Before the lake's water became completely toxic, Shiko quickly exited it, propelling himself with a loud flap of his wing until he landed on a stone on the path leading to the temple. Lyn used "Love" to get the enemy's attention and give him time to attack others.
Hargon released a huge beam of water, Lyn used a new ability that she had acquired after Deaby's defeat and had not been able to use -Cross defend!- the young woman crossed her arms and protected herself with them, causing a magical barrier to come out of them, capable of deflecting the great water beam that the guardian threw at her into the sky. Before the lightning vanished, Dreik used his magic to control the direction of the beam towards the guardian and while he directed the attack Alba used her creation magic to create a huge hammer capable of hitting Hargon in the face with great force, then she controlled it and hit the face of her target with certainty, The guardian's own lightning bolt hit him strongly by the redirection that Dreik made, he received two attacks in a row and causing a large amount of his HP to be taken.
After recovering from this attack, he carried a lot of magic in his mouth and expelled it in the form of a huge beam of water capable of hurting all his targets regardless of whether it was aimed at Lyn, this young woman used another of her new abilities – Blindage! – the defense of his entire group went up triple what it already was, making it so that if this impacted them they were able to resist it. Dreik, without sitting idly by, decided to use one of his techniques -Pure marine dragon!- he created a dragon in the form of water by throwing it against Hargon's attack so that both hit and the damage they received was even reduced, causing the collision of both attacks to cause a huge impact and a water explosion that consumed everyone present in the battle.
The explosion caused much of the water on the side to rise, causing a large momentary rain to fall on the area, and causing our protagonist to have to come to the surface because they were dragged to the bottom by the impact. They all came out and landed on the bank of the river, causing Hargon to come out as well to continue fighting.
In order not to waste any more time, Alba created ten poisonous arrows with her magic and directed three of them towards the guardian, making him have to move position to dodge her, so the young woman took advantage of the movement to climb on it again and nail the other seven accurately, causing these to stuck to him and poison him and making his HP go down twice as fast by the combination of this poison and the of the lake. While she was fighting Hargon, Dreik used the pure water he controls to purify the bodies of the others, who were poisoned by the water of the lake into which they fell.
Once Hargon felt that he had the young sorceress on top of him, he began to move his whole body to throw her, causing her to fall strongly on the ground that was nearby, while he was watching Alba, Shiko charged an attack with his sword causing him to be surrounded by shadows, and when he raised it, he waved it against the wind causing sound waves full of shadows to come out of it -Shadow Roar!- he exclaimed, causing all these waves to be directed towards the guardian, who for being distracted against Alba received the impact of these and was totally defeated. Lyn went to pick up Alba who was lying on the ground from the blow she had received and while this guardian fell from being defeated, a flash enveloped him just like the guardians who had their original form before being defeated. The team already had an idea of what was happening, to which Dreik said:
"I'm going to create a wave of pure water so that we can all move towards the temple, if it has really become its hybrid form it will be difficult since being in the lake is an advantage for him.
Then, while Hargon transformed into a hybrid, they moved into the temple to have more ground to move around.
-Shiko: won't take him long to come for us.
-Lyn: Keep an eye on him, Alba got hurt by that fall.
-Alba: I... I'm fine, I used a spell to cushion the blow, apart from the fact that your skill has made me more resilient.
-Shiko: You've done your job well as a defender, Lyn.
-Lyn: Hehehe... Thanks, my level doesn't allow me to try to attack since I know it wouldn't have much effect, so I'd better focus on giving you a chance by defending you.
-Dreik: I didn't know that Alba was so skilled at combat.
-Alba: Everything I know I owe to your girlfriend.
-Dreik: My girlfriend!? You mean Mayla!?
-Alba: Jujuju... don't play dumb Dreik, your behavior with her is too obvious even if you try to hide it, I already knew each other from before.
-Shiko: So, my speculations were true... Dreik, you don't need to try to act serious or serene all the time, you have the appearance of a young man like me, even if I don't know your age, I'm sure you're only a couple of years older than me.
-Dreik: I don't do it because I want to pretend... we are simply at critical moments to pay attention to that...
-Shiko: You're right, that's not why you're going to keep your feelings both with her and with us, you're a guy and even though you feel the obligation to guide us to help, it doesn't mean that you should be someone cold, if you feel happiness show it, if you feel afraid do it too.
-Dreik: ... My mission is to make way for them to save this land, not to try to behave like a normal young man.
-Shiko: Just because that's your mission doesn't mean you should deprive yourself.
-Dreik: Since I was a child, I have always been deprived of being myself... it has only been training and more training... My brother has been the only one able to understand me for living the same as me. I'm not going to act like a young man now, this is the time I've been training for, it's not the situation!
