664 10/11 3:15 (Autumn, Day, Midrar)
JouleMark moved, stepping around the Phoenix's incredibly precise sword swings, water briefly solidifying around their body to protect them from the wave of fire that exploded amidst Amber's swings, the shorter one being currently busy with a continuous dance of blade and Pyrokinesis that rapidly forced her opponent to retreat.
Similarly JouleMark's own attacks, not launched by their body as it was currently way too busy dealing with the combination of very intense heat and very sharp sword that threatened to cut them apart, instead using cutting tendrils of Shining Bolts to try breaking the Phoenix's footing and inflict gashes on her body.
Thing that they failed miserably at, the Phoenix's Aura surging and solidifying in the exact places they would strike at, the exact moment she would be wounded by her opponent's attacks, deflecting most of the harm with a minuscule amount of effort while trusting her Regeneration to deal with the little bit of Shining Bolts she allowed through.
This certainly did not slow her down any, Amber not even flinching at the small amount of pain she ignored while forcing JouleMark to be in a constant state of wariness caused by her ability to, at any time, activate her Unique Skill on any of her attacks and turning a glancing blow in a much more serious one, threat even more intense considering the fact that her Unique Arma already had a layer of this Effect active.
JouleMark's eyes moved all over the place, carefully predicting the waves of heat emanating from the Phoenix's body to assist with their dodging, their senses stretched to their limits and Vital Mana, Aura and electricity flaring together to enhance the Human-Spirit Hybrid's speed to the maximum they could with their current level of power.
Flux launched high-speed, so condensed it was almost solid, spears of water raining down upon the Phoenix, aiming on impaling her in place from the back, only for the Demonic-blooded one to disreguard them entirely, merely responding by rapidly heating up the area and air-alike around her to well-above boiling temperature before suddenly cooling back down, seven times over in just a second and rapidly, destabilizing the spears aiming at her.
Amber continued on with her assault, her blade whistling in the air and forcing JouleMark to retreat ever more, the golden embers licking at the sword's edge almost burning the blue-eyed one's shirt, Shining Bolts solidifying around their fists before exploding forward, branching out and trying to impale the orange-eyed one, forcing her to retreat from her continuous assault on her opponent.
Yet this retreat lasted only a couple of brief moments, her Unique Arma being enveloped in a dense layer of Aura that she swung at one of the lightning bolts, using a burst of Vital Mana to deflect it away from herself and towards another one, causing a chain reaction that left her free to continue her assault.
Amber's flaming, golden wings opened wide behind her, being covered in a thin film of crimson flames before they beat once, the flames erupting before her in a blaze that not only forced the Shining Bolts-covered one to retreat but also hid the approaching Phoenix.
Meanwhile, within the mass of Blessed Flames that Amber created, Mafel was doing her best to help out Sabel, hurriedly condensing the golden flames surrounding them and converting them directly into fuel for her Holy-Attribute Magecraft, funneling them to the wounds upon her Human's body.
Thing not helped by the way that her Aura erratically flared, enveloping the black-haired one's body and somehow cutting contact between the two off completely, the Elf losing control over her Spells inside of her Mate's body and slowing down her healing rate significantly.
"How is this possible? Our Mate's Mark should let me ignore any possible Rejection between our Energy and as a consequence my Spell should be incredibly easy to maintain." Mafel concentrated even more, carefully restarting the Spell from scratch for the fourth time and trying to feel out the exact way it failed.
"No, this is not a Rejection. Her body or Energy are not overