I snap into Sadie.
The minotaur staggers then turns, trying to figure out just what body I’m inhabiting now. He takes a half step and spits. He’s absolutely off balance, with cuts on both legs from Baco’s headbutts and Jes’ drive bys with her axe. The dark fur on his thighs is thick with blood. He’s still fighting, swinging at anything in reach. With Sadie and Baco each zipping around, my bondling taxis, he’s getting fed up.
Fed up and angry is good. Fed up and angry makes mistakes. He throws his arms back, chest up and out in a display of threat and roars.
Jes takes advantage of the moment. She tosses her axe in the air, pulls out one of her akon darts, and throws. The dart lodges deep in his neck, just above the collarbone and she catches the axe.
And that’s why you want juggling as a skill.
In his egotistical display of ferocity, he shows that first mistake. Had he not gotten angry, he wouldn’t have opened himself up. The sound of his roar is choked off and he reaches for his neck.
I’m in Sadie. It’s a bit disorienting as I keep changing height. I can feel we’re too spent for a decent fireball, but we charge in. Baco is also taking advantage of the moment, using hyper speed to try and run a tusk across the back of Bullboy’s Achilles tendon.
I wonder if Achilles is around here somewhere.
Unfortunately, the minotaur sees the oncoming porcine projectile and twists out of the way. Baco tries to adjust, but it ends up just being a glancing blow off a hoof. I’m not sure it’s possible to actually damage those hooves without some sort of explosive.
“Axe,” we shout, approaching our target and reaching a hand out.
Jes spins her axe in an underhand lob right into Sadie and my waiting hand. The minotaur is turning, or maybe even collapsing after Baco’s heel strike, and we come up behind him and swing that axe just over his hip.
It’s not a deep gash like I was hoping.
“Sorry, I never trained for weapon combat,” we say.
“That’s alright, we got him now,” we reply.
The minotaur grunts a sound of recognition as he reaches for us. We leap away.
“Gotta go,” we warn Sadie, leaving her psyche. The minotaur sensed me, which means time to move out.
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FASTER!
Jeez, I don’t know what the hell Jes has been doing to Baco, but if he gets any more powerful, he’s going to get his own comic book.
The minotaur holds his axe out and spins. It’s a clearing, wild swing, swiping away everything near him without thought or aim. He’s confused and is just swatting everything away. He hasn’t been able to get Jes’ dart out of his neck, and it’s squirting with each heartbeat. He’s losing blood fast. We just need to tip the scales a little more. Before he regenerates.
We circle behind the rotating minotaur, staying in his blind spot, waiting for another good opening. Sadie is bounding around like a dollar store handball.
“We’ve got him!” Jes shouts. Her voice is ragged. I see her now. There’s blood on her face and side. Did she get hit at some point? My multi camera view angle of the fight makes it difficult to track anything more than our main target.
CHARGE! Baco declares, and we’re running. It’s like being in one of those magnetic cold launch rollercoasters that don’t have to go up to get you moving.
Clonk, it’s another hoof shot. Useless, even if it is a satisfying sound.
The minotaur is undirected, lurching side to side, snapping this way then that, and it’s hard to get a solid hit. He needs a focal point, so we can track his moves better. Great that he’s confused, but not if we can’t figure out how to position ourselves.
“Everyone on him now,” is what I want to call out, but all I get is a scramble of grunts and snorts. Boars can’t pronounce English through their snouts.
I leap out of Baco as my normal self and repeat the call to action.
“Hey, Chucklebutt,” I call from thirty feet behind him.
He turns, his head low, eyes glowing.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I shout.
He obliges, dropping to all fours and roaring. He paws the ground and starts at me.
Everything is slow, but it has nothing to do with my perception. It’s me being just Dom, a human summoner. I’ve been zipping around as Sadie, a dancer on a trampoline, and charging as Baco the Jes-enchanted bullet train. I radically miscalculated just how slow and sluggish a human is in comparison.
The first step he takes, his body starts to ripple and surge. He’s reactivating his super size rage attack. His cool down must be over and he got whatever his magic resource is back. This accelerates his charge–he’s literally growing at me as well as running.
I feel like I’m made of clay. I never thought I was slow before right now. I’ve never been a satyr or charging boar to compare to. I’ve totally miscalculated my own speed. I didn’t leave myself enough power to Translocate right now, thinking I was fast enough.
I dive like I’m coming into home in the last game of the world series.
He’s faster.
Warning: Massive damage.
Vitality Loss 160 points, over 50% maximum.
Iron Will: Consciousness maintained.
The horn, dark, curved, and sharp punctures my lower back and emerges from my stomach. The flash of pain accompanying the blood forced through my mouth is like nothing I’ve ever felt. I’m screaming when I grab the end, protruding from my gut. He got me. That’s it.
I’m lifted in the air when he stands up. I can feel the horn pushing through my insides as I slide further up his horn. I start shaking, convulsing, every muscle and nerve firing at random.
I hear Sadie scream my name. It’s a wail of pain or anguish, I can’t tell. The sound fades and my vision fills with purple sparks. I’m fighting to hold on to consciousness. If I die, Sadie and Baco will fade and Jes will stand no chance. I’ve killed us all.
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