[389] 5.13 Katabasis V

One hundred fists rain down upon Jacques in rapid succession.  His face turns red; his body follows suit, and with a surge of speed and strength, his warhammer spins around, batting the attacks back just as fast as they land on him.

An instant later, as the rubble of the impacted dirt rises over us, Pierre vanishes.  I can barely make out his silhouette through my [Valkyrion’s Perception] as he sprints through the clouds.  An instant later, he’s standing on one of the hands, balancing himself with the grace and fluidity of a contortionist as he starts climbing one of the dozens of arms toward the main body.  Another hand attempts to swat the man like a mosquito.  But with a blur of motion and an activation of whatever cloaking Skill Pierre has, he evades the attack and continues his climb up.

Svana demonstrates her capabilities as some sort of Ice-aligned [Mage Fighter] class.  Her weapon of choice is a greatsword coated in a thin layer of ice like obsidian glass.  Despite it being just a coating of water ice, her weapon has more than enough force behind it to cleave through the thick leathery skin and draw blood.  Blood which is absorbed into the weapon, making it even stronger.

Svylune, in contrast to our earlier prediction, is a spellcaster of some sort.  The moment the battle started, they started chanting with eyes closed and hands clasped.  The shift in Ether flow is overwhelming, comparable to Chloe’s [Saintess’s Sanctuary], and with the commensurately long casting time to boot.

Unfortunately, our gigantic friend notices as well.  Thirty hands dive upon Svylune from every direction.  I leap into action, joining Svana as the two of us together start beating back the attacks directed at her partner.  I’m nicked once, but adrenaline blocks out the pain until Chloe’s [Curing Light] refreshes the inaccuracy.  Svana is unfazed, dancing through the attacks with deft acrobatics timed to an erratic irrhythm reminiscent of that one time I watched a match of drunken-fist boxing.

The two of us manage to beat back the onslaught, but only just.  Svana’s weapon is strong, but not on the same level as my trusty swordstaff.  And thinking of my swordstaff and their capabilities gives me an idea.

“Can you hold this beast off on your own for a little bit?” I ask.  Meanwhile, Chloe has taken to the air and is using her [Mirage Sword] to harry the beast with attacks that aren’t particularly effective but serve as a nice distraction.  “I’ve got something that I think might buy us some time to whittle this monster’s [Health] down to something a bit more reasonable.”

“I’ll try, but–”

I’m loath to reveal more of my bag of tricks than necessary, but I suspect we’re all going to be in the situation.  Better to reveal a Skill that won’t be of much use when this alliance breaks down.  I leap past the nearest fist and stab it as I roar at the top of my lungs, infusing [Valkyrion’s Rally] in my voice before beginning the same ascent that Pierre started about half a minute ago.

My movements are not as swift as Pierre’s nor as dextrous as Svana’s.  I’m forced more than once to rely on my trusty [Repulsion] glyphs to push errant fingers away from my thin skin and squishy organs.  I do, however, get a few opportunities to stab my weapon and draw blood.  Blood that amounts to a splinter with a tiny toothpick, but it’s not nothing.  More importantly, it feels amazing.

Two open palms attempt to squash me from opposite sides.  I slip between the fingertips, using my flight to buttress myself in midair as the pressure wave attempts to knock me back.  As I approach the heads once more, I’m attacked by a flurry of punches and backhanded swipes.  This time, however, I’m forced to use my [Subspace Manipulation] in order to dodge and secure a path through the arms and directly to the heads.

I’ve not had much of an opportunity to use the spell effects built into my sapient weapon.  Nevertheless, here in this dark chamber, the spell [Brilliance] might be just what I need.

“I’m ready when you are,” Filia says as I begin channeling my [Ether] through them.

[[Brilliance]: Generates a localized area of daylight around a given target or location, with a radius equal to [Level x 5] Feet.  All targets within [Level x 5] feet are susceptible to being Dazed, unless they have a weakness to [Light], in which case they are instead susceptible to Blindness lasting [Level x 10] Seconds.  The caster may, at will, exclude themself and any number of targets from the secondary effects of [Brilliance].]

