Chakrams couldn’t even dent the beast’s armor—at least this way, they’d be of some use.
With the chakram lodged into the Matron’s back, Vir then lashed himself to it with some rope that was tied to his waist belt.
“Vason! Jump!” he cried as the Matron fought off Tia and Haymi. The warrior failed to gain the Matron’s back, but now that Vir was atop it and anchored, he could help.
The large-framed warrior Leaped up to Vir, who caught his arm and pulled him the rest of the way.
“Tie in!” Vir shouted, right as the Matron bucked, sending them both off-balance. Vir stayed on his feet, but agility had never been one of Vason’s strong suits. He fell to all fours, nearly slipping off the Matron’s carapace. Vir once again stabilized him long enough for him to loop himself to Vir’s chakram.
There was now just one last piece of the puzzle.
“Haymi!”
“The acid!” Haymi cried. She was currently kiting the Matron, firing magic before circling behind the beast. “Your back! Do you need healing?”
She sounded distraught, and for good reason. Without Parai’s cycling technique, he’d already be dead.
“Soon. But I’m fine for now. Keep distracting it!” he shouted back. “Enhance Sharpness! If you have any, toss them here!”
Haymi retrieved an orb and scurried over to Tia, handing it to her.
What’s she doing? Vir thought as the Matron moved, slicing at Tia and Haymi with a bladed limb, forcing the two to dodge.
Tia dove, rolled, and then threw the orb perfectly to Vir, just as the Matron swiped at her again.
Guess Haymi’s not too confident in her throwing skills, Vir thought, catching the orb. No wonder—even C Grade orbs cost a pretty penny.
“Hang in there, you two. We’re almost there!”
Vir removed his katar’s Enhance Speed orb, pocketing it and inserting the Enhance Sharpness orb in its stead. Haymi would keep the orb charged thanks to the blood rod.
Hope this works.
Vir slammed his katar into the carapace, and this time, aided by Empower, Prana Blade, and Enhance Sharpness, he finally did some damage.
With firm footing, they both went to work, taking turns gouging into the Matron’s back. While Vason lacked the Talents to augment his strikes, his large frame, Enhance Sharpness, and his longer sword allowed him to nick the carapace when Vir wasn’t attacking it.
They worked as one, falling into a rhythm despite the Matron’s jarring movements.
Right until the Matron learned of their plan. Screeching, the eight-legged beast started moving far more violently, crashing into trees in an attempt to throw them off.
Vir looked at the chakram. Each time the Matron crashed into a tree, it dislodged slightly. It was only a matter of time now.
Vir and Vason did their best to ignore her movements and work as hard as they could, but it proved impossible. The Matron was simply moving too erratically for them to get good strikes in.
Vir exchanged a glance with Vason. “I have an idea. Stay here and hang on, if you can,” he said, cutting himself free of the rope. Vir High Jumped off the Matron and grabbed hold of a nearby branch as the rest of Spear’s Edge watched.
Using his momentum, he hurled himself up to the highest treetop, some forty paces up. Taking a deep breath, he created a prana suction in his legs, but didn’t allow himself to sink into his shadow just yet, thus deferring Dance’s activation. He’d done this once before, against the proctor for his Balar Rank exam in Daha.
He hadn’t done it again… because it was an incredibly painful, risky ploy. But extreme situations called for extreme solutions, and so he High Jumped, gaining another ten paces of height before he plummeted back to the earth.
Vir somersaulted in midair so that he’d hit legs-first and forced his eyes to remain open despite every instinct telling him to shut them. Wind rushed past as he picked up speed. Faster and faster, the ground rushed up to him at an alarming pace.
Vir fired Prana Blade as he fell—one of the few Talents that relied on his own body’s prana, rather than ground Ash prana.
And in the split-second before he hit the ground, he activated Dance, allowing himself to fall into his shadow.
Perfection was a lofty goal, and he fell short. His leg splintered under the force just before the shadow realm embraced him. At least in here, he felt no pain. Not from his broken leg, nor from his burning back. It was a small reprieve, but one that Vir appreciated.
Taking his full ten counts of time, he carefully chose his exit location. A spot a handful of paces away from the Matron.
This better work.
Vir committed, and Leaped out of the shadow, augmenting the momentum he carried from his fall.
He’d never moved as fast in his life. In fact, it was all he could do to slash his blade in time, and he barely activated Empower before his strike hit the Matron’s bladed limbs.
Augmented by three magical abilities, and cut by a razor-sharp seric blade, even the Matron’s limb stood no chance.
Vir didn’t even feel the impact. His blade passed through one leg, then two, before digging itself into the third.
Losing no time, Vir Leaped away, fully aware of how easily he could be crushed under the Matron’s weight.
The Matron did not react well to the sudden loss of two of her legs. With her balance gone, she pitched back and fell on her rump.
“Vason! Now… oh.” The warrior had fallen off the Matron at some point. He was now hunkered down behind his tower shield, Leaping at the beast’s maw repeatedly. The constant bashing didn’t seem to do much to the bladed monstrosity, but it did keep her occupied.
“I’ll distract the fell beast. You finish it off!” Vason shouted.
A task easier said than done. The Matron was wounded, but so was he. Vir could pull blood away from flesh wounds to clot bleeding, but there was little he could do for a broken bone. And against the combined pain of his back and his leg, he could barely even stay upright.
And yet, he could not falter here. Not until the Matron had been vanquished.
Gritting his teeth, and placing all of his weight on one leg, Vir climbed up onto the Matron’s back. He couldn’t risk jumping, let alone Leaping, lest he land on his broken leg. He had no doubt the pain would send him immediately into the land of the unconscious.
The Matron screeched and got back up—after all, she had eight legs. Missing two would limit her mobility, but it wasn’t as though she was incapacitated.
To Vir, every action drove needles of pain into his body. The simple act of hefting his katar took all the willpower he could muster. He looked for his chakram, but found only a gash where it had been.
Right. Must’ve been pulled off when Vason fell.
Vir fell to his knees and continued slicing open the Matron’s carapace. Each strike had little strength behind it, but it did have an abundance of magic. Small chips of the Matron’s armor flew at an agonizingly slow pace, and Vir began to wonder if they’d make it in time. Their luck held, and its flesh was revealed.
Vir had positioned the hole right above where the prana concentrated in the beast’s body—likely its heart.
With every ounce of strength he could muster, he drove his Empowered blade in, eliciting a bloodcurdling screech from the maimed Ash Beast.
But one strike wouldn’t be enough. He withdrew the blade and plunged it back in, twisting it for maximum damage.
The Matron juked and bucked, but Vir forced himself to stay on.
After the fourth strike, the Matron’s energy began to wane.