Malcolm Tent
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Wish upon the Stars chapter 568
🕑 Added 2024-02-27 00:28:32 +0000 UTCState of grace was pretty much always on in my current armor, and my Danger Sense had tipped me to the incoming rabbit attack before the thing had even moved. These two factors were the only reasons I managed to tackle my sister out of the way before the rabbit slammed into Bethy, who dissolved into a series of hissing cats on the spot.
“Hey.” Snapped the reconstituting vampire from a tree branch overhead as the cats swarmed back together. “That was rude. You’re a nasty bunny. I’m going to call you Chalk. Chalk is gross.”
I gaped at her. “Ok, you’re not supposed to name other people’s pets, but also WHAT THE HELL? That thing almost took our heads off. Why would you possibly think this was safe?”
She pouted at me. “I’m really good with animals! I thought the cake would be enough. Poptarts and Donuts are such good kitties, and Luggage always listens. I can totally help her train him!” She frowned sulkily down at the rabbit, eyes flashing red. “Though I thought it would be easier than this.”
“Bethy.” I groaned in annoyance. “Poptarts and Donuts have STOCKHOLM SYNDROME! And we used a magic collar on Luggage. You’re a terrifying apex predator, but you’re STILL AT F-RANK! Of course you couldn’t tame that monster!”
Once again, I reassessed my perception that Bethy was an evil genius playing at being a ditz. Apparently she was just actually somehow both of those things at once. Grabbing Chelsea, I kicked off the ground, landing on a branch seamlessly as the rabbit finally finished sniffling around for any more cake and started searching for us.
Bethy, who was on the nearest branch, sniffled sadly, and Chelsea looked heartbroken, hopping over with surprising dexterity to wrap the smaller girl in a hug. “You didn’t have to be mean about it.” She told me reproachfully.
I debated on just telling her she was being crazy, and that Bethy had put us both in danger, but…I did kind of feel bad. Bethy wasn’t malicious, at least not in this case. My Danger Sense would have triggered earlier if she’d planned for us to be hurt. She was just completely divorced from normal human limitations.
“Sorry.” I said with a sigh. “I get you didn’t mean to almost get us hurt.” I glanced down at the forest floor where the rabbit was stalking around. I actually wasn’t sure why it hadn’t attacked us yet, at least until I noticed the slight rustle of black grass below our feet. Which was weird since we were standing a hundred feet up on a branch. “Are we in your Domain?”
The vampire nodded pitifully. “I pulled you in once you got up here. We’re only sort of skimming the top layer, but it’s enough to keep the bunny from noticing us.”
“Ok, we need to have a discussion about boundaries and what is and isn’t dangerous after this.” I sighed tiredly. “But for now we should figure out what to do about the giant rabbit. CAN you tame it? Actually you must be close to E-rank anyway. Any chance you could rank up?”
She shook her head. “I’m still finishing up my soul refinement.” She looked genuinely guilty. “I really am sorry Shane. I just thought it would be fine to come get Chelsea a pet. I didn’t think it would be dangerous. Since you guys are both E-rankers already it seemed fine.”
I shrugged. “Probably would have been, but based on how large it is an how high it can jump. I suspect that thing is stupidly Might heavy.” I paused. “Actually, that gives me an idea. You can do illusions right? I remember that being a thing. Some kind of trance you combine with your domain? What stat resists that?”
“Perception.” She said. “It’s one of my best stats. It takes a lot to process the world from a hundred different points of view. Strength and speed I have modifiers for from my racial trait, but leaning into Perception is one of the reasons I’m the best at illusions and hypnosis.”
“Can you hypnotize the rabbit?” I asked excitedly. Maybe she really was a natural beast tamer. It would explain the squirrels. I was suddenly feeling bad about snapping.
She shook her head again. “I can’t. I tried. Impact is too high.” She looked miserable. “I didn’t mean to put you guys in danger. I promise I just thought it would be a fun day out. My domination usually works.”
“I get that.” I said with a sigh. “But you seem to forget not all of us are as strong as you. The natural modifiers your Vampirism gives you are a huge advantage, not to mention all the apparent subskills like turning into bats and stuff. There’s a reason your dad is the only S-ranker to have ever beaten a god in a fight.”
She waved that off. “Oh he’s not really S-rank. He’s a demigod. It’s kind of the same thing but kind of different. Once you pass the five hundred mark in Impact you go through some big changes. That’s the halfway point to becoming a god. Natural Impact gain stops short of that point, so not a lot of people make it.”
“Wait…” I said, distracted from the matter at hand. “THAT’S how you become a god?” I didn’t think I’d ever had someone confirm that for me. A thousand Impact. That was insane. “Also why didn’t you ever mention this before?”
“You never asked.” She said innocently. And I blinked because she was right. I’d never brought up Morgan Lark’s fight with the Unity in front of Bethy that I could remember.
Forcing myself to push past the shock and excitement of finally learning more about my road ahead, I closed my eyes and took a breath. Later. I could talk to her more later. For now we needed to focus. “So, hypnosis is out.” I mused. “But illusions work?”
“Illusions use Perception to affect the world around you. It’s like painting a big fake picture.” She explained. “Anyone with a reasonable amount of Perception can still punch through, but it’s a way to slip around the Impact disadvantage.”
