Erin, Lyra, and Siv had their backs against one another, entrusting their flanks to each other. Their gazes scoured and swept the area surrounding them. They were deep in the enemy's lines and they only had the faintest idea of their enemies’ capabilities.
“The winds are blowing too hard,” Erin said, wielding her silver-steel sabre with both of her hands. “It’s hiding the enemies’ movements.”
“I’m of the same quandary,” Lyra mulled grimly, drawing her bow with an arrow nocked. “I can see the disturbed soil and branches but I can’t see the enemies.”
“The winds are definitely erratic,” Siv added, occupying both of her hands with her custom-made swords that could be joined on the grip end, turning it into a double-bladed sword. “I caught their scent but I can’t tell where it came from.”
“Our opponents are very well-prepared.” Erin squinted her gaze at the seemingly tranquil trees. “They are being very careful. They most likely know what we’re capable of.”
“But we don’t know much about them,” Lyra grumbled.
“I wouldn’t be so despairing, Lyra,” Erin reassured. “Our enemies are the Apostles of Mordius. Their primary abilities are Skinwalker and some kind of Familiar Summoning spell. They seemed over-reliant on them considering we have yet to see them use any other kinds of Arcane Arts.”
As if offended by Erin’s inferences, the Mamba emerged outside the patch of hard rocks the trio was treading on. The Mamba had an earthen tone to its skin and it had rows of sharp teeth as opposed to only a pair of fangs. Though the Mamba had appeared, only Erin stayed her gaze at it as the other two were keeping watch of their fronts. For all they knew, they could be surrounded on all sides and one stray gaze would cause their demise.
“Huh…” Erin mumbled as she appraised the Mamba glaring at the tree. It was lunging at them or attacking from a distance. It was just glaring, studying its prey.
“You found something about that giant snake?” Lyra asked without looking away from her front.
“Well, it’s not a Mamba… It’s not a snake at all… It’s a Wyrm, an Earth Wyrm.”
“Worm? That doesn’t look like a worm at all.”
“A Wyrm, Lyra. With a ‘y’, not an ‘o’.”
“Ah, that kind of Wyrm,” Lyra nodded in her newfound understanding. “Say, isn’t a Wyrm a quasi Dragon?”
“They are,” Siv answered. “They are similar to Wyverns, Drakes, Salamanders, and the likes. They are all quasi Dragons, descendants.”
“So… aren’t we in colossal danger right now?” Lyra asked.
“It’s only thirty-two, surprisingly,” Erin said, returning the Wyrm’s glare. “And it’s a Familiar, not some Skinwalker.”
“It’s not attacking or anything. Is it appraising us?”
“It doesn’t have Appraisal but I would say yes, it is definitely weighing our abilities. It’s cautious.”
“Are you going to disappoint it?”
Erin grinned. “On the contrary, I’ll overcome its expectations. It should not have been cautious, it should have run.” Erin began lacing the blade of her sabre with lightning and Arcane Edge.
With a near-precise timing, the Dire Wolves from before emerged from atop the gentle slope. There were seven of the Dire Wolves and the one in the middle was a size larger than the rest. Like the Earth Wyrm, the Dire Wolves approached the three slowly and with extreme caution.
“The wolves are here,” Siv muttered as she evaluated each of the Dire Wolves. Her scrutinizing glance fell on the one in the middle. “That’s certainly not a normal Dire Wolf. It smells more like a human than a beast. Mistress, I recall you said it was a Skinwalker?”
“No mistake there,” Erin affirmed.
“Level?”
“Twenty-seven.”
“Then it’s just right for Lyra and I. I don’t sense any other enemies around us but I would advise constant vigilance. That said, mistress, the Earth Wyrm is all yours.”
“With pleasure,” Erin responded with a sanguine smirk. She taunted the Earth Wyrm with a gesture before charging at it.
The Earth Wyrm roared and lunged at Erin.
Erin leapt to the air and avoided the Earth Wyrm’s nosedive. As the soil was far too rigid, the Earth Wyrm cratered the earth instead of burrowing into it. It quickly pulled its neck and head away as Erin brought her sabre, carving into the ground. The Earth Wyrm spun its body and swung its tail at Erin. She flipped over the swipe and threw an Aura Shot at the Wyrm, which it dodge by moving its upper body out of the way.
As Erin landed, she fired a Lightning Bolt. The Earth Wyrm evaded the lightning attack too and lunged at her again. It didn’t perform a nosedive this time but a straight charge with its head as the point. Erin twisted her body out of the way and countered with a firm slash. The Wyrm wriggled its neck away and girdled Erin’s proximity using its own body as the means. Once it had completely encircled Erin, the Earth Wyrm tightened the enclosure formed of its own body with Erin within. However, the Earth Wyrm made a very apparent grimace as it had seen Erin’s figure blurring out of the enclosure. It gazed up into the air and found the Fox-kin falling towards it with her cyan-glowing sword raised.
