The team of 6 walked through the damp cave filled stalactites and stalagmites, no different from the maw of a feral beast. " I have a bad feeling. " (Maria) " I second it. This place tingles my nerves more than anything else. Even the aura of the angels in the church didn't feel this ... divine and suffocating at the same time. " (Lily) " My blood is somehow racing despite me being calm. " (Mark)
" What do you ... What is this? " Before Sarcony could even complete her words, a brilliant flash of light teleported her and Mo'er to a wide cavern, one that had a huge feline, the size of an average hill, with jet-black glossy fur, a cute black cat. It glanced with its amethyst eyes full of curiosity.
" Calm down kittens " " Who are you? " (Mo'er) " Where are my manners? I am Luna, the progenitor of the Cat beastkin. Nice to meet you. " The cat spoke in fluent Common language rather than the continental language of the realm they were in. " What is a bigshot like you doing in this measly intermediate realm, shouldn't this realm be doomed by now because of your aura? " (Sarcony)
" That is the reason why I live here in this enclosed space made by Mantle chan. You are quite a clever kitty, aren't ya? " (Luna) " You were the one to pull us into this space. You even separated our team based on relative strengths and affinity, didn't you? " " My, my, I underestimated you, a lot. You are one heck of a kitten. I give a 10 out of 10. " (Luna) Luna gave a gentle pat to Sarcony's head.
" Enough with the chat. Just get pummeled obediently and send us back to our team. " (Mo'er) " Ara, aren't you scared of me? I am a progenitor you know. " " Like I care of such trivialities. " (Mo'er)
Mo'er clapped her hands together in prayer and muttered, <
Sarcony, at the same time, put her hands outstretched horizontal, grabbing the Oceanic staff. It completely lacked a presence, as if existing and not existing at the same time, like a phantom. It gave off an iridescent glow and shimmered in and out of sight in the white mist surrounding it.
Mo'er and Sarcony instantly sprung into action slashing and stabbing at the beast which nimbly jumped out of the way despite its size only to groan in pain. ~~ugh~~ " You kittens are strong, I get it. I have to get serious or I'm so dead, isn't it, child of the forest spirits? " " That's an old way of reference, the ancient way of calling the elves, you pique my curiosity, cat. Interesting. " (Mo'er)
Luna indeed jumped out of the way yet the staff inexplicably came out of nowhere hitting her left flank, making her fall into the trajectory of the heavy sword, causing her to be injured by it.
Everytime Luna tried to dodge, the staff simply pushed her back into the trajectory of the sword. Annoyed, Luna changed into a (ten year old) small girl with cat ears and tail, a cat beastkin, to make herself a smaller target, only to get hit by the staff with even more force and speed than before.
" What the hell are you ... " ~ugh~ Luna wasn't given a leeway to talk under the relentless attacks of the duo, Sarcony shining in her combat control. Using her staff to put Luna into the trajectories of Mo'er's attacks ensuring damage and pulled Mo'er away using her 'Hands of Aten' from Luna's attacks, keeping her safe and ready for the next attack and laid traps all over the place.
Luna wasn't a pushover either, by slowly grinding the stamina of Mo'er and Sarcony, she was trying to secure her victory in the long run. She wasn't a progenitor for nothing, the wisdom of thousands of years of experience followed by bottomless stamina and excellent battle sense made her a strong foe, but, her targets aren't normal, they are the only elves with ancient bloodline in a million years.
They had infinitely regenerating stamina and energy (chakra/spiritual energy/mana) and trained under the mighty monkey king, 'Heaven's equal' Sun Wukong, showing their determination.
In a moment of carelessness, Luna distanced herself from the duo. Before they closed the distance,
Luna turned partially invisible and when she once again turned completely visible, all her wounds were healed. She continued using partial astralification but failed to stop getting wounded as Sarcony's 'Hands of Aten' were astral in nature as well, hence, restraining her partially astral body was hard but possible for them. This terribly annoyed her but made the fight exciting.
The longer they fought, the better their fighting style became. The combat itself turned completely different from ordinary brawl. The duo had their body and senses reinforced as Ancestors while Luna had the entire cavern under her control. Using her unique insight
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Luna felt a sense of crisis as the auras of Sarcony and Mo'er changed from leisure to seriousness. They were still Ancestors, yet, they felt dangerous to Luna. Sarcony held her staff horizontal, like a nocked arrow, ready to fire from an imaginary bow. Mo'er, meanwhile, swung her heavy sword with a force/strength that put all her previous attacks combined to shame, driving Luna to a corner.
Sarcony changed into the Spirit of the Sun and 36 pairs of dove wings unfurled from the nimbus on her back. She gave off searing light, almost burning the enclosed space to cinders, as her wings folded into a barrel around the staff. Tremendous amount of Solar aura condensed around the white staff, accentuating its colour. She shot the staff like an arrow. It forcibly tore through the viscous air.
Piercing through the multiple barriers of Luna like paper, the staff reached her. That instant, a brilliant flash of light almost blinded them. Once it ended, the cavern became visible and it was ...
... empty.