Chapter 40: Turning the Tide

With her thigh torn wide open, bleeding freely all down her greave, Lexi struggled to get herself up onto one knee, unsure if her partially cut hamstring would even support her full weight. Still, seeing the massive blow which had just leveled Samantha, the paladin knew that she had no choice but to try and do something. Because if she did not, it seemed almost certain that she and her companions would end up dead — and that was really the best case ending for a loss in this scenario. Worst case, they get beaten, raped, sold into slavery, and then get raped and beaten to death by a different set of assholes. Needless to say, neither option was remotely appealing to Lexi.

With a grunt of sheer determination, the futanari paladin swung the blade of her huge broadsword in a wide horizontal arc, aiming to hit the stone giant in the waist while his attention was still largely focused on Samantha. Unfortunately for the paladin, Ivan was in fact not zeroed in on the monk, but was simply waiting for Lexi to do something just like this. Before the whirling blade came anywhere near him, the iron ball of his kusarigama shot out, wrapping the weapon’s chain tightly around Lexi’s sword, deflecting the blow. With another flex of his massive forearm, the stone giant tweaked the iron ball’s momentum just enough so that the weight slammed flat into Lexi’s cheek — instantly raising an ugly red lump on half of her face that swelled her eye shut tight.

You’ve Been Hit!

-3 HP (22/35)

Despite the literally blinding pain from the giant’s attack, Lexi was even more determined not to give in. Realizing that in entwining their weapons, Ivan may have given the two adventurers a faintest hope of presenting an opening, Lexi launched herself into the plan. With as much strength as she could muster, she yanked hard on her sword. The paladin knew that she would not be able to free it from the stone giant’s tightly wound chain, but that was not her intent. All Lexi wanted to do was to pull the chain taut, and hold it in place for a few seconds. As soon as she had wrenched her sword, causing Ivan to pull back on his kusarigama — thus snapping the chain taut — Lexi yelled out to Samantha.

“Hit him now!”

Although Lexi did not know whether the monk had any tricks hidden up her sleeve, having seen the ferocious Hurricane Kick drop a highwayman dead — à la Street Fighter — she suspected that Samantha might have a few more “special moves” tucked away for times like this. Thankfully, Samantha did not disappoint! A broad smile spread across Lexi’s face as she saw the monk painfully hop to her feet, and slam her fists together, shouting the name of a martial spell as she charged in towards their mutual opponent.

“Fists of Fury!”

Bluish white flame erupted from Samantha’s meaty fists, making them look like the same balls of flame Lexi had seen in so many martial arts video games. With a speed and furious intensity matching, if not exceeding, that which the giant had shown in his attacks on the two girls, Samantha exploded into action. Her hands moving so fast that all Lexi could really see was a blur of blue and white flame, the monk delivered a devastating combination of punches, each one connecting solidly enough with the giant’s stone chest that Lexi could feel the impact resonating through his legs into the ground itself. Once the magically enhanced combination reached its apogee, the monk leaped back out of range, landing in a defensive stance and panting hard.

“Yes!” Lexi yelled, pumping a fist in the air.

Shockingly, Samantha’s attack appeared to have done some serious damage to Ivan. Apart from being visibly shocked and actually driven back a pace, a wide network of hairline cracks had become visible in the stoneskin covering his chest. And, although Lexi could not see it in her heads up display, she would have bet her life that the giant’s hit points went down considerably following that brutal combination. He staggered for just a moment, and Lexi’s heart dared to hope just then, but the giant was far from finished. Stamping his foot hard into the ground, sending another shockwave that Lexi could feel resonating, Ivan gave his kusarigama’s chain a tremendous heave, trying to reel Lexi in.

