defense.

  Colin took advantage, advancing with a blow that, although not fatal, wounded one of the witch's arms, limiting her ability to conjure.

  Schtick!

  Safira and Kylone, seeing the opportunity, redoubled their efforts, their attacks synchronized to give their opponent no rest.

  The girl, with a series of agile movements, managed to wound another of the nefarious creature's arms, while Kylone, using all her strength, unleashed a blow that threatened to bring the witch down completely, cutting through her bust.

  “Hell!” complained one of the witches.

  At a critical moment, the witch, despite the wounds inflicted by Colin and Safira and Kylone's tireless resistance, found a gap in their defense.

  With surprising speed for someone of her deformed stature, she cast a spell aimed at Kylone.

  The air in front of the witch rippled with accumulated energy. Then, with a snap of her fingers, distorted by her multiple limbs, she unleashed a slash of energy so powerful that it seemed to tear the very atmosphere apart.

  Kylone, sensing the danger, raised her sword in an attempt to block or deflect the magical attack. However, the power of the spell was such that, on contact, the blade of his sword shattered into a thousand pieces, the fragments glowing briefly before being lost in the darkness.

  Swish!

  The energy slash continued its relentless path, hitting Kylone with brutal force, opening a deep wound in his abdomen.

  The warrior staggered backwards, the pain clearly evident in his eyes, but the determination and fury burning inside him didn't allow him to fall.

  “Tsk! Why don't you just die?”

  The witch, despite this momentary success, still faced the challenge of completely subduing them.

  Colin and Safira, seeing Kylone wounded, intensified their attacks, driven by a renewed sense of urgency.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  The energy between the combatants grew exponentially, the fight becoming more frantic, a whirlwind of magic, steel, and will.

  The frenzy didn't allow either Colin or Safira to notice, but they were both manifesting mana. Colin's blade emitted faint sparks and Safira's blade faint flames.

  Thought the witch.

  Colin, taking advantage of a moment of distraction on the witch's part, managed to get close enough to land a blow on one of her arms.

  Swish!

  The blade located its target, slicing through the air with precision, decapitating its limb.

  The witch let out a cry of pain, the first real expression of suffering since the confrontation began, the sound echoing off the walls of the cave.

  Safira, for her part, focused her energy on an attack aimed at the witch's heart, her sword moving with a speed that defied the eye.

  Thought the witch.

  The blow, although precise, was stopped by a magical force field that the witch conjured up at the last moment, the impact sending waves of energy reverberating through the space of the cave.

  Clang!

  The conflict had become a question not just of strength but of endurance.

  The witch, though powerful, was beginning to show signs of fatigue, her spells becoming slightly slower and less coordinated.

  Colin, Safira and a wounded Kylone, despite their fatigue and wounds, didn't slow down, fighting with surprising tenacity.

  thought Kylone

  Their eyes exuded excitement.

  The witch, now seized by an indomitable fury, attacked Colin and Safira with a relentless series of magical slashes.

  Every gesture of her hands unleashed blades of air that cut through space, seeking to wound, to mutilate, to destroy.

  Swish! Swish! Swish!

  These two, recognizing the lethality of the attacks, made the strategic decision to separate, forcing the witch to divide her attention.

  With a quick nod between them, a mutual understanding forged in battle, they dispersed, running in opposite directions through the chamber.

  This tactical maneuver not only made it harder for the witch to focus, but also gave them the opportunity to find more favorable angles of attack.

  The witch, however, was far from a simple opponent. Her anger, once provoked, seemed to know no bounds.

  “Stop running away like cowards!”

  In an attempt to hit those two with her arcane slashes, she inadvertently attacked her own earth elementals, who were still fighting Noretu at the back of the chamber.

  The air blades, so effective against flesh and bone, proved equally destructive against earth and stone.

  The elementals, taken by surprise by their master's attacks, began to fall apart, their rocky forms breaking and crumbling.

  Noretu, taking advantage of the confusion caused to the witch by her own fury, redoubled her efforts against the remaining elementals.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  With powerful bursts of fire, he destroyed what was left of the earth creatures, freeing himself to focus his attention and magical power on helping those two.

  Meanwhile, Colin, using his speed and agility to his advantage, circled the witch, looking for an opening in her defense.

  His every attack was calculated, designed to wear the witch down even more and force her to make a mistake.

  Safira, on the other hand, took a more direct approach, confronting the witch with a series of quick, precise attacks, each thrust and cut accompanied by an evasive maneuver, a deadly dance that left little room for counterattacks.

  Watching it all only made Kylone more enraptured.

  The witch was beginning to feel the weight of prolonged combat.

  Her movements, once quick and precise, now carried a slowness that didn't go unnoticed.

  Her slashes, although still dangerous, were thrown with less frequency, as if each conjuration consumed a portion of her vital energy.

