Chương 90: The Depthscale Tyrant (Part 1)

The battle begins with a hail of projectiles. Some are reasonably sized. Some are large enough to qualify as artillery. Marek reacts instantly. A pale blue light blooms around the entire party as Bulwark activates, forming a half-dome of protection that catches the incoming barrage. The impacts come one after another, each strike sending ripples through the barrier and shaking the stone beneath our feet.

"Rin and Lyn, get rid of those adds! Sylrae, draw the attention of the big one!" His voice somehow manages to carry over the chaos. Rin and I nod in assent. Above us, Sylrae is already moving. Powerful gravity projectiles streak through the air, accompanied by the sharp crack of gunfire. Even against the roar of impacts and crashing water, the sound remains distinct. The pale-blue frostfire surrounding Rin intensifies.

Without hesitation, he sprints across the lake toward the cluster of smaller serpents to the Tyrant's left, freezing the water beneath his feet as he goes. I take a more direct approach. Lowering my center of gravity, I settle into a stance more suited to a predator than a dancer. One hand touches the ground. Astra Nocturne trails to my side. My legs coil beneath me. Time to show this party what Dexterity actually looks like. I apply Predator's Mark to my first victim.

The unfortunate serpent has somehow managed to acquire arms, legs, and opposable thumbs. A truly baffling evolutionary decision. Gravity shifts. My feet become heavier. My body becomes lighter. Then I launch. The stone beneath me detonates. Cracks race outward through the cavern floor as over sixteen hundred Dexterity violently disagrees with the concept of standing still. Fragments of rock scatter behind me while a shockwave races across the lake. My tail flicks in appreciation.

The target is nearly a kilometer and a half away. Which is, frankly, not very far. I cross the distance in barely two seconds. Three steps. That's all it takes. The water only begins reacting after I am already hundreds of meters away, delayed ripples spreading across the surface in my wake. The serpent is above me. I lower my gravity to its absolute minimum and even push slightly beyond my current limit. Two vines lash out from my thighs and wrap around the creature's arm. Then they pull. Hard.

My momentum bends upward so violently that my stomach briefly attempts to file a formal complaint. My skirt flares dramatically as I rocket skyward. Excellent. The serpent's eyes widen. A reasonable response. My tail flicks. Gravity shifts again. I roll through the air as I pass over its body, Astra Nocturne trailing a brilliant sapphire arc beside me.

"Horizon Slash." The strike bites into the serpent's neck with almost insulting ease. Scale, flesh, and bone part with equal ease. My momentum carries the blade deeper and deeper through its body as I streak past. Unfortunately, the creature is large enough that even this isn't enough to remove its head completely. Rude. My tail flicks. Gravity obeys. I flip upside down just in time for my boots to slam into the cavern ceiling. Stone fractures beneath my feet. Then I kick off. The ceiling explodes behind me. Again.

I descend like a meteor powered by malicious intent. Several nearby serpents finally react, launching a barrage of projectiles toward me. Far too late. The spells crawl through the air with all the urgency of a leisurely afternoon stroll. My vines casually swat them aside as I pass. Astra Nocturne flashes once more. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The second strike lands on the opposite side of the serpent's neck.

The head detaches cleanly. For a brief moment, the body continues moving as though unaware of what has happened. Then gravity remembers its job. The corpse starts to fall into the lake below. Even that is painfully slow compared to me. A notification appears. I dismiss it immediately. There are still more targets. My vines stretch out again, anchoring themselves to the still-falling corpse before I can hit the water. Then they pull.

My momentum bends sharply, redirecting me in an arc towards the next target at the cost of my body filing a formal complaint due to the forces acting on it. As I move, I take a moment to assess the battlefield. Rin has finally reached his own victim and is in the process of transforming it into what will likely become a highly artistic ice sculpture. Meanwhile, the Tyrant is just… Watching. It is launching spells, certainly. But it hasn't actually moved. Not once.

Sylrae's bullets continue to hammer against its mana armor, each impact sending ripples across the shimmering barrier surrounding its body. Powerful attacks by any reasonable standard. The Tyrant barely acknowledges them. Instead, its attention remains fixed elsewhere. The bigger threat. Namely: me. Naturally. My tail swishes smugly. Then I stab my next target directly through the eye. I prepare to follow up— Astral Reflex screams.

I immediately abandon all dignity and kick away from the serpent, leaving Astra Nocturne embedded inside its eye socket. A split second later, a colossal pillar of water erupts from the lake below. The impact is absurd. The serpent's head doesn't merely break. It ceases to exist. Bone, flesh, and scales explode outward in every direction, the entire upper portion of the creature detonating like an overfilled watermelon meeting industrial equipment. The kill notification appears instantly.

Getting hit by that would have had consequences. Extremely unpleasant ones. A shift of gravity and a flick of my tail later, I land lightly atop one of the crystalline islands. I may have included an entirely unnecessary backflip during the maneuver. In my defense, I recently unlocked the aerial mobility DLC. It would be irresponsible not to use it. I straighten and look towards the Tyrant. The Tyrant looks right back. Its expression is deeply concerning.

Far too amused, far too intelligent, and entirely too smug for a kaiju-scale serpent that just obliterated one of its own subordinates. I click my tongue lightly.

