“And here I was thinking I’d have to come find you,” Rogu yelled at the advancing Treant. “How nice of you to save me a trip.”

 

“We only ran into one Horror, and the Dryads are still hiding around here,” Kitra whispered. “If we get caught in a brawl here, they’ll absolutely try and flank us.”

 

“What do you mean, ‘We get caught in a brawl?’” Rogu chuckled. “Voss is mine.”

 

“You’re crazy, he’ll pulverise you!” she hissed.

 

The Abomination rolled his shoulders, then stretched out his arms, his eyes never leaving Voss. “I need you and your boys to keep anyone from intervening in our fight. If you do that, I can deal with the Ent. Can I trust you to do that?”

 

Kitra glanced at the massive rotting greatwood as it slowly strode closer. “You know I can. However, I’ll probably have to go pretty deep into the woods to do it. Once I’m done, I’m going to take whoever’s left and retreat to our floor. We are going to take losses dealing with the dryads, and I don’t really have anything to deal with,” she gestured towards Voss. “That. If you somehow survive, come back, and we’ll reorganise.”

“Oh, I’ll be back. Just wait for me,” Rogu replied, advancing confidently towards Voss.

 

“Good luck,” Kitra muttered before turning to the other Murid. “Scouting formation. Move fast and stay alert, I need you to draw out the dryads for me.”

“So bait formation,” Harris, the leader of the squad, grunted.

 

“Call it what you want, just get them to show themselves, I’ll do the rest,” she growled. “Now get moving, unless you’d rather act as a decoy for Rogu.”

 

The Murids all leaned to the side to look at the two massive combatants, just as Voss reached into the forest and broke a small tree in half, dragging the top back out to use like a club.

 

“Scouting action it is!” Harris declared.

 

As they ran off the path, Kitra turned to the last person on the path. “Come on, Phil, time to go.”

 

“But, Rogu…” the fleshy horror whined, tentacles drooping sadly.

 

“Have you ever known him to lose a duel?” she asked. “Come on, we’ll help him by keeping everyone else away. I need you to rampage through the woods.”

The mutant immediately perked up. “Rampage?”

 

Kitra nodded. “Find the Dryads, avoid the shiny.”

 

“RAMPAGE!” Phil cheered before sprinting into the woods, shattering branches and small trees as he went.

 

Kitra paused for just a moment, glanced back at Rogu, then pulled the hood of her cloak up over the top of her mask and disappeared into the gloom after him.

 

“Your friends have a lot of faith in you,” Voss grumbled. “Pride, or skill?”

 

“Oh, it’s probably a little bit of both. I like a good challenge,” Rogu laughed as he unlatched a pair of chains wrapped around his forearms, before reaching up and pulling a pair of large cleaver-like swords off his back.

 

“That makes sense, considering you have a skill that improves your prowess when you’re in a one-on-one fight,” Voss said.

 

“You mean ‘Eternal Challenger?’ Well, that definitely helps,” the Abomination chuckled. “Shall we?”

 

Instead of replying, Voss just swung the tree he’d been holding up in a quick rising sweep, aiming for Rogu’s head.

 

As swift as he was, the abomination just barely managed to block the attack with his heavy blades. The blow was heavy, even with Rogu’s inhuman strength, causing him to stumble back a couple of steps. “Nice try, but you’ll have to do better than… Oof”

 

Voss didn’t let up. As soon as he’d finished swinging his impromptu club, he took a quick step forward and kicked Rogu directly in the chest. That was enough to send the mound of muscle and stitching tumbling away.

 

“I was planning to,” Voss muttered. He flipped the log he was holding over and glanced at the blade embedded deep within the wood. “You should really keep a better grip on your weapons.”

 

Rogu rolled a couple of feet before immediately jumping to his feet. Some of the stitches across his chest had ripped open, but besides that, it seemed like the blow had barely affected him at all. “Oh, I never let them get too far.”

 

The Abomination grabbed the chain dangling from his right wrist and gave it a quick pull, causing the blade he’d hooked onto the end to rip loose from the log. As soon as the blade was back in his hand, he sprinted forward, swinging his blades wildly.

