“Get up! I said get up, you animal!”
Galyn grunted as he rolled onto his back, away from the chandelier that had very nearly just fallen on him. Shards of glass coated the cold, stone floor, getting trapped in the various pink shag rugs. This Life Goddess had been throwing Galyn around for at least an hour now, seemingly wanting to torture him more than kill him. On the plus side, that meant that Galyn was at least still alive, but it was only a matter of time before Calohxaa outright snuffed him out.
“Give me a second…”
Their combat thus far hadn’t been too bad, Galyn admitted. It was mostly just Galyn trying to outwit someone far, far more powerful than he was. As long as Calohxaa was angry, she couldn’t just smite him and get on with her life. But at the same time, as Calohxaa got more and more pissed off whenever she missed him, the few attacks that would hit really, really hurt.
To make matters worse, Galyn’s own strength was somewhat failing him. In the space of about ten minutes (at least, as far as Galyn was aware), he had gone through most of his poison supplies, as well as a vast amount of Galyn’s own internal instant healing ointments. Every time Calohxaa had touched Galyn, she’d unwittingly injected herself with a large array of poisons, sedatives, toxins and tranquillizers. Unfortunately, none of them had… really done anything.
Still grunting, Galyn struggled to his feet. He dusted the shards of glass off himself, then turned to face Calohxaa, who was creating some sort of massive, pink fireball with one hand, and holding a large staff in the other.
“You done yet?” Calohxaa sneered.
“Not quite…” Galyn tutted. “I just wish to ask what you hope to achieve by killing me.”
The Decay Lord’s question caused Calohxaa to pause. She snapped her hand shut, snuffing out the pink fireball, then put her hand on her hip.
“Well, I guess I want to hurt and kill you for not trusting me. I want to teach you a lesson.”
Galyn shook his head. “I cannot learn anything if I am dead.”
“Oh, very true, but I can make you regret ever existing.”
“Why? You wanted visitors, then proved yourself to be untrustworthy and threatened to harm us. How did you think we would react?”
The Life Goddess shrugged, then snapped her fingers open again. The large ball of pink fire reappeared, and Calohxaa immediately threw it in Galyn’s direction. Galyn immediately leapt for cover, but pretty much everything in the room had already been trashed, so all he was doing was hiding behind the remains of what had once been a banquet table.
“Killing me does nothing!” the Decay Lord exclaimed, realising that some of his shoulder plating was on fire. He hastily put the fire out, then got back onto his feet, preparing for another attack.
“Oh, it does do something, dear!” Calohxaa beamed. “Killing and hurting you makes me happy!”
Galyn sighed, knowing he was running out of space to move. “It is only… temporary happiness. Once you kill me, then what?”
The naked deity didn’t answer. She simply grinned and summoned a new orb of flaming, pink energy. Calohxaa watched eagerly as Galyn hesitated, leaped out of the way of the ensuing explosion, then charged directly at her. With a thwack of her trusty staff though, Calohxaa ensured that Galyn never made contact. Swiftly kicking the fallen Decay Lord in the head and knocking them out, Calohxaa was pretty satisfied, and readied her staff for the final bl-
“Ding dong!”
Calohxaa looked up in confusion. “Was that the doorbell?” she asked herself.
“Ding dong!”
It was! Calohxaa leaped up in joy. Another visitor? Already? That was amazing!
Dropping everything she was doing, Calohxaa rushed out of the room and down the corridor, to see who her new visitor was.