Being smashed into solid stone was not a pleasant experience, even if he was effectively immune to the injuries themselves. He still felt every cut or scrape- every ruptured organ and splatter of flesh and blood- despite the fact that, thanks to Gamer's Body, he didn't actually suffer a single one of those injuries.

Fortunately, the impact sent him into shock, which helpfully negated most of the pain. In turn, Gamer's Mind removed both once he'd been settled back a few feet into solid rock. He could move, barely, and it was that which allowed him to relax.

Not fully, for obvious reasons, but he clearly wasn't dead. How, he didn't exactly know since that impact would have easily creamed him before entering The Game, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He did still look around him, specifically the two new notifications he found himself with.

Through special action, the skill [Bearing] has been created!

Background Music enabled: God Mode - Sons Of Amon

The skill was pretty simple- granting him a whole 1% damage resistance- though presumably it would get better as it leveled. For now, though, it was underwhelming, and he didn't exactly enjoy the idea of training his ability to get injured. The music, though, wasn't actually that bad. It was quiet and lacked lyrics, making it great for fighting. It's just that, without his mana, he wasn't going to be doing a whole lot of that. A quick check on his mana revealed he'd regened almost nothing at all, with it rising just under 0.5% per second.

He could work on that later, but there was literally nothing he could do yet. 0.5% was a lot with how much mana he had, but none of his skills would really make a difference without a lot of it.

Ignoring all of that, he peered out from his little hole and into the battlefield beyond.

It was here that he finally got a chance to survey the room itself, rather than the creatures inside, and he came to a startling yet fairly mundane realisation- the entire room was lit up from nowhere. Granted, the Wisps, the Ifrit, and even the eye of the Colossus were producing light, but the entire room was brightly lit, and evenly at that. It was artificial as hell, and so very video gamey.

That also meant nothing stood between him and watching his allies take on the rest of them. Caelem, in particular, handled the situation with as much grace and dignity as was expected of him.

Which was to say none. While Draga missed exactly what had happened to him after absorbing the Wisps attack, it had apparently not gone too well. The Ifrit had been able to recover and lunge for his back while he was distracted with trying any number of attacks on the Wisps, all to no avail. From what he'd seen so far, they were immune to fire, lightning, brute force from some wind blast, and whatever the rot curse he'd used on Alagut was.

Death Gods were traditionally immune to damage, but the sudden gasp as massive jaws bit down on his wings and bent them inward kinda ruined that image. It only got worse when the Ifrit's momentum carried the both into the far wall- slamming the archangel into the wall and leaving him stunned for a brief moment.

Recognizing the fact that they couldn't hurt Caelem, the Wisps took the opportunity to shoot at Xander instead- someone who was already in the midst of dodging some purple laser beam attack from Nfiankanf, the near-invisible imp thing. Everywhere the streak of light hit exploded outwards, forcing Xander back and herding him towards the other enemies.

Towards the Wisps.

Xander had no hope to dodge the attack, with it coming from outside his line of sight, and though he was confident he could survive it, such a blow could stun him- leaving him open to Nfiankanf and whatever it was up to.

Draga called out a warning, but it went unheard as the slowest combatant made its first move. Literally, since the Colossus had only just managed to step towards the three of them.

Even thought it didn't crush any of them underfoot, the air pressure alone was enough to plow Draga another few feet back into the stone, and it was only worse for those closer to it. Thankfully, that included both Nfiankanf and the Ifrit, which were flung into the cavern walls as well, though yet again the Wisps proved immune to being blown back.

That very fact allowed them to try to hit Xander again. He was less embedded in the wall than Draga was, but still had to pull himself out of it. He couldn't get out in time, and the the Wisps collectively tore the air asunder as a ray of orange made a second attempt.

It was thwarted yet again, though not by Xander or the Colossus. Their lack of coordination played into it again, with the Ifrit pouncing on him when he was 'vulnerable' and letting the flames wash over its back instead. Considering the damn things back was already lit beforehand, it didn't take a genius to guess that no damage was actually dealt, but Xander was able to brace his hammer against the Ifrit's outstretched claws and use the rock face to his advantage.

The Ifrit changing targets also left Caelem unattended, and he used the opportunity to... Do something. Whatever he was casting- and Draga could see runes flowing over his wings and across the air around him- it wasn't immediately apparent.

What was immediately apparent was Nfiankanf fucking everything up for everybody. He was still near impossible to see while not using that laser attack, which unfortunately made both him and Caelem miss the impish creature entirely as it approached the death god.

While it had probably comitted suicide in the following second, that came as no comfort to the Gamer. Caelem was gone, as was Nfiankanf, as they were either obliterated entirely or else warped somewhere else in a flash of purple light.

Thankfully, he was able to surmise the situation in a single word: Fuck.

Xander didn't quite get the memo, as he was still busy wrestling with the far larger Ifrit. To his unending credit, after another few seconds with the two bashing each other around, he was able to roll it over himself and fling it upwards. As it fell back down, he swung his hammer around, ending it with one empowered strike.

That left the two of them against the Wisps, the Colossus, and maybe He Who Watches... They could theoretically work with this. A single direct blow from the Colossus would kill either of them, but it was so large and slow that it couldn't really hit them, while the Wisps could largely be ignored. Their attacks moved in straight lines, meaning they could be dodged if you were aware of what was happening. It was all just a matter of figuring out how to even damage the blasted things.

Same went for the Colossus, really. It was huge, the sheer size of it basically nullifying anything the two of them could do. Throwing Caelem at it had seemed like such a good idea, too.