The Earth Wyrm shrieked and slithered away in fear but when its eyes fell on Erin’s companions, it grinned and dove towards them instead of escaping.
In the paralleling moment, Siv and Lyra were repelling the Dire Wolves hungering for their flesh. In order to conserve her arrows, Lyra switched to a short sword. She was considerably less skilled with a sword but the Dire Wolves weren’t too to threaten her inexperience. As for Siv, a kin of a wolf, she dispatched four of the Dire Wolves with just two instances of motion. She was a formidable fighter in her own right and she understood the behavioural patterns of the Dire Wolves. She knew their moves before they had even made them. Once she was finished with her portion, she moved to Lyra’s, who looked at her with a scowl for snatching her supposed prey.
Just then the ground shook as the Earth Wyrm performed a nosedive towards the ground but neither Siv nor Lyra paid it any heed. Lyra was glaring at Siv with a miffed look.
“You’re welcome,” Siv said.
“I didn’t say anything,” Lyra retorted.
“Hope you won’t mind. You were slow.”
“I mind and I can take care of them without your help.”
Siv flashed Lyra a smirk. “I’m sure you can.”
“So dispassionate… for two mere heathens,” the remaining Dire Wolf, the Skinwalker, mocked. It shifted back to its human form, a young man around their age with a robust body that didn’t seem possible for someone of his age.
Lyra and Siv halted their bickering and cocked their gazes to the Skinwalker.
“Heathens? Us?” Lyra scoffed. “Why? Simply because we don’t pray to the same god?”
“Your companion killed my faith-sworn brother and sisters.”
“I’m sure they had it coming.”
The Apostle’s frown deepened.
“Dispassionate…” Siv mused, eyeing the Skinwalker with aloof and demeaning eyes “You are wrong about that, good sir.”
“I am not,” the Apostle refuted.
“We’re not dispassionate. We simply… do not regard you as much of a threat.”
“Are you not aware of what I am?”
“What you are, does not define you. Your actions do. As far as feats go, we see no reason to be… overly cautious of you. As adventurers, we have faced worse odds and survived.”
“Bollocks. You two are afraid of me.”
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“You ain’t some undead or Demon.” Lyra snorted. “I had fought both. You are nowhere close to them. Stop flattering yourself so much.”
“You dare compare me to fiends of the dark arts?!” the Apostle bellowed. “Let me show you how much worse I am compared to them.”
“Did he realize he just insulted himself?” Lyra whispered to Siv.
“Not bloody likely,” Siv responded in a murmur.
“I can hear you both!” he screamed. Fur grew rampantly all over his body. Muscles amassed into clumps, enlarging his body. His teeth morphed into fangs. The figure of a human slowly distorted into that of a wolf’s but instead of walking on fours, it stood on two of his hind legs like a human.
“A Werewolf?” Lyra questioned. “Or a Wulver?”
“Neither,” Siv answered. “Werewolves or Wulvers don’t have horns and a long whip for a tail. That’s an abomination.”
The Apostle scoffed in its beast form. “Your mockery of my Divine’s gift is nothing more than an expression of your petty envy,” he said, baring talons of a raptor instead of a wolf’s claws.
“My envy is nothing more than your pitiful fallacy.”
“Enough of your deceit!” the Apostle roared and pounced at Siv with his limbs spread and its jaws agape.
Siv dodged low and aimed a thrust into his chest but her sword bounced right off the hide. The Apostle leered conceitedly and swiped both his claws at Siv. She defended herself with her swords but his blow sent her tumbling across the ground. She flipped herself to her feet and traded blows with the Apostle. With only that brief exchange, Siv understood her opponent was just as her mistress said, over-reliant on their so-called Divine gifts. A collection of flaws in his movements. Siv had no doubt her opponent’s stats were higher but his experience couldn’t be said to be a quarter of hers. She even thought an actual Wulver or a Werewolf would be more of a challenge.
Noticing Siv’s offhanded demeanour, the Apostle screamed and protruded spike juts along with his forelimbs and spine. His talons also grew in length. The sudden change caught Siv off her guard and the talons were inches away from gouging into her face, but the Apostle ended up missing his mark like an arrow to his head disrupted his precision and posture. The arrow bounced off his head like Siv’s sword but it saved Siv’s life.
“You’re welcome,” Lyra said.
“Thank you,” Siv replied amicably, gaining Lyra’s displeasure and indignation.
