Chapter 249 – Attempt Two

“Time for attempt two.” Syrus looked back at the mess they caused a little earlier. “It can’t get any worse.” 

[...I feel like you said something about jinxing in the past, but I am currently unsure.] (Luna)

Anlesa ran fast to get back to the cave they had opened up before. Ready for round two and ready to attack the mysterious voice this time. The other party could no longer be considered necessarily peaceful, as they never made their stance clear in the previous meeting. While they weren’t attacked, that could easily be because they knew they would not be at an advantage if they tried to. The location could have also been a factor. The trio didn’t know how important that source flower was.

[We are going to be grabbing those node flowers once we are done.] (Eva)

[What about the central one underground?] (Luna)

[Hopefully that as well, but I do have worries that it might be a little more difficult.] Eva didn’t know what the central flower was, which meant the ability to take it had the unfortunate possibility of not being possible. Certain natural Attribute sources broke upon being moved, and there was always the chance the voice below had already stolen it.

As they walked over the mountains again, they saw the chaos in the pit. Their earlier distraction had done wonders, the mutated monsters were busy consuming the corpses of the fallen. Eva and Syrus observed the motions of the creatures, they were a weird mix of returning to calm and breaking back into a violent rage. 

[I think this confirms that what is happening in the valley isn’t normal.] (Luna)

[Not a hard guess.] (Syrus)

[The pieces of evidence are important.] (Eva)

As they turned around, a sudden sound forced them to look back. 

“Squearrraa!” A loud crow filled the valley, which disrupted some of the beasts not in the throes of consuming fresh flesh. The trio immediately looked for where the sound came from, and breaking free from a large rock in the centre of the valley was a large crow-like mutated beast. It was around the size of a carriage, and its beak and claws were covered in almost bramble spikes growing from its flesh; however, besides that, it looked like a regular bird. 

And like many birds, its first action upon whacking up was to soar into the sky.

[Fuck, it can fly.] (Syrus)

[This is a concern…] (Luna)

Mutated flying animals were among the rarest. Most cases had the bird or bat completely lose the ability to fly before anything dangerous could happen with the advantage of flight. The last one that was recorded caused mass devastation; even with magic and spells, many weren’t suited to killing high-speed flying targets.

Perhaps because their mutation had to be more stable for them to keep the power of flight. These creatures also tended to be more intelligent. Still absolutely crazed and with a want for destruction, but they knew how to keep their distance and how and when to retreat. 

[We cannot let it escape.] Luna feared the worst.

[Would it even try?] Eva studied the beast and wondered. [So far, all these creatures have kept themselves locked in the valley. Even if the bird could fly, would it leave? It looks well-built, and the area where it awoke looks like a nest that it had built for itself. Suggesting a long-time inhabitant.]

[Do you believe that, certainly, it will not leave?] (Luna)

[Of course I don’t.] Eva also felt offended by the suggestion. [It’s merely a possibility.] 

[Something that we really have to consider, because with what is rapidly happening to the situation, whatever could be keeping the bird here might not be active for much longer.] Syrus didn’t fully believe that the flower or whatever it could be connected to was keeping the mutated animals here calm. She did believe there was something, and whatever that something was could be removed by the hostile adversary. 

Syrus didn’t like the look of the area. While the idea of an area that could calm mutated animals could be fascinating or useful. It smelled dangerous from the outlook. The fact that there was someone here whom they still didn’t know the look of, was already concerning. The demons asked them to look for any of their kind that could’ve happened to be here, but that never meant there were actually demons here. 

[So for the sake of the worst case scenario, it is best if we eliminate the threat now.] Luna agreed with the worry, and could feel Syrus preparing their body to attack. All that was left was for the signal and majority vote.

[Agreed…] Eva looked down at the creature from their mountain viewing, studying its expression as it looked interested in the violence that had occurred around it. The hungry to start devouring what lay around its nest. [But how do we attack? If it starts flying, our ranged options are limited.] 

