56 Chapter Fifty-Six – Outside Nightmare Bound (1/2)
She was three times my size, and I kicked her in the face and sent her flying. That axe of a nose broke as I beheaded her cauchemar, one of normal size, and let it tumble past me on the floor of the bedroom.
The crib was gone a few nights past, and a large bed had taken its place. Scale had gone down somewhat, but the room was still impossibly large, probably just to maintain these battles.
It looked like the Curse was wising up. Size just meant it was harder for more targets to strike at me. Equally tough opponents the same size or smaller then me were actually harder to fight… it was probably just a lot harder to justify or actually put that kind of emphasis on something so small.
I had the feeling my giant enemies were going to be shrinking down somewhat in the nearer future… without getting any weaker.
These night hags had been half again as big before. Now, they were basically only about twenty percent bigger then they should have been.
Except for this one.
Uber-nightmares and chopped-up night hags littered the rugs, burning white as they were disposed of and irritated the Curse. I kept my eyes fixed on this one as she scrambled back to her feet, glaring at me in hate and more then a glimmer of fear.
”For your information,” I snarled at her in fluent Daemonic, ”I have killed hundreds of night hags here. I have their attack patterns, spells, styles, and means down cold, mounts and all. You deviated from them within seconds, meaning you stood out like a sore thumb.
”You were invited in.” Her poxed tongue licked mismatched nailed teeth, purplish-black eyes staring at me. ”What exactly did you hope to accomplish here?”
She fondled her crushed nose as she laughed at me, hacking a little bit from where I'd cracked her ribs. ”You can actually speak and plan? I had not expected to confront such a soul when I ventured within this Nightmare. No wonder it is proving difficult to subdue you,” she cackled, long claws stretching out in my direction. ”Such strength and depth despite your age… but it will all be mine, now!”
Her eyes flared with hungry light, reaching out for me with a scream attuned to shake my soul and consciousness.
A Banestar smashed into her forehead, and she crashed over backwards from the blunt impact.
Stunned, she could barely move when I picked her up and threw her face-first into the wall. She outweighed me five to one, but it didn't matter. She crashed into the paneling and post beneath, before falling down nicely. I wound my hand into her bristling wreck of a hairdo, stepping on her back as I bent her long, skinny neck back.
”Were you just trying to possess me?” I asked in a conversational tone, looking down deep into her eyes. The scorn in my expression was totally obvious. ”I mean, seriously, are you a total idiot? You saw all those Shards and Rays and Bolts not doing a damn thing to me, and you tried to Possess me?” I kicked out at an arm that was starting to move, and it broke with a crack that sounded more like stone then bone. ”Answer me, grandaunt. It costs you nothing but some bones not being broken.”
I could definitely see the fear in her eyes, and Tremble's droning at the edge of her eyes was definitely a wonderfully impressive part of it. Still, she had to cackle her reply, ”So, you know what you are, dear child. Truly a hard knot to solve. No wonder I was able to enter so easily…”
I kicked out, and the upper arm on the other side cracked and broke, leaving that arm that was moving too much dangling there, bone jutting out in two places.
I didn't say anything, just looking at her totally calm and unmoved.
”Yes, dear, I was trying to Possess you,” she admitted, with no attempt at consolation. ”A mortal life is such a fun thing to enjoy, especially when young and unmarked yet! I could have had such fun!...”
”Go ahead and try it again.”
She blinked her glowing eyes, wisps of nightmares and screaming souls writhing on her plague-dark skin. ”What?”
”Go ahead and try it again.”
She stared at me, thoughts obviously racing, wondering what I was getting at. ”Why?” she asked, those glowing eyeslits narrowing.
”Because if you don't succeed in five seconds, I'm going to chop off your head,” I said bluntly.
That was evidently sufficient reason, as her eyes flared with that ugly light again, despite her injuries, reached up into my eyes, and I pulled back my Null and let it in.
Her entire body vanished, pouring up along that foul stream of power, and raced through this dream lucid body of mine, shoving my soul and essence aside and taking control.
”Hahahahahaha-eh?”
She wanted to blink my eyes, couldn't. Move my limbs, couldn't. Swing my Sword, couldn't. Her voice came out of my throat, but that wasn't my vocal chords or lips moving.
Tremble gently disengaged from my fingers, floated out in front of me.
”No, no!” she protested, but my body just stood there on the wooden tiled floor, not moving as Tremble drew back.
And plunged right on in.
Vivic fire, Banefire, Holy energy, Enmity. The physical damage was nothing, Tremble's point avoided anything vital, and a Vigor use would seal it all off anyways. No, what she had to deal with were all the energies anathemic to her and what she was, burning her slowly away.
They didn't do anything to me, of course.
I politely used my Vajra to send the devouring flames washing across and through me, eating her away bit by bit. 5d6+4 damage every six seconds is about equal to a raging bonfire, and she had 200 or so Health. At 3-4 Health per second, she started to get eaten away and reduced to vivus.
It was a very unique feeling. The feeling of invasiveness, of being raped by this sinister old thing stealing into every fiber of my being, was horrible, as even the Curse hadn't been able to get inside me like this. Of course, this Hag was a personification of her own Curse, and so could do things to me that my own Curse, which was so reliant on my existence, could not.