Crazed Combat [Aclysia POV]

Choked laughter filled the space.

Marice clashed against the claws of the vengeance god. The digits of the god were hard, the contact brief. Black Ice did not make the leap. The motions continued, both of them swinging mercilessly at each other. The air and earth trembled as the one true emperor’s maid met the **** of her divine opponent.

And they both laughed.

Flames leaked from the ever-cracking, ever-healing skin of her opponent. As the Glacial Winds covered his skin in fresh frost, the internal heat rose to melt it. Aclysia would not be able to rely on her debuffs with this one.

The mirth continued between them, flat, dry and yet joyful.

Servant Strike ticked off cooldown. Aclysia swung Marice with all her might. Kael roared. The maw of too many and too large teeth beneath his head, part broken mask, part skull, opened up wide, revealing multiple barbed tongues. They lashed at the empty air while the god swung to meet Aclysia’s strike.

The clash of their supernatural might caused the air to spark. Arm and edge did not meet. Competing flows of mana kept a miniscule gap between them. Light and sound kept spontaneously emerging between them. They were both grinning. Metal and bone, metal imitating flesh, on both sides the creatures were grinning.

Both pushed forwards. Both were catapulted back when the supernatural forces escaped the boundary between them. Both landed on their feet. Both began to stalk the edge of the battlefield.

The Swirling Point had taken them to the edge of the island, specifically a scarcely vegetated peninsula on its southern end. The lack of sounds told Aclysia that they were totally isolated. She liked that. No distractions. She wasn’t connected to her Master. She hated that. If he needed her, however, he could just send her a voice call to teleport over. Ah, the wonders of the upgraded Harem Comms.

Aclysia dragged her weapon behind her, lumbering forwards at a slow pace. Every time she raised her foot, the Black Ice encasing it broke away from it. The heavy crystals yielded with no resistance to her. She left a trail of dark shards on the arid ground.

Kael crawled on all fours. The cracked lines on his skin glowed intensely, betraying the even greater heat within. The god of vengeance drooled slag. His paws burned, turning hard grass to charr and sand to glass. He left a trail of dark shards on the arid ground.

‘Diplomacy,’ Aclysia remembered the word. The idea of talking to her Master’s enemies always struck her as an absurd one. They had already transgressed, now they were getting their due. Except, with Kael, he did not necessarily have to be an enemy, did he? “Our vengeance is justified. You know this.”

“Killing a god because he knocked the teeth out of a woman is justified?” Kael spoke without an ounce of criticism. He was amused by the concept. “Not any god, not any woman, I understand. Really, what was he THINKING?!” the god of vengeance roared in mad amusement. “Hurting one of the Gamer’s women? What did he expect? The best case scenario, I expected you lot to hunt him down after you leave Hawaii.”

“Affirmative, he would be chased down and brought to his deserved end.” Aclysia stopped for a moment, as did Kael. They had both reached the start of the other’s trail. Brief hesitation, then they both advanced. “You do not appear to care for him.”

“I do not.”

“Then surrender.”

“Nah. I know you won’t kill me.” The god grinded his teeth, sharpening the edges by dragging them over the flats. “And I am still a member of the Concord, maid of Fusion.”

‘Diplomacy truly is a waste of time,’ Aclysia thought.

A multitude of serpentine heads rose from the crystal remnants of her steps. The hydra heads grew quietly, but in the silence of their private battlefield, even the quietest of sounds was a dead giveaway. Same went for the threat that appeared behind Aclysia, sprouting from the scorched steps of her opponent.

The black dragon maid whirled around, slicing the barbed tendrils before they could grasp her. When she twisted back towards her opponent, she witnessed Kael already sprinting towards her. He was faster, leaving the shattered hydra heads behind him. Aclysia switched to the Baelementium dagger in her Adaptive Bladery, then entered her Cutting Flurry.

Kael must have known her power set and her tools. He did not bother dodging the first strike, raising his arms to block instead. A freakish spike in temperature turned the bronze blade into a scattering of flash-melted droplets. They turned into a consolidated rain of spheres in the freezing winds of Aclysia’s aura.

