Chapter 318 - The Northern Brigade II

Claire ducked past the incoming blade and launched herself at Vella’s gut. Having avoided the goddess’ sword, she found what should have been the perfect chance to counter. And yet, she had no choice but to flap her wings and back away. The goddess’ front legs flew past her face, nearly carving her flesh asunder.

The caldriess retreated to a distance of over ten meters. She was out of melee range, but not even that was enough to escape the goddess’ assault. The mechanical carapace that grew out of her back suddenly opened up. Two hollow, rectangular blocks positioned themselves over her shoulders and each fired a magical blast. They were impossible to dodge. Travelling at light speed, the projectiles landed right on target and smacked her in the neck. She would have died then and there if the goddess used even a fraction of her power, but Vella held back.

It wouldn’t have been a trial if it was so unfair.

There existed not a Cadrian that hadn’t heard of Vella’s Challenge. The goddess would lower her own ability scores so her total was equal to the challenger’s and engage them in single combat. Of course, even with their numbers equalized, it was impossible for a mortal to overcome her—she had too many tools at her disposal and her skills were too refined—the goal was only to impress her.

But even that was absurdly difficult. The few scars that ran across the goddess’ body were present for a reason. They were the only wounds ever left by mortal men, proof that warriors of the past had managed to do her harm, scarce records of the rare successes there were.

One problem was the lack of viable targets. It was only her humanoid parts that were made of flesh. Her wings and her spider-like lower half were both crafted of divine metal. Some parts looked less durable than others; there were exposed pipes and wires all over, but their pristine exteriors confirmed that they were impossible to pierce. It only made sense. Vella’s body was practically comprised of divine relics, and it was not impossible to argue that she was one herself.

Claire clenched her teeth as she leapt through the air. For a ten-meter-long creature, her acceleration was impressive. She closed the distance in the blink of an eye and slashed at Vella’s side. Boris was repelled. Vella lightly parried him with her sword and threw him completely off course. But unlike her weapon, Claire refused to slide to a stop. She kept moving, twisting her body away from the goddess’ legs as she delivered a strike with her claws. But again, the attack was blocked. The goddess effortlessly warded it off and fired another blast from her shoulder-mounted cannons.

Again, the lasers landed perfectly on target.

There was no movement of the goddess’ eyes. She didn’t even so much as twitch to hint at the incoming attack. It was only the flow of her mana that changed, and even that was almost perfectly obscured. Combined with the goddess’ flawless marksmanship, the beams may as well have been impossible to avoid.

Claire gritted her teeth. At a glance, it looked like she was unscathed. Her scales were unmarked and she had fully resisted the impact, but a quick glance at her status revealed that the damage had gone through regardless. Her defenses were ignored; Vella was targeting her health pool directly. She hadn’t the faintest clue as to how it worked, and with her breath out of commission, she was unable to match it with any meaningful retaliation. A weak blast of ice would only be readily repelled.

Claire leapt into the air. She moved directly above the goddess and looped behind her. She was clearly out of sight, but the shoulder cannons followed. Their barrels remained fixed on her core, no matter how far she moved to evade them.

Though she could have easily secured the win from afar, Vella was not content to wait for victory. She shot a web from her rear, pulled herself up towards the ceiling, and swung at the caldriess with her blade at the ready.

The glowing pink sword only barely missed the qiligon’s neck. It was a perfect dodge on the mortal’s account, followed by an equally perfect counter. Claire swung the blade between her jaws with all the force she could muster. And at the same time, she cleaved with her tail. The appendage was tipped with another jagged blade—a massive, heavy sword that made full use of her strength and weight. It was driven towards the goddess’ flank from behind, delivered from outside of her vision.

And yet, she deflected it. In one swift motion, one beautifully crafted swing, she parried both the lizards in the lyrkress’ possession.

It was like she had eyes in the back of her head.

Of course, Claire knew that wasn’t the case. Vella was an arachne. She had two heads, but both sets faced forward. She couldn’t see behind her. There had to be another explanation. But she didn’t have the mental bandwidth to decipher it.

Her mind was focused entirely on dodging Vella’s next attack. Because it was still affected by the last parry’s momentum, the spider goddess ignored her sword and engaged with an eight-legged charge. Each of her glowing feet slashed at Claire. The tips were sharp enough to pass as blades, vicious glowing blades that threatened to end her life in an instant. The lyrkress reeled back in time to dodge five of them, but the other three ripped past her scales, stopping only as they encountered her bones.

Claire continued to retreat even as they dug into her flesh, ripping them out as she forced some distance between them. For a moment, it looked like she had escaped with just a few shallow wounds, but then she noticed. The legs that had been buried within her had lost their rosy glow.

