Gabriel Dulac and Tamerin stood before the Old God himself, the God of Shepherds Pales.
It stood easily the size of a man, though shaped like a donkey and made of various pieces of skeletons assembled, including a man's rib cage added over its stomach, decorated with various gems and totems. Its face was shaped like a human skull, with a large mane seemingly stitched on to its form.
The creature spoke without even moving its mouth, "You two have interfered far enough in our operation here. The resources of this forest, if given over to we Old Gods, would aid tremendously in our recovery to prosperity. You, the new generation, must give your blood to ensure the old sustains itself. Such is the method of guaranteeing fertility."
Gabriel stepped forward, clenching his sword tightly, "And you know what? I don't give a damn about that! You came here apropos of nothing, burned the forest these fairies live in, you don't deserve pity and you certainly won't be getting our blood freely given."
Tamerin was next to move forward, pointing his spear at Pales, "I've heard, for hours, my subjects crying out in pain - seen their homes burn down...Pales, you are unforgivable! Yggdrasoil, my Spear, will claim justice this day for your crimes!"
Pales scoffed outright at these displays, seemingly empty eyes glowing red, "Impudent young wretches, both of you will feed the prosperity of tomorrow with your corpses."
Gabriel leaped out of the way as a mass of gnarled, twisted roots erupted out of the ground, Tamerin likewise gliding along.
Neither had much chance to stop, more roots erupting from the ground, Gabriel blasting through them with a burst of lightning, while Tamerin spun his spear around and ripped through the roots. The Old God watched the two deftly dodging and commentated, "It appears that if life is not to your liking, I must bring the natural cycle to death."
Pales let out a horrid shriek and emitted a large black light from his mouth, the light visibly killing even the grass it passed over.
Gabriel desperately moved out of the way - right into another grouping of the gnarled roots, which promptly wrapped around the young knight, restraining him. Pales outright chuckled, watching Tamerin dodge the attack but evade the follow up move.
The Old God gloated, "Hmph. And with that the worst hassle has been dealt with. Now I merely need to reckon with you, arrogant boy-king. Did you honestly believe he could be of help?" The mule god looked at Gabriel, who was struggling to try and free himself, "That human is nothing but a willing slave to his monarch. See how proudly it wears its finery, flouncing around playing at defender. When the reality is - humans are only good for the souls they stand to give we Old Gods."
The spear Yggdrasoil then almost sliced Pales, resulting in the Old God having to change his position for the first time in the fight, breathing and looking around as the floating spear rushed in several more times, faster each time.
Tamerin scowled, clenching one fist, "...And on top of everything else, you look down on me. Not like its a new feeling. But he..." Tamerin looked at Gabriel for a moment, "...he was willing to come in, help me and my people. I don't care if he's prince or pauper, Pales, you will not spit on someone's valor in the King of the Fairies' forest!"
The spear then divided into a swarm of eighty of itself, flying at Pales in a swarm of sixty, while twenty of them flew over to Gabriel and commenced cutting loose the roots.
Pales dodged and lifted himself up on his roots, but each time he summoned the roots, they were sliced within a minute of spawning into existence by the swarm form of Yggdrasoil. All sixty of them stabbed into the old mule's form...
...and were blasted backward by a burst of dark energy, the old god stating in a rumbling tone, "I will not see insolent children maim and damage me, if I must battle you seriously, then I will reduce you to nothing but crumbled offerings!!"
Gabriel helped the little spears get him free as fast as possible. He did not want to leave Tamerin alone to fight that Old God alone. And when the spears finally got him free, he looked over in time to see a massive amount of black light gathering in Pales' mouth.
There was no time to interrupt this - there was only the most dangerous option left to Gabriel, "the current".
The young knight began running, seeing the massive dark energy emit itself in a veritable tidal wave of force out of Pales' mouth, which seemed to distend itself to more capably release all this entropic force. Tamerin murmured, "Shit...nowhere to run from an attack this big!" He then saw Gabriel move in front, positioning his sword in an oddly defensive stance, "Don't tell me you're going to try and shield me from that! I-I don't want you to lose your life for me...not like..."
Gabriel looked back at Tamerin briefly to show him a confident smile.
He then resumed concentration, and the attack crashed into his guarded position.
Pales gloated aloud, "Very well then - if you shall resist me together, then the two of you shalt die together..." However the massive wave of force didn't seem to be advancing much further against Gabriel's guarded position, "...What? How is he not dead, when faced with this much decay and death? It is not possible..."
Gabriel actually stepped forward, the dark energy slowly showing sparks of energy around it...funneling it, caging it with thin lines of electric force.
Rather than explain what was due to happen, Gabriel simply went forward with it - slashing forward with his sword from its defensive position. This resulted in the massive amount of energy emitted by Pales, surrounded by "chains" of electric energy, following the movement of Gabriel's sword, rushing right back at the prone Old God.
The tremendous counterattack ripped right through the Old God, and as its form started to destabilize and crumble to dust, it commented one last time, "...brought low by the cycle of life and death, pushed back against me. What...bitter irony..."
The Old God then fully disintegrated, and Gabriel fell to one knee, his whole body letting out smoke and steam from the strain of doing that particular move.
Tamerin went to Gabriel's side, "S-Sir Gabriel!"
Gabriel wavered a bit on his feet, "C-Current Counter always takes a lot out of me...do not worry, Tam, I am mostly fine..." He tried to get back up on his feet, but fell forward again.
Tamerin sighed, and stated, "You certainly do not look fine. I will have our healers bring you back to tip top shape...I am so sorry for inflicting my troubles on you, Sir Gabr---"
Gabriel interjected one last time, distinctly feeling like consciousness was starting to slip, "You...can address me as Gabriel. We fought...an Old God together..." And with that he fell unconscious.