Chapter 1232 (1/2)
The houses below her quickly began to collapse as the giant bloodbeast adjusted its footing and ripped right through the wooden walls nearby. With the hand it had used to launch the blasts now largely ravaged by golden fire, the bloodbeast’s other arm began to twitch and split into three long scythe-like appendages.
Alana pressed her thighs against Wivanya’s cool scales. The Dragon Broodmother responded instantly, pulling her crystalline wings closer to her body and rolling to the side as one the bloodbeast’s newly split limbs cut through the location that they had just vacated. Gliding sharply downward, they spiraled closer to the bloodbeast and rotating around its body as its sharp limbs gave chase
They were moving so quickly that the wind howled in her ears at a volume able to drown out the roar of the fires below. Alana was already marshaling her own image as she tapped her heels twice against Wivanya’s sides to signal an abrupt ascent.
With acceleration that forced even Alana to grit her teeth, Wivanya’s violent wing beats flung the duo rapidly upward in a swirling pillar of snow. The bloodbeast roared as they ascended rapidly past its torso. The fleshy, bloody body soon warped as several new clumsy arms forced their way out of its body and grasped at the flying pest as it shot upward.
It was only as they had created a buffer of about twenty meters of space above the bloodbeast that Alana allowed herself the luxury of circling calmly above the enemy. With twelve extra hands still grasping upward toward them, the bloodbeast glared its fury out of its glowing red eyes. “Do not test my patience.”
Ignoring the bloodbeast, Alana sent Hank a message. You ready? This one is strong.
Patience darlin’, almost in position.
The golden fire around Alana flared upward at Hank’s message. Alana allowed herself a pointed smile at Wivanya’s scales; during their trainings, Hank had mysteriously stopped referring to her as darling after she had very thoroughly beaten him into the ground every time he dared to do so. The fact that he had so quickly reverted back to his teasing drawl proved that he hadn’t been nearly as cowed as she had assumed.
Still, his bravery was probably for the best; this was not a foe that Alana wanted to fight with a coward on her side. But that didn’t mean she planned on making things easy for the man after things were resolved here. Plus, a little prodding now was a way to keep his escapades from escalating during future operations.
So Alana squeezed her thighs again and Wivanya dutifully pressed her wings against her sides. They dropped like a rock, heading directly for the large crimson blob with its dozens of grasping limbs. Its eyes warped with hatred. With the backdrop of collapsing homes, it certainly seemed like the personification of ruin.
Hank’s message came almost immediately as Alana image began to ripple outward and cover the surrounding area. Now hold your horses. It will take me a minute or two to get a good angle.
I hope I don’t die in the meantime, Alana deadpanned. And even though it was mostly a joke, Alana’s eyes were extremely serious as the accelerated downward to the bloodbeast. Its arms seemed to bulge and then launch themselves upward as more blood was used to fuel them. As the whirling image of golden fire around Alana intensified, a light smoke began to drift out of the corners of her eyes. The wings that grew from Alana’s helmet grew longer and the white color of the feathers grew increasingly clear.
Was this what Randidly felt with his image when he faced me…?
As six grasping hands of blood thrust themselves forward, Alana’s image of a valkyrie descended, a resplendent rider of righteous flames. Her spear was was a shimmering inferno that hammered downward and smashed back the six enormous hands that grabbed at her. The power of her image and body almost perfectly overlapped.
Wivanya growled in warning as the other six blood red palms smashed around at Alana from both sides. But Alana’s image was a paragon of power right now. With feathers as white as snow, the Valkyrie’s wings spread outward and deflected the blows from the other limbs. Moving with the ease of long practice, Alana pulled back her spear, released a whistling breath, and then thrust forward with another Sun Strike that was empowered by her image.
The deflected hands twisted and bulged as more blood was pumped into them. They quickly returned to attack again and Alana once more burned brightly to force them back. Each attacking palm was about the size of Alana’s torso, so what forced the hands back wasn’t pure strength but rather the burning image of Alana’s fire. The strain made Alana wince, but she forced her image to burn even brighter.
When her image-empowered attack landed, a ripple ran through the enormous bloodbeast. The hands that tried to seize Alana began to curdle and bubble, the redness of the blood of its body slowly darkening toward black as her image crashed against the image animating the bloodbeast.
Alana quickly sent Hank a message. That image is here, resisting me. Take it out.
Ignoring the curses that Hank sent back, Alana focused on the sensation of her image crashing against the vast sea of blood that surged up from the monster she fought. The waves of it lapped against her valkyrie, attempting to stain the creature of pure fire and justice. And when it initially failed to corrupt her, it wasn’t disappointed at all; if anything, more and more waves of blood surged upward to taint Alana.
Alana’s eyes were glowing golden and the smoke drifting upward from them became thicker. What sort of life have you lived to create an image like this…? I suppose there will be time to beat the answers out of your body later.