[Even if I don’t use the furnace flame sword technique, I can still shoot fire. It is just much weaker in comparison, but I understand your point. Our best consistent long range option is Luna’s Moonlight constructs, which we can’t use.]  

[Our options seem to be to use Eva’s wires to try and pull it down, which will require Syrus to expend our strength to outmuscle it. Blowing our cover on Moonlight, which would be a disaster. Or, defeating it in one clean blow before it even gets the chance to escape.] (Luna)

The trio thought for a moment.

[Ready to rush it?] (Syrus)

[Yep.] (Eva)

[Certainly.] (Luna)

No more words needed to be said. In the next moment, Syrus angled their sheath so it wouldn’t interfere with their running motion but was also at the angle she needed to swing. Once the second of prep was complete, Anlesa began sprinting down the mountain at full speed. Leaping off rocks and sliding for moments with collapsing ground.

One person from the scout team saw what she was doing and swore under their breath, declaring absolute insanity. 

Her descent wasn’t only noticed by humans, heads turned as the mutated creatures were the noise. One near, a large cat with disproportionate limbs started charging up the mountain, ready for the prey. Syrus didn’t bother reaching her weapon. The large cat leapt, and she ducked under the charge, then, with a click, Eva released her wires. 

The metal soared up, and stabbed the massive watermelon-sized eyes of the cat. Then, with a flick, to remove the goo before returning to the bracelets.

However, the mutated animals’ short-term memory still remembered the red-haired thing that caused destruction earlier, and the ones that noticed began to turn towards her. 

Anlesa ducked, dodged and evaded the large snaps. One large wolf jumped towards her, breaking into her path towards the bird.

The bird began looking around, trying to determine the confusion. 

Flames burst from her forearm, and she slogged the beast in the jaw, then kicked the beast back as she continued to run.  

“Crraaaa!” The bird screeched and raised its wings wide. With large flaps that caused a small gust it began to raise itself off the ground.

[Eva!] (Syrus)

Syrus pushed their legs forward and jumped up. 

[On it!] (Eva)

Eva’s wires wrapped around the bird's leg, and instead of trying to pull the creature down. They let its sudden flap up to yank them into the air. Moving up, Syrus grabbed on the bird's feathers as it flapped its wings. The force nearly sent her off and the barbed spikes existed hidden beneath the black shine of the creature's back feathers. 

She pulled out her blade with one hand and used the other arm, supported by supporting metal wires to throw herself right back at the back of the bird's neck. Then, with an ignition of crimson red light, her flaming sword came falling down as their execution blade cleared through the bird's neck.

[Time to fall, drop, and roll!] Syrus found the sudden death roll motion of the bird hard to navigate, so she threw her sword to the ground so it wouldn't be in the way of the landing. Even while the bird’s corpse spun in mid-air, she held on for a moment as it descended a little longer, before finally jumping off to not be buried underneath its corpse. 

Landing with a long roll Syrus quickly stood up and summoned a flame in her hand, which she shot rapid bursts to the wolf that jumped at her. These little splats were nothing compared to the flames she was normally capable of extending from her body, but with the beast distracted for a moment, she ripped her blade from the dirt, and the more impressive explosion of fire appeared around it as the flame coat emerged. 

She leapt forward before the beast regained its senses, and the burning blade chopped through the beast’s mouth splitting its head. 

[I guess time for round two?] Syrus groaned as she looked around at all the mutated creatures around her. This was far from where they wanted to be, but they didn’t regret their action. 

[Let’s just rush towards the point. Worst case, I will teleport us away.] (Luna)

[You sure can get us out without issue?] (Syrus)

[Yes.] (Luna)

[Then let's go.] (Syrus)

Flames billowed out from Syrus’s blade. The heat caused the beasts to flinch back before their madness had them leap forward. Syrus jumped through the mess of claws and teeth, not willing to hold her flame back, the shining torch in her arms created explosions of fire that could be seen from the mountains. Syrus and Eva tore through the beasts, aiming for the back mountains again. 

