Panicked voices muffled one another throughout the scattering soldiers as they sought solace under any form of roofing, having watched one of the giants get utterly gored by the talons of an ice covered bird-woman. Her frozen exterior felt ironic given her fiery fury, having plummeted through the clouds like a feathered ice-meteor bellowing an uncanny shriek. Cassi struggled desperately to wrangle the flocking soldiers and settlers alike, the battle now fully within our walls.
In fact, the walls which protected this pylon so loyally were rendered utterly useless. Most of our automated turret power was positioned on the outside wall, just under the top leaving space for manned guns. A few brave souls hopped into the cockpit of their fiery metallic turrets, and scanned the air. After 10 seconds of a couple wide eyed soldiers darting their guns across the sky, another terrible shriek giving the Doppler Affect plummeting from the only angle no one was watching.
Three talons pierced through one of the artilleryman's skulls from the backside, its balefully long claws clasping around his chin before lifting back into the air at untraceable speeds. The man's headless corpse fell from the top of the wall, careening off of the neighboring building before splattering onto the floor, deflating with the amount of blood ejected from his neck on impact.
Holy FUCK it's fast.
"Cassi, get everyone inside a building NOW!" I yelled, uncaring of our differing ranks. The majority of our soldiers would do us little good except serve as fodder to this monstrous amalgamation if we had any shot at killing it. Especially since none of our defenses were angled nor intended to fire into the settlement.
The beast swooped down into the settlement area, snatching a citizen just outside of their own home at blinding speeds. My feet slammed and ejected from the earth below, sprinting in a desperate search of Steve. The manned magma cannons blasted into the air aimlessly in hopes of clipping the bestial woman, her dissonant shrieks piercing across the settlement breaking through the citizens screams of fear.
"STEVE!!" I screamed mentally, his familiar hiss from under the stables alerting me to his location.
"Time to shine, big man. We're the only ones getting up there." I called to him entering the stable.
"That's a fucking HARPY, Tom. Fuck. That." Steve said, his body coiled in the corner. My blood boiled at his refusal.
"I will say this once. If you show even an ounce of cowardice in front of me again, I will personally see to it our contract is burned back into the hellish ashes it was forged. Your god will know why, for I have no reason to lie." I sneered, vitriolically. People were actively dying, there was no time for this back and forth bullshit. Steve hissed angrily at me.
"WHY must you INSIST in protecting these weaklings?! Have you no value for your own well-being?!" Steve asked, only to be met with a toothy grin.
"What value is my life if I flee from purpose. Get up." I commanded Steve, who reluctantly uncoiled his massive feather-scaled body.
"So NOW you're wise. We may be alike in our hunger for power, but whatever drives you is not very animalistic. Just so you know." Steve shot in between bowing his head for me to mantle on.
"Good."
With a double tap on his body Steve slithered from the stables, the harpy's piercing shriek echoing from above. Within less than a second of her screams, talons ripped into another brave soul manning the artillery.
"GO, Steve!"
Steve increased his speed across the ground, circling a lap before raising head high while spreading his feathered wings. The lift listed his body from the earth, the following flaps propelling him just above the wall as we barreled for the Harpy. Her talons were actively skewering our soldiers' limp corpse sat in his gunners seat. Identify pinged before her cold bluish white slitted eyes met mine as we descended.
[Intangible Harpyja(Level 12)]
Fuck.
The Harpyja flapped its baby blue icy wings towards Steve and I. A massive gust of frost reversed our momentum entirely, Steve's body whipping through the air like string in a twister forcing me to leap from his back before impacting the earth. The ground shook under my shoulder as I rolled to the ground, Steve's massive body collapsing one of the settlers' homes. Steve shook his feathered head before zipping back toward me, his eyes remaining skyward.
By now the beast had disappeared into the sky again, the entire settlement either shuffling frantically for safety or holding firm with their eyes skyward, Cassi finally having managed to resume order amongst our soldiers through the chaos. Her voice carried through the air, bouncing from the settlement wall to my side.
"DO NOT BREAK YOUR LINES! This is where we stand. You live and die by the brothers and sisters beside you. For your families here, and those at home we've sworn to serve. For the Elysium!" The soldiers let out a unified bark in response, the giants nodding in approval. Cassi stood outside of the Pylon building, the remaining javelining giants lined in front of her.
