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Chapter 300: Voltaic Red. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2022-04-01 02:19:46 +0000 UTCEdit: Hestia's entrance. It's even more Hestia than before.
Edit 2: Some changes to showcase Saori's ability as a commander.
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“Fuck!”
She stomped on me twice in a single second.
“You!”
I felt my brain rocking inside my skull. I felt my snout breaking. My fangs were enduring it, but the cracking sound they were making was making me nervous. The pain and damage were minimal, but it felt so humiliating as I lay here helpless on the ground.
Get off me!
“Growhhhh!” I slashed forward as fast as I could but all it caught was air. I felt my [Danger Sense] and [Foresight] warning me of an attack, but all I could see was this woman running in circles around me.
“Sit down, wolf!”
Left!
Thunderous lightning clashed. Black against red. Sparks flew as I narrowly managed to block a lightning halberd from the demonkin using my electrified claws. However, she didn’t react to my defense at all; instead, she just dashed once again, leaving behind a red silhouette.
Even with my senses fully sharpened, I was still being pushed back by her rapid attacks. Even though my [Shadow Armament], I could feel her lightning stinging me. I felt chip damage accruing. And I couldn’t find an opening to fight back.
After I felt I had adapted to her attack rhythm, she finally decided to mix it up, and began using her six elemental arms. A rapier, a halberd, a staff, a crossbow, a warhammer, and a gauntlet — those were the weapons she had. And with these six and her two normal arms, she ravaged me to the point my Health dropped down to 75%.
I can’t keep up?!
The Agility I was so proud of wasn’t even close to matching her speed. And I couldn’t even do anything to try to keep up. I couldn’t cast spells with how fast she attacked me. My tools needed to be taken out of the storage but I didn’t even have a second to afford. I was stuck, without my toolkit!
And the worst part was, outside of the kid virigresses and Shoyi, I didn’t have the other members of my shadow pack with me! They were stuck in the [Room]!
Why aren't they coming out from the dungeon?!
Fortunately, as if answering my call for help, the demonkin’s barrage suddenly stopped as she had to dodge a rain of ice spears.
“Miss Saori!” Tasianna’s voice drew my eyes to the sky, where I saw Tasianna flying above with an army’s worth of ice blades floating around her. “Go into your shadow.”
I [Shadow Dash]ed without hesitation. Moments before I submerged, I saw the faint hints of a cyan-colored magic circle on the ground.
Now in the shadow world, I took out multiple potions and used [Dark Tendrils] to drink them, recovering my Health back to 100%. Still, there was no time to waste. I “swam” towards the light at the end of this world, where I resurfaced at a nearby tree, only to see Tasianna crash landing into the ground.
Shit!
Thunder crackled in the air and multiple bolts struck at where Tasianna was. With the [Dark Tendrils] conjured on my [Shadow Armament] and my own speed, I rushed over to her, blocking the deadly bolts with my large fenrir body.
I need to protect her! Was the only thing I thought when I saw this situation.
<Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Lightning Resistance Lv. 4] evolved into [Lightning Resistance Lv. 5]>
Even with a good resistance to it, that lightning still stung through my armor.
We can’t escape this beast! I immediately drew that conclusion from how the fight was going, already knowing I couldn’t put [Shadow Armament] everybody and then transport them into the shadow world to delay the match. This demonkin was too fast for me to do so.
“Ocean Healing.” Water seeped into my wounds, healing me up.
I looked down, seeing Tasianna had protected her landing using a cracked ice coffin. She was unharmed, fortunately.
[“Tasianna, delay her! Plan D!”] I ordered, receiving a quick nod from her, before turning my attention back to the fight itself.
Although relieved I could think fast enough, my warning skills activated again, making me want to gulp at how they were predicting this fight was going. I intercepted another attack from the demonkin, but we simply returned to the same situation as before when she used her six arms to attack. However, this time I had my spells prepared and Tasianna was around.
Ice and shadows flew through the air, forcing the demonkin to zig-zag and jump around to dodge. Watching her not accelerate away like a ghost made me realize how right I was with my initial impression of this young girl. Outside of the lightning coursing around her body, masking her real appearance, she did look like a teenager. Around or below Hestia’s height, probably.
And this realization made me wonder. How could I have the time to look at her like this?
“Time’s up.” Her red lightning silhouette appeared again, she accelerated again!
