Chapter 40: Turning the Tide

With her thigh torn wide open, bleeding freely all down her greave, Lexi struggled to get herself up onto one knee, unsure if her partially cut hamstring would even support her full weight. Still, seeing the massive blow which had just leveled Samantha, the paladin knew that she had no choice but to try and do something. Because if she did not, it seemed almost certain that she and her companions would end up dead — and that was really the best case ending for a loss in this scenario. Worst case, they get beaten, raped, soled into slavery, and then get raped and beaten to death by a different set of assholes. Needless to say, neither option was remotely appealing to Lexi.

With a grunt of sheer determination, the futanari paladin swung the blade of her huge broadsword in a wide horizontal arc, aiming to hit the stone giant in the waist while his attention was still largely focused on Samantha. Unfortunately for the paladin, Ivan was in fact not zeroed in on the monk, but was simply waiting for Lexi to do something just like this. Before the whirling blade came anywhere hear him, the iron ball of his kusarigama shot out, wrapping the weapon’s chain tightly around Lexi’s sword, deflecting the blow. With another flex of his massive forearm, the stone giant tweaked the iron ball’s momentum just enough so that the weight slammed flat into Lexi’s cheek — instantly raising an ugly red lump on half of her face that swelled her eye shut tight.

Despite the literally blinding pain from the giant’s attack, Lexi was even more determined not to give in. Realizing that in entwining their weapons, Ivan may have given the two adventurers a faintest hope of presenting an opening, Lexi launched herself into the plan. With as much strength as she could muster, she yanked hard on her sword. The paladin knew that she would not be able to free it from the stone giant’s tightly wound chain, but that was not her intent. All Lexi wanted to do was to pull the chain taut, and hold it in place for a few seconds. As soon as she had wrenched her sword, causing Ivan to pull back on his kusarigama — thus snapping the chain taut — Lexi yelled out to Samantha.

“Hit him now!”

Although Lexi did not know whether the monk had any tricks hidden up her sleeve, having seen the ferocious Hurricane Kick drop a highwayman dead — à la Street Fighter — she suspected that Samantha might have a few more “special moves” tucked away for times like this. Thankfully, Samantha did not disappoint! A broad smile spread across Lexi’s face as she saw the monk painfully hop to her feet, and slam her fists together, shouting the name of a martial spell as she charged in towards their mutual opponent.

“Fists of Fury!”

Bluish white flame erupted from Samantha’s meaty fists, making them look like the same balls of flame Lexi had seen in so many martial arts video games. With a speed and furious intensity matching, if not exceeding, that which the giant had shown in his attacks on the two girls, Samantha exploded into action. Her hands moving so fast that all Lexi could really see was a blur of blue and white flame, the monk delivered a devastating combination of punches, each one connecting solidly enough with the giant’s stone chest that Lexi could feel the impact resonating through his legs into the ground itself. Once the magically enhanced combination reached its apogee, the monk leaped back out of range, landing in a defensive stance and panting hard.

“Yes!” Lexi yelled, pumping a fist in the air.

Shockingly, Samantha’s attack appeared to have done some serious damage to Ivan. Apart from being visibly shocked and actually driven back a pace, a wide network of hairline cracks had become visible in the stoneskin covering his chest. And, although Lexi could not see it in her heads up display, she would have bet her life that the giant’s hit points when down considerably following that brutal combination. He staggered for just a moment, and Lexi’s heart dared to hope just then, but the giant was far from finished. Stamping his foot hard into the ground, sending another shockwave that Lexi could feel resonating, Ivan gave his kusarigama’s chain a tremendous heave, trying to reel Lexi in.

Rather than resisting, a spur of the moment tactic sprang into Lexi’s mind, subverting the giant’s expectations entirely. The paladin instead used the momentum of Ivan’s immensely strong pull to pull herself towards him. The resulting union of both their heaves sent Lexi hurtling through the air towards the giant so fast that her blond braids were whipped back by the wind. Focusing all of that acceleration and force into one point in her body, the paladin smashed her armored elbow directly into Ivan’s jaw. The blow landed with an extremely satisfying crunch, leaving a visible depression in his face from which yet more cracks in the stone facade emanated.

Wow! So, that means Samantha’s “Fist of Fury” combo alone must’ve done eleven points of damage to this beast. That’s pretty fucking wild!

This internal celebration was, however, quite short lived. Lexi paid dearly for such an up close and personal blow, when Ivan responded almost immediately with a vicious headbutt, which the paladin immediately felt crack the thick bone in her cheek.

His neck being thicker around than Lexi’s considerable thigh, there was enough power in the headbutt alone to send the paladin’s head snapping back. Taking further advantage of both her close proximity and relative insensibility from the headbutt, Ivan picked the paladin up with a single hand and hurled her backwards into a tree, her back hitting the trunk hard and knocking the wind out of Lexi.

While Ivan’s immensely broad back was turned to Samantha, the monk leaped back into the fray, launching a flying spin kick to the back of the giant’s neck. Unfortunately, it appeared that even the monk’s shins, hardened from a decade of continual training, were no match for his stoneskin. The kick, which would have instantly felled any normal man elicited only a slight grunt — which was nothing compared to the sharp cry that involuntarily left Samantha’s lips.

“Ahhh!” she cried out.

The monk reeled as explosions of pain blossomed through her shin, the impact of her shin against his neck feeling to Samantha like she had just kicked the side of a boulder. Apparently, the only bare-handed attacks which could be both effective and safe were the magically enhanced combinations. Before Samantha had a chance to withdraw her leg from its pained position atop Ivan’s neck, the giant whipped around, delivering a crushing hammer fist directly to the monk’s muscular inner thigh, dropping the warrior woman where she stood, a nasty purple bruise already forming on her exposed bronze skin.