「Temporary Skill Acquired」
「Crippling Flame Breath」
「One more usage remaining...」
「HP will continue to decrease by 1 per 3 minutes due to the toxin's effect」
「Temporary Skill will disappear after 15 minutes.」
And with that system message, the broad grin of the Wolf became more sinister as purple fumes began to exit its mouth. Kon felt the air with his antennas and noticed that the smell was the same as his toxin, yet more potent.
What Kon used to create a disadvantage for the Wolf turned into a burden for them. The Wolf quickly began its chase once more with a new weapon in hand.
"Not...gooood..." Kon said as he stared at the Wolf trailing behind them.
"What's not good?" Elizabeth said, hearing Kon's voice. She kept running as fast as she could while holding Vaeden's unconscious body inside the sphere of vines.
"My...poisonssss.....mixx....withhh...enemy...flaamesssss...if...geett...hiiittt....deaaadd...for....suuureeee..." Kon said, worried about Elizabeth. Kon knew that he was safe from the toxin within the flames, but not the temperature. Elizabeth was vulnerable to both.
Kon avoided spitting any more slowing toxin and went back to coiling around Elizabeth's arm. He remained quiet and unmoving as if lost in thought. Within his mind was a question of confusion he had never felt this feeling before, 'Kon...worrieeed...?...not...foorrr...self..but...otheerrs....?'
He didn't know how to deal with this new feeling, so he remained still, hoping to observe how Vaeden and Elizabeth handle this feeling. Kon's compound eyes stared at Elizabeth's face. Although her face was mostly covered, Kon knew her eyes kept gazing upon the ball of vines she was holding.
'Kon...remembers....something...' within his mind surfaced a recent memory of him and Vaeden talking.
...
"Why...raaat...not....runn...?" Kon asked, confused about the actions of Vaeden. Vaeden had multiple occasions where he could have escaped Kon successfully, but he remained by its side.
"Didn't I tell you before?" Vaeden replied in frustration. Kon didn't seem to understand what he meant and remained silent.
"We're friends, aren't we?" Vaeden answered with a sigh before turning his back on Kon and started walking again towards their home.
"Friendssss.....?....is...thaaat...a...poisonsss....?" Kon spoke in a high pitched voice hurriedly catching up to Vaeden. Kon didn't get a reply but a sigh that indicated Vaeden's frustration.
...
'Kon...raaaat...and...scary...no...Elizabeth...frie...nndsss...?' Kon questioned himself with an understanding too deep for him to properly realize. He needed Vaeden to help him out, but he was currently unconscious.
"How do we stop that thing?!" Elizabeth asked desperately, using all of her mana reserves to slow down the blazing Wolf behind them. Earth rose from the ground forming thick walls that the Wolf easily penetrated, "What the hell even is that thing?! is it even stronger than the chimera me and Vaeden last fought?!"
"No, it isn't." She reassured herself, "If it was the chimera then we wouldn't have been able to run away from it in the first place. Why is it so persistent?" she asked, keeping her eye on the ball of vines, being careful of it, so it doesn't fall off of her grasp, "He called Vaeden his prey...why is he hunting him specifically...?"
"Ingenium..." Elizabeth murmured as a sudden thought occurred to her, "If it's this then it could stop him for sure!" Elizabeth stopped raising more earthen walls out of the ground and focused her mana on the creation of something else. A bright light of hope glimmered within Elizabeth's eyes as she spoke, "This is going to guarantee our escape."
Kon remained quiet throughout Elizabeth's frustration over how to stop the Wolf, for he knew something that Elizabeth didn't. A foreboding smell warned Kon's antennas about what's coming. He knew that this would slow the Wolf down for sure.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
As if on cue, the Butcher lunged out of the forest, destroying anything in its path. It was found a few tens of meters beside the Wolf and approaching the Wolf quickly. The Butcher had to make the Wolf pay for making it lose one of its weapons.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
GRRRRRRRRRRRR
"DAMNED INSECT!" Snarled, the Wolf resisting to spew out its remaining last use of its temporary skill. The Wolf needed a way to deter the pesky Butcher beside it without losing speed.
It quickly leapt forward and swiped at the air sending searing arcs of wind towards the Butcher. This course of action didn't make it lose speed, but it saps some of its stamina. The blades of wind landed their mark but only left minor scratches.
The Wolf clicked its tongue. It didn't put its back into it while releasing them, so it couldn't help but accept it could only do that much. That didn't change the fact that it had to incapacitate the Butcher somehow so that it wouldn't interfere with its chase.
The question remained within the Wolf's head, 'but how?'
It could only think of one thing. It's a temporary skill that is gained, but it needed to use it to catch up to its prey. The Wolf was left at a crossroad. It needed to decide.
'What's that?' at the corner of the Wolf's vision, it noticed something moving, but it was too late.
"Eurgh?!" Surprised by the sudden pull on its body, it felt like it collided into something as it suddenly stopped in place. The Wolf ended up being stunned for a few seconds due to its speed and abrupt stop.
It quickly observed its body, and there it saw the reason why 'That damned muscular deer?! when did it?!' Vines that glistened a scarlet metallic luster were wrapped around its entire body and anchored to the ground. 'I didn't even notice this? When?!'
It quickly used its system to gain basic knowledge of the vines that grew on it without noticing.
「You have discovered Pyrophilia Lenurla」
「Pyrophilia Lenurla Basic Profile Acquired!」
「Opening Pyrophilia Lenurla Basic Profile...」
「Pyrophilia Lenurla: A parasitic vine that latches onto flame-type beasts. It contains an anaesthetic toxin that makes the host unaware of its presence. Its growth varies depending on the quality of flames that the host uses. Once it reaches maturity, the Pyrophilia Lenurla's roots extend to the ground in an instant causing its host to be rooted in place, disabling its movement and slowly sapping its strength, turning it into its source of nutrition. Divers specifically farm these parasitic vines within the Nox Labyrinth due to their usefulness in hunting flame-type beasts. The seeds are cultivated to near maturity so that once it makes contact with any quality of flame from any beast, it instantly roots them down in place.」
"Shit!" It cursed in frustration. It had to deactivate its flames due to the vines feeding on it. To escape its roots, it needed to cut it and quickly break out with sheer strength before reform. It knew it had to do both of them, yet the Wolf refused to do so.
"Over and over they struggle! WHY CAN'T THEY JUST ACCEPT THE INEVITABLE!" These arrogant words escaped the Wolf's mouth in anger as bright light began to exit the gaps in its maw, "Time and time again they try to escape! and not one of my prey has ever escaped me before!" The arcane light within its mouth grew brighter and brighter as it kept compressing the flames within.
"EVEN IF YOU GAINED SOME DISTANCE YOU ARE NO EXCEPTION." The Wolf's eyes glowed an intense orange light as the skin on its snout began to peel off due to the rising heat that it was compressing.
"THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM ME." Uttering those words signalled the Wolf's strongest attack yet. No sound reverberated when the Wolf opened its mouth as the air was instantly vaporized. Anything organic around the Wolf was reduced to nothing, but ash and the earth turned red and molten.
The attack only lasted for a fraction of a second, but its destructive power was evident. Those who witnessed the spectacle only saw a concentrated beam of light exiting the Wolf's maw until the intense light blanketed their entire vision, taking away their ability to see permanently.
The Butcher, who was approximately 30 meters away from the Wolf, suffered tremendous damage just by being in that distance. The hairs that covered its body were reduced to nothing but ashes, and its carapace, which acted as a barrier for physical attacks from its foes, became its weakness as the heat cooked it from the inside. Blinded due to the intense light and scorched all over, the Butcher retreated desperately.
It struggled to walk properly as pain messed with its senses. It couldn't even cry in pain as the air was too hot, and breathing would have made its burn in agony. To lessen the heat that bombarded its body, it began to claw at the ground, desperate to build a hole to shelter itself in.
The Wolf was not safe either. Fueled with rage and recklessness, its own attack took its own life as no traces of the Wolf remained on the battlefield. Pillar of flames and suffocating toxic smoke covered the area.
「Phoenix Rebirth Skill has been activated」
「With the blessing of the Phoenix your death is only temporary, be reborn from the ashes and hunt down your foe.」
「Phoenix Rebirth is now on cooldown...」
And within the empty smoke, a maelstrom of ashes began to converge in the spot where the Wolf formerly was...