The Baelementium blade that followed met the same fate. Aclysia growled at the inadequacy of her equipment, then pulled out the only weapon worth her while. The 50% Agility increase of the Cutting Flurry was stacked on top of the 50% Physical Stats bonus of Glacial Scourge. The same effect should have sapped 20% of her enemy’s Strength and Agility in a 25 metre radius. What the mechanics dictated and how the clash between frost and fire worked out was quite different.

Aclysia lacked the capacity to care about such details.

With speed and power came a berserker rage. A blue mist settled on her mind, hatred cold and all-consuming. Kael matched her sudden increase in power with his own. Marice came down, meeting a blade manifested from nowhere. This time, the **** of their clashing might flung them both back instantly.

Aclysia’s claws dragged through the floor. Her tail smacked the ground when she was still. Her lips were pulled back, her Glacial Exoskeleton cracked, Marice flowed blue and red, absorbing her vitality at a steadily increasing rate. It was still below her regeneration, but that would not be true forever.

Thighs tensed. Toes pressed into the soil. Her ice armoured form snapped forwards, accelerating further with every step. Elation rippled through her system. Fighting her Master’s enemies was second only to serving her Master lovingly.

The sword in Kael’s hand crackled and snapped as he swung it, sounding like a log consumed by fire. It stretched as if alive, eager to meet Marice yet again. The frozen maid and burned god met on Kael’s side of the battlefield. Their blades, or rather the magical **** around their blades, made only short contact before they both pulled back and went for the next strike.

It was a flurry of motion. Aclysia relied on her instincts, programmed into her by the supreme ability of her Master. Kael was young by divine standards, but he had used that time well. His long-limbed body was in constant motion, twisting and turning like a reed in the wind. Aclysia kept up with hunting grace.

Marice’s Icy Veins enchantment accelerated the formation of the Black Ice beneath her feet. Kael matched her in this aspect as well, his inner furnace growing, producing ever more ash. Where the opponents waltzed, they left competing forces. Hydra heads and charred tendrils fought one another like their origins did. The battlefield turned into ash and frost vying for dominance.

Another Servant Strike, another prepared reaction. Kael must have counted the seconds, to predict the cooldown. After parrying and blocking, he suddenly decided to dodge her strike. Marice slammed into the dirt in a shockwave of raw ****, shattering nearby hydras and scattering tendrils.

Kael immediately stabbed his blade at her. It sunk into her, but did not harm. Reality Shatter turned her incorporeal. The god of vengeance immediately began his retreat. After the three seconds of the enchantment were up, it triggered a 1-2 combo. First, a gravitational spike dragged Kael towards her, then a wave of frost burst outwards. An aura of air-distorting heat shielded the god from the impact.

Aclysia swung Marice in a horizontal slash. Kael was still out of her reach, but that only mattered so much for a swordswoman of her expertise. A blue wave of slashing **** cut through the air, carrying the trajectory of her swing forwards.

Surprisingly, Kael just charged through. The energy broke on his body. As he closed the distance, his body grew. The bit of fur at his neck spread further down his red-marked body. Hair of black dust grew as his shattered helmet warped in its dimensions into something even more bestial.

Aclysia ripped her sword up in a defensive stance. One strike, two strikes, three strikes, Kael hammered down on the flat of Marice’s blade like it was the anvil upon which he would forge his victory. The **** was single-minded and rhythmic. That it was a ruse only occurred to Aclysia when the god’s offhand was already hurling at her chest.

“OW!” Kael screamed, the joking mirth clear in his tone. His fist cracked the exterior layer of ice, but failed to move Aclysia a single inch. Feet frozen to the floor, Juggernaut activated, the black dragon maid was simply too sturdy. Spending her Devotion brought with it an increase to her next attack’s power.

Aclysia did not have any other opening, she simply went for the punch. Her knuckles sunk uselessly into a layer of ash, the ‘flesh’ of the god dispersing to scatter the **** of her blow. “Tsk,” Aclysia made her distaste audible. Both of them jumped back.

Kael walked on three limbs and his sword, using the charred blade like some kind of cane. Black hair continued to crawl over him even now, elongating and moving through the air like living smoke from an industrial chimney. His head resembled a wolf, with the bulky features of a boar gradually coming to the fore as well.

‘A fight between two tanks,’ Aclysia managed to think through the berserker fog. ‘If this is just a question of the long breath, then I have the upper hand.’

