I blocked the sea of fire rushing at us while Raishin and Greg were clearing out the treasure room in haste. Just our luck, we had to find the dungeon where Azu sealed this god away. I will apologize to her if we survive this.


    This is the Sarian god of fire. I think he has a neutral or bad matchup against me. He could easily turn my buddies into ash though. The more I think about it the more we might actually be fine even if the bitch goddess appears. Greg has a strong matchup against her. We might not win but we also won’t instantly lose.


    I just have to keep this guy off Greg.


    The wave stopped. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an attack, just the god breaking out of his seal. Azu could have told us that solving an obnoxious puzzle would break out that god…


    Hey, do you think that if we had went for a different solution, we would have gotten something else and he would still be sealed away?


    I would like to believe that he would break free no matter what we would have done but there is a high chance that’s possible. Our luck is quite terrible after all. I’m going to grab you guys again. The teleporter is where we were before…


    The corridor did return to a normal corridor.


    “Who’s there?!” The voice seemed relatively friendly but it had a tone of caution. I’m not letting this friendly voice fool me.


    Raishin, start generating energy. This will probably be a long day.


    I tried to zip past this guy who looked no older than 18 years old. He had a friendly face but fiery eyes and the tips of his red spiky hair were flaming. He had a fist sized cross shaped scar where a human’s heart would be. He was topless but wore a long dark green jogging pants.


    These gods have a strange fashion sense. He was blocking my path unfortunately.


    “Hey, I just woke up after a crazy blue bitch sealed me away, can you tell me what year it is? Wait!” He took a fighting stance


    “I thought my Honey and I had wiped out all of you!”


    Ugh, move away Zarrazax! We have no time for this bullshit! I will ignore the genocide you’ve led against Greg and my race if you step aside.


    “Heh, my Honey loves collecting your tails and your cat friend’s liver. I’m sure she is going to be elated if I bring her those gifts!”


    I guess we will have to defeat you then. Agnis link us up! I’m going to use [Blackout]


    I linked my buddies to my vision and Greg used [Blackout]. The whole dungeon became pitch dark. Zarrazax used fire to light up the place but Greg removed the light from the flames. Mana and divine energy started to well up in him. I covered all of us in [Frost Cloak].


    He used something that looked like [Explode]. The temperature and force were so great that they sent the teleporter haywire and it forcefully teleported us to the outside. We got ejected into a mountainside but we got protected by [Frost cloaks] and [Shadow Cloaks].


    “Ahhh it is good to be outside again! I don’t remember it being this cold though.”


    I noticed that the global ambient temperature was slowly rising.


    What is this? Shouldn’t this happen only locally?


    Uh, dunno, might be related to that he’s also associated with the sun. But raising the global temperature is quite crazy. It’s going to make that stupid desert even bigger!


    That’s what you’re concerned about?


    Nobody needs more sand.


    “Why do you races always do this?! Stop ignoring me!”


    Hey do you think he is attention deficient?


    He must be, he has been stuck for over 2000 years or so.


    I think it was closer to 3000 years.


    “What?! 3000 years?! What about my Honey? Where is she?”


    I started to drop the temperature because this asshole was making this place way too hot. Greg was blocking fire attacks.


    I bet she forgot about you!


    This enraged him. Raishin never fails to piss people off.


    “She would never! I will proceed with my plan and bring her your corpses as gifts!”


    No wonder she forgot about you, which chick wants to deal with guys that bring her corpses as gifts?


    He sent a [Flare] at me and I pushed Greg away and I tanked it.


    Hmm for a god of fire this seems quite weak.


    “Ok you are going down first! I’m sure she needs more material for a new coat!” He rushed at me and Nilah tackled him.


    Nilah! Sword!


    I took a stance the moment I felt Shirayuki at my hip and used [Iai: Nilah]. He got cut in 9 pieces but deities don’t care about this.


    Greg used [Shadow Vortex] on his pieces and shot something at him that seemed unusually black.


    Is that abyss magic?


    Yeah, if we get lucky and I get enough hits of this in we might be able to kill him for good.


    I boxed him in with [Frost Walls]. And he got hit.


    “Aaagh! First Pagos and then Abyss magic! We should have done a better job wiping you out!”


    Do you have anything stronger?


    I strengthened the [Frost cloaks] around them because he used [Explode] again as his pieces turned into fire and reformed to become 1 Zarrazax. Raishin was about to go 6t mode when I stopped him.


    Why?


    We just started this fight, don’t go exhaust yourself physically yet. Let’s make sure that when you go 6t mode you can do a lot of damage to him.


    Ok.


    Raishin used [Lightning Glitter].


    Zarrazax tried to blast them away but I swapped him with a glitter, which caused him to get hit by other glitters. I had expected that swapping a god would be hard or impossible. Maybe it should be but this god is overconfident. We will have to drop him before he takes us seriously. We have to abuse this godly arrogance before he just decides to nuke the whole country to kill us.


    Raishin created some strange yellow balls of lightning that floated around near Zarrazax.