“Woah!” Tasianna cried out as her ice coffin suddenly was sliced apart, the lightning clad weapons narrowly missing Tasianna as she melted the ice within into water. She burst out of her defenses before blocking another attack from the demonkin with a miniature [Sapphire Membrane], which all happened right below me.
“Argh! What the fuck! Water should conduct lightning, you bitch!” She complained before she attempted to stab me with her halberd. I smacked her away like a fly.
[“You remembered that pure water doesn’t conduct electricity, Tasian—”] I praised Tasianna before the demonkin landed an upper punch to my jaw, sending me flying up. I couldn’t react to it!
She assumed a stance, ready to launch a powerful attack at me, only for her preparations to be disrupted by Tasianna’s burst of ice. As the demonkin dodged around to avoid Tasianna’s ice, something else suddenly flew right at her, nearly grabbing her leg with blade shards attached to a thick mana thread.
It was Ellaine’s whipsword!
“More rats!” The demonkin’s attention was divided once again.
She used her staff to cast the level four [Lightning Magic] spell, [Levin Core], above her. The sphere of magical electricity began hovering around, shooting lightning around like a plasma ball, destroying Tasianna’s ice.
She then dashed towards Ellaine, probably intending to kill her, but to her surprise, a huge rib cage suddenly sprouted from Ellaine’s shoulder, sapping the power from the strike. She stood then with her rapier sticking through the bone, only piercing Ellaine’s shoulder, and even then the wound was shallow. Ellaine’s armor was made from Hestia’s and my monster materials, after all!
“Wha—?! A lust contractor?!” She stuttered before Ellaine warded her off with the [Blade] materializing on her left arm. She sidestepped the attack and clapped her hands, creating an echoing sound as a wave of electricity burst out from her limbs. It destroyed the rib cage and blade easily, but left Ellaine unharmed. However, similar to when I was pulled from Hestia’s maze, something suddenly pulled Ellaine towards the demonkin.
Before Tasianna or I could do something, Ellaine was already at arm's length of the demonkin’s fatal attack. Before the demonkin could strike, however—
“Dragoon Dive!”
Tatsuya landed right in between them, blowing both girls away with the shockwave.
Seeing the demonkin like this, Tasianna and I converged towards her. Crashing the ground with lightning and smacking at her with my [Stygian Blade] attack, while Tasianna covered my blind spots with her ice and constructed multiple [Winter’s Golem] to act as meat shields.
Still, our opponent wasn’t level 150 for nothing. She was dueling the both of us without too much of a problem, constantly piling more and more wounds around my attacks. Tasianna wasn’t as durable as me, and, while she knew pure water and ice wouldn’t conduct lightning, making the demonkin’s electric attack useless, she wouldn’t survive a full brunt attack.
However, that balance between the three of us turned in our favor when Ellaine and Tatsuya joined up fully. Like a feral beast, fitting for his werewolf form, Tatsuya combined his ferocious attacks with my more impactful ones, creating a sturdy frontline. At the same time, Ellaine came in and out like a guerilla fighter, using her demonic power and whipsword to keep the demonkin at bay, while throwing Hestia’s toxin bombs at her to control the demonkin’s emotions. And then we had Tasianna controlling the areas where the demonkin could move, leading her around for us to attack her.
Teamwork!
I was a bit worried Ellaine suddenly showed her demonic powers, but she told me telepathically Klea’Hatma was still suppressing her powers. The demonkin would not know a true demon was inside Ellaine’s rings. Instead, we were using the fact we had a sloth contractor in the form of Parilostro as a smokescreen, making it seem like we had a lust contractor on our side as well.
Speaking of Parilostro, Tatsuya told me he and Grimnir, Kyouya, and Hanazawa were holding back Hee'Rlak and Senator O’Bloom. The group managed to kill off the other senators before all of this happened, but, according to him, O’Bloom seemed to be at another level. Not only was he tanky thanks to whatever he transformed himself into, but also dangerous.
Taking a short glance over, I saw Grimnir and Kyouya fighting the weakened demonkin of wrath. Luckily, the curative didn’t cure him completely of Hestia’s toxin. On the other hand, Parilostro and his Resurrection fighters were working with Hanazawa and the onnikai to fend off O’Bloom.
I noticed quite the number of Resurrection fighters had already died, but their bodies were still fighting on, being used by the onnikais and the necromancer onnikai as vessels. It was disgusting, just a bit, but we had no choice here.
