15 VIT 2 AGI 5 STR 1 PER
New Skill: Pain Tolerance Lv 6
60 resistance to all pain experienced
You've reached Level 25
30 CE 30 free points
The climb to my feet was slow and jerky. Joints ached, muscles scread, and most of was still raw from the burns, but the new skill and RCT were helping fight through the pain.
Finding out I was in a crater threw for a loop, but I adjusted quickly enough. It had been quite an impact.
Curse Piercer lay in the dirt. I picked it up slowly, drawing to my full height with so trouble, and drew in a deep breath. Lily stood across from , all the way on the other side of the barrier, and I distributed my stat points, dumping 20 into AGI and 10 into Perception.
I was going to need both in spades for the next fight since my technique was going to be out for the next 60 hours.
I was half-empty on CE and exhausted, but the fight still needed to be fought.
"And then there's us," I said, spreading my arms. "You're out of pets to hide behind."
"Not quite," she said, "but it'd be a waste to use them on you. The Justice League, on the other hand..."
Her fingers twisted, blasting out energy that made sway. The Octopus wrapped around her unraveled and inflated, its tentacles grabbing Curse beasts and feeding them to the beak at its center.
The scene repeated itself hundreds of tis until every last one of her creatures was gobbled up, then the Octopus began to spasm and distort.
Fear swept over like a warm blanket, suffocating until I reacted with an almost instinctive panic.
Curse Piercer stabbed into the floor. My .50 caliber gun swept out, taking aim at the creature, which had begun to sprout multicolored eyes from every animal I'd ever seen. Massive feathery wings sprouted from its back, and furry hands from its face. The razor-sharp spurs on its tentacles expanded several sizes and began to sizzle with caustic liquids.
A ragged breath escaped just as my finger pulled the trigger, only to have the gun ripped from my hand and Curse Piercer yanked from the ground in tight vortexes of Curse Energy. The gun exploded into shrapnel while the blade jerked into George's hand.
"It's rude to interrupt sobody mid-transformation," he tutted. "As for the sword, that's just fair ga."
Fuck . My hands twitched, and my body shuddered with a sudden spike of fear. I felt naked without the blade. It was my only real shot at killing Lily quickly. How could I let this happen? Above , the monstrosity had finally stopped. It was larger than the Dragon ever was, and the waves of Curse Energy coming off it put it several tis stronger.
"Maximum technique: Gluttonous Eldritch," Lily whispered. "Gina. George. Do you mind?"
"Of course," Gina nodded dutifully. anwhile, George's lips twisted, looking at , then back at her.
"Oh, co on. She can handle it herself."
"Not without your infinity," Gina said impassively.
"So, you're finally admitting it, huh, Sis? You need ." He wagged his brows.
"We're losing ti," she said. "You know who we're up against. You know what'll happen if Zatara touches the barrier."
He grumbled, then looked my way. "I guess we should get going."
Gina took her leg off Aqualad and then ramd it down on his left knee. Then the right. His screams ripped through the night air and sobered up imdiately, flushing away any doubt and most of my rational thought.
I didn't know Aqualad all that much, or even like him, but at that mont, I was ready to throw it all away for him. It was like watching Eddie suffer again, and it was more than I could take.
"Get your leg off him, you sick fuck!" I roared, a katana materializing in my now-empty hands, packed with rotating energy for New Shadow Style: Batto Drawing.
"It was either his legs or head," Gina said flatly. "Be grateful he still has use as a hostage."
I gritted my teeth, my grip tightening on my blade until the handle groaned under the pressure. It was no Curse Piercer, but I couldn't wait to jam it through her eyes.
"I hope you escape the League," I said through gritted teeth. "I want to kill you myself."
George raised his brows. "Wow. I see it now. He kind of looks like his dad when he gets that angry thing going."
His words stole the wind from my sails montarily. "My dad?" I repeated, but he ignored , linking his fingers and stretching them until the joints crackled and popped.
"Leave so for the rest of us, okay?"
"I'll leave him breathing," Lily said. Her hand shot straight up, and the Eldritch thing lowered a tentacle. The twins climbed, the tip of it wrapping around Aqualad—bleeding and bruised, miraculously not run through by the many spurs. With a flap of its many wings, the monster flew out of the Curtain, leaving alone with her.
Lily's hands vanished behind her back, reaching for so type of weapon, but I moved first. The ground cracked, my legs burned at the instant activation of Overdrive, and my blade leaped from its sheath faster than I thought possible.
Lily reacted, her body engulfed in an even sheath of Curse Energy. Up close, I couldn't help but be impressed by the sheer precision of it. I knew she was better than from the first ti we fought, but I was beginning to realize just how much.
She twisted on her heel, lashing out with a whip-fast kick. I blocked with the edge of my blade. It drew a thin line of blood that promptly vanished as I was shoved back. Strangely, I felt no swell of positive energy—just instantaneous repair.
Did it have sothing to do with the Blockbuster Serum? I didn't rember it being regenerative when I fought Fop.
Lily's hands blurred forward, fingers tightly together until they were almost blade-like. The left hand ca for my eye, the right for my crotch. I barely kept up, stepping to the side in ti to parry both. My blade vibrated in my hands like it had struck iron, and her body twisted, legs scything out a breath later, forcing to raise my shin to block and hop back with my free leg.
My blade found its sheath as I landed, a simple domain spilling out of while she jackknifed forward. I reconfigured the domain's size, limiting it to the very edge of my blade, and swung as she entered, using what was quickly becoming my favorite technique.
Batto Sword Drawing.
