The Blood Devil v. Rose Cythla Round 1
“Ah, it seems that our fight has begun, how amusing. To be forthright, I don’t care to expend the energy.” Rose made a motion with her hands, and suddenly, several figures dropped from the ceiling, landing near Saria.
“Go on, my children. Don’t kill her, however. Such a specimen would make a welcome addition to the family.” The shambling monstrosities slowly made their way towards Saria, unintelligible words and phrases spewing from wherever their “mouths” were. She grabbed her sword, preparing to strike.
The first one, a pale tube-shaped monster with two arms, both sprouting several gibbous appendages each, came towards her, flailing. Saria drew her sword, and with no more than a whisper of air, sliced the thing open. Green-black goo sprayed out of the wound, and Saria made another slice, bisecting the creature. Both halves fall to her sides, squirming and jerking.
She barely dodged another attack, this time from a monster that looked a bit too much like a…
Ahem.
Clearing her head from the initial distraction, Saria went to work on the second one, slicing off one of its tube-like arms and finishing it off with a stab to its chest, and dragging her sword across its body, up through its “head”.
Saria saw something out of the corner of her eye, but couldn’t turn to see it in time. It was a fist from the barnacle-covered creature, which slammed into her and sent her flying back several meters, landing in a heap. She stood herself up, quietly thanking her metal-coated self.
Most likely wouldn’t have survived that had I worn anything less…
She stood up, reassessing her situation. There were three more of those… weirdly shaped monsters, including the one covered in barnacles, which she assumed acted as a sort of armor. The second one was a mass of some kind of mix of flesh, protoplasmic matter, forming and unforming eyes, and dozens of sluglike, tentacle limbs which it used to slither and slide its way around. The third was almost humanlike, an emphasis on almost. In reality, it was fr from human. It stood on two hooved, animal-like legs which led up to a reptilian body, complete with horns and spikes protruding from its back. Its arms were spindly, gangly, and its face was flat, having an abnormally large mouth that was lined with crooked, sharp teeth. It had no nose, instead having a ragged, triangular shaped hole. It had no eyes to speak of; Instead, two black holes goggled back at Saria. In short, the sight chilled her.
This is what becomes of the ones she defeats? I would rather kill myself than submit to such a fate.
She readied her blade, and wasted no more time. It also turned out that the three of the beasts wasted no time as well, as they all suddenly charged towards her. It should have been an easy fight, the skilled warrior against these ghastly abominations. But in between the gaps of the monsters, Saria spotted a shining, purple gleam coming from behind the trio. The girl, Rose Cythla. Saria had forgotten about her, and she had just finished charging her attack.
Saria felt the hit before she saw it. A purple beam erupted from Rose’s chest, and hit Saria directly in the torso, once again sending her flying back a few meters and landing on the ground, dazed. The first thing she did was check her armor, which was surprisingly unscathed, besides a large amount of heat emanating off of the impact point.
However physically well she was, she felt different. As she looked up to face her opponents, which were still charging after her, with Rose casually walking behind them, she felt something unusual to her, something which eluded her up until this tournament. For the first time in a long while, she felt… fear.
The monsters now looked even more grotesque, their features seemingly more twisted and evil-looking, and Saria now feared possibly becoming one of them. How a warrior such as herself could be reduced to such a state of mindlessness and inhumanity troubled her to the core. Really, it was not a way she wanted to go, to become cannon fodder to a little girl, or whatever she was.
Dazed, and half-drunk with fear, Saria charged into the fray. The first one to try and stop her was the two-legged animal-like human with the horrid looking face, extending its arms out to try and grab her. Saria threw a wild swing with her sword, slicing upwards through its arms and through its open maw, severing the top of its head and killing it instantly, a black spurt of blood erupting from the lethal wound.
As it collapsed, the barnacle monster charged towards her, both arms raised. Saria examined it, and noted a serious weakness: The eye which rested in the center of its body. As its arms came down towards her, she deftly sidestepped the two pillar-like limbs, which crashed into the spot where she would have been. Without missing a beat, Saria flipped her blade, holding it blade-down, and jammed it into the thing’s eye, twisting it around to make sure she hit something vital. After a couple seconds, the barnacle beast stopped moving, and she removed her blade, now covered in green slime.
She saw the protoplasmic abomination wriggle its way towards her, tentacles squirming and flailing about. At the same time, she saw Rose prepare another laser attack. Like muscle memory, Saria dodged out of the way so that the protoplasm monster was in between them two. She saw a flash of light, and the back of the thing erupted in purple light. However, it wasn’t damaged all that badly. It seemed that the insanity-inducing effects of the laser did not affect something which was most likely already insane. Saria ran towards the beast, dodging its tentacles and severing the ones she couldn’t avoid.
Eventually, she was right up against it, and she thought that she had won, or so it seemed. With its many eyes and limbs, forming and unforming, she didn’t know where to cut. So, she started to swing randomly, cutting the thing in a dozen different places. However, every cut she made reformed with frighteningly fast speed, and soon enough, all of the wounds she made had regenerated, and she felt something wrap around her leg. She looked down and realized too late that it was one of the thing’s tendrils, and she felt herself be flipped over, and lifted into the air.
Saria was violently slammed down into the ground, repeatedly. After the thrashing, her vision was blurry, and she felt a ringing in her head. Still, she had clung to her sword. Upside down, Saria was now face-to-face with Rose, an eerie grin spreading across the purple-garbed girl’s face.
“You do realize, that had I wanted you dead, I would have blasted you into the outer reaches of the cosmos by now. But alas, however “great” of a warrior you seem to be, it’s simply not worth the effort. I know all that you fear, Saria, the Blood Devil. So, I’ll just break you, then take your soul after.”
Rose’s headpiece lit up with a triple glow, and Saria felt like she had been hit with three sledgehammers at the same time, and she was dislodged from the creature’s grasp, getting launched back even farther than before, landing in a very pained heap. Saria slowly stood up, every single inch of her body aching. Her head was ringing, and she couldn’t think properly. All of her senses were confused, blurry, disoriented. Still, she had to carry on.
She let out a yell, and charged towards the monster, swinging wildly as she went. Again, she was there, cutting at it endlessly with renewed vigor, wanting to hit something, anything. And luckily, she did. Her blade struck something solid inside of the monster, and suddenly, it collapsed into a gelatinous heap of mucus-like waste.
Though the five minions were now dead, Saria couldn’t afford to celebrate. There was still one more monster to kill. She looked up at the purple-garbed girl, who still had a cocky grin plastered across her face. Her hair was now moving like snakes, like it had a life of its own. Rose let out a high-pitched, maniacal laugh.
“My, you are quite the fighter, aren’t you, Blood Devil? Maybe I miscalculated your abilities. Still, the time for fun is coming to a close now. It was amusing while it lasted.”
Rose’s hair swelled up into tendrils, and reared up around her, like a dozen serpents ready to strike all at once, their violet tips glowing with eldritch energy. Saria focused on her blade, with only one thought in her mind: Blood. Soon enough, she felt that familiar feeling once again; Her blood forcefully drawn out of her body, and coating the blade, acting as a new, sharper edge for the sword. She knew that this was a risky move, but dangerous situations often called for dangerous solutions. Also, she was just plain annoyed at the purple girl for being so damn condescending.
“Oh just shut up, will you?”
