"Hated by the world despite his sacrifice, the Hanged Man remains as a reminder to all, not to cross the Manticore." – The Inception, Book of the Quintet Court.
“Stop the other one!” Olga yelled, laughter in her voice as a manic grin spread across her face, she charged towards the right lance arm of their opponent without hesitation.
The group looked at each other briefly, before Tisha shrugged and began running at the other arm.
“Damon, come with me, Finch and Mel provide covering fire.” Was her instructions as she left, quick as the wind.
Damon followed after giving Mel a pointed glance. The unsaid words obvious. She couldn’t mess things up here, not if she wanted to survive Olga.
Finch acted immediately using his Armament to spread the green mist towards the monster. The mist was fast catching up to the other two and overtaking them before reaching the gigantic skeleton and its leg movements slowed down significantly. Finch had something he wanted to attempt as his face scrunched up in concentration.
Olga dodged the lance to her left and immediately caught it within both of her arms as her feet dug into the stone ground. The giant’s incredible strength fought against her yet again but this time she braced herself making sure to angle the tip to the ground. The giant’s lance eventually slammed into the earth piercing the rock hard floor deeply.
After Olga had managed to catch the lance, Tisha had followed suit, doing a similar move but to her right. However, she knew that she was not as strong and would only be able to hold it briefly.
Suspension
The left lance was frozen in place allowing Damon to finally catch up. He looked around unsure of how they could proceed.
“We attack together.” Tisha was a lot more assertive with Claw Morph active it seemed leaving no room to argue.
The older man nodded, Olga was stuck keeping the right lance busy. Without her keeping the ten-meter lance stuck halfway into the ground it would have easily broken out. The problem now was attempting an attack that would actually stick.
Tisha steadied herself before launching herself high into the air. The monster’s upper half was lower to the ground due to the position of its lances allowing her to easily reach its armoured chest. And with its legs in a crouching posture, kicks were not possible either
Her claws flashed in a blaze of movement slashing and slicing all over the creature’s chest. The armour barely held as human -sized chunks were torn out of it revealing some of the ribcage underneath. If she was in a more mentally stable state due to her Claw Morph she would have aimed for the shoulder armour. The joints would be much easier to destroy allowing for the rest of the fight to be a lot easier. Unfortunately, she was not all there now and no one else but Olga was quite as combat savvy as she was.
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Olga could have mentioned something, but she was interested in this “new” Robin. The predatory aura the girl emitted gave even Olga a pause. She wanted this battle to go on a bit longer.
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Eventually, that was in a few of seconds, Tisha had no more momentum from her jump and she had sliced off to much from the chest piece to be able to stay on the offensive leading to her falling to the ground. Damon followed with a jump of his own, Artifact empowered and glowing blue as he plunged the sword into the ribcage in the opening that she had left from her onslaught. The creature howled, the power of the scream throwing him back to the ground. She was caught by Tisha as they were both blown back a few meters.
Its left lance arm came free as it broke out of the [Suspension], a split second later it took a round to its eye. Mel had acted. Another shot and another until seven shots rang out in total. The left eyes was looking slightly dimmer than before.
A final powerful shot rang out. The moment the bullet pierced its eye, orange lines flashed through its entire body almost like a constellation.
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It seemed her Ricochet ability on larger targets had the ability to hit different parts of the target’s body instead of bouncing in between entirely different enemies. Not quite as useful against a much smaller and powerful enemy but great against their current enemy.
Right as it ended, a green energy lanced from behind the group, crashing into the same eye. It looked a lot like Tisha’s orb blasts… except.
