Resembling the form of a horrifying Enmity, the disfigured beast started darkening its right hand as more and blacker ooze seeped from its veins, eventually going over the crystalized area and like a tumor, growing until it hardened to a big lump. Right after, with sheer force, it cracked and broke that lump to reveal a hardened and massive claw that it ground and sharpened along the surface of its other crystalized hand, the crystals being seemingly unaffected by its rough grinding process. It was finally prepared to devour, showing intelligence as it was almost bringing itself to a level just enough to kill it's praying while conserving its energy, knowing full well it could go way harder on them if it wanted, choosing to keep its other limbs intact without changing their form.
"What?! A titan, made from Obsulyte ores?! What?!" Lass backed up, "How did they fit this in here?!"
Anya recovered. "More like, it wandered here from all the free meals it'd get. Hmm, ok, this is a bit bigger than I thought...we need a plan."
"Well no shit, Sherlock! We could've had one if you didn't scream for this thing to come out-dammit!" Lass blocked an incoming attack, getting knocked back. "This thing is massive! But that black ooze and everything...what the hell is that?!"
"Corrupted Obsulyte, watch out! It's overused Obsulyte from a non-biological form that expended all of its power and is now overclocked! This was used as a weapon by an Overseer, poisoning others! Stay calm and collected, avoid prolonged exposure to it and your natural Obsulyte flow in your body will defend this...but any affected wound that stays there won't end well for any three of us!"
"Rafgo! Back at the KoK tourney, this was oozing from his body! Why didn't you warn me back then?!" Lass made the connection.
"Do I look like I'm fueled enough all the time to be able to assist you like the flying midget? Learn to control your powers and then we can talk about a 24/7 daycare." Mellistar scoffed.
"Guess having a plan is out of the question, huh? Mindless force it is.", Anya kicked up her chainsaw blade.
"Look at its arms and body! The weapons on this thing are extremely heavy and durable, it received way bigger damage! This thing has gotten through much worse punishment than what your twig of a chainsaw can dish out!" Lass warned her.
"Let's double-check that! Hrea!" she looked at the titan.
The monster then launched a forward slam with its hand, trying to squish them both completely, with Lass quickly getting into his counter position and expecting the hit. Instead of blocking the hit like Lass, Anya instead sends a brutal slash directly to the arm of the golem. The force of the impact between her blade and the arm of the titan was immense, but she successfully parried the attack and bits of rock flew off the beast's hand.
"What the hell?"
"I told you, big guy, you need to get to know me a lil' bit better. May not be a dazzling attacker or swing a sword like a dancer, but my muscles are warmed up, alcohol or not!" Anya took her fighting stance, "Obsulyte-infused weapons really are the best! Tell me that you didn't know that I could properly use this. You should've expected me to go all out here, unlike the KoK! Do or die!"
Meanwhile, the titan recovered and stood back up. With its corrupted right hand, it forcefully pulled a massive crystal chunk from behind it, turning it around and throwing it at Anya with its sharp end as she was distracted with talking. Lass, using his reactions, pushed Anya aside quickly, throwing the phantom sword away and taking a throwing stance as he lodged another phantom lance at the sharp crystal the titan threw at Anya. When making contact with the flying crystal, the combined force of the opposite momentums of Lass's throw and its trajectory completely shattered it to bits. Like a shotgun, when hit at an off angle from bellow, the crystal's shattered bits scattered right above the head, at the wall behind Lass and Anya, glittering dust surrounding the battlefield as the phantom spear crumbled away and both of them recovered their stances again, Lass creating another sword.
"Good god, my heart is pounding when doing this. Should've honestly brought guns and explosives instead of taking everything up close."
"Yeah, because those would make several dents at a beast the size of this." Mellistar sarcastically said, "Obsulyte versus Obsulyte. That's the only way you win these."
Anya took her hand off her face as she instinctively placed it when seeing the crystal fly at her, "Ha! Thanks, big guy!"
"You're not the only one who can crush rocks and I said that we're making it back with or without you screwing up a hundred times. Hmm...Ok. Mutt, care for a lift?" Lass quickly thought of a plan.
"Got a plan?!"
"Risky, but could work. You're getting up close first, I'll watch for you and take the hit if I need to, ok?"
"Putting trust in you, like you did to me!" she approached Lass, extending her hand.
Lass grabbed her hand tightly, "Watch your shoulder for the motion! Jump now!", he timed his throw along with Anya jumping from the ground, letting go of her arm and sending her flying as she crossed the line between his chest and neck.