So where then was the magic with which they had once been bestowed?

The answer was clear.

It was buried within her body.

The spells kicked in as soon as the thought crossed her mind. Raw mana coursed through her flesh, seeping deep within her core before suddenly exploding into a burst of blood.

She was lucky.

The goddess hadn’t touched any of her vitals.

Still, her neck was so thoroughly destroyed that her spine was visible through the gaping hole. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as she had thought. She could barely feel it with her circuits already complaining as loudly as they were.

There was no time to evaluate the lack of pain. The goddess had already lunged again, diving at her from the ceiling with her sword mid-swing. Knowing how deadly her attacks were, Claire took extra care to duck beneath them before retaliating with another sweep of the tail. Just like the first, it was aimed at the arachne’s back, and just like the first, it failed to find its mark. Vella parried it without so much as looking its way and even delivered a counter to the scaly limb.

The goddess’ magic was transferred again, but having landed near a particularly bone-dense region, its detonation barely did any harm.

Frowning, Claire spun around and fired a wad of icicles at the spider’s web. She managed to pierce through the silk and detach the goddess from the ceiling, but she only achieved a temporary separation. Vella simply produced another glob and attached herself again.

It only took a moment, but that moment was more than enough. Claire flapped her wings, closed the distance, and turned Boris into a set of infernal chains. She flicked him when Vella moved to parry and wrapped his body around her blade. She wasn’t able to wrench it out of the goddess’ grasp, but she did finally lock the blade in place for long enough to follow with a strike of the claws.

Her trajectory was perfect. Her talons were only a few meters away from finding their mark.

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But then the goddess smiled.

And changed the shape of her weapon.

Her sword shrank; it turned into a rapier too thin for the chains to grab, and then a spear to meet the lyrkress’ attack. The tip went straight through the qiligon’s palm, ripping through her scales with such ease that it was like they had never existed.

And then, when it was firmly lodged between her bones, the blade was used to throw her. Vella swung the glowing green polearm with such force that it sent the caldriess crashing straight into the hall below. The rest of her colours changed with the weapon. The tip of every leg assumed the same emerald shade that adorned the spear’s edge.

Swinging her web again, she catapulted herself towards the caldriess right as she rose and delivered another hefty blow.

Claire tried to resist. She turned Boris into an axe and matched it with a heavy strike of her own. The ikarett moved at twice the speed of Vella’s blade, but the goddess had her outclassed regardless. She completely overpowered the snake-moose and launched her into a faraway wall.

And then, when she gave chase, her weapon changed forms again. It turned into a massive scythe with a bright blue blade that accelerated her to ten times her previous speed. Her attacks were less devastating, however, as while she was able to cut through the giant snake’s scales, the slashes were so shallow that they may as well have missed.

A frown crossed the moose’s lips as she swatted the spider away. Vella blocked, but her lack of power nearly allowed Claire to push past her guard. It was only a last-second pivot that allowed the arachnid to twirl past the flurry of slashes.

But she was still caught. Claire coiled her body up and trapped the spider between her scales. She squeezed, holding her arms and legs in place even as her weapons poked into her flesh.

She had the goddess locked down. But she failed to grasp her between her jaws. Vella’s scythe turned into a spear again, and with a grunt, she forced the lyrkress’ muscles to yield. They were all pushed aside, and the lyrkress’ jaw was met with a heavy smack. It was an attack that was weaker by design. Vella could have easily run her face through, but she had used her weapon’s butt and only pushed her away.

“Why are you holding back?” asked the spider, with a disappointed frown.

Claire didn’t answer. She only narrowed her eyes into a glare as she peeled herself out of the wall.

“Use your spells, Claire, the strong ones. Make me go all out,” said the goddess.

But again, she stayed silent and unmoving, until she determined that it wasn’t a ruse. Vella was genuinely confused.

“I can’t,” she said, quietly.

Vella scratched the back of her head. “What do you mean, you can’t?”

“Are you blind, Goddess? Or daft?” asked Claire, with an annoyed stare. “My magic circuits have been fried ever since I destroyed Tornatus. I haven’t been able to cast anything decent ever since.”

“Oh, is that all? You should’ve said something.”

Vella formed a dagger in her hands and threw it at the qiligon’s feet. It was a ridiculously fancy sword. The diamond blade was ensnared between a pair of golden serpents, and its hilt was adorned with a sparkling ruby that radiated with more magic and divinity than the goddess’ body.

“That’s Meicus, the blade of healing. It can perfectly repair anyone that it cuts. It can even fix the dead, though it can’t exactly bring them back anymore with how pissy Xekkur’s been lately.”

