#109 – She just like me for real

#109 – She just like me for real My axe landed, spawning a whole glacier of crystals, but my opponent had already moved away and was swinging her axe at me in a sideways slash, its blade pouring out black fire. I ducked, letting the blade sail over me while putting my axe self into Soul Pocket and bringing out my gun self instead. I pointed it at her, point blank, and fired. An eruption of steam knocked me away, but I was so used to that at this point, that I managed to right myself mid-air with the help of Featherfall and land on my feet. Looking up at the echo of the demon queen, she hadn’t budged an inch. She simply held out one of her arms to guard herself with hints of black fire flickering over it. Well... shit. This was going to be tough. How was I going to do any damage if just her skin was this durable? Was Soul Strike really my only option...? SunOfABeach: armor break SunOfABeach: the necklace ...Oh yeah. I had that, didn’t I? I had completely forgotten. Well then. I got up and aimed my gun self at her again. In the meantime though, rather than charging or shooting me, she did something different. Her colors shifted. I stopped short of shooting, getting caught off guard by this development. Her cyan skin, battle dress, and tail turned black while her wings turned dark red. “Wait! That’s the same as... as that guy!” I yelled very descriptively. She stopped, shrugged, and then nodded. So it was the same skill? What did it even do, really? And how come they both had it? Was it a demon thing? But no other demons had it. And was she even a demon? Maybe it was just a coincidence? Or was there more to it? ...Something to think about for later. I was in the middle of a fight right now. She took a stance with her axe and black flames began to pour out of it. They hovered near the blade as she wound up her arms, making the axe seem like it was way bigger than normal. Then, a moment later, I acted on my instincts and dropped down on my stomach just as she swung the thing, cleaving through the entire throne room with a thunderous boom. Holy shi– She turned the weapon in her hands, gathered more black fire, pulled it over her head and– I rolled out of the way, just as the mass of flames slammed down in a line where I’d been laying just a moment ago. With no time to be shocked at that ridiculous attack, I scrambled to my feet and hurriedly pointed my gun at her again, activated Armor Break and Guided Shot, and fired a crystal shard-loaded water shot. She predicted my move and stepped to the side to dodge, but unfortunately for her, her big wings meant bigger hitbox. My shot hit one of her wings, blowing it to smithereens. She staggered but quickly recovered and went for another black fire-empowered slash. I shot again and then jumped. My other shot tore through her other wing while her slash covered the ground of the entire room in flames for a brief second before dissipating. I landed again, wearing a grim frown. I had aimed for the other wing intentionally this time. After all, I didn’t know whether she had any skills that required wings like the other demon, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Unfortunately, the loss of her wings didn’t seem to bother her all that much. Or rather... Wasn’t she more agile without them?! Before I could shoot again, she dashed forward, swinging her axe again. I spun out of the way, just barely avoiding the black flames this time. As soon as I regained my footing though, something else hit me straight in the chest and made my muscles seize for a brief moment. I saw the axe blade swinging toward me, but I still couldn’t move. A tentacle whipped out of me and grabbed both the handle and my foe’s hands as well, stopping the swing in its tracks just before it could cleave me in half. A moment later, my axe self teleported behind her and immediately swung at her as I used Armor Break once more. My axe self cleaved through the air and cleanly bisected my foe– I blinked as my tentacle was suddenly holding nothing. The visage of my opponent dissipated into black smoke. The swing of my axe blew the smoke away from me to the side, where it then reformed into a person again. I scowled. Well, that was just unfair! She had even more moves than the version in the crater! Maybe I should have tried to steal one of her skills when we were touching...? No, but that would have left me too drained to keep fighting. Not to mention, it wouldn’t even weaken her that much since she had so many skills. There was a moment of calm as I eyed her, trying to figure out how to counter that smokify move. “...You’re not really pulling your punches, are you? I thought you wanted me to kill you?” I asked, remembering how that axe swing would have probably killed me if I hadn’t caught it with my tentacle. She paused, then nodded... then shook her head. ...What? “Um...” SunOfABeach: maybe she can’t hold back? “You can’t hold back...?” A nod. I sighed. “I see... Let’s continue then.” She nodded, disappeared her axe... and then shifted colors again. “Huh?” She went back to being full cyan again. “...Why though...?” I still didn’t really know what that was supposed to do, but I needed to be careful regardless. She shrugged, not giving anything away, and then took a stance. “What are you–” #$Gestation period. Overrated. Mister down– I ducked just as the fist sailed above my head and shook off that mental attack, then snapped out with my tentacle in a pseudo-punch, knocking her away from me. I glared at her as I stood up and turned on Intra vision while berating myself. Duh. Of course she had a mental attack. Her other version had it too and she had used a mental skill on me at the very start as