103 Tower Defense Part Two

Irade

May 14, 7:41 pm BT – 5:41 pm UT, Somewhere In The Tian Shan Mountain Range, China

"RRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!"

Irade's body moved before she could stop herself. She used ['Dash'], immediately decimating the line of monsters that had leaped towards Käwsär. Their heads fell in quick succession, blood spurting from their necks as their bodies twitched and dropped.

She immediately turned back to face the next line of monsters, only to find the woman right in her face, staring her down angrily. Irade froze, caught in those bottomless eyes.

"You pest!" the woman screeched, her face a mask of anger. "Stay out of my way!"

Irade saw the claw-like hand coming for her, but for some reason, her body wouldn't move. It was like she was frozen in place, waiting to be hit.

She had to do something!

Now!

Move!

Reflexively, Irade raised her left arm to defend-

Except she didn't have one.

"DIE!"

Irade's body went on autopilot. She did the first thing she could think of to survive.

She activated [Left Arm Of The Djinn].

She felt that same, hot, electrical feeling burst from her shoulder, just in time for her to block the woman's swipe. Her eyes widened, surprised that Irade had blocked.

Irade took his split-second advantage to slice at the woman's neck, but she was too fast. She instantly drew back, then came back in again. Irade didn't hesitate; she jumped right in to the fight.

DOOOOM!

Lightning flashed and the air seemed to explode as their fists clashed at the midpoint between them. The resulting shockwave carved a small crater into the ground, blowing the woman's hair back. Irade grit her teeth as they froze for a moment, both standing their ground while the force of their punches blew through each other.

From this, Irade could surmise that with the boost from [Left Arm], she was on par in terms of strength and speed. She shuddered to think what would have happened if she hadn't activated her [Left Arm].

The next couple of minutes were spent figuring each others' fighting style out. The woman was quite quick with her attacks, preferring to scratch with her sharp claws instead of punch and slice like Irade was used to.

After a while, however, Irade noticed something strange. She had managed to graze Irade on the cheek. Not deep enough for it to even bleed, but for some reason, blood was flowing.

Great. It looked like this woman's claws seemed to have some sort of [Bleed] effect.

Not to mention, the woman's defense was incredible. She defended herself in flowing, beautiful movements that seemed to suck Irade in and redirect her strength away from the woman. Despite the fact that it seemed like they were about the same strength, Irade felt like she was fighting a weirdly solid cloud instead of a person.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

Irade began going for the woman's legs, using the dance moves she learned back at the DDR machine. She hadn't really used them for a while, and they felt kind of awkward with just one arm.

That said, Irade's flowing kicks, hitting up high then down low in quick succession was working. The woman found herself stepping back a lot more, while Irade launched attack after attack.

Irade spun around and managed to land an Armada on the woman's face, then quickly followed up with simple front kick, knocking the woman to the ground. Eyes glinting, Irade immediately stabbed down with her dagger.

"KIIIIYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The woman suddenly screamed, freezing Irade in her place. She knew she had to move, but her body simply wouldn't listen. It felt like her body had been stuffed with cotton, her stomach and throat filled with an itchy, foreign sensation.

The woman took her time to get up, then stared coldly at Irade.

"Die," she whispered, voice dripping with hatred.

She slashed at Irade's neck.

Irade was dead.

An overwhelming knowledge that Irade was going to die suddenly overcame Irade, making her blood run cold. She was dead. She knew it.

She needed to get out of here.

Her mind raced through every option she had. She tried to activate [Flight]. It didn't work.

No time.

She needed time to think!

"NO!"

Her left arm crackled with red electricity once more, expelling the weird, cotton-ey feeling, and Irade was somehow able to move it to block the attack. The woman's eyes went wide as Irade found she could move again.

Quickly, the woman pushed Irade away, giving her time to think through what had happened. She looked down at her left arm.

Irade had directed her magic towards the left arm, pumping it full of energy, which had allowed it to break free of the woman's paralysis. She supposed she had done that because the arm had broken her out of it the last time she had been magically paralyzed.

Thankfully, it had worked.

This seemed to really annoy the woman.

"Do you really think you have time to waste on me?" the woman yelled.

Irade's eyes widened. She had forgotten.

Käwsär.

She looked up to see him struggling to shoot down all the monsters. His father was helping him from below, but they were struggling. The rain was clearly not helping either of them with their aim.

Not to mention, Irade remembered how his father had been talking about how they were running out of ammunition. From all this, it was clear that a monster would make it through sooner rather than later.

But Irade focused on the woman, gritting her teeth and growling. She lowered her body once more.

This woman was clearly trying to distract her. If she tried to help the men now, she would simply use that time to cut her down.

The best outcome would be to get rid of this woman and then help Käwsär.

Irade balled her fists. Her left arm crackled with energy, red sparks traveling down to her fist. She noted that it was starting to rain, light droplets falling onto the grass, making it wet and slippery. Despite all that, the woman looked just as serene and calm as before; and eternal beauty.

How annoying.

This woman had a huge advantage over Irade; her win condition was much easier to achieve than Irade's.

Irade had to make sure Käwsär, his dad, and herself were all alive, and also kill all the monsters so they didn't kill Käwsär's mom. All this lady had to do was stall Irade long enough for the Käwsär to run out of ammunition.

Not to mention, this woman was built as a stall character. Like, honestly, she was perfect as a stall character, designed to annoy and frustrate the player into quitting.

Who designed this s****y game?

However, the unfairness of this situation somehow calmed Irade enough to gather her thoughts. She'd fought and won against terribly broken classes before. Why wouldn't she be able to do it now?