Even with this sort of situation, it wasn’t looking good.
“ArrrrrrGGGK!” Tatsuya groaned as the female demonkin smacked his leg with her warhammer, causing a loud cracking sound to reverberate around the area.
[“Tatsuya!”]
“Tatsuya!”
Ellaine and I called out. The situation was turning around again in her favor. We were getting tired while she wasn’t showing any signs of weakness.
She then kicked Tatsuya in the head, sending him flying away. I managed to cover him with my [Shadow Armament] in time, slightly shaken with the knowledge that, if that had been a direct hit, Tatsuya would have lost his head. Seeing him spasming on the ground, unresponsive to anything else… I could only grit my teeth.
Calm down! Calm down! I can’t let this continue like at that bandit hideout. I need to assume command. I told myself, slowing down the blood rushing to my head from all this chaos, and quickly assessed the situation. Hestia isn’t here. If reinforcements are coming, then I need to stop this demonkin from killing anybody. I can afford having my body broken!
[“Tasianna, help him out! Ellaine, to me!”] I ordered before using [Dark Tendrils] to keep up with the demonkin’s speed outside of her acceleration. For some reason, she hadn’t used it once since we got her in this situation, making me believe there was a trigger requirement.
As I tried to attack her with a miniature [Voltage Impact], she dodged it and retaliated using her crossbow to shoot at my eyes, attempting to blind me. While they didn’t, I was still preoccupied for a moment, which allowed her to slip around me towards Ellaine.
Ellaine defended herself by coating her whipsword with [Blade], before taking the demonkin’s kick with [Ribcage]. Before the demonkin could use her weapons again, Tasianna summoned her golems and even a humongous [Slithering Frost Serpent] to protect Ellaine.
However, instead of dodging away, the girl jumped onto the serpent, riding it around its back, staying on it despite how much it was moving. She continued shooting out lighting crossbow shots and the [Lighting Bolt] spell without a chant.
She’s going for Tasianna!
I ran through the air with [Air Walk], trying to catch up to her in time, but against my expectations, the demonkin jumped into the air and shouted [Emotion Surge] once again.
Identify!
<Effects: [Excited: 100%] [Anger: 100%] [Fear: 0%]>
Guk!
Her lightning armor changed, creating two large wings and a serpent's tail. She grabbed her halberd and held it up high, letting it feed on her mana to grow larger and larger, to the point it was almost as large as my usual [Hadaen Dragon Thunder].
Shit!
I stayed where I stood and activated my catalyst for their boost, renewing the [Lightning Revolt (Limited)] buff on myself. I then conjured a dark magic circle, understanding I had to defend everbody or it would be all over for us.
As the demonkin and I eyed each other, both preparing our next attack, Tasianna dispelled her serpent. As her frozen construct suddenly stopped in place and broke into numerous ice blades, she used these new weapons in an attempt to prevent the demonkin from casting her attack, but it all failed as she cast another [Levin Core] to protect herself.
“Voltaic Red:—” Red lightning burst from her eyes as the lightning spear slowly turned red. “Thunderspeed Roar!”
Hadaen Dragon Thunder!
Black and red clashed once again; however, unlike before, it was a match between two thunder-type attacks. A thunderclap upon impact, it made me want to close my ears. But there was no room for error right now, as the spear outmatched my spell, slowly boring through my laser.
I poured more mana into my magic circle. I had to stop it, but no matter how much I did, it wouldn’t stop. Death was slowly coming towards us.
“Grant me strength, Goddess Plesia! Goddess Zephira! Slithering Frost Serpent!”
Two huge ice serpents shot out from Tasianna's side, roaring loudly as they tried to bite into the spear. But, as you expected, the bodies of Tasianna’s spell were disintegrated by the demonkin’s attack, however, despite the futility, the serpents kept going, trying to interfere with the red lightning attack. All so I wouldn’t be pushed back.
But—
“Ramuh.” That chilling voice stomped all over any bits of hope the both of us had.
Those four purple magic circles in the sky deemed us unfit to continue this fight. Like God's judgement.
[“Tasianna!”] Fighting this wasn’t possible. We had to perform damage control.
“On it! Sapphire Membrane!” A dome of water expanded from her, encasing not only herself and Ellaine, but also the people on the other battlefield. Breathing out, she released white mist, freezing the whole barrier of water. “Kraken’s Destruction! Come in!”
