Chapter 494 - Dance of Death (Patreon)

Talia raced forward, embracing all of her skills as she covered the ground in less than a second.  At times, she had to force herself to slow down, just so that her perception could keep up, but in this instance, she let herself run at full speed. 

And it was glorious.

But it was also uncontrollable.  At that speed, she could only move in a straight line, and as a result, she didn’t try to engage in any complex maneuvers.  Instead, she dashed close to the raggedy princess, raking her claws across the monster’s leg.  She intended to rip the appendage to pieces, but Talia was more than a little surprised when her claws barely made it past the creature’s elaborate skirts.  Despite her power and the force of her momentum, they only left the tiniest scratch before Talia darted past the creature and to safety.

Or that was what she thought right up until the monster’s foot connected with her back and sent her flying across the circular space.  She skipped across the tile floor, coming to a stop a few seconds later.  The attack had barely clipped her, but even that comparatively light impact was almost enough to break bones.  Fortunately, Talia was sturdy enough that she survived intact. 

As she picked herself up, she saw Zeke – in his enormous new form – crash into the raggedy princess.  Or he tried to, at least.  The creature danced away from him, gracefully twirling away like a ballerina.  By comparison, Zeke looked like a charging beast – powerful but clumsy – as his bone-hafted hammer smashed into the tile floor.  He roared in anger, and a second later, the air came alive with corruption and power. 

Those were his domains, Talia knew.  She’d heard of such things from Adriel and Baruk, but before her reunion with Zeke, she had never experienced such a thing.  By now, though, she was well-accustomed to the influx of might that came with the twin skills. 

Not only did her strength and endurance rise, but also her agility and dexterity as well.  More importantly, the monster was slowed beneath the weight of those domains.  Not a lot, but enough to make a difference for her. 

Zeke used another skill, and suddenly the raggedy princess stumbled, falling toward him.  He met the creature with a swing of his hammer, and due to his immense strength that far outstripped Talia’s, he was rewarded with the loud sound of broken bones.  Yet, the monster was far from defeated, and she twirled away from the blow, using its momentum to lend her speed.

That was when Talia, having recovered and returned to the fight, reached her.  The raggedy princess attempted to dodge, but she was hampered by her own inertia, and she couldn’t avoid Talia’s swiping claws that once again ripped through her skirts and tore into the burlap-textured skin of her legs.  Once, twice, and then a third time, Talia attacked, and each one delivered a dose of rot as well as [Plague Strike] and the effects of [Frigid Claws].  Hopefully, it would prove effective in slowing the creature.

However, she was forced to retreat only a moment later when the raggedy princess recovered her balance and whipped her leg out.  Talia ducked beneath it, then got one more attack in before she was forced to retreat.  The creature continued to twirl balletically, extending her legs in vicious, yet graceful attacks that Talia could only narrowly avoid. 

Fortunately, that was when Zeke stomped back into range. 

He shoulder charged the creature, sending it ragdolling across the space until it hit an invisible barrier and collapsed to the floor.  The moment the creature tried to rise, he used that same ability to yank it in his direction, where he met the form of the raggedy princess with his hammer. 

It once again went tumbling across the circle, where it landed in a heap of too-long arms and legs.  Talia dashed in, getting a couple of good hits in before she once again raced away.  It was just in time, too, because a moment later, the creatures was engulfed in a pillar of hellish flames that Talia knew would have turned her into a charred corpse. 

But the raggedy princess was not defeated.

When the flames died down, she rose.  Her dress fell away, and when it hit the ground, it crumbled into ash.  That revealed an androgynous body covered in burlap skin.  The only sign that she had endured any attacks at all were the tendrils of smoke twisting toward the sky. 

“I do not want to do this,” the raggedy princess, her voice much rougher.  “But you leave me no choice.  My existence is torture, and yet…I will not give in.  I will not be defeated.  I may be enslaved.  I may be your…toy.  But I will not let you win!  Do you hear me, Liddle?!  I will not give in!”

Then, she burst into flames of her own.  However, in contrast to the black-and-red fires of Zeke’s skill, the immolation that engulfed her was purple.  A second after those flames had completely covered her, a flame-wrought copy detached itself.  Then another.  And another after that.  On and on it went until a full dozen fiery doppelgangers were arrayed against Talia and Zeke. 

