10/9 14:44 (Autumn, Night, Mysterious Island)
Sider didn't hesitate, turning her attention towards the three remaining Fake-Kobolds, moving left to dodge slashes of Fake-Qi sent by one of them before jumping over some earthen spikes and using a long stone staff to moving herself over wind slashes covered in that malevolent Qi of theirs, the staff breaking apart underneath her.
She spun in mid-air, rejoining the pieces of the staff, twisting it into a spear and throwing it at a Fake-Kobold, Lightning-Attribute Mana accumulating around her hands before it rained down in the form of lightning bolts upon her three opponents, her feet landing on the ground only briefly before launching herself towards one of the scaled ones.
The Amazon-blooded one spun again on herself, a heel kick brutally landing on her target's head and sending it crashing against the ground, her still raised leg raising even further before falling in a deadly axe-kick, Earth-Attribute Mana coating her foot and increasing its weight at the moment of impact, the floor beneath the two shattering as were the bones of the Fake-Kobold's neck, upper chest and lower head.
Only two Kobolds remaining, thing that wasn't strange considering how they all had the "Coordination" Skill and various Skill that would increase their Existence and Efficiency depending on their number and with so little of them left, it was only natural for the battle to quickly turn to her side.
As an explosion of Lightning-Attribute Mana helped destroy the body beneath her feet, Sider stepped forward, Terran Lightning forming an orizontal lightning bolt before her, hands opening before closing around the black and gold lightning bolt before it condensed in a single spear, spinning it around herself a couple of times before posing with her new spear resting upon her shoulder.
Her left foot stomped forward hard, shattering the floor beneath her feet, rocks rising to entrap her feet to help with her stability before twisting on herself, maximizing the strenght of her thrown lightning bolt, the wall before her being erased completely.
The earth beneath her feet cracked open, Sider holding a pair of long rock rods that she swung, her Vital Energy fueling the strikes and sending forth a pair of twin shockwaves that crossed the distance between herself and the two Fake-Kobolds, already distracted as they were from the previous lightning bolt, sending them crashing back to the ground.
She blurred forward, her staffs fusing together into a single greataxe that she swung down with full force, decapitating one of the Fake-Cultivator in an instant before rising her transformed left hand and sending it flying down, erasing its heart in an instant before slashing it in two by swinging her claws down.
The black-haired one made to turn towards the last remaining Fake-Qi user only to stop immediately and bringing her gaze back down to the ground, her Qi-sense expanding around her guided by her instincts, stretching to beneath the floor and following the purple gunk, for the first time finding another hidden Fake-kobold, more specifically a member of the initial group of Fake-Kobolds that hid in her initial assault.
Under her Qi-sense, Sider was able to quickly identify how it was surrounded by the liquid remains, Vital Energy, Mana and Fake-Qi of the other Monsters of its group while Chanting and in what looked to be Deep Meditation.
Feeling a terrible sense of foreboding, the Werewolf joined her hands, forming a compressed Terran Lightning lance and preparing to spear the reptilian one beneath the ground, intent on interrupting the Ritual it was currently preparing, only for her weapon to be struck by a pair of [Qi Slashes] sent by the only remaining one still in the room with her.
Sider's eyes widened greatly, taken by surprise as her spear, already unstable by its own nature as a weapon made out of Terran Lightning, destabilized further by the strike and exploded violently in her hands, the Werewolf barely able to flare her Mana and Vital Mana to deflect most of the harm and being even forced to create a thin layer of Qi to handle the remaining force before immediately after shedding the Qi that formed her barrier, supremely unwilling to risk being Corrupted in any way.
The Ritual being currently underway beneath various layers of stone was completed, the Kobold making a stone knife from the rocks around it before plunging it into its own heart, ending its life and liquefying to join together with the mass surrounding it before violently erupting upward, encompassing the only remaining Fake-Kobold entirely before exploding with a wave of power.
The focused gaze of the Werewolf finally were able to find their opponent.
The Kobold grew even more, reaching the two meters in height, its scales darkening and sharpening, hiding even larger muscles, its eyes ceasing their glow entirely to give way to a visible purple Aura flaring vibrantly around its body before it stepped forward, the air, no, the way that space around it was shaking on its own demonstrated how not only it increased in Rank but also it having ascended to its equivalent of the Core Formation Stage.
Sider's sighed to herself. "I see, the light within the other Kobolds' eyes was the Mark for the sacrificial Ritual and not something natural to you, right? It seems like I was behaving quite arrogantly before, doesn't it?" She nodded, abbandoning completely her previous pride as Terran Lightning started sparking around her even more violently.
Her Mana and Vital Energy flared while the Qi within her body started to accelerate, quickly analyzing its scales and noticing their increase refinement, individuating them to be caused by that previous Kobold using her blows to refine itself and also explaining why it behaved like that instead of directly defending itself from her blows.
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10/10 6:17 (Autumn, Day, Midrar, Base)
Luna did not hesitate in building her work-around, starting first with Spirit to make sure it would work without any issue or problem by Summoning her Familiar within another one of her Images, quickly examining her Image and noting its more frail-looking appearance before continuing on her experiment.
She took the Black Blood forming her Image containing her Familiar, it being included within the mass of liquid darkness and condensed into a small amount around a sliver of Orichalcum she retrieved, her Aura flaring and surrounding them before starting to compress it even further, shaping it with thousands of small implements and the support of the rest of her Spirits to regulate the temperature a single object, an Artifact to be precise.
