(19.3) Gashadokuro
Aki grits her teeth, her eyes flicking to the status bar before letting her thoughts run away with a half-baked plan.
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Aki Title: Witch
LE: 35/55 HP: 180/200
MP: 290/300
SP: 46/50
[Starved: Lack of food dulls sense by a small amount]
[Skill Burn: Use of Skill Points prevents full LE recovery for some time]
[Blurred Vision: Temporary effect. If not healed, eyes will permanently worsen]
More: ⟲
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She falls to her knees, unable to raise her axe from the ground. The drain of LE and the pain of having thorns embedded in her hand temporarily shocks her mind. Still, she can't let down her guard. Growls, groans, and encroaching miasma from behind call for attention.
"Lady Acolyte!" Bucket shouts a warning.
She glances over her shoulder to see a horde of Dead swarming their defences from the West plaza entrance, the nearest side to the manor. The members of Silver Sword have retreated closer to the fountain, right behind Aki, and look between the horde and the gashadokuro while Winter remains transfixed on Vira and her summoned monster.
"I said, die in agony, didn't I?" Vira raises a hand high and begins condensing shadows in the form of a lance. "Don't make me repeat myself."
The gashadokuro opens its mouth, green fire collects within. A great whistling shriek grows louder as the fire grows larger, the idea of death more certain.
"Oh skies…"
Aki grinds her jaw, unsure of what to do next. How is she supposed to carry out the duties of an Acolyte if she can't even protect herself in this situation?
For a moment, the thought of shouting I'm an otherworlder too and running away crosses Aki's mind. She looks at her companions and feels a pang of guilt for thinking such things.
Phoebe looks pale, barely able to contain her fear yet she remains standing, slinging supporting spells from the backline for the plaza defenders in the front. Mirra is sprinting too and from the thick of battle, pulling out the injured so the battlefield healers can patch them up. Caor has his sword raised, casting buff after buff to support his allies. Yet all three of them are also keeping an eye on Vira and the gashadokuro at the same time.
Everyone is trying their hardest to stay alive despite mental and physical drain. Not just the otherworlders but the city's defenders. Aki bites her tongue, angered at her momentary lapse.
The whistling wind of the gashadokuro's fire comes to a head and then, the deadly fire shoots out like a geyser into the plaza.
Winter aims his wand at attack, mana condensing at the tip like a miniature vortex of darkness. The air grows heavy as he blasts the supercharged shadow ball at the attack. Coar joins in by immediately launching a series of magical golden slashes.
A burst of light and dark meet the flames, exploding in a grand display of burning light before being blocked by a massive stone wall raised over the plaza.
"Her magic… it's so powerful." Phoebe grips her staff tight against her chest, her legs shaking so much her knees knock against each other.
"Damnit. How are we supposed to bring a giant like that down?" Caor retreats closer to the fountain.
Vira screams in anger, her voice joining with the gashadokuro's own bone rattling roar. "If shadows won't work, then allow the Devastator's Flame to burn your traitorous bodies to ash!"
The green flames that wreath the gashadokuro and surround Vira flare to a much greater volume, igniting and re-igniting the surrounding buildings and stones themselves. An aura of immense heat radiates from the two, causing Aki and the others to recoil even from behind Phoebe's spell.
The wall shakes from the explosive impact. Behind her, Aki hears Phoebe cry out from the effort.
"We can't keep fighting here with attacks like that," Caor rushes up next to Aki, holding up Phoebe with his off-hand and adjusting his sword arm. "Can we lead her away somehow?"
A heat wave radiates from the other side of the wall followed by a rattling impact. Every hit breaking more and more of the stone defence.
"I don't know if we can bear how much of a grudge she has against the city itself." Winter responds, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his wand arm.
"Then we just have to be too much of a threat to leave alone," Aki manages to stand up unsteadily, storing her axe in the magic pouch tied to her shorts and raises her amulet. "Make her chase us somewhere else."
"Where too?" interjects a panting Mirra. She had suddenly come up from carrying out more wounded fighting the horde behind them.
"Fight fire with water," Aki responds. "We lead her to the port..."
"...And make her fire attacks useless!" Caor pumps his sword in the air. "Great idea!"
