Chapter 40
My body flickered as I dodged the onslaught of Ego tendrils as they snapped past me, each one going for the kill. My Ego coated claws sliced through any I couldn’t dodge. I was on the defensive, just trying to find an opening as she advanced on me slowly, keeping up the assault against me.
Focusing, I flickered twice to the side, now free of the onslaught. Using my wings to propel myself, I shot towards Scayla as she adjusted her attacks to my approach. As the Ego tendrils began to fly towards me, I spun in the air and flew over the first few that blew past me.
Flapping hard, I flared all my Ego blades as I began to spin like a drill straight towards her, destroying any Ego tendrils that attempted to hit me.
She roared as she flapped her wings, sending forcefields of magic at me. But I just drilled right through those.
Just as I was inches from her chest with the tip of my attack, she flashed, reappearing behind me as her body flashed as she cast a spell.
Hitting the ground, I spun around, preparing to attempt another attack. But the moment I came to a stop, something came over me as the spell she cast was directly onto me, meaning I couldn’t dodge it without having magic of my own.
“Got you!” she yelled, a sinister smile falling across her face as her tendrils flared and shot straight for me.
“Tsk!” I hissed as I realized I couldn’t move. As the dark tendrils near me, my own Ego shot out and latched on to her just as the tendrils reached me. They disappeared just as they slammed into me, my Ego cutting heads off.
She snorted and stomped on my Ego, breaking the connection. “Smart, but how many times can you get lucky?”
Off to the side, I saw Greg’s horn flash. I then regained control of my body. Standing up, I flexed my arms and wings.
She turned to see the others watching, eyes zeroing in on Greg, “So you want to be included in this fight?! FINE!”
Her Ego shot towards them, but Bronwyn slide between them and sliced away all the tendrils that flew towards them. This only infuriated Scayla more as she turned to Lorenzo.
“Aren’t you going to help as well?!” she yelled, shaking in anger.
He blinked and laughed, “I thought you said you could handle them all alone?”
“I can!” she yelled back, “but I-”
“Then do it,” he replied coldly, crossing his arms.
She growled as she took up a stance so she could see all of us. “Fine then…”
“Scayla,” I said, getting her attention, “You don’t have to listen to him. Hell, you don’t even need to listen to me. You’re free, why don’t you just do what you want to do?”
This seemed to cause her to think, a smile falling onto her face, “I think that’s just what I’ll do, thank you, Scamp.”
I blinked, confused that that worked, “Oh, eh… you’re welc-”
My eyes went wide as a tendril shot through my back and out my chest.
“Gonna kill you, that’s what I want to do,” she said with crazy eyes, a wide grin on her face.
“Shit!” I spat out, red and gold blood spraying out of my mouth. Using my tail, I flicked it up and sliced the tendril, causing it to disappear.
Falling to a knee, I held the gapping wound as she laughed like a maniac.
“You’re too gullible sometimes. I should know, I was inside the brain of yours,” she laughed in a cute fashion.
As I gasped, I saw another Ego tendril slide across the ground and attach to my hand. A cooling sensation washed over me as I felt the wound closing. Following the trail, I saw it lead back to Calypso.
“STOP INTERFERING!” Scayla roared as her body began to glow and a massive beam of energy shot towards the group.
Lance flashed a card, causing a shield to appear in front of them, deflecting the beam right back at her.
With a flash, she teleported next to me, dodging the attack. I reacted, but not fast enough as she slammed her antlers forward, catching me in the face. Luckily, the bone plating on my face was strong enough to withstand the attack, causing my head to just snap back instead of getting gored.
But now that she was close, I sliced out with both claws, flickering as I performed four attacks all at once.
She screamed as she flashed away, appearing a few feet away dripping blood out of her ruined face and chest.
“Bith!” She roared, unable to speak clearly now. “Yoor goung ta paa!”
“Can’t understand you,” I mocked back at her, giving her a wink as my wounds healed thanks to Calypso.
She began to shake in pure anger as the room seemed to start to darken around us.
Then, out of every single shadow in the room poured Ego tendrils, all flying towards me.
“Oh… did not know she could do that!” I yelled as I began to flicker and dodge around the incoming attacks, struggling due to the sheer amount of them.
My body began to get pounded and cut as more and more began to slip through. Calypso’s own Ego could not reach me in all of this, leaving me on my own.
Fighting as hard as I could, I sliced and flickered, but it was a losing battle as the wounds began to mount up.
As if to answer my prayers, an explosion was heard around the area Scayla was. The attack slowed enough for me to regain my composure and flicker away from my position.
Then, everything stopped, even me.
“Goft youuu!” I heard her scream in victory as my eyes went wide.
I felt something start to crawl through my entire body violently, cutting through skin and organs, wrapping around my metal bones. Struggling to look down, I saw I’d been stabbed by a tendril in the thigh.
