Dark and Darker

No wonder I didn't get a single level-up! Beatrice realized as she watched Asuna drain the life of one of her own soldiers.

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

Both of them? Beatrice's worry increased when her attention was caught by the hamaxe-wielding, pink-haired princess. Not only did Annie survive Ember's second Doomsday, but she appeared all but unharmed, swinging her hammer at Ember's head with an attack that created an earthquake-worthy explosion and blew dust and smoke in all directions, including Beatrice's.

"What the hell is going on!?", "What are you doing, Commander Asuna!?" was what the soldiers were asking, shouting, or thinking in different variations of the same question before the blast of smoke from Annie's attack obstructed their vision.

4396 damage dealt

Beatrice used the cover of the smoke to once again get behind the slow-moving princess and thrust the Eerie-Looking Dagger right where the princess's heart was.

For a second, Asuna and Beatrice both just stood like that. Then Asuna turned her head, and with an audible crack bent her neck at an unnatural degree and looked behind at Beatrice with bright, cat-like eyes.

"So, you like sticking it into girls from behind?" Asuna asked before unleashing a dark aura blast that disintegrated the decrepit remains of her soldier that had hung on her blade and blew Beatrice's dagger out of her back and out of Beatrice's grip.

-50 HP

Beatrice couldn't even follow with her eyes the dagger that was sent flying at the speed of sound and out of sight. She gripped her aching right wrist that almost got torn off and taken for a flight along with the dagger with a simple aura blast.

"I'll enjoy impaling you all the way through with my big. Fat. Sword!" Asuna gleefully exhaled before she turned the rest of her body toward Beatrice and thrust her sword at Beatrice.

The succubus dodged out of the way of Asuna's thrust and saw the claymore fly past her. Asuna simply let go of the hilt and effectively threw her claymore, sending it flying like an oversized arrow until it impaled another one of Asuna's shocked soldiers. The claymore went straight through the soldier's plated armor like it was butter, all the way to the weapon's cross-guard. Such was the force of the throw, that the claymore launched the soldier off his feet and flew further, into the next soldier behind him, skewering two men with a single throw.

"GHUKH!" the second soldier was also knocked off his feet and both men flew back until the sword reached a stone pillar behind them, nailing them both to it.

The soldiers had not even fully processed what had happened when the sword began draining them, sucking blood and red mist out of them. With a perverse thirst, Asuna extended her arm toward her claymore and drew the men's life force from her claymore long-distance.

For a moment, the remaining soldiers watched the red magical link between their commander and her claymore. They saw how with every second that Asuna collected the magical life force into herself, their two comrades dried up into lifeless husks.

"RUUUN!!"

The remaining soldiers finally clued in on what awaited them here and ran toward the door from which they came.

"WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU!?" Annie growled like an animal, alone in her crater in the middle of settling dust while jumping back and forth with her entire body, looking for her fire-wielding foe, twitching for a fight.

Apparently it had not crossed Annie's mind how hard it could be to find someone in the burning, darkening chaos that she herself so flippantly created. And as it got hotter and hotter, the black smoke slowly descended back down, increasingly filling the hall with poisonous fumes. That was when Annie heard the horrified screams of Asuna's soldiers.

"Nail Barrage!" Annie screamed and unleashed a storm of nails through the thickening smoke, using the screams as guides for her aim.

"UAAAAH!!"

"WAAAAAA!!"

The screams of Asuna's soldiers confirmed each time Annie struck her target which she used to fire several more nails at each of them. And, having gotten a taste for this, Annie decided to upscale her approach to blind combat.

"Ultimate Nail Barrage!" Annie announced with excitement and threw countless nails up above her head. Thousands of nails flew high up into the noxious air, turning and spinning before finally one by one succumbing to gravity. As Annie watched her nails fly through the air, she grabbed the handle of her hamaxe, dug her heels in, swung back, and waited for the first nail to level with her eyes.

WHAM!

Wham! Wham! Wham, wham, wham, whamwhamwhamwhamwhawhawhawhawhawhawhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Annie laughed like a lunatic while launching her nails into whichever direction with an ever-increasing, inhuman speed. Like a stationary, turning minigun, Annie unleashed her abundant ammunition in all directions around her as thoughtlessly and joyously as she spread Ember's fire.

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