Luther's Adventure Log

I Feel The Blood In My Veins

"There is naught beyond this moment for those who will not give themselves whole to their cause!"

"Grigori!!"

I rushed him. It would have been suicidal for any normal human, but I had finally come to terms with the fact that that description no longer applied to me. I used my superhuman speed to evade his deadly attacks and close the distance between us. What would have been frankly impossible for anybody else was nothing out of the ordinary for me. I fired an ice elemental sixfold bolt volley into its chest, then grabbed hold of his arm as he swiped at me with his giant claws. I ran along the length of it, up to his shoulder, then fired two more sixfold bolts directly into his neck. He howled in agony and moved with lightning swiftness, trying to chomp me in his powerful jaws.

I wasted no time firing a lightning elemental ricochet bolt right into his open mouth. The damage that one did bouncing around inside his throat must have been considerable, as he recoiled in pain and blew flames everywhere haphazardly. My red cloak caught fire, and I rolled on the ground to put it before firing another sixfold bolt into his chest. He turned at an impossible speed, whipping his tail towards me. I hadn't seen that one coming, and couldn't get out of the way in time. He clipped me as I failed completely to dodge it, sending me rolling hard across the ground, which luckily put my cloak the rest of the way out. Sure, it broke a few ribs, but hey, I was trying to stay positive. He barreled towards me, his jaws wide open and gouting flame. I rolled under his frenzied lunge, firing several bolts into his exposed heart as I did so.

"Yes, this fire! This pain!" Grigori cried with a strange mix of pain and elation. "Slay me, and with me death itself. Stay the fires of destruction!"

"I get it already! You want to die! I'm doing my best! What else do you want from me!?"

"This battle you have begun sits at the very heart of all creation. We are the axis about which the world turns, Arisen. Time itself flows with your footsteps!"

"But no pressure, right?"

"Show that you possess power fit to best me, or your world is forfeit unto ruin!"

"I know! Look, Grigori, I'm not going to run away! You don't have to keep reminding me what's at stake!"

Grigori roared again, this time as a challenge, and lunged towards me. I met his charge with one of my own, and my daggers smashed into his nose in an extremely unlikely deadlock. The impact sent out shockwaves that kicked up dust as they passed, and my arms momentarily went numb from the effort. I slashed madly, doing everything I could to gain an advantage, but, well, giant Dragon teeth beat daggers, and he got me in his mouth. As he tried to bite down to crush me, I held his jaws open with both my legs and my arms, refusing to go down his throat. Just as I was trying to figure out how to get out of this particular pickle, he decided to breathe fire. Why not? I was literally in his mouth. He couldn't miss!

I was expelled from his mouth, engulfed in flames. But he was still beneath me. I could hit him from up here. I ignored the fact that I was literally on fire and shot a two bolts, one into each eye, then borrowed a trick from Zarianna's playbook and spun rapidly on my way down in an imitation of her Brainsplitter. Grigori tried to dodge, but he didn't get back fast enough, and I slashed all the way down his front from the bottom of his upturned chin to the end of his chest, slamming hard into the ground once I ran out of Dragon to cut. The result was one of my ankles absolutely breaking. I stifled my screams and forced several sprigs of Greenwarish down my throat to dull the pain, just long enough to keep fighting. I couldn't afford to lose this one.

"Come, Arisen. If you are truly awakened unto the world, you shall weather the fires of perdition unscathed!" Grigori challenged, standing on his hind legs and taking a deep breath.