Calm down. Think of your advantages.

She had information now. She knew how this other player was going to fight.

What was the best way to defeat her?

In Irade's experience, monsters like these liked to play slow and inflict status to cause death by a thousand cuts. The best way to beat them was to go in as fast and hard as possible.

But there was that weird scream.

The rain was getting heavier, as Irade shook her head. She was taking too much time, which was what this woman wanted. She glanced up at Käwsär once more, making sure he was okay for the time being, before glaring at the woman.

The woman simply smiled serenely, but Irade could feel the dark hatred emanating from behind that calm mask. It was like a black aura hanging over her, threatening to freeze anyone in their place if they stared at her too long.

But Irade wasn't afraid anymore. She took a deep breath, and activated her trump card.

[Mana Absorb]

At the same time, she activated ['Dash'], leaping towards the woman.

"AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!!"

Irade sliced straight at the woman, using the sudden influx of power to slice down at the woman's head.

And instantly split her in two.

Irade blinked. She looked up at the woman, who simply looked dumbfounded as her left and right sides fell away, her insides spilling out, and her blue blood splattering all over the grass.

That was it?

Ding!

[Level Up!]

...

That was...it?

Suddenly, she felt something, large and overbearing, gazing down at her from the peak of the mountain.

"Hnngk!"

Irade quickly turned off [Mana Absorb]. Her core, at the center of her chest, felt like a hot coal, burning her from the inside out. Her body was bursting with boiling energy, her left arm crackling with more sparks. 

She turned to the hoard of monsters, and activated [Dash].

Käwsär blinked as an entire flank of monsters suddenly drop dead. He watched in awe as a red flash zipped through the hoard of monsters, utterly destroying anything it came in contact with. Monsters' heads and limbs flew as soon as the blur came in contact with them.

He watched for what seemed like hours in slack-jawed fascination as the blur decimated everything it came it contact with. The little drops of water started coming down harder, until it was raining hard. Thunder rumbled overhead, the rain washing the blue blood down the side of the mountain.

"Käwsär!" roared a man.

Käwsär looked down to see his father frantically waving up at him, his rifle tossed to the side. His stomach did a little flip as he realized that his dad was out of bullets, and was trying to warn him.

He looked up, just in time to see a flying monster knock him out of the tree.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Irade heard Käwsär's yell, and immediately activated [Flight]. Putting away her dagger, she used ['Dash'] to get over to where he was, an expertly stopped herself mid-air, so that she wouldn't break Käwsär's neck upong catching him.

His body was warm and hard; she could feel his heartbeat thumping through his body. He looked up in awe at her as she landed softly on the ground.

"Th...thank you," he stammered.

Irade nodded quickly, her stomach doing a weird flip. She turned around.

Just in time to see a monster sink its teeth into Käwsär's dad's arm.

"NO!"

Irade and Käwsär yelled at the same time, and Irade immediately used ['Dash'] to get the monster off of Käwsär's dad.

But it was too late. The damage was done.

Irade watched in horror as Käwsär's dad struggled to get up, his arm a mangled into a grotesque approximation of bone and flesh. She stood there, shocked as Käwsär came up to help his dad.

"It's not done," he grunted, cradling the mess of his arm. "Leave me! Fight!"

But she couldn't.

That was his arm.

Irade knew what it was like to lose an arm like that.

"ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Irade decapitated the incoming monster with ease. She looked up to find there was still a whole hoard of monsters left to battle. She growled as she turned to face the incoming monsters.

How dare they?

Couldn't they see they'd already done enough?

Why were they coming down from up the mountain in the first place?

Why couldn't they just leave her alone?

Ding!

[Requirements: Met!]

[Rewards: ??? -\u003e Skill: Heal]

...

Really?

Irade glanced back down at Käwsär's dad, then decapitated another monster that had leaped towards her. For a moment, she hesitated.

She knew the HUD was using her. For some reason, it wanted her to defeat all these monsters. And to make sure she did it, it was dangling this new, shiny Skill that she desperately wanted in front of her.

But Irade didn't want anything to do with this Skill. She didn't want anything to do with the HUD.

...

But if she didn't use it, she wouldn't even be able to fight, would she?

No time for that. Irade slashed at another monster coming in, but the next few monsters would all come in at once. If she wanted to take care of them properly, she would have to run out and get them.

She was certain she could take them on. Her body was still crackling with leftover energy from [Mana Absorb]. However...

The rain was pouring down now. The grass was slick and slippery. If she left Käwsär and his dad alone now, they were likely to get swept away in the wind and rain. They needed shelter, and fast.

But if she helped them find shelter now, she wouldn't get the skill, and wouldn't be able to save them.

"Go," growled a voice behind Irade.

She looked behind to find Black Wind standing over a wide-eyed Käwsär and his dad. Immediately, Irade felt relief.

"Take care of them," she said. Black Wind nodded.

And with that, Irade leaped out.

It took her seven minutes. Seven minutes to take care of the rest of the hoard. She leveled up three more times during this final fight.

She stood there, panting in the mass of monster bodies and bodily fluids. She snickered; this scene was very familiar to her.

Lone girl in the middle of a field of monster bodies. The only difference was this time, the rain was washing away the blood before it could stick to her skin and clothes.

Somehow, she managed to keep from collapsing this time. She couldn't feel her legs, and she had stumbled over to a tree in order to keep upright, but at least she wasn't blacking out. Small improvements.

Now, all that was left was the final test...

...the cost for [Left Arm Of The Djinn].

She held her breath, right before the pain hit.

It didn't help.

"IIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

Her screams echoed through the mountainside, reaching miles away.