Thunder rolled across the area, and it took Talia a moment to realize that it was laughter.  She looked up to see the gargantuan form of Little Lord Liddle looming above the entire scene.  The moment Talia locked her eyes on the enormous child, his face was obscured by black clouds.  Fiery lightning arced across its surface, and the laughter became thunder in truth. 

That was when the flame-wrought decoys began to spin.  At first, they were no different than the originator, twirling like ballerinas.  However, after a few seconds, the flames elongated into fiery tornadoes that stretched all the way to the roiling clouds above.  Then, finally, they started to move, their path erratic and unpredictable. 

All of that happened over the space of a few seconds, but in that time, Talia refused to remain stationary.  While there was a chance that Zeke could endure such flames, she could sense that she would not fare well against their destructive heat.  After all, she was undead, and though she was more resistant to the natural weaknesses that came with that classification, she had no defenses against the traditional bane of the undead that was fire.  So, while she could endure more than most, she was still vulnerable to the flames.

As a result, she knew that if those tornadoes engulfed her, she would not survive their wrath.  So, she moved – faster and with more balanced than ever before, hopeful that she could endure long enough to defeat the monster.  And failing that, that she wasn’t a burden on Zeke’s efforts.

Talia pushed herself faster and faster, embracing her skill more fully than ever.  She had long since mastered it, but now, she began to embody [Unliving Speed] in a way that she’d never imagined.  The skill had only recently upgraded, which was an achievement in and of itself, and yet, when she suddenly exploded with new power, it became clear that she had done so again.

[Echoes of Sudden Death] (C) – The end of life often comes too suddenly to combat.   You embody this characteristic, increasing the potency of your agility and dexterity by two tiers.  In addition, your perception of time, while under the auspices of this skill, will allow you to take full advantage of your speed.  Upgradeable. 

Talia nearly stumbled as the world came into sharper focus.  The whirling tornadoes moved in slow-motion, while the sound of thunder stretched out into eternity.  Meanwhile, her body screamed to go faster, to move with unforeseen suddenness.  She gave in, weaving between the slow-moving tornadoes as she dashed toward the raggedy princess. 

                          *

Talia disappeared.

Zeke could still feel her within his domains, but she moved far too quickly for him to track.  However, he did see the results of her charge when the raggedy princess’ leg erupted into a cloud of coarse cloth and what looked like stuffing.  Yet, it wasn’t enough.  Even with Talia’s immense speed, she could only do so much damage.  Perhaps she would eventually wear the creature down, but with every passing moment, the whirling tornadoes of flame grew larger and more potent.  At some point, they would encompass the entire area. 

Then, she would burn.

For Zeke’s part, he didn’t think he had much to worry about.  The heat was uncomfortable, but his [Titan] form, coupled with his high resistance to fire, was perfect for the situation.  So, without any further delay, he rushed toward the reeling raggedy princess, barreling through the tornadoes to tackle her to the floor. 

The maneuver was only partially successful, though.  For all the force he could bring to bear, she was too flexible and far too quick to take the full brunt of his attack head-on.  Instead, she shifted every so slightly, and when he rammed into her, she only spun away like the ballerina she clearly was. 

But it wasn’t completely without effect, either.  Zeke felt whatever acted as her skeleton crack beneath the weight of his attack, which gave him hope that he could eventually whittle her down to nothing.  It would only take time, which was in short supply as the fires had continued to grow in both intensity and volume.

“Any ideas?” he muttered inwardly after skidding to a stop.  His hammer arced out, but the disrobed raggedy princess ducked, then pirouetted away, her feet skating across the floor with ease. 

“Kill her quickly.  Even you’re going to start feeling the effects of the fires soon,” Eveline stated.  “And the heat will probably kill Talia well before that.”

“Shit,” he growled out loud.  But for all his power, he didn’t know what to do.

Thankfully, Talia did.  She continued to attack the creature, her sharp claws ripping into its cloth skin.  The wounds themselves weren’t grievous, especially considering that the monster couldn’t bleed.  That was not the point, though.  Instead, Talia’s entire strategy seemed to hinge on her cutting the creature as much as possible – deep, shallow, or somewhere in between didn’t matter, so long as the attacks bore the effects of her skills.

And they did, as evidenced by the fact that the raggedy princess noticeably slowed after each series of attacks.  However, it didn’t come without cost, and the few times Zeke caught sight of Talia, he saw that her skin was blistered, and she looked as if she was barely hanging on. 

He needed to do something, and as Eveline had said, he needed to do it quickly.  The alternative was that he would lose one of his closest companions.  If he was honest with himself, Talia was more important to him than anyone but Pudge, and even those two were impossible to compare.  Doing so would feel like pitting a pair of siblings against one another.

So, Zeke knew he needed to act, and do so in a hurry. 

He just didn’t know how.

But he wasn’t going to let that stop him.  With no real idea what he was going to do, he charged through the flames and once again swung his hammer at the dancing form of the raggedy princess.  It connected, but it was only a glancing blow that was largely ineffective.  So, he swung again, ever advancing. 

That’s when he realized the answer to his problem.

The area wasn’t completely circular.  Instead, it was more of an oval, with one side quite a bit narrower than the others.  That, Zeke hoped, would even the odds a bit. So, even as the fires raged all around him, sending the ambient temperature skyrocketing, he continued to attack.  However, now that he had a plan, he didn’t just swing his hammer with reckless abandon.  Instead, he attacked with a pattern, intent on herding the creature in the right direction.  When she tried to spin away, he swung horizontally from that direction, cutting her off.  When she tried to dart past him, he shouldered her backwards.  And when she tried to attack, he took the blows as the cost of pushing her in the right direction.

Over the next couple of minutes, she retreated until there were invisible barriers on both sides.  She could no longer dodge Zeke’s attacks – both because of Talia’s continuous attacks, which had slowed her considerably and due to being boxed in – so she went on the attack.  Even as she rained furious blows upon Zeke’s body, he endured them, returning the barrage with his own inexorable assault.

Every fall of his hammer crushed something inside the creature, but still, she fought on until, at last, Zeke used [Hell Geyser], bathing them both in corrupted flames.  Those took their own toll, the exposed stuffing catching as the demonic fire tore through her insides. 

Even then, she didn’t fall.

Over and over, Zeke attacked, the blows landing about a third of the time.  Talia did too, though hers were far more accurate.  Still, it took some time before, at last, she succumbed, crumpling to the now-molten floor, then bursting into flame.  She burned to ash before Zeke could even process that she was dead. 

That’s when the fiery tornadoes winked out.  The skies cleared, and the thunder ceased.  But Zeke only had eyes for Talia, who stumbled to a stop and collapsed.  He raced to her side, aghast at her state.  Her entire body was covered in blisters, and it looked like quite a lot of her flesh had simply melted away.  On Earth, if someone had endured burns extensive enough to char them to that degree, they would have long since died.  But through sheer force of will, Talia was still alive.

Barely.

And Zeke knew it wouldn’t last.

When he reached her, he slid to a stop and asked, “Do you have any of those potions left?”

“No…”

“Come on – you have to have some.  Or a heart maybe,” he pleaded as he searched through his spatial storage for a heart.  However, there was nothing there.  Apparently, his looting ability didn’t consider those important enough to take. 

“Ezekiel…she’s…she’s not going to stay for long…”

“She’ll make it!  She has to!” he countered.  Then, he said, “I can save her…”

“What are you going to do?”

“Something stupid,” he said, closing his eyes.  He’d been working on his level eighty skill for some time, but he knew it wasn’t ready.  So, he shifted to another project he’d been working on.  An long-gestating upgrade that he’d only barely scratched the surface of. 

It was not a smart plan.  Chances were, it would blow up in his face.  But he couldn’t simply allow Talia to die.  So, he threw his focus toward the only skill he thought might help him.  All the while, Eveline protested that he was making a mistake, but when she wouldn’t shut up, he flared [Bulwark of the Triumvirate] to keep banish her distracting voice.  He needed to focus, or he would perish right alongside Talia.