Sixth Sin: The Blooming Beasts (Pt. 9): The Green Witch

  --- Mercer ---

  Despite his threat, the dull ache in his back was enough to tell him that he did not want to get hit by the flower villainess’s green arm again. The pain negligible in the moment but definitely a sign of something he wanted to avoid.

  Which is why instead of promptly closing in with his grapplers and a knife, he decided to play it safe by peppering the green witch with several concussive rounds from his Rhapsodies. Each bark of the eldritch forged guns echoing over the scrambling groans and sparks of the blooming beasts suicide blitz against the wards.

  Not that did particularly much when the floral mask rearranged the bio-mass of her arm into a massive shield, bits of bark and plant matter flying through the air with every shot from his guns. (And once more reminding me how much I miss having my E-Rounds.)

  Clicking his tongue -and not stupid enough to stand still- he began moving half way through his rounds, half to hopefully hit a weaker part of the green witch’s defense and half to build momentum to keep moving.

  Momentum that proved very useful as a green tendril smashed into the wall behind him, the wood shattering with an audible impact before the green witch swung her arm dragging it after him.

  Not willing to let the green tendrils catch him he continued his sprint while sliding one of his Rhapsodies beneath his chin before using his now free hands to pop the other open and reload it with additional bullets.

  Reaching the opposite wall of the small hall they were inside of he carefully ran up the wall, slamming his rhapsody against it to both snap it shut and use one of the sharper under points as leverage to gain an extra step or two. With that extra bit of height he kicked off of the wall letting the green vines slam into the wall beneath.

  Once mid-air he used the sudden shift in momentum to spin and fire a couple of rounds into the green witch, forcing her to recoil while her main defense was busy offending his delicate sensibilities, and preventing her from retaliating as he hit the ground in a roll back to his feet. More specifically onto his feet close enough to aim his gun right at her face, one twitch of his fingers enough to put her down.

  At least if the green witch’s arm didn’t immediately erupt into thorns forcing him to throw his weight to the side and sending his shot off course as it did little more than send her hair flying from the force of the round.

  Clicking his tongue, he fired another shot at the floral mask to cover him as he hopped back to buy a little more distance from the shifting plant matter that made up the green witch’s arm. Something he was sure would only grow more problematic as the wall of dying plant monsters slowly shoved each other out of the way to slam into the wards with as much force as possible, their discarded corpses being added to the matter their master could draw from.

  (You know I don’t even need an E-Round, I’d settle for a couple of grenades or even some of that magic oil Kur’Silo was supposed to have.) Anything that would’ve let him stop the growing floral creep clinging to the ground.

  Knowing his mobility -as taxing as it was on the stamina- was the only real advantage he had at the moment, (given the pain in the ass reloading two guns without an auto-loader is) he fired his grappling line towards the villainess. Not intending for the shot to actually hit, but rather to give him a pull line to build speed as he sprinted at her.

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  Seeing this the green witch swung her spike filled arm at him, intent on impaling him upon her numerous thorns.

  Less expected was for him to drop back, sliding under the thorny barricade by using his grappling line to skid the back of his boots across the ground before using a pull to bring him back to his feet and a spin to release the grappling line in a whipping motion at the green witch’s throat.

  The floral villainess just barely avoided the slash to her neck by leaning back, her green rooting itself into the ground to keep her on her feet.

  At least until he stomped her already broken foot and fired a charged shot into her stomach.

  With her concentration broken the magic keeping her green limb active broke as the green witch was launched back into a pile of plant mulch, a pained look visible on her face in spite of the mask hiding it.

  Taking advantage of this brief break he tucked one of his Rhapsodies away and began quickly reloading the other as he walked forward, fully aware that someone aiming for a suicide charge would not go down from this little. (And rushing into melee while she has those thorns is twice as suicidal.)

  As proven by the fact that barely two bullets in the witch slammed both of her fists against the mulch and grew two new green limbs, one of them reaching for the ceiling to pick her up as the other gripped the ground to help her keep balance. The plant matter not spent on these limbs rapidly curling around her legs to keep him from damaging them any further.

  Popping the last of his rounds into place he let out a taunting whistle, “Between this and all the minions you’ve got to be running low on magic.”

  “The plants fuel themselves, my husband’s work.” The green witch scoffed, in between exhausted breaths as she towered over him. “Meaning I’ve still plenty of magic to kill you.”

  “That’s good, really sucks when you run out of ammo at the finish line.” He nodded, snapping his ammo cylinder, one slot still empty. “Kind of embarrassing really. It’s actually why I bought this ammo pouch with a miniature pocket dimension from my eldritch plug.” (Too bad it got incinerated when my house blew up… I swear that fucker makes them fragile on purpose for ‘the drama’.)

  A bright flash lit up the room with a blinding light, the sound of thunder echoing all around them and signifying both the wards being brought low and the beginning of the next round of their clash, neither of them letting the possible distraction go unused.

  “It’s over!” The green witch shouted at him as he moved deeper into the library, firing off a pot shot to keep her attention on him as he tried to draw her away from all of the plant matter she was using before she could create a full floral golem around herself. “There’s nothing stopping my army from swarming this building now!”

  “Eh, I’ve faced worse odds.” He shrugged, firing off his grappling line at one of the library bookshelves before bringing it down behind him. (At the very least my bones are only bruised rather than outright broken. And I have my pants still.)

  “Then why are you running?” The green witch asked, grabbing onto the ceiling and swinging herself over the toppled shelf in a maneuver that forced him to leap and roll out of the way to keep from being crushed beneath her weight.

  “Witch, you are wearing a literal compost heap! My helmet's filters are only so good!” He told her as a way of distraction as he tried to lead her towards the basement, hoping that none of her plants could back her up down there when they were all aiming for Tris in the attic. (Just have to hope Kur’silo can back her up enough to save the ritual, or she can finish it before these blooming beasts get her.)

  (Then again maybe that’s the better play?) He frowned as he turned a corner. (It’d mean letting her rally her minions, but it would mean all three of us are together. Or at least I’ll be there if Kur’silo is too busy fending off the horde…)

  Knowing that a set of stairs were nearby he quickly considered his options before firing a grappling line to speed up his movements.

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