The houses below her quickly began to collapse as the giant bloodbeast adjusted its footing and ripped right through the wooden walls nearby. With the hand it had used to launch the blasts now largely ravaged by golden fire, the bloodbeast’s other arm began to twitch and split into three long scythe-like appendages.

Alana pressed her thighs against Wivanya’s cool scales. The Dragon Broodmother responded instantly, pulling her crystalline wings closer to her body and rolling to the side as one the bloodbeast’s newly split limbs cut through the location that they had just vacated. Gliding sharply downward, they spiraled closer to the bloodbeast and rotating around its body as its sharp limbs gave chase

They were moving so quickly that the wind howled in her ears at a volume able to drown out the roar of the fires below. Alana was already marshaling her own image as she tapped her heels twice against Wivanya’s sides to signal an abrupt ascent.

With acceleration that forced even Alana to grit her teeth, Wivanya’s violent wing beats flung the duo rapidly upward in a swirling pillar of snow. The bloodbeast roared as they ascended rapidly past its torso. The fleshy, bloody body soon warped as several new clumsy arms forced their way out of its body and grasped at the flying pest as it shot upward.

It was only as they had created a buffer of about twenty meters of space above the bloodbeast that Alana allowed herself the luxury of circling calmly above the enemy. With twelve extra hands still grasping upward toward them, the bloodbeast glared its fury out of its glowing red eyes. “Do not test my patience.”

Ignoring the bloodbeast, Alana sent Hank a message. You ready? This one is strong.

Patience darlin’, almost in position.

The golden fire around Alana flared upward at Hank’s message. Alana allowed herself a pointed smile at Wivanya’s scales; during their trainings, Hank had mysteriously stopped referring to her as darling after she had very thoroughly beaten him into the ground every time he dared to do so. The fact that he had so quickly reverted back to his teasing drawl proved that he hadn’t been nearly as cowed as she had assumed.

Still, his bravery was probably for the best; this was not a foe that Alana wanted to fight with a coward on her side. But that didn’t mean she planned on making things easy for the man after things were resolved here. Plus, a little prodding now was a way to keep his escapades from escalating during future operations.

So Alana squeezed her thighs again and Wivanya dutifully pressed her wings against her sides. They dropped like a rock, heading directly for the large crimson blob with its dozens of grasping limbs. Its eyes warped with hatred. With the backdrop of collapsing homes, it certainly seemed like the personification of ruin.

Hank’s message came almost immediately as Alana image began to ripple outward and cover the surrounding area. Now hold your horses. It will take me a minute or two to get a good angle.

I hope I don’t die in the meantime, Alana deadpanned. And even though it was mostly a joke, Alana’s eyes were extremely serious as the accelerated downward to the bloodbeast. Its arms seemed to bulge and then launch themselves upward as more blood was used to fuel them. As the whirling image of golden fire around Alana intensified, a light smoke began to drift out of the corners of her eyes. The wings that grew from Alana’s helmet grew longer and the white color of the feathers grew increasingly clear.

Was this what Randidly felt with his image when he faced me…?

As six grasping hands of blood thrust themselves forward, Alana’s image of a valkyrie descended, a resplendent rider of righteous flames. Her spear was was a shimmering inferno that hammered downward and smashed back the six enormous hands that grabbed at her. The power of her image and body almost perfectly overlapped.

Wivanya growled in warning as the other six blood red palms smashed around at Alana from both sides. But Alana’s image was a paragon of power right now. With feathers as white as snow, the Valkyrie’s wings spread outward and deflected the blows from the other limbs. Moving with the ease of long practice, Alana pulled back her spear, released a whistling breath, and then thrust forward with another Sun Strike that was empowered by her image.

The deflected hands twisted and bulged as more blood was pumped into them. They quickly returned to attack again and Alana once more burned brightly to force them back. Each attacking palm was about the size of Alana’s torso, so what forced the hands back wasn’t pure strength but rather the burning image of Alana’s fire. The strain made Alana wince, but she forced her image to burn even brighter.

When her image-empowered attack landed, a ripple ran through the enormous bloodbeast. The hands that tried to seize Alana began to curdle and bubble, the redness of the blood of its body slowly darkening toward black as her image crashed against the image animating the bloodbeast.

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Alana quickly sent Hank a message. That image is here, resisting me. Take it out.

Ignoring the curses that Hank sent back, Alana focused on the sensation of her image crashing against the vast sea of blood that surged up from the monster she fought. The waves of it lapped against her valkyrie, attempting to stain the creature of pure fire and justice. And when it initially failed to corrupt her, it wasn’t disappointed at all; if anything, more and more waves of blood surged upward to taint Alana.

Alana’s eyes were glowing golden and the smoke drifting upward from them became thicker. What sort of life have you lived to create an image like this…? I suppose there will be time to beat the answers out of your body later.

