"Ready?"
"Yes!"
I said without hesitation. Was I ready? Yes, of course I was.
Sister Maren leaned forward and we charged forward, the floating candle holders following us. I held onto her shoulder, my eyes never blinking, even when winds hit hard, pupils refusing to see anything but the beetle woman.
She hissed as we approached, spreading herself to cover more surface area, the back shell opening, lifting up, elytra spreading out, and she took off with even more power.
Perhaps she was holding back the first time, made sense since we were inside a congested place.
The beetle woman opened the claws on her hands wide, heading straight at us like a lancer in heat. The opening-claw movement was heavily mechanical, or biomechanical. Most beetles in my world use extremely toxic chemical defenses.
I don’t even want to imagine what a genetically modified beetle in a magical world is capable of. Sister Maren had told me to ignore it, anyway.
The distance between us and the beetle woman closed in just a few seconds. Neither of us had the ego to pull out of the collision path, and that was exactly what we wanted her to think.
Right when the beetle woman came into range to rip us apart, Sister Maren levitated upward and forward.
Then I let go of Sister Maren’s shoulders, jumping onto the beetle woman’s back and practically hanging like a live backpack.
I again caught her completely off guard. And because of my position, I not only managed to limit her wings’ range of motion but completely fucked up her aerodynamics.
"Get off me, you filth! Seriously, you humans are so annoying."
She somehow managed to hold herself in the air but couldn’t do anything about actually removing me from her back. She couldn’t reach her back with the claws because her wings were in the way.
And a disadvantage of having big, heavy claws, she couldn’t even reach her own shoulder without yoga.
The only thing she could do here was spin or throw a tantrum like a cockroach, violently. Which she was doing–
Violently moving left to right, trying desperately to remove the insect on her back like a scared little girl.
"You got a new backpack! Just be grateful for once in your life. Sing with me, bitch, backpack, backpack~"
My grip on her was strong and I wasn’t budging. This was more than enough to buy Sister Maren time.
While the beetle woman was busy with me, Sister Maren was casting a spell.
Just above us, at one o’clock, a moon-blue candle flame was burning brighter than the actual moon in the sky.
Her hand reached out to grab the space, flames emerged from her palm, spreading up and down, forming something.
When the flames curved, she pulled a string of flame back, and the shape finished forming: a bow. The arrow seemed the opposite of the flame, yet the same. A solid arrow, so cold it was burning.
And with that, she was ready to take aim. It’s not like the beetle girl was completely unaware, she shifted focus onto Sister Maren, but it was too late.
Aiming for her head, Sister Maren fired the arrow. It launched with power, cutting through the heavy winds with ease.
"I’m not going down that easily. Not to the likes of you!"
She used her claw as a shield, but it wasn’t able to counter the power. On contact, her claw burned and then broke. Moving at the last second, she barely managed to dodge the arrow, not completely.
In the process, the arrow hit her left leg too, and it was ripped off. She barely managed to save herself at the cost of one hand and one leg.
The arrow didn’t hit as intended, but it was effective.
The beetle woman was hanging in the air now, catching her breath, not even trying to get rid of me.
"Haa... haa... you’ve left me no choice."
She said, catching her last weak breath before spreading out her remaining limbs, straightening her posture, blood falling down.
Then the surroundings became distorted with the heaviest vibration I had encountered. It was like the world was getting corrupted.
My eyes felt like they were about to drop out of my skull. Then it faded, and I genuinely felt the way religious people describe the after-effects of a prayer.
When my senses started working again, I found myself falling. My brain forced my eyes open and I saw Sister Maren reaching out to catch me.
But then the beetle woman, using her claw like a hammer, slammed it into Sister Maren’s waist. The blow was brutal, and her focus was now on the beetle girl.
Their fight had just started, which I wasn’t able to see very well because I was busy falling. My balance failed and I was rotating mid-fall, which was somehow not bad compared to the vibrations.
It was hard to see, but Sister Maren was falling a few meters away from me as well. Even while falling, she used her magic to save me.
With a gesture from Sister Maren, a floating candle holder broke from her chain, a small broken piece of chain still attached it. It came to me and attached itself to my right shoulder.
It took a few seconds for the levitation to take effect, but when it finally did, I was safe, and just in front of an open window to a corridor of some building.
Going inside, I quickly turned around to see if I could spot Sister Maren. But there was thickening fog.
The wall a few feet away broke from someone coming inside by force, scattering stone brick and dust into the air.
"Now that your friend is out of the way, do you have any last words, human?"
When I turned around, the beetle woman was in front of me, and the worst part, her limbs were back in place, like they’d never been cut off at all.
No surprise, she can regenerate.
I took a long breath, filling my lungs. Alright, now for the next part of the plan.
I pinched my nose and counted to three.