Fighting Lord of Loss's wolf form

Lord of Loss wasted no time, lunging again, though he hadn't fully healed. Catching me before I could get my momentum. I tried to hit him and I failed.


He caught my cable, forcing me to either go with him or lose my weapon.


I went with him. I let him pull me down, then added my flight to the downward momentum. The Wretch and I slammed into him, turning what had been a landing into a crash.


While the Wretch was inactive, I used the cable to bind one leg to snout. The moment the Wretch was available, I hit him again.


Something seized my foot. Beneath Lord of Loss was a pool of gore-slick floorboards and scattered pastel-painted furniture. Reaching from that wreckage was another tongue, though this time without elbows. Instead, it was covered in polyps.


Not polyps. Tiny heads and limbs. They had me by the calf, and groping fingers, hands, and gummy mouths were working at my boot. One head bulged, swelling overlarge as another mass was pumped through the tongue and out the mouth, into the top of my boot.


I shook it free before it took root or whatever. The mess in my boot was still wet, creeping down toward my toes, but the larger mass had fallen free.


I roped the tongue to Lord of Loss's leg with more cable, before delivering the heaviest hit to him I could. The timing of the hit was off, as he lurched to an upright position.

***

He reared up, limbs up in a flash, then coming down just as quickly, like a half-dozen guillotine blades with a truckload of weight driving them. I flew under.


Remember the lessons Uncle Neil taught you about fighting, and stay inside their reach.


I flew to the underbelly. Nursery's growths reached up to me. Slats like blades were above me. To my left, the tongue, bound to one limb by cables. He was shrugging off the cables.


I flew to the looser section of that cable, so I caught one at my shoulder. The Wretch absorbed the impact as it pulled short, but it didn't extricate me. The cable pulled against my shoulder, and I spun in the air, hard. My arm throbbed.


I'd killed the tongue, pulling the cable tight enough against it to cut it in two.

***

I plunged, driving my foot toward Lord of Loss's tailbone, to drive his hips down and break his stride. He dodged me, and I shattered floorboards instead.


I flew straight for him. He had lost momentum, as part of that change in direction.


The cable was still partially wrapped around him, caught on slats and ragged edges of his white metal strips. I could see those parts moving, even pushing the cable out.


I pushed myself a little further, to reach that cable, to not allow him to so deftly dodge. Expect it.


My hands caught the cable. The Wretch gave those hands strength.


My hands at the cable at lowest point of Wolf-form-Lord-of-Loss's chest, I hit him with Wretch and pulled the cable taut.


He retaliated. I hit him as he did it, before flying inside his effective reach.


I found the hook, dangling off the side of his neck. I hauled on it. It hadn't worked with the bird, and I could remember Precipice's power catching me as I'd failed to alter Lord of Loss's flight course. Failed to alter it enough.


This time, at least, I could haul his forelimbs off the ground, denying him leverage.


With back legs, he hopped.


I hit him while he was in the air, to throw him off course, and to alter the rotation of his body. It was slight, but while the Wretch was gone, I could fly around, unwinding the cable.


Retrieving my weapon.


I didn't use the full slack. I wanted the ability to move tighter. To bring the hook around faster. I hurled it around me as I dove.


He landed, all four limbs back on the ground. He wasn't on the ground for a second before I hit him again. The hook and pulley assembly came down as a dense fifty or sixty pounds of metal, a punch to follow up the diving kick.

- Blinding 11.7