7/29 16:18 (Summer, Night; Edgar and Iriblades)
Edgar was without a doubt in an incredibly dangerous situation, surrounded, chained, with three limbs missings and trapped within a dome of steel.
He activated his ace.
He instantly disappeared, changing place with one of his Ghoul bearing his previous wounds that had already activated a self-destructive Spell, exploding between them.
A yellow Magical Circle manifested around it, safely suppressing said explosion as the dome vanished and they were able to see the fully-healed Edgar and his horde of Ghouls ready to continue to fight.
Various blades made of wind rained down on them, only to be stopped by a solid layer of water with a slight golden light within, a combination Spell between Marine and Klevel.
"Oh, Crushing Spirit, respond to my plea."
An humanoid mass of rocks now floated behind and to left of her, but differently from the other times, she did not Cast a Spirit Spell, as she Summoned it with the intention of using it only for support.
Fora lowered her hand to the ground, spikes rising out of the ground to try to impale the Ghouls, with the Spirit increasing the potency and speed of said spikes.
Hastily, various Spells were Casted to destroy them, buying the Iriblades enough time.
Klevel rose his Cleric' Staff, consuming most of both his Vital Energy and Mana to Cast a specific Spell, only possible because his Holy Magecraft reached B-Rank after the battle with the Water Drake.
"Potential Release."
Instantly, the power of the Iriblades was amplified to as much of their potential power as possible.
This Spell was incredibly specific in requirement to Cast, requiring the target, or in this case targets, of this Spell to not have any active Strenghtening Spell Casted on them nor can they be activated on them for the duration.
But, it was more than worth it.
The effect was to temporary bring all of their Skills to a Rank equal to the Caster's own Holy Magecraft Skill, in this case B-Rank, while creating enough Temporary Magicules to increases all Skills' Grades by 4 in this case.
The Iriblades enjoyed the feeling of having their Potential released for the first time, after all this increase in power was much more intimate than any other previous one.
"Oh, Howling Spirit, respond to my plea."
A person-shaped tornado formed itself behind and to her right, her increased Rank in Blessing of the Spirits allowing her to handle two Spirits at the same time while strenghtening them further.
She rose her bow, an arrow whose shaft was made out of rocks and with an arrowhead made out of solified air, nocked and launched high in the sky.
"Endlessly Raining Arrow."
The Technique was activated.
The arrow shattered into pieces and said pieces became new arrows.
This process repeated itself again and again until a veritable rain of arrows fell upon all of her enemies.
Edgar's eyes widened as he hurriedly activated an Artifact, covering all of them in a barrier while all of his Ghouls Casted various Spells and Technique to destroy as many arrows as possible before they could multiply further.
Fortunately, this Technique vastly decreases attack potency and durability in exchange for… well, a lot more attacks.
Unfortunately for Edgar, the original arrow was a Dual Attribute Spirit Arrow, much more dangerous and sturdy than normal arrows.
Fortunately the barrier would be able to mostly defend against the arrows, as spread out as they were.
Unfortunately for him, however, his reaction was already foreseen as the arrows instantly changed direction and target, without any loss of speed, charging directly at one point of the barrier.
Edgar's eyes widened in shock as his barrier was shattered into pieces, arrows piercing his body in various places while he constantly switched his wounds to other Ghouls, using his own Regeneration and his Ghouls' to barely survive the assault.
This, however, was only the start as the floor underneath him turned first into steel and then into spikes piercing his body and the Ghouls closest to him, killing five of them and wounding himself even further.
The distraction was enough as Marine charged her Mana, the water responding to her temporary increase in Rank, forming a figure inspired by the Drake they fought previously, a great serpent made entirely out of water, its eyes shining white as it roared, its power equal to the Drake they fought while they were in the ship, its body crushing Ghouls as it devoured various others.
Evan's blade made entirely out of light was raised horizontally.
"Shining Flash."
A white light was drawn through the Ghouls, before they all fell apart, dead.
Edgar's eyes widened before he closed them, falling to the ground.
"Where is she!"
A growl escaped Azure as she stamped on his spine.
He, in response, didn't hesitate.
Once the rest of her party neared them, he activated his final card detonating himself and his whole manor at once, to negate them any possibility of gaining any information on Luna, a resigned smile on his face.
Thirty minutes later, when the smoke started to dissipate, the Iriblades left the former manor after carefully exploring it, noting how even the basement was destroyed, leaving no trace of where to find Scarlet behind, a grim expression on their face.
Additionally, they only survived because they were under the effects of "Potential Release", being able to shield themselves from the worst of the explosion while protecting the exhausted Klevel.
Azure gloomly observed Her photo, before she slapper her own cheeks, her eyes clear and her will resolute.
"I will find you. No matter the cost or time."
She moved faster, deciding to ask the people of this Island for informations, hoping and praying for answers.
