“Fucking assholes.” Liliana hissed as a sharp crack filled the air seconds before a dull pain radiated up her arm.
Her left arm dangled uselessly, the bones in it broken when forced to bend in a way they were never meant to. Liliana danced back, steps light and elegant despite the pain throbbing through her arm. A year ago, two years ago, this pain would’ve had her screaming from it even through the thick haze of adrenaline. She was fairly certain multiple bones were broken based on how they were poking out of her skin. [Pain Resistance] and [Battle Clarity] kept the pain lowered to a manageable degree, enough that it was nothing more than an inconvenience.
Liliana was more upset by the fact that for the rest of this fight, she would need to default to her secondary weapon, a dagger. She could use her naginata one handed, but it was less effective that way and using a dagger would be smarter. She couldn’t hope to have it healed during the fight. Marianne focused on patching them up during a fight, healing anything fatal or grievous, enough to get them back on their feet, but bones were harder to heal, and were never something done quickly.
Could be worse, the damned bug could’ve taken my whole arm. That would’ve been truly tiresome. Liliana thought with a grim practicality. She had never lost a limb, but it was something she accepted as an eventual certainty. No one delved dungeons regularly without losing limbs.
If you had the money, a lost limb was a few days down, depending on the size of the limb lost, but a minor inconvenience to be compared to something like the flu from Earth. You’d be miserable for a few days, maybe a week or two, but you’d be back on your feet soon enough. If you didn’t have the money or any high leveled enough healer friends, then well, you’d be down a limb. But money had never been a limiter in Liliana’s new life, so limb loss had never been a true fear of hers, not once she gained her father’s approval and subsequently access to his wallet.
“Cover me,” Liliana called out to Anya as she dropped further back from the fight they were embroiled in.
The wolf girl rotated to take up Liliana’s spot on the front lines as Liliana drew behind the tanks, giving herself the precious few minutes she needed to deal with her latest injury. All the melee fighters had been gaining injuries with concerning regularity the deeper they dove into this dungeon, the Centipedes and their evolved brethren becoming stronger, thanks to their increasing levels and still riding the boost from the equinox. It was a good thing this was likely their last fight before they turned in for their last night here. Liliana doubted they’d be able to go deeper before they hit a wall.
“Lili!” Marianne’s called out, voice thick with concern as she spotted the mangled limb hanging uselessly at Liliana’s side.
“I’m fine.” Liliana called back, her statement offset by the blood pouring down her arm, painting her skin a vivid scarlet from where multiple bones had burst through her skin.
[Regeneration] was working hard to offset the Health drain of the Bleeding and Broken Bones debuffs that were heavily limiting her natural Health regeneration, but provided Liliana didn’t get hit by anymore charging Phalanxedes she would be fine.
She would’ve dodged the hit if she could’ve, but as it was, she had just been able to shift herself so it rammed into her side rather than skewering her through her chest. That would’ve had her out for the rest of the fight rather than the few minutes it would take her to tie her arm to her side so she could jump back into the fight without her ruined arm flapping about like a flag in the wind.
“You’re bleeding to death don’t tell me you’re fine!” Marianne’s voice was rising into a high-pitched shriek as Liliana set to her work, dismissing her naginata to her storage as she summoned a length of rope and began the process of getting it around her body and arm one handed. The task was made more difficult as she tried to get the coils of rope over the small lengths of her arm that weren’t mangled with broken bones.
“I’m not bleeding to death,” Liliana muttered between clenched teeth as the tightening rope jostled her arm, making a sharp surge of pain shoot through her body. That stung.
“Here,” a voice called out, sounding resigned and soaked with the exhaustion that was weighing them all down. Green vines wrapped around her body and arm, binding her arm snuggly to her body while being as gentle as was possible under the circumstances, the vines carefully weaving around her broken bones.
“Thanks, Basil.” Liliana said, shooting a tired but grateful smile at the boy, whose eyes were heavy with apprehension as he looked at her.