She shouted as four tentacles erupted from their magic circle, blocking the lightning spear in my stead to allow me to enter the protective barrier. Although large enough to capsize ships on their own, the tentacles stood no chance before not only the spear but also the level six [Lightning Spell], [Ramuh].
“Argh!” Tasianna screamed as her blue hair began to lose its vividness. Her Mana suddenly took a large dip! “I need mana!”
I had to donate my mana for Tasi—
“Die! Saori!”
As I tried to ensure our survival, Hee’Rlak suddenly came flying over in his two 100% form, using his four arms to fight against me.
I don’t have time for this! I roared loudly as I saw the barrier cracking against the weight of two deadly attacks. I used a [Shadow Descent] tail smack to punt him to the ground. However, he recovered quickly and was about to jump up again, determined to make sure Tasianna died from lack of mana.
However—
“Where are you going?!”
“Taunt!”
Kyouya shouted, drawing the demonkin’s attention for Grimnir to fly over, looking bruised and beaten up, before landing an earth-crushing blow to his head. I didn’t let this moment go. I ran towards Tasianna, who was slumping over as she tried to pour more mana into the barrier to maintain it.
Ellaine was feeding her Mana potions, but even that wasn’t enough. I nuzzled my head against her back, beginning to pour more mana into her. We had to try. There was no Hestia to save us right now. If this barrier broke, all of us would die.
I still remembered how the spell [Ramuh] scorched and left a baseball field-sized crater behind when Astalos cast it in the Belzac forest.
“Urgh!” Tasianna downed her sixth Mana potion.
<Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond
Health: 3109/3436 Mana: 2098/11945 Stamina: 2961/4141>
Hold!
“Kack!” She spat the water out, even puking and looking pale.
<Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond
Health: 3109/3436 Mana: 1198/11945 Stamina: 2961/4141>
Hold!
“Urgh…”
“Tasianna! Saori, her Mana is almost used up!”
<Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond
Health: 3109/3436 Mana: 409/11945 Stamina: 2961/4141>
Don’t die for us! Take it all, Tasianna!
<Mana: 5290/9117>
Tasianna was a fairy. If her Mana dropped to zero, it was all over for her.
<Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond
Health: 3109/3436 Mana: 5699/11945 Stamina: 2961/4141>
Urgh!
<[Mana Stress (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]>
But by pouring all of my Mana into Tasianna, making it reach zero, meant I gained [Mana Stress]. I would be unable to regenerate any mana until the penalty disappeared. Meaning, I couldn’t channel my stygian lightning or maintain my [Shadow Armament].
But…
As the vice-leader of Aurora, I could never let any of its members die right before me. This was my responsibility! I will endure any pain if it assures my new family lives!
“Arrghh! Sapphire Membrane!” Tasianna shouted as she created another barrier and turned it into ice under the original one. And even a third was made, for good measure.
The bright red and yellow from the spear and [Ramuh] disappeared as those three [Sapphire Membranes] layered over each other. A loud crack reverberated around the area, making the loud fighting noises next to us almost mute.
But… then it became relatively silent. I could hear anything outside the barrier. Did we manage to weath—
Bang! Like a thunderclap.
The dome broke apart before my eyes as lightning shot right through it, crashing against the ground and kicking up the dirt and dust. Grimnir, Kyouya, and Hee’Rlak were blown away, as they were the closest to the landing, while the three of us group around the still unconscious Tatsuya.
Tasianna created one last [Sapphire Membrane], this time smaller and only around us to protect us from this dust storm. With the dust mixing with the water barrier, the mud made it impossible for us to look out.
Considering the destructive nature of [Ramuh], this cannot be it. There was even that sound again. Like somebody clapping thei— Wait, no!
Tasianna, duck! A chill ran down my spine as [Foresight] warned me of something.
I tried to call out for Tasianna, but I couldn’t since I had no mana to use [Telepathy]. I had to run up to her. I had to—
“Too slow.”
“Huh?!”
It was only for a split second when I saw something red in the dust storm. In the next moment, the barrier had been slashed apart and lightning rapier had slashed off Tasianna’s right forearm. The blood spraying from her limb was carved into my memories.
In addition, the sight of the demonkin surrounded in her red lightning armor. As she recovered her blade, I noticed lightning suddenly forming around her feet, smacking itself against the ground.
Her speed, it’s repulsion! Which means—
She suddenly disappeared once again, only to reappear behind Ellaine, preparing her rapier to cut off her head. However—
Kisssplash!
