Chapter 464 - Luna (Patreon)

Everyone evacuates the vicinity as the giant and Jean crash, their surroundings turning into craters and a storm of shockwaves.

Jean this time takes some hits in exchange for delivering his own. Each of his punches tears his flesh, skin, blood spraying into the air as his body is unable to endure the sheer power of his own attacks.

Surprisingly, his bones endure, none of them breaking even as the giant pummels him down, some mana surrounding these massive fists.

There is also some healing delivered by Lucien, who climbs onto Luna's back together with Leticia. While Luna runs away, avoiding attacks from a few surviving lurkers, Leticia weaves mana around them to defend and attack. She does so very quickly and precisely.

Another powerful lurker crashes against Savant, who radiates his domain into the area, the lurker’s body breaking apart even more from the sword made of that domain.

Noelle keeps dodging while shooting at the weaker lurkers, her projectiles barely stopped.

But Derick seems to have a problem. His opponent is a male lynthari with two swords and a crown floating over his head. The crown seems to be made of ice.

Neither Derick nor the lynthari move quickly, but their movements are both smooth, dangerous. There is also an immensely cold area around the two of them. Derick's breath mists in the air and the skin-tight barrier around his body gets frozen over constantly.

With a boost, I land nearby, armor surrounding my body.

The lynthari doesn’t even turn around, the constant barrage of his attacks pushing Derick, who blocks the swords with his forearms and shins, without even getting cut.

Then I sense that immense cold, the armor around my body freezing, and I find myself unable to move for a moment. Boosting my movements with kinetic energy, I take a step, frost breaking, and I infuse thermal energy into my armor. The pale blue mana gets a hint of golden thermal.

That's when the lynthari reacts for the first time.

The crown over his head spins and expands, the cold increasing much more. Even the ground covers in ice that feels nearly sticky, freezing my shoes to it when I take a step. And Derick ignores it. No armor around his body, no flames or heat. Just that skin-tight barrier, glowing tattoos, and incredibly short bursts of mana he uses to attack or disrupt.

More thermal energy surrounds me and I shoot a few mana projectiles, which freeze in the air, crumbling into fine particles when they crash against the lynthari.

One of the swords swings against me and meets with Flamebearer, flames meeting ice. I increase the output of the flames and boost my body, pushing against the sword.

And these golden flames of mine die off, unable to resist that concentrated cold. Following after, a strong pulse of cold shoots into the area as I release my thermal energy outside of my body, letting it burn.

That cold stops Derick just for a moment and one of the swords pieces of his leg, the frost quickly spreading before the man frees himself.

An ice projectile that was about to pierce me evaporates just in front of my heart, meeting the forearm I put there.

I have never felt so cold in my life.

Shrinking my domain, I stop trying to fight the cold surrounding me. Instead, I make my [Mana Domain] skin-tight, adding resonating mana to the mix. The armor around me disappears and I charge up heat just under my skin, and with a burst of kinetic energy through my body, I move to attack.

With nearly lazy movements that feel so elegant, the lynthari meets my axe with his swords, with each clash my axe, coated in golden flames, evaporates some of the ice which immediately turns into frozen mist to chill the air surrounding us.

The sword pierces through my foot and stabs into the ground. I duck and avoid another swing, and taking a step back, my feet break, entirely frozen and turned to ice.

I explode the remaining frozen part and use one of Lily’s healing marks, my feet quickly regrowing.

Derick takes the lynthari's attention, the swords clashing against him, his tattoos glowing brighter than ever. A few short exchanges and Derick staggers back, the lurker pulling a sword from Derick’s chest, the blade coated in blood.

A pulse of mana explodes from Derick and the frost-like effect disappears from his body, but the wound stays as the red-haired man attacks again, in cooperation with me.

My axe burrows into the lynthari’s side, and Derick caves in the lurker’s chest.

Within a blink, the field around the lurker shrinks, the area much smaller, but the cold becoming even worse. I can feel it in my chest, in my fingers that start turning blue even with my thermal energy. My movements are getting even slower and the mana around me keeps freezing and becoming extremely brittle.

Then the third person joins the attack.

Savant attacks from the back of the lurker. The broken Sword of Aeons restored with the orange light of [Dawn], which presses the lurker, the mana poisoning working even here, the lynthari’s skin showing effects of it.

The orange blade clashes against that sword seemingly made of ice a few times, and with immense effort I force myself to move even though my body feels like a simple hit would break it just as my feet were broken. I swing the axe and bury it into the shoulder of the lynthari. I nearly empty my vortex core as thermal energy seeps into the lurker.

Derick grapples with the lynthari, twisting one of its arms until it breaks, putting it into a hold that forces one of its swords to clatter to the ground.

A burst of cold sends Savant staggering back before he can attack again, the sword in front of him glowing brightly in defense. His green eyes shine dangerously from behind the block.

Derick lets go to avoid the ice projectiles and the other sword stabs toward my head.

I teleport to the opposite side of the lynthari lurker where my Ley Line is stretched and deliver another swing with the axe, a brilliant gold exploding into the area.

A wall of ice shoots from the ground, and my flames crash against it, making me pull them back to the axe to reuse them.

The lurker ducks, and Savant's sword swings just over his head. The crown disappears entirely, and with it, the lurker turns even paler white. Even his own body coats in frost and as he takes step his arm and leg shatter into tiny particles of ice, but for that moment, all three of us freeze.