Shaking heavily, I fought to move, to cut the Ego tendril attached to me before it spread too far. But I couldn’t.
“Nowh, doo vuat ah sey!” she roared, her ruined face seeming to resemble a smile.
“Cut it!” I screamed as my body spun around on its own, facing my friends.
“Oh fuck,” Lance said, eyes wide as he flashed a card, sending a wave of energy towards the tendril attached to me. But my body lurched forward and blocked the attack with my chest, leaving a burned hole on the top of it. Thank everything he didn’t throw something more powerful!
“CUT IT!” I screamed again as I began to panic.
<GET IT OUT!>
(CUT THIS SHIT OFF OF US!)
“Heal her!” Lance yelled as Bronwyn dashed forward.
Calypso’s Ego snapped forward and attached to me, healing the damage inside of me, and the new hole from Lance’s attack.
Bronwyn danced around in front of me as she tried to get an angle on the Ego tendril, but it kept moving around my body, keeping me between them.
My claws flashed forward violently without warning. She barely blocked it as she kept trying to get around me, but my body kept following her every move.
With a loud clang, my wings shot around and slammed into her sword as she blocked the attack. She had a panicked look on her face, which did not help me at all!
(BREAK THE FUSION!)
<I’VE BEEN TRYING!>
Everything seemed to slow as she blocked another attack from me, and a massive pain shot through my body as a second tendril blew through my back and out my chest, slamming straight into Bronwyn’s throat.
Her eyes went wide as she cut the one that pierced her, then stumbled back, collapsing onto her back. Choking violently.
Calypso’s Ego attached to her quickly, but now no one was helping keep me from attacking them!
As my body raised up and lurched towards them, Balgore grabbed my leg and slammed me straight into the ground. He grabbed the Ego tendril and ripped it from my body, causing me to let out a dual voiced wail of agony as Calypso's Ego worked over time to heal my body.
I shook violently as I stood up, looking at Bronwyn. To my relief, she was climbing to her feet as well, coughing up the remaining blood in her throat.
Snapping my head to Scayla, I saw her fuming as she stared straight into my eyes.
My Ego snapped towards Lance, to his surprise, and I latched onto him, taking his Ego abilities. “Sorry, Lance. I need to borrow you for a moment.”
He blinked, looking taken aback, but didn’t protest.
Holding up my hand, a card appeared between my claws. Focusing on it, I created a new card for myself.
“I was against killing you, Scayla,” I started as she narrowed her eyes, jaw hanging loosely. “But after that? Fuck you.”
The card flashed as a pink gleam coated my body.
My Ego shot out and attached to her in all directions, more than she could cut or break before I reached her.
I began to walk towards her, snarling as I looked her directly in the eyes.
Her body flashed as she cast a spell that flew towards me, but it just bounced off of me and flew away harmlessly. With wide eyes, she tried to cast more spells on me, but all seemed to fail. Then she shifted her focus to the Ego attached to her, but for everyone she cut, I replaced it with another.
Finally, she turned to me, eyes wide in a crazy stare.
As I neared, I flashed her wide toothy smile. I then started sprinting straight at her.
With a gurgling roar, she charged straight at me as well. But just as we neared each other, I flickered to the left. She didn’t react fast enough as I sliced down her side, leaving three long cuts along her.
Stumbling forward, she looked back, a shocked look on her face. She fell to her knees, her insides falling out.
Then to my surprise, she began to cry. Loudly. She curled up into a ball as her mane and tail started to dull.
“Damn it,” I cursed. My Ego snapped to Calypso as well. I then sent a Ego tendril to Scayla, slowly healing her wounds.
Everyone started screaming their protest, all but Lance at least. He just looked on with interest.
Scayla blinked a few times as her mouth reformed itself, looking at me with wide eyes. “What are you doing?!”
“Saving you,” I deadpanned, staring at her blankly.
“But, I’m going to kill you!” she yelled, shakily standing up.
“I’d rather you didn’t,” I said, then chuckled despite the situation.
Her lip trembled in anger as she stared at me, then her shoulders relaxed. “Damn it, Scamp… Why are you making this hard?!”
“Because that’s what I do apparently. I’ve been saving instead of killing recently,” I replied, shrugging.
Off to the side, Lance smiled in approval, clearly very proud at that moment.
Scayla snorted hard, but sighed as a small smile formed on her lips, “You know I’m not going back inside of you, right?”
“Don’t expect you too,” I say, returning her smile. “You’re your own being now, you can do whatever you want.”
She looked me over, then laughed, “I don’t know if-”
Everything happened at once. A portal opened next to her, followed by a blade flashing through her. Another opened before me the next instant, a flash of metal flying towards my neck.
I flickered as I dodged the sudden attack, dodging to the side and turning to face Lorenzo, who was just pulling his sword back from his attacks.
