Dissonance a litrpg adve.., p.28
Dissonance: A LitRPG Adventure, page 28
part #1 of Unbound Series
Maybe she's a mage? Felix's eyes lit up at the thought. Now that'd be something. Maybe she can tell me—
A sudden snort sounded and Felix went absolutely still. Carefully, he turned around and was relieved to find the giant still sleeping. It had just rolled over.
Whew. Gotta hurry.
Felix tried to untie the rope. But it wasn't tied. It was just wrapped tightly around the girl, held mostly in place by her own unconscious weight on top of it.
Shit. I can't hold her and untie her. Felix tapped his lips before swallowing carefully. I'll have to improvise.
Acid Stream
Felix formed a small globe of green liquid in his hand, but did not push it in any direction. Instead, he let it pool there, spinning like a tiny planet above his palm. The spell fought against him, wanting to be released, but he flexed his Willpower, and it stopped. Then, very carefully, he dragged the orb across a thick rope section. With a hissing sizzle and three seconds time, the rope dissolved and fell apart. He did a silent victory dance in his head and kept on moving. It took nearly two minutes, but he had cut her loose without getting any of the corrosive liquid on the girl.
He had just pulled the last of the ropes off her body when he heard the faint crack of ice behind him. His Perception suddenly blaring in warning, Felix turned just in time to see a massive metal club swinging for his head.
Felix jumped back, using the same motion to kick the unconscious woman away from him and Lazy. She slid across the ice with the force of his push, fetching up against the wrecked building where Pit was hiding. That was all the attention Felix was about to afford however, because the Risi started swinging again.
The giant was strong, so strong that his swings felt like standing too close to a subway train. All wind and metal and instant death if he stepped in the wrong place. Felix backed up again and again as he dodged around the Risi Warrior's brutal attacks.
If just one of these attacks connect, it will destroy me. Felix was sweating, but the giant wasn't even breathing hard.
Then Felix saw Pit drag the poor girl into the ruined building, and a weight lifted off his chest.
Felix rolled out of the way of another strike, came to his feet, and leapt from an ice-coated boulder. He jumped back toward the giant, making it to eye level before he let loose a Corrosive Strike. Except, Felix didn't stop to realize that once you were in the air, you could no longer maneuver. The Risi knocked him from the sky with a swipe of its metal club, smashing him into the ice and stone with a cracking report.
Felix hit hard, and felt his bones creak. The ice beneath him shattered, and his Health dropped by 40%.
Fuck! He spit up blood onto the ice.
Armored Skin is level 3!
Armored Skin is level 4!
Felix felt a sudden rush of wind behind him, and he rolled to the left quickly, barely evading another strike of the club. Coming to his feet, he squared off and fired an Acid Stream at the giant. The acid hit the Risi square in the chest, sizzling and bubbling against the metal armor, but failing to eat through it.
"Tch," Felix clicked his tongue, annoyed.
Reign of Vellus!
The giant, who had taken two steps toward him and was winding up his club, was sent stumbling as Felix tugged on the Risi's unsupported left leg as it stepped forward. Felix rushed forward and swung a vicious uppercut.
Corrosive Strike!
His fists, enhanced with his acidic magic, blasted a large dent into the giant's chest plate. Lazy even popped up momentarily into the air, and Felix followed up with a jump-assisted double-fisted slam onto the giant's back.
Crash!
Lazy hit the ice hard, shattering it further as frozen chips scattered up and into the air. Felix panted with effort, his arms almost numb from the vibrations of striking the giant's hard skin.
The giant, however, simply stood back up. And grinned.
"You suck," breathed Felix. Then he charged back in.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Vessilia Dayne was not having the greatest of days.