Rather than resisting, a spur of the moment tactic sprang into Lexi’s mind, subverting the giant’s expectations entirely. The paladin instead used the momentum of Ivan’s immensely strong pull to pull herself towards him. The resulting union of both their heaves sent Lexi hurtling through the air towards the giant so fast that her blond braids were whipped back by the wind. Focusing all of that acceleration and force into one point in her body, the paladin smashed her armored elbow directly into Ivan’s jaw. The blow landed with an extremely satisfying crunch, leaving a visible depression in his face from which yet more cracks in the stone facade emanated.

Your Attack Hit!

-5 HP (24/40)

Wow! So, that means Samantha’s “Fist of Fury” combo alone must’ve done eleven points of damage to this beast. That’s pretty fucking wild!

This internal celebration was, however, quite short lived. Lexi paid dearly for such an up close and personal blow, when Ivan responded almost immediately with a vicious headbutt, which the paladin immediately felt crack the thick bone in her cheek.

You’ve Been Hit!

-3 HP (19/35)

His neck being thicker around than Lexi’s considerable thigh, there was enough power in the headbutt alone to send the paladin’s head snapping back. Taking further advantage of both her close proximity and relative insensibility from the headbutt, Ivan picked the paladin up with a single hand and hurled her backwards into a tree, her back hitting the trunk hard and knocking the wind out of Lexi.

You’ve Been Hit!

-2 HP (17/35)

While Ivan’s immensely broad back was turned to Samantha, the monk leaped back into the fray, launching a flying spin kick to the back of the giant’s neck. Unfortunately, it appeared that even the monk’s shins, hardened from a decade of continual training, were no match for his stoneskin. The kick, which would have instantly felled any normal man elicited only a slight grunt — which was nothing compared to the sharp cry that involuntarily left Samantha’s lips.

“Ahhh!” she cried out.

The monk reeled as explosions of pain blossomed through her shin, the impact of her shin against his neck feeling to Samantha like she had just kicked the side of a boulder. Apparently, the only bare-handed attacks which could be both effective and safe were the magically enhanced combinations. Before Samantha had a chance to withdraw her leg from its pained position atop Ivan’s neck, the giant whipped around, delivering a crushing hammer fist directly to the monk’s muscular inner thigh, dropping the warrior woman where she stood, a nasty purple bruise already forming on her exposed bronze skin.

While Ivan was busy dealing with Samantha and Lexi, the elf maid had managed to recover her bow and quiver of arrows. She had dropped both of them into the very pile of leaves which had concealed the snare that caught her, and — by some minor miracle — neither the black mage nor the hulking giant had noticed the weapons. Now armed, the elf saw that the opportunity was perfect to strike, as Sascha had his back turned to her while he continued to lecture Gretel about her incompetence as a spellcaster.

Knowing that she would only be able to pull off a single shot, the elf took careful aim. With one final exhalation of breath, steadying her nerves and stilling her body as much as possible, she let loose her arrow. Thankfully, the elf’s aim was true, and struck the black robed mage directly in the back, the barbed iron head embedding itself several inches into his back. The air was forcibly ejected from the crooked little man’s lungs as the arrow thudded into his back and punctured one lung.

“Arggg,” Sascha gurgled, bright red blood bubbling out of his mouth as his torn lung quickly began filling with blood.

He desperately clutched at his back, trying to reach the arrow. However, the angle was perfectly wrong, and the black mage was unable to grasp so much as a feather of the arrow’s fletching.

“Catch!” yelled the elf, tossing an arrow over Sascha’s head to Gretel. The pink haired mage fumbled the catch, but managed to get her bound hands close enough to the barbed head that she was able to start sawing through the fabric. While Gretel furiously worked at undoing her bonds, the elf drew back and let fly another arrow. The second shot struck just as true, piercing the same lung less than an inch from the first arrow’s puncture site. Sascha fell forward onto his hands and knees, a steady stream of blood pouring out of the gaping black hole that formed his mask’s mouth. Her hands and mouth now freed, Gretel rose to her feet, her face a cold mask of the purest fury.

“Fuck you,” she spat at the quivering injured mage.