The two images smashed into each other with a metaphysical crunch. For several long seconds, they strained, Alana’s fire burning the oncoming waves of blood. Yet slowly, Alana began to tremble. She would not be able to hold out against this image for long-

Bang.

The noise was small in the violent clash between the two images, surrounded by the spreading fires in the houses below, but Alana smiled joyfully. A small bullet spun upward and pierced without resistance into the side of the gargantuan monster of blood.

For a second, nothing happened. But then Alana felt the images that were attacking her falter. Her golden fire gushed forward and overwhelmed the distracted image. The bloodbeast’s side began to bulge outward like someone was driving their first directly out the side of the bloodbeast’s stomach from within. The bloodbeast roared in fury, shaking the surrounding area with its volume. Alana ignored the noise and patted Wivanya’s side; at the agreed-upon signal, Wivanya’s wings began to glow white.

With a single flap of her vast wings, frost and snow raced across the exposed surface of the bloodbeast where its image had been burned away by golden fire. With the majority of its image distracted by the sudden frost and dealing with the troublesome bullet attempting to extinguish its life, Alana raised her spear above her head once more.

Solar Flare. Sun Strike.

The heavy image of the flaming spear crashed downward, shattering the stuttering blood limbs that had stopped her previously. The bulge in the bloodbeast’s side grew larger as the whole of its body continued to darken, as though the blood that built the monster was rapidly rotting.

Perhaps sensing its fate, the bloodbeast turned its wrathful gaze on Alana as she slammed her spear into its shoulder. Despite its earlier power, the image within the bloodbeast began to flag; it had been struck from too many angles. The bulge in the bloodbeast’s side finally exploded outward, sending hundreds of basketball-sized globes of rotten blood across the neighborhood below it. The blood fell on the fires and sizzled ominously.

Yet it seemed that the bloodbeast was finished. Its mouth opened and a figure wrapped in a crimson cloak stepped cleanly out of the collapsing beast’s head. Although Alana couldn’t see the face of the individual inside the cloak, she felt his sharp gaze on her. Then the figure turned away, leaping off of the bloodbeast and attempting to flee.

The bloodbeast was collapsing sideways like a carnival tent with the central pole removed. But Alana twitched her hips and Wivanya carried them in quick pursuit. Do you really think you can escape after you’ve done all this? Holy Judgment.

Time stuttered strangely, the figure in the red cloak stretching out in a leap off of the bloodbeast’s shoulder to a roof below. It was like a polaroid photo that was slowly spat out, immortalizing the moment. As Alana’s eyes narrowed, the contrast of this frozen world was turned sharply up. The shadows became pitch black and every source of light became blinding. There was a dull sound of impact against vulnerable flesh as the Holy Judgment landed and then the world was in motion again.

When the figure in the cloak hit the roof, he stumbled and crashed to the ground almost immediately. But he quickly rolled and got back to his feet, holding his shoulder. Alana released a breath and swayed as almost all of her remaining Stamina and Mana was drained by using that Skill. But she then tightened her knees on Wivanya and continued to pursue.

Infuriatingly, the cloaked figure continued to accelerate toward the edge of the roof and adroitly hopped to drop down into the alley below. Still cursing, the waiting Hank flipped open the cylinder of his revolver and pressed another bullet into one of the grooves with such slippery grace that even chasing Alana was impressed. Then he spun the cylinder before flicking it back into place.

As the cloaked figure landed on the ground of the ash and smoke-filled alley, his gaze whipped around and locked onto Hank. As Hank straightened his arm and aimed his revolver, the cloaked figure conjured a fist of blood and smashed the nearby wall, sending splinters in every direction. The building groaned ominously, already weakened by the greedy flames. But instead of running into the opening to escape, the hand of blood seized a young woman who was likely hiding within the house and pulled her out to block his body.

Eyes smoking with fury, Alana leapt off of Wivanya’s back and shot down from above toward the cloaked figure’s back.

With the young woman in his way, Hank could only twist his mouth and remove his finger from the trigger of his revolver. With a spare moment, the cloaked figure melted and the red blood sluiced down through a drainage grate along the wall of the alley.

At Alana’s insistence by message, Hank hurried forward though the thick black smoke and swept the young woman off of her feet. Without slowing, he hurried toward the edge of the alley, the young woman coughing weakly against his chest from the lack of oxygen in the air. Although it was much harder to die of asphyxiation in a post-System world, it wasn’t impossible if you weren’t a high Level.

Alana, more burning spear than human, smashed into the part of the alley near the grate and forced her way to the sewer below. The weakened house gratefully collapsed around her, sealing the entrance that she had used almost immediately. But when Alana looked around, she found almost a dozen smaller bloodbeasts crouching in wait for her. They wore shapes like birds and insects and wolves, but as Alana scanned the surrounding area, the cloaked figure had already slithered away.

Golden fire wreathed Alana’s limbs as she raised her spear. Do you really think you can escape so easily?