After all, even if her Unique Skill didn't indicate the way towards her, it indicated that she was still alive somewhere.
She did awaken her Unique Skill only after She was taken from her for the expressed desire to find Her.
.
-
7/29 16:14 (Summer, Night; Luna)
She smiled before using a Technique, normally used with Shields, through her Wings, shielding her.
She didn't hesitate, converting her feathers into knifes, before throwing them all around her.
The group of bandits scattered while the mace-wielding one shielded both himself and his leader, before swinging, releasing a shockwave towards her.
"Pressure Wave!"
She jumped left, dodging the shockwave and blocking a sword swing from another person with her Unique Arma's left gauntlet before blocking a slash from another sword with one of her own in her right hand, Shaped from both Black Blood and Vital Mana, before swinging with a second one in her now armed left hand, blocked by a shield from a third bandit, before she jumped away.
'How should I call my Shapes? They are not Mana Shapes anymore… Can I call them Blood Shapes? No. Moon Shapes? No. Hm, True Shapes. Yes, True Shapes, it is.'
At the end of the thought, she proceeded with a less important, but more immediately relevant, one.
'Now, is it Sorcery, Magecraft or Naturecraft. Sorcery for ranged attacks needs either B-Rank or Mana Shape and the power of the Spell was way too low for the ammount of Mana contained for it to be the first option. It was also too stable and, at the same time, too unstable to be Mana Shape. So it is either Magecraft or Naturecraft.'
She nodded to herself, her newly-renamed True Sword, cutting straight through a swordman arm before she quickly cut off the top of his head with no hesitation.
At the sight of one of his men dying, the enraged leader joined the fight with his second in command following close behind.
"How dare you kill-"
"Yeah, yeah, "how dare I kill" whoever that was. Listen well, if you attack someone you should be prepared to the possibility of death. Being furious that someone you attacked, defended themselves is absolutely ridiculous. But you did the right move by attacking first, after all I planned to attack your back when I passed you before."
She provoked, the smile on her face never wavering.
"You bitch!"
"Calm down, boss. If you attack without thinking, we will die."
He breathed in and out, calming down as he prepared to fight.
Meanwhile a Fireball fell upon her, only to be blocked again by a True Wing, and Luna nodded to herself.
'Considering the time between the Fireballs, the stability of the Spells, the location of their origins, their speed, the difference in quantity of Mana and the resulting differences in power between them...Yes, there is only one possibility especially considerating how he never strenghtened any member of this group.'
"I'm certain of it now. Your Mage is a Fire-specialized Wizard with a Fire Magecraft and Mana Control Skills of D-Rank with a reasonable affinity for Fire. Additionally, he is not particularly good at projecting Magic Circles away from himself and he is right there."
Having said that she created a True Arrow floating above her before it started its flight towards the one she identified as a new D-Rank Fire Wizard, a person that was more than 130 meters away from her.
He was, however, fortunately saved by the second in command that smashed apart the arrow before it could leave the clearing and Luna's smile widened at having her theory confirmed, her eyes litteraly shining with bloodlust in the dark of the Night.
The reason her Shapes could be seen was because a certain Vampire that died shortly before made quite a bit of money by making and selling Artifacts that granted Darkvision while equipped to various criminal organizations on the nearby continents, some of which were then stolen by various people, among which this group of bandits.
Artifacts that they used extensively to capture many people across the last 7 years.
Artifacts that were the only reason why only three people died when Luna simply rose her left arm, releasing spears from the ground around her, wounding at least that many more that were too slow to react.
This time, the leader didn't hesitate running in.
"Heavy Slash!"
His sword clad in red met a similar weapon in the True Shape wielded by the Lunarian's right hand, being stopped in midair as she rose her other hand only to hastily moving it towards the indoming mace forming a shield instead of a blade to stop it.
"Pressure Wave!"
The wave of force met the shield, weakening it enough that the continuing swing broke it into piece, forcing her to step back to dodge the attack, swinging a pair of daggers to block various arrows shot at her while she was retreating before forming a mace in her left hand, forcibly swinging it.
This was the same Technique that the mace-wielding one just used on her, however the power was on a whole another level as derived by both the quality of the Weapon and the use of Vital Mana, creating a two-meters wide wave of force that shattered three trees completely while unrooting many more, before it ended as they jumped away from there.
She nodded to herself before doing the same with a sword releasing a slash that cut a line straight through various trees and rocks, killing another one of the bandits she was fighting.
A laugh escaped her as her targets from 21 become 16, ready and willing for the number to become zero, a new pair of True Wings appearing on her back, a True Bow in her right hand, a True Sword in her left and her Unique Arma covering both of her hands and most of her forearms.
The smell of blood in the air became more and more intense as the Moonlight shone above and cruel, but beautiful, laugher washed away all other sounds.
The real battle finally started as the 16 remaining bandits, these of D-Class, prepared to fight the D-Rank Lunarian.