Before the three of them could even begin thinking of a plan, three more gargoyles had shown up. Inna remained unimpressed, but her three companions looked pretty worried.
Inna spoke. "If you want to fight one of them, I will let you. If not, I'll just eliminate them swiftly."
Mia, Lyricia, and Alfonse just looked at her as if she was crazy. They could fight one of them with no issue, two would be a challenge, and three would be nearly impossible.
Alfonse was the only one to interject. "Are you crazy? There's no way you can fight them all."
Inna scoffed. "All? There are only four of them. These things are as weak as a low-ranking demon. I could kill them without moving an inch. I merely offered because you seem like you want to fight something, but, hey. I'm not going to complain if you're not up for it."
Alfonse hurriedly said "Fine. We'll take one and you can ATTEMPT to fight the other three. We'll come to help when we can."
Inna inwardly laughed. Every time she re-instated herself into a world, she would be underestimated. Shattering everyone's expectations and completely baffling them was a form of entertainment to her. She enjoyed seeing their human reactions.
Mia, Alfonse, and Lyricia had begun to approach the group of gargoyles. When they turned to look for Inna she was gone. They heard a horrible grating noise and turned in its direction.
Inna had two gargoyles. One in each hand. She gripped their heads with enough force to crack their skin. Their skin was, naturally, made from stone, however, it was still skin-colored. The horrible grating noise was their screeching. Inna kicked the third one and it went flying into the woods, away from the three adventurers. She threw the other two.
The adventurers were shell-shocked. Inna was manhandling her opponents. They pulled themselves together as the fourth gargoyle approached them.
Alfonse moved forward with Lyricia following close behind, a short sword in each hand. All in all, the party was extremely capable. Lyricia's weapons built for stabbing weren't the strongest against a creature whose skin was literal stone. Alfonse's greatsword was a better match-up.
Alfonse was the first to swing down as Lyricia circled to flank it. Alfonse's greatsword made a horrible screeching sound as it collided against stone. It left a small crack as he slid it back and away from the creature.
Lyricia flipped her swords around in her hand, the pommel of each one was a small stone. She struck the creature's arm with the pommel of her blade and spun, kicking it in the chest. They were created to be used in this way, although fighting like that was incredibly difficult. She had decided now that she would get and keep a few different types of weapons on her.
The gargoyle didn't budge against the force of her kick. It moved to send her flying with the back of its hand, but she rotated her body at an extremely bizarre angle. Her torso twisted itself, yet her legs remained unmoved. it ended up looking like her spine had snapped and left her body pointed at a 90-degree angle. In the same motion as the attempted slap to Lyricia, the gargoyle had kicked Alfonse in the chest.
He went tumbling backward but was caught in a cool liquid bubble that entirely stopped his momentum. Mia had summoned the water as she held an arm outstretched. As he left the sphere, it morphed into a wall, before it froze over. Using the makeshift wall Mia had provided, he kicked off of it and was back in the fight.
He brought his sword down in the same place he swung before. The crack deepened and began leaking a small amount of blood. It looked at him, its was face impassive and unmoving. Lyricia's body snapped back into place with a soft 'crack' as she and Alfonse continued the assault. Mia played the support role extremely well, summoning walls of ice and catching her allies, allowing them to re-enter the fight more quickly.
When it was finally destroyed, they stood before a pile of blood-soaked stone rubble. Gargoyles were constructs made almost entirely from stone. Their skin was extremely hard to penetrate. Their insides were filled with potent, magic-infused blood. It was the blood that gave them an extreme amount of strength.
When they returned to Inna's throne, she wasn't there. A tree fell in the distance; Inna's fight was still happening. When the three of them arrived, they were stunned.
One of the three gargoyles was on one knee kneeling. It had both of its arms missing. From its wounds, it was pouring blood onto the grass, and seconds after the three of them arrived, it collapsed on the ground. It was unmoving. The other two were in a much worse state.
