We open this chapter with cutting all the way over to the woman Gynesis was hunting down, the silverish-white haired demoness in human skin herself.
Currently hunting her husband down on her lonesome, trudging through the dimension at a brisk power walk's pace. Her brows furrowed in mild concentration.
"Damn it..." The woman mumbled to the zero creatures alive to hear it.
In the next instant, a massive cyclops appears holding a massive fuck off club, landing directly ahead of her after falling a great height. Its booted feet slamming into the stone ground beneath it hard enough to make a crater several feet deep and much wider. With the crater's diameter matching the creature's height, that clocks it in at around 60 feet.
A quick glance around the area would tell any experienced gamer exactly why the red eyed demoness swore between her teeth.
The place was huge, wide, and open. Clear signs of a boss arena.
After a brief second of recovering from its landing, the cyclops looks down at smaller woman before letting out a bellowing raw right at her. The force behind the move kicking up massive amounts of wind as its hot breath blasted her directly in her face .
Even so, aside from her outfit flapping violently there wasn't much of a reaction from her. Not even raising her hand to protect her face or something.
Just the bored stare of someone accustomed to dealing with all bark and no bite from creatures like him.
A stare that offended the boss monster as if he understood exactly what Gynesis's wife was saying with those nonchalant eyes. Then again, it understood that the attempt at intimidation he threw out yielded zero results. And that's all it really needed.
The cyclops raises the club in its hand above its head, readying the hardest overhead slam its done in its life.
"Alright Valorie, let's try not to kill this one in one shot, kay?" She spoke to herself, looking at the palm of her hand before spinning her hand around to look at her manicured nails.
That tone of voice wasn't an attempt at acting tough, was it, Valorie?
"Silence." The demonic woman instantly bit back, her voice lacking life for two syllables.
Right after, she sighed and took a step forward. The cyclops lets out another roar as if that's its only form of communication before one-handedly raising its club.
Predictably, it brought the thing down like a hammer. With Valorie as the nail.
A loud crash filled the air and a dust cloud kicked up into the air. Much to the cyclops' satisfaction, revealed by the thing's grin forming.
Too bad that grin didn't get much time to rest on its face before it was instantly wiped off and replaced with surprise.
The monster's single eye as wide as a saucer. It bore witness to the dust cloud getting dispersed by a powerful gust of wind. Not only that, but its weapon now split in two pieces.
The gust was no doubt caused by the figure revealed by its sudden disappearance. And there left even less doubt as to who the weapon's division had originated from.
Valorie.
Her heel-length snow white hair , and a pair of wings on her back that matched her hair color, no doubt draconic in nature. Casually spread out as if ready to lift the woman off the floor.
Their span was massive, 10 meters from tip to tip, accented by a subtle bluish hue. And clawed, because of course they were.
"Wait right here." Valorie muttered, a hint of melancholy in her voice, her words slower than usual. Almost melodic.
She'd look up at the monster who'd attacked her, those ruby red eyes completely hollow as they seared a hole into the cyclops.
"I'll be back in the morning." Another utterance, the same lacking life behind the words.
Words spoken, actions taken. She stepped forward, putting a foot onto the cyclops's club.
At the same time, the monster itself pulled back to try resetting his animation- I mean to try repositioning his weapon to go for another attack.
He yanked with the same hand it slammed with.
The piece of either metal or rock didn't move. It did creak, however, confirming it was indeed made of some kind of metal.
Valorie took another step.
"I know that I'm not that important to you." She kept muttering, her words speeding up but still devoid of her usual drawl or spunk.
It yanked again.
Same result.
A splash of panic washed over the cyclops at the notion. That panic didn't last long. Just as quickly as it had arrived, it was converted to anger.
Valorie took another step, now finished with her previous line and moving onto the next set of words flowing through her head. Or at least escaping between her lips.
Putting both hands on the weapon it owned, the monster really put its back into the next yank. Determined to get this broad off of its property and regain what was his.
And to its credit, it succeeded. Managing to wrestle the club out from under Valorie's feet and regain full control over the object. By dragging the thing 20 feet back and 15 feet into the solid granite the floor was made of to accomplish this.
