Black Market Merchant

Chapter 224: Stage Two
Lisa rolled her shoulders and bent her knees twice to get a better feel for her Advanced Armament: Stage Two. Now that the plates and joints were further apart and herself a bit larger in stature, she had to get reintroduced to the feeling of her enlarged form. However, this was not her first time being in this stage and quickly getting over the increased flow of energy, she turned her attention onto the baby Hoard Mother.

There were still a great number of Night Hounds and Logos Cutters crossing the dam, but they were no threat to her now. The baby Hoard Mother could sense this as well and it let out a slow, deep throated rumble. Oddly the smaller Twisted locked their legs and skidded to an immediate halt. They then proceeded to turn tail and go back the way they came. They didn’t stop running until they entered the woods and disappeared.

“Well, that makes things easier.” Lisa remarked aloud to no one in particular.

Lisa then jumped off the slain Plain Strider to land gently on her toes without so much as a sound. This was a stark contrast to how much bigger she now looked, for one would assume a heavy, pavement cracking, landing to have been more appropriate. She then flicked her blackened katana to one side and drops of black blood splattered on the road.

Lisa took in a deep breath as she lowered her katana back to half length and held it vertically alongside herself. “Well, here goes nothing.”

“Crack!”

The sound of her feet pressing off the pavement reverberated noisily as she sprinted towards her quarry. In the exact place where her feet were was a layer of rubber that had melted onto the road due to the intense speed of her takeoff. The four girls watching lost sight of her for a moment and didn’t see Lisa reappear until she had reached the other end of the dam.

Without thinking, all four girls ran out to the dam to stop at the road’s center to see what was about to happen. They were so engrossed by Lisa’s actions they didn’t even notice the dead Twisted around them. By the time they reached the spot, Lisa was already engaged in her battle with the Land Octopus’s and baby Hoard Mother.

When Lisa first charged at the group of Twisted, she intended to go right for the big white Hoard Mother and land the first strike. She passed over the entire dam in four seconds and was zooming across the sandy path at speeds only a race car could match. If Stage One caused her to reach 65kmh then at Stage Two she was going almost 130kmh! However, the Land Octopus’s were not going to let her have her way. Lisa was instantly met by a wall of hardened black lava colored tentacle spears.

Lisa tried striking at the first of these tentacle spears with her katana, however, the biological hardening of the tentacles was too great to be cut. All the katana blade did was leave a small and faded mark. The rest of the tentacles came flying at her in rapid succession. Pulling back from her initial swing, Lisa jumped backwards in a zigzag pattern to avoid being skewered by the tentacles. Though the tentacles traveled in a straight line and acting just like the phalanx from Greek battle strategy, with so many spears coming at her at once it was impossible to dodge.

Lisa ended up falling back all the way to the dam’s midpoint before the tentacles stopped extending. As the black lava-colored tentacles began to recede Lisa took note that only the front half of the Land Octopus’s had tried to stab her. The rest remained solidified in their tight circle around the baby Hoard Mother.

“Hmm, you are not going to let me get close, are you?” Lisa called out to the baby Hoard Mother. “I guess I’ll have to make it so that I can.”

Lisa then began to run back across the dam once more. Only this time she didn’t do it at the speed that she managed before. Instead, she intentionally maintained her Stage One speed. Seeing this, the baby Hoard Mother gave a rumbling command to the Land Octopus’s, and they all started to advance together.

Lisa chuckled, “Lets see how many I can kill before you figure out my plan.”

Her right arm started to unpack itself once more and she revealed the .50cal arm gun! At that same moment the Land Octopus’s attacked using the same phalanx manner again. In the face of this wall of death, Lisa did not try to run away. This time she jumped, at least five meters high!

Spinning head over heels three times Lisa came to an abrupt stop, aimed her arm gun, and fired. The heavy boom of the gun going off was almost copied by the noise of the bullet exploding the red bulbus eye of the middle Land Octopus! The bullet rattled around in the solidified head of the Twisted destroying any bit of brain and guts that was within.

Before any of the others could react, she fired off three more shots to strike down three more Land Octopus’s as she began to descend. All four Land Octopus’s were slain in mere moments. Seeing the defensive line fall apart infuriated the baby Hoard Mother and it let out a rapid set of rumbles. The entire formation shifted and the Octopus’s from the back move up.

As Lisa landed with a soft thud on the pavement, she also saw that the eyes of the Land Octopus’s were all closed now. Yet she had no time to figure out why, the next attack was already happening. The baby Hoard Mother let out a quick bass drum sounding rumble and a single tentacle came shooting out from the formation. Lisa dodged to her right to avoid the strike and as she did another bass drum rumble sounded out. A second black lava colored tentacle came flying out from another Land Octopus.