well! Good thing I had my Mind Shield. That could have been pretty bad. “Rude!” I shouted as she took a stance again and– I dashed to the side as the ball of green cobwebs sailed past me. Wasting no time, I fired my own ball of green cobwebs – Rend – at her, but she ducked under it without a problem. ...Wait. Wasn’t the other demon guy’s mental attack different? Why were mine and hers identical? Was she also using Rend specifically? “You have human skills?! I thought you’re a demon!” Well, to be fair, she was also supposed to be a dragon’s mother, right? Was she mixed-raced? Some of the others I’d seen in this dungeon also seemed to be mixed-raced... hmm... She paused, held up her hand – I tensed, anticipating an attack – and then wobbled the hand in front of herself in a ‘so so’ motion. “...What?” She shrugged, then leaned back, as if breathing in, and then leaned forward– I immediately dashed back and then behind the pillar I’d been standing in front of to dodge the absolute tsunami of crystal shards she just unleashed... from where her mouth would have been. Okay, got it! Definitely mixed-raced! Seriously, why was I even surprised that the supposed mother of a Crystal dragon could unleash the same crystal shard breath? Shit, should I be worried about being sapphired again? Her color scheme matched it... The tsunami finally ended, but I didn’t dare get out of my hiding spot just yet. Maybe there would be a cooldown on it, similarly to my own Fire Breath, but I had no idea how long it would be. Just when I was thinking of what to do, she dashed into my field of view, axe held in both hands, before chucking the thing at me. Hey! That was my move! I quickly jumped back, just as the axe hit the ground and burst into a whole iceberg of crystal. I hadn’t expected it to be that powerful and ended up getting stabbed by some of them. Fortunately, it only barely scratched me. Unfortunately, my momentary distraction gave my opponent enough time to close in on me, her fists covered in crystal again. I reacted instantly by whipping out my tentacle and curling it around her chest to keep her just out of reach. I noticed the Ether concentrating near where her mouth would be too late. Pain. Just like back when the crystal dragon had hit me head on with the needle rain, all I could feel was pain all over my body, despite my best attempts to burn the attack with my Demon Queen Flame. It freaking hurt and I just couldn’t– SH*#QYrfLESterla of the bunny kingdom. Duck fifty seconds. A fist hit my stomach and exploded into crystals, digging into me and flinging me across the throne room. Somehow, I managed to mentally recover in record time and landed on the side of another pillar, gritting my teeth from the pain. Fuck, she’d totally combo’d me back there. This was not going well at all! I needed a better strategy! Luckily, a moment later, one of my forks delivered some potentially useful info from chat to me. SunOfABeach: she’s not using black fire anymore Jeofffff: maybe she cant in that form? So was this cyan mode her crystal dragon form? And the black mode was the demon queen form? But she could still use human skills in either form? She had used Rend – or at least something that looked way too similar – as well materializing her axe – which could be soulbound item. For now... let’s try staying at range. I jumped out of the way as the axe smashed into the pillar and created another iceberg of crystals. As I soared through the air, I pulled out my gun self once again, activated Armor Break and Guided Shot once more and let loose a rocket filled with fire and plasma. My opponent easily dodged it, not even letting it hit her wings – wait, when had she regrown those? – but with Guided Shot and the rocket already being somewhat homing, it simply did a big loop behind her and flew back at her. She tried dodging again, but with her distracted with something behind her made it that much easier to hit her with a second attack, this one just a simple water shot. It hit her straight in her chest, making her stagger, which gave me a moment to properly aim and fire off Rend. It hit her as well... although it didn’t seem to have that big of an impact. Regardless, it distracted her long enough for the rocket to finally hit her in the back and explode into fire, completely covering her. Obviously, I didn’t think that would be the end of it. Seeing how easily she had blocked my initial attack and how she had apparently regenerated her wings mid-fight, she had to be very durable, even if I’d used Armor Break with that rocket. So while I waited for the fire to die down a little, I got out my trusty flask and sipped from it while consulting with chat on how to best handle her various attacks. We also theorized that since she was a boss, her changing colors might have also been a phase change – like the shark. Although, I wasn’t too sure whether that meant this was her second or third phase, considering she had come in cyan and transformed into black only when we started fighting. It didn’t seem to matter, however, because something unexpected happened. The fire, rather than clearing to reveal my foe, began swirling in circles like a tornado, growing wider and wider... until the eye of the firestorm eventually revealed my opponent, back in her black form. She simply stood there with her arms and wings spread wide, covered in fire herself. And now that I looked at it – and after some comments from the chat – these red feathery wings... were they supposed to be phoenix wings? You know, the fire bird? Dammit! Just how many races was she a mix of?! She raised her arms further and then whipped them forward in a huge sweeping motion. The firestorm around her followed, surging toward me.