“You are just amazing! The reaction time! Beautiful!” he praised from across the room, clapping his hands together.
A gurgling sound came from my left, causing my head to snap over. A grimace fell across my face as I saw Scayla, now without her head.
“You…” I shook, the sight of her body causing me to start breathing harder. “... You bastard…”
“I don’t like when my underlings don’t do what I say,” Lorenzo replied, glancing at Balgore. “You’re next if you don’t return to my side. Right now.”
Balgore spat upon the ground and crossed his arms in defiance.
“Your fight is with me,” I said in a low voice as I began to walk towards him.
He turned to me, blinking, “Is it?”
I did not answer as I propel myself forward so fast, no one in the room even saw me move, not even Bronwyn.
As I appeared before him, my claws dove forward, aiming to impale him through the chest. But, just as my claws reached the cloth over his chest, a portal opened before them.
I grunted in pain as my own claws slammed into my back, digging deep into me.
“WHOA! YES!” he yelled, dancing back a few feet. “That is what I’m talking about! You NEED to work for me!”
Spitting out blood, I stood up straight, towering over him. Instead of answering him, I swung my clawed hand forward. He didn’t move since he was out of my reach. That was till one of Mallogory’s sword appeared in my hand.
His eyes went wide as he deflected the attack with his own sword, but I followed it up with a second attack from my other hand, the other sword appearing in it.
(Fucker didn’t know about these babies!)
Pushing hard, I cut away at his defenses, but his speed was on par with mine. Neither one of us could find an opening to attack the other.
Then, with the expertise of someone who’s been fighting for thousands of eons, he deflected my blades and somehow twisted them out of my hands, sending them clattering away.
His wide crazy eyes beamed at me as he sliced away at me, with my claws now being used to block and deflect his sword.
“YES!” he yelled out as we danced around each other. “You would do amazing things under my guidance!”
Not taking the bait, I kept up the assault, my wings slicing forward when they had the chance.
Again, just showing off how far ahead in combat he was, he somehow got my arms tangled up with his sword, portals appearing around himself to block my wings as he smiled up into my face.
“Say yes, give yourself to me,” he said as his free hand reached up and caressed my bone plated cheek.
My eyes narrowed, but then I smiled at him.
He returned the smile, till a bright flash caught him off guard as he lost his grip on my arms.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Mallogory and I split apart, falling to either side of him. His eyes went wide as he tried to collect himself in the seconds that followed.
My Ego attached to him just as he spun and dove for Mallogory’s chest. As the tip reached her, a portal opened over it, causing his blade to penetrate through his back.
I cursed as I realized I missed his heart with the attack.
He yelped and wheeled away, stumbling a bit as he ran away towards the door attached to the room.
“You fucking coward!” I screamed as I slammed into his back, sending him to the ground.
Mallogory jumped for him, but even from the ground he was able to deflect her attack with his blade.
Very roughly I landed on top of him, knocking his sword aside and latched down on his throat with my teeth. I very easily ripped straight through his clothing and through his fleshy neck. He let out a hoarse scream as he grabbed my Ego tendril with his bare hand and snapped it.
A portal opened beneath himself, dropping both of us into it.
“Scamp!” Mallogory screamed as she jumped in after me. A third person followed us in just as it snapped shut.
Lorenzo and I rolled across the ground as I started ripping into him over and over again with my teeth, biting anything I could get my mouth on. At one point, I bit clean through his hand, removing it from his arm.
Without warning, a heavy boot slammed into my side, sending me flying away from the wailing and screaming Lorenzo.
Mallogory caught me midair, lightening the impact I would have felt if I’d hit a wall or something.
“She really got a hold of you there, Boss!” A very familiar voice said as Mallogory put me down and I stared in horror at the sight before us.
“Oh fuck me,” Lance said from behind me. Looks like he had been the one who followed us in.
I trembled as I swallowed the gore in my mouth.
“Hey there, horse, bet you thought you wouldn’t be seeing me again,” Leem laughed as he stepped over the squirming Lorenzo. “Bail, heal the Boss will ya?”
A little crippled man pulled himself out of a box, Ego leaving his body and attaching to Lorenzo’s own, calming him down.
My body just shook more and more violently as I stared at him, his wide toothy smile the cause of my many nights of waking up screaming. The two appendages he’d eaten off began to burn at the memory of him.
“I’m new and improved,” he said, tapping his head. “So sorry to say that little trick won’t work again.”
“Scamp, it’s okay,” Mallogory said, touching my shoulder. “We got this.”
“You don’t, but hope is always a fun thing to rip from someone,” he laughed, squaring up with us. “I’m going to eat your arms and legs first, then we’ll see how I’m feeling after that.”
“Kill them!” Lorenzo choked out, eyes ablaze as he stared at me as I shook violently. “But leave the bitch alive! I want her!”
“With pleasure,” Leem chuckled as he began to stomp towards us.
