Crossover Escape: Gotta be more than Lucky to survive

2.3 Battle in the Turntable

When the Roach lost sight of Luca as it lunged onto the turntable it slightly spread its wings so that the top part of the carapace bulged out making accessing the lethal nerve bundle harder. However it also made keep track of the thing easier as an already tall target became wider. As any good fighter will tell you the larger the target the easier to hit. Though to hit the right spot on a larger target was no different than on a smaller one. However with a blade that wouldn’t deflect of the shell of the Roach hitting precisely the right spot was less of a problem.

That being said a sword only had so much reach so to hit the Roach Luca needed to get within range of it hitting him. In an open area like the cage arena that would be a bit of a problem. But on the turntables with a bunch of moving poles and batons and an ever-twisting floor. Luca could stand almost shoulder to shoulder with the thing, and it wouldn’t be able to see him. Which was just how Luca liked to fight monsters, swift death that they don’t see coming.

The creature lashed out at one of the batons as Luca moved up to its left. The baton gave an amused creek, and the Roach got a laser to the chest for the action. Luca froze as the laser started the trauma of being chased through the course by lasers re-emerging but only one shot was fired, and the laser stopped again. The Roach raised its face, and a slight hissing noise came from it. On an animal Luca would have called it sniffing but he couldn’t say for certain about the olfactory abilities of the two-meter-tall humanoid cockroach.

Still even if it could smell it wasn’t likely to help it much at the moment. The mess it had made in killing the vampires and such on the others side meant that the scent of blood hung heavy in the air. Which combined with the fact that Luca had been splashed with quite a bit of blood in his rapid s*******r earlier meant that it would have been very difficult to pick out his position with scent alone. Besides Luca fully intended to make the point mute as quickly as possible.

Luca circled around the creature taking advantage of the moving turntable to fling himself between over and around the batons in a spiralling circle. The grind of the moving stone masked any noise he made. Luca closed in on the left and when the creature turned its head to look right Luca swung around the pole his leg striking at the Roach and knocking it back a step as Luca finished his pin by driving the sword into its chest upwards towards its head.

Unfortunately he missed the nerve cluse the blade coming out its shoulder instead. Somewhat regretfully Luca yanked the blade back out and jumped back amongst the batons starting to swing and spiral amongst them again. The Roach tried to follow but it could bend amongst the batons or shift through the tighter mesh of poles. It screamed in frustration as Luca chucked to himself.

“I can’t believe your toying with a Roach.” Help muttered from where he’d tucked himself back into to keep close during Luca’s acrobatic movements.

“A hunting we shall go, a hunting we shall go.” Luca sang softly under his breath as the Roach stopped screeching and Luca started circling in from the opposite side. Take two.

Luca flipped around from the other side and struck again. This time the Roach jumped up its wings spreading as it hovered in the air. Luca frowned even as he shifted back amongst the batons, he stayed low so it would still be hard to get a clear view even from the air. However, he would need a different approach to attack with the damn thing flying. To be fair Luca had almost thought the wings where not fully functional since neither it nor the other had flown before. No such luck it seemed.

On the bright side going into flight shifted the carapace fully to the side which meant there was no protection at the base of the head. So long as Luca could get into the air behind it and past the wings it would be an easy kill.

Luca contemplated; he could quite easily get up to the low height that the thing was hovering at. He would probably even be able to do so behind it largely out of its line of sight. The problem he had that he would likely struggle to have sufficient leverage to drive the sord in above his head since that would be at the top point of his reach, and he’d need to strike at least that high to bypass the wings. Maybe it would be better to just cut the wings off and stab it when it was grounded.

“I can make step for you to use in the air. Not sure how big I can make it though.” Help offered as the Roach buzzed down and swiped at Luca, but Luca deftly used a baton to block. As the Roach circled Luca moved. He flipped himself up off one of the batons and deftly into the air. Luca flipped in place preparing to make a feint when a foot hold appeared beneath his foot. Not wanting to waist the opportunity Luca pressed firmly down and launched himself higher. Shifting his grip on the sword Luca pierced down and straight through the Roach. Leveraging off the body Luca flipped free as the body crashed down on the turntable.

“Excellent timing Help, now what was that about –”

[Rӓv: Well that’s a problem.] Luca cut himself off when Rӓv spoke. Immediately shifting the coms back to send audio Luca rushed through the course and continued to try and get out of the cube or he supposed given what Help had said the box. Luca checked the map and then compared distance and thought that Ghost and Rӓv should have been practically at the exit.

[Lucky: What’s a problem?]

[Rӓv: There is a massive temple that the exits feed into and it is filled with monsters, and I don’t just mean the species we’ve already met. I’m seeing goblins, trolls, maybe sirens and is that a harpy?] Rӓv switched to text messages as she progressed. Luca thought that a wise idea after consideration a very common matter mentioned about monsters and mythical creatures was enhances senses.

[Lucky: What are they doing?] Luca checked Tails progress and noticed that they were only a bit behind him. They hadn’t said anything recently so Luca assumed that they were fine and couldn’t chat because they were with other people. Still just to check.

[Lucky: Tails you good?]

[Tails: Gg.] Luca shook his head at the ridiculous abbreviation. Tails had it hard. As long as he didn’t get stabbed in the back they’d be fine though.

[Rӓv: They seem to be talking. Or arguing? I can’t understand anything they are saying.]

[Ghost: Discuss us.] Luca raised a brow wondering how Ghost could know what they discussed if Rӓv couldn’t.