Lass threw Anya upwards and positioned her directly above the titan. Surprisingly, with acrobatics that would make someone think she was sober, she corrected her upside motion and set herself upright. She then began to do a plunging attack, holding her blade with both hands as she positioned herself right above the handle, putting all of her momentum and weight behind the attack and aiming for the golem's head. Her enemy faster than expected, the beast blocked the attack by putting it's hardened and corrupted right hand in front. Anya's attack instead landed on the crystals stuck in its hand and the sheer force of concentrated Obsulyte within its body got released and backfired at her, launching her back towards Lass, crashing and grinding along the ground.
"Anya! You ok?!"
"D-Damn..." she stood back up and placed her left bloody arm on her right shoulder, "Whatever the hell that arm of this thing is, it's way too hard to penetrate with regular force. This titan is smarter than the norm, its attacks aren't savage so much as they're methodical." she grunted, recovering from the momentary pain and taking back her position, "I'll be fine, but this pile of rocks is starting to get on my damn nerves!"
"Alright then...we will use speed this time, instead of just focusing on a single all-out hit."
"Love the experimenting part, way to get back on me. But is it really the right time?"
"'Hey Lass, I screwed us both over and am now bitching when you're trying to think of ways to unscrew us, when I could be doing more of my own weird shit that works all the time. I'm such a quirky girl!'", Lass most sarcastically made an imitation of Anya.
"Hey, nice try, but you ain't ripping this wolf off."
"How down bad are your nerves to be doing this right now?" Mellistar almost worryingly said.
"Really, down, bad." Lass increased the force of his grip on his sword, "It's a giant titan thing, you expect me to see building-sized monsters all the time when the military usually wipes them before they get into the country's borders?!"
The titan then opened its corrupted palm and spread his claws, making a forward sweep from the left side.
"No way back, big guy, back me up! Together!"
Lass snapped out of it, "Alright!"
The two of them realizing that there wasn't enough room to evade the swiping attack, they made a spinning motion with both their weapons to the right, placing themselves along the path of the titan's attack and lifting both their arms above head. Timing their attacks, they both took a powerful, in-sync slash directly on the massive corrupted hand. With the force of the impact being as severe as it was, the ground below them shook as the crystals that were above them at the ceiling did the same, and the rocks they were formed on started to give in.
"Jump!" Lass yelled.
Despite that, however, the titan's hand was all but momentarily brought to a halt and shoved slightly inwards, being almost unaffected in every other aspect as it continued its motion right after. Reacting to Lass's decisive command, Anya managed to roll inwards, towards the titan, as Lass vaulted backwards away from it, both managing to successfully evade the arm by an inch, having moved it with their combined attack enough to create space.
"Screw this! Meddling any longer and we're done!" Lass recovered, this time unfazed as he realized the true danger despite the fear.
Anya used her Obsulyte-infused powers to jump a considerable distance away from the titan, back at Lass, "Screw being drunk and shit. Big guy, say the word!" she took things seriously.
Lass widened his stance, creating a replica of his sword in his left hand and a smaller sword in his right, dashing in without hesitation as the titan recovered from the swinging motion, its hand being considerably larger than what it could control with its movement.
Lass called out to Anya, "Mutt, let's go!"
Anya followed immediately after, "Got it!"
Lass jumped upwards, beginning by slashing the monster's legs with both his weapons with a cross-cut, "Follow my moves!"
"Ain't never one to not get the ques," Anya jumped above Lass and landed a downward slash.
Lass then twisted around Anya as she landed from her slash, going around her and delivering another massive pair of two back-to-back slashes, his small sword initiation and the larger one finishing the motion as he gradually lowered his stance until kneeling at the end. Surprisingly enough, the monster's legs not being as considerably enhanced, it kneeled down and exposed its chest.
"How about you get going instead?" Lass told Anya, pausing momentarily in his position as he allowed her to make her move.
Anya then sprung back up, revving up her chainsaw blade and landing a massive and powerful hit on the monster's chest, starting to crack the non-corrupted parts of it before being carried by her momentum. Keeping her air time, she slashed two times diagonally down, the force of the slashes keeping her in the air as she severely damaged the monster further.
"There you go!" she made one final forward slash with all her weight behind the move, the force of it bouncing her back behind Lass.
"Hmm!" Lass jumped back up from his kneeling position, vaulting diagonally from left to right as he landed another swift double strike, "Thanks for the opening!"