It was always odd to see Bethy in combat mode. She wasn’t super calm and focused like Jessie could get sometimes, almost the opposite. Bethy in battle was…predatory. Like a cat playing with a mouse. She knew all the best ways to make her opponent squirm, and she seemed to take an almost savage joy in the process.
Which brought to mind our conversation in the glade, about how badly she wanted to shed some of her bloodthirsty nature. That made even more sense after learning about her mother. For Bethy, bloodthirst wasn’t just some primal drive to feed, it was FUN, and she didn’t like that about herself most of the time.
This didn’t seem to be one of those moments, luckily. Despite her clear entertainment she wasn’t upset about anything aside from having been reckless with our lives.
Chelsea had stepped back from the smaller girl, and was looking worried. “I don’t know… do we need to get the rabbit? Can’t you use your Domain to sneak us away? We should probably just leave and let it get back to doing rabbit things.”
I shook my head. “Bethy is right. A powerful pet like this will do a lot to help you survive. Her intentions and instincts were both good.” I frowned at the Vampire. “Though NEXT time we should prepare better for any outings like this. Getting this thing for you is important now that we have a plan. It’ll make you much more likely to survive the Stone Lion assault for one thing.”
Having an on hand pet she could use to just hop away (Jessie’s necklace would make transporting it a breeze outside battle) was a huge advantage. I’d seen that rabbit jump and it got some serious air.
“So, in order to make this plan work, I need to know exactly what our win condition is.” I said bluntly. “What do we need to do to soften him up?”
Bethy bit her lip. “Pain should do it. Restraining him would help. Domination is kind of like hypnosis, but it works a little differently. It’s more like posturing with my inner Vampire until the target cracks and then worming my way in.”
Sighing, I cracked my neck. “Alright. That’s fine. I can soften it up, I even have a way to handle the legs. Chelsea, can you take nonlethal shots at it from up here?”
She nodded firmly and I grinned. “Alright. Perfect. Then you two focus on taming it, and I’ll soften it up.” I glanced down at the ground, triggering Moonlit Night. Fog filled the area and the rabbit froze, ready to fight.
Of course, that was fine. The rabbit was huge. Massive and powerful and way stronger than me. But I wasn’t planning on getting into a wrestling match. I wouldn’t have suggested doing this if I hadn’t been sure I could beat him. I triggered Pit of Despair under the thing’s feet, and the ground turned to ultra fine dust under its paws.
I leveraged quite a bit of soul strength that I probably shouldn’t have to push the width and depth up higher, but Dust Construction helped me dissolve things. I hadn’t considered using it to empower Pit of Despair instead of the other way around, but it worked great.
The rabbit yelped as the ground dropped out from under it, trying to kick its massive legs off a surface that wasn’t there as it fell into the pit.
I was on my down after it without a second of hesitation, arms out like a diver, staff leading the way. By the time I hit the dust I was already a solid humanoid figure of molten green and block, with dark flames billowing off my scalp as I activated Mephistopheles and Belial at the same time.
Hitting the dust, I propelled myself forward through the substance like a fish through water, Dust Construction pushing me along as it cleared the dust from my way. Eye of Revelation blazed through my crown, and with it and Song of the Soil active I could see everything in the dust, the rabbit’s massive form basically a sitting duck for me.
Pushing off with Ripple Running for extra thrust, I blurred forward, my staff licking out with an explosion of black green flames. Where it hit, a trashcan lid sized patch of corruption burned out the fur, beginning to expand at a noticeable (but admittedly not fast) rate on the giant furry limb.
My Danger Sense picked up the return kick easily, and with Dust Construction moving me I flowed to the side, circling behind the rabbit for another blow, and then another.
Every hit was devastatingly powerful, but they were starting to put a strain on my soul again. I grunted, doing my best to offload some of the strain onto my armor, but I knew I couldn’t keep this up for long.
An explosion of white light went off overhead, jarring the dust enough that I picked it up with my Song of the Soil. I was about to return to my attack when I realized there was no reason to do so. The rabbit had stopped moving. I watched in surprise as the dark patches of corruption were cleansed by my sister’s flames of purification before the monster went limp.
Hopping out of the dust by expelling myself at an upward angle, I landed smoothly thanks to State of Grace, and let Pit of Despair fade, leaving the rabbit trapped in dust up to the waist.
Not that I’d needed to bother, when I turned around, Bethy was standing proudly next to Chelsea, who was nuzzling the face of a giant adorable bunny. The thing hadn’t gone limp, it had leaned down to cuddle.
As I met up with them, the two girls excitedly filled me in on what had happened. Apparently cleansing the rabbit of the damage I was doing had caused it to let its guard down enough for Bethy to dominate it, and since Chelsea had cleansed it the beast had imprinted on her.
With a grumble, I started using Pit of Despair again at their urging to get the thing loose. Next time I wanted a day off, I would NOT be inviting Bethy. Good intention or not she was almost as much of a trouble magnet as me. In fact, I wanted this particular vacation to be over so badly I could taste it. I just wanted this to go home and go to sleep.
Comments
Malcolm Tent
It'll come up. At the moment they're kind of tunnel visioned on surviving the attack. Might be able to squeeze it in depending on how tough it is to rank Jessie and Benny.
CringeWorthyStudios
I’m really hoping they use some Wishes to help Bethy with her vampire thing soon, since it’s been mentioned for a while now. Thanks for the chapter!
Captdeth
16s
