“Dodge.” Lyrhea said inside of her head as the bolt of fire came closer and she moved mindlessly towards the tank-like man. “Dodge. Dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge, dodge! DODGE! GODDAMNIT BODY, DODGE!”

Her body refused to work as she wanted, and she was still stuck in her own head. If she took that blast to the face, then it would not matter how she fought even if she did get control back, as she would be blind, deaf, and unable to smell or taste anything at all. She would be doomed if it hit, and so she tried again.

“If I can’t make myself dodge, then… Drop lower!”

This, unlike before, got at least a desirable result. Her aggro’d body dropped lower to the ground and moved mindlessly towards the tank on all fours and with much more inhuman speed and grace than before.

“Success! Eat it, you metal-covered bastard!” Lyrhea cheered as the Searing Bolt flew more than a full two feet above her head, having itself dropped in altitude to try and met her face as it had been directed to. However, unluckily for the caster and their party, Lyrhea’s drop in posture and increase in speed combined to make her a much harder target to hit.

“Fuck! What the hell were you aiming at, Francois?!”

“It should have hit!”

“It didn’t! Ralph, swing NOW!”

Lyrhea had only just dodged the first attack and already her foes were going crazy and losing their focus. Morons. Didn’t anyone ever tell them that in any and all fights you should expect everything that can go wrong to go wrong?

Still, though, she was on a collision course with the metal club, so she tried to give her body another alteration to the command it had been given that, like previously, would not technically go against the Taunt but instead somewhat negate it in another, loophole-like way.

“Slither up and around his legs and then up onto his back. Then strike.”

Her body followed these altered instructions to the best extent that it could, and the metal baseball bat only barely clipped her body as she went between the Shield Knight’s legs, up the back of his armor, and then over the top of him, adding enough rapidly shifting extra weight to topple the heavily armored teen over onto his face.

“Argh! The party tank yelled as he slipped and fell forward. “Son of a bitch! Help me up!”

As soon as the tank hit the ground, the force making her move against her will ceased to be a factor, and Lyrhea made her gymnastics teachers proud by dodging a number of ranged attacks and then a few swings of a pair of cutlasses with the grace of a true artist.

“Careful, there.” she said in a cold yet playful tone as she dodged the last swing. “Kids shouldn’t play with knives.” she brought her leg up and over the teen’s right arm and twisted, as the arm moved, snapping bone with an audible pop. The cutlass in that arm’s hand was released and Lyrhea grabbed it while still holding the broken arm in one of her legs and rammed the metal sword through the throat of the swashbuckling Rogue.

She felt a bit of force as she pushed the blade through, and the source was revealed to be a piece of the spine as the bone was shot out the back of the teen’s neck like a cannonball.

“Shit, didn’t think that would happen…” Lyrhea mused aloud as the tossed the fallen Rogue away with a flick of her leg.

“Mary!” shouted the tank as he rose from the ground. “Heals, NOW!”

“Fuck, a healer.” spat the snake-human as she darted around and went for the first target one should always prioritize first in any fantasy battle. “C’mere you little shit!”

…

Mary felt such elation at the suffering on display, so much so that she had failed to notice that her party members were embroiled in a battle with the humanoid monster.

“Heeheeheee!” she giggled as she pushed her staff deeper into the eye of the monster that had been trapped under the mass of materials. “Do you want me to help you?” She asked cruelly. “Here, kiss my feet, you filth, and worship me, the Saintess! Maybe then I’ll show you some mercy!”

The beast screeched violently and struggled against the concrete and metal, but at best it merely shifted the mass by a few millimeters after a few seconds of heavy exertion.

“Good, flail against the inevitable, you dumb beast! Scream in defiance, and know that your fate is sealed either way! Scream for me! Bleed for me! Break for your Saintess!”

She brought up her staff and then brought it down again and again until nothing was left of the monster’s face but a broken and bloody mess.

“Oh? Trying to die on me, are you?” Mary held one side of her face in one of her now-bloody hands and let a sinister and malicious expression fill her face. “Your beloved Saintess didn’t give you permission to die just yet, beast! Let me show you some undeserved mercy!” she said with a sadistic giggle as she healed the creature in record time.

The beast looked confused, then its eyes shifted up to Mary and its face, which had previously born either a look of rage or a look of lust, now was filled with fear and terror. Mary, though, lapped that all up.

“See? Aren’t I magnanimous? Now, this will hurt me a lot more than it will hurt you, so loving is my heart and so wide is my mercy.” She raised her blood-soaked staff again as her smile grew wider.

“MARY! WATCH OUT!”

She paused, looked over to her struggling teammates, then back to the beast. They could wait a bit longer. It wasn’t like a single monster could give them too much trouble.

Then she saw that the formerly bright light that shone down on her from through the broken skylight had been replaced by darkness.

“What bitch dares take my sunli-… Oh….”

As she looked up, all she saw was the wide, open mouth of a snake that she would have never been able to beat in a fight, even if she was with her party and more than fifteen levels higher than they were at now. The last thing she heard before being swallowed whole in one bite was someone screaming her name again and the sound of battle growing far, far too quiet for her liking.