“Oh, so that is how it is.” Lisa laughed. “You are controlling the Octopus’s one by one to attack me since they can’t do it themselves without looking. Aren’t you a clever beast!”

Lisa dodged a third, fourth and then a fifth spear before she responded by raising her arm gun to shoot once more. Only this time she was not aiming for a Land Octopus but rather at one of the last remaining Plain Striders flanking the baby Hoard Mother. The shot landed squarely between the eyes of the intended Plain Strider and the entire beast stumbled back unprepared to be taking a hit.

The Plain Strider let out a roar of pain as a rivulet of blood rolled down its brow, but it did not die. Instead, the Plain Strider charged out from formation and began to chase after Lisa. Lisa laughed and closed her arm gun to be back into its Stage Two form. The baby Hoard Mother let out a dissatisfied rumbling noise seeing the Plain Strider breaking rank, but the Plain Strider didn’t respond.

Lisa smiled as she dodged another tentacle spear. “So, you can’t control them perfectly if they are in enough pain. This is good to know.”

As the Plain Strider came charging across the sandy path at Lisa, she turned right and ran along the wood line. Leading the Plain Strider out of the normal range of the Land Octopus’s attacks and away from the road. Lisa turned around to face the Plain Strider, only this time her sword was not poised to strike. The Plain Strider hooves were thudding deeply into the sand leaving meter deep tracks behind and its head was bowed low to ram Lisa.

“Let’s see how good your hide is against my Stage Two’s brute strength.” Lisa shouted.

Then rearing her arm back, Lisa threw an absolute bomb of a haymaker to land it right above the left eye of the Plain Strider. There was a flash of green light that emitted from the arm upon impact and a meaty sound followed as well. What should have happened was the speed, momentum, and weight of the Plain Strider’s charge should have caused it to continue going forwards, however, the entire body of the Plain Strider knocked sideways headfirst instead!

The Plain Strider let out a moo like gasp of air as it was then sent tumbling away. The Twisted rolled twice before it was sent plummeting over the edge of the cliff where the rockslide had happened. Unable to stop itself, the Plain Strider kept rolling over and over until it fell over the edge to the river below. There was a faint, satisfying splash as Lisa turned back to look at the baby Hoard Mother.

Then in the blink of an eye, Lisa resumed her attack on the baby Hoard Mother and crossed the distance in massive strides quickly reaching her 130kmh speed. The baby Hoard Mother responded a bit to slowly and the tentacles it sent to impale the speeding human were always behind by several meters. Lisa was just too fast. Lisa began to run full circles around the defensive formation and a swirl of dust was beginning to form.

The dust she created decreased the baby Hoard Mothers ability to track Lisa and masked her location. Then from an unexpected angle Lisa struck. Her katana sprung out to hit a Plain Strider right behind the shoulder and it traveled deep enough to reach the creatures heart. Not even slowing down, Lisa spun once to free her katana and continued her charge deeper into the formations center.

The baby Hoard Mother’s three pairs of red eyes caught sight of her attack and turned just in time to see Lisa coming for the left back most of its eight legs. She grabbed her katana’s hilt with both hands and swung it at the massive brown hairy leg, aiming specifically where the Achilles heel might be at.

Striking the leg, it felt to Lisa like she had hit a light pole with a bat. If her arms were not cybernetic, they would have undoubtedly been tingling with painful reverberations. The leg didn’t budge as the blade sunk only a few centimeters into the baby Hoard Mothers hairy leg. Both the hair and scaley skin successfully stopped her attack.

The baby Hoard Mother let out an annoyed puff of breath from its nostrils and then attacked at Lisa with its two sapling sized tails. Lisa wrenched her katana free and jumped up to avoid being struck. Yet the baby Hoard Mother was quick, and it sent its tail back at her twice as fast. The twin tails struck Lisa’s back while she was still in the air, and she was sent spiraling out from the defensive formation.

Branches and limbs struck her all over as she was knocked into the woods. Eventually a large Poplar tree trunk stopped her completely. She sat up lean on the trunk while rubbing her back to look at the baby Hoard Mother through the hole she had created in the foliage.

“Ouch, now that hurt.” Lisa moaned. “I guess its time to call for back up.”

Lisa then reached into her now ripped jeans back pocket and pulled out an orange flair gun. She had taken this earlier when everyone was being given their weapons to fight with. Pointing it straight up, she shot it. This was the signal Dixon and Party Badger were waiting for!