  The fight was at a decisive stage, it had become a test of endurance.

  Colin and the others were beginning to glimpse their victory, and that was when the battle had reached a catastrophic turning point.

  The witch, in a moment of clarity, focused her devastating fury on Noretu.

  The arcane words had barely left the witch's lips when she unleashed an energy slash of epic proportions, a spell so powerful that the surrounding air seemed to tremble in anticipation of the impact.

  Noretu, who was conjuring a sphere of fire, had no chance to dodge.

  “Shit!”

  The cut hit him with brutal force, tearing off his arms and making the magic he was concentrating on explode in a violent conflagration.

  BOOOM!

  The explosion illuminated the cave with blinding light, and when the vision of those present adjusted, Noretu's fate was revealed in all its horrific finality: half his body had been destroyed.

  Kylone's eyes were wide. Even if Noretu had evil intentions, they had died with him.

  “Noretu!” shouted Kylone.

  The witch, sensing their emotional disarray, focused her attention on Safira, conjuring another cut, intending to split the warrior in half.

  However, Colin, in an act of courage, placed himself between Safira and the impending attack.

  Crunch!

  The cut hit him with savage force, opening a deep wound that made him double over in pain, but this heroic gesture gave Safira the advantage she needed.

  Safira's blade, now incandescent, reflected the same fiery determination as her eyes.

  With Noretu down and Colin seriously injured, she knew that the weight of the battle now rested on her shoulders.

  Swin!

  Ignoring the pain of the cut she received on her chest, she advanced with surprising speed, her sword raised in a deadly arc.

  The witch, perhaps underestimating the girl's determination or simply too slow to react, was unable to defend herself in time. With a cry that mixed pain and triumph, Safira drove her sword through one of the witch's heads, ripping it from her body in one decisive blow.

  Cruch!

  The head fell to the ground with a deafening thud, the eyes still open in an expression of surprise.

  The chamber filled with a tense silence, only the sound of Safira and Colin's panting breaths cutting through the air. The witch, now with only one head, looked weakened but far from defeated.

  Her only remaining head slowly turned to face Safira, her eyes shining with a malevolent light that promised revenge.

  The girl, despite her deep wound and the fatigue weighing down her shoulders, held her sword high, ready to continue the fight.

  Colin, wounded but not defeated, struggled to stay on his feet, determined to support his companion to the end.

  “Safira!” shouted Colin. “It won't stop!”

  The tension in the chamber reached boiling point.

  The witch, furious at the loss of one of her heads, prepared to deliver a final cut, an attack that promised to be as devastating as the one that had sealed Noretu's fate.

  She concentrated her energy, her eyes fixed on the two of them, determined not to fail this time.

  Colin, sensing the deadly intent behind the witch's movements, acted instinctively.

  With quickness, he lunged at Safira, pushing her out of the way of the attack.

  Swish! Schtick!

  He received the full cut to his body, a blow that would have knocked anyone out. But, incredibly, instead of writhing in pain, a crooked smile appeared on his face, as if he somehow found a strange satisfaction in pain, even on the brink of his own destruction.

  “Your body is resilient, brat, but even you have a limit!”

  The witch, unsatisfied and seeking to take advantage of Colin's sacrifice, began to conjure up the same powerful cut she had made earlier.

  The girl, seeing Colin already seriously injured, knew that he would not survive another attack. She couldn't allow that to happen, not after everything they had faced together, not after realizing what Colin meant to her.

  “Calm down, Safira, concentrate. Just… let it flow!”

  With intense concentration, she channeled all her remaining energy into her sword.

  Flames consumed the blade, transforming it into an object of pure flaming destruction. With a shout, she hurled the flaming sword towards the witch.

  The weapon, now a fiery comet, pierced the air with deadly precision, smashing into the witch's forehead with epic impact.

  Schtick!

  The creature emitted one last scream, a sound that was both agonizing and incredulous, before it began to fall.

  The witch's body was consumed by the flames emanating from the sword, every inch of her greenish skin giving way to fire, until all that remained was a pile of ashes scattered across the cave floor.

  The silence that followed was profound, interrupted only by Safira's panting and the muffled sounds of Colin's wounds.

  She walked over to him, helping him to sit up, the care in her movements reflecting the depth of their bond.

  Together, they looked at the ashes of what had once been their enemy.

  With the witch defeated and her body consumed by flames, a strange and unexpected calm filled the chamber.

  Then, unexpectedly, the ground at the back of the cave began to shake slightly, stones and earth moving as if something below was struggling to break free.

  The two of them, exhausted but always alert, watched cautiously, prepared for another confrontation if necessary.

  From the ground, where the witch had met her fiery end, an object emerged. It was a chest, but not just any chest. It exuded a greenish light, pulsing with an energy that seemed alive, almost conscious.