I do so for Chloe and for the others as well with a mental command before letting the spell loose.  Immediately, the room brightens, revealing the gargantuan cavern that extends higher than I can see even with this miniaturized sun shining right over the twenty crania of the Hecatoncheires.

My plan works, but not perfectly.  Even though the monster’s attacks are uncoordinated in its state of blindness, it continues to flail at me from every direction.  I fly away from the monster in an attempt to get out of the range of the arms swatting in incoherent patterns, only to get hit and flung toward the ground.

I cough up blood as I stand back up.  My [Saintess’s Cloister] is fully shattered, and I’ve lost about half of my [Health].  Chloe flies down and tags me with a quick [Healing Circle], a spell one level above [Curing Light], before flying back into the fray.  Meanwhile, Svana continues to dance around the few attacks still coming toward her, and Svylune is continuing to cast whatever spell they’re currently crafting together.

The beast roars— low, deep, and pained.  Jacques’ warhammer slams down upon one of its toes, though not hard enough to topple it.  My follow-up attack, a direct charge with a double-layered [Repulsion] barrier aimed at the monster’s right shin, also fails to do more than leave a small indentation in the skin and a cut no larger than my body.

But that cut gives me an idea.  With the help of my new [Infernal Doppelgänger], I’m able to force an effigy of myself into the monster’s bloodstream and start burning the flesh and other tissues from within.  Brutal, torturous, and yet, the way the monster moves and screams as I burn through bone and flesh alike suggests that it’s the most effective attack we’ve inflicted yet.

Another powerful roar echoes out, and not from our opponent.  Svylune has taken the form of a giant serpent and slithers toward the monster’s good leg and begins to squeeze.  Hard.  Hard enough that the monster’s skin turns from beige to red as constricted blood flow wells up in its veins.

They follow up their first attack by sinking a quartet of Seraphina-sized fangs into the monster’s flesh as they drink of its blood.  As they do, more violet venom is pumped into the bloodstream, which only accelerates the creature’s bleeding.  It seems that the venom is some sort of powerful anticoagulant, based on the fact that the monster’s other wounds are bleeding more profusely now as well.  Only the laceration I created moments ago, which was cauterized during the entry process, resists altogether.

The monster seems to have enough intelligence to identify Svylune and I as its primary threats.  It lowers to the ground, about forty hands trying to pull Svylune away from their feeding frenzy while a comparable number try to squash me like a bug.  While Svylune is able to slither around the monster’s grips with preternatural dexterity, I find myself subjected to an unfortunate own-goal courtesy of [Brilliance] making my teleportation ineffective.  Thanks to a quick volley of [Ice Shards] courtesy of Svana, I’m able to make a break and narrowly avoid a horizontal bisection.

Throughout all the turmoil down near the surface, Pierre has used the cover of light in order to start attacking the creature from inside.  Credit to him for his willingness to leap directly into one of the mouths of the beast to repeat the process of damaging it from within.  Even with his tiny daggers, he’s been able to cause our foe no shortage of debilitating tooth pain to distract at least some of the arms from the rest of us.

Svana and Svylune attack in a formation clearly practiced.  Svana stands atop her partner’s head and erects walls of ice and snow as needed to prevent any attacks from cutting off Svylune’s advance.  Coupled with the couple’s erratic trajectory that swishes in and out, they are together able to avoid being struck before they make it to the base of the right leg, already hobbling after what I did to it moments ago.

They aren’t able to stay for long as the beast’s attacks grow more frenetic, but Svana is able to buy just enough time for Svylune to sink their fangs into the same flat toe that Jacques slammed into earlier and deliver some more of their venomous payload.

I leap into the air and channel [Infernal] elemental flames into my offhand as I defend Chloe.  Around the time that I launched my doppelganger, she withdrew from the front and began charging her coup de grâce.  Now it’s almost ready, and the flow of Ether is enough that the enemy has finally taken notice.

