Chapter 352: Tightening the Noose
"This is impossible..." Belladonna panted, her lungs burning, before she took another golden punch to the side of the head.
She staggered across the uneven golden terrain, her legs wobbling from the exhaustion, before that same terrain surged upwards to hit her again. She barely reacted, lifting her arm up and summoning her shield to block the uppercut, only for the coins beneath her feet to drag themselves out from underneath her.
Combine that with the force of the uppercut, and it was the perfect recipe for causing Belladonna to fall flat on her ass for about the sixteenth time in the last twenty minutes. It stopped being funny after the second time.
She groaned in pain and despair, as she spent a few seconds regaining on the ground. Her body was battered, beaten and bruised. Her healing was still running at its highest capacity, which had restored her arm to its former glory as it was bare and exposed to the elements as she had, once again, destroyed a part of her armour.
She really needed to fix that bug.
But the fact that she was healing was really not doing her any favours in this fight. It was just extending her torture, giving the Amodite more excuses to toy with her and beat her repeatedly. It could have ended the fight well before now, but it was too busy enjoying itself, and Belladonna was far too stubborn to end it on her own terms.
At least she was doing better than most of her party. They were all strewn about the boss area, as beaten as she was, although their bodies actually showed it. The one who got it worst was Figg, as it found out that it could ’kill’ him when he was in transformed state and it would just revert Figg back to normal.
The Druid went through three rounds of transformations before he finally realised that it was a self inflicted punishment.
Belladonna lifted her head and glared at the golden demon that was still sitting on its humble wooden throne, a small smirk gracing its lips as it raised its eyebrows at her, waiting to see what she would do next.
He looked good as new, not a single scratch on his perfect golden skin. She had blown his arm off, sliced chunks out of him. She even tried to bite him to drain his blood.
The best damage she had gotten was when she activated her Blood Frenzy, but he smacked her out of that before it could even reach its normal thirty second timer, and healed in a second despite having been torn to shreds.
At the very least, he was having to drain his gold to heal himself, but considering the height of the mountain of gold he was sitting on was still taller than the other still existing mountains. The amount of damage they would have to do to him would be insane, bordering on the level of a complete one hit destruction.
Not just a kill, but an entire annihilation of every part of him, just to be sure.
This was absolutely a boss one would need a proper raid team to fight, perhaps even a small army all the equipment they had looted was supposed to arm. It was no wonder only one group had ever beaten this boss. Losing here was pretty much their only option. And Yet...
Rising to her feet slowly, Belladonna grit her teeth and clenched her fists tight. She let out a strained war-cry before bursting forwards. Flames spewed from her feet as she rocketed through the air, only to be intercepted by a golden swarm that slapped her like a bug swatter.
She went flying, crashing through one of the mountains of golden coins, bursting out the other side a millisecond later as the entire structure collapsed from the hole in its integrity.
Blood splattered across Belladonna’s chest as she coughed it up, as well as a tooth or two that had been knocked free. Those were painful to grow back.
"I was hoping for thieves that are more robust. To think you are already so broken. Where is the pleasure in your punishment?" Suun’Ma grumbled from atop his throne, with a deep and unamused sigh.
He shifted in his seat, lazily waving his hand as the gold coins filling the floor started to shift and cover their bodies, completely entombing them one by one.
"Thieves..." Belladonna spluttered, as the coins bound her legs and arms and started to crawl over her body like insects. Even in their execution, he was taking his time. The torture of a slow death, how typical of an Amodite.
Her bloodshot eyes snapped open as the answer flashed into her mind, before she quickly rolled them back in a mixture of physical and mental pain.
"Oh... oh you stupid girl..." She muttered to herself, before taking a deep breath. A process that was painful considering one of her rips was stabbing into her lung, but she did it anyways, before belting out as loud as she could.
"What makes you think we are thieves?!"
The coin swarm, which had covered everything but her face, suddenly stopped their encroachment. Their momentary pause screaming of hesitation and doubt, before Belladonna was dragged across the floor in her golden tomb.
She winced in pain as the gold coins squeezed her as she moved, and when she opened her eyes again she was staring into the ruby eyes of the demon.
"What did you say?" He rumbled, his face twitching with a strange anger.
Belladonna wanted to smirk, as she could imagining a noose slowly weaving its way around his throat, but she surpressed it and put on a very serious expression.
"Why do you assume we are thieves? What rules have we broken? I demand proper sentencing."
"Proper sentencing... YOU ARE DIRTY THIE-" The Demon started to shout, before his voice caught in his throat from his own self doubt. Creases formed on his flawless golden skin, right between the eyebrows, before he spoke again with a calmer tone.
"You refused basic manners by not knocking. You did not announce yourself. You dirtied my coins with your boots. You attacked me with intent to kill. Are these not the actions of thieves and the guilty when they are caught?"
The coins shifted again, obeying his rage and desire for a twisted justice, as they tightened around Belladonna’s throat. But so did the figurative noose around his neck, as she held back another smirk.
"Dirtied your coins? You mean the objects you have left scattered all over the floor? I did not see a mat to wipe my feet, nor did I see any path for those unable to fly to take.
I could not even take off my shoes, because if you haven’t noticed I haven’t been wearing any at all! What I have done, however, has been floating above the coins whenever I could, a feat that was only met with an unjust punishment.
How could anyone follow such rules when no alternative is offered to them? That is corruption and entrapment!" She barked at the demon, as the coins ceased their movement and the noose tightened ever so slightly.
She could see the anger fade from his face as his eyes widened ever so slightly. His brow creased with worry, as he glanced at the floor that was indeed completely covered with coins with no possible way of not dirtying them.
Before he could think of another rationale, Belladonna kept speaking and lumping on the accusations.
"As for announcing ourselves, we got no chance! The moment you set your eyes on us, we were being accused of thievery, yet not a single one of your coins has so much as felt our pockets!
We only attacked because we were defending ourselves. You, sir, attacked us first. Is it not our just right to defend ourselves from a madman attacking us, even if it means lethal intent?"
She put on a stern, scolding mother expression as she spat all of this at him, and if she had a hand free she would have been shaking her finger sternly. With everything heaped on top of him, she just really hoped he didn’t remember about the knocking.
She didn’t really have an answer for that one. But, by the panicked and horrified expression on his face as his eyes darted back and forth, Belladonna had a feeling that she didn’t have to. His own mind was fighting against itself, finding all the horrible things he had done under a false assumption.
He, Suun’Ma the Just, had accused someone of criminal attempt without even so much of a shred of evidence. It was a realisation that was causing a horrible tormoil within himself, as his rage fought against the intrinsic need of every Amodite to respect rules and law with an iron fist.
Finally, Belladonna smirked as she leaned forwards and whispered lowly,
"You know I’ve met Amodite’s before, and he agreed with me on something. If someone doesn’t know the rules, How in the world could they possibly be accused of breaking them? And I have seen no rules posted around here at all.
Are you planning to accuse us of more falsehoods in your pursuit of false justice?"
Sheer dread mixed with absolute horror painted Suun’Ma’s face as Belladonna’s words wormed their way into his mind. His voice caught in his throat, keeping with it any possible excuse. His breathing halted, as the noose finally tightened fully.