Battered and bruised, the pain woke her more than anything else. She lacked the Pain Resistance Skill, and she regretted it dearly. Agony lanced across her limbs and lower back where the giant had smashed her against the ice. She blinked blearily at the half-fallen roof, covered in bits of ice and green vines as if winter and spring were fighting one another. Her mind felt muddled, and two blinking icons flashed in her vision:
Status Condition: Concussion (Mild)
Status Condition: Injured (Minor)
Slowly leveraging herself into a sitting position, Vess let out a hiss as her back tweaked and sent more flashes of pain out to her legs and made her fingers tingle.
That is not good, she thought. Minor means sprain or bruising usually, so perchance not as bad as I—
Her inner dialogue died as her eyes finally adjusted to the gloomy interior. Standing only two feet from her was a shadowy presence with two sets of eyes, each burning gold with a fiendish fury, and clawed appendages stretched out to either side, dark and fuzzy like the fog that it lived within.
"Chimera!"
Dragoon's Footwork!
Dragoon's Footwork is level 26!
Vess flowed like quicksilver, her body moving almost without conscious thought, and she was suddenly ten feet away and upon her feet. Instinctively, she reached out to grab her spear but found nothing but empty air.
Damn! The giant! That monstrous foe had disarmed her during their initial melee. She grabbed at her waist and pulled a small dagger from her belt sheath, wincing as pain shot through her back. This will have to do.
She advanced on the chimera, who had oriented on her remarkably quickly. Its Perception must be sky high to notice my movements through this blasted fog. Even now, the ever-present mist had begun rolling into the ruin's darkened interior. The fiend blinked owlishly at her, tilting its head curiously before snarling and dropping low. The two of them circled one another, giving Vess a chance to really look at this beast.
The chimera had four legs that looked like they belonged to a small wolf, a bushy tail, and two clawed appendages on its back. The claws spread out like gnarled wings, quivering with each step. It was hideous, its hide rippling and twisted like all the chimeric beasts she'd encountered, the edges of its form fuzzing off into the fog itself.
Each step was painful, a jolt of discomfort that was growing into an almighty blaze of agony in her back. Vess swallowed and eyed the collapsed wall in her peripherals. If I can outsmart it...
Vess activated Dragoon's Footwork again, this time in a feint toward the left before spinning to the right and diving out of the ruined building. The chimera fell for it, its remarkably fast reflexes still not enough for her advanced movement technique.
Thank you, Mother...
Vess landed on an uneven stone thoroughfare, nearly identical to the one her team had followed. Perhaps they were close. She heard the sound of fighting nearby, including the unmistakable sound of a giant's pained roar. Quick as a blink, she took off toward the sound.
Behind her she heard frantic scrabbling in the ruins as the chimera gave chase.
Night! She cursed, not wasting time looking back, just focusing on rounding the corner of the building ahead. The street was covered in ice, thickening as she went, but more disconcerting was the increasing amount of shattered walls she was seeing. Vess passed four broken walls, newly destroyed to her eye, and through the fifth she saw a massive cloud of grey blue dust.
It was distinct from the ever-present fog, instead rising up in a large plume amid a mountain of stone fragments and ice chunks. The great, terrible sound of ice shearing away from masonry filled the square, and a number of broken walls rose all around; whoever was fighting was demolishing this entire area. In her mind, only one person could have done this.
"Lady Aren!" Vess called, before trying to bite back her words. The last thing she needed was to draw the attention of whatever monster made this happen, nor distract her mentor during such a battle.
Then the fog shifted, and the plume of dust and ice settled to reveal a human man step out. Much to Vess' surprise, it was not Harn or even the pompous Atar. No, it was a stranger with pale skin, dark hair, and absolutely shredded clothing. His tunic had perhaps once been beige, but was now a dark grey-brown and largely useless as a covering; the sleeves were torn off and several huge rents in the fabric exposed entirely too much trim flesh.
Vess felt herself blush. His pants seemed to be leather and more or less intact, save for the bottom of the legs which had been eaten away by something and were a tattered mess. Simple boots covered his feet, wet and coated in patches of frost. Wounds covered the man's arms, and blood stained much of his torn clothing, but he did not seem to care. Instead, the man stepped forward and quickly oriented on a point in the fog to his right. Vess saw nothing at first, but then a silhouette emerged from the fog.