Liliana gathered the rope back up and sent it into her storage now that it was no longer necessary. Liliana snagged one of her daggers from the air and flexed her hand around it for a moment with a small frown. She really did prefer her naginata, but she would manage. Liliana took a step forward to head back into the fray when a hand grabbed the neck of her shirt and dragged her back with all the force of an irate healer.
“Oh, no you don’t.” Marianne growled as she laid glowing hands on Liliana.
She hissed as the itch of skin trying to heal and grating bones filled her arm. Some of the bones shifted back under her skin, the gouges in her skin scabbing over once the obstruction was removed. Her arm wasn’t healed, none of the breaks had been even repaired, just shifted to a better position. But it wasn’t as bad as it had been and Liliana watched as her Health regen kicked up again, even with her debuffs.
“Thanks, Mari!” Liliana said with a smile at her friend, who was glaring at her with unease and fond exasperation.
“Don’t get hurt worse. The bones will be difficult enough to heal after this is done.” Marianne warned her and Liliana saluted the healer with her still functional hand before she turned and jumped back into the air.
Liliana took a bare second in the air to locate her target. It probably wasn’t the same Phalanxede that had broken her arm, but it would do for her revenge. This latest attack from the denizens of the dungeon was a company of ten Phalanxede and twenty Centipede Soldiers, by and far the most Rank 5 creatures they’d seen together yet.
The higher amount of Rank 5 beasts was what made this fight so much harder compared to the others. Already, two ultimate skills had been used by their group just to keep themselves from being overrun. One had been Liliana’s own [Radiant Revelry] to give them a chance to thin the numbers, the second had been Rathwater’s [Storm’s Rage], a devastating stormy lightning attack that had wrecked havoc through the metallic bodies of the creatures.
Even with those two attacks, this was still a hard fight, and Liliana knew Marianne was running ragged, keeping up with the growing number of injuries they were all accumulating.
Liliana shot for her target, flipping through the air as she neared to drive her feet into the head of the creature trying to charge at Koth’talan’s back. The Phalanxede crashed into the ground, digging a gouge into the rock with the force of her hit. Liliana stabbed her dagger into it, [Pierce] and [Radiant Edge] pushing the blade past the metal protecting the beast’s flesh for a few inches before [Radiant Ignition] helped her push further down as the Light skill exploded.
Liliana pulled her blade back out and five daggers plunged down as she struck again, her thighs gripping the slick, metallic sides of the beast as it regained its balance and bucked with her hanging on. Liliana pushed her weight into the blade, combining it with her strength to force it deeper, past the armor protecting the beast. Her body shifted instinctually to keep her hold even as it reared back, nearly bending completely in half on itself in its attempt to get her off.
Her other five daggers chipped at its metal body, chunks of alloy flying off as they tried to cause more damage. [Radiant Edge] lit up the blades at seemingly random intervals to push them further into the beast.
Liliana paid little heed to her other daggers as she raised and lowered her arm with an almost robotic meticulousness, [Pierce] activating every time it came off cool down and the vibrations of [Radiant Ignition] continuously rocking through her good arm until she thought her hand would go numb from it.
Blood gushed up from the wound as she finally, finally, got past its thick armor and into its soft flesh beneath. The beast thrashed frantically underneath her, body whipping back and forth fast enough to risk whiplash as Liliana tightened her grip on it, her thighs burning from the strain of it.
She twisted the blade viciously, activating [Radiant Edge], [Radiant Ignition] and [Soul Strike] almost simultaneously. Her dagger sunk deep into its brain until her hand almost disappeared inside the jagged hole she had ripped into its armor. The body under her shuddered, thrashing one last time before it collapsed.
Liliana gripped her dagger tightly, the blood coating it and her hand making her grip slippery as she heaved her blade back out of the beast, nearly sending herself sprawling from the force she had to use to remove the weapon from its gory sheath.
