134 5.12

[Jonathan's POV]

Now on high alert, I tried to passively block the mental attacks with my Occlumency, which I was only partially able to do as while the pain receded a little, it was still there.

Still, that allowed me to concentrate enough as I whipped my hand forward, shouting, "Bombarda Maxima!"

It both felt effortless and taxing at the same time as I gathered the energy for the spell, and fired a vivid red light at Ebrietas.

The Great One wouldn't be able to dodge in time, and thus instead decided to swipe at it with one of her tentacles, much like she had done for the Dremora.

As the two came in contact with each other, the spell created a large explosion that sent a shockwave all the way over to us, and created a small smoke screen around the explosion.

I quickly realized the attack had not done as much damage as I hoped however as Ebrietas emerged from the smoke, with only a small part of her tentacle missing.

It looked infuriated, so it must have hurt, but it was far from out of fighting condition. Its gaze fixated on me, and I felt an ever stronger mental attack as it rushed at me at full speed.

Groaning from the exertion, I swept my hand several times, "Arresto Momentum! Stupefy! Diffindo"

I quickly fired the three spells, and the first one hit right in the middle of its face, forcibly slowing it down, and allowing me to more easily the second one at the base of one of its tentacles. Finally, with the tentacle completely frozen, the third spell, the Cutting Hex, severed the tentacle completely.

As the effects of the first two spells wore off, I felt a screech resonate in my head as Ebrietas completely ignored the others, who were spreading out to surround it, and swept three of her tentacles at me, completely blocking all means of escape for me, and showing it still had the ability to think, even while under this state of berserk rage.

'Arcane Escape'

My body turned into a formless light as I went right through her attacks, emerging behind her, completely unharmed.

And, still using my Ancient Magic, I raised my wand to the sky, and before it could understand what had happened, brought down my wand, pulling at my internal reserves of Ancient Magic.

Despite being in a cave, the space above us rippled as a bolt of lightning descended from empty space, powerfully striking Ebrietas' head.

It took some real damage as a part of its head was blown off, and it recoiled for a moment before turning back to me. The wound would have been fatal to a normal being, but with the nature of this enemy, I didn't know how close it was to death.

What I did know, however, was that the headache was only getting worse, and I wouldn't be able to fight for much longer.

So I gave more attention to my Occlumency, strengthening my mental defenses, while keeping a look at the situation to make sure I wouldn't get attacked while I didn't pay attention.

Ebrietas looked like it wanted to rush me again, but Helena and Jordan rushed at it from both sides, forcing it to attack them.

Yet the whip-like tentacles that I could barely follow seemed to be child play for the two as they beautifully wove between the attacks, reaching close quarters.

Jordan armed with a Kunai and Helena with the Dagger of Death Flowers, one used his Chakra to enhance his strikes while the other used her weapon's natural sharpness to slice into the Great One, drawing several more wounds.

Because of the creature's size, these injuries did not look like much, but each of Helena's strikes were laced with an extremely potent poison.

Before Ebrietas could adapt to the two's attacks styles either, a bolt of lightning with about a tenth of the power of my earlier one was fired at Ebrietas. However, unlike mine, this one was closely followed by several other ones, each of which hit one of the tentacles.

Turning to look at the side, I saw that Sarah had summoned another creature. Instead of another Dremora however, it was a Storm Atronach.

It kept at a distance as it dished out several lightning attacks at Ebrietas from a distance, while Helena and Jordan kept attacking it at close range.

Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw Victor rushing over with a large greatsword in hand that glowed blue.

We shared a look for a mere instant, and I already knew what he wanted as I pointed my hand in front of him.

Using Transfiguration, I slightly raised the level of the ground in front of him, giving him a platform which he leapt from, and thanks to his enhanced strength from the Super Soldier Physique, he arrived above Ebrietas.

The Great One seemed to feel the danger coming from the sword above, but also recognized the danger the others represented, so it used one tentacle to attack the airborne Victor.

It would have been enough to deal with him, especially since he didn't even try to dodge, fully focusing on bringing down his sword.

And he had no reason to worry, as the moment the tentacle was about to hit him, a loud sound spread through the cave as the tentacle was suddenly blown off, allowing Victor to land his attack.

The greatsword cleaved right into Ebrietas' face, and an arc of energy was shot out from the sword, going all the way through the already weakened flesh of the monster, ending up completely cutting it in half.

[You have assisted in the elimination of the projection of Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos. Rewarded Rank C Reward and 3000 Points.]

I felt a surge of relief as I heard the familiar sound of a notification, but as I focused on it, I frowned.

The notification said we had defeated a projection. As in, we hadn't fought the real Ebrietas, but a weaker version of her.

I looked around for any trace of the real Ebrietas, and caught the others doing the same, but even after several seconds, nothing appeared.

This was… alarming.

Asher walked over from her previous spot, her face looking a little tired from the earlier concentrated shot as she asked, "Am I the only one confused?"

While we hesitated about what to say, Helena straightforwardly said, "It's either in a chalice dungeon, or there is something we don't know about. Probably a change from God, and maybe even the reason Alexander and Mary disappeared."

I looked at her and asked, "I don't remember the Amygdala being called projections. Do you think there is something special with Ebrietas?"

She shook her head, "Amygdala are a lower kind of Great Ones, so maybe the same rules don't apply to them. And we didn't kill the one that is a boss yet, so maybe it will have the same thing too."

Sarah spoke with a frown, "We already established that the characteristic Alex and Mary shared and we lacked was a strong mind. Are you implying they are in a place we can't see because we don't have a strong enough mind, or 'insight', and so are the true selves of the Great Ones?"

Helena shrugged, "That's a but of a reach, but basically, yes. There are several mentions of a 'real world' in Bloodborne, and everything being a dream. Maybe that they had a strong enough mind to resist being pulled into the dream, and are now in this so called real world. We did all feel a little strange at the start of the mission. This would explain it."

I toyed with my wand as I thought about what she said. She certainly had a point, but that also remained speculative in nature. In the end, we had no way to know for sure what happened. Not yet, at least.

It is a better alternative than them being randomly plucked out of existence, however.