I Decided To Live Forever Just In Case She Ever Woke Up [PKMN X THE LOCKED TOMB]

Consume and Be Consumed - Part 4

Steadily, Akari walked back to the door. She wiped both her hands on her jacket, and drew both the rapier and knife. When Irida opened the door again, she was ready to bust into the chamber and cut that thing up.

The construct formed again as it had the first time. From bottom to top it formed four rudimentary legs, a torso, and two curved, bladelike arms. Akari struck before the construct had even fully formed; running under it, she sliced at one leg with her rapier, and cut the other with the knife. Her rapier's swing ended at its stomach, scraping against it, and she brought it down hard at the back of another leg where its heel would be.

Getting to the construct's back bought her time as the massive thing had to turn around, and the chamber's size would hinder its movement speed.

Akari's rapier wasn't built as a destructive weapon. It was more a fashion accessory than anything else, a condition of serving as Cavalier Primary, so her experience with it was limited to the quick training she'd been put through. Though said training was focused on showmanship over lethality, her tutors, in true military form, had made sure she knew how to use it in a life-or-death situation, and what the rapier was good for was slicing tendons.

The construct stumbled. But as soon as her blade had done its damage, its flesh began to reconstitute. The construct's limbs reformed quicker than Akari expected, and she soon discovered that it moved quicker than she expected as well. The blade arm came at her fast, and she barely had enough time to sidestep out of its trajectory. Suddenly it didn't matter that she was a shit duelist, because this was a form of combat Akari was trained in - getting out of the way of a big fuckoff monster.

The construct's blade sliced her arm, tearing her coat and a good chunk of her skin. She dropped the knife instinctively and cried out, but she didn't dare stop moving.

"Akari!" Irida's voice was scratchy through the intercom.

"I'm okay!" She yelled back, dodging another swing of the construct's arm. "It's regenerating - faster than I can hit it!"

The arm came down on her again. She beat it back with her rapier, though it only grazed the construct's exoskeleton.

" Akari ," Irida continued. Her voice was strained. "It's weak points are- ow -"

Akari didn't need visuals for Irida's situation. She'd seen necromancers overexert themselves. It wasn't cute. She didn't want to think about Irida going through that. She couldn't if she wanted to, honestly, because the construct was fighting her and winning. She'd give Irida her handkerchief for the eye bleeding later, but right now she needed to tuck and roll so her head didn't get chopped off.

In her hurry she circled back to the knife again. She swiped it back and jumped back to her feet, wasting no time in slashing at the construct. It did nothing to stop it, but it felt good to get a hit in.

"I almost have it - just hold out for a bit longer!" Irida called again, and started mumbling theorems over the speaker. It was as useful as the rapier strikes in slowing down the construct.

"Yeah, I can do this all day," Akari called back, but she really hoped Irida figured out what the goal was soon. Like in the next minute. She only had so many rolls left in her and both of her weapons may as well have been papier mache.

The construct swung again, grazing the side of her face. She touched it briefly as she stepped backwards. The side of her hand came away red the same time as she hit the wall of the chamber and, after six months of bad manners getting hammered out of her, yelled "OH FUCK."

And then Irida gasped loudly, said "I've got it," and everything went white for about a nanosecond. Akari's vision swiftly returned in time for her to strafe to the side of an incoming claw strike.