Starting to emit his power's red glow and entering his overcharged state, Lass then proceeded to land three swift strikes with the smaller sword, staring down and moving up with each one, before crumbling it away and only holding on to his sword's replica instead. Afterwards, he jumped back at an angle, slashing along the way as he fell back with Anya, before slashing once upwards, turning around and making a roundhouse slash, controlling the motion as his blade stopped at the height of his shoulder and unleashing with them two ranged distance attacks in one motion. He then fixed his sword behind him from his right profile, back placed up against Anya's and readied himself as he looked at her over the shoulder for a moment.
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"Not half a bad plan big guy.", Anya grunted, "Man...The wound's deeper than I thought..."
"The corrupted Obsulyte..." he whispered, "Can you keep up just a little longer?"
"I can, but not for too long. Hurts more every time I move it."
"Alright! End it!" he yelled, both of them running right at the titan.
With another one of their combined attacks, they dashed right at it, with no hesitation, Lass with a blade in his left arm and Anya with hers on the right.
"In for the final strike!" she increased the force of the grip on her blade.
With a devastating angled right slash from Lass and a left one from Anya, both their Obsulyte powers combined against the titan, a massive explosion followed. Sending the cave into an earthquake-like shaking motion, a bunch of sharp, very big and heavy crystals dropped like knives from above, penetrating the titan's arms with their material and forcing it to drop and lay on its back, where more stabs from falling crystals followed until it was left motionless on the ground. Finding themselves exhaling deeply after their hard-to-perform sequence of moves behind the titan, both Lass and Anya looked back to see the monster laying there, not moving a muscle as it lay on the floor, crystals all around it and penetrating it right in the middle of its chest, limbs and everything but it's corrupted and hardened hand that remained intact. Around it as well were handles or entire rusted weapons that were broken or shaken off after the attack from its rocky material skin, having them instead replaced with the same thing that fed it for seeming eons plunging through it instead. It's red and precisely placed veins now dimming out, it felt that their battle was finally over.
"Hah...ha. Whew. That was something." Anya dropped and sat down.
"Yeah no kidding. I thought these things were extinct and a work of fiction nowadays...guess we found the last one, or they're all back." Lass threw his materialized sword away as it crumbled and faded.
"Given the sight in front, I doubt they really did all die...but hell, that Obsulyte ore one was terrifying. It's a somewhat dark and black body combined with the even darker nightmare hand on the side. Man..." she grabbed her injured arm, "Am I the only one who gets her ass kicked in this group? One bullet and a beating from a rock already...ghk!
"Don't move around so much, mutt." he approached her.
"I know, I know. I'll be fine. Help me up a bit." she slowly got back up with Lass's help, "Feels like I got that vodka out of my system now. Same with the adrenaline that kept this wound not hurting like a truck. Hope it's not too deep."
Lass let her go as she got up, "I can already see a world where Risa shoots us both coming to life real soon." he sighed.
"Better than dying."
"Relatively speaking." he nervously chuckled, looking at Anya's bloody arm.
As they both tried to leave the room from the door on the other side, a tremble once again shook them both to the core. A group of merged-in, black and gooey spikes was raised in front of them, blocking their exit as a massive growl was heard throughout the area.
"What?!" Anya almost dropped.
Lass turned around, holding on to Anya before she lost her balance, "You've got to be shitting me!"
The monster once again started to lift its body up, recovering its missing bits from the nearby terrain. Almost as if it was using the ground itself to recover, its veins once again brightly lit up, and the crystals on its body being assimilated as dark substance gathered on the base of where they penetrated the titan. Soon turning red to match the colors of its veins, it was as if the crystals then supercharged the entirety of the monster, its other hand now rapidly forming into another corrupt version as it quickly rebuilt its legs from the soil itself and safeguarded them with the corrupt Obsulyte pouring over them. Without even possessing vocal cords, it forcefully grabbed it smooth head from what would've been the level of its nose and plunged its sharp fingers in.
Running them down, it made four very deep and hollowed-out lines that created a venue for it to growl in a distorted, otherworldly manner as it was now fully agitated. Finishing its transformation yet, it fortified its body with the same corrupted Obsulyte it used on its legs and arms, now even running it across its face as more human-like, randomly travelling veins sprung up and showed extending all around its body, starting from its heart. A very peculiar, square like space formed in the middle of it's chest as well, having that square like shape guide even more veins around every member of it's body.
