Tira was grateful that her whip had been freed from the stone monster, but it was still out of reach, still underneath the massive golem. At least until a length of rope wrapped around the handle and shot it back towards Tira’s hand. She caught the weapon as the rope disappeared, shooting a smile back towards Elaina. Not bad.

First priority down, she glanced back towards Flora. Even before getting a class he girl was known for being tough almost as much as she was known for being a pain in the ass to the Watch, so seeing her upper limbs dangling lifelessly like that was more than a little disconcerting. It’s fine. Carline’s here; she’ll be healing her. It was more than a blessing to have someone like her around, so much easier to focus on getting the job done and worrying about the repercussions later. Still can’t get too careless though. Death is final.

And there was still the other concern Tira had about Carline’s aspect: did a golem even have health? Probably not if Carline couldn’t sense it before, and that would limit her usefulness to defensive matters. The thing’s strength was enough to make Elaina’s restraints a temporary nuisance as well. Like it or not, Tira knew Flora was right. They were going to have to be the ones working together to deal the most damage in this fight. 

“Streaker, I’ll chip it, you crush it!”

“You got it, captain!”

Tira rushed forward before the beast could start accelerating again. It was slow and lumbering, but the one time it had gained momentum it had seemed unstoppable. She managed to get in range just as it was turning to Flora and wound her whip back, swinging it with a loud crack and slicing into the monster’s arm, above where she’d hit before.

She was smarter this time, going for a more shallow cut than a full dismembering. That would work on actual living creatures even easier with her new crystal weapon, but magically animated stone was still a bit much, especially when it was embedded with a ton of crystals itself. Her whip still felt great resistance, despite moving at the speed of sound. Tira’s [Momentum] didn’t eliminate friction after all, but she still managed to cut through the inside of the golem’s elbow and pull her whip free. “Now!” 

Flora had already been in motion before Tira’s order, pushing herself off the ground and spinning her heel into the crack Tira had made in the stone armor. Shards of rock erupted as a deep groaning sound emanated from the creature, but the limb did stay attached this time as Flora hit the ground and rolled to her feet. 

Fuck that has to hurt. Tira had experienced Carline’s healing herself after the attack on the school, so she knew the girl was skilled at managing pain, but it wasn’t perfect, and rolling around on hard rock like Flora was could not be good. The stubborn streaker may be more tough than anyone even knows.

But it wasn’t time to think about that. It was already distracting enough to have Flora running around buck naked, perfectly shaped ass flexing as she sprinted and jumped around the cave. She’d always been a nuisance, but now that Tira knew just how much of a pleasant distraction Flora could be, she found herself struggling to stay as annoyed at her as she used to.

Focus. A quick check to make sure Flora was still on her feet was all Tira spared before going back in. The golem was reaching back for a strike on Tira herself now unfortunately. Guess Flora’s taunting skill isn’t perfect. Tira’s own skills hadn’t seemed to be working at all, probably because the monster didn’t feel pain or fear the way a normal living creature would. Tira’s skills weren’t the only ones she had access to though.

“Elaina, pull the injured arm back for just a moment!” 

Elaina obeyed of course, had to obey thanks to her skill. Tira couldn’t help but grin as she watched a chain materialize and lodge itself into the groove she and Flora had made, pulling it up and halting the golem’s strike. Elaina had explained the weird phenomenon Tira had felt during their fight with that Myriala bitch afterwards, and ever since Tira had barely been able to stop herself from thinking of more recreational uses of the skill. That’ll have to wait for later. 

“Good girl!” Tira said as she circled around and struck the back of the golem’s elbow, another shallow cut. Flora was already on the attack, having circled the being entirely and now vaulting up into it, shoving her full knee into the back of the elbow, in the center of the cut Tira had already made.

The creature let out that groan again, a deep sound that vibrated throughout the cave as more pieces of rock fell off the creature, culminating in the entire arm falling to the ground and crumbling into a thousand pieces. 

At first Tira had thought that the thing might not feel pain, but she was second guessing that. It certainly didn’t feel any when she struck it with her whip, [Domineering Presence] would have let her feel and affect that, but when it lost those pieces of itself completely from Flora’s hits it definitely wasn’t happy about it. Maybe I can use that, cut off a finger completely and amplify that?

Before she had a chance to test her plan though, Tira realized they had a problem. Elaina and Carline were already backed up, using their aspects from a distance. Flora and Tira herself had been weaving in and out, only close enough to attack for a second at a time. That meant there was no one close enough to stop the golem as it reached down to the pieces of rubble that had been its bad arm with its good arm, picking up a giant’s handful worth of the rocks and winding up to throw them. 

“Shit, duck!” Tira said, following her own command preparing to use her aspect. It was going to be a lot of projectiles, but with her newfound power from receiving a class she thought she might just be able to deal with the volley. 

The golem unleashed, a torrent of stones flying towards Tira herself, and at Elaina behind her. That was the best case scenario. The closer a moving object got to her the easier it was to redirect it away, and with while paired to Elaina through [Good Girl] Tira had the same advantage for things heading her way as well. 

Tira closed her eyes, shutting out all distractions, naked or otherwise, from her mind. She focused only on [Momentum]. She could feel the clothes of her allies, even the crown of flowers on Flora, but other than that the only thing present were the stones hurtling towards her. She couldn’t feel the giant golem itself, disturbingly, but pieces that had fallen off were apparently fair game. She brushed aside the ones that got too close to her or Elaina, ignoring the ones that were going wide. It all happened in less than a second, but with her increased control over her aspect that was all the time in the world to push aside all of the danger coming towards them.

At least up until she felt a sharp pain in her side, felt herself hurtling backwards to the ground. That couldn’t be right, could it? She hadn’t felt anything heading towards that spot. Nevertheless, as she opened her eyes and looked down, it was clearly there. A jagged piece of crystal was embedded into her skin, blood leaking onto the shining blue stone. She only had a moment to wonder how it had happened, how she hadn’t been able to sense it with her aspect before it started wiggling, before it jumped out of her skin and started rolling away. Tira’s aspect allowed her to sense the movement of any non-living thing, but that piece of crystal was still somehow “alive.”

Fuck.