Liliana didn’t give herself a second to rest. [Perception] screamed at her for the dangerous few seconds she had spent as a sitting target. Other Centipedes could focus on her now that she wasn’t stuck to a violently thrashing opponent that had kept the damned beasts a safe distance away. Liliana gathered her feet under her, shooting into the air with a powerful leap, [Windwalk] caught her easily as her head swung to locate her next target.
[Gatling Barrage] activated even as Liliana dropped her held dagger for [Threads of Control] to grab as she summoned a Mana potion from her storage to down. Her Mana jumped back up from where it had been dropping to concerning levels thanks to her constant use of spells during her improvised Phalanxede rodeo.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Liliana aimed her spell at three Centipede Soldiers harrying Anya who was pinned down with another Phalanxede, the girl’s brawny arms holding its snapping pincers in a death grip as she strained and lifted the huge beast with her strength alone. The spell gave the girl time to get the creature into the air and use it as a living and impromptu blunt weapon against the Centipede Soldiers, beating into them with the still struggling body of their evolved brethren.
“Five Ceturionedes at the back!” Dawn’s voice called out over the sounds of battle and Liliana turned on her heel in the air to shoot towards the back of their group without hesitation. Dawn’s strained voice, usually void of most emotions, was more telling than the call out that the girl desperately needed backup.
“Lili!” Alistair’s voice called out as Liliana passed over him.
A glittering piece of metal flew up by her face and she snatched it out of the air on instinct. She took a moment to judge the projectile, seeing it was a rough dagger. Liliana smiled down at her brother as she ran past in the air.
It wasn’t a good dagger, but it was sharp, and it would do. She had seven weapons again, and that’s all she needed. Liliana juggled in the air for a moment as she switched out the hastily crafted dagger for one of her better quality ones to keep in her hand.
“Emyr, Basil focus on the back, Rathwater, Diana keep on the front!” Alistair shouted at the group as he activated a spell to draw aggro to himself once more, turning the depleted but still considerable force at their front against him and letting the melee fighters up front have a second to breathe.
Liliana took in the sight at their back, Dawn was arranged against the five Ceturionedes alone, her body flickering in and out of the shadows at a speed Liliana would struggle to follow if her own Speed didn’t match or exceed the other girl’s.
While she still had the element of surprise, Liliana reactivated [Gatling Barrage] and activated [Wind Blade] and [Gust] while her six floating daggers shot off like shimmering golden bullets to plunge into the substantially flimsier bodies of the Ceturionedes.
The attacks hit in a blaze of wind and light as Liliana chased after her own attacks. Liliana’s feet hit a Ceturionede a heartbeat after one of her daggers had embedded into it, her attack driving the blade deep into its body.
The collision knocked it off kilter as she kicked off of it in a flip that had her skimming just over its back, her dagger drawing a long but shallow wound across its thin chitin as she landed on its other side. Liliana spun, arm extended, dagger dragging against its side as she turned and struck at another Ceturionede.
Liliana and Dawn settled into a comfortable rhythm that Liliana rarely experienced with anyone else. The girl had a fairly similar fighting style to Liliana, hit fast and hard and don’t get hit. Dawn was also rather perceptive and able to read teammates’ body language with a fluency many people lacked unless they were long-time friends or teammates.
If the fight wasn’t so hard, Liliana narrowly avoiding more than a few fatal hits, it would be fun, exhilarating, to fight side by side with someone who fit so seamlessly into her fighting style.
They fought in a deadly dance that would bring many professional dancers to their knees with envy, twisting and striking around each other with a ruthless efficiency that still managed to look disturbingly beautiful.
They didn’t speak as they moved, Liliana twirling between hits as Dawn slipped in to strike viciously before she melted into the shadows. Even Dawn’s shadow twin moved with Liliana as easily as breathing. As if they’d been fighting side by side for years, not days.