Guuuuek!
My paw blocked it in time, taking the attack instead of Ellaine.
I can read your movements now!
Tensing up my paw, I pierced her arm with my claws before pulling her towards me to take a bite at her shoulder. But before I could do that, she let go of her rapier, making her arm disappear, before reforming it to counterattack me. Fortunately, Ellaine defended me in time.
As the demonkin stepped back, the dust storm suddenly stopped, as the repulsion effect of her “hand clap” stopped. It all made sense now. Magnetism! Of course! It was the same case with Astalos, and now for this demonkin.
I heard red lightning actually was a thing on Earth. They were called red spirits, or something. I wasn’t a physics major, so I didn’t know the reason for their existence, but what I understood was how this girl’s powers worked. Magnetism was already obvious with how she pulled us towards her in the labyrinth, but now it also explained her movements.
“Tasianna!” Ellaine called out, but there was nothing to worry about.
“I’m alright! Take her down!” Tasianna shouted despite her missing arm, making me confident to take this fight forward.
Red lightning appeared around her feet again as she left a silhouette behind. My eyes darted to the sky, seeing a fresh silhouette being made. She was using her power to dash around us.
“Grouuuh!” I barked as I eyed a location behind Tasianna. Understanding me, she nodded.
“Got it!” Tasianna used her [Cyromancy] and [Frost Body] to freeze the blood seeping from the stump of her arm, forming a blood-red arm as a replacement for her severed one.
With an ice sword she swung where I commanded her to, it caused the speeding demonkin to grimace as she arched her body back, sliding against the ground to dodge that attack.
“Wha—?!” She glanced at Tasianna before trying to do the same move once again, but I wouldn’t let her.
“Grouuh!” I barked again, already pointing at one of the grenades on Ellaine’s belts. She, too, understood me.
She threw the holy flame grenade, forcing the demonkin to dodge it, stopping her acceleration. As she recovered, trying to understand the situation, she didn’t even try to channel the lightning around her feet anymore.
Now I understand!
This wasn’t lightning, fully, this was mana. Her mana was the key here! This wasn’t actually magnetism through electricity, it was magnetism through her blood and consequently her mana!
Klea’Hatma’s words ran through my head again. Of how demonkins of wrath took on an element as their partner for life, only being able to cast that element by forming their mana into it. That was wrath’s demonic powers. In other words, the reason why she couldn’t use her lightning speed before when we barraged her with attacks was due to our mana conflicting with hers.
For some reason, she couldn’t use this ability when mana other than her own was around. At least, that was what I understood. But, even without the full details, this was enough to counter this extreme speed of hers!
“Grouh!” I barked again.
[“You want us to attack her?”]
“Grouh!”
[“With magic?”]
“Grouh!”
[“Alright, then I’ll take the front and—”]
“Grouh! Grouh!”
[“Oh, you take it! Sure! Uhm, did you figure something out, Saori?”]
“Grouuuuh!”
Barking was all I could do now, and although Tasianna and Ellaine couldn’t fully understand me, I didn’t need to talk. They had [Telepathy] on their own. There was a serious delay in our communication since I couldn’t use [Telepathy] myself, but they noticed the intention in my voice and where I was looking at.
The worst part was over for now. The demonkin probably saw us as pests, ready to be destroyed. Ants. She was definitely stronger than the three of us combined. Tatsuya was taken out before we could do anything, but we wouldn’t just roll over and die because of that!
We were Aurora! We will fight back!
Go!
“Tor Eiclere’s Finulaflei!” Tasianna invoked her finishing spell, intending to use it more as an area denial to force the demonkin further away from us.
The girl shot out her electric crossbow and lightning spells, but Elline took over Tasianna’s job as the defender, using her whipsword and demonic abilities to protect all three of us. This gave Tasianna the focus to commit to a full barrage of spells whilst I chased the demonkin down.
<[Exhaustion (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]>
She quickly noticed as we fought that something was awry with me. I wasn’t in my [Shadow Armament] nor was I using my [Stygian Voltage], so it would be obvious to everybody I was suffering from Mana Stress, but I couldn’t just stand back now. Even without mana, I was still a B rank!
As this continued, I intentionally let her slip through my attacks, allowing her to recover at a spot before using her red lightning. The moment her red silhouette appeared, I darted my head towards the position I predicted and pounced towards it, pinning the demonkin onto the ground before biting into her left arm!
