Corvayne watched as the insane bride pulled the scythe up, her mouth a sneer under her bloody veil before she brought it down, and in the moment before the blade hit him, there was a waver and it landed next to him, clattering out of the Brides hands.
There was a moment of silence, as Corvayne looked at the huge silver weapon now laying next to him, then at the huge blood soaked woman looking between him and the scythe.
He recovered a moment before she did, and rolled over and tagged the Scythe, it folding and vanishing into his ring before she could grab it. The woman let out a scream of frustration and made a fist then jumped onto Corvayne, straddling him with her too hot and heavy body before bringing her fist down and hitting the stone next to him, rather then him. Corvayne saw confusion on her face and could see what looked like a geometric figure appear, a ghostly twenty sided die with a orange "1" stamped on it.
Corvayne used [Juxtapose], then tried to hit her with a [Sleeper Hold] but she elbowed him before he could knock her out, and he went flying this time. As he crashed against one of the far slopped walls on the interior of the pyramid, causing him to roll back down to where Bell and Brines were. His mangled foot caught a bit of stair and he cried out in pain.
The Bride whirled. "Give it BACK! It was a GIFT! I'll KILL YOU!"
As she moved to use her good hand to bludgeon him to death, a red missile slammed into her, flinging the huge woman into the stairway.
"[Springwind]!" Corvayne heard Seru call out, and she launched herself forward and got the huge naked woman in the gut then popped back to where she was as the woman was flung to a doorway and then fell backwards out of sight, not quite getting her hand up to stop her from rolling out of the Pyramid.
Seru was fully geared, cracking her fists, and with Nyxion tied to her back, covered in blood but with his severed limbs bandaged.
"Can you stand?"
"She's hundreds of levels and can turn invisible. We need to go."
Seru gulped but planted her feet and closed her eyes. A ghostly "20" appeared over her head, and her eyes snapped open. At the same time Corvayne felt her sharpen as she once again used [Springwind], this time aiming the wind step at a different empty door and hitting something with a noise that sounded like a punching bag full of steak getting hit by a train. Part of the doorframe vanished.
She then reached down to help Corvayne up. "I don't CARE if she has a billion levels, I'm going to fuck her up for messing with Nyx and You!"
Seru looked a little scared to Corvayne, and he could feel it through [[Unity]] as she dragged him out of the Pyramid.
"Bell, and Brines..."
"Are more likely to live if we can beat her. So use your power and fix your leg already!"
"Who else... is..."
"It's me and Kirae. We'll get her."
Corvayne did not like those odds. Maybe with Spears, but Seru and a Merchant vs an invisible giant...
From the causeway he saw Kirae, also clad in a lot of red metal gear mixed with leather, riding what looked like a camel.
Seru called. "Gimme a true sight and some firefly juice!"
Corvayne saw Kirae pull her reigns up and toss two bottles at Seru, who caught them and downed one, then handed the other to Corvayne.
She hissed at him before he could unstop it. "Don't drink that one. I need you to use [Expert Toss] and hit the invisible woman so we can take her down. I know you can hit her as long as I get you pointed the right direction."
Corvayne winced as her putting a hand over the potion made him put weight on the leg that she had sliced open, and he glared at Seru. "Listen to me, you're going to die."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Toss it at the top of the pyramid! Now!" She held Corvayne up enough he could lob the potion and he used [Expert Toss] as he did, though she maybe didn't get that aiming it at air meant he was more likely to hit air even if she was there. Or would be, if he didn't feel something rolling in his head for a second and felt something telling him he'd score a critical hit. There was an effortlessness as the potion left his hand, bluish green fluid swirling and starting to glow a little as it spun end over end then hit something, splashing the woman in glowing liquid, then causing her to glow like a sun perched on the Pyramid.
The bride laughed at them. "Foolish."
She faded, but Seru just set Corvayne down and started stalking around the Pyramid. Corvayne used his spear to hobble with his shadow hands and drew his cleaver. He might be able to follow up if the woman couldn't take Seru out with an unarmed hit.
What instead happened is Seru squared up to something Corvayne couldn't see and used [Springwind] again, and again, and again, sometimes using knees and sometimes her head as she bounced forward like a missile, hit something, then darted back to either the same spot or sometimes adjusted. She was panting, but a moment later Kirae had thrown her a stamina potion.
Corvayne was wondering how they could tell where the monster was when he figured it out. The creature was glowing, very, very brightly. It was invisible and was removing just about every trace of itself now, including it's bloody footprints. But Corvayne felt his eyes narrowing a little when he looked at a certain spot nothing was. He could feel a bit of itching on his skin, warm from essentially a psychic trying to hide the sun. When Seru looked like she was flagging a moment, Corvayne fired off a [Cross Skill: Whirling Axe], likely hitting the Brides leg.