Looking back, she saw Finch huffing and puffing in exertion. Had he just copied her Orb’s attacks? No, thinking back, his sword summoning was his Artifact’s ability not its basic style of attack. It was simply one with an incredibly low cool down but low power. His staff should have the ability to do a basic attack of its own. She had assumed that it was meant to be used physically since he had never demonstrated the energy attacks, but he simply did not need to. Rather he had copied her ability to change the amount of energy. This still made him a prodigy as she had used that unknown familiarity of the ability to manipulate Varos to use said powerful blasts. While he had just done what he did from watching. How…incredibly brilliant! She just wanted to-
She could not marvel for too long as the giant was moving again. It had lost a chunk of its helmet from a combination of two powerful energy blasts and the Ricochet as well as its left eye in the process and it was pissed.
The crew noticed that it was not capable of regenerating its already formed armour at least not immediately or else it would have done so for its chest and head by now.
“Little Robin, take one of its legs from underneath for me will ya?” She could feel her hold slipping as the rage seemed to empower the giant.
With a savage snarl Tisha was off claws spread out in almost what seemed to almost be a welcoming gesture if not for the alarmingly vicious expression on her visage. Damon blocked its left lance at an angle before it could reach her with an empowered shield. The lance scraped off his shield upwards.
Tisha sped forwards with a Swift Step faster than even Olga could move, her claws swiping both legs with enough force to cause a loud bang and a shockwave to sweep the surroundings. With its already compromised position and taken off balance by Damon’s shield block. The Skeleton fell forwards and to the side.
“Its my turn Bones.” Bellowed Olga with mirth
The instant it was about to hit the ground Olga moved. Leaping into the air she gathered Varos to her feet, coming down with a powerful axe kick on the lance stuck on the ground. With a loud crack the bone broke apart and even the arm inside the lance had a spiderweb of cracks running through it. Upon landing she summoned a nail to her right arm and holstered it like a jousting lance she sprinted at its large face on the ground and slammed the nail into its other eye instantly destroying it.
“Hahahaha, time to return the favour.”
The nail still suck in the eye socket she brought her right foot back and delivered a brutal high kick to its small building sized head. The monster groaned as the head was thrown upwards with the might behind the attack.
She rushed forwards underneath the chest that was lifted slightly due to the strike and put both of her arm up and the ribcage fell to her. She caught it, muscles bulging with absurd strength.
But it was not enough. The Skeleton was too heavy and she was being pushed under by its multi hundred ton mass as she grunted with frustration.
Suspension
It was off cool down again and she used it on the head of the creature taking some off the weight off the insane woman as she struggled. The determination on her face was something else and seeing that Tisha felt that she understood just a little what drew her to the others in the group, something to do with their ability.
Olga was still in trouble however, and Tisha was not sure of what to do. Try to push the giant off her from the side? No, it was simply too heavy.
That was when they all felt it. The aura given off from the large woman, one of incredible focus. A moment later. The Suspension wore of as the giant regained its senses, not its eyesight however. It started to move and just as Tisha went to counteract it.
The skeleton started moving upwards, somehow Olga was starting to lift it.
No, not somehow. It was as Tisha assumed when Olga had claimed that she would get revenge earlier. Her Strength attribute had gone up a grade. The monster moved upwards slowly, then quicker until it was thrown. Five, ten, twenty meters into the air.
Olga summoned a nail to her hand pointed upwards, the thing expanded gaining width greater than Olga’s and a height of over five meters. She leapt up into the air cratering the ground under her. Both hands dragged the nail behind her as she slammed it into and through the exposed ribcage outside the back of the giant with the incredible forced of the swing.
The others could only stare on in awe as pieces the of bone and cartilage the size of small buildings fell around them wrecking the already messed up landscape.
Olga stood hands on her hip a satisfied smile on her face as she positively glowed in the sun.
“Now, that was a fight.”
[Suspension gained a tier]
[Suspension – Tier 1/10]
[You may now use Suspension on an extra target, Multiple Suspensions must be used simultaneously]
[Granted Title: Monstrous]
[Monstrous: You have released power from your Origin granting you extra physical changes to your body, you would gain these physical traits at a quicker rate. Your body is also far more receptive to Varos making it easier to manipulate.]