“Aha!” the monster let out as it approached. Its large left hand swinging at the same time, and breaking the air around it as it tried to slash Eleanor.

In response, Eleanor lifted her sword, blocking at the last moment the claw-like nails of the monster. There was a loud clash of the weapon being hit, and I was surprised to see that the sword was able to withstand such a blow and that Eleanor wasn’t sent flying by it.

“Ukh!” Eleanor exclaimed, trying to keep the nails from pressing down on her.

But it was while she was straining herself, that from the back of the woman’s torso the tentacle moved. It whipped the ground behind it a couple of times, sending rocks flying, before turning the pointy end of it towards Eleanor. It went stiff like a spear, moved over the top of the woman’s head and down on us.

With widened eyes, Eleanor lifted her left hand to block. The summoned large black hand got in the way and the tentacle crashed with it. The hit was so powerful that Eleanor was pushed back on the ground, cracking it and causing her legs to bend from the pressure.

Her arm was shaking under the pressure coming from that tentacle and the hand that pushed her sword down. Sadly for her, this monster had more than those two things. It moved its other arm to slap Eleanor from the side of her left arm. She quickly looked at the incoming arm but wasn’t quick enough to block it and it managed to slap Eleanor right at the side of her torso.

Eleanor was forced to move to her right side in a sidestep and the tail pressing down on her managed to push her down even more. Since on the other side the monster was still trying to push her sword away, it managed to do just that, and Eleanor finally stumbled to the side.

There, the monster’s long neck snapped to have her large woman-like face appear next to Eleanor’s face. It was smiling just like a mother would, but we both knew that it was anything but that when it opened its mouth to chomp Eleanor’s head just like it did the knight from before.

Seeing that maw opening, Eleanor moved as fast as she could and sent her left arm going that way. The tail on top of it slipped down, and at the same time, the large black hand punched the monster inside the maw. The monster’s head snapped away with a screeching sound, while Eleanor was slapped down by the tail.

The monster managed to recover quickly, and it turned its face back to look at Eleanor. It still had the same eerie smile plastered, as if nothing had been done to it, but the arms moved just as fast as before to harm Eleanor. The longer arm went for her as she tried to stand back up, hitting her on the side of her ribs with the nails and sending Eleanor flying away.

When Eleanor hit the ground, the monster lifted the hand that it used to hit her and looked at the nails while licking its lips. However, it stopped for a moment when it noticed that there wasn’t a drop of blood on it, and it even opened its black eyes to have a better look. The soft smile on its face disappeared and it turned to look at the fallen Eleanor, who was holding the side of her torso with one hand and trying to stand up with the other.

There was no wound on her side. It seemed like the dress I weaved for her had more defensive capabilities than I expected… But just because it wasn’t pierced didn’t mean that Eleanor wasn’t harmed. It could still cause internal damage, which could be seen from her trying to recover her breath from that attack.

“Arrhghhh! Ahhhh!” the monster shouted, and its legs started quickly skittering on the ground to get to Eleanor.

Hearing that voice, Eleanor quickly looked over at the coming monster, and just as quickly stood back up. This time, she didn’t freeze and swung her left arm at the coming monster.

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The large floating hand that matched her movement boomed in the air as it tried to intercept the monster, but it was more nimble that it appeared and it managed to slid to the side, lowering its body to allow the black arm to pass by, before standing straight once more to point the spike-like tail down on Eleanor.

She did a sharp intake of air and raised the sword to block it. The tail snapped on it, and forced Eleanor’s feet to drag her back, but the monster wouldn’t give her a rest as it followed with a swipe of her hands. From Eleanor’s right, the sharp nails aimed for her face this time, and Eleanor moved as fast as she could to intercept them with the sword. There was another clash, and Eleanor stumbled to the other side after the hit.

Over on that side, she was welcomed by the swiping tail. Before it hit her, she managed to raise her open hand and grab the tail with the large black hand. The monster was momentarily stopped as it struggled to take it out, and realizing that, Eleanor clenched her hand as hard as she could.

A screeching sound came out of the monster, and the woman-like face turned into a frown as it struggled to take out the tail. However, try as it may, Eleanor wouldn’t let it go, and eventually, from the pressure she was putting on it, the tail was severed.

“Ahhhh!” screamed the monster, taking several skittering steps back as black blood poured out of the broken tail.

Eleanor heaved, either from the pressure of the fight or the stress of it, as she looked at the monster backing away. If there was a chance to go on the offensive, this was it. She realized that too and ran with the sword pointed to it. The monster looked down at her with the same smile as before, as if it wasn’t a problem, but for some reason, it kept backing away.

Eventually, the monster ran out of space to back away and it started sweeping the ground with both of its arms. The rock floor broke into several pieces, sending smaller chunks of rocks and dust into the air.

Eleanor was forced to stop as the dust caused her to cough, and in that opening, the monster chose to jump back into the dark hallway from where it came.

With a quick swipe of her hand, Eleanor managed to clear the dust in the air, which is when she realized that the monster had fled. She turned her head from side to side, trying to find it, but it seemed like she didn’t notice where it went from the dust cloud.

I could point it out for her, but almost right after, several bright lights illuminated the space that the monster fled to.

Both me and Eleanor turned our eyes to it. The hands all over the monster’s body were moving in circles in a rather erratic way, and from them, magic particles of different colors were coming out. Some of them were dark blue, others were red, a few were yellow, and a couple were light blue.

It was using magic. A rather crude way of magic, but with the amount of power it was letting out, it was more than enough to cause damage.

Eleanor realized this too and looked for a way to block it, but in this wide hall, there wasn’t anywhere to hide. She would have to use her own strength to survive it. So, she raised her left hand, crouched and tried her best to use the large, floating black hand as cover.

Immediately after, the magic particles took shape. Some of them were ice spikes, others were rock spikes, several were fireballs, and a couple were lightning that were running through the hands of the monster. Once they were formed, the monster leaped forward, and every spell was fired straight at Eleanor.

“Ahhh!” screamed Eleanor when the first lightning hit the hand.

She continued to scream, but the noise coming from the snaps of lighting were drowning her voice, followed by her body being covered when the fireballs hit her. I managed to see her stumbling backwards as she tried her best to block most of the magic with her black hand, but rock spikes and ice spikes were passing through the openings she couldn’t cover.

Eleanor was forced to roll backwards a long distance, with the spells following her body and creating explosions of rocks, ice, fire and lightning on the ground. Eventually, the monster ran out of spells, and Eleanor was given a short rest—even if it was surrounded by burning fire, icy boulders and damaged rocks.

She was alive, but she was almost as battered as the ground in front of her.

Seeing her down like that, the monster once more skittered out from the darkness and went straight for Eleanor, who looked up with a shaking head at the rumbling monster. There was blood leaking from the side of her mouth, one of her eyes was swollen from the beating, and there were burn marks on her cheeks.

I didn’t want her to give up already, but she wasn’t moving to respond to the incoming monster.

“Goddess…” she whispered, the loud steps of the monster getting closer. “Grant me strength!”

After she said that, a bright white light glowed over her summoned black hand, and right as the monster raised its body to end Eleanor, a powerful beam of white light was fired at the monster.