    Take this special [Chain Lightning]!


    I wanted to comment that [Chain Lightning] only works with multiple targets but it was jumping from Zarrazax to a floating orb, then back to Zarrazax and so forth.


    Wow so you do have a brain!


    I interrupted various spells he tried to fling at us. And then froze his arm. It took him some effort but he broke free. The temperature of his arm stayed low for no reason. Greg noticed this.


    Didn’t we learn that a certain god was especially weak to frost magic? Shouldn’t he be the one?


    If that’s true, he’s so screwed. Nilah! Turn into your original form and sic ‘em!


    Nilah turned into her huge fox form and pounced on Zarrazax. He seemed to freak out and did his best to evade Nilah. I wouldn’t let him though. I jumped at him and landed a palm strike on his back augmented with frost. He crashed into the ground and Nilah slammed her tails on him. Raishin was chucking orange lightning spears at him. It looked like we were doing good damage but I don’t know the conditions that need to be met to kill a god.


    So, he might as well feel as if we’re tickling him. A death or 100 is no problem for them because they don’t truly die. A [Shadow Dome] covered us as a [Heat wave] went out. All the foliage in the vicinity got vaporized. The ground was slowly melting. Now that’s not impressive because I can do that too, what is impressive is that he seems relatively fine. He was dusting off his jogging pants.


    “So, are you done? You guys aren’t as strong as I had thought. Is it because all of you are so young?”


    Hey Greg, what do we do? We’re not hurting him.


    Let me block more attacks. I will attempt to hit him with [Erebeia].


    Ohh good! So ehh what does it do?


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    If it hits it will take away half of his vitality. It is the most powerful early in a fight.


    Any restrictions?


    I need to absorb about 120 more of those [Heat Waves] to hit the minimum requirements. Also, I can only use it once per day.


    Ok I will deal with that. I can release a stupid amount of energy, make sure you can catch all of it.


    I can do that!


    You can go if this isn’t enough. I’m going to be very efficient and drop a frost nuke on this place, it will certainly hurt for him.


    Nilah got blasted into a mountain.


    “I have bad memories fighting [Pneuma Boreas]! These things are so stupidly overpowered!”


    I agree! Nilah are you ok?


    Greg covered the floor in shadows as I got blasted by fire. Nilah ran over to me


    I petted Nilah.


    If this is too much for you, keep enough mana to retain your form but I need you do blast this whole area with a full powered [Kryokym]


    “I should kill you first to get rid of this stupid fox!”


    Good luck I have high fire resistance.


    I covered Nilah in an illusion. The real one rushed at Zarrazax. The illusion stayed at my side and was knocking fire attacks away with her tails. Raishin was using his tiger clouds to create energy and Gregory was preparing to use abyss magic. I will attempt to restrain this guy so Greg can get a clean shot in.


    Hey Zack!


    “It’s Zarrazax!”


    I smiled.  Ever got hit by [Kryokym]?


    His facial expression told me everything I knew. It was a face of fear and horror. Nilah crashed into Zack and unleashed [Kryokym]. All the mana she had gathered from when I first made her burst out and got converted into damage. She had stolen mana from passersby’s, from strong attacks like attacks from Inyr, and the laser from that praying mantis, and more. All of this has now turned into a frost nuke.


    Everything turned white and froze over. I heard Zack scream in agony and I noticed Greg give the thumbs up. I connected to the air leylines and used ice [Dragon Festival] and made them restrain Zarrazax. He was bleeding a lot but tried to break free. I hit him with my own [Kryokym]. It didn’t do nearly as much damage on him as the one Nilah did but it hurt him.


    A large pitch-black blanket reached for him and covered him. The scream got louder and more intense. Bursts of fire tried to break through. I targeted Zack for my [Eternal Winter] and the fire almost died out.


    Hey, maybe we can do this after all.


    I looked at Nilah. She looked exactly at how she looked when I first made her. I picked her up and put her on my head.


    Well, Greg and I just used nukes we can’t reproduce so I’m not sure about that.


    “Aaagh! Ok I was wrong you are not that weak after all!” He shot a golden fireball into the sky which exploded like firework.


    Ehh is this phase 2?


    I think this is worse than phase 2.


    I covered my buddies in 12 layers of illusion to hide them. I made 5 layered illusions of ourselves on other locations.


    Are you ok Greg?


    Yeah, Can you dump a bit of energy in my shadow? I used all of it just now. I added some effects to it which will hopefully kick in later.


    Instant kill effect?


    I wish.


    Our illusions were holding out quite well because he was overly wary of me and Nilah. He had some frost burn scars that wouldn’t heal. I think we just did meaningful damage right there.


    The sky turned gold and a familiar figure appeared.


    Ugh, this bitch, you’re right, this is worse than phase 2!


    We already had our hands full on 1 god…


    So, Greg, I was thinking, just like I counter Zack, you counter Tomato goddess.


    Tomato Goddess?


    Oh, Neia’s eldest daughter and I had decided to call her that, it pisses her off whenever you negatively comment on her appearance.