“Arrghk! Fuck!” She bellowed before using her lightning gauntlet to strike at me, only for Tasianna to cover my retreat in time.
“Argh!” She stood back up, looking rather angry at what I did to her armored arm. I could still feel the lightning surging through my mouth. “Okay, bitches! So ya somehow figured it out, huh!? Yeah, ya, sucks to be you! But a Warbringer can do far more than this single gimmick!”
She grabbed her staff. “Extreme Speed!”
A purple magic circle appeared before her as it covered her entire body in a purple lightning aura. In the next moment, she dashed forward, far too fast for my eyes to see. I knew it was an attack, but I couldn’t—
Ding!
— move myself in time.
“Are you fucking kidding me!”
“Yeah, I’m fucking with you, slut!”
A purple barrier was placed before me, blocking the demonkin’s attack. She screamed out in annoyance as another girl’s voice drew my head over. It was Hanazawa.
“Nobody fucks over or annoys my Sensei unless that person is me!”
Onnikais began to converge around Hanazawa, while the purple barrier dissipated, revealing itself being made by her fenrir spirits. A zombie-looking man, an onnikai by the name of Emil, stumbled over to my student, bowing to her before drawing his attention towards the angered demonkin.
“Ukk…”
Parilostro and the remnants of the Resurrection fighters approached also, pushing a groaning O’Bloom to the ground. He had transformed back into his human form and was now chained up.
“Master!” I heard Hee’Rlak’s voice, calling for the female demonkin as he was held back by Grimnir’s blasthammer. Streams of ice were buffeting him while Kyouya kept throwing toxin bombs at him.
“…” The demonkin girl frowned.
“A ceasefire.” Parilostro pointed his sword at O’Bloom’s head. “Go, and you may have him back.”
“… Bastard, do you think I am that easy to threaten? I could rescue him right at this moment, without ya even noticing. That puppet of yours won’t be able to react in time, sloth contractor! None of you can, if you cannot predict it.” She then glared at me. “I am a Warbringer. Peace only comes to the true winner, and you are not winners yet. You haven’t even faced me when I’m not toying around with ya bitches!”
She was right. Everybody knew it. Her [Fear] was still at 0%. She never had an inkling of fear of us. She never thought of us as anything more than ants. If she were to go full-powered right now, we wouldn’t be able to fight her. We were all too tired after a full day of fighting.
[“How about you say that again, you little punk?”]
The bright sun suddenly disappeared as if somebody pulled up the curtains. I looked up, where I saw the origin of that shadow — Hestia was there, in her dragon form.
Plan D! Thank goodness for you rocket boosters, Hestia!
[“So proud of your speed, but how about we play your game, huh? Go, pick on my friends. If you do, then don’t mind me if I returned the favor.”]
“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Hestia roared out, shaking the whole ground with her [Draconic Roar]. However, while the demonkin girl grimaced at this terrible rumble, our group was saved with Tasianna’s [Air Shield].
[“I. DARE. YOU!”]
“… You think I can’t take you on, dragon?! I know ya can’t fully appraise my profile, but I’ll gladly flaunt around my level. A Warbringer is anointed to bring total destruction onto the battlefield. I can take you on with all your buddies!” She shouted out, looking even less likely to back down now.
But Hestia remained composed. All she did was look up in the sky, drawing all our attention to an object. A red object looking very much like a—!?
Comet?!
Breaking through clouds and burning so brightly like another sun, an unknown object was slowly descending down to the ground. I panicked. Was I hallucinating, or was this object an actual meteorite? How did Hestia get such a thing?!
[“You know I am a void-touched, you bitch.”] Hestia’s voice resonated throughout everybody’s minds. [“Sure, you might be stronger than me, but are you strong enough to protect yourself from this world-ending space stone while protecting your two accomplices? If you are here to kill us, then I’ll take you down with us.”]
She grimaced, looking at Hee’Rlak, then to O’Bloom, and then back to the meteor. She clicked her tongue as her lightning suddenly weakened. The electrical wings and tail disappeared.
Identify.
<Effects: [Excited: 72%] [Anger: 100%] [Fear: 43%]>
She kept on thinking about the problem, to the point the meteor flew past Hesita. Hold on, was she serious about this? No way would she let that thing kill us, right? This had to be a bluff. Yeah, Hestia was bluffing 100%!
