The air almost exploded itself as Emma's energy lance tore out of her, a broiling, burning, sizzling, screaming mass of energy compressed inwards with sheer will. Emma's control had gotten better with practice, her technique more efficient and, of course, her raw power had grown since she first arrived. What had once been a merely destructive weapon, fit to knock down trees and deface boulders, now hit Groygar the Demigod every bit as hard as if Emma had driven a truck-full of gasoline into him.

And then the gasoline ignited.

Instantly, the Demigod disappeared beneath a fog of roaring fire. Emma was standing at least twenty metres from him, but even she felt the concussion of its shockwave running past her.

If I keep getting more powerful, I'll be taking my life into my hands every time I do this.

But Emma had no time to think about that, her armour finished forming around her just as the debris kicked up around Groygar parted with one swing of his axe. He was standing atop a section of mangled stone now, cracks and pits dotting around it where the waste energy of Emma's lance had exhausted itself in the adjacent material. Most of the power had gone right into the Demigod, of course, and…Done fuck-all.

Emma blinked. She saw a mark on him where she'd hit the bastard, but the skin barely even looked broken and he wasn't bleeding as much as he even had last time. She had just long enough to frown in confusion at that before he was moving, crossing the space between them so fast that Emma's puny human reaction time didn't have long enough to even fire off nerve-endings before he swung at her head.

Fortunately, it was her cool, Alchemically-enhanced reaction time that was given the task, and that had just long enough for her to dodge the swing given Emma's belly now held a sloshing concoction of physical-enhancement-fluid.

That wasn't to say the balance of power between them was even in the same dimension as what could be called equal. Emma's new potion enhanced her physical power far more than the one she'd made before, probably thanks to her heightened level of Attunement, but she was still a fuck-sight short of Groygar. Fast enough to dodge back from his axe, barely. Strong enough to remain standing against the gale-force winds dragged in its wake, and maybe, just maybe, durable enough to not instantly die if he hit her with the blunt-end. Armour included, of course.

But it wasn't just her she'd made them for, Aexilica and Vari chose that moment to attack.

They had Emma's potion in them, too, though given by the fact that Groygar's limbs remained attached, it seemed the effects were more additive to their natural strength than multiplicative. Between the two of them, though, they managed to parry another swing and retaliate with a heavy slash across the Demigod's wrist. It was clearly a devastating blow, too, because he actually bled a little bit and swore at them. That was when Emma's new-and-improved matter javelin stabbed into his side.

A crack ran out in the air as the projectile fired, the sound of sound itself no longer being the fastest thing present. Another crack rang out just a second after that, somewhat louder. Much louder actually. Groygar was forced a step back as the big length of iron hit him, its structure held together by a Matter-wrought hardening effect and thus lasting precious milliseconds more before exploding against him. Even with that, the projectile didn't seem quite as durable as the Demigod's body. But it was durable enough that a good portion of its kinetic energy made the transfer from iron to flesh, and the flesh didn't like it one bit.

Blood wisped from Groygar, almost flash-boiled at the violence of his impact. Emma grinned. Aexilica closed at that, swinging again. Groygar lowered his axe to parry, but her blow was a feint and the sword twisted around to find the Demigod's wrist.

Emma heard one of the weirdest sounds of her life, then, and felt magic pulse in the air as arcane energies able to slice through stone were contested by the skin of a Demigod. This time, the cut was deep enough that Groygar went stumbling back in shock and sudden caution. It made a perfect opening for Emma to hit him with another matter javelin.

Vari's hammer chased the Demigod, missing him as he darted farther back and hitting the stone ground instead. Rock was kill. It exploded outwards violently enough for Emma to actually worry about Vari with how hard the debris must have impacted him, but apparently her potion was doing wonders.

"You…" Groygar stared at them, face scrunching up as his eyes ran from one to another. "You were not this powerful when last we fought."

"Neither were you, asshole." Emma snapped, she wasn't actually sure what it was that compelled her to insult people when they tried to kill her. Some kind of coping mechanism probably, but it certainly wasn't doing her any favours here. "Want to see what else we can do?"

It had been mostly a bluff, Emma was already showing off about everything she had to bring to this fight. Her weaponry was more efficient, which was why it was still working on a fully-powered Demigod, but clearly there was a disparity of power here that she wouldn't overcome easily. But he didn't need to know that, and if she could convince him the fight was a risk to his life, that she was deadlier than in truth, Emma might avoid fighting altogether.

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Problem with bluffs was they worked best on people who were actually scared of dying, and she recognised that particular madness in Groygar's eyes even as he spoke.

"You know nothing at all, girl. Every wound you leave upon my body proves you a finer warrior than the last, and when I drink the arterial blood from your bifurcated chest it shall infuse me with power beyond even my own!"

