August Intruder- Chapter 234- Fist To Core

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The air was stained with the heavy taste of copper and metal. Even the ones clear smell of leaves and wood and mud was gone, usurped by everything else. Aurora could smell more blood than she could taste as she turned, rolling the [Faker]’s blow off her shoulder. Another came quick and she ducked it with a boxer’s stance. The blood from a gash on her head spilled a little from her movement almost getting in her eye. It forced her to close the eye and the [Faker] was quick to take advantage. The blow came as if from a baluster. It sent her staggering, the world spinning. She leapt back, creating as much space as she could between her and the monster.

They’d been at it all night. Now the sun was teasing its rise to power. The sky had broken and rivulets of light slipped into the forest. It cast the [Faker] in a fitting visage. Its arms were twisted, broken in places were it had taken the barrage of her attacks. The creature was more bruise than form, yet it still moved and fought as if at a hundred percent. One of its legs was curved at an odd angle, yet it still continued to put pressure on it.

Aurora was only better in visage. She was a better fighter than the creature, knowing what to protect and how to protect it. It would be a lie to say that she had less bruises than the thing, but she had mitigated the damages it had inflicted. She was in a better condition, even if she bled more and was already limping.

A frown creased her lip as she wiped the blood from her eye with the back of her forearm. It cleaned the blood but smeared some more on her face. It came from the claw marks on her arm. All the while, the [Faker] stood and waited, refusing to close the distance she had made between them.

Wherever the [Faker] had come from, it had power enough to rival an Oath. The person that was supposed to be standing here was meant to be an Oath.

At the very thought something stirred in her. It was a familiar feeling but not familiar enough to be called a friend.

You are the equal to an Oath, she thought ferally. If not you, then no one.

She perked up suddenly, focusing again as the [Faker] stepped back carefully. Its gait was wobbly, its broken leg making things a little out of place. Its face, that of a goat’s, was badly bruised. It was missing teeth and, instead of having a straight long face, its face was bent like a broken nose. Aurora mentally patted herself on the back for it.

As for the creature’s mane, it was patched in too many places so that it looked like it had gotten into a contest of hair pulling and lost. The cause of it had not been one of Aurora’s finest moments, but a fight was not beautiful, it was not honorable. It was dirty and gritty, and hair-pulling was not something that did not belong.

The [Faker] took another step back, and Aurora realized that it was trying to retreat into the tree lines. Then it turned and ran.

“Oh, fuck you!” she spat, refusing to allow it escape.

She hit the tree line at a dead sprint. Barks exploded from pines like shrapnel as her shoulder clipped tree trunks she hadn’t been bothered to dodge. She’d felt worse, caused worse. But being a [Dreadnought] was about running through the chaos and becoming it. Besides, the [Faker] in front of her hit far worse.

In all her chase, she realized that even with the monsters broken leg, she could not keep it. It was a blow to her pride, a blow that she did not allow to lead her into a mistake.

[You have used skill Let Me See You For A Moment]

She closed the gap between them in three seconds flat. It was enough time to watch the creature pivot, to see its black eyes fix on her, to register intent behind them.

What’s it planning? she thought just before she slammed into the creature, then barreled it into a tree. The tree cracked, bent, but did not shatter.

Aurora frowned. [Let Me See You For A Moment] was not packing as much punch as it was supposed to. It was a testament to how weak her body now was. Most of her skills depended on the physical state of her body. Even now, with [One Step at a Time] a skill that made her stronger the longer she fought boosting her, she couldn’t clear the beast through a tree.

It only took a moment for her to correct her thought. Her eyes moved to the ground and she saw deep grooves, two lines where the creature had stuck its feet in the ground. The simple action had displaced a large chunk of the effect of her skill’s power.

Aurora growled as she stepped out of the bent tree, leaving the monster in the chaos. This was why she hated powerful thinking beings. Such beings were always taking risks that normal people would not take.

Extricated from the chaos, Aurora’s next strike wasn’t elegant. Her fist crossed the short distance with all the power and speed she could muster, enough to blow a hole through a tank. She aimed it at the side of the monster’s skull in a sloppy hook. The [Faker] moved. It was fast, faster than it had any right to be after fighting all night, but it was not fast enough. The blow glanced off its cheekbone instead of shattering its temple. It was not the blow Aurora had been going for, still, bone cracked anyway and she took the victory she could get. The [Faker] spun sideways into a tree hard enough to split the trunk.