"So you won't simply sit back and watch me kill all of them, then?" A small tentacle rises from the water. Suspended within its grip is Astra Nocturne. Apparently my sword was launched clear from the serpent's eye socket when the rest of its head underwent rapid structural disassembly. The tentacle presents the weapon to the Tyrant. The massive serpent narrows its eyes slightly. Then it laughs.

A dry, grating hiss that somehow manages to communicate amusement despite being produced by a creature that should not possess the required facial anatomy. Impressive. Its gaze shifts back to me. The meaning is obvious. What exactly do you intend to do now? I grin. My hand extends. Astra Nocturne vanishes from the tentacle and instantly reappears in my grip. The Tyrant blinks. Then its eyes narrow. The amusement evaporates, replaced by mild annoyance. Excellent. A successful intimidation check. Probably.

The serpent lets out another hiss. This one lacks the previous amusement. The water begins to move. Not ripple. Move. Entire sections of the lake shift as though responding to a command. Then my gravity sense explodes with warnings. A massive change in density forms somewhere away from the Tyrant's control. I blink. Oh. That one is going to hurt. A gunshot rings out. No. A gunshot is the wrong word. An explosion tears through the cavern.

Something small and impossibly fast crosses the distance in an instant and slams into the side of the Tyrant's head. Its mana armor cracks. The serpent's entire head snaps sideways with enough force to send a wave racing across the lake. For the first time since the battle began— The Tyrant looks surprised. Underestimating the rest of the party was a foolish mistake. I glance to the side just in time to catch the last traces of golden light and purple distortions fading from Sylrae's body.

The tip of her gun barrel smokes faintly, heat twisting the air around it. She looks extremely smug. As she should. Avelyn raises her staff, and over a dozen Sanctified Spears bloom into existence around her. They launch forward a heartbeat later, streaking across the cavern like a barrage of golden artillery and hammering into one of the remaining serpents. A massive splash erupts from the lake as Rin's target finally collapses. Its flesh is pale and brittle, frozen solid beneath layers of ice.

Pale-blue flames still cling to its corpse, spreading frost across the water wherever they touch. The Catkin lands lightly atop the lake's surface. The water immediately freezes beneath his feet. By now, the Frostfire surrounding his body has become absurd. Pale-blue flames leap nearly ten meters into the air, creating a ring of ice almost fifty meters across. Then Avelyn's Blessing settles over him. The flames surge higher. A moment later, golden light wraps around me as well.

Along with it comes a complaint shouted from somewhere in the distance.

"Stupid muscle brains! At least wait for me to bless you before you run off!" I choose to ignore this direct assault on my dignity. After all, I am the most generous and beautiful person on the planet. I flick my hair back haughtily. Then the Tyrant rises. Water crashes from its scales as its enormous head emerges from the lake once more. Its eyes lock onto the floating Sylrae. Incandescent rage burns within them. That shot clearly offended it on a deeply personal level. The water begins moving again.

Only this time, the Tyrant moves with it. The colossal serpent surges forward through the lake, generating waves large enough to qualify as weather events as it charges directly toward the party nearly a kilometer away. Even from this distance, I can make out the grim smile spreading across Marek's face. He plants his feet. Raises his shield. Then bellows a challenge loud enough to echo through the entire cavern.

"COME!" I nod in appreciation. They will be fine. As much as I would enjoy watching a Bearkin attempt to stop something roughly a hundred times his size through sheer stubbornness, I have my own responsibilities. My posture lowers once more. Then I launch. The interruption from the Tyrant finally gave the remaining serpents enough time to realize that Rin and I exist. Unfortunately for them, realization and reaction are not the same thing. They are still far too slow. Projectiles streak toward me.

My vines casually bat them out of the air. This time I choose to move through the islands rather than directly across the water, bounding from crystal to crystal as I close the distance. I reach my next target in under a second. Then I begin reducing it to manageable pieces. Momentum builds rapidly. Every slash accelerates the next. Every movement becomes faster. Sharper. More efficient.

Ten seconds later the serpent crashes into the lake in several distinct sections, and my momentum stacks finally reach their maximum. I also take the opportunity to store several chunks of meat. Missing free stats would be irresponsible. Using the corpse as a foothold, I launch myself toward the next target. A vine wraps around its neck. Momentum pulls me into a narrow circular orbit around its head. Astra Nocturne follows. The head separates cleanly from the body.

During roughly the same amount of time, Rin kills another serpent as well. We continue our mutual rampage for the next minute. One serpent after another falls. Eventually we meet in the center of the battlefield, converging on the final survivor. The creature proceeds to have a profoundly unfortunate experience. A few seconds later it collapses into the lake, bleeding and frozen. In total, I killed eleven serpents. Rin killed seven. My tail flicks in dignified superiority. I glance toward the Catkin.

The Frostfire surrounding him has grown even larger, pale-blue flames now leaping nearly fifteen meters from his body. A momentum skill, most likely. We share a glance. Then both of us turn toward the Tyrant just in time to witness Marek block a tail swipe. The impact echoes through the cavern like thunder. A vaguely building-sized tail slams into a massive tower shield formed entirely from energy, and stops. Completely. I blink. Rin whistles.

"Impressive, right?" I nod solemnly. It is. And, more importantly, it is very cool. Nine out of ten. One point deducted because stabbing things remains objectively more dramatic than tanking them. I hop once. Twice. Rin's muscles coil. Then we launch ourselves toward the Tyrant. Time for round two.