Andie charged down her road of flames - ever increasing terror weighing down on her. Normally, she’d keep the looming fear at bay with jokes and a smile, but she was long past that point. Not-panic was no longer an option, now was the time to start panicking productively. First things first, though, Andie needed to stop using her Virtue’s power. The fear grew exponentially, and although there was no amount of it that could make her back down, too much of it could make her collapse.
Andie pushed off of the flames beneath her, lunging toward the Nightmare’s throat. She’d only managed to maintain the path for five seconds, but that was more than enough time for her to cover a few dozen stories.
The beast of shadow and oil turned around just in time for Andie to plunge her sword into its neck - embedding it deep into the Nightmare’s flesh and spreading a pale white glow across the creature’s skin. The Nightmare began to thrash and scream. “nOOo! O! NnoO!” It grabbed Andie and slammed her into the ground, but it was too late. The patch of pale glow began to sprout cracks of shining light, spreading out across the creatures jaw and shoulders. Patches of its body dropped off like pieces of an eggshell, revealing the Nightmare’s hollow interior, disintegrating into black flame as they fell.
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Andie fought to keep herself from being crushed as the Nightmare pushed her into the asphalt. Her struggling only worsened her situation, but she had not yet regained the wits to do anything clever about it. Instead, she bit down into the creature’s hand and tried to pull her sword arm free.
It tasted of rot and ash.
More cracks formed where Andie bit the monster, prompting it to yank its hand away from her. She slashed at its wrist as it did. Enraged, the Nightmare slammed its other hand down on top of Andie, who opted to take the opportunity to stab her weapon through the palm of the beast’s hand instead of dodge. More cracks. By hunkering down, she managed to escape the attack, bruised but unbroken.
The monster shrieked an unholy shriek that pierced the eardrums. The sheer evil that echoed in its sound was difficult to put into words. It was the sort of sound only a dying monstrosity could make, and was accompanied by a less unpleasant, but equally satisfying visual display. Truly, there was nothing like watching a Nightmare, quite literally, fall to pieces - unleashing a wave of light. Dyllan said it was like seeing bad CGI come to life, but Andie didn’t care. No matter how cartoonish and cheesy it looked to everyone else, she thought it looked beautiful.