At least twenty hands are heading straight for Chloe as she stands vulnerable in her charging stance.  They are moving even more quickly than before, but I’m now far enough away that I can again use my teleportation to intercept the two fists that get closest to her and use my barriers to again deflect them just off-course.

“How much time do you need?” Svana asks.

“Maybe another twenty seconds or so?” I say.

“Hmph!”  Jacques takes a defensive stance with his warhammer.  “If you are so confident in this girl’s abilities, I will buy her time.”

“I trust her with my very life and soul.”

High above, crimson liquid oozes down the titan’s neck along with a thin mist that sprays through the air.  Pierre has managed to completely sever one of the heads, although even that is only enough to slow it down for a brief moment before we again face the full might of a hundred-handed monstrosity standing half a thousand feet tall.

All four of us form a defensive perimeter around Chloe and fight back the tide with everything we have.  I reapply [Valkyrion’s Rally] and draw more strength from the passive effect of [Morningstar’s Triumph] and, by technicality, [Valkyrion’s Defense] as well.  The fight rages on, each second more and more taxing than the last.

Svana is sweating profusely and her sword is losing its bite.  Svylune is similarly slowing down; I don’t know how long they can keep their transformation going, but it can’t be for much longer.  Even I’m starting to feel the fatigue, given how out of practice I am.  Of the four of us, it’s Jacques that doesn’t show any outward signs of fatigue, though his attacks are firing with a bit less frequency than at the start of the battle.

I tap into [Lifecasting] for the first time in two years and experience the full discomfort of having my vital energy pulled out of my soul in order to generate one more [Infernal Doppelgänger] to assist me in the final defenses.  Her onyx flame dances from fist to fist, spreading pyretic contagion that cripples the monster.  It does not, however, bring it to its knees.  A brief trace of lightheadedness hits me before [Defiant Spirit] suppresses it and allows me to force my way through.

I scream in a combination of pain and stubbornness as I stand, ready to intercept the last wave of attacks.  I’m able to block the first three, at the cost of even more of my health.  I stand ready to deflect another, but there’s too many left for me to last.  I’m on the verge of tapping into my Overlimit, only to stop as the monster stumbles back.  Its foot has been completely severed at just above the ankle.

Chloe stands on the other side of the towering hulk.  She sheathes her twin swords as she turns around, offering a slight bow as the monster stumbles, then finally collapses.  The combination of the thunderous fall that shakes the entire underworld, the numerous injuries I dealt to its insides, losing two of its heads, and all the blood loss and other injuries have finally added up to total incapacitation.

A moment later, Svylune returns to human form, nearly as exhausted as the beast.  Svana rushes over and catches them before they hit the ground, laying their body on the ground.  And she herself seems just about at her limit as well.  Chloe is nearly out of [Ether], and my [Health] reserves are dangerously low.  This battle is over, but with Pierre and Jacques still in fighting form, I’m not sure that the war has truly ended.

[You have slain Gyges, the Hundred-Handed (Level 100).  You have gained a boosted 1,450,000 Experience.]

[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 95.  [Strength] +1, [Vitality] +1.  Please assign free stat points. (Remaining: 11)]

[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x 2 + Current Level + Rand[1,3] = 610]

[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0,2] = 379]

[Warning: Experience threshold to reach Level 96 reached.  Additional Experience will be stored until Third Ascension has been completed.]

[Your [Infernal Doppelgänger (Rank I)] has upgraded to [Infernal Doppelgänger (Rank II)].]

[Your [Morningstar’s Triumph (Rank VII)] has upgraded to [Morningstar’s Triumph (Rank IX).]

[Level: 95; Experience: 19,932,314;  To Next: 1 (Stored: 589,786)]

[Current Stats: [Health]: 4,021 / 26,568; [Ether]: 422 / 18,701]

[Current Stats: [Strength]: 585 (Base: 206); [Speed]: 568 (Base: 200); [Vitality]: 730 (Base: 257); [Mind]: 804 (Base: 283)]