Luna expected to drop on the ground somewhere safe but instead found herself in a free fall.
The air was way too thin up there, barely being enough to not lose consciousness.
"OH FUCK!" She dropped the carcass of the cat in shock at the entire situation. The slayer could see her target a dozen meters below.
"You are so persistent!" The witch reached into her pocket, taking out a dozen potions and throwing them upwards, Luna's way.
Bottles of colorful liquids flew past the slayer, maybe due to the witch's poor throwing abilities, or maybe because they were falling from the sky; not a single one of them hit the girl above.
"And you are terrible at throwing!" Luna put her arms close to her body to decrease the air resistance. She quickly caught up to the witch but was now met with a different problem.
How was she going to hit her?
Luna tried throwing a punch, but that just propelled her backwards and made her roll over. "Whoa!" Her head was spinning from the disorienting movement.
The witch put her entire arm into a pocket, making all of her limb disappear, almost like space bended at the entrance.
"It's so sad that you won't be able to survive that fall." She put her hand on her right eye, spreading the fingers apart and chuckling. "The great Isabella Crimsonflare lives to see another day!"
With one quick pull, she took out a broom from the endless pocket. Due to the sudden movement and her grip not being strong enough, the cleaning utensil slipped from the witch's hands and started flying without her.
Luna looked at her.
...
Both of them sat there in silence.
...
"This is pretty awkward." The slayer said, lying on her back with her hands behind her head.
"Why are you so calm?" Isabella shouted, throwing her face in the air. "We are about to die!"
"Well... I don't know about that." Luna pointed downwards with her eyes closed, curling herself into a ball.
The witch looked down; peaks of tall trees were right under them, making for a hard landing.
rustle rustle
rustle rustle
Even though Luna rolled herself into a ball, the amount of injuries kept increasing.
The twigs kept piercing her skin and snapping, getting left inside.
It was the first time in a while that she couldn't use her regeneration ability, leaving her vulnerable.
The rustling of the leaves stopped, which meant that she was about to land, although not in a gentle way.
CRASH!
Thanks to curling herself like a ball, only two of her arms were broken. The intense burning pain overwhelmed the adrenaline that kept her going, leading to her blacking out.
...
...
...
[Skill reboot completed]
Luna took a deep breath as the regenerative ability started to take its effect, very slowly healing the wounds. But they weren't closing fast enough.
Luna pushed herself as much as she could to focus the regeneration on the broken bones first, draining almost all of her stamina.
[Processing start... 0%]
[Processing start... 0%]
[Processing start... 0%]
'Three? What the fuck did I even absorb?' There were so many questions she had. 'Hopefully the witch didn't kick the bucket just yet.' The slayer stood up thanks to healing the broken bones, even though her entire body still screamed in pain.
[Calculating experience...]
[Level up!]
'All of that fiasco just to end up with one level up?' She scoffed but still used the energy revitalization that came with it to patch herself up.
[Axalotel Regeneration lvl 2 -> New passive]
[(passive) Regeneration]
'???' The confusion continued. She has never heard of skills changing into something different. The term of a passive was also new as far as she knew.
[Dragonkin blood detected]
[Disabling tutorial mode]
[Corpse devourer system unlocked!]
She closed her eyes, but instead of seeing nothing, she saw her own mindspace.
A faint buzzing rang in her head.
It was a completely hollow space, without a trace of any barrier.
The buzzing kept getting worse, almost unbearable, but she pushed further.
Luna turned around, and a massive wall of text levitated in the air.
"Is this? Is this my attribute window?" She tried to run but wasn't able to; her legs didn't transfer over to this realm. So instead, with squinted eyes, Luna tried to read it from far away.
Lé̶͔v̷̤͂e̷̪̞̳͠l̴̮̀̋͠
Everything around turned blurry, kicking her out of the mind space.
Luna opened her eyes, taking quick breaths and gasping for air.
'It for sure said nineteen!' She was so excited that she glossed over the fact that a black cat lay before her, swinging its tail.
'That's so high! I think Uncle Dirk was only level fifteen when he found me in front of the fort. Luna closed her eyes, trying to enter the space again.
...
But it didn't work because she was too mentally exhausted.
"Even newbies know that it takes a lot of energy." The witch's voice echoed, but she was nowhere to be seen.
The cat in front of her purred, walking closer.
"Where are you?" Luna stood with her guard up, ready to throw hands if necessary.
The black cat jumped at the slayer and scratched her leg.
"This? This is you?" She started laughing, finding it hilarious that she got reduced to such a state. "For someone who talked so much earlier, you look pretty pathetic."
She picked up the cat and looked straight in her eyes.
"Are you going to kill me?" Isabella, in the form of a talking cat, frowned. Hissing loudly at her captor.
"I might get some information out of you... so for now, not really." She decided to take the risk since in this form there was nothing that the witch could do to her.
"Hmpf! I would never share anything with you!" The black cat turned her head the other way.
"I heard cat tastes similar to chicken." Luna calmly picked up flint from the ground and started preparing a fire.
"You think that will scare me? The wrath of the demon dragon will reach you!" Isabella tried to call out her bluff, but the slayer kept going.
In fact, Luna really planned to eat that cat. She was extremely hungry and malnourished due to sharing her rations with the child earlier.
Isabella was still holding strong with her smug attitude, but it quickly changed into that of a compliance as the slayer was tying her to a stake.
"Wait, wait, wait!" The cat screamed out. "I will tell you anything; just don't eat me!!" Isabella was whimpering like a child.
"And here I was hoping to finally eat something tasty..." Luna's belly rumbled in anger as she let the cat free.
"Gosh, if you are that hungry, come with me." It's not like Isabella could run away in this form. No matter what monster she would meet, it would end up with her becoming its dinner.
The slayer followed closely behind the black cat, seeing a body in the distance.
It belonged to the witch, but even though it was in pieces, there was no blood around, only pieces of wood.
"What does all of that mean?" Luna crouched next to the mauled body and touched it. To her surprise it wasn't as soft as human skin should be.
Isabelle pulled a bag from the waist of her body with her mouth. "It's my boy."
"More like a doll of sorts... does that mean it was not your original body?" Abilities of the witch council aren't known publicly, so it was the first time she had heard of such a thing.
Isabella spat out some saliva after pulling her bag to Luna. "Don't think that a lowly peasant can learn of the power the great demon lord gave us!"
She laughed menacingly, but it wasn't scary at all due to her being a cute cat.
"Demon lord? Demon dragon?" She stared at the cat, concerned. There was no mention of such threats in the encyclopedia, and it had all of the monsters up to tier seven.
"They are the strongest of the monsters! Only my crimson eye can communicate with them!" The cat held her chin high up and walked elegantly.
Luna checked the face of the doll. The eye in question was a piece of wood painted with a cheap red paint.
'I had to find the only insane witch...' Getting information from her no longer sounded useful or productive. But she has already bitten the bullet and couldn't back out.
"And how exactly did you know that I entered my mental space? Do you also have access to sage eyes?" She stared at the cat, awaiting some very profound answer.
"Uhhh... I just felt it. Now the demon princess requires you to rub my belly!" She dropped on her back and looked at the slayer in front of her.
"Do I really have to?" The sheer audacity of Isabella shocked her. How can someone be so rude to a person that just spared their life?
"I will tell you how to last longer in your mental space if you do. Now come here; it itches." She wriggled on the ground, waiting to be scratched.
Luna dropped to her knees and started scratching the cat's belly. 'I will get this information one way or another!'