"KREE-EEE!"
A vertical frost storm blanketed the group of giants in front of Cassi, the Harpyja's talons piercing through two giants faces and crushing them like tin before releasing a second gust of frost from its wings across the line. The giants rocketed into the pylon building behind them, leaving massive blood patterns where many heads slammed into the wall.
I leapt into the air, Steve catching me on his back as we slithered toward the battling Harpyja. Her claws danced through the air, skewering encroaching giants and soldiers alike leaving long streaks and puddles of blood soaking the ground. The air crackled audibly between her menacing claw attacking between ripping apart its targets with ease.
"Go left!!" I messaged Steve, leaping from his body and darting the other direction. The Hapryja continued ravaging our troops, though she'd yet to notice any major players. My feet planted into the dirt as I approached the beast's rear, a tempered Lightning Strike firing out to begin a combination.
Except it never landed, the Harpy's frosted female face contorted shrieking as it slipped my strike, her body jutting to the side in the blink of an eye. My blade barely reached around in time to parry a talon swipe, the force launching me bouncing across the dirt. Having grown accustomed to being tossed, my feet found earth and exploded back toward the frosty monstrosity as it continued ravaging through our forces.
A more mana intensive Lightning Strike flew forth, only to be evaded effortlessly again. The harpy flapped her wings hard, launching herself back into the air high above. As she reached the apex of her ascent, her head lurched under her talons diving back down at me head first, a beam of frost blasting from her human mouth. Finding an even deeper reverence for Water Step, my eyes widened watching the icy blast freeze over the area I'd just dashed away from. A flaming arrow whizzed by where the harpy's head had been an instant before it flew into view, unleashing a fiery explosion in the sky illuminating the monsters outline.
The Harpyja didn't break stride after having dodged Phoebe's arrow, continuing her downward spiral toward me with the wind cutting around her descending form. I dashed forward, letting her momentum carry her to the earth behind me. Her body contorted with her wings dragging the wind to slow her descent, flipping her momentum around with another dive where I'd shuffled to.
Steve's head launched into the sky aimed to intercept the Harpyja's spiraling approach from above, his maw fully agape. The Harpy's glittering blue wing generated a thick icy layer to block his incoming bite. Steve's maw sunk into the ice, only for her wing to disperse the outer ice layer in his mouth and jetting up into the sky. Steve struggled to posture himself, his wings not catching air until right before impact with another settlement house.
"FUCK!" Steve cursed with an angry slap of his tail into the remains of a collapsed home, sending debris through the air. I couldn't blame him for being frustrated, he'd timed his strike to perfection.
She was just faster.
A chorus of blood-curdling screams sounded at the far side of the settlement, the realization it came from the same direction building same Phoebe stood atop washing over me.
"PHOEBE!" I yelled, waving my hands to draw her attention. Her eyes squinted before finding me.
"Cover that side! And bring Becky!" I called, her affirmative nod my response as she leapt from her building toward the screams. Cassi was absolutely nowhere to be seen anymore, leaving me and Steve practically alone with some giants left as support. The rest of our soldiers had either tucked into a building, disappeared, or had their mangled bodies strung across the settlement. Not to mention the fucking settlers…
Another bone chilling shriek crescendoed behind me, the frosted wings and waving dark blue tail of the Harpyja not more than 10 feet from me. Her talons dissected two giants like pumping pistons, sending blood spraying across the ground, the giants collapsing in one big puddle of their own blood. My blades crackled with Lightning mana slicing off the end of her tail. Her body contorted and lifted into the air before the Harpy's head could wrap around, dodging my follow up stab to her spine.
Her talons flashed into frame beside my head as I preemptively dodged after missing my strike. Her attacks always came by the twos leading into a milliseconds pause, giving me a window of opportunity every so often to land a glancing blow or two. Her movement was utterly unbelievable. It was as if the wind pulled her out of harm's way, moving before she even looked aware of the looming attack.
Each glancing blow released a flurry of frost from the rampaging eagle woman's wings as she shrieked, writhing in pain. She made great use of any space created from the strikes of mine she'd avoided though, slaying my remaining giant companions in a matter of minutes.
Steve slithered for another flanking strike as I feigned my advance to cover him. Yet she remained unflappable, dodging his launching bite. Steve's wings glided his snakely form just over my head as I charged forward regardless. The harpy smiled at me, kicking the final giant's thoroughly lanced body from her talons.