"If that's the plan, I'll do my best too," Winter raises his wand, a miniature vortex of mana collecting at its tip. "Drop the wall."
Aki starts spinning her amulet rapidly, her mind racing with ideas just as fast.
Phoebe meanwhile, hesitantly nods and raises her staff again.
"Ready?" She asks everyone tentatively.
Aki and the rest exchange a glance before nodding all together. "Ready."
The moment the stone wall crumbles, Aki swings her amulet forward. A brilliant beam of white light fires at the gashadokuro.
Winter's spell, a gigantic shadow ball flies next to it, striking the gashadokuro's outstretched hand to no effect while Aki's light beam flies true toward Vira.
Vira raises a flaming shield, instinctively making the gashadokuro sidestep away from danger in the process. Yet, the light beam passes harmlessly through the shield's edge and against the gashadokuro's skull.
"It's completely immune to magic?" Aki rubs her wrists nervously.
"Another illusion?!" Vira shouts angrily. "I'll quash you like a bug!"
Her complaints are cut short as the members of Silver Sword have rushed the gashadokuro, using Phoebe's stone pillars as platforms to climb up and direct their attacks at Vira directly.
Vira and the gashadokuro violently swipe at the three like trying to swat flies.
Meanwhile on the ground, Aki and Winter are sprinting away toward the Star Sea port.
"You don't have to do this, Vira!" Winter shouts. "You can surrender! Put an end to all of this!"
"Surrender? Surrender!?" Vira jeers. "I told you already, 9th. This will become a city of corpses. You and everyone else in this accursed city will get what you deserve!"
The gashadokuro reels back for another punch, mimicking Vira on top of its head preparing another shadow lance. Rubble falls freely as the gashadokuro moves its body around.
Crackling electricity distracts Vira, causing the lance to fly wide. Mirra had managed to climb up next to the gashadokuro's bulging wet eyes and Caor wasn't far behind.
"GET! OFF!"
The gashadokuro opens its mouth, a rattling cry escaping from its jaw as it shakes its head, trying to make the two fall from the force.
"No you don't." Aki slides to a stop and turns to face the giant.
She had still been spinning her amulet the whole time but snatches it in place and reels back her fist as if she plans on throwing something.
Mana flares around her hand, dying the surroundings in a brilliant acid green light.
"Witchbolt!"
Aki throws it with all the force she can muster. The spell soars with incredible speed and strikes the gashadokuro's temple.
Unlike the spells everyone else had been slinging, for some reason Aki's witchbolt not only caused noticeable damage, but the impact was hard enough to make the gashadokuro recoil and knock Vira off her feet.
"How?!" Vira screams. Fire rages around her, the encroaching night becoming green from her firelight. "Trash like you hurt something immune to magic? Tell me how!"
The gashadokuro scrambles in place, Vira's and its attention completely on Aki now.
"We got her attention now." Aki smiles. "But how
"Yeah but… I just realised something." Winter says nervously. "Can we outrun it all the way to the water?"
"Ah."
The gashadokuro stampedes after the two, flailing its arms trying to smash them while also swinging its legs around, destroying the city even more. Embers scatter all over, spreading the fires even further.
Winter and Aki's path is interrupted as a chimney falls in front of their path, the stones burning with green flames.
"It's over!" Vira cackles.
The gashadokuro is about to stomp on them when Phoebe comes speeding through and scoops the pair of them up onto her flying earth disk.
"Swarming like cockroaches? Don't you realise who you're fighting for?" Vira shouts angrily. "The Estril family betrayed me! Those monsters created living weapons just to fight in their stupid war! Not just otherworlders but their own people too! Then when they were done with us, they thought we could just be disposed of? How can you oppose justice for their crimes? How can you fight for them?!"
"Maybe they did!" Winter shouts back, unsteadily rising to stand by Phoebe. "But that was 600 years ago! How many of them are still alive now? Huh? How many!?"
"Shut up, shut up!"
The gashadokuro resumes its chase, finally shaking off Mirra and Caor from its face and focusing entirely on the three flying away at its master's behest.
Night has now fallen but the city of New Pinacca is alight with flames, and the skeleton wreathed in green fire acts as a beacon of destruction.