Chapter 2-55: Flagrant Violation of Safety Laws (2/2)

She pulled herself up on the wall and crouched there, listening to them talk in Aklo.

The human flesh they were eating was barely seared, if at all; they seemed to prefer it raw. She noted the brand of beer they were drinking, resolved to look into it and never drink it herself, and waited, blowing her first Inspiration for Supreme Cleave, the Archer Stand Thrust, Vexing Flanker, Whirlwind Attack, and Adaptable Flanker.

Feats she simply hadn’t had the time or opportunity to really be able to practice flared to life in her skull.

Tiktiktiktiktik...

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Ten minutes and thirty-three seconds later, the seal on that vial of modified alchemical fire was eaten through, and glowing pink stuff touched oxygen, whooped, and jetted out of the vial, popping the rest of its seal off and heading down into the toxic mass below.

First there was a poof of flame in the distance.

She took one breath.

Then there was a blaze of fire heading into the sky in interesting colors, and the BOOM of the explosion rattling everything around and sending everyone in front of her to their feet, instinctively closer together, all to gape at the fireball going off up into the sky.

Of course, it meant they were under attack, but all their eyes were in that direction.

Her Vajra cut through the blast of the wind as she jumped and came down behind the Aberrants.

The second vial, perhaps jostled by the first, released its load, the fumes intersecting above and winding down past as they ignited in sympathy, the puff lost in the greatness that followed.

Perhaps they were ready to move, but that second explosion flattened them down despite themselves, and they could only tense and wait to see if there was another one, given the pattern.

Meanwhile, Sama landed right in the middle of the Aberrants, turning visible as she launched her attack, and killed them all with a blur of neck-level crosscuts.

Improved Flanking she already had, gave her +4 to Hit when flanking. Adaptable Flanking meant she could choose any square she threatened to flank a foe from. Vexing Flanker meant she picked the square her flanking ally needed to be in... and she counted as her own ally.

Net effect, +4 to hit, which bought off both Precise Attack and Power Attack, which normally could not be used together... unless you had a weapon that could be used two-handed with finesse combat, which a soul sword most certainly could, and could access a certain Grandmastery of the sword, with the requisite supporting Masteries. The two penalties offset the flanking for a nice +10 to damage, leaving her with a mere +14 to hit, ignoring 2 points of Dex/Dodge, Armor, and Mystic Defenses each with Ways of Water, Fire, and Storm.

She had Cleave Mastery to /2, Improved Cleave, but Supreme Cleave required a Feat to get before Five. Being able to take a step between Cleave targets also meant that she could get the sixth Aberrant into her Whirlwind as soon as she killed one, took off its head in a golden swathe of light, and continued the blurring butterfly pattern through the rest of them in a flurry of blows that took less than two seconds to execute... and then she was charging the werewolves crouched and staring at the fireballs raging up into the sky.

They looked transfixed and admiring at the sight of so much destruction, and given how fast their companions had died, there was no alarm coming from them, not that the roar of the explosion let anything else be heard.

She needed to take out the bigger guys by surprise.

The closest one to her was one of the smaller guys. She blew by him, hacking right through his head for double damage, and Tremble straightened out and settled in for the Spirited Charge that emulated an impaling spear, granting her the x3 damage on the charge.

The glowing golden sword erupted out through his chest, and Sama blew the Sun Strike, sending radiant death through his chest cavity to make sure any non-standard physiology died regardless... and incidentally made it easier to pull off her Sword on the rebound as she Finished him with a glorious crit.

She stepped, Refocused, and Hewed into the second oversized werewolf there as it turned a shocked and deranged face on her, human flesh still dangling from uneven fangs, all that extra wasted crit damage singing out and depositing itself through the werewolf’s hide and up under its ribs, deep through the lungs and heart and out the other side.

Three down, and the instinctive howls of alarm were going up, although nobody outside the walls was going to hear them as the third tank of gunk went up.

A normal werewolf loomed to meet her, and Sword Beats Fist triggered as he came in. She looped her cut, and a furred arm went flying as she slid by the lunging jaws, and continued the strike to chop him halfway through, including his spine, at the waist.

The female werewolf howled at her, grabbing a massive spiked chain that moved in a manner suggesting it was magical (yay?), and lashed it out at her.

Sama went down as if her center of balance was somehow about at her ankles, the chain hissing by above her, and straightened back up and shifted Tremble up into the Archer Stands Thrust as the fifth one leapt at her.

Her body didn’t waver as the werewolf drove himself down Tremble’s blade, his mass and claws driving her backwards across the ground as if she were a statue.

She guided his muzzled head to the ground, and simply charged the female werewolf, who was also a good seven feet tall and whipping that chain about in both her claws, while the slowest to react werewolf seemed to be in the middle of ripping out of his clothes and changing to wolf form.