A couple of minutes passed before the Lunarian carefully examined her new fully-realized Artifact, a beautiful necklace made of a softly-shining grey metal raffigurating an upside-down skull holding in its mouth a dull grey gem with a string made of chains of the same semi-liquid metallic material, necklace that with the help of her Aura was able to wear around her neck.
Within the skull resting between her breasts, the dull gem started to shift and glow once Spirit was Summoned within it, transforming into a liquid-like crystal that rippled continuously, skulls forming on its surface as if trying to escape only to be pulled back down soon after.
The red-eyed one smiled before recalling her Spirit from the necklace and resummoning it to within it a couple of times, making sure she found no issue before turning to Mafel and communicating with her through their Marks the next experiment.
And in so doing they were able to test the Extra, always active, Effect of the Artifact caused by her Oath, a purple colored glow surrounding her body and increasing her Existence temporarily, caused by a Buff Spell of the Curse-Attribute capable of Enhancing Undeads, before Mafel launched two Holy-Attribute Spells, one with the purpose to damage an Undead and the other Enhancing an individual with Holy-Attribute Mana.
Differently from what it would have happened to an Undead, Luna not only was ignored by the Anti-Undead Spell but was also Enhanced further by the third Spell, being able to easily maintain the Buff from both the Curse-Attribute and Holy-Attribute Spells simultaneusly.
The principal effect active only while the Artifact functioned as a Vessel for Spirit was, unfortunately, impossible for them to test properly as it simply helped in holding together Luna's Soul, increasing its Durability and in so doing her own survivability, even if not in a measurable quantity.
Satisfied the Vampiric one moved on to the next set of Familiars, the four Attribute-related ones, crafting a series of rings shaped like simple metallic bands with a circular opaque gem of their own and occupying Luna's left index finger and her right index, medium and ring finger.
She smiled, leaving Core for later and starting to first experiment with the rest of her new Artifacts in order, starting from the ring containing Ash, the only one on her left hand for now.
The gold-like metal of her ring glowed in the light slightly, the red gem embedded in it starting to heat up and transforming into a solid yet vivid flame once her Familiar was Summoned within it before she pointed to one of the targets, some of her Vital Mana concentrating before her before easily converting into flames that she was easily able to wield Fire-Attribute Sorcery, the Vessel Effect of the Artifact that allows her to use her No-Attribute Affinity in place of her absent Fire-Attribute Affinity.
Luna smiled, the Extra Effect of her ring already fully explored as seen by the increasing and lowering of the temperature immediately around her, before quickly doing the same with the Vessel Effects of the rest of her rings.
The dark red of the ring belonging to Warden and resting around her right ring finger, its orange gem constantly spinning on itself while seemigly to compress and expanding cyclically; the bronze one belonging to Blitz circling her right middle finger, its blue gem revealing a mass of sparks at its center; the light blue metal of the ring housing Vision around her right index finger, its vibrant green gem rippling like a violent storm.
She casually punched forward with her right hand, a lightning bolt erupting at once from it, before swinging her left hand as a blade, sharp winds moving with her gesture, the target being severed in two at once before she pulled her right arm up, stone spikes erupting beneath the twin halves of the target, fire and lightning fall upon the two the next instant.
Satisfied she threw a couple of steel blades in the air over herself, noting satisfied how they started to slow down in their fall, before moving around to dodge most of them, the wind herself assisting in her movements before letting a small blade fall upon her body, clanging against the barrier surrounding her, causing her smile to widen even further in satisfation.
Without any additional wait, she turned towards her last remaining Images turning into a mass of Black Blood that melted together with another very small sliver of Orichalcum to form another Artifact, a much more complicated and larger ring resting around her left ring finger's entire phalanx, its black, scale-like metal shaped like the head of a dragon, the only sign of color being a pair of twin opaque gems of all colors functioning as its eyes.
The gems started to quickly light up, a violent iridescent Aura being emanated and surrounding first the Artifact and then Luna herself, her pupils sharpening into slitted ones while the rest of her irises became more jewel-like, her skin hardening into flexible yet hard scales before the ring's Aura erupted from her body to form a pair of horns, wings and tail.
Luna stretched lightly before rising her hands, expanding her Fake-Domain fully, enjoying the effects of the Innate Skill "Enhancement: Territory" E granted her passively by her newest Artifact, before activating its Vessel Effect to grant herself the "Elemental Manifestation" D Innate Skill and experimenting with it briefly before moving on to the real motive behind this experiment.
She raised her hands upwards, immediately and easily recreating her previous exercise, four spheres of Vital Mana floating behind her, each belonging to a different Attribute and quickly and freely shifting their Substances and Forms entirely at her will, satisfied, and turning her gaze towards the last of the targets, striking at once.
A spear of Blaze Gems, bright red crystals that seemed to be containing a vibrant flame, struck one of the target at once but before it could release its flames in an explosion, it was simultaneously struck by three different fireballs, each made by a different Composite Attributes with the Fire-Attribute as the Form, Solid Blazes, Free Flames and Galvanic Embers.
The result, reflected in the bright red eyes of the Lunarian, was a wonderful wave of bright pink, soft green and luminous blue flames that covered all the targets, shredding and vibrating them apart while at the same time sticking to them and functioning in a mix between normal flames and acid.
The concerned Jay nodded to itself at seeing this, already stretching in his notebook. "Teaching her was a beautiful mistake." He correctly and shamelessly deduced, earning himself a number of very nonplussed gazes.
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