Jadis’ hearts leapt into her throats as she watched Aila go over the edge of the crumbling cliff. There was nothing she could do to stop her fall. She could only try to save her before she hit the ground or fell into the open maw of the possessed sea bull waiting below.

Jay was closer than Dys to where Aila was falling and was in better position to catch her, but the enraged beast was facing her now and with no time to think, Jadis did the only thing she could think of doing. She acted boldly.

Darting in, Jay kept the monster’s attention on her, baiting it into snapping its massive jaws down at her. As the beast attacked Jay, Dys dashed in and leapt high, bare foot landing on the back of the beast and using it as a springboard to leap up and towards the falling Aila.

The demonic seal reacted instantly, another omni-directional blast of water exploding around it to knock Jadis’ bodies away from it. Jay was pushed back, barely retaining her footing as she was practically thrown into the shallows of the sea. Dys was caught by the blast mid-leap, the force causing her to tumble wildly through the air.

From her position on the top of the cliff, Syd saw what Dys couldn’t as she spun mid-air. Her course was just barely out of line with Aila’s fall. She wasn’t going to be able to reach.

Almost as if in response to Jadis’ hopeless thoughts, Aila’s foot kicked out as she plummeted towards the ground, bouncing her off the rock face. She twisted as she fell, arms outstretched towards Dys.

With Syd’s eyes to guide her, Dys’ free hand whipped out and grabbed Aila’s arm, yanking her in close against her chest as her wild, off-balance leap sent her slamming into the cliff wall with bone-jarring force. She lost her grip on her maul, the weapon spinning off and away, but she held onto Aila.

There was no time for celebrations. Aila’s fall and Dys’ leap had happened in a matter of seconds. The sea bull was still attacking, new runes of some water spell already forming around it as it swung its head towards where Dys and Aila were now falling together down the side of the sea cliff.

From above, Syd picked up her steel lance and took only a split second to aim. Using it like an oversized javelin, she hurled it with all her might down at the possessed beast. Jadis had no great skill in thrown weapons, but with twenty-seven dexterity and a target the size of a bus, she knew she could hit her mark.

At the same time, Jay dove in from the side, slamming her mallet against the side of the sea bull. Once again, her blunt weapon bounced off the tough, blubbery hide of the monster, but the blow landed, and that was all Jadis was looking for.

Less than a second later, Syd’s lance struck the sea bull. The foot long tip of sharp steel pierced into the possessed beast’s hide like it was pudding. The ten-foot-long weapon buried itself all the way to the hilt in the back of the monster, just below its neck. Its flesh rippled like water and the closest bits around the steel shaft ripped and tore in a gory fountain of blood and viscera.

Dys landed hard on her back, Aila on her chest and protectively wrapped in her arms. Pain shot through her from the hard fall, but there was no time to linger or recover. The sea bull had been distracted, but it wasn’t yet dead.

Jay cried out in pain as the beast’s spell fired at her, a torrent of water blasting her back and off her feet, sending her blindly flailing into the waters of the sea cove. She couldn’t see or breathe as her head went under the salty waves of the ocean, momentarily panicking as she struggled to breach the surface.

The sea bull was heading towards Jay and the water. Monstrously dangerous as the beast was on land, Jadis knew it’d only gain even more of an advantage if it got into the water where her one self was barely managing to find her footing in the chest-deep surf.

“Still alive?” Dys asked as she rolled over and let Aila go.

“Yes, I’ll be fine, go!” Aila assured her, wiping some blood off of her face.

Jadis wasn’t sure if that blood was hers or Aila’s but she didn’t have time to check.

Dys dashed to grab her fallen maul and then get back to the fight against the seal monster.

Syd hurled more rocks from above. Anything she could grab or tear from the earth, she tossed over the edge and down at the bull, letting the heavy stones crash against the bulk of the beast. Not all struck true, but enough crashed down on the monster’s tough hide that damage was beginning to show.

Jadis could see that the sea bull was moving slower now, as well. Blood was pouring out of where her lance had impaled it, staining its flanks red and leaving a trail of gore in the rocky shore as it began pulling itself into the water.

Jay had by then gotten her balance and bearings back. She pushed through the water and waves, heading towards the shore at an oblique angle away from the pursuing monster. Another spell burst forth from the demon possessed creature, but Jay couldn’t dodge effectively in the water and it hit her nearly head on. The blast knocked the breath out of her, and sent her back again, throwing her further away from the beast but also further from her selves and the shore.

Checking her health, Jadis winced to see that over just the past few seconds of combat, she’d dropped from her full five hundred and twenty health maximum to just barely over one hundred and forty.

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She needed to get out of the water. Jay’s head had barely broken the surface of the sea for a second time and the sea bull was already forming another spell.

Thinking fast, Jadis transferred all the physical damage that had been done to Jay in the fight so far onto Syd using her Mirrored Body’s Shifting Reflection skill.

Instantly all of Jay’s wounds were gone. With nothing physically hindering her, Jay pushed with all her strength and leapt up and out of the water, the beast’s water bomb spell landing where she’d been the barest moment later. She landed dozens of feet away in shallower water, then began running up and out of the cove.

Dys had already reversed course and done the same, backing away from the shore. Aila had backed away, too. Jadis could see her dashing up the slope. Looking at the sea bull, she saw it turning again, but this time it didn’t look eager to pursue.

