Chapter 37: Blood And Barrier (1/2)

If normal strikes didn't work, they would have to target the creature's weaknesses. Over the last six days both Agni and Katrin had been honing their experience by constantly fighting. They had become exceedingly good at defeating Stags and pinpointed quite a few weaknesses besides the obvious. One was the creature's lack of mobility. They could easily bridge great distances at a gallop, but mobility in nearby spaces was very difficult due to their large size. Thus, rather than move, Fulger Stags used their lightning to attack on their behalf. When they absolutely needed to readjust they would often pivot before dashing forward -- because this was their quickest evasion technique.

The women now worked to exploit this weakness. In addition to that, Agni planned to make full use of her halberd to exploit the creature's vulnerabilities -- fire and piercing. Knowing that Katrin was on the same page, both sprung into action. Katrin's role was to attack the creature's legs to weaken them. She began firing a plethora of bullets at the creature's knees, this was easy because the creature moved even less than normal Stags.

Agni lunged forward and swiped at the creature's face. She didn't expect to land a blow, rather it was a shot in the dark. She didn't expect the response she got however as the creature shifted the position of its head, knocking away the halberd with ease. Normally the halberd would deal some damage, chipping away at the mineral deposit of the horns. This time it deflected with a loud clang, nearly knocking the weapon out of Agni's grip. It took a moment for her to recover as the blow lifted her several centimeters off of her feet. In this short period of time the Stag lowered its horns and thrust it's head forward. The blow caught Agni in the chest, both lifting her and piercing her stomach in several spots. For the most part her chest plate blocked the majority of the damage but the creature didn't stop there. As Agni flew backwards a few meters another jolt of lightning sparked forward and zapped her directly in the chest.

[-22]

Due to her agility it was easy for Agni to right herself and bring another swing to bear. This time she aimed for the creature's body as she lunged forth to recover lost ground. The attempted blows were more of a distraction than anything, the goal was never for Agni to take out the creature -- it was to distract it. Katrin stopped firing seconds ago, she was now directly behind the creature in it's blind spot as she creeped forward -- the Flame Scroll extended forth. Once she judged that she was close enough she timed the use of her item with Agni's second blow.

It just so happened that Agni's blow was effective. And it seemed like the Grimlock was caught unaware as well. Rather than the strange feeling of resistance she felt before, Agni could feel her blade cut--albeit not very deeply. The resulting cut was little more than a surface wound which caused a trickle of blood to issue forth. It was at this moment that Agni noticed something strange. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say she ”sensed” it. Due to the dense miasma in the area and the amount of mana she'd been forced to expend, Agi deactivated her Succubus Vision. She turned it on now, a light blue filter covering her eyes as various colors began to take form before her. To use her enhanced thermal vision all Agni needed to do was think about it, upon doing so she noticed what appeared to be small black particles. The resembled thousands of tiny bubbles constantly growing and fading away, the entirety of which formed a thin outline around the creature's body.

A roaring sound echoed through the forest as Katrin ignited her scroll. The stream of flames which shot forth caught the creature on it's flank and for the first time it showed a reaction to pain. It was at this time that Agni also noticed the number of particles cloaking the creature diminish significantly.

She was so focused on this that she forgot to follow up her second blow with another to distract her target. Thus the creature responded with a vicious hind quarter kick, Katrin expected this to a degree as they'd used this tactic several times before. She did not expect the speed and power of the blow, which struck her full on in the chest, sending her flying towards a nearby tree.

[-64]

Agni could hear Katrin groan as she watched the HP decrease by 30% in an instant.

”Dammit.” Agni grunted as she resolved to light into the creature. She raised her left hand and formed a fireball, pouring a significant amount of her mana into it before she pointed her palm at the creature.