-Shiko: It's necessary because even though it's the moment you've been fighting for, it's not worth it if you don't really feel like you're alive. It's necessary because even though it's the moment you've been fighting for, it's not worth it if you don't really feel like you're alive. We will always be accepting how you feel, as we achieve our goal together.
-Alba: Shiko is right, after so long I finally have a person I can call a friend, so I am not going to let this whole situation change my attitude! It's not what Lisa wanted...
-Lyn: By the way... this way you will make Mayla happier.
-Dreik: ... But I promised her that we would reveal our situation after all this disaster.
-Lyn: Alright... Well, let's hide it, no matter how obvious it is. But when you could give her happiness, do it without fear, show your true self.
-Dreik: You are very strange... we've only been getting to know each other for a few days, and they trust each other. Although they are right... I thank you for your words.
The small moment of interaction of the group ended when a small young man with a scaly body appeared walking at the door of the temple, as if this were an armor but despite this, it was part of him, he wore a sea serpent head as a helmet making the fangs of it cover his eyes. He smiled and said to the group of young people:
-Zaajajajajajajaj! You were really spectacular in that battle, but it would been way too easy for you to just kill me... I think you must have more experience fighting than it looks, so let's continue this fight!
They all agreed, to which they proceeded to raise their guard for combat, and without giving time Shiko launched two blasts made with shadows towards Hargon, but before being hit by them he spit a huge beam of magic which consumed both bursts. The beam was huge, to which Lyn decided to get in the way once again and use "Cross defend" again to deflect the huge beam, causing it to split in two and collide with both walls of the temple. While this was happening, Alba asked Shiko for a favor.
"Shiko, I need you to lend me your sword for a moment and even if you don't understand what I plan to do, fully defend me from the attacks, okay?"
Shiko accepted and gave his sword to Alba, to which Alba began to use it to scratch a part of the floor of the temple in a circular shape. Hargon saw the young woman make her move and decided to go against her, but in order not to let her move, Shiko controlled his own shadow so that he would stop him and not move. Taking advantage of the latter's immobility, Dreik threw many bolts of magic at the guardian to hurt him, but he opened his mouth and swallowed each of them, regaining power. Once this happened, the guardian was able to break Shiko's magic –Ha! You may be able to control my shadows, but if my magic is stronger than yours the effect is nullified! - But once it was released, Alba had already drawn the circle, and inside it a hexagon which contained another small circle inside, so she threw six daggers at each corner of the hexagon and shouted to the others:
"Push him until he is inside the small circle!"
Then among the other teens they threw themselves at Hargon, making blows in succession so that he would dodge and be forced to enter such a circle. Once he fell into it, the others backed away and although he tried to get out of the circle, it was impossible.
Once they had accomplished their objective, Alba raised her arms to where Hargon was and shouted "Drain!" Suddenly the HP bar of each person in the party began to rise slowly while Hargon's HP bar went down.
"This spell has allowed me to drain his life so that we can regain vitality, while it drains his life, the poison he was previously affected by is still in progress, causing him to lose life twice as fast".
Very furious, Hargon suddenly screamed very loudly, causing such a scream to drop a large amount of HP at once to Alba, knocking him unconscious. While he was concentrating on the sorceress, Dreik moved quickly against him piercing his chest with a strong attack with his hand, but Hargon, despite having been hurt, gave no signs of pain, to which he yawned, causing a very powerful lightning bolt to come out of his mouth impacting Dreik and making him retreat. Without giving him time to react to movement, Shiko cut the guardian's body with one blow, leaving a large wound in his chest using "Dashing" this time combining it with a strange ability that consisted of hiding in the shadows and moving. Shiko turned to Hargon and noticed that he was without any injuries caused by Dreik and him, to which he said:
-They may be good at attacking, moving and I'm a bit slow, but I'm a sea snake, I can regenerate my body from physical attacks like these... and now that I've transformed my powers have doubled, even if the poison bothers me, even if it drains my energy... My life won't be very easy to get down.
Alba and Dreik got up, returning to the combat to which was about to continue. Another silhouette appeared through the door of the temple. Everyone was amazed and turned to see the stranger. Another young man appeared, very similar to Dreik, with long black hair, scales on his face and the same type of clothes as Dreik, only that this young man had a scar that went through his right eye, had sharp fangs and emanated a very powerful wave.
Once Dreik saw the young man's appearance he exclaimed:
-Light!? You...! What are you doing here?
Everyone surprised to see that Dreik knew this one immediately asked him:
"Who the hell is he!?"
To which Dreik replied:
"He... He is my brother!"
To be continued…