It was huge and heavily-built, much as the ones her team had faced, its skin blue and body covered in dark metal armor. It even had the same five-foot metal club slung behind its back. The key difference, however, was that this giant looked to be in rough shape. Its armor was dented and busted in several places, and a number of angry patches on its arms and face were bubbling and leaking a dark blue blood that plopped heavily to the ground.
"C'mon, you lazy piece of shit!" The man's face split in a wide smile despite his injuries. "Let's go!"
The giant roared, its own face lit up in a predatory grin. Then it charged, exploding across the ground so fast that Vess could not quite track its movements. Just like the bastard that had captured her, this one was unbelievably powerful, and Vess found herself wincing in anticipation. The giant was too strong, too fast, too much to overcome. A great boom sounded out, rattling loose stones at her feet and sweeping away the fog for a few instants. Vess blinked against the wind, and found herself looking at an unexpected sight.
The man was alive.
And he was...winning?
The dark-haired man ducked beneath the giant's heavy swings, each strong and fast enough to blow back any debris that was around them. Small pebbles and stones scattered with each haymaker, the giant's attacks growing increasingly fast and complicated as it fought. But, somehow, its opponent dodged around nearly every attack as if he were dealing with an unruly child.
How is he doing this...?
Vess was confounded. The man was faster than any Tin she knew, but he did not fight like an Iron Rank. He was too wild and uncontrolled. In fact, he moved unlike anyone she'd ever seen. Were there other Guilders out here?
"Vakta rok est!" The giant cried out in its guttural language, swinging its massive fist around in a sweeping cross-strike.
Vess watched as the giant landed the hit, flipping the man backwards in a sideways spiral. He flew backwards ten feet, twisting his own body so that he landed on his two feet even as he continued sliding for another five. Vess gasped and raised her hands to her mouth. That would have shattered all of the bones in my shoulder, I have to—
"Fuck, that hurt!" The man laughed, rolling his injured shoulder in its socket as if loosening it up. "Notched up my Resistance though, and a few other things!" He cracked his neck and charged back in. "You'll have to do better than that!"
He's insane, Vess decided. Why else would he fight with his fists? He's even got a sword! Use your sword, fool!
But the man ignored her silent advice, and the two combatants charged at one another again. In a blink, the giant was on top of the man, slamming a massive metal club onto the ground before it. It shattered the earth, digging a crater nearly ten feet wide and a foot deep into the square. But the mad warrior was no longer before it.
He had slid between the giant's legs, holding onto some strange length of stretchy black material. The material was somehow wrapped around the giant's ankles, and as the warrior finished his slide he braced and yanked backwards. The giant stumbled, just barely, causing it to rip through the strange whip with pure brute strength.
I have to get in there. I have to do something.
Yet before Vess could muster an idea for aid, the man did something else completely unexpected. He raised his right hand, palm out, and shouted.
"Reign of Vellus!"
A brilliant surge of lightning blasted up around the blue-skinned giant, arcing up from the ground itself. The monster, still unsteady on its feet, suddenly slammed backward onto the ground almost as if the lightning yanked him down. Stone and ice shattered again, the crater this creature had made now oblonged by its own fall. The giant's metal club soared into the air, propelled by the creature's flailing arm, but it stopped midflight. Vess blinked, unable to trust her eyes, because then the club reversed direction and slammed directly onto the chest and throat of its former owner.
The giant screamed, blue blood spitting from its open mouth and drenching its white beard. Yet the metal club, surrounded by small arcs of lightning, lifted up into the air again and into the waiting arms of the dark-haired man.
"You're not the monster here," Vess heard him mutter, his voice ringing as if he had shouted. With a grunt, he hefted the heavy club up onto his shoulder and gripped it with two hands. The giant below him unsuccessfully tried to suck in a breath, flailing its limbs uselessly.