Its texture changed from somewhat smooth and rocky to sharp and extremely rough as it grew even bigger than before. The moment it was up, with extremely fast movements, it turned on its right profile as it stomped its left foot down, forcing the spikes behind Lass and Anya to start glowing rapidly and concentrating Obsulyte inside them as they turned fully red while preparing and taking the stance for a massive punch. Lass, acting quickly and without saying a word, took the hit for Anya as he quickly placed himself between the glowing spikes and her before they exploded, they find themselves both flying towards the monster who had set up its finishing move for them both. It was no longer anything like what a titan would be like in the pages of fiction and old documents. It was a full-fledged, deformed and intelligent monster, too smart to be kept alive without innocent souls paying the price for its existence.
"Ghah!" he screamed in pain, "No!" he realized what the monster was set up for as he saw it starting its swing.
"Watch it!" Mellistar yelled.
"Mfhm!"
With nothing but a muffled scream, Anya received all of the damage from the slashing motion as she instantly fainted, being separated from Lass as he too was flung backwards towards the wall from the force of their move. Slamming the wall like a bug, she left behind a splatter of blood as she dropped down and began to rapidly lose more and more, creating a bloody lake on the ground where her grave was soon to be. With the adrenaline kicking in, Lass quickly got up from taking the hit, and ran like a madman towards her, seemingly ignoring the monster before him.
"Anya! Anya! Come on wake up!" he worryingly nudged Anya.
To no avail, Anya was knocked out cold, her weapon drenched in her blood right next to her. Lass being in better condition stood up, grabbing Anya's weapon and summoning a replica of his in his other hand. Without crying or pausing, without thinking or planning anything, his action of going up to check on her was as quick as his action of turning on the offensive, instincts taking over as his adrenaline peaked, ready to fight like the cornered animal he was.
"Lass, let me take over!" Mellistar pleaded, "You're already overloaded-"
"Shut the fuck up and let me kill this son of a bitch myself! I'll slaughter you right here and now like a god-forsaken animal you piece of shit! I'll kill you!" he lost it.
The monster let out its distorted roar as it lodged at Lass. It's terrifying, deformed limbs only added to the irregularity of its movements, as it let out another otherworldly and indescribable roar. Lass, completely mentally broken from the stress buildup he had to endure and his instincts taking over as he saw Anya on the floor, realizing the kill or be killed situation dashed right at. Sparks flying with every single one of his movements, he completely avoided the monster's move with lighting fast reactions, jumping on its head and swinging at it with a plunging downward attack causing an earthquake as he landed down, a massive forward blast of Obsulyte following the spot of the impact and managing to break the monster's skin. However, Anya's weapon also found itself breaking under the force of the impact, as Lass threw it away and grabbed his replica sword with both hands, wildly swinging it up like a baseball bat. With that swing, the ground shook even further, even managing to knock the monster around as it lost its balance after Lass's attacks. Finishing up, he grabbed his sword like a spear and with all the force of his body threw it right at the monster's chest, completely knocking it back despite its weight and slamming it at the back wall just like Anya was from its attack.
Despite his advantage and the fact that he was winning, Lass then felt a chill down his spine as he kneeled on the floor, somewhat paralyzed in an instant as he froze on the spot.
"What the hell?!"
"That...thing. It no longer feeds on just Obsulyte alone. The matter itself is...no. This can't be our end before I meet her!" Mellistar angrily yelled.
"Come on, move dammit, and move! We can't die just yet!" Lass shouted to himself.
The monster, ever so creepily recovering from its blow as if it was nothing, having seemingly both shrugged and healed it off, lowered its stance as it got on all fours. Shoving the ground below it away with its massive claws, it lodged right at Lass with killing intent, extending both its hands outwards like it was aiming to hug and wrestle with one its size, as it roared like an animal again. Lass, having his anger still keeping him firm only gritted his teeth as he looked at Anya one last time, closing his eyes as he started softly crying despite not wanting to. Facing death, even in his broken and enraged state, would make anyone, even those devoid of fear only start to instinctually act like they wouldn't want to. The only thing he followed up with then was the closing of his eyes as he prepared for the impact, praying inside him despite his lack of belief and desperation that he'd endure the hit, only to be able to take one more for her. He already lost everything he cared for and the one person who loved him from a monster, so the only thing he truly wanted, despite not being as close, was to protect even someone knew in his life that showed understanding and kindness, even what looked like love and care for him. Just one more hit.