Keep smiling.
My momentum shifted diagonally as I feigned a wild leaning slash having sprinted right up to the beast. Her talons thrashed at air trying to parry an attack that never arrived, giving me just enough time to land a Lightning Strike into its b-
Its wing ice covered practically teleported in front of my blade, breaking around the pulse of mana revealing the Harpy's wing barreling back toward me. The impact slapped me across the ground, my feet yet again quickly gathering under my barreling body. The beast remained smug hopping and flapping away from my strikes, sending freezing cold windstorms of icy air across my skin with each evasion.
Frustration fought desperately to boil over, yet I knew in my gut any over commitment was a death sentence due to this thing's insane speed. It wanted to piss me off to goad my offense, while conserving her own energy. It's toying with me, thinking it has the upper hand. Which was perfect for me, as I reserved using mana once it entered its hyper arrogant defensive ways. By now, it wasn't anywhere near where I needed it to be after letting our settlement passively regenerate my mana.
Mana: 32/76
If there was any hope of killing this thing, I only had two options. Either clip a wing and pounce on its flightless body, or slay it out with one deadly blow. Either way, something needed to actually hit the damn bird lady.
A variety of different energy's rippled through the air as our cat and mouse game continued, the Harpy thoroughly enjoying itself with its fanged toothy grin glowing in the frost muddied sunlight. Its smile quickly faded as its back thumped against the Pylon building, cutting her wing propelled dodge from my attacks short. My feet planted into the dirt as I shot forward, concentrating whatever mana I had into a Lightning Strike hoping to boost its speed as much as I could.
My arm unleashed a thunderous crackle, my twinblade firing forward, breaking through the Pylons brick wall. The Harpyja landed atop the Pylon building by the time my eyes wandered upward. Another eerily human smirk flashed as she turned to take flight.
A canine ejected from her jaw, the Harpyja's head whipping back violently before her body folded in, launching toward the ground beside me with Cassi's boot in her chest. Cass leapt up from the descending harpy's body just before it crashed into the ground beside me.
Steve took full advantage of her squirming prone position. His scaly body serpentined through the rubble-ridden settlement, launching through the air with a flap of his feathered wings, snapping his massive jaws onto the Harpyja's bony shoulder blade. An audible crunch prefaced the icy Harpy's ear-piercing shriek in response to Steven's Flow Bite, her wing dangling at her side.
A grin crept across my lips darting for the frantically flapping Harpyja, her icy wind gusts exponentially weaker having only one functioning wing. The stale aching deep in my stomach indicated I was still rather low on mana having sent so much into a whiffed Lightning Strike already, so I resolved myself to cutting angles toward her disabled wing. Steve's slithering body dodged and darted from the Harpy's flashing talons, completely occupying her attention as I approached.
My feet shuffled low to the ground ducking under her frost-exuding wing that flopped limp in the wind, droplets of water falling onto my head as I passed to her side. My eyes bulged lunging for a stab into the Harpy's exposed jagged ribcage. The blade slid an inch into her skin before her body shifted 6 feet to the opposite side, quickly but much slower compared to her previous evasion.
Clear, blue hued blood dribbled from her ribs as she stood screeching at me and Steve, her back pressed against a building. Cassi leapt onto the wall before kicking off, landing a brutal aerial head kick from the Harpy's weak side. The Harpy spun with the momentum Cassi's kick had sent her, spinning around to slash toward Cassi with a talon. Cassi dodged back, the Harpy's wide flap from her working wing sent a gust of wind toward Cass sending her careening off the building.
Frost glistended from the Harpyja's wings dashing toward Cassi's prone body. Steve's massive head slamming its body into the wall from the side interrupted her route, sending fragmented stone crumbling down around them from the impact against the building's wall. The much smaller Harpyja was completely blocked off by Steve's body and the wall. Steve suddenly violently recoiled, blood spattered from his face as he retreated. The heavy breathing Harpy's blood dripped talon still in the air indicated she unleashed a flurry of slashes being pinned in a small area.
She panics.
My feet dug into dirt under my boot, indenting the ground behind charging toward the still-dazed Harpyja. Her eyes refocused too late, her wing not swinging in time to stop my leaping spin kick, pinning her function shoulder against the wall with a leaping strike before leaping off.
