Morning approaches and I stood side by side with my brothers against this loli jellyfish. We're about to fuck her up real nice. Wait— that came off really wrongly, but who am I kidding, this loli jellyfish might be badly injured but she's still in her third phase, and I doubt John or the Elementalist can keep up with her ludicrous speed. I just have to keep an eye on the dart leader to predict where she'll be striking next, provided I can react fast enough after the flash.
I've given them both a swig of my lightning resist potion so that John doesn't end up getting muscle spasms again. Can't really blame him since he wasn't aware of the capabilities of this Vessel. Now I'm just worried that both of them would end up being meat shields instead of actually helping me.
The loli jellyfish made her move and the three of us readied ourselves. Daisy was still giving me future predictions which is sorely needed right now. I am making the prediction that the jellyfish will attack the Elementalist first as he poses the biggest threat to her. His purple fire scares her for some reason and I'm certain she would eliminate him first, or me.
To my actual surprise, she went and attacked John first! Even with Daisy's prediction and my ability to see the stepped leader, my body just moved to protect the Elementalist on instinct instead of John. She slammed John aside, sending him flying with her tentacle. She must be taking John out of combat so that she can focus sorely on both of us.
With gritted teeth and glaring eyes, she leapt at both of us, which caught me by surprise. Is she being cocky that she can defeat both of us without using Stepped Leader? With a calm advice from Daisy warning me to look up, I just grabbed the Elementalist at my side and leapt backwards. A green lightning struck where we stood, and the jellyfish took advantage with another surprise attack; but I was already expecting it.
I met her tentacles with Inazuma, blocking her attacks as best as I could. Despite her relentless assault, there was less weight behind each swing now, which made it easier for me to block. Her wounds must be affecting her attack powers and, hopefully, her abilities.
I freaked out when something purple pierced through my body. The purple flame nicked her stomach despite leaping backwards since she wasn't fast enough when the attack came from an unexpected angle. A small purple flame remained on her stomach, and she immediately sliced off that portion, which caused even more green blood to spill. Doesn't she feel any pain at all?
A quick glance behind, the Elementalist whispered to me that there was nothing for me to fear from his flames and I should trust him. Judging from his response, I get the feeling that I'm the one who ended up becoming the meat shield. Ah well, what better way for me to protect him than by being in front of him?
The jellyfish, who was still bitter from the sneak attack earlier, leapt towards us with anger once again. We clashed and traded blows, facing all three of her massive tentacles at once with just Inazuma. It was not a difficult task in blocking her attacks, and she certainly knew about it, seeing that she split her massive tentacles into much smaller ones and began attacking with an insane amount of them. I couldn't keep up with the crazy amount of tentacles and immediately summoned Tengu-kaze to help in blocking since I was still under the effect of my lightning resist potion, but as time progressed, I was fairly certain that my left arm was starting to numb with each consecutive block.
The Elementalist helped me to dismember the tentacles as fast as he could, but the jellyfish's recovery rate for her tentacles was absurd. Are we even wearing her down? We must be, as there's just no way that she would stop using her stepped leader's speed, or even just healing herself. We are definitely doing something right, we must be.
Fatigue was starting to overwhelm me as the battle of attrition went on. Even with both of us, we are still no match for the massive amount of tentacles that were now surrounding us. I shouted to the Elementalist to no longer bother about her tentacles and go in for the kill. We should not be fighting against her in a battle of attrition but rather with the intention to kill her no matter the cause.
Upon informing him of that, a commotion occurred inside my head. It felt weird as it was as though I was listening in rather than having a direct communication.
"Uh oh, I think I can hear Mom entering my room. Hey Mom, don't wake me up, okay? But I'm helping Dad… Huh? What's the rush? What's going on—" and the conversation abruptly ended.
Damn it, there goes my advantage with future predictions. But what I just heard concerns me a little. Rose had never rushed Daisy to wake up this abruptly before. She usually gives her a couple of minutes to wake herself after the first call. Is there something she needed to do that required urgency? I hope that is all it is, otherwise I'm going to start worrying about them.
Now I have to depend purely on visual to predict her movements. But as long as she doesn't use her stepped leader's speed, I'll be fine, I hope. The Elementalist took my advice to heart and stabbed through— my heart. His blade immediately extended after passing through my body.
The jellyfish slammed all of her tentacles into the ground and pulled up what looked like a rather large boulder to protect herself against the purple flame. No doubt the flame was able to pierce through the boulder with ease, but we have no idea whether it actually pierced her too since we have no vision of her at all.
The Elementalist twisted his blade and swung it diagonally, slicing the boulder apart but revealing nothing on the other side. The loli jellyfish had vanished, and my first instinct was to look upwards for any sign of more lightning strikes. Fortunately, there was none, since I had predicted wrongly. She burst up from below the ground between us as quickly as she had disappeared and wrapped both of us with her tentacles.
The gripping force of her tentacles was insane, and I felt every bone in my body getting crushed under the strength of it. Both the Elementalist and I were wrapped up tight, with both of our hands restrained under the grip.
Fuck, is this the end? It won't take much more for her to squish us into pulps, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Should I release Kirin and Byakko's corporeal form to help me out? I'm not even sure if either of them is able to stop this Vessel in time. Shit, shit… I'm so close to death once again! I thought I had gotten stronger, but no matter how hard I try, the absurd level of a Vessel outweighs my own. What am I going to do if I have to fight two of them simultaneously in the future? I will always be bound by the limits of a human. Fuck!!
