Chapter 281: Little Lifeline
———Lynda———
<9: 13 AM>
*Clash* *Clang* *Block*
“Ugh!” The subtle reduction in her speed is so frustrating in many ways. It shows progress but it’s so little that it’s more irritating than comforting.
Even if that giant beam didn’t hit her dead-on, I would’ve thought that’d exhaust her even more. At least no one got hit in the crossfire.
*Bang* *Evade*
“Tch!” One bullet wasted. I can’t afford to pull another risky move like that with the limited amount of ammo in this rare revolver.
*Dash* *Bash*
Useph managed to run in and bash her away with his shield before she could counter and perhaps attempt to take the gun out of my hand.
A few more people come in to help. Most of the old batch had already retreated to get some help, but Useph is standing strong with that shield of his. It’s much more fancy when compared to his sword, so it seems to be made by someone of high skill, perhaps the same person that made the axe I’m using.
I make my exit to recover my breath and try to recover. I didn’t exactly barge in at full strength. Not that I can do that anyway, I’m completely out of mana pills to refill my tank to full. I have a limited amount of ammo left in the chamber, so to speak. Not the gun, that has even less opportunity.
Everyone is fighting at full strength and pushing their bodies to the limit, and even then they can barely match Emmie who hadn’t used her full strength outside of a brief moment. It’s not like Emmie not doing it is exclusively out of arrogance. Fighting at full strength is simply impractical most of the time, you burn out really quickly. You should only ever access your full strength for short bursts of power and speed, and this isn’t even accounting for the issues of firing off spells, since those can drain you quite a lot. It’s the same kind of tactic when it comes to any other physical work, you never want to start off hot and burn out before the job is over.
Basically we had to burn off our stamina extremely quickly just to keep up with her at a good pace. It’s far from graceful but when the alternative is getting rolled over with zero chance of winning, it’s the only thing we can do.
At the very least, with how things are going, Emmie herself cannot afford to fight at full strength either. There are so many people left on standby that if she burns off all her energy to get rid of all of us present here, the rest can easily finish her off. We can keep swapping in while she had no breathing room to speak of.
Obviously it’s not that good of a news, since even now she can easily overpower us with just the standard approach, fighting with conservation of energy in mind, being efficient and keeping her mana usage minimal.
*Clash* *Clang* *Parry*
It’s hard to tell if we can wear her down enough until we can meaningfully damage her without the need of surprise attacks. Even as it is, it's hard to judge how much power she had lost throughout the fight. While the duration of the battle so far hadn’t actually been that long when considering the scope, the fact that she was heavily outnumbered would make you think things will go about much quicker.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
Her varied toolkits certainly put in a lot of work. Even if that scythe isn’t quite as broken of an asset as that deceptive ability to create silks is, its ability to quickly siphon her energy for quick and devastating projectiles means approaching her in the first place is hard.
Those bullets are not only large but also pack a lot of punch. The fact that she seems to spam it often means that they are another cost-effective ability for her to abuse and gain an advantage in the fight. Usually a spell will take at least a second to fire off, that thing is barely reactable.
*Dash* *Parry* *Spin* *Parry*
Also the size of her weapon simply gave her a lot of reach even without those bullets and threads that can extend out for what look like miles. Big fuckass hitboxes with absurd speed to go with it.
*Leap* *Swat*
“Ugh!” I tried to jump in as well but she noticed me and quickly swatted me away before my axe could even get right up in her face. Even now the idea of getting an opening seems very unlikely. The last two were more akin to flukes, and any other direct hit didn’t really do much in the grand scheme of things, more akin to chip damage.
*Parry* *Block* *Evade*
It really doesn’t look like anyone will get a good attack in soon if we don't try to coordinate our attacks, but with how things are we don’t have the time to pause and strategize. Even Kenni can’t really hold her in place for more than a few seconds.
“Alright everyone! Let me get a turn in! Don’t interfere!” Someone yelled out before running straight towards Emmie with reckless abandon.
*Clash* *Parry*
Nicks jumped in and looks like he’s insistent on taking the spotlight. Is he nuts? He’s far from the strongest person in his class.
*Clang* *Clash* *Parry* *Block*
He is seriously trying to take her on solo. While I appreciate the sentiment since it gives the others more time to breathe, I don’t think he could hold her that long.
*Shine* *Flash*
Suddenly he pulled out a flashbang and when the light level returned to normal… What the?
There’s suddenly six of him!? What am I looking at?
*Swing* *Evade* *Swing* *Evade*
All of them began moving around almost in sync and started attacking Emmie from all directions. I can’t really tell what’s going on. Are those illusions? Actual cloning technique? I had never seen anything like this before.
*Slash* *Puff*
One of them got cut down and turned into smoke.
*Tackle* *Slash*
One then tackled her and the other got a cut on her left arm, seemingly doing some damage even if it doesn’t even make her bleed. Can all of them fight? Which one is he?
“Enough.” Emmie calmly said.