Vines grabbed and tripped the beasts up, fireballs and falling meteors wove between them with a deadly accuracy. Emyr was more than used to Liliana’s style of fighting and knew how to incorporate his attacks in a way that didn’t ruin the rhythm of Liliana’s movements, which translated well to working with Dawn. It had only taken months of catching her in the midst of his new spells as unfortunate collateral damage for the two to develop a comfortable rhythm.
Basil was less used to fighting with her, but his method of using his vines to grab the legs of his opponents and hold them down for the melee fighters to finish off meant he was less likely to catch Liliana or Dawn in a spell by accident.
By the time all five Ceturionedes were taken down, Liliana had accumulated several new stinging cuts of varying severity and her body was soaked in sweat and blood. Some hers, some the bugs, an ugly combination of red and blue turning her form in a macabre abstract painting.
Phalanxede forced her to push her Strength to its limits, but Ceturionedes made her work her Speed as far as it would go. With five of the beasts to fight, even with help, it was still a hard battle that she couldn’t avoid getting injured in entirely.
Liliana could feel exhaustion tugging at her limbs, even under the rush of adrenaline. She knew her muscles would be screaming the next morning. As it was, there was an ever present burning throughout her body that she could just detect under [Pain Resistance].
With her body bruised, broken and bleeding, she was fairly certain she was only standing thanks to adrenaline and sheer spite. If she was killed, it would certainly not be by a gods’ damned Centipede. She would not let these bugs best her.
Liliana slipped back into the group of teens. Her Mana had dropped low enough during the fight that she didn’t want to waste it on [Windwalk] just yet. She had to use every Speed generating skill and spell she had to keep ahead of the Ceturionedes and she was suffering the consequences of that choice.
“Lili.” Marianne’s voice held a warning and threat in it.
It was a mark of how battle tired Liliana was that she stopped without the healer physically restraining her. Besides, she knew how she looked. Chest heaving as she gasped in deep lung-fulls of air, her body soaked in blood, cuts clear on her skin, still weeping blood freely that dripped with every step she took. She was certain she was leaving a trail of sanguine footprints with every step she took.
[Regeneration] was already preoccupied trying to fix her broken arm, her constant movements meaning the bones didn’t get the time they needed to shift or fuse before she shifted them out of alignment, so the new cuts weren’t healing at the rate they should and her Health was dipping even as she stood still and waited for Marianne to patch her up enough to continue fighting.
“You look like you’ve been put through a meat grinder,” Marianne chastised her, voice taut with stress but her hands were so gentle as they hovered over her wounds, the warm light of healing providing relief for some of the pains that had all combined to a throbbing ache in the back of Liliana’s mind.
“Still alive, though,” Liliana grinned wryly at her friend. That statement was probably less calming than it would be if she wasn’t blood coated and panting like a dog.
“Barely.” Marianne hissed as she shoved a Health potion to Liliana’s lips, which she drank with no argument.
Her Health jumped up as more cuts healed and, oh, when had she cracked her collarbone? It was a minor enough fracture to heal with the potion, even as most of the cuts on her body closed over, the itch of it more distracting than the pain had been. [Pain resistance] didn’t do a thing for itching, and that was a true oversight on the System’s part, in Liliana’s opinion.
“Please tell me we’re almost done,” Liliana groaned when the potion bottle was removed from her mouth by a mothering Marianne who was still fretting over her mangled arm, which the potion had done little for.
“Send those daggers out.” Rathwater spoke up and Liliana didn’t think before she completed the request, her daggers flying out to land in any insectoid bodies she could see around Alistair and Lelantos’ bulk.
Rathwater held up a hand and lightening crackled across his skin before it shot off, hitting the metal of the blades she’d sent out and bouncing between the bodies of the beasts, the smell of ozone and cooking meat wafted towards Liliana over the scent of blood, dirt and sweat that was the specific perfume of a battle.
“Shit, that was badass.” Liliana murmured. Rathwater’s lips turned up in a smug smirk as he straightened, almost preening under the praise.