He was at a higher point on the Pyramid and with some help from the shadows could track the Bride as the woman jumped into the blood.
"Kirae! She's going to switch targets to you!" Corvayne's guts told him that unless the giant woman was retreating, she had figured out the support that was letting Seru batter her without getting close. So Kirae nodded and turned her camel around and just ran. The giant lady shed her shroud, glowing like a road flare in bright greens and pinks as she got on all fours to start running Kirae down. He could see the big bright form catching up to the small dot then there was a pop as Kirae and her mount appeared next to Corvavyne, scroll in her hand falling apart.
"Hey Corvayne. Those are expensive. Can you loan me some money to help pay for this battle?"
"If she catches you, she'll kill you." He watched as the glowing form turned around and shrouded again.
Kirae thought about this. "As would many people I've met in life. Had you asked me a few months ago if I'd considered fighting a demi-god, I'd have said no."
The glowing form was coming right down the causeway. "She's going to run out of stamina long before I run out of consumables or Seru stops being angry."
As to emphasis this, Seru reached over and took what looked like a thick potion, downed it, used her red metal kote to wipe her mouth, then snarled and pointed. A ghostly 1 appeared over what must have been the invisible woman.
Seru snapped forward, and this time the woman was ready, stepping back and scoring a kick. The giant woman sent Seru flying, but even as she turned away there was another glass breaking at her feet and black powder swirled around the giant. Kirae looked disappointed when the figure seemed to ignore it.
"That was very expensive, was it a dud?"
Corvayne didn't think so. "If she's in the level 200s, then she is likely several times more resilient and resistant even without armor."
The huge woman turned then and started running at Corvayne, ignoring Kirae and Seru even as she landed what looked like a telling blow. She got down on all fours and Corvayne started hobbling up the steps to give him some room.
"YOU! Have weapons! Give me that SPEAR!"
Corvayne used [Storm Thrust] to buy some space, but she scrambled up the stairs and grabbed onto his spear then tried to wrest it away, in the process slaming Corvayne into the ground a few times before he activated Gravity to lighten her, causing her to be unable to use her footing to push him back. She punched him twice, once in the face and one time hitting his armor. Corvayne stumbled, trying to plant his good foot when she jumped up with both hands on his spear and tried to kick him away from it.
His hands were like steel around his weapon. "No." His shadow hands barraged her, and finally Seru connected with a sideways [Springwind] that sent the woman flying off into the blood and Corvayne accepted her help. "We need to get Bell and Brines and start moving to the exit. There's just no good way to kill her."
"I'm doing a TON of damage!" Seru argued. "I think I broke her leg."
"She's going to find a weapon and start eviscerating us." Corvayne pointed where his compass was directing them. "We move to that pyramid, get off the floor, hope it puts us at the bar where that thing can't pick a fight."
Corvayne hobbled back and got Brines up. The man was pale, having lost a lot of blood, but stumbled along with Corvayne's prompting even though he was in shock. Bell was still out, her eyes shut tight and wincing as if she was in a bad dream, so Corvayne did his best to get her on his back and hobble with his shadow limbs acting as extra legs.
Kirae took Brines from him once they had managed to stumble to the base of the Pyramid. She was pulling double duty keeping Seru topped off with potions as the woman used empowered attacks to knock the giant into the blood sea. Every time the woman switched targets, Seru would do something to mark her with a '1' dice over her head, which would result in some sort of catastrophic failure on the next attack. At the same time, Seru was stacking an effect with her Impetus skill that made her able to punch through the woman's defenses. Corvayne did his best to add to the Giant woman's momentum with [Storm Thrust] any time Seru sent her flying.
The group reached the stairway in the next Pyramid and Corvayne felt intense relief as they managed to step foot into the bar. The endless green wood structure was full of people watching them, and the moment Corvayne felt like he could relax he felt a fist hit his back, sending him sprawling forward. The titanic woman laughed as a bouncer clothes-lined her, then threw the construct off her.
“You are NOT Safe here! The weakling guards don't stand a-”
A woman with brilliant floral adornments to her rainbow colored hair and armor that gleamed opal hit her with the flat of her two handed blade, sending the giant off into the murky depths of the bar. She dusted her hands.
“Hey honey! Go cool your heels!”
Corvayne started getting up, letting both Seru and the stranger woman help.
“My thanks, miss...”
“Sugar. What's your name buddy?” She seemed entirely too happy to have just sent a blood soaked giant flying.
Corvayne shook the hand that helped him up. “Corvayne.”
Don't worry a thing about it, there's lots of folks like me who will step in if there's a bully in here. Now get a drink and relax, maybe see if someone can look at that leg.”
“No time. We have to save the world.”
The woman nodded. “Oh, well then don't let me stop you. Good luck!”
Corvayne ambled through the door to the boss fight, friends in tow. He faintly heard the frustrated and insane screams of their adversary from deeper in the bar.