They were covered in cracks and bleeding from seemingly everywhere. Fingers were missing. Blood seeped from their heads where Inna had (seemingly) torn snakes out. It looked as if they would explode into a cloud of fine dust any second. Inna looked over at the collapsed one as she lifted her arm. A light green magic circle appeared in front of it as the blood on the ground was sucked back into the gargoyle and it slowly started to stand back up.
Inna dodged one set of claws aiming at her face as another found purchase in her abdomen. She slammed her elbow down on its arm and quickly bent it back upwards, snapping the arm off at the elbow. She pulled it from her abdomen and tossed it aside like garbage. Inna wasn't impressed, but fighting gargoyles was always entertaining.
Since they held no true emotion, they wouldn't run away, which let her fight them for as long as she wanted. Inna was getting bored, however. She shrugged and said aloud "That's enough I guess."
Inna appeared suddenly before one gargoyle and gripped its head. She squeezed and crushed it. Blood splattered across her body. She moved to the next one and kicked it through the chest. Her boot came out hard entirely coated in blood. It fell to the ground and continued struggling to stand before it eventually stopped moving.
The final gargoyle was attempting to stand up, but Inna just walked over and stomped on its head, crushing it beneath her boot. The three adventurers were splattered in a small amount of blood.
Inna was covered in what would normally be life-threatening wounds. The adventurers expected her to fall over dead any second. Bite wounds littered her arms from where the hair-like snakes had bitten her. She had a large stab wound in her stomach. Each wound was turning the skin around it into stone before the effect receded and eventually re-started. Inna's face was entirely untouched. No blood, no wounds, not even a scratch.
Mia was the first to speak as Inna approached. "You look VERY injured, are you alright?"
Inna chuckled. "I'm fine. The wounds don't even hurt, but I swear their blood is so easy to get coated in. They tend to pour the stuff out by the liter."
Her wounds started to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye. Her wounds sewed themselves back together as her blood, now an unnatural dark red, disappeared. Her clothes were the last thing to fix themselves. When Inna came out of the forest, she looked as if she hadn't even fought anything.
.....
The adventurers hadn't asked Inna about anything. They were curious, of course, but Inna didn't seem all that talkative. The rest of the journey was peaceful. They were all expecting to meet some other form of resistance, Inna included. Yet, they never did.
Eventually, Mia's curiosity got the best of her. She had been constantly running through various ideas and conclusions in her head. She had to ask, so she turned to Inna and asked. "What are you? I'm pretty sure you're not human. How did you even get so strong, and what ki-"
Inna cut her off by holding a hand up. "You're right, I'm not human. Not in a literal sense at least, but I'm not humanity's enemy. Don't even attempt to send people to kill me, because they won't come back. Human measurement of power doesn't apply to me, and answers to your questions would only bring you more questions. There's a lot that humans don't understand, and until humanity advances, I won't be explaining much more than this."
Mia thought to herself for a moment. Eventually, she nodded. "Fine, I guess."
Mia couldn't let it go that easily. Her soul hungered for answers, it was the nature of having a magic-based soul type. She was curious, studious, and beyond it all, she was stubborn.
Inna inwardly sighed. She was sure to see more of this girl in the future. Her thoughts were cut off suddenly as Alfonse announced they had arrived.
True to the description, this place had no remnants of a town ever being here. the grass was overgrown and the nearby forest was full of life. The only indicator of a village ever existing was the barely used paths that led to and from this clearing. The paths stopped abruptly and looked like they were previously connected to something.
Inna hopped down from her throne and walked forward. She called out into the air. "Alright. Get out here, I can see you. Reveal yourself if you don't want me to drag you out."
After a moment of silence, a small figure appeared in the middle of the clearing. A young lady who looked to be about 20 or 30 appeared. It was difficult to tell because she had an air of agelessness. She appeared and as soon as she did, Inna was annoyed.
Inna spoke with no small amount of irritation. "A vampire, standing here in my presence without kneeling? How bold. Now kneel."
At the command, a ripple of intense energy wafted through her surroundings. The adventurers found it difficult to resist the command, although they all did. The vampire though? She instantly kneeled as soon as the wave hit her. She kneeled and lowered her head.