Landa and "Monster"
Ten Earth Shattering Blows
is a fantasy webcomic created in 2017 by Tommaso Devito, under the nickname of Nuclearpasta.Lady Landabella Trastan, a noblewoman from the rich city of Vezenia, travels across the desert with a skimpy escort. Her quest: to kill the "evil witch" that resides in the fortress of Saltfall. Her motives: unknown. What is certain is that she hugely underestimates the task. Caught between ruthless slavers and lizard-riding marauders, she soon discovers that the authority of her noble status is worth nothing in a lawless, unforgiving land.
This Webcomic provides examples of:
- Brawn Hilda: "Monster" (Joy), who uses her strength to great effect.
- Break the Haughty: Landa thinks her high status will help her. Boy, how wrong she is.
- Catapult to Glory: Don Caronja brought along a trebuchet mounted on the back of an extremely long lizard. He alternates between firing incendiary projectiles and the bodies of Landa's former escorts.
- Clothing Damage: The escape from Don Caronja and the subsequent chase has had a serious impact on both women's wardrobes. Landa lost her shoes and then her skirt (good thing she was wearing tights), while "Monster" has lost her helmet and body armor.
- Cool Mask: Landa usually wears a mask to prevent "lowborn" people from seeing her uncovered face (a common practice among Venezian nobles). Oddly enough, Joy is also looking for a masked man. She describes him as wearing "the mask that eats itself". That is, a mask that has a small copy of itself located in the larger mask's open mouth.
- Cool Helmet: "Monster" was first introduced wearing a stylized helmet/mask combo, which was locked on her head.
- Curse: Landa has been cursed with something unique. In times of great stress, a being known as an "orc" will emerge from her face. Exactly what it's supposed to do is unclear.
- Dual Wielding: "Monster" finds herself pitted against a warrior using two swords at once, and very effectively at that. Realizing that she is outmatched, she decides to get creative.
- Combat Pragmatist: Using the fact that they're fighting next to a large trebuchet (on the back of a giant lizard) against her opponent, she maneuvers him into position so when she cuts the rope, he gets caught in the sling.
- Damsel in Distress: Landa, oh so much.
- Everyone Chasing You: When "Monster" and Landa escape from Don Caronja (doing considerable damage in the process), the Don decides to pursue them...with everything he's got.
- Fat Bastard: Don Caronja, The Lord of the Well. He's the head of an alliance of bandits and slavers of the desert.
- Fantastic Drug: A special kind of bug, crushed and snorted. We can assume it has an effect akin to cocaine.
- Horse of a Different Color: Vezenians ride giant boars, while the people of the desert ride giant lizards.
- Missing Child: "Monster" sometimes has nightmares about her child, who has been missing for some time. Apparently they were forcibly separated.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "Monster", the masked gladiator. Later on, we learn that her real name is "Joy".
- Meaningful Name: "Monster" was once known as "Joy of Destruction", which is interesting, since her real name is Joy.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A cursed noblewoman (Landa), a notorious gladiator (Joy), a disgraced cleric (Ander), a fighter with a weird prosthetic nose (Durt), and a big brawler (Luthar). Oh, and somehow they are connected by prophecy.
- Only in It for the Money: Alright, technically Durt and Luthar are only there because Ander is paying them, but still...
- Slasher Smile: "Monster" sports a really nasty one in the last panel."You...haven't seen madness yet."
- Title Drop: When the orc emerged in Chapter Two, it looked right at Joy and spoke these words.
- Orc: Joy of Destruction...give me ten...yesss...give me...TEN EARTH-SHATTERING BLOWS!
- Landa thinks that the Orc is referring to her family motto, the "Ten Pillars of the Earth": Home, blood, steel, gold, faith, blood, heart, beauty, zeal, and order.