The Apostle snarled and charged at Lyra like a dog running fervidly towards a bone. Lyra fired an arrow enchanted with Seeker without drawing the bowstring to its limits and yet, the arrow flew far and true. The Apostle could tell the arrow was aiming for his eyes. He remained collected and simply sidestepped the arrow, grinning at Lyra’s poor marksmanship. However, he frowned as his fur stiffened in response to his instincts. He quickly sprang off the ground and the arrow streaked past under him but it turned around sharply, chasing its mark that was the Apostle.
The Apostle howled furiously and swiped the arrow from the air as he landed on his feet. Before he could snap the arrow into half in his grip, the Apostle cried out and tossed the arrow away. There was something laced on the arrow and it burned his hand.
“Thank you, Olivia…” Lyra muttered under her breath. She had laced the upper part of a few of her arrows with an acid that burns only flesh but impassive towards the likes of wood, earth, and metal. It was the same substance she received from Olivia that she used to burn off Velkan’s demonic wings.
As Lyra was about to nock another arrow, a great sense of dread emanated from her right. She turned to look and found the Earth Wyrm charging towards her. At the same time, the Wolf Apostle lunged at her.
“Fuck!” Lyra cursed herself. Instead of giving up, she nocked another arrow to her bow and sharpened her gaze by pouring Mana into her eyes as she activated Eagle Eyes. It was a succinct lesson from her lover, Erin. Her eyes began to throb with a mild ache but she bit her lips to bear with it.
Firstly, she hopped and flipped into the air, dodging the Great Wyrm’s precipitous assault. The Wolf Apostle followed Lyra into the air by kicking his paws off the ground. Without solid ground beneath his feet, Lyra fired the two arrows at his eyes. The Apostle grimaced as he realized Lyra’s scheme. He crossed his arms to guard against the arrows but the arrows split in their paths. They were not going for his eyes but his ears.
The Wolf Apostle let out a deathly piercing shriek that grated the air. The Great Wyrm screeched in discomfort over its ally’s agony throes. It even started flailing violently in response to the agonizing bellows. Lyra was in danger of falling into the Wyrm’s thrashing.
A cyan flash streaked through the air in the blink of an eye and Erin appeared beside Lyra, carrying her lover to safety and leaving blood splatters behind her trail. Erin had taken advantage of their miseries and sliced their vital spots with Mystic Blade.
When her feet touched the earth with Lyra in her arms, her body and soul throbbed in response to the sudden flux of experience.
[Experience gained + 66% - Level Progression: 165%]
[Erynthea: Level 35 increased to Level 36]
[Skill Points gained +2 | 4]
[Ability Points gained +2 | 4]
[Level Progression: 65%]
Erin widened her lips into a smile and she unconsciously planted a deep kiss on Lyra’s mouth. She sucked her lover’s lips and tongue in that short exchange of their love and passion. When their lips and tongues parted, Erin grinned with bated breaths.
Lyra was staring at her in astonishment. “W-what was that for?” she asked.
“Nothing,” she answered with a giggle. “You’re simply wonderful. I just wanted to maul you.”
“Mistress,” Siv called out. “I’m afraid we still have another one to deal with.” She wasn’t gazing at her mistress but something a distance away from them.
Erin put Lyra down and the two followed Siv’s gaze. Their eyes landed on a large intimidating figure sauntering out of the woods. It was humanoid but only that part about it was remotely human. If one had to give a brief description of the trio’s new enemy, it was a humanoid ox standing at a height of around ten feet, wearing armour and wielding a labrys half of its size.
“What in god’s name is that?” Lyra asked.
“That’s a…”
“A Rakar… like me,” Siv answered in her mistress’ stead. “That’s an Ox-kin.”
“What?” Lyra blurted. “Why is he or she that hideous?”
“I have no idea but I know when I lay eyes on a relative kin of mine.”
“Rekindle… that’s why. A Divine gift,” Erin muttered bleakly.
Erynthea - Faerie-kin: Five-Tailed Fox-kin
Level: 36 | Status Affliction: Mild Exhaustion
Might: 22 | Arcane: 44 | Finesse: 39
Magic Arts
Spirit Magic Lv. 10 | Arcane Edge Lv. 6 | Arcane Armor Lv. 10 | Lightning Magic Lv. 10 | Arcane Aegis Lv. 7 | Mystic Tail Arts Lv. 3
Combat Arts
Sword Art Lv. 8 | Fleet Foot Lv. 5 | Brawler Lv. 5
Innate Skills
Appraisal Lv. Ex | Night Vision Lv. Ex | Sixth Sense Lv. Ex | Toxin Resistance Lv. 7 | Lust Deviant Lv. Ex | Mana Harvest Lv. 1 | Lightning Resistance Lv. 1 | Darkness Resistance Lv. 1
Unique Talent
Mystic Blade Lv. Ex | Revenant Lv. Ex
Level Progression: 65%
Remaining Skill Points: 4
Remaining Ability Points: 4