440: Hammer and More Hammer

440: Hammer and More Hammer

“Tch! Hammer Heaven!” Annie grimaced when she realized she was surrounded by incoming fire missiles and spun her hammer by the hilt around her hips. One spin, two, three, five, until she was engulfed in a whirling sphere of wind that deflected every single incoming attack in random directions, landing all over the massive living quarters, setting more flammable objects on fire.

“What!?” Jeremy gasped.

“You said it’d work!” Liam let his frustrations out on Ember.

For one reason or another, Ember ignored the complaint as if it did not exist. Meanwhile, Chris found a secluded corner behind a wide, spherical stone pillar, away from combat, and put Olivia down before returning to join the fight.

“You too will underestimate me with such weak attacks!?” Annie screamed as she wound down from her spinning sphere. “Maybe I should’ve asked Noel to stay so to witness how I rip you to—”

Annie nearly bit her tongue as she turned at the last second to block the dagger aimed at her nape. She managed to slightly alter the direction of Beatrice’s dagger with the hilt of her hammer. In slow-motion, Annie looked into Beatrice’s focused, malachite-colored eyes as the succubus’s altered thrust slid just past Annie’s cheek, scratching it just barely, and finally drawing blood from the person responsible for drenching this place in gory red.

5 damage dealt [1/5]

“GHARGH! FAT COW!” Annie screamed, changed the grip of her hammer, and swung at Beatrice. But her hammer swung through the air, hitting nothing as the succubus was already behind Annie again, thrusting for a second time.

“ANNOYING!” Annie’s frustration mounted, but her block was only partially successful again—this time sliding across the top of the Fifth’ Princess’s shoulder, making her taste pain again.

10 damage dealt [2/5]

Another swing, another miss, another faulty block, earning a second cut across the same shoulder, this time deeper.

20 damage dealt [3/5]

“STOP MOVING!” Annie demanded. Beatrice did not comply.

40 damage dealt [4/5]

“ENOUGH!” Annie screamed with a face contorted in rageful fury, unbecoming of a cute princess. She jumped up and swung her hammer down upon Beatrice’s head. “Hammer Fall!”

The succubus easily avoided such a long-wound attack by jumping back. Annie’s hammer landed with the power of a landing meteor, causing an explosion of shattered marble and dust, making the entire hall tremble.

But the artificial earthquake did not hinder its creator. Annie did not miss a beat and the moment her foot touched solid ground in the crater she threw a fistful of nails up above her head like a tennis ball.

“Nail Barrage!” Annie shouted and hammered her conjured nails in Beatrice’s direction. Again, and again, Annie manifested hundreds of nails out of nowhere and hammered them mid-air with the speed and flexibility that did not seem possible.

Beatrice dodged the first batch of nails, but in their place thrice as many already flew in her direction, covering ample airspace to intercept further dodges.

“Curtains of Hell,” Ember said and swung her arm. A thin, seven-foot-high wall of straight, incinerating flames rose in front of Beatrice, devouring all the nails that entered, but let none out on the other side of the protective wall.

“Fire Punch!” Chris swung at Annie from behind and above with a fire variation of a Superman Punch.

“Annoying weaklings!!” Annie screamed and swung her hammer to meet the fire magician’s punch head-on.

Annie’s hammer and Chris’ fist met midair, their collision marked by a violent expulsion of all the firepower Chris’ had in his hand before Annie overpowered him with her hammer and launched the eunuch back where he came from.

“Is fire magic all you know!?” Annie laughed and got her answer in the form of two more fireballs, launched by Liam and Jeremy.

“Hammermill!” Annie whirled her hammer by the handle in front of her like a windmill and created a shield that deflected the fireballs.

“Curtain Fall,” Ember swung her arm down and a wall of fire fell right on Annie’s head, behind her whirling Hammermill.

“Useless!” Annie lifted her Hammermill above her head like a shield. The spinning Hammermill deflected Ember’s firewall, tearing it apart and launching it in all directions.

“Hahahaha!” Annie laughed, standing tall and proud as she spun her hammer above her head and spread hundreds upon hundreds of small, accelerated flames in all three hundred and sixty degrees from her like a miniature volcano. “Any more-KAHU!?”

Annie’s stance faltered and her Hammermill spun out of control when a stream of blood was torn out of her unportected back by Beatrice’s [Sharp Claws (+2)].

310 damage dealt