Banda burst towards Humbaba in Feral Form, and the giant whipped its arm at blinding speed, tearing through a chunk of the ground along with the misty vestiges of the savage’s illusion.

  Five slashes ripped deep into Humbaba’s side drawing a cascade of blood. The giant turned and slammed its other fist down on an empty spot, as Banda appeared out of the invisibility as he leapt back. The wound he inflicted already nearly healed.

  “It can use Field! Invisibility is pointless up close.” Montu yelled out to him. Banda didn’t know of the power Montu spoke off, but he had already deduced it. Humbaba could sense him.

  Montu raised his open hands to his face as he struck fiercely at the giant’s mind with his own. But his attack did nothing but gain Humbaba’s attention. In the blink of an eye, a giant stony arm destroyed him. His tattered body turned to mist as he appeared out of the veil, sliding back behind Eres.

  “I can’t do more than support.” Montu spoke calmly.

  “It’s good enough!” Eres blasted Humbaba’s eyes with a fireball to block its sight as she looked to Banda. “Keep its focus on you!”

  Banda clawed through the back of its ankle, having already moved before she spoke. He darted away from the retaliation, and vaulted and dashed some more around the giant’s strikes as it thrashed around.

  Humbaba whipped and smashed as Banda ripped and tore. Banda pursued the giant’s death like a callous hunter but no matter how many wounds he inflicted, the giant showed no signs of weakening.

  A half dozen clones of Banda lunged into the fray from all directions. Humbaba directed its hostility on the clones while Banda spared them no more than the slightest glance before he sprinted up the giant’s body towards its head.

  Banda thrust his claws but his strike went only half a hand deep. He vaulted over to the other shoulder as Humbaba’s struck its own head with a deafening slap. Banda rushed around the giant’s shoulders and pierced again and again at its skull as he dodged the volley of blows Humbaba battered itself with.

  Finally the giant flailed to the ground, forcing Banda to dismount. He had only considered it a possibility before, but now he was forced to recognize that Eres was telling the truth. If this creature grew stronger than this twice more, it would be stronger than Monga.

  “Coordinate with the clones again-”

  Banda paid her no mind as he shot forward again faster than lightning, and buried his arm through an eye of the giant, deep enough to reach the brain. He ripped out a chunk, and swung around the giant’s strike to pierce its other eye.

  Once, twice, and three times more, he impaled Humbaba’s black eyes faster than they could regenerate. And finally it adapted, using one of its hands to cover them. Just as Banda wanted.

  Without a shred of pause, he attacked the giant’s skull once again. The giant slapped and battered away at him but with only one arm, banda had far more time to strike.

  Twice or even three times with each stop he struck, chipping away enough to stab into the brain. Humbaba healed but Banda damaged faster. Soon its reckless attacks faltered and the giant fell to the ground with a spasm.

  Banda jumped away to a prone crouch in front of Eres, waiting for Humbaba to rise again. Just as before, its fleshed writhed and pulsed as it stood again, it’s bark-like skin hardening to scarlet red stone.

  In an instant, it mauled Banda away. A blur of movement almost too fast for any of them could react to. Blood splattered against as the savage’s body crated the cave wall, and Banda did not get up.

  Eres’ eyes opened wide with shock, almost failing to conjure her Avatar against Humbaba’s second attack. The massive strike cracked her shield, and knocked the Avatar back hard, to Eres’ further disarray.

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  Her Avatar’s shield was not special because it was more durable than the avatar itself, but because it nullified the effects of impact against its position. And Humbaba’s strike had ignored that.

  “What is this…? The difference between the second and third life shouldn’t be this great…” Eres glanced over to the still unmoving Banda and back to Humbaba.

  Gone was the mindless aggression from before, its glowing eyes now baring traces of intelligent thought. And a strange vile aura had started to seep from his body.

  Montu burst into a crowd of clones that swarmed towards Humbaba. The giant’s emotionless eyes crawled over them, and he struck down on an empty space. Montu appeared behind Eres yet again, his left arm limp and blood trickling down the side of his head.

  “The range of its Field is larger…” Montu revealed, as concern now showed deeply in his face.

  The situation worsened the more they discovered. Eres did not even spare the time to respond. Her mind too preoccupied with figuring a way overcome this trial. She had but one more hand to play, and Humbaba had two lives remaining. She could kill it as it was now, but that left the last step with grave odds.

  Humbaba stepped forward, and Banda exploded with divinity. Horns grew large with feral regality from his head. His body still bloodied and battered though it mattered not to his violent mind.

  Banda flung himself forward and slammed his fist into the giant’s face, cracking the side of its mask-like head and sending it cratering into the wall of the cave on the other side. Banda charged again but Humbaba was the one to strike this time. A dull gong rang out from the blow and Banda was knocked back only a short distance, revealing the sheer weight of the horned savage.

  Eres looked on in awe at the titanic battle. Banda a rampaging beast and Humbaba a brutal giant, the two pummeling one another with murderous abandon.

  Banda was superior, and only growing stronger. His strikes more damaging and his body so dense he hardly took any any in return. But iridescent fractures on his body were already starting to spread from the strain of his horned form.

  “This is bad…” Eres thought, more calmly than she expected in such a situation.

  If Banda were focused in this form, he would emerge victorious without question. But if he kept fighting like this then his Spirit would break before Humbaba’s body did.

  The Chains of Heaven could suppress Banda out of his form, but it would leave him helpless against Humbaba.

  The golden-eyed priestess charged forward with an Avatar of War at her back. Baleful aura emanate from the tip of its lance.

  The giant’s sight darted to Eres and Banda took the opening to crack its head into the ground. The avatar thrust at the opportunity, but the giant twisted away and smacked Banda in the air with the back of its hand.

  Humbaba turned its focus to Eres as she circled him with guarded intent. Banda reappeared before the giant’s face faster than expected, but Humbaba spared it only the slightest moment before ignoring the illusion.

  The giant slipped its head past a second thrust of the avatar’s lance and struck at the transparent shield protecting Eres.

  As his fist struck, the black aura of Bane covered the shield. The avatar slid back only a dozen yards as Humbaba withdrew the corroding knuckles of his fist. And Banda fell from above. The savage raised his arms and smashed Humbaba’s skull.

  The sheer cratered the giant into the ground, and nearly broke it’s skull apart. But the giant endured. And before either it or Banda could strike again, Eres’ baleful lance pierced through Humbaba’s wounds, and golden chains locked him in place.

  Eres focused intently and Banda’s horns crumbled like ash. The golden chains vanished the moment consciousness returned to his eyes, and Banda took stock of the sight before his eyes. He dashed over by Eres’ side as Humbaba started to reform again.

  “Plan’s changed.” Eres spoke without waste or delay. “I don’t have an easy way to kill Humbaba anymore. We have to break him down with whatever we have until he stays broken.”

  Eres steeled herself as Humbaba stood tall for the final time. Four horns fully formed on the crown of its head, its sheer presence made the air around them feel like lead.

  “Use me as I use you.”

  Humbaba mauled at Banda again, even more fearsome than before. But this time Banda dodged, wary of the strange strike that made blocking pointless. Even still, he could only barely avoid the strike even with the help of his instincts.

  Humbaba did not strike at him again, and instead carried his charge towards Eres. But as Humbaba struck, a golden aura covered her shield this time to block the overwhelming punch clean.

  Divinity surged around Eres and her avatar, golden and bright. It’s presence no lesser than Humbaba’s. A warm and destructive weight. A tyrannical light that allowed no other. A sun within the sky.