>Shadow of the colossus?
>Ramsey pillar-chopping & reacting: Success
>Activating the traps: Mitigated Success

Before the impact, you coil and leap for the nearest broad surface: Ramsey. As the axe thunders and the pillar crashes into rubble, you clamber over her shoulder and hook onto her back. It's not quite as comfortable as you were imagining— because you're nearly as tall as her, it's more "riding piggyback" than anything else— but at least you're latched on securely, thanks to your sharp little talons. "Hah!" Ramsey exhales, and a half-dozen shadow claws shoot around. To pry you off? Ha-ha! Fat chance!

Not to pry you off. They latch onto your wrists, your ankles, the base of your neck, and the tip of your tail. ...Why? You thought close range would neuter Ramsey's attacks: she can hardly swing an axe into her own backside.

Maybe you were thinking too positive about that. Not that she swings an axe into her own backside. But, almost without hesitation, she takes off sprinting— backwards— toward the opposite wall. To slam you into it? To slam you into the saw...blades. On the wall. Buzzing merrily away.

Damnit! Why hadn't Gil questioned your sawblade focus? Your armor and scales are both sturdy, but being ground up against a wall of spinning sawblades— God. If they weren't spinning, it'd be better, but you can't— you can't— you can! It's your God-damned manse! Shut your eyes and feel it as a polished sphere and reach in from the outside and put your thumb against the blades. They halt. And while you're at it—

First things first. You are rammed into the wall of non-spinning sawblades.

>[-1 ID: 7/16]

Ow. Ow. You aren't shredded into a million pieces, which was probably Ramsey's goal, but the impact was hefty and the blade bites through your armor. You have a big gash on your back, now, though you have no idea whether it's bleeding. Whether the Herald of the Bright Epoch has blood at all. In any case, it feels survivable, and it's not like you've been sleeping on your back recently. Not like you ever will again. Um. Anyways. While you're at it, you can brush your thumb along some of the ceiling traps, sending them swinging. This is how Ramsey takes an axe blade to the gut. Not her own.

>[RAMSEY'S BLOOD: 40/100]

She lashes out with her own axe and chops the trap-axe off by its handle, but the damage is done: you can peek over her shoulder with your prodigious neck and see the fallen axe blade bloodsoaked. Ramsey for her part made a noise but said nothing. Is she finally getting serious? Or, now that you're in a real fight, is she just that focused?

(1/2)