Despite it all, he opened his eyes to face death in the eyes once again, if not for him then for her, as he was blinded in the spot. In a split moment, a red flash appeared as everything turned white, right before the impact. Dust and fast-moving debris-filled and flung around the room as he lowered his head once more. The monster itself let out one final, distorted and painful roar before it was cut short, almost as if was paused like a movie. A few seconds passed before the air current began to violently flow back into the room rapidly, almost as if the already open exit allowed it to flow back in once again, taking with it and kicking back up the same dust and debris as it went along. Lass then opened his eyes once more, only to find a golem knocked down, this time with its limbs shattered to bits, and its head and chest turned to dust.
Lass dropped to the ground, sitting as he took in what just happened, "Holy shit...holy shit..." he mumbled as he hyperventilated, "Mellistar...thanks. God..."
"That feeling...no.", Mellistar somewhat stuttered between his words.
"What is it? It's dead, isn't it? Mellistar, you killed it, right?"
"This can't be..."
"Mellistar, you killed it...right?"
"God dammit...there's no way it's now" Mellistar echoed.
"What the hell happened?! Melli, did you do that?!" Lass looked at the destroyed monster, worrying it could come back somehow.
"The door behind you is open. You have to get out, now!" Mellistar yelled.
"What the hell is going-hah?" Lass barely dodged a red flash.
The origins of the red flashes seemed to be coming from the other side of the room, from the long corridor where they came from. This time, however, the red flash passed right by Lass, hitting the exit opening. In the swift moment that followed, Lass gazed at the weapon that caused it. It was a big, dark lance, brimming with what seemed to be a dark, reddish gloss before it disappeared into particles. Exactly like what his powers, his weapons, were like.
"Those particles...a weapon summon? But...it wasn't transparent. Is it a real weapon and not an Obsulyte-crafted one?"
Another flash appeared from the other corridor, in the shape of the lance, giving away the fact that it was indeed a weapon summon. Lass then heard another noise. It wasn't something to be alarmed of, rather than something to signify what was approaching. Tip, tap, tap, tap, the sounds of reoccurring footsteps and the constant grinding of steel were getting louder and louder. Metal against metal, a screeching that made one's hairs raise from top to bottom was but one of the most horrifying moments in that day, a fate worse than death as Lass got the worst deja vu from what he had already experienced. Finally, he saw the figure of the approaching nightmare. The only thing he wished would not come out of his dreams. He was immobilized in an instant, none of his limbs obeying his commands and all frozen stiff out of the sheer fear of realizing that what he thought to be a simple nightmare, was coming into a horrifying reality.
"Y-You..." Lass remained still, frozen from fear.
It was a tall standing girl in full black armor, partially broken by a few red parts. With long black hair and red eyes, she gave off the same feeling, the same look and outline as the corrupted titan. However...there was surely no connection between her and that monster. She was worse. Unlike that monster that was defined by its strength, she was defined by her intelligence more than her muscles, strong as horrifying the extent of a human's nature was...and yet humanity was something he couldn't reflect off of, or even confirm that she had on her. The figure, the woman and the murderer in Lass's dream were now standing before him, managing to terrify Mellistar, who stood before the dead of Delpha without a hint of fear then. She held on her mighty-looking lance with one hand and Lass's sword on her other. Her face was an aggressive look, it was obvious that talking was not what she had in mind. She tossed Lass's sword right to his feet, pinning it in front of him and pointing her lance directly at him.
"I refuse to take your life, so long you don't struggle or surrender," she spoke.
Lass gathered a piece of his strength, picking his sword up.
"I can't believe it...y-you're...real..."
"You don't say. Now get ready, else I'll slaughter you with, or without resistance after this." she took her stance.
"Stop it! Just stop it already! Why are you here?! How are you here?! And why do you insist on hurting me?!" he yelled.
"You're doing it again...you dare mock me by playing dumb?! You took it all...you took everything from me! From her! And now...I'll take your life!"
She bashed Lass with her shoulder and smacked him upwards with her lance. She jumped right away and kicked Lass back on the ground, lodging her lance straight at him from above. Lass was barely able to roll over and narrowly avoid being crushed to smithereens. The force of the impact had the ground next to him collapsing, and the entire cave caving in on itself, the crystal ceiling shaking as if yet another earthquake had occurred, which it valiantly resisted. She dropped down and re-summoned her lance right back in her hand as she slowly walked towards him. Lass picked up Anya's weapon in his other hand and stood back up, the blade broke but still shark enough to serve its purpose.
"I don't know what or who the hell you are...but I won't back down. Not this time!" he looked back at Anya, still in her awful state, "We will survive!"