The previous Sassy Saturday post can be read here: Fire Demi-Goddess vs Order Entity
The context for this post: A routine mission for Dragon's Lair Team Four in the aftermath of the Mana Mutation Summit.
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Tiza jumped into a batch of smaller
monsters. These were a Frankenstein mixture of several vermin that were twenty
times bigger than any one kind. They came up to her waist. She assumed them to
have been sleeping underground when the mana storm hit. There were five of
them, which she figured was unfair; she’d kill them all before Dimwit finished
eating.
“I don’t have all those funky powers,
but I can kill all the same.”
She struck first by impaling one
through the back and blasting another further into the chaos zone. When the
other three attacked, she weaved around them and kicked them around with bladed
boots. Then she finished them with her sword. By now, the first one was dead
from the poison on her blade. The toxins she used in combat had to work quickly
if they were to be effective. She spent hours every day studying them before
Sathel allowed her to even practice with them. The incident at the castle
finally convinced her, although she was still scolded for sneaking out the
poisoned sword.
The second returned from her punting,
but it was too far away to finish off with her metal sword. Her mana sword, on
the other hand, had just the right reach. Holding her metal one straight up
with both hands, she focused mana into it. It flowed liked wax into a mold.
Leveling her sword like a bow, she fired a mana bolt in the shape of a sword.
It entered the franken-vermin’s mouth and came out its rear, leaving two halves
of a monster in its wake.
Another swarm approached her blindside.
Unfortunately for them, this particular sapient had no blind side. Again
molding mana into her sword, she pulled her hands apart to create a new sword. Now
dual wielding, she spun around and killed monsters left and right.
One leapt past her guard and bit her
left thigh. She cried out and then stabbed it. She fought the remaining ones
with it stuck to her leg. There were four more, so she estimated four strikes
to finish the battle. With four steps, she killed them all.
Once they were all dead, she pummeled
the one on her leg with a mana beam to make sure it was dead. Then she began
the delicate process of removing its teeth. It was easier than she thought. It
didn’t pierce her skin because a pulsating blue-grey aura blocked its jaws.
“Endurance….”
She didn’t recall Nolien casting that
spell on her. It could have bitten clear to her bone and become a disabling injury,
taking her out of the mission. Then she smiled. It was comforting to think he
was watching out for her even outside of battle.
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Mana Mutation Menace, and the rest of the Journey to Chaos series, is available for purchase at Amazon as both an ebook and as a paperback._____________________________________________________________
To learn more about the heroines of Journey to Chaos, visit the Tvtropes character sheet.
Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
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