My blade ca free from its sheath and went screaming at her neck, but she simply smiled, tanking the hit with her left forearm and shattering the blade with the right.
Her fingers shot forward, aiming for my neck, and I squatted, slipping under her arm as she slid past. I dragged the edge of what was left of my blade over her liver, drawing a thin line of blood. She stumbled, and I twisted, cranking my hips with a flash of Overdrive. I switched my blade for a mace mid-twist, aiming for her torso.
She hopped back and snapped her leg out with a push kick. I relaxed the muscles in my legs at the last mont, letting the kick sail over , but my flexibility didn't save from the axe-kick that followed, hamring into the ground.
Ribs cracked, blood spurted from my mouth, and air swept out of my lungs. Before I could draw a ragged breath, a kick slamd into from the side, sending out of my domain, spinning and skipping. I went through an upturned stretch of asphalt and concrete, shattering it before flipping and burying my mace into the ground to halt my montum.
I flared RCT, nding the damage imdiately, and rolled to the left just before she hit the ground, bathing in an explosion of shrapnel, dust, and noise. But to my senses, she remained a bonfire. I rose, mace switched out for dual Wakizashis with Curse Energy running through them, and attacked, stabbing and slashing.
She parried and struck out in kind, and I roared, deflecting her strikes before separating.
"I know all of your tricks," she grinned.
"Then I'll co up with new ones!" I sneered back, shooting forward with a strum of Overdrive. She copied , hands snapping to grab my wrists just before my blade touched her. She headbutted , sending my brain pinging around my skull, and I ramd my forehead straight into her nose with a flash of Overdrive, returning the favor and jerking her head back.
I leaped up, knees pressed against my chest, and yanked her forward, leaning into my superior weight and size. The impact knocked the air from her lungs. I stretched, wrapping my legs around her neck, and tried squeezing down on her windpipe, but she was quick on the uptake.
She twisted both of my wrists, snapping them like broomsticks. I scread, even as she ripped from the ground and powerbombed hard, but I didn't let go. Flooding my left wrist with RCT, I rapid-healed it, setting aside proper nerve and muscle attachnt for now and welding the bones together well enough to hold my Desert Eagle and pull the trigger.
Her head whipped back, hands going slack as she dropped to the ground. I sprang up like a man possessed and unloaded the rest of the clip into her stumbling form. My shots drew blood but only went skin deep.
That's fine.
It kept her off balance enough for to land a leaping kick to the chest while still firing. It landed with a splash of Overdrive and Curse Energy, ripping her off her feet. I kipped up and chased after her, producing my grenade launcher and firing it at her.
Her body suddenly blurred, missing the impact by inches, but the blowback still sent her skipping. I fed RCT to my nding arm as I took a shot and fired again, hitting center mass this ti. There was a flash of light before the explosion. She tumbled out, covered in shrapnel and fire.
"Burn, bitch, burn."
I pulled the trigger a third ti, grinning wide, but heard an empty click. I'd just run out.
Shit.
I tried switching weapons, but it was already too late. I felt her before I saw her, her punch bending in half. She caught before I hit the ground, tossed up, grabbed by the foot, and slamd into the ground. One. Two. Three tis.
Then she flung and clotheslined before I hit my destination, crushing my windpipe. Then the blows rained down, each bearing the weight of a bowling ball, accompanied by shrieks from sothing I barely recognized as human.
"YOU WON'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM . NO. MORE BULLSHIT. I WILL BREAK YOU WITH MY BARE HA—
Urgggh."
A smoke bomb materialized right where my left eye used to be. It had long since been pulped from the rciless beating, and she popped it. The casing exploded, sending bits of tal into what was left of my face and releasing a rapidly expanding gas that stunned her for the briefest mont.
My legs snapped up and wrapped around her neck. I pulled hard, flaring my Curse Energy, driving her into the ground. I scrambled away, and she was on her feet in an instant. A bottle of hydrofluoric acid appeared in my repaired hand. I smashed it into her face as she crashed into and dodged as she stumbled forward, screaming.
Lily fell to her knees, flailing and scratching, and I went after her imdiately. I ca up behind her and swung my spiked mace into the back of her head with a primal roar. Black lightning discharged, crawling up my hands and spreading through the rest of my body.
BLACK FLASH
The world grew clearer through my one hazy eye. She didn't catch off guard this ti. There was a slight shift in the air currents, a flare of Curse Energy, and a slight crunch in the gravel below us. I ducked underneath her swing and cracked her in the midsection with the mace again with my one good hand.
BLACK FLASH
She went flying, head over ass, straight through a stretch of wrecked equipnt, and I hurried after her, Curse Energy flowing smoother than ever, mind racing with thoughts of revenge.
I slamd into her with a knee to the sternum, driving the air out of her lungs before she could get up, and juked back just in ti.
Four bloody slashes trailed down my chest.
Stepping forward, I brought the mace down on her with a vengeance. She raised her left elbow, which was now ashy white with bone sticking out of it, much like the rest of her.
I'd been too preoccupied getting the shit beat out of at the ti to notice the changes, but in this long mont, I took them all in.
Her surviving eye was solid black, as were small grooves on her chest and shoulders. Bones covered her vulnerable bits—privates, chest, and earholes. Everything else was an uncomfortable shade of white.
Crack
The mace and her elbow bone snapped under the imnse force of the impact, speckling us in shrapnel.
She rose up sharply despite her injuries, and I stomped her back into the dirt, nailing her in the gut. tal squealed and tore as black lightning splashed all around us, and my Curse Energy output skyrocketed.
BLACK FLASH
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