Chapter 293: Thud!
The Countess’s gaze dropped to the stump where her wrist had been.
For a heartbeat, her monstrous form trembled in disbelief.
Then ca the shriek that tore through the chamber. “You… you dare… You dare ruin my beautiful body again and again?! You dare… You dare… You DARE!”
Her voice spiraled into madness, repeating the word like a curse spat at the air itself. Each repetition was sharper, more venom-laced, until the very walls seed to recoil.
Engulfed in rage, she didn’t see it coming. Bastet, eyes like molten suns, had already pointed her finger. Solar light condensed into a little dot, heat warping the air around it before she sent it out in a blistering explosion.
The solar strike landed square across the Countess’s jaw in a slap that could have caved stone. The impact lit the chamber in fire, and the monster’s head whipped sideways with such force that ichor and blood sprayed.
Her scream choked into a wet cough as her jaw hung slightly askew, and she spat a rope of blood before her web line gave way. She plumted from the ceiling, slamming into the floor.
But she didn’t die. No. Her howl of rage only deepened, climbing into sothing outright feral.
However, none of them cared if she was currently having a ntal breakdown. Like cold machines, they moved in perfect sync.
Aria’s boots left the ground, Lunar Glide activating in a shimr of silver light. She hovered barely above the stone, her movents becoming like an ice skater cutting across a frozen lake.
With effortless grace, she slid wide across the battlefield, ensuring Bastet and she attacked from different angles, becoming two hunters who were closing in on a single prey.
Bastet’s Solar Lances cut the air like spears of the sun, streaking toward the Countess in a relentless barrage. From her side, Aria’s Lunar Arcs painted the chamber in pale crescents of death, slicing into the space between the monster’s erratic movents.
Kaiden was already closing the distance with his greatsword raised high, boots pounding against the floor in a thunderous sprint.
But the Countess’s shrieks snapped all of a sudden, becoming more than a re rage of fury. It beca magical. Power flared around her.
The shockwave erupted outward.
It wasn’t just wind. It was a wall of force, dense and rciless, like being hit head-on by an avalanche made of steel. The air slamd into him so hard his ribs scread, his lungs seized, and every muscle in his body felt like it had been punched through with invisible spears.
Kaiden’s boots tore trenches into the stone floor as he slid back, but the pressure didn’t relent. Instead, it surged, reaching even greater heights before blasting him off his feet entirely.
He hit the air in a blur, his greatsword ripped clean from his grip with a tallic *CLANG!* as it spun away, clattering violently against the far wall.
However, even through all the agony, Kaiden forced his eyes to open, and what he saw made his heart skip a beat in panic.
The monster wasn’t going for him. She wasn’t coming to finish him off while he was defenseless in the air.
No. Her eyes had locked onto Aria, his Moon Valkyrie.
Aria skated backward while her lunar spells flew freely from her hands in rapid succession, each blast slowing the monster’s advance by re fractions of a second. She wasn’t faster than the Countess, not even close. But the missing arm, the relentless magical assault from both her and Bastet, and the constant positioning war kept the beast from closing the gap.
Until the Countess changed her mind.
“No!” Kaiden’s stomach dropped. The monster’s head snapped toward the far wall, where Nyx lay crumpled and unmoving, her blood still pooling beneath her face.
The Countess lunged.
*ZZZT!!*
Lightning ripped through the chamber.
It erupted from the side with a deafening *CRACK-BOOM!* just before a blinding spear of white-blue light struck the Countess’s outstretched claws before they could close around Nyx’s limp body. The impact forced the monster back a step, and her arm shuddered from the shock.
Then a streak of motion followed. Luna. But the Storm Valkyrie did not stand idly by. No.
“Haah!”
She was violently spinning in the air right as her leg arced in a storm-charged roundhouse. Her boot slamd into the Countess’s jaw with a burst of sparks, snapping the beast’s head to the side and forcing her several ters away.
Luna landed hard but fluidly right between Nyx and the monster.
As soon as she did so, she planted the tip of her Stormblade into the stone floor, looking like a protective knight who was ready to shield a defenseless maiden no matter the price.
Standing tall, shoulders squared, Luna tilted her chin up and smirked.
“Going for the unconscious…” She let the pause hang for effect, eyes never leaving the monster. Then she sighed with incredibly condescending smugness. “… Well, I understand. Even an eternal loser like you might have a chance at securing victory against this fat cow when she’s getting her beauty sleep.”
The words might have sounded like a jab at her friend as well, but while speaking the words ‘fat cow,’ her tone was laced with nothing but affection. She wouldn’t admit it out loud even if her life depended on it, but Luna adored Nyx greatly.
The Countess answered with a shriek that was fully monstrous, more a wail of twisting tal and tearing flesh than a humanoid’s scream, underlined by the clicking clamor of her spider-limbs. She lunged.
And then the exchange began.
Luna’s Stormblade blurred in tight arcs, sparks bursting with every parry and strike. Her footwork kept her anchored before Nyx, blocking each monstrous swipe with steel and lightning, the sheer force of the blows ringing up her arms. The Countess moved with disturbing speed, weaving around Luna’s blade in attempts to sink her claws into flesh.
From the flanks, Bastet’s solar bolts and Aria’s lunar blasts cut in like relentless artillery. The Countess jerked aside from so, shattered others with bone-plated limbs, but even her stolen strength couldn’t let her ignore them all.
Kaiden, still in the air from the shockwave, felt his hamring heartbeat slow just a little. Seeing his girls this fierce and resolute reassured him in a way nothing else could. His girls were aweso.
But Nyx wouldn’t be able to bail him out this ti. He had to land himself.
He moved his body to face ahead, intending to scan for any way to slow his descent before the ground shattered his bones. But then…
*THUD!*
He slamd into sothing soft, wet, and heaving. It was flesh. The surface quivered under him like a giant muscle.
He glanced at it and froze.
The Heart.
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