“Can’t do it much with everyone in the thick of the fight. The metal of these things means the lightning can bounce and hit anyone touching one, but with something to focus on, it’s easier to control. It’d be better if they were made of copper, or the focus I used was. It’s easiest if I can see what I’m aiming at too.” Rathwater explained in a rare moment of talkativeness that Liliana would attribute to the high of battle and general exhaustion.
“Can you do it again?” Alistair called back. Rathwater gave an assent, and Alistair turned a questioning gaze to Liliana, who grinned back.
“Give me a boost?” Liliana asked Marianne, who grumbled but slapped her back, perhaps harder than necessary, and her Mana surged.
“Let’s get you an eagle eye view then,” Liliana grinned at Rathwater, not giving him a chance to argue as she wrapped her good arm around his waist and jumped into the sky. Rathwater let out a startled yelp and gripped her with his right arm tightly, or as tightly as the mage could with his lackluster Strength.
A mental order had Lelantos roaring, activating his Quintessential skill, [Fortress] and giving Alistair the breathing room he needed. A roughly made dagger was sent up to Liliana seconds later, and she noted before she sent it out that it was constructed of copper. She hadn’t realized Alistair could choose the metal he used, and that was something she tucked away for consideration later.
Liliana started playing a very odd game of catch and release as Alistair sent metal constructed dagger after dagger at her, and she sent them out with as much accuracy as she could manage. Metal sunk into the bodies of the remaining Centipede Soldiers and Phalanxedes. Liliana lost count of the daggers she sent out, and once most of the remaining insects had at least three copper daggers in them, she called out a confirmation.
“Anya, Koth’talan step back!” Alistair shouted, giving them a minute to fall back enough to get out of the danger zone before he gave Rathwater the command to send out his attack.
Liliana could feel the hairs that had escaped her tight braid floating from the static and the scent of ozone stung her nose from the close proximity as Rathwater summoned the electricity to himself, thankfully to the arm not touching Liliana.
Liliana watched in wide-eyed awe as lightning poured out of the boy, striking and jumping from insect to insect in a deadly but oddly enthralling wed of sparking electricity. Enemies dropped, bodies smoking and twitching under their now useless and detrimental metal armor as the lightning wreaked havoc on them.
The combination attack didn’t kill all the remaining opponents, and Liliana doubted it would’ve been half so effective if the insects hadn’t already been injured from the battle, but it cleared a good amount and injured the rest. Three Phalanxede and five Centipede Soldiers were left when the electricity stopped arcing between the highly conductive daggers acting as lightning rods. Their injuries heavily slowed all of them as a bonus effect.
Liliana slowly dropped back down, turning to Rathwater with new respect in her eyes. She released the boy as soon as their feet were firmly on the ground and he stumbled for a moment, leaning heavily against the cave wall, panting from the Mana exertion.
He’d probably had to use a manipulation skill to manage the lightning and keep it from accidentally jumping to one of their teammates. All of them had more than a few pieces of metal on them that would’ve drawn the lighting to them had he not stopped it. He’d be out for the rest of the fight, but based on the sounds of battle, Anya and Koth’talan had it in hand.
Liliana patted him on the arm before turning and jumping up, lighting on Lelantos’ sturdy back in a crouch as she viewed the fight. Anya had picked up the still smoking and more than a bit charred body of another Phalanxede and was using it as a bludgeoning weapon.
Liliana had to wonder if it was the same one she had used while alive to beat several Centipede Soldiers to death. Koth’talan was wading through the fight, lava surging around him even as his rune coated sword rose and fell, blue blood gushing with every stroke.
Ranged attacks from behind her landed on the remaining insects with vicious accuracy, all manner of elements showing up. Water, Earth, Nature, Light, Fire, Celestial.
Liliana looked around and located her daggers, tugging them back to her with [Threads of Control] she jumped off Lelantos and ran back into the fight, ignoring her body’s protests and surrendering to the siren’s call of adrenaline and bloodlust as she saw the fight to the bloody but victorious end.