Breaking free with a trail of blood in their wake, they did a full lap of one of the back mountains to break the trail. 

Reaching their destination, they jumped into the tunnel and found a pile of dead mutated creatures blocking the path.  

[Bloody damn, seriously?] (Syrus)

When they broke through the corpse blocking the path, they finally reached the area where they began this mess in. 

“And look who decided to go up and leave with the flower,” Anlesa said in a tired voice. Her exhaustion echoed through the cave for if the mysterious voice was around to hear. “You better still be around, your action caused me some annoyance.”

The cave was pitch black besides Syrus’s flames. The natural light that once existed had long since gone. 

The place was silent, devoid of life. This made the atmosphere all the more tense. 

[Behind!] Syrus immediately spun around, and her blade clashed with a man of green. 

“Emerald green skin?” The swords ground against the material. There was metal armour covering parts of the man, and a metal mask to cover the bald head.

[Demon or exotic attribute?] Wondering, she immediately deployed her wires to help defend. The figure dodged back and dipped into the darkness. The shadows themselves grew stronger, and the light from Syrus’s flames wasn’t spreading as far as it should.

The emerald man jumped from the darkness again, predicting Syrus’s actions of expecting an attack from behind, and moved to counter it. However, despite the darkness, Syrus was able to track his motion through the soft footsteps. Her ears were red from focusing, as whatever was impacting their vision seemed to be affecting all sound. 

Luna watched on. Trying to find a way to be useful. However, the more she stared at the man… no thing the more disgusted she got. 

[That thing is not alive.] Luna made her claim and ordered Syrus to attack harder.

[I mean demons can have weird–] (Eva)

[This thing is not alive.] Luna said with certainty. [I cannot say I am the best at picking out demons, nor am I completely fond of them, however, that thing isn’t a human or demon.] Luna paused for a moment, trying to find a way to prove her point, which led to something she wasn’t exactly proud of. [Eva, try to drain the thing's mana.] 

[What!?] Eva’s reaction was about what Luna expected. 

[I promise if you just try, we can prove it is not a living thing.] Luna was firm in her belief.

Syrus hard-countered the man which gave Eva the opportunity.

[Fine…] She reluctantly used the ability. There wouldn't be any side effects from a small use just to test the man’s mana.

Eva’s wires were tied around the emerald man’s leg and she used the technique to steal mana. This should only be possible if there was no soul in the way, which was why it worked on the dead, but it didn’t work when mana from people was actively being funnelled into a construct. She began, and there was no resistance which confirmed Luna’s feelings, however, when the strange mixture of mana entered her wires, Eva froze. 

[...No…] Eva’s words suddenly turned cold and distant. Even Luna wasn’t expecting this reaction. [Syrus, destroy it now…] 

[Understood.] It could be nothing good if it got that reaction. Syrus strengthened her body, and her whole body exploded in a bright blaze of glory, pushing back the shadows for the moment. She dove in and her blade crushed down through the emerald construct, shattering it in half. 

The shadows dispersed. No one was sure why that happened. 

On the ground were the thing’s shards and another object.

Anlesa said, confused, “A green bone?” 

There was a green bone that looked half degraded. Syrus could feel the infection of the monster’s blight. [Monster vile has infected the bones. It would be best to destroy it.] 

[Wait…] Eva's voice caused everyone to pause. No one had time to verify what Eva felt; in the millisecond she found something she didn’t like, she broke the connection. However, even in that moment where Luna was paying attention, she hadn’t noticed anything. All they could feel was a weird mixture of mana, clashing against their own. [When I tried to pull in mana… I felt a volatile mixture of various mana… however… one of them I recognised…] 

[It was Luna’s…] (Eva)

Eva immediately scanned the bone for everyone to feel, as a small trace within it was a familiar mana. The feeling of when Luna’s soul manipulated mana within their body. 

Anlesa's eyes flashed pink as Luna was suddenly in control, handling her own former bone.