I thought I was hearing things, but the sound of something small whooshed across my ear and appeared to be growing larger by the second as it got closer to the jellyfish. She attempted to smack it aside with her remaining tentacle, but the foreign object grew so large that all she did was just stop the object in its tracks. I caught the glimpse of the gleaming object, and John teleported to his ridiculously enlarged axe.
Seemingly using the weight of his axe and his own absurd strength, he slammed the entirety of the axe on the loli jellyfish's body. It occurred rather instantly and I was surprised the jellyfish did not react in time to avoid John's axe, or perhaps she was just too preoccupied with killing us.
I fell to the ground and tried to recover myself as quickly as possible. John was prone on top of his axe, seemingly adding his entire bodyweight to his already ridiculously enlarged axe that was pinning the loli jellyfish's body to the ground. Both her hands and head were visible and it would appear that she was trying to crawl her way out of it. Wasting no time, I ignored my pain and rushed over as quickly as I could, slamming both Inazuma and Tengu-kaze on both of her free hands respectively, leaving only her head remaining.
I shouted to the Elementalist to finish her off but he was already right behind me, performing a mid-swing to deliver the coup de grâce. Yosh! We can do it! We can finally finish her off once and for all!
"No… no no no!! NOOOOOO!!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, and I thought I was losing it, but the entire surrounding was starting to shift!
The ground seemingly started to wobble as though reality was losing itself. The Elementalist lost his footing and missed his mark in taking her head off. I can't really blame him, as I couldn't even balance myself properly when the ground was warping in such a strange way.
An explosion of gold erupted from her and John's axe, along with him, was sent flying once again, but thankfully, he was smart enough to toss his axe back quickly and teleport to it. Her body began to glow with a golden hue as though she was harnessing the power of the Cosmic Tree itself. Fucking hell, is this something like a phase four boss battle? Now this is just getting more absurd. I don't even have a fucking health potion or an Estus right now!
How the fuck are we supposed to fight against a being that can warp reality to this extent? I can't even balance myself in such a situation! This is downright unfair! I need some help here, my celestial beings— there's just no way I can fight against such powerful cosmic energies here.
Both of their corporeal forms leapt out from their respective weapons and appear to be standing above the ground. They— fly now? Or are they just jealous that I had fun riding Kogarashi earlier?
"The line between reality and Ethereal is starting to thin. She is losing control of the Cosmic Tree's power as she was using too much of it. We'll need to stop her or she'll tear this entire realm apart!" shouted Byakko.
"What the hell do you expect us to do? We can't even steady ourselves in this situation. If the line is thinning, shouldn't you two be more powerful and kick her ass right now?" I asked both of them while steadying myself on all fours as the ground was swirling around as though it was made of rubber.
"Grab on to us! We'll strike her now when she's lost control!" shouted Kirin as Byakko grabbed the Elementalist and flung him to his back.
I had to grab Kirin by his mane tightly and pull myself up, or I'll end up falling to the unstable ground once more. Kirin began galloping towards the jellyfish, who was practically shining in gold but seemed to be crouching on the floor, writhing in pain. Guess we should end her suffering and this damn fight, which had been dragging on for way too long.
As Kirin brought me closer to the jellyfish, I squinted my eyes and saw that Kuchisabishii-sama had picked up John and was allowing him to ride. Thank goodness, otherwise it would be rather difficult for him to ride behind me since he's rather... large and sweaty.
"Stop thinking about stupid things and focus on taking down the jellyfish, you fool!" shouted Kirin.
"I get what you're saying, but what am I supposed to do? Does any of our attacks put a dent on her when she's golden right now? Will we end up getting blasted with another wave of gold if we hit her?" I asked both of them.
"Just hit her with your most powerful attack! It'll overload her with power!" rumbled Kuchisabishii-sama's voice despite being across us. I didn't realise he had such a powerful voice when he always spoke normally.
I glanced towards the Elementalist, and we nodded. I sheathed Inazuma in its scabbard and readied myself. My strongest attack available to me right now is Kirin's Thunderbolt with Dark Slash combo. I'm not even sure whether I am capable of performing the twin version with my current condition. I am dead tired now, and I can't wait to get some good night's sleep, even if I have to sleep on the damn floor right now if I can help it. Using Lightning Charge for a single strike doesn't sit right with me, and I'll hold onto my last charge for now; something tells me that I'll eventually need it.
We approached closer to the jellyfish, ready to deliver the killing blow. The whole world around us seemed to convulse as though it was about to implode on itself. I daresay with certainty that time was of the essence for us to stop her from destroying this realm.
"We only have one chance. Don't you dare miss, any of you! Get ready now, we're coming in hot!" shouted Byakko.
The three of us got ready to leap in, possibly to our death as we had no idea what was going to happen. With a quick glance among each other and a light nod, we leapt at the same time and unleashed our attacks on her. Each of us picked a part to strike, and while I felt bad, I had no choice but to strike her… in the buttocks area. I had no choice! It was only obvious for the Elementalist to strike the head, while John could only make it to her torso. I was only left with that part to strike upon.
We brought all of our strength upon her crouching, golden body. I was expecting Inazuma to be deflected before even touching her, but it somehow made contact with a loud clang from all three of our weapons. Despite using one of our most powerful attacks, it seemed that all it did was make contact with her body with no other visible effects.
Just when I thought of what to do next, the body of the jellyfish began to expand and contort. All of us braced ourselves for the eventual wave of explosion. Despite only having my hands to cover myself since I used my cloak as bait, the last thing I remember was seeing an image of a little girl crying. And I did not like it one bit.