Ripping the mask from his face, she hurled it against the nearest tree, hearing a satisfying crack as it shattered against the trunk. And then, without any hesitation, she gripped his head in both hands by the temples, staring down pitilessly into the wrinkled old face whose eyes were now glassed over from the massive internal bleeding he was no doubt suffering.

Gretel sublingually intoned the words of the same spell she had first tried to use against the black robe. At point blank range, the magical bolts of energy thudded directly into Sascha’s skull, reverberating inside his cranial cavity, effectively liquefying his brain. A horrifyingly gory mixture of blood and gray fluid began leaking from the dying mage’s ears, nose, and eventually even his eyes before Gretel’s spell reached its conclusion.

Meanwhile, Lexi and Samantha having both just been thrown by the injured but still clearly dangerous Ivan, gave one another a look of understanding. The damage they had inflicted so far was definitely something, but each girl knew that their own strength was clearly waning, and some kind of “Hail Mary” plan was needed if they were going to make it. While Ivan’s eyes were still turned to Samantha, Lexi caught the monk’s eye and made a gesture which her fingers that she desperately hoped Samantha would understand. When the monk nodded, just as the stone giant was turning back towards Lexi, the paladin realized that it was now or never. Though the blade of her sword was still wrapped up in the chain of Ivan’s kusarigama, Lexi gripped the handle in both hands, pointing the tip of the blade straight down to hold the sword vertically, and shouted the magical words of command.

Holy Illumination!

Blinding white light exploded in Ivan’s face, temporarily stunning him. The chain fell from one hand as he raised it involuntarily to shield his eyes from the piercing rays that emanated from Lexi’s magically illuminated sword. Struggling to her feet for one final heroic effort, Samantha took a deep breath, and readied herself. The next thing Lexi heard was the cry of the monk’s own magical combat combo, thundering out of Samantha’s mouth as she took a running start and leaped in the air towards Ivan.

“Hurricane Kick!”

Her feet exploded into bluish white balls of flame as the monk’s thickly muscled legs whirled through the air, slapping three times in rapid succession directly into the back of Ivan’s stony head. As with her previous combination, the force of each blow was so staggering that Lexi felt the impact reverberate down through the giant’s body into the ground itself, shaking the leaves on the forest floor. The giant warrior dropped down to one knee, as deep cracks spread all through the stoneskin on the back of his head, radiating all the way down his neck and shoulders.

Seeing the literal cracks in his armor, Lexi joined the fray, sliding her sword’s blade free from the now slack chain and stepping in quickly to deliver a powerful chop directly to Ivan’s clavicle. Her sword bit deep, digging several inches through the stoneskin and into the soft tissue beneath. Rivulets of dark blood began to seep from between the cracks in his stoneskin, traveling down the fuller in the middle of Lexi’s blade to wet the earth below.

“Grrraaah!” Ivan bellowed, slamming both of his fists deep into the soil to keep himself upright.

“What’s wrong,” Lexi said cruelly, digging her sword deeper into the gaping wound. “I thought you were so fucking hard? Looks to me, like you’re about to get your granite ass straight up executed by a pair of soft little girls.”

“Indeed,” came the voice of Samantha, welling up from behind Ivan like the sound of the grim reaper itself. The only other word she spoke was the shouted name of her final magically enhanced attack.

“Axe of Heaven!”

The corded muscles of Samantha’s thick leg stretched to their utmost as she lifted it into a full split. The heel of her foot pointed straight up in the sky and exploded once again into the characteristic flame of the monk’s enhanced attacks. At once, every muscle in Samantha’s body tensed at once, and the flaming heel came rocketing down like a sledgehammer, pounding directly into the back of Ivan’s head where the damage from her Hurricane Kick had been most pronounced. Lexi watched in awe as the giant’s eyes rolled back in his head and he fell forward, dead. Radiating outward from the epicenters of the two girls’ blows, the stoneskin began to flake off, falling from him like chips of dried mud.

“Holy shit,” Lexi said in awe. “We fucking did it!”