Emma was getting really tired of dealing with crazy people, especially ones who were far more powerful than she was. Before she could think of a response however— distraction, deception, retort, anything—Groygar was speaking again.

"I will walk the path of Ascension and claim my divinity, and then—"

—But they never got to hear what he planned to do after that, because his speech was interrupted when a boulder the size of a refrigerator smashed into his back.

Thrudvarg had seemed too injured to stand, clearly Emma had misjudged things. The speed with which she punted that rock was so great that the thing just burst to pieces on impact, and actually imparted enough momentum for the almost-three-metre Groygar to get thrown forwards and onto his face. The Demigod cried out in shock and pain, his axe fell, and Emma threw herself into the air with a burst of Energy.

She moved her magic quickly, forming and propelling another matter javelin to smash down into the small of Groygar's back just as he got up. It did so, lightly wounding and slowing him enough for Aexilica and Vari to mark his body with two more swings by the time he was on his feet. Emma's next matter javelin missed him as the Demigod lunged to one side, letting the projectile hit stone instead of meat. Emma winced, watching the length of iron disappear as it tunelled itself deep through the rock. By then Groygar had landed, some fifteen metres away, and started moving for his lost weapon.

Vari had made the mistake of trying to throw only himself between Groygar and the axe. Even unarmed, the Demigod made short work of the Sculd by evading swings and retaliating with a single punch to his chest. Emma saw the man just disappear from sight, flung dozens of metres before he'd even landed. Wherever he ended up coming to a stop was beyond her field of vision.

Groygar reached his axe and swept it up in one great motion, just as Emma's energy lance domed him. Ha! Stupid asshole, served him right for moving in such a predictable path. Emma, from her position hovering above with Force, could actually see the shockwave roll outwards now, watched as the ground went from shaking to shivering to still with increasing distance from the epicentre. Much more of the energy was actually absorbed by her enemy this time given the location and angle of impact, with Groygar being driven straight down into the stone like a wooden post getting sledgehammered into soft earth.

Much like the wooden post, however, he was a good deal more durable than the solids beneath him, and Emma cursed as she saw the Demigod simply rip himself out of the indentation and get moving again. Aexilica had been smart enough to circle around and bunch up with Thrudvarg in the time Emma's energy lance had bought her, so she wasn't forced to engage the bastard one-on-one. It was that fact alone that kept her alive as his axe got moving all over again.

Well, that and Emma squirting the maniac with yellow hardlight from above. It was in its gluey form, now, and adhered quickly even as it fell over him in thick layers. The mass didn't register at all, Emma hadn't expected it to, but every motion Gloygar made was now facing resistance as Emma's makeshift gluetrap clung to his limbs and dragged in their wake.

It slowed him, a tiny bit. A whisper, a shade. Enough. Aexilica ceded ground as she parried, while Thrudvarg ignored defence entirely to just keep smashing Groygar with her fucking microwave-sized fists. Emma, for her part, made do with sending another heroically-thrown matter javelin into his back. Little pinpricks and shaving cuts, but they'd added up in their last fight.

This wasn't their last fight. Thrudvarg's fist crunched into Groygar's temple, sent him stumbling back but not down. His axe came around, raked across the giantess' side and drew a thick torrent of blood from her. Aexilica's sword found his gut while he was distracted, wounding him again. Lightly, again. He rounded on her next and smashed a knee upwards that Aexilica barely blocked. Even through her guard, it was too much.

For the second time in a single day, Emma saw a human being sent flying like someone had just fired them out of a cannon. This time the human projectile remained within her field of view, and so Emma was treated to the sight of Aexilica bouncing off the far ravine wall like a fucking squash ball. One of the more horiffic things she'd seen, Emma decided.

It also meant that Thrudvarg was almost alone now, and Emma took exactly zero seconds to decide she wasn't going to watch the giantess die. She shot him with another matter javelin, and found the still-clinging ropes of yellow hardlight were serving as some kind of fucking armour. Not enough to stop the hit completely, but Groygar didn't even pause as he took it, and Thrudvarg found his attention unsplit as she defended herself. Emma swore, loudly, as she dropped down while conjuring another matter javelin, adding Force as she launched it, accelerating herself alongside it and using the fact that she was maintaining something close to proximity in order to apply more pulses of Energy.

The result was explosive. Literally. Solid iron turned into a pillar of dark sand, sparks actually erupted out of the impact and burst out in every direction like some kind of thermite bomb. However fast an impact needed to be to literally combust, Emma had apparently managed that speed.

She landed, grinned, and dropped down to a knee, suddenly exhausted beyond belief. Energy always had drained her mana faster than Force, and Emma relied on the fact that it was usually only possible to apply in short bursts to pace it.

There was a price to using it so much in one go. Groygar roared as he straightened up on his feet, blood now gushing down his shoulders.

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