Her body crashed against the building, audible cracks shot from her wing on her back. The Harpy shrieked with bloodshot eyes as she began a barrage of air cutting talon slashes. Her pace forced me to activate Fluidic Fighters Stance, a deep emptiness in my stomach accompanied. Her talons glided off of my twinblade when needed, but the majority of her oversized talon slashes were dodge-or die-scenarios.
That didn't stop me from slipping in the occasional slash to her stomach and sides. The Harpyja's legs were unfortunately too thick skinned and covered in cracking and reforming ice to damage without a skill to assist. One of her talons slipped across fallen building debris, causing her body to lurch back uncontrollably. A massive smile overtook my face launching for a leaping top handed stab into the fallen mythical monster's stumbling abdomen.
The Harpyja's eyes locked onto my descending figure, her jaw opening unnaturally wide unleashing a jet of frosted air. The frozen gust launched me a block away, rolling with the impact of my fall. I'd just regained my footing and began sprinting back into the fight when I'd noticed Steve had taken my place, Cassi at his side.
The two of them fought in concert, their fluidity appearing comparable to how Steve and I had. The Harpyja tried flapping her wing toward Cassi, who was already leaping off of Steve's swinging tail strike. Cassi's body bursted above the gust, meanwhile Steve's feathered tail smashed the Harpy's skull into the wall behind her. The Harpy recoiled off the wall like it was rubber, landing several rapid slashes across Steve's face. Steve quickly ducked and slithered away after being blooded thoroughly once again.
Cassi's descending heel slammed into the back of the Harpyja's skull just as she finished her flurry of slashes on Steve. The bird woman slammed head first into the stone floor, leaving a cracked imprint. Cassi pounced to gain top mount before a talon kicked her away, blood ejecting in streamed in front of Cassi's body.
Fuck. This. Bird.
Finally catching up to the battle, my blade lurched forward for the Harpy's back. Her head wrapped around, her Flow rapidly traveling into her subtly raising talon. My palm smashed into my own hand, Flow Inversing the energy back toward my chest. Needles pinned throughout my gut as I slid under her talon, my blade now launching into her stomach hoping to share my misery.
The blade punctured deep, the Harpyja to gurgling on her own blood trying to shriek in pain. Her shoulder twisted, sending another previously untraceable network of Flow toward her Talon closest to me. My eyes narrowed, sizing up the distance in a millisecond before casually leaning my head back a few inches.
Her talon swung within an eyelash of my face before passing by me completely. Her back was turned just long enough for me to wrap my chains around her neck, my legs locking around her waist as I pulled my hilts outward with all my might. The Harpy was deceptively strong even in her bloodied state, thrashing her body around violently trying to buck me off. My grip on my legs began to falter when Steve slithered from behind a building out of the corner of my eye.
"STEVE! BEHIND ME!" I mentally called, hoping he understood my incredibly brief command. Not having the grip strength in my legs to await confirmation, I released my hold entirely and kicked off the Harpy's back. The momentum twisted my hips around, my feet landing before bursting forward in a sprinter's stance. The harpy's neck cracked audibly within the chains slung over my shoulder.
My arms screamed in pain forcing all my muscle into the Tsunami of Flow generated from the harpy's powerful thrash. The Harpyja's body launched over my shoulder head first, flying over before I unwrapped my chains. Her body flew through the air, Steve's jaw snapping around her head and chest plate having launched aloft to catch her. The crunch of his fangs piercing through her skull sent shudders through my spine, as well as a massive wave of relief. I dropped to a knee, breathing heavily trying to cull the pain of mana exhaustion.
Not wanting to pass out again, I quickly shuffled into meditation hoping to gather myself internally. There was probably plenty of work to be done considering the damage done to the settlement. The buildings would be a costly fix, but soldiers and townsfolk alike we'd lost were far tougher hits to take right now. Cassi could be heard talking to a giant asking for a health potion, confirming she was okay enough to handle herself.
Steve's scaly form coiled up beside me, more than likely feeling similarly in terms of exhaustion. We'd both been fighting for who knows how long today, in mostly challenging fights. There were multiple notifications that rang off after the Harpy fell, however I quite frankly didn't have the mental energy to read anything at this moment.
I just needed to relax my body for a bit, maybe hop into Flow and just breathe.