Not good… not good… everybody is panicking… there are people running all over the place… shit. They are going to get themselves killed.

  The lamia picked up the sword of the guy that she had just eaten. She was now wielding my sword and his sword… and she still had four hands free… each of which had some terrible looking claws.

  She started slithering around the room… cutting and clawing at anybody that tried to escape by running past her. The hammer guy was warning everybody to stay back… but they weren’t listening… they were terrified and panicked. Shit… this isn’t good… I need to find a way to keep her in one place. She is way too mobile… we don’t stand a chance against her like this.

  Right… I think I have an idea… it won’t kill her… but it should at least limit her movement.

  Dwynfel: “Fight her!”

  Knight 3: “Are you insane?”

  Dwynfel: “Do you see any other options?”

  Knight 3: “Fuck’s sake!”

  The hammer guy stepped forward and raised his hammer towards her.

  Knight 3: “Bring it on, you psychotic bitch!”

  She barrelled towards him at great speed. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he is actually reasonably quick himself. He managed to dodge her initial charge without being hit at all. However, after missing him she spun round, swinging her tail at him with great force. This he did not dodge. He was knocked down but maintained the momentum, rolled, and was back on his feet almost instantly.

  Knight 3: “Cheap trick.”

  Lamia: “You are becoming tiresome.”

  Right… while she is distracted with him… now is my chance. I swiftly ran across the room towards the two remaining cultists. The one vomiting on the floor had dropped his sword on the floor next to him. I swiped it from his side and yelled across to Kiyui.

  Dwynfel: “Salient blade! Now!”

  Kiyui: “Right… umm… salient blade.”

  The blade gave off a light glow and I rushed behind the Lamia. The blade is large and unwieldy in my hands… but I don’t need to be able to fight with it… this should work. Her tail was flailing through the air as she tried to claw and slice at the hammer guy. I need to time this right. Just wait… just wait… and… now.

  I jumped forward and stabbed the sword right through the centre of her tail and down into the floor. The lamia let out an agonised wail.

  Dwynfel: “End the spell!”

  Kiyui: “Right.”

  The lamia turned and charged at me. I slid to the edge of the room as fast as I could. She almost reached me with one of her claws but she was stopped by the sword pinning her in place.

  She turned and attempted to pull the sword out of the ground. The sword didn’t move… with salient blade no longer in effect, the blade won’t be so easily moved. She looked back at me. She didn’t look angry… more mildly irritated.

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  Lamia: “You are proving to be quite the inconvenience. You really should have joined me when I offered you the chance.”

  She started to pull her tail forward… it started to split in two… blood poured from the wound and she continued to look at me… completely unfazed by the injury that she was causing herself.

  Kiyui: “The heart!”

  Knight 3: “You said that already!”

  Kiyui: “No… it’s on the other side!”

  Dwynfel: “What?”

  Kiyui: “Her insides are flipped! It’s on her…”

  The lamia threw her disciple’s sword at Kiyui… he dodged behind a pillar and it narrowly missed him. Now… now she is starting to look angry.

  Kiyui: “Her right… her heart is on her right!”

  Okay… right… well that explains why Chenowith’s sword didn’t do anything. But how the fuck are we supposed to get another blade in her chest? She let us get the first one in.

  I drew my daggers and stepped towards her… she finally managed to pull her tail completely free… it was now completely split in two… the floor was just a giant pool of black blood at this point… which did not make it easy to manoeuvre on. As she made a move towards me, I took advantage of this slippery floor and slid along the ground under her swing.

  Dwynfel: “Kiyui… dagger!”

  Kiyui: “Salient blade.”

  I intended to stop sliding a lot sooner than I did… but blood is apparently more slippery than I thought. In the end the hammer guy stopped me sliding by grabbing my arm.

  Knight 3: “What is the plan here?”

  Dwynfel: “Basically, try to find an opening and jam my dagger in her heart.”

  Knight 3: “Fair enough.”

  One again… she charged across the temple… fury now in her eyes. She knows that we know how to kill her now, so she isn’t messing around. This time she stopped just before reaching us and clearly also decided to take advantage of the slippery floor. As she stopped, she swivelled her tail round and it came careening towards us at great speed.

  It caught me off guard, but I’m fast and able to dodge well. The hammer guy jumped over it… but not quite quick enough and it clipped his legs, causing him to fall, rather unflatteringly to the ground.

  She obviously knows that he isn’t the main danger here though… a hammer isn’t going to tear into her chest… she’s going for me… shit. Less than a second after the tail attack, she lunged forwards, slicing her blade in an outward cutting fashion. I rolled under it and jumped forward towards her trunk. I almost reached her chest with my dagger when she grabbed my arm with one of hers… then she grabbed my other three limbs with her remaining hands.

  Shit… shit… I can’t move… she has all my limbs… she’s pulling on them… fuck… oh gods… it hurts… it hurts… make it stop… please… please… make it stop. Fuck… my shoulder… oh gods… it hurts so much….

  She leaned her face in close to mine.

  Lamia: “Can you feel it? The cold embrace of death?”

  Dwynfel: “Fuck you!”

  Kiyui: “Reinforce.”

  The blade in her chest started to glow slightly and I saw the hammer guy swiftly move behind her. Then suddenly the blade in her chest moved… the hilt shot to her left and the blade to the right. She howled in anguish… she dropped me to the floor. Her body twitched a few times… then she was completely still.

  Dwynfel: “What the fuck just happened?”