Claire stared at the weapon for a few moments before she started to slowly lower her head. Using it was the correct choice. She might have hated the goddess, but her blessing was a boon, and she doubted she would be able to match her father with her circuits still in disrepair.

But Claire had her pride. And Vella’s proposal may as well have trampled it.

“Boris.” The blade turned back into a lizard and craned his head to meet his mistress’ eyes. “Consume.”

The greedy ikarett immediately opened his mouth and got to work. His eyes glimmering, he tripled his length, extending the body until he reached the floor and took the divine relic between his teeth.

“W-wait! Stop!”

Vella closed the distance between them and reached for the blade, but Claire tugged on the back of her feet and tripped her mid-dash. She immediately recovered and leapt forwards again, but it was too late. Boris had already swallowed.

“Give it back! Give it back right away, you stupid lizard!” The spider grabbed him and shook him as hard as she could, but nothing came out. She even pried open his mouth and reached into his gut. Claire clamped the ikarett’s jaws shut, but it was too late. Vella had managed to retrieve the blade.

Claire clenched her teeth. She had attacked the goddess with her tail in the meantime, but Vella had evaded the blow with a casual hop.

“Oh, thank the go—myself,” she said, as she breathed a sigh of relief. The weapon was still perfectly intact. When she looked up at Claire, whose flurry she was still avoiding, it was with a resentful frown. “And here I was trying to help you out of the goodness of my heart.”

“You were doing it because you wanted a more entertaining fight,” said Claire.

Vella clicked her tongue. “Didn’t Virillius teach you anything about manners? You were supposed t—”

“Father taught me that not everyone is worth respecting.”

The goddess’ face twitched. Changing her weapon back to its speedy scythe mode, she lunged at the lyrkress with the healing dagger extended, but Claire shrank down to her humanoid form and twirled out of the way. The trick allowed her to dodge the goddess’ first two blows, but the third found its mark. The blade was jammed into the qiligon’s gut.

But it failed to pierce her flesh.

The dagger’s point had flattened, revealing a lizard-like snout.

And before long, the rest of its body followed. Reverting to his original, four-legged form, the Boris shook himself out of Vella’s grasp, fell onto the ground, and scuttled away.

Vella was thoroughly confused. She was so confused, in fact, that she almost failed to register that Claire had continued the assault. Had she not been in her fastest form, she surely would have found a brand-new scar carved into the side of her face.

“Now you have two choices,” said Claire, as she toyed with the tip of her tail. “Either you end this stupid trial and give up on healing me, or I keep your dagger forever.”

Vella groaned and lowered her weapon. “There’s really no point in the trial if you aren’t at your full strength. Just let me heal you, damn it! It’s for your own good!”

“I’d rather not stoop to being healed by the likes of you,” said Claire.

Vella groaned. “I can ju—”

“Try to take it back by force, and I’ll have this Boris swap places with another one. You’ll never see your dagger again.”

The goddess’ face twitched. She knew it wasn’t a bluff. The function was one she had gone out of her way to add—it was designed for seamless replacement in the case where the lizard had to face a weapon breaker—but as its creator, she also knew the amount of time required to invoke it.

Removing the limits put in place by the trial, Vella raced across the arena and ripped the lizard out of Claire’s hands. The entire sequence had taken no more than a microsecond. And yet, when she reached inside the lizard, she found that her sword was gone.

There was only one possible explanation. Claire had swapped the lizards before she spoke the threat.

When she looked up, Vella found the caldriess smirking. “Alright, fine,” she said, as she breathed a sigh. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t give up Meicus, but the weapon had taken a millennium’s worth of divinity to craft. It simply wasn’t worth giving up. “But only if you’re willing to take my trial once you’ve healed up.”

“I’ll think about it,” said Claire.

She summoned a Boris, retrieved the blade in his gut, and tossed it towards the goddess.

“Oh, and for the record,” said Claire, as Vella reached for the blade. “Flitzegarde and I have been getting along quite well lately, and I do think she would be interested to hear it if you decided to go back on your word.” The arachne twitched; her intentions were clear as day. “You know, just in case you were going to try to stab me with that stupid thing the moment you got it back.”

“O-of course not,” said the spider. “A-anyway, goodbye! Come back when you’re healed!”

“Only if you stop annoying me.”

The goddess was already gone by the time the words left her mouth.

She was back in the temple, in front of the altar with blood still leaking from her wounds. She had clearly escaped the spider’s ploy. It was a complete victory.

But she couldn’t shake the feeling that her father was right. And that though she had dodged her fangs, she hadn’t exactly escaped the spider’s web.