U-Uhm… Still, despite my trust in her, feeling the extreme heat singeing my fur was enough for me to remain anxious.
“Fuck… FINE. Let there be peace!” she shouted loudly, prompting Hestia to reach out her hand, stopping the meteor in its place. With a snap, the flame dissipated and the meteor broke apart, revealing itself to only be an extremely huge collection of her shed scales.
How far did she get with her scale manipulation?!
“Guek… Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Seeing how she was fooled, she took a deep breath—
— before she just screamed while running her hands through her hair rapidly, messing up her entire hairstyle. She then stomped over to O’Bloom, showing all of us the middle finger as she grabbed his unconscious body. Despite her clear annoyance, she didn’t even glare at or hurt anybody in the process, acting in a relatively amicable way.
Seeing her approaching, Grimnir stopped his attack, allowing Hee’Rlak to finally fall onto his knees, shivering from the cold and coughing up blood. The girl walked past the snorting dwarf, paying him no mind before pouring antidote into her apprentice’s throat.
“… You won the fight, but don’t forget about the bigger picture.” She pouted as she declared war on Hestia, and as a consequence, the entirety of Aurora.
[“Go already, you little shit.”] She would not be intimidated.
“Wha-What?! You piece of— Hrmmmm!” And with her red lightning forming around her body, she grabbed Hee’Rlak in her other arm and dashed away, leaving only her silhouette behind.
At the same time—
“Urgk!”
“Grak!”
“Bladdarg!”
“Grouuk…”
“Dam—Ark!”
“Tch!”
All six Aurora members all fell onto the ground simultaneously. From what I could hear as Hesti descended, Kyouya fell unconscious while bleeding profusely with severe burns after being cooked alive by Hee’Rlak while Grimnir had [Arcane Fever (Major)], having hid his blue face with his helmet and was almost dead.
Tasianna was dizzy and nauseous, having lost quite a lot of blood. Even if she couldn’t die from blood loss, she was still missing an arm and her elven body still heavily weakened. Ellaine was enduring a numbed arm, caused when the demonkin girl stabbed her shoulder. The armor hadn’t fully protected her, as the lightning rapier went through her shoulder and made it impossible for her to move it without [Musclemass].
On the other hand, Hanazawa and I both came out of this fight with minimal injuries. Hanazawa only had [Arcane Fever (Minor)], perfectly handable unlike Grimnir, while I only had [Mana Stress] and some [Exhaustion].
Sure, we might have won today, thanks to Hestia somehow making it over here with her rocket boosters, but it still stung. We didn’t win this fight through our powers, but by luck. If she hadn’t accepted the deal and continued fighting…
[“Hey, are you alright?”] Klea’Hatma asked me while Hestia was frantically taking care of everybody. I nodded to her. [“Thank goodness you guys listened to me, right?”]
I nodded again.
The last bit of information during the planning session. It was Klea’Hatma who stopped us before we left to prepare the battle stage.
Good thing we listened to her.
[“Hmm, oh yeah, that boy said he had a master, right? A Warbringer or whatever they are called nowadays? Yeah, well, in case they were the reason for that giant lightning, just think of fleeing. Try to do something to get on the demonkin’s sense of dignity and honor. The demon of wrath was a bit of a warmonger, but he was extremely honorable, to a fault. Not the type to scheme. If his descendants inherited that personality type, then those demonkins of wrath are pretty similar to dwarves.”]
Dammit…
I thought I had scaled the tower by almost defeating Hee’Rlak, but the true tower was still behind him. A Warbringer, an elite guard type opponent behind one of the seven demonkin princes of sin. We, Aurora, showed our hands today, and I had a feeling this was just the beginning of its ripple effects.
But, in return, we now had an idea on how much more we had to catch up. How far the summit really was. Our catalyst to move beyond that foe.
Comments
O.O
Diego Rossi
From what I could hear as Hesti descended, - Hesti is a nice nickname, but generally Saori don't use them.
Diego Rossi
and left a baseball-sized crater -> and left a baseball field-sized crater A 26 cm crater isn't very impressive.
good to hear. Saori promised her students she would meet the old man, soi lets see whats gonna happen.
Kale Daley
All in all I liked the way this fight was handled. They got their butts handed to them but still managed to hold their own. Now maybe Saori will think about accepting her Fenrir heritage like Hestia has started to embrace her Draconic heritage. Looking forward to some good old fashioned power leveling. Thanks for chapter 🙏