Thermal energy, kinetic energy, all my external mana are useless.

As the sword heads toward me, I activate the glove on my hand, copying the ability of the lurker.

I use that ice skill and add it to the immense cold that is already freezing the lynthari. And the same as us, he freezes as well, standing there on a single leg and with a sword just a few inches away from my face.

The first to move is Derick. He takes a small step, the ice falling off him, then another one.

With the last step, he swings his arm, an open fist hitting the lurker’s head, and mana is sent through, the head exploding into tiny frozen particles.

[You have defeated Reanimated Corpse - lvl 321]

As if it never existed, the extreme cold disappears, the air gradually heating up as the normal air rushes to the area.

I let thermal energy surge through my body and still feel that immense cold, even with all the heat I can use now.

Barely a minute passed since we attacked the group of ten lurkers and since the giant flew closer.

Jean is still fighting him and, other than that giant, only two lurkers are alive, dealt with by Luna, Leticia, and Noelle.

Meanwhile, the area around us is nearly unrecognizable. Gone are the buildings, and the ground is scarred by long tears and craters. In the middle of it all, these two fight, the giant riddled with bloody wounds, one arm broken, and the mana around his fists flickering.

Jean seems as enthusiastic as before. Blood covers his body and one eye is blinded, a massive hit turning half of his face into mangled meat. Even so, he punches the giant’s knee and it explodes into a gory mess, making the huge lurker kneel. He raises his forearms to block, but Jean's immense strength blasts them aside, leaving his guard wide open.

With a jump, Jean reaches the giant’s face and hits.

At that moment, the lurker snaps its mouth.

He doesn’t bite off Jean’s arm, instead, it stays in his mouth, the giant lurker unable to bite through.

Laughing maniacally, Jean doesn’t even try to pull the arm out. Instead, he swings his other one, his fist burrowing into the giant’s eye, pieces of flesh and liquid from the eyeball covering him.

And he swings it again and again until the giant stops moving and falls down.

The man then continues to punch the dead lurker’s teeth until he breaks enough of them to pull the arm out. It's nearly devoid of flesh, connected to his body only through the bone that is clearly visible.

“Lucien, my boy!”

“Got it, got it!” as if used to this, the boy shouts and the mark he put on Jean’s back activates, the wounds closing slowly.

“We have a minute before the group of twenty reaches us. Thirty seconds until the quickest of them get here!” Leticia warns us, already going through the equipment of dead lurkers.

Even as wounded as some of us are, everyone immediately does the same, with the only exception being Jean, who longingly stares at the body of the giant.

Ten seconds later, we start running.

***

After five minutes, I start checking the ways everyone covers their steps, and I have to say that Leticia might be even better than me.

Where I can remove the remaining mana, she is able to do it much more naturally, making it look nearly like ambient mana or mana that could have been there for weeks already.

I also have a strong suspicion she can somewhat delete our smell and some other lingering effects.

And when we reach the huge tower, we hide on one of the floors. While we wait, Lucien is going around and healing us. He doesn't put in a lot of effort but no one complains. His abilities might be needed later.

Luna, in her normal size now, keeps guard since if any one of us did that there would be some ways lurkers could use to track us.

Even though we killed plenty of lurkers and are easier to notice now, it’s still possible to stay hidden here for a few minutes. Any longer than that is impossible because of the risk.

“Aren’t named ones supposed to be rare?” Derrick rests against the wall, Noelle close to him.

“Want to bet you just jinxed it, and more of them will appear?” Noelle playfully pokes his side.

“Damn it. But since we started… when I get home, I’ll open a nice café or restaurant. Oh, and by the way, these are pictures of my kids, aren’t they cute…” He mimes taking a photo out of his wallet.

Noelle laughs and pushes him away, “I’m sure I’d know if you had any kids.”

“I’m a handsome young man, women are throwing themselves at me, maybe something happened behind your back.”

“If that’s the case, lurkers would be the least of your problems, Mr. Handsome young man,” she says with a final poke before turning to Leticia. “Luna scared me for a moment there, she grew so big.”

“Right!” Leticia smiles happily. “She’s really good at all of this, and sometimes I think it was her who got brought into Hell Difficulty, and I just got caught in this all with her.”

Luna patiently waits as Leticia squats and squishes the golden retriever’s cheeks together. Even so, I can see her tail wagging.

Somehow, I disagree with Leticia. Just from seeing the way she handles mana, it’s obvious she “belongs” here just like the rest of us.

“Why are you so shy?” Leticia asks her golden retriever. “I think you could say something now.”

“Leticia, sometimes I think it’s me who’s human. Maybe really you were the dog, and our minds got swapped when we were summoned.”

Everyone stops what they’re doing, all staring at the retriever from whom the sentence came. It’s not telepathic or anything. It’s just a human voice that sounds in the air as the retriever opens her mouth. The mouth isn’t moving, mimicking the act of talking. Instead, it’s just open, but the voice comes from it.

The voice is womanly, very soft and soothing. The kind you could imagine singing lullabies.

Leticia doesn’t seem shocked at all, and she smiles even more. “I wouldn’t mind it at all! Should I try barking and asking for pets?”

“Please don’t do that, Leticia, you’re embarrassing yourself,” Luna says, sitting down and lifting one of her paws, licking it while glancing at us. She reacts to the silence. “Really? This surprises you after all we've seen?”

***

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