    Right…


    Would a ‘Yo Momma joke’ work on her?


    Dunno, go and find out.


    Our illusions held out for quite well.


    “Don’t kill that one Zax, I need him to breed more fur for my wardrobe.” She blasted the illusions of Raishin and Greg with some light attacks. Raishin’s illusion got obliterated but Greg’s illusion absorbed the light attack and dropped a [Liberation] on Zack.


    “Ugh, I hate shadowcats.” Tomato bitch looked at Greg as if she was looking at Raishin’s dirty underwear.


    “Ugh, I hate tailed beasts, hey Honey, didn’t you miss me? No ‘hey, good to see you again.’ Or ‘I’ve missed you?’ or anything like that?” Zack said as he was walking up to tomato goddess.


    “Not now Zax, fighting a team up of a nine tailed furball and a three tailed pest never comes easy no matter how weak they are. And why aren’t you praising my beauty like you always do?”


    “You look fabulous Honey…”


    Hey, they seem quite busy, would they notice if we sneak away?


    Good plan.


    I will [Shadow Meld] us.


    “But first!” She used something we recognized as [Divine Light]. Target? Probably everything in a radius of 50 km.


    So, guys with years of adventuring experience behind my belt I will make a highly educated assessment. We… are fucked.


    What do we do!


    I guess it’s my turn


    Greg’s shadow tripled and other shadows seemed like they were dancing. A mana burst erupted from him as he went 3t mode. A tether went out to our shadows and they became pitch black, like the color of Abyss magic. He then created [Shadow Waves] and 10-meter-high waves of shadows surrounded us.


    The targeted area of the Aquini mountain range got leveled. We got saved by Greg’s shadows.


    “I truly despise your kind.”


    Hey tomato goddess! Catch!


    I rode a [Shadow Wave] and sneaked up behind them. It wasn’t much sneaking because they were flying in the air but my illusions make me unnoticeable. Nilah had turned into Shirayuki and I had my [Tail Dynamo] going. It hadn’t turned into orange lightning yet but a frost slash would certainly hurt her.


    I sent a red lightning infused [Iai: Wintersbite] at tomato goddess. This pissed her off but not enough for her to make a stupid choice. She narrowly evaded it.


    “Ugh, my head hurts, why do I get a headache looking at you?”


    Oh.  I smiled


    I went out of my way and unsealed your favorite vixen, Norya Mikazuki.


    Tomato goddess clutched her head fighting her headache. I absorbed a [Fire blast] with my [Frost Cloak] and used [Kryokym] on tomato goddess and kept slashing at her. She tried to defend herself but the headache was preventing her from concentrating. I hope I can do enough damage in these one-time gimmicks. I cut her arms off so she couldn’t grab her head.


    “Aaagh! Zax! Do something about that furball! And I warn you! Don’t kill him! Male furballs are exceedingly rare!”


    Not sure if this is a good or bad thing.


    I swapped myself with Greg because he had prepared a heavy hammer slam imbued with a lot of shadows. I heard a scream as Greg pummeled the tomato goddess and smacked her into the ground below. Raishin had managed to land a [Raishin Kick] on Zack but he managed to break out of it. I swapped myself with Raishin to tank an [Incinerate].


    I used [Frozen Ground] and made him slip and froze his jogging pants to the floor.


    So, gods can slip too, eh? Nilah sic ‘em!


    I had forgotten that Nilah was a small cute fox now. She did damage but it wasn’t a lot. He tried to physically fight her off. It seems he finally learned that Nilah and I are just going to drop a [Kryokym] on him if he attacks us. Speaking of which. I hit him with [Kryokym] to return the damage he tried to fry Raishin with.


    I interrupted some spells tomato goddess tried to use.


    “Zax! Get this pest, I will deal with the furball!”


    I kept his ass frozen and tried to box him in with frost magic but he had no choice and to blast it with his flames which fed me energy to drop more [Kryokym] on tomato goddess. And this pissed her off even more.


    Raishin was chucking [Supernova Blasts] at tomato goddess. Unfortunately, for him it seems like Greg and I are doing the most damage here even though Raishin is our main damage dealer.


    Greg had split his shadow off in 3, so 3 of his shadow and himself were hammering at tomato goddess with shadows everywhere. Every light-based skill she tried to use got drowned out by his shadows. What did escape did no damage because he had fortified our shadows so light-based attacks did hardly any damage. What concerned me is that we know what tomato goddess’ phase 2 is and it’s extremely problematic. Especially if she has an ally.


    It seemed as if Greg had gotten a massive boost and was doing more damage to these deities as before. Is it because his attacks have gotten stronger or… Are tailed beast modes the best way to combat deities as it makes our attacks more effective? That’s hard to test this as Greg is Biian’s natural enemy.


    Greg and I did everything to keep them cc-locked for as long as possible. The moment Greg gets tired and has to drop his 3t mode is when we will get into trouble. We need to come up with a plan before that happens because we want to stagger our tailed beast modes as much as possible.