"I am."
He swung the club down, directly onto the giant's unprotected head.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Thick blue blood splashed outward, and the giant went absolutely still.
Blind gods, Vess held her hand up to her mouth, horrified.
The man dropped the club, the heavy weapon not even bouncing as it hit the stone with an earth-shaking thud. He turned directly toward Vess, orienting on her as if he knew she had been there all along. Vess froze. This man...his eyes burned with blue light.
"Oh, huh," he said, smiling. "You're awake."
Then the chimera was on her.
They were losing.
Magda watched Evie tumble across the ice, her body sliding just enough to stay ahead of the giant's powerful blows, and opposite her, Atar flung bolts of fire repeatedly at their shared enemy. They fought valiantly and not without skill, but it wasn't working. The giant shrugged off Evie's spiked chain, even when she altered its weight; and while Atar's flames were painful for the blue-skinned behemoths, they appeared to do very little damage.
Magda growled as Harn tanked a strike from yet another giant, this one having just appeared as reinforcement only moments ago. The man's armor shimmered and appeared to thicken just moments before the hit landed, and Harn was only tossed back a few feet before he recovered. The warrior stayed true to his nickname as he raised his twin axes and charged back into the fray.
Bang!
A massive concussion rang out above, and Magda quickly took her eyes from the fights around her. Two giants assaulted her position, one larger than the other. The furthest away and larger of the two was a massive specimen wearing the same crude armor as the rest, but wielding a massive double-headed axe that appeared to be made entirely from ice. Luckily, this one seemed content to let his lesser brethren take the brunt of the assault, only occasionally taking swipes at her Force Wall. The closest was the bastard who had been heavily wounded by Vessilia, the same one who had knocked her out and ran off. Now he had returned with a second giant in tow...and the girl was nowhere to be seen.
Girl, you’d better not be dead, she threatened. The wounded giant reared back with its stolen spear, and Magda knew the shield couldn't handle much more abuse. So she did what she had been trained to do: be unexpected.
Just as the giant's spear would have connected, Magda dropped the Skill and hurled a massive boulder up at the monster. The rock, heavy as it was, flew through the air deceptively slowly, and while the giant staggered from the lack of resistance, it had no time to dodge it. The boulder hit the giant square in the chest.
Stone Break!
The boulder shimmered with an amber-colored energy and exploded. Thousands of razor-sharp pieces scattered in all directions, piercing the giant and throwing it stumbling back. Magda raised her own kite shields up, blocking the majority of the shrapnel from herself. The rest of her allies were far enough away that it wasn't a true danger. The wounded giant, the bastard who took her trainee, was bent over, unable to fully stand up as thick, blue blood poured from its chest. Its stolen spear fell to the ground with a clatter.
"Had enough?" The giant snapped its eyes up at her taunt, its wide eyes frenzied and wild. It stood up with significant effort, and Magda saw the results of her attack. Its crude iron armor breastplate had been utterly shredded, the metal pierced by innumerable shards of stone. It roared, loud enough to shake the air, and then bull-rushed the Shieldwitch.
But Magda trained every day with Harn Kastos, who was not only quite proficient in Unarmed combat, but could alter his armor's weight. With a practiced motion, she met the giant by grabbing hold of its upper arms, and with a twist of her own shoulders, she sent the blue brute into the dirt. The monster hit, sending a cascade of ice and dirt fountaining into the air, even as Magda staggered under the creature's immense weight.
Twins' teeth! That thing is heavy. Are their bones made of metal?
The giant swung an elbow backwards at her, catching her squarely in the chest. Magda was thrown several feet, and a sudden shortness of breath meant it had dented her breastplate. With a grunt of effort, she swung her arm forward, casting the leading edge of her kite shield at the creature's elbow. Even from this distance, her expanded shield hit easily, and the giant howled in pain as she penetrated nearly three inches into the joint.
