The ground was still rumbling slightly. However, all members choose to ignore it as their current circumstances were more important than what might be the reason for the slight rumbling that has been going on for minutes by now.

Luke, grabbed by the fear of losing another sibling here, stood up while immediately manifesting a giant sledgehammer made of spiky bones that he immediately swung towards Alex as he took a step towards him. 

The latter summoned a dirt barrier, but the wall didn't manifest in time.

The sledgehammer slammed right into Alex's abdomen before sending him crashing against the cave wall that was around two meters away from the two.

At the same time, the water bubble around Anne's head immediately burst as Alex lost control at the moment. Anne collapsed to the floor, where she was gasping for air. Her face was red, while her knees were shaking. This fight was way above their league. With ferocious eyes, she glared at the groaning Odebus, whose body had crashed against the wall. But something else quickly caught her attention.

'Why is the ground shaking?' Anne wondered as she continuously gasped for air before swerving her gaze towards her unconscious brother.

On the other hand, Luke didn't pause with his attacks as he strained his protease while immediately delivering another blow with his sledgehammer to Alex, who was back on his feet.

Alex dodged the blow by a hair's breadth as dust immediately blocked their view due to Luke's hit that sent dust flying into the air.

Unfortunally for Luke, Odebus hasn't merely honed his sense of smell and was way less relying on just seeing. For Odebus, hearing a breath was enough to estimate where his target stood. He swiftly moved towards him as Luke took another swing with his sledgehammer in hopes of hitting anything.

'Cute…' thought Odebus in amusement as he punched right into Luke's abdomen.

The sound of bones breaking could be heard as Luke collided into another wall a few feet away.

The armor covering his abdomen was filled with cracks as some bone pieces immediately began crumbling into pieces. But his armor wasn't the only one that broke due to the hit. A few bones inside him also cracked, but Alex didn't escape with no injuries either.

Since the latter could exclusively control muscles/flesh, it is no wonder that the bones on his hand immediately broke as they couldn't support his powerful hits and were neither intended for such.

Alex breathed loudly and exhausted as he was running short on mana. The many spells took a toll on him, and even with his perfect mana consumption, he was reaching his limits.

"This body is just too fragile," cursed Odebos while taking another step forward as the adrenalin couldn't numb his sharp pain any further and slowly drove him to the brink of insanity.

'I don't have that much time,' shot through Odebus's head as he dragged his already overextended body towards Luke to end it for all. It was already a miracle how he was still conscious.

He suffered a fractured skull, internal bleeding in his lower abdomen due to getting hit by a sledgehammer and a broken hand. But that wasn't all. Even though the wounds on his lungs healed to a certain extent by now and were no longer life-threatening, they were still serious injuries that would get worse the more time passed.

Anne reached her younger unconscious brother. Her original plan was to carry the latter out of the danger zone, but she quickly put that plan to a halt as she saw that Luke was in danger. Anne immediately grabbed a stone before making a throwing motion while muttering the spell: "[strong wind]" while throwing the rock.

Thanks to the spell, the speed of the rock drastically increased, and Alex's

barely prevented the worst from happening as he ducked his head to the side.

Instead of hitting his already broken face, the stone hit his shoulder, which

she triggered Odebus as he could no longer contain his anger.

How come an old and experienced monster like him was almost getting wrecked by a group of kids who had only like two months of fighting experience?

It's already embarrassing that he almost got killed by Evie with the power he gave her. But now, even people who didn't receive any powers from him were injuring him. Fucking amateur mages were hurting him, the experienced player.

As he continued to curse his ineptitude and how he had underestimated them, Odebus came back to his senses. The fight just wasn't worth fighting in such a state.

"I should have taken care of these two noisy creatures before focussing on my meal," sighed Odebus as he heard the noisy screeching of Goblins from afar.

A smile immediately grew on his face. That was his fastest chance of recuperating from his wounds through consuming these mentally lacking creatures. Also, these creatures could do further damage and tire his enemies out due to their sheer overwhelming strength in numbers.

Luke's face was horrified as he didn't know what kind of horde creature was coming and immediately expected the worst.

'FUCK. I don't know what these creatures are, but I could escape from a horde alone easily. How am I supposed to save my siblings and kill Odebus while such a horde is running towards us!?' Luke cursed in anger as he took another step towards Odebus while dragging his sledgehammer with all his might.

Anne, who expected the worst, carried Maurice via piggyback towards the exit while starring towards Luke.

"Brother…please escape with us," she shouted to Luke, who was limping towards Alex as only hatred kept him moving.

But the latter ignored her please and continued… Luke had only one goal, and that was to kill Odebus. No price was too high for that.

Anne continued to plead with him, telling him that he should escape with his siblings rather than die fighting.

"Anne… Sorry… But your brother has to finish the job that Evie started," Luke shouted back as he continued limbing towards Alex. The distance between the two continued to increase with every passing second since Alex moved way faster than him towards the exit.

Anne merely shouted in anger: "Brother…You already lost one friend. Evie cannot be replaced even if you kill the man. Evie would have wanted you to survive than to die fighting. Are you planning on leaving your siblings alone in this god-forsaken place? Did you find us here… just to say goodbye to us?"

unknownking

I wanted to upload that chapter yesterday, but I kinda struggled with writing an ending for it. Looking back onto my older chapter I regret not including any interaction between Luke and his siblings. That could have been a great idea. But I probably should ask you two. In future chapters, would you like to see more interaction between side characters or should I rather focus more on the main character?

I also got another question for you guys. For which option would you decide in Luke's place? Would you rather die fighting and leave your siblings alone? Or give up on it after losing almost everything just to spend more time with your siblings?

Sorry that I've been asking you guys a lot of questions lately.