This didn't stop the demoness's movements. She'd simply land on the floor as if nothing had happened. Those wings preventing her from falling too hard as they caught the air on her way down.
"But to me, girl, you're so much more than gorgeous" She uttered during her descent, landing with a soft thud and her wings folding around her like a second cloak.
Her head was hanging low, her gaze focused on the newly carved piece of the flooring. Leaving her wide open for the cyclops to get a free hit in.
An unfortunate fact for the club in its hands.
He readied the thing like a baseball batter, doing the little spin while he was at it, then swung with all his might. Rocketing the club at full speed with both hands.
This was on top of Valorie raising her pointer to haphazardly do the "come here" gesture with it. A move that managed to anger her opponent mid swing. So much so the swing speed doubled.
The weapon, strong as it was, wasn't strong enough.
"So much more than perfect" The demon finalized, whatever trance she was just in subsiding as the focus in her red eyes came back to her.
**CRACK!**
The club broke on impact. No, it shattered.
The crack that filled the air wasn't from bones breaking, but metal getting turned into scrap. What happens when a stoppable force meets an immovable object.
The cyclops managed to shift Valorie's neck a few inches, making her tilt her head to the left as if in confusion.
But that was about it in terms of "damage" the attack did. At the cost of his main weapon outside of the suggestion of a handle that remained in his hands. On top of the feeling of the recoil running up his hands and through his entire body.
Looking at its weapon's remains, the monster found itself in a spot. On the one hand, its club was gone. On the other, that club wasn't even that important anyway.
It was just rubble found in a ditch somewhere after all.
Despite the shattered weapon and clear signs of his chosen adversary refusing to even pay attention to him, this cyclops was undeterred in his plans to off said adversary in one on one combat.
With a narrowed eye, it took a step forward, closing what little of a gap the club's range provided with a step of confidence, maybe even annoyance.
"Not bad..." Valorie chirped, her voice reflecting light amusement as she tilted her head in the other direction, cracking the vertebrae above her shoulder blades before shaking her head a few times.
As she shook her head, a pair of white horns grew from her forehead, curling around her cranium like a natural tiara of sorts. Not just that, but scales began blooming over her hands and feet. White, with bluish accents like her wings.
Their growth patterns reflecting forearm length gloves and thigh highs up to her middle thigh. With the gloves' fingers ending in claws.
All with said scales burning their way through the fabrics of her clothes until they were completely visible.
Valorie, now fully mentally there, raised a hand. the cyclops raised his as well. Except his hand was up before hers, and came down quicker than she could finish whatever she was about to try just then.
Her gaze snapped up, catching the shadow that would tip her off to the incoming blow. One hand turned into two, cupping her left hand with her right as a brace. Right before that fist, which was around the size of a hatchback, was about to make contact with Valorie's face.
It came crashing down with the force of a king tide, but it was caught.
The weight and size difference made the woman slide back several feet, but her form held. She was going to skid more from that singular punch, but a last minute shift of her own weight allowed her to plant her feet more firmly while she was busy pushing against the attack. Bringing herself to a complete stop damn near instantly.
"Surely there's more." The woman smiled, her voice drastically deeper than it was just a moment ago.
Her now blue eyes traced a path from where her hands stopped the weapon to the wielder of said weapon's face.
Oh that is definitely not Valorie.
"Come on now, show me something interesting." The deeper voiced lady deadpanned, folding her arms in indignation at the farce she had to call an attempt at her life.
A comment that cyclops didn't want to hear one bit.
Her face a mirror of neutrality, Valorie shook her head, adding fuel to the fire that was this monster's rage.
While before it was attempting some form of tactics.
At least that's what it was telling itself.
All of that was tossed to the wayside after witnessing what it had with its own one eye.
He tossed out a kick, desperate for something, anything, to connect. it didn't. Not because "Valorie" blocked, but because she dodged. Casually side stepping the move as if it were in slow motion.
And to her, it might as well have been. She didn't even look at the attack as she walked away from it, treating the maneuver as if she walked up to a line at a convenience store. And not evading an attack that left a crater big enough to fit an SUV.