Draga flexed his magic, and no small thanks to Mathematicians Answer, was able to give a firm guess at 22% capacity. Not a lot, but that was only because he was basing it off of the power of his Lightning Affinity- as a destructive weapon, lightning was actually incredibly weak. Joule for joule, fire beat it out big time, and while lightning could be more practical due to its speed and the function of a nervous system, that didn't really matter against these particular enemies. The Wisps hadn't even moved from where they'd started, even when Caelem was just pouring attacks into them, while the Colossus couldn't really dodge anyway. The problem was hurting them.

The arcane glow flowed into Draga's right hand, where it collected again. Not all of it, and certainly not into another far weaker lightning attack, but rather just building up over time. Six seconds later, exactly, he stopped, and simply observed as 25% of his mana just sat atop his palm, simultaineously still like a solid and bobbing back and forth as a liquid.

There was more than just that, and by design. He'd unlocked a point in all affinities thanks to his new skills- even if they probably couldn't grow stronger until he gained them for real- and while Lightning was his highest as a consequence of it leveling up from use, he wasn't aiming for a single element.

He wasn't aiming for all of them, either. Just drawing upon his power brought a myriad of sensations, emotions, and thoughts to his mind. The comfortable warmth of a nearby fire, contrasted against the cold loneliness of water, contrasted again against the unifying and humbling presence of the earth beneath them. It went on, with the smooth touch of metal and- of course- the strange desire to obliterate everything that was brought upon by lightning.

That wasn't even the end of the list, but he cut off most of them to leave behind the three he wanted in the moment- air, fire, and lightning. He wasn't just pooling them together, though- such an attack would still be completely worthless, especially with the added cost of his lower affinity elements. Instead, he used his influence over the collective to empower and cycle the energy between one another.

It was experimental, but he understood a lot about the nature of lightning and fire- they were both consequences of an imbalance of energy and a single spark to bring it to light. The air just above his palm was sorted into just oxygen. He couldn't recognize the molecules themselves in any way, so he had to improvise using their relative densities- with a margin of error. Then, a small ember appeared in the palm of his hand, the tip of which reached up into the ball and ignited the oxygen sphere. He let it burn for a moment, replenishing the air as best he could as it gathered energy.

Then, by moving the heated air and the flames about, he created an imbalance of energy- both in heat and electric charge. Nature abhores imbalance, and all it took for it to solve the problem on its own was the creation of a ladder: the bridge of air lightning normally travels across.

That, in turn, was manipulated to create further imbalance in the basketball sized elemental playground he'd created. He could feel, more than see or hear, the notifications of the new skills marking his progress with the air and fire affinities, but they went mostly ignored as he went about his work.

All told, he was probably only focused for about seven seconds. In that time, he missed out on what Xander was doing, but he was rewarded with a compact ball of energy which roared into his ears as he let the fire and lightning suffuse the space he'd chosen entirely.

He actually had some energy leftover after all of that, which was good. Combined with his regen, he might just be able to complete the next step before Xander got stepped on or something.

Truth was, even combined like this, the elements still wouldn't do anything. He needed to repurpose the energy somehow, and thanks to his experiences with ERPGs (Elven Role Playing Games) he had an idea.

Virtually every fantasy world had elemental magic of some kind. Often, metal or nature were skipped out in an attempt for simplicity, while light and dark were sometimes attributed to elements as well. Within those games, some had more advanced elements born from the combination of them.

Draga flatly didn't have the mana to experiment like that, but he could cheat. But creating the energy of the attack through physical means, he'd actually already surpassed the total power output of his original lightning bolt, while negating most of the drawbacks. A quarter the price, no kickback since it wasn't extending from him but rather existed in its own space, and it could be manipulated so long as he maintained a circular path for the lightning to travel along.

He watched as the energy crackled and roared, fighting against the very physics he was using to restrain it- a testiment to the power of the natural world, but he still needed more. Even as he fed the lightning and flames, he condensed them. At first, not a whole lot changed besides the color of the fire, but once they reached a small enough size and energy density...

It was like magic. Which, he supposed, it was. Describing the orange blob that came into being would be difficult, since he had no frame of reference, but The Game came to his aid yet again.

Through special action, the skill [Elemental Mixing] has been unlocked!

Through Special action, the skill [Destruction] has been created!

Draga smiled at them, even if he wondered at the implications of the different word choice at the end. It didn't matter- not yet, anyway.

What little mana he had left poured into the literal orb of destruction- whatever it was actually composed of- which was surprisingly silent as he shot it off it towards the Wisps.

They were as unperturbed by his attack as all the others, which was easy to see despite their lack of visible faces in the way they literally didn't move as it approached. Who knows- maybe they were immune to it anyway.

They weren't.

Your level has increased by one!
Your level has increased by one!

He heard the notifications- vaguely. It was hard over the roar of his attack which expanded on impact and just consumed the region of space around it, Wisps, air, and stone included.

The vacuum created died a moment after, as the nature of air pressure took hold and deafened Draga again. Thankfully, Xander wasn't close enough to be sucked in, though the way he suddenly jerked his head implied he wasn't unaffected by the sheer noise.

Right... Xander...

At the moment, he'd scaled up the Colossus, having used its sheer bulk to block most of the Wisps attacks on the way up- if the scorch marks across its surface were any indication. He hadn't died yet, so it clearly hadn't been able to clamp it's hands down atop them yet.

A minute in, and it looked like they just might win. If Xander could buy time- maybe do some damage while bashing its head in- then they could get out of this angelic nightmare once and for all.

Draga could barely restrain the scream that formed when the the ceiling above the Colossus shattered.