I hacked up some blood, spit it out. There wasn't much, as my Vajra did the clotting and first aid thing really quick. Heal Ranks ftw.

They were all dead. The smell of Jotun blood permeated the whole house at this point. They and their pets littered the walls and rooms. Giant knives, forks, and spoons rested in pieces. The study and library were on fire, the animated trophies were fallen and burning.

And I knew I still had only two minutes before something else happened.

I had a lot of wounds, but most of them were fiery red scars from Soak getting burned, or Vigor transforming lethal injuries to walk-it-off stuff.

I had gone through all my healing over the course of this fighting: Vigors, alchemical healing, Heart and Soul, Vampiric and Greater Vampiric via sword. Rejuvenation effects from my Sword topped had off my endurance with a couple hits. So, I wasn't tired right now, I was just wincing because all my ribs on my left side were broken from a giant-sized roller pin catching me here in the kitchen, and I was out of healing juice.

Just, wow. The sheer amount of almost nonstop fighting amazed me. From the increasingly tough constructs that were the first fight, through the buffed killers during the night that were as tough as giants, to all the giants themselves.. it was a lot.

I walked past the garbage disposal, and before the black pudding within could reach up with a pseudopod to slap at me, I sent four Oozebane Stars down from Tremble, letting the colonial lifeform experience the joys and wonders of force damage imploding and disrupting its cellular structure, instead of me ineffectually hacking it apart into multiple hungry black puddings. There were mini-waves of popping micro-organisms, flashes of clear banefire spreading through it, and it stopped trying to reach up to me as it dissolved into, um, gooier goo.

I saw the back door in front of me. The doorknob was twelve feet off the ground, making me roll my eyes. I had to jump up, ignoring the bones protesting at the side of my chest, grab it, and lever it around while pushing off the frame with my leg as it clicked stiffly open.

I dropped back down, landing gently despite the height, as the door creaked open.

A path of tiled stones, leading off left and right, and a big row of shrubs in front forming a pathway. To the right, the path led around the side of the mansion, a couple other doors I had noted in halls and storage rooms obvious there, establishing this as a servant's access. To the left, the path widened out into a broad veranda accessible off from the sun room, and the back yard of the mansion.

Before I could pick a direction, surging around the side of the building came a wave of black forms on six legs.

The ants were as long as my legs, pincer jaws quite obvious and meaning business.

Army ants? , I smiled despite myself, and Tremble hummed knowingly as it switched to Swarmbane, and the Swarmbane Clasp I'd retasked from a giant's military service medal glowed slightly.

I poked my ribs quickly as I waited for the ants, shoving them back in place and holding them tight with my Vajra, even the little bone splinters that wanted to go wriggling around and stir up some internal bleeding.

I began to spin to meet them, moving into the pattern of a Whirlwind Attack. It was already an AoE, and a swarm was both many entities and one, attacking from all directions, provoking all sorts of openings and the requisite retribution as it did so.

Tremble hued through dozens of black carapaces, and all the extra damage vented away, shattering other ants nearby. Any ant that was wounded suffered full banefire effects, and the Swarmbane was perfectly efficient, since any overkill damage spilled out into the ants around.

It was interesting to see, as I spun and cut in all directions, the ants swarming to circle me. As soon as any individual ant was hit for anything, Banefire would maul it for 2-12 damage, which might be enough to kill it instantly, spreading the excess damage to other ants. Pale pink flames blew through the ants all around me as killing one ant destroyed dozens of others in chain reactions, and I kept moving forward into the heart of them, not a drop of killing and cutting power wasted as I spun through them and dying ants exploded into ash behind me.

It takes a while to hew through tens of thousands of ants, but nowhere near as many as it should have. As for where they all came from, who knew. I did, however, end up in the corner of the front yard when I was done, a veritable wall of ant corpses burning down around me.

Uh-huh..

Battle Vigor was busy giving me back Soak, I'd taken barely any harm from the ants, so it was a net gain. Didn't help my ribs, but my pain tolerance was so high at this point I could totally ignore them even if they were screaming at me so hard a normal person would have been writhing on the floor.

I looked about alertly, realizing I was far from cover and very exposed.

The yard was one of those huge noble affairs. Tall, narrow trees hid the privacy walls behind them, while hedges cut the place up in artistic patterns with mounds and rows of bright flowers here and there. A wide drive of white marble led from the rounded circle at the front of the house out to the main gates, circling a tall statue of some noble knight on horseback, the rearing horse indicating some great victory in the past.

Tellingly, there were more then a dozen statues of notable figures set around the edges of the lawn, and many of the bushes and trees seemed to have been sculpted. On the corner opposite me, there was a small lily pond, at least in giant terms, while the other corner near the gate was filled with topiary sculptures.

Out at the gates were four more giant guards in full ceremonial armor, armed with halberds.

I looked up, just to see how badly I was screwed, and far overhead, I could some hawks circling.

They were a mile up, and I could still tell they were birds of prey. Just little fellows, sure...

"Oh, boy," murmured Tremble, as my eyes came down, and I saw the heads of a topiary manticore and drake turn towards me. Also, the head of the knight on the rearing horse rotated my way slowly, and that stone sword suddenly looked rather metallic.

A great old walnut tree that loomed over the yard shook itself, and rose from the ground on a dozen old roots.

"On the bright side, I can add Plants to my Banes," Tremble said softly. That walnut tree was a hundred feet tall, at least, the great length of its roots already snaking out in our direction.

Great thirty-foot tall statues of heroes and ancestors stepped down from their plinths across the yard with perfect synchronization.

"Do you want to guess what's in the pond?" I asked fatalistically, stepping aside as yard-long wooden thorns from the topiary manticore whipped past me. It made a roaring animation, but only a rustling and creaking of leaves and branches sounded it as it pounced for me, followed by a similarly hedge-woven drake, tiger, bear, oliphant, rhino, stag, and two-headed ostrich.

"Uh, maybe after you kill what's already outside it. I think those birds are coming down.."

"Yeah, like they have nothing better to do then attack one tiny human child in the middle of nowhere." I watched the marble horse leap off its plinth with motion as smooth as any real horse, and shook my head. "Okay, lancer first. I don't want to take the charge."

"Construct up!" he stated, as the banefire changed to a clear hue that seemed to have shattered wheels or diagrams spinning inside it, and I began to speedskate towards my target, who naturally and valiantly counter-charged.

The whole front lawn and its ornamentation was coming my way. I felt like a croquet ball facing a whole lot of mallets, and wondered just where I was going to end up.

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The serpentine topiary had coiled around my leg and arm, I twisted away from the claw-swipe of the bear, ran into the dying tiger whose head and torso I'd cut away, and a branch of the walnut tree an arm's length across and ten paces long came through them like the world's biggest baseball bat and made perfect contact. I was dimly aware of a lot of things breaking as it made hit, and even as tough as I was, it all went black from that massive One Strike coming through.

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