*Bang*
She then hits one that seems to be the real Nicks, since once he got hit the clones broke down quickly. It looks like he seriously can’t afford to get hit with that ability in effect. I guess that sort of powerful ability would come with a caveat.
Still, he managed to stall her way longer than I thought he would.
“[Explosion Punch]!” Before Emmie could finish him off or anyone else coming to his rescue, someone is screaming on the top of his lung and running straight towards Emmie.
*PUNCH* *BOOM* *Crash*
I didn’t even clearly observe the situation, as suddenly an arm covered in flames made contact with Emmie and caused a massive explosion that repelled her miles away.
When the smoke clears I see Jeff with his right arm… looking more like a log of charcoal than a human arm, let’s say it like that.
Anyone who is in good condition immediately runs towards Emmie to make sure she doesn’t have time to recover and catch her breath. Meanwhile Seni came over with the intention of healing Jeff.
“Hey. Don’t do that.” Jeff stopped her before she could begin treatment. “Go heal the others. I think… I’m done for anyway.”
*Thud*
He collapsed to the ground, unresponsive but still alive. That attack of his was clearly a Hail Mary. It used basically everything he got and he can be considered dead at this point. Probably better off just killing him for the points, but that’s kinda cheap and cruel.
He is right that Seni shouldn’t unnecessarily waste her energy on those that have already done their part. Without her most of us would’ve been completely burnt out and the fight would’ve been over already. It’s too bad Jass isn’t here to help with healing, even if I don’t think he’s on the same level as her.
…I should probably go to help the others as well. I still have a good amount of fuel left in the tank, I have been standing around doing nothing for long enough anyway.
*Whip* *Swing* *Evade* *Leap*
She began using her silks more often and swung them around, causing a lot of chaos and making it hard for anyone to get close to her. It’s looking like she is being a lot more proactive now that she got hard really hard the third time.
*Swing* *Clash* *Swing* *Evade*
She is still quite agile and can intercept the attacks coming her way just fine, but it does feel like she had slowed down a bit after getting hit by that massive attack.
*Punch* *Strike*
Malk and Jennla managed to get some good hit in and keep her on her toes.
*Dash* *Stab*
Sixson then jumped in and stabbed her in the back with his twin knives, or at least tried to with the magical dress that she probably had to remade again tanking the direct hits and making sure it doesn’t cause an open wound or two.
*Kick* *Spin* *Evade*
She decided to swing her leg backward and kick Sixson right in the chin and sent him flying into the air, balancing her body on her arms instead of legs before she began spinning around with her legs extending out, causing the others to retreat in shock at the sudden breakdance.
*Dash* *Spin* *Clash*
Jeyst then ran in with their two-sided spear and matched the intensity of her erratic movement and tried to match and slow her down.
*Clash* *Clang* *Parry*
She stopped her crazy approach and returned back to using her scythe and matching them blow for blow.
*Dash* *Clash*
I also ran in to get maybe a hit in, but I’m quickly intercepted and need to retreat after only one attempt. I’m actually still not at full strength so I shouldn’t even entertain the idea of risking more than that. I still have four bullets left in the chamber, but would I even get a chance?
*Dash* *Parry* *Dash* *Block* *Dash* *Clash*
More people also ran in to get a single hit in, or at least attempt to. Each one uses their full strength to hit as hard and as fast as possible, but very few prove to be very fruitful and they all also have to retreat and let those with more staying power keep her busy.
*Zip* *Strike*
Galed swooped in from the sky and hit her in the head with her shield, not managing to get much out of it as she noticed her and moved last second, so she wasn’t hit with the full force of the attack. If she was hit dead-on she might’ve gotten a bleeding wound from the sharp edge of the shield.
*Weave* *Wrap* *Pull* *Slam*
While it looks like Emmie was still busy dealing with the others jumping her, Galed got tangled up in her silks that suddenly appeared out of the ground and pulled her down to it with a lot of force, stopping her from getting away scot free without at least taking a bit of damage.
*Strike* *Slash* *Clash*
Emmie and Thansa then began exchanging blows. Both of them are tough nuts to crack but Thansa is certainly not in the same tier as Emmie, so she can’t keep this one-on-one for too long before switching out for someone else.
*Dash* *Blast* *Dash* *Blast*
Multiple people then ran in and threw out random energy blasts at her and swapped in more people and kept her on the defensive.
*Swing* *Spin* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
But those guys also needed to retreat as she retaliated with the spinning gun move, turning her scythe into a hovering semi-auto firearm that rained down deadly projectiles that no one dared to get close to.
*Shine*
Hm? It looks like she has extended out one group of threads far into the horizon? The fight is still going hot and a bunch of threads are being shot out far away from the site?
What is it doing? This can’t be good. I should probably…
Huh? What is that thing in the distance?
A massive object flung toward us from far away, looking like it’s gonna drop right on top of us. A part of a building that is perhaps some sort of comically large skyscraper or some obscenely massive type of building.
The shadow of the object is looming right over us. We need to run away from that thing now!
*CRASH*