664 10/11 6:52 (Autumn, Day, Midrar)
Luna breathed in deeply, feeling the air all around her and the rays of the Sun on her skin, concentrated mostly on the Astral Ichor now forming her body, curious of its specific difference from her Vital Mana and Black Blood.
An easy one to spot being her much more condensed reserves, all of her power contained within just 376 Motes of Astral Ichor, a number that offered little actual informations on its own, except for the limited amount of automatic Recovery she had access to, restoring 100% of her Reserves every 24 hours, a single Mote every three to four minutes.
An incredibly slow process, even considering how incredibly dense in Energy each Mote is, but thankfully if she takes in external Energy or matter she can gradually accelerate her Recovery while her Awakened Unique Arma is able to generate an amount of Virtual Energy equivalent to 13,5% of the amount she would spent, assuring she would last longer in a fight.
"Astral Ichor is incredibly powerfull, sure, but it is quite limited in its application." She mused to herself, small marbles of her new silvery vital fluid floating around her before she reabsorbed them at once. "I suppose I will need to hold back quite a bit with my Magic, using only specific Spells as either finishers or to set up a Domain." She sighed.
"Yet, despite your words, I feel like you are quite satisfied with your new Skills." Mafel amusedly added from behind her, causing Luna to look back at her with a raised eyebrow.
The Elf smiled, clad only in a light sleeping vest and moved towards her, sitting down and embracing the Lunarian from behind, laying her head on the white-haired's left shoulder, her hands teasingly exploring her body.
"That is only natural, is it not?" Luna leaned back into the embrace, not protesting at all to the grey-haired one's touches. "Even if it represent a large regression in terms of its quantity, my Astral Ichor is a significant increase in both intensity and future growth potential. In addition, while not a perfect exchange for my ability to Cast Spells or Arts casually, I should be able to use my Will to manifest similar phenomena as my Spell."
In concert with her words, her Will Manifestation Skill activated, reality shaking around her before firming back into a more solid configuration, forming various physical objects that floated around her, shimmering like iridescent glass yet as hard to damage as her own body.
Under the purple and golden gaze of the Spiritual Elf, the glass-like expressions of Luna shattered before fusing back together, pulling in air before, with a quick flash of the transparent flames of her Creation by Annihilation, they merged together into a floating bow and ten arrows.
The defensive ability and the rigidity of her physical Will combined with the weightlessness and fluidity of the air, maximizing its advantages and Quality while minimizing the concentration required for its creation and use.
The mid-air bow nocked an arrow back on its own, aiming on its target before it exploded forward, the atmosphere being immediately pierced with no resistance as the sound barrier was shattered multiple times.
Before the arrow could even strike its target, a second, third, fourth and even a fifth arrow were launched with a burst of force, almost distracting the two of them from the result of her first projectile.
Far away from the two, were flying a small flock of Stonehearted Raptors, Earth-Attribute bird Monsters that despite their feathers made of rocks they were still able to fly.
"Should you really start another fight so soon? Especially considering how both Amber and Sabel are still out of it." Mafel asked, alluding back to their Mates currently resting within their mobile bases.
"Do not worry, I have no intention of this being a fight at all." Luna smiled back, her fangs gleaming sharply, all of her arrows having been shot and impaled their targets, reducing the flock from fifteen to just five, a single one at E-Rank and four at D-Rank, 10.000 Magicules joining her Stored ones while five Skills she was interested in joined her Familiars.
*Warden Gains the Skills "Crag Feathers", "Isolating Guard" and "Weighted Body" E.
*Ash Gains the Skill "Lightened Body" E.
*Core Gains the Skill "Coordination" E.
Immediately after her shadow shivered before it erupted, all of her Familiars entering the Material World into physical bodies.
Large wings surfaced from the shadow, sparking embers illuminating the emerging feathered beast, a great bird breaching the surface and flying around the two, flames emanating from the black Familiars and forming long trailing strands behind it.
The bird screeched once before exploding forward, the air catching aflame as thanks to its changes it was able to move at an even higher speed, even if only partially because of its newest Skill and mostly because of its new physical composition and the support of her Will flowing through it.
"Is that Familiar based on Amber?" Mafel asked curious, watching the two sides moving towards each other.
"Not really." Luna asked, electricity accumulating together around her briefly before rushing forward, forming a solid mass of black electricity that fleed forward, too quickly to be properly investigated. "But I suppose a flying being of fire is somewhat similar to a Phoenix."
Her words barely ended that a new Familiar appeared, a vaguely skeletal, humanoid figure that now stood near the two, lending its own processing power and Undying Body to the rest of the Familiars, soon followed by the earth itself shaking, an immense weight falling upon the ground as slowly an enormous figure emerged from her still shadow.
A roar shook the air as the vaguely ursine Drake-like Familiar landed heavily, a crown of grey, rocky feathers forming a mane around its head while long crystal horns illuminated its black metallic scales.
Stonehearted Raptors were a type of flying Monsters with high natural Affinity towards both Earth- and Air-Attribute, enough so that high-Ranked variants were able to Cast rudimentary Spells, but their more common way to fight was to ambush prey as a flock by activating LightenedBody to reach them as quickly as possible, deactivating it and then activating their Weighted Body to magnify their Physical Damage.
In her case however the Skills were split among her two Familiars, Ash using the former Skill to increase its speed before deactivating it on impact, making sure that the halved weight would not influence the strenght of its blows meanwhile Warden would be able to double its weight to increase the strenght of his physical attacks and to lower the knockback it would recieve.
Among its heavy steps directed towards the fight, an humanoid shade emerged with sharp blades interlocked to form both armor and weapons, three luminous eyes stuck to the fight that it rushed towards, its stride quick, efficient and incredibly precise as her first Familiar prepared to join the fight, a rough crossbow forming around its left arm, ready to take its shots, and heralding the rise of her last Familiar, Core.
From her Warden's shadow, a smaller but still great Familiar rose, vast wings opened wide and its owners roared, the large Dragon-like solid shadow erupting towards its Target, one of the D-Ranked Monster, Energy concentrating from the air in its maw before it was released forward, striking its Target and exploding it back to the ground.
Just in time for her Lightning-Attribute one to strike it in mid-air, enveloping it in electricity to damage its nerves, immobilizing it long enough for Vision's bolt to strike it in the right eye, sending it crashing down to the ground through multiple branches with a pained screech.
Ash turned towards another of the birds, a wave of fire erupting towards it only for its target to still on its own, its feathers and body passing from living matter to stone, temporarily discarding any ability to move on its own or use any non-defensive Skills in exchange for immense defensive abilities.
The statue fell briefly before, once it escaped the flames, it returned to flesh and blood, beating its wings once and launching itself away from the diving Familiar, its feathers hardening into blades that it swung all around itself, forcing Ash to retreat.
Blitz released a wave of electricity all around itself, forcing the flock to briefly split, buying themselves enough time for Warden to finally arrive, earth rippling beneath its heavy steps as it moved towards the Monster that fell from the sky, grabbing onto its talons with long stone limbs, rising on its hindlegs and then falling down upon the D-Ranked one, crashing over its wings and forcing it into the ground, opening its maw and crushing its head before turning towards the sky and roaring, 10.000 more Magicules having been obtained in an instant and in so doing allowing Luna to breach 400 Motes.
Earth erupted around it, forming into large stalagmites that exploded upwards, aiming on impaling the Stonehearted Raptors.
The three remaining D-Ranked birds screeched out in response, Mana lacing the sound and causing the rocks to destabilize and fall apart into a cloud of dust before they could reach them.
Luna smiled, her shared vision with her Familiars allowing her to see Vision reaching her Warden hidden by the smoke, being grabbed by her larger Familiar and then thrown at full force towards the single E-Ranked one remaining, large blades forming on its hands.
It landed hard on its target only briefly, air being pulled in from the atmosphere to surround its blades before, using the Monster as a launching point to spin in mid-air, releasing it all around in a rain of sharp windblades that fell upon all three D-Rank flying Monsters, carving relatively slight but important wounds upon their rocky feathers, aiming on stopping their flight.
The battle intensified under the gaze of Luna and Mafel.
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