A scream warned her of Kael’s next charge. A nest of his tendrils stretched from a cluster where they had emerged victorious. Aclysia had to cut them down, the breaking of her stance preferable to being bound.

Kael came down on her with another overhead strike. The god of vengeance was taller than her now, immensely so. His weapon had grown in greater measure, coming down as a thick slab of burned wood and melting metal. Aclysia narrowly dodged, then slammed Marice’s pommel into Kael’s stomach. The pointed end of the grip penetrated something solid.

Black Ice stuck to the edge of the injury. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

It came at a cost though.

Kael suddenly accelerated. It didn’t take a genius to guess that the god of vengeance would have an ability that required he was struck first. Before Aclysia could react, she was flung sideways by the impact of his fist.

He manifested from ashen tendrils in her trajectory, hitting her with a downward swing of his arm. She slammed into the ground, cratering the burned and frozen landscape. A stretch of her will commanded nearby hydras to attack the god of vengeance. He dispatched them with a ring of fire. Though Aclysia was also harmed in the process, it bought her enough time to wrap her tail around Kael’s left ankle. She yanked it sideways as she **** herself up.

The god tilted. He rammed his sword into the ground to remain upright. He knocked Marice aside with his free arm, but Aclysia immediately went for a second strike. The god was wide open and Marice-

Fell from her shattering hand.

Aclysia felt a weird and sudden perspective shift. There was a moment of choice, a tug into two different places of safety. In an instant, the decision was made. Kael barely had time to stare confusedly at her crumbling body, ice replacing metal all throughout. “Did she just kill herself?”

The sudden and violent manifestation of her Monster Form denied that question. Kael was flung back by surprise more than anything. Though this state granted her an All Stats increase of 20%, that was slightly less than the 25% increase to Physical Stats the Frozen Scourge had offered her.

It came without a detriment though.

Kael had no idea what was happening. Revealing this new capacity of hers was equal parts enticing and regretful. In this form, she was a dragon in all but name, a large serpentine head anchored where she had ‘died’. Teeth of Black Ice parted wide. Though she had no access to her Skills in this state, her Monster Girl Perks were perfectly available.

Frozen breath enveloped the god of vengeance. He dashed off to the side, galloping on three limbs and his sword. The cone of icy air followed him, Aclysia twisting her serpentine form. She was awkward at first, moving with the same rigidness a human neck dictated. Once she realized her great flexibility, she coiled up, pushing the vestiges of the breath attack out.

She immediately followed it up with a rushed strike of her head. She got a mouthful of dirt, but who cared about that? Kael swung at her, digging deep into the Black Ice that made up the hydra’s neck. What did Aclysia care? This body was utterly disposable, a short-lived vessel to pilot while her true, Master-crafted form regenerated within.

Unaware of this fact, Kael made the mistake of fighting the hydra head on. God of vengeance and serpentine dragon clashed over and over again in savage exchanges of blows. With no new lesser hydras being born from Aclysia’s footsteps, the ashen god had plenty of his tendrils free to combine into bindings. Rough particles consolidated into whips that attempted to bind the hydra. One failed, three inconvenienced her, ten limited her range of motion considerably.

Kael leapt in, seizing the opportunity. It would have been a heroic scene, if it hadn’t been one monster slaying another – or if it had been effective. His strike shattered the head of the hydra just as the regeneration within was completed. Calling Marice to her side, Aclysia burst from her collapsing chrysalis. The surprised god did not see the weapon coming until it was already buried deep in his chest.

A clawed hand gripped Aclysia by the waist, prying her off and then tossing her back. She could have spent Devotion to deny that manoeuvre, but there was no need to reveal that trump card as well. The Black Ice was spreading, the large wound joining with the small one from earlier.

“Mhmmmmmmm,” Kael hummed deeply, inspecting his chest with very little concern. “Interessssssssssting,” he hissed. “I surrender. You win this one.”

Aclysia **** down her disappointment. Killing Kael here would remove a potential headache in the future. It would also cause a lot more issues. Ultimately, she was not the kind of maid that mindlessly slaughtered her Master’s enemies. “Wise,” she stated simply, planting Marice in the ground. The Black Ice remained attached to Kael’s chest, but ceased growing. “Under the understanding that you remain uninvolved, you may follow me to observe further developments.”

“It would be… proper,” Kael agreed.