 

Voss raised the log to catch the first cleaver as it came down in a heavy overhead smash, and when he did, Rogu brought the second blade around and performed a wide sweep. Although he was smaller than Voss, the Abomination was still much larger than the average combatant, and with his huge, bulky arms and the length of the cleaver, he still had enough reach to score a hit on Voss. The blade didn’t bite too deeply, but it was enough to gouge a long horizontal strip out of Voss’ front and send his sap flying everywhere.

 

Even though the thick, poisonous liquid had sprayed him, Rogu didn’t let up. He brought the cleavers down again, this time in a duel-handed V-shaped strike. Voss brought the log up again, catching one blade and taking a passing blow from the other.

 

Rogu ended the attack with his arms crossed and blades nearly embedded in the ground. Rather than backing off, he immediately brought both blades back across in a scissor-like cross strike. This time, Voss didn’t manage to get his log in front of the blade,s and the heavy cleavers cut heavy chunks out of Voss’ torso.

 

The Ent grunted in pain, bringing a feral grin to Rogu’s face right before the log smashed the Abomination in the side with the strength of a battering ram and sent him spiralling into a nearby tree.

 

“Okay, I deserved that,” he coughed, before spitting out a mouthful of foul black blood as he shoved himself to his feet. Or at least, he tried to.

 

When he reached out with his left arm, trying to push himself up, he found his arm was gone. The stitching around his shoulder had been torn apart by the strength of the blow, sending his limb sailing into the woods.

 

“Ugh, that’s not going to be easy to replace,” he muttered, shoving himself to his feet with his other hand.

 

Even though Voss had managed to deliver the vicious blow, the Treent wasn’t looking that good. The scissor strike had cut a huge chunk out of his middle, spilling wood splinters and vile sap across the trail. Both combatants may have been filled with all manner of plagues and poisons, but only one of them was a living creature. And he was flagging.

 

Voss tightened his grip on his log as he stumbled forward, using both hands to bring the huge spar down on Rogu’s position. The Abomination threw himself sideways, scrambling to the other side of a nearby tree just barely avoiding the blow. Both his cover and Voss’ weapon cracked and shattered at the attack, sending splinters flying everywhere. Even though he had unnatural resilience, a blow like that probably would have killed the abomination instantly.

 

Gripping his remaining cleaver, Rogu came out swinging. He brought the heavy blade down on Voss’ leg, hacking huge chunks out of it before his opponent could respond. The Treant dropped his shattered weapon and began swiping at the smaller man with long sweeping strikes. While dangerous, these didn’t have the same reach or power as the tree trunk he had been using earlier. In addition to that, the heavy blows Rogu had delivered earlier and the loss of sap caused Voss to slow.

 

The Abomination stepped back, staying just out of range of Voss’ grasping hands, and when he saw an opening, he stepped forward and brought his remaining blade down upon the Treant’s forearm. Despite the loud snap noise that happened at impact, and Voss screaming in pain, the limb didn’t get severed. It did, however, go limp.

 

As Voss backed off, cradling his injured limb, Rogu rushed forward. He brought his cleaver down on Voss’ leg and back over and over again, gouging huge chunks out of his opponent with every strike.

 

Voss attempted to strike back, stomping and kicking wildly at his opponent, trying everything he could to create an opening. It was too little too late. He’d already taken too much damage and lost too much sap during the fight, and after a couple more exchanges, he collapsed heavily in the middle of the path.

 

“Good fight,” he managed to mumble right before he started to break apart, dissolving into motes of light.

 

“Good fight,” Rogu acknowledged, leaning on his sword. He waited until Voss had completely dissipated before standing up straight. “Now, where’d my arm go?”

 

He only managed a couple of steps towards the forest before a violent ripping sound echoed through the area as the damaged stitches on his leg popped, sending his limb flying in the opposite direction and Abomination face first into the ground.

 

“Just wonderful,” he muttered into the grass.