The monster’s movements were sluggish now, and its spells were coming slower, longer and longer pauses between each cast. It looked like the possessed sea bull had finally run out of magic. Stamina too, for that matter.

Another stone the size of a watermelon struck the creature’s head from above, causing it to flinch and let out a gurgling bellow. Syd had never stopped tossing rocks from the top of the cliff, though with Jay’s wounds now hers, her own movements were restricted by pain and injury.

As blood continued to pour out of the gaping wound in its back and stones fell on it from above, the exhausted demon possessing the magic beast seemed to reach a decision. It started turning, heading further into the surf.

“It’s fucking retreating!” Jay shouted indignantly. “After all that, it’s going to fucking fuck off and retreat!?”

“Let it!” Aila called out. She’d settled off to one side, partially obscured by the edge of the hill Syd was at the top of. She was pulling things from her pack, likely her first-aid poultices. “You can’t fight that thing in the water!”

“Fuck that,” Dys growled, snatching up one of the spears from the many dead twisted wretches scattered across the valley. “I just got that lance. I’m not letting it fucking steal my new weapon!”

Dashing forward and down towards the shore again, Dys hurled the spear at the retreating sea bull. As rocks from Syd struck it, the spear did too, triggering her mirrored strikes again, letting the spear bury itself deep inside the flank of the sea bull.

A second after that, Jay threw an axe she’d grabbed from the fallen wretches and it too struck the side of the monster with devastating force. The axe was small in comparison to the bulk of the beast, but it bit deep, even more blood pouring from the gaping wound.

The sea bull turned its head and lobbed another water bomb spell at Jay and Dys, but like wolves smelling weakness they sprinted forward, letting the spell arc over them harmlessly. The monster didn’t have the magic power left to blow them back with waves or waterspouts as they entered into melee range, legs pumping through the pounding surf of the ocean.

Jay slammed her mallet into one of the open holes of the monster’s flesh where a thick tentacle was sticking out, squashing the writhing dark purple appendage. The limb popped like a tomato and the sea bull roared with pained fury.

One huge, meaty flipper swung and slapped down at Jay, sending salty water spraying everywhere, but the monster had been bled dry by the huge wounds across its body. Its wild thrashing blows lacked the power they’d had at the start of the battle.

Dys’ maul dug deep into the base of the bull’s tail. She yanked back hard, tearing away the flesh in a huge swatch, revealing one large parasite-like tentacle buried in the blubbery gore. Dys quickly swung again and crushed the tentacle, drawing the sea bull’s attention.

The huge, bulbous head of the monster swung around to try and bite at Dys, its cracked skull bleeding, jaws opened wide. Jay was waiting for it.

Swinging her mallet with full force, Jay struck the side of the sea bull’s head as it bent around towards her and Dys, going with the direction of the monster’s movement rather than against. With the enormous beast’s own strength aiding her, Jay’s blow, powered by Mirrored Strikes, smashed the monster’s head further back against its body, folding its neck far more sharply than it was ever intended to.

A loud crack echoed in the sea cove as the monster’s spine snapped.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, the sea bull went limp from the neck down, its huge round head falling forward into the waves of the sea.

No notification popped up into Jadis’ mental space to let her know the monster had been defeated, though. She readily saw why. While she’d crippled the monster, the demon controlling it wasn’t dead. Tentacles were still writhing around from where they poked out of the beast’s flesh.

“Quick, get down here!” Dys shouted at Aila from where she was further back up the slope. “Before it gets more magic back!”

Even as she spoke, another set of sea-blue runes formed in the air around the monster’s head and blasted water at Jay, though she ducked out of the way easily enough.

With no hesitation, Aila sprinted back down the slope towards the beach while Jay and Dys kept the sea bull’s attention. When she reached them, wading into the cold water, she immediately pulled a long knife from her belt and began cutting into the possessed monster’s neck, trying to get at the demon within the flesh. Seeing Aila next to the gigantic creature gave Jadis a lot of perspective as to just how truly enormous the monster was. Aila wasn’t a small woman, either, yet she was dwarfed by the massive beast.

“Fucking grim,” Jay murmured as she watched her companion slice into the gray flesh but she didn’t stand idly by. She wanted the beast dead before it could regain enough magic power to cast another spell while Aila was nearby.

Dys slammed her maul down at the base of the monster’s skull, sharp point planted deep and the blunt end sticking up. Jay swung an overhead blow from above, hitting the maul’s head with her hammer. The beast’s bony skull cracked open from the strike and with a twist and pull from Dys, the head was split wide, revealing a squirming mass of tentacles surrounding a single glowing red eye.

“Fuck you,” Aila spat at the demon, drawing a surprised look from Jay and Dys.

“What?” She said glancing at the two giants, knife poised over the grapefruit-sized eyeball.

“Nothing, just felt like something we’d say,” Jay said, a tired grin appearing on her face.

“Yes, well, I can get mad, too.”

With that, she plunged her blade into the demon’s core, black blood spurting out as the tentacles thrashed for a few seconds before going still.

Congratulations!

Arcane Corruptor of Flesh Defeated.

Bonus Experience Points Awarded

for Defeating a Demon Spawn of Samleos.