Something sprayed from the creature’s head, spreading green ichor across the tree that sizzled as if it was supposed to burn. Aurora had a lot of it on her. It smelled of copper and she assumed it was the creature’s blood.

Despite the blow, the [Faker] recovered faster than Aurora would’ve liked. A clawed hand flashed through the air, raked across Aurora’s ribs before she could avoid it. she felt the pressure as her skin tried to resist before it finally tore, muscles being ruined and blood spilling to soak her side in warmth. Angry and in pain, she stepped into the swing instead of away from it. She let the momentum work for her, trapping the monster’s forearm under her elbow. Then she twisted.

The elbow joint reversed itself with a sound like green bamboo splitting.

The [Faker] screamed. The sound was high and somehow wrong, as if a radio was trying to mimic the sound of a lion in pain while a man butchered a goat in the corner while torturing a child. It was its first scream since the fight had started, and while Aurora wanted to take pleasure in finally making it scream, she could not.

She knew where the sounds were from. It was the creature mimicking the sounds of pain it knew, from the suffering of a goat it had killed, the lions it had mauled… the humans it had made to suffer.

With all the rage she had for it, she slammed a fist into its face.

“Shut the fuck up!” she hissed and slammed its face with another. She could feel the pain in her hand but had no plans of stopping.

The creature shut up. Then its eyes zeroed in on her. “No,” it said in her voice, “you shut the fuck up.”

Its neck stiffened, and it drove its skull directly into her face, its forehead smacking straight into her nose. Aurora felt her nose break in a new place. She saw stars. Blood pooled down her nostrils. She tasted iron and smiled through it. Her grip tightened even as darkness clawed at the edges of her vision. She did not need clear eyes to fight. She had learnt this even as a child. All she needed was contact.

Without hesitation, she returned the favor, headbutted the [Faker] back. Harder.

Its face, once side-turned like a broken nose, caved inwards. Black fluid poured in sheets down its chin. The [Faker] wrenched its ruined arm free with another wail, this one was so strong that the nearby birds fallen silent from fear of being preyed upon scattered. Separated from each other now, they circled each other for a half-second in the small clearing they had made of scattered trees, chests heaving. The grass between them dark and wet with blood and whatever black fluid the creature continued to spill from its injuries.

For all that Aurora had done to the creature, it was still dangerous. She could see that. Its arm hung at a grotesque angle but the fingers still flexed, still reached. With a face caved in and one eye finally swollen shut from a fractured cheekbone, the other eye remained clear fixed. It watched her, tracked her, measured her. Annoyingly enough, even the eye swollen shut seemed to be trying to do the same through the injury. It was as if the monster had a way to reduce or eliminate pain when it needed to.

There was a part of Aurora that respected that. At her rank and experience, it was not everyday she met an equal or someone or something superior to her, and that was exactly what this creature was—superior to her.

They circled once more for another half-second, and Aurora moved first.

She took three steps, feinted left, then dropped low and drove her shoulder into the creature’s hips. The tackle uprooted the [Faker] from the dirt like a tree pulled off by the roots. They left the ground, went airborne for a split second, then they hit the ground together with great force, smashing through fallen trees and broken branches in a tangle of limbs and rage—rage that was mostly hers. The [Faker]’s arm’s found her throat, wrapped around it, and squeezed. Its grip was powerful, extraordinary even by Gifted standards. It was like a vice threaded through a furnace clamped around her neck and compressing her airway.

The world around deadened. Aurora was beginning to lose color and light. She was beginning to lose life. Fighting through it, she reached behind her and her fingers found its face. Its ruined mouth bit into one of her hands. She screamed as a finger broke and another was trapped where a teeth should’ve been, but it did not stop her. Her other hand found what she was looking for and she drove her thumb into the damaged eye socket.

The hold around her throat broke along with everything in between. Taking the opportunity, she turned and maneuvered her way on top of the creature. The [Faker] writhed beneath her as she pinned it down. A strike flashed out blindingly fast and connected with her jaw. Her neck snapped sideways. Aurora felt something protest in her spine as if it was all her body could do to keep her head in place.

She growled through the pain and strengthened her resolve. Then she spat in its face.

[You have used skill Dauntless Fortress]

The Gifted plants themselves firmly, multiplying their weight with every passing second.

The [Faker] turned and thrashed and fought, but unlike the last time she’d used the skill, it failed to move her sufficiently enough. Still on the beast, Aurora raised her fist and struck.