Chapter 156 (Patreon)

The red spots that appeared on the full armor belonging to the Earthspeaker were muted and weak, but still they glowed. I instinctively understood that they were places that the armor itself was weaker, not necessarily places where I could easily land a strike. Took began to rush in and support me, but hissed my intentions to her. She looked over her shoulder at me, and I gestured with a twitch of my head for her to go somewhere else, and she flared her frills in understanding. As she charged off, Took screamed, “FOR TREEL!” and leapt into battle with a Windspeaker.

“Fool beast.” A bitter hatred dripped like venom from her voice as my adversary spoke to herself. I had dismissed my support before rushing into battle, and she held it against me. A cool rationality began to settle over my mind as I carefully dodged around the strikes of her initial flurry of blows. Though she obviously was drawing on the strength of the earth, she lacked the ability to draw speed from the winds. Maybe she could have if she wasn’t coated with stone keeping her from feeling the voice of the wind, but I suspected she specialized in Earthspeaking. 

Wind whistled around me as the controlled sequence of attacks whooshed past me again and again. I’d never seen a person so practiced in combat, and she continued to move in such a way that she was never fully exposed and always moving into the next strike. I continued to keep my distance, the blood coating her weapons a stark reminder of the danger they posed to me. Swing after swing continued to menace me, but I steeled myself to keep my distance and safety. Though Earthspeakers were known to be a steady sort, my enemy was tiring and becoming more and more enraged by the moment, until, unable to control herself any longer, she finally exploded.

“HOLD STILL YOU BASTARD!” She screamed at me before redoubling her efforts. I felt now was a perfect moment, and I responded.

“Why. would. I. do. that?” The words were slow out of my mouth, but I made sure to enunciate them loud and clear. In absolute disbelief, the human woman stuttered to a halt. Around us, the press and screams of battle continued, yet my foe remained looking at me. Though I couldn’t see her face through the visor, I imagined I could see the amazement there. I prepared to attack at the earliest sign of weakness, but even though she had ceased her attacks, the Earthspeaker remained in a battle-ready stance.

After maybe three seconds had passed, she resumed her attack and I resumed my dodging. I felt myself having to tamp down my own anger. This mere human tried to kill me, and didn’t recognize the presence of one of her betters! With a force of effort, I sunk deeper into the apathy of [Combatant’s Bloodlust]. 

“Why can you understand me?” The incredulous tone of her voice was undercut by her unceasing aggression. I figured answering wouldn’t do me any good. I’d instead hoped that hearing me speak would distract the woman enough for me to begin my attack, but she was obviously too well trained for that. Instead, I began to fill my throat with magic in anticipation of using [Crippling Cry]. I didn’t expect I would be able to get her to lower her guard with a simple word right now, and I could read in her body a growing rage. “If you can speak, why would you slaughter us? Why are we here? Why?”

I couldn’t hold my tongue. “We. did. not. begin. this. fight. We. only. intend. to. win.” Then, I forced more magic into my throat than I’d ever dared before. As it filled beyond my capacity, I finally let a [Crippling Cry] loose, and the sound was so fierce that it blew my head backwards with the explosion of sound that burst from my throat and mouth. As I swung my face back to look at my enemy, I saw her stumbling and reeling from my magical [Skill]. I didn’t give her even another second to recover and began to channel [Quaking Claw]. With my hands finally prepared to begin cracking through her armor, I flexed my left hand and stabbed it towards the largest red spot in her armor, just under where her right breast was.

My claws initially glanced off the armor, but I struck again and again in quick succession, my claws digging deep and beginning to carve deep furrows in the armor. Even with my focus on cutting through her armor, though, I continued to pay close attention to her weapons, knowing my death was just a single strike away. Still partially stunned, the speaker took a couple of dizzy and unfocused swipes at me, but I easily dodged them before continuing my assault on the ever more brightly glowing weak spot. Finally, with another strike of my claws, the plate of stone shattered and exposed the clothing below. Before I could plunge my claws in and end her life, though, the armor melted and covered her once again.

I could see that my enemy was flagging, but she still could continue. With a sigh, I began to consign myself to continuing to dodge to let her fully exhaust herself. Then, an overwhelming feeling of superiority surged inside me, and I flared [Adversary], [Imperial Bearing], and [True Dominance] as I spoke with a combination of [Conqueror’s Rebuke] and [Debilitating Diatribe].

“You. are. NOTHING! BOW!” I drew deep on my sonilphon, and for the first time since it had evolved for the second time, I began to feel its true limits. The organ worked overtime trying to convert the ambient magic of the world into something I could work with, but with everything I was trying to use it for, the rate at which my magic replenished was far from my rate of usage. Even so, with five of my [Skills] hammering into her at the same time, the woman fell to a knee, though obviously reluctant and resistant. I felt contempt rise in my chest, at this weakling who fell before my will, and I strode forward. Into her range.

She’d been faking at least part of her weakness, and her left sword swung out surprisingly quickly and cut deep into my shoulder. I felt the stone blade bite into the bone, and I snarled my rage at her in a [Crippling Cry] that fully emptied my magical reserves. The Speaker again was set reeling by my attack, but this time I only had one arm. In a moment of clarity, I realized that her right arm had gone slack, and I wrested the blade from her hand. I knew that she wouldn’t maintain the Calling for long without it in her hands, and I smashed the blade into the bottom of her helmet, where her jaw was.

The sword shattered against the armor, but the woman crumpled to the ground, face down. I didn’t know how much energy she had left for a complex Calling, but if she had deceived me enough to still be able to meld into the ground, then she would escape soon. With fury filling and driving me, I lunged down with my jaws agape and seized the back of her head. Fortunately for me, she was somewhat short, and her helmet could barely fit inside my jaws. I crunched into the stone, my fangs beginning to crack, but even so I bit harder, until I could feel the Calling-fueled armor giving way. 

With a final crunch of my jaws, I reached flesh. I screamed in victory as I bit through the Earthspeaker’s skull, her blood and brains exploding from my mouth as I dropped the headless corpse to the ground. Around me, I finally noticed my pack watching in awe as I felled this seemingly unkillable creature. I reared back, my body screaming in agony as I reveled in the glory of victory. I paid no mind to the flashing [System] notifications, instead basking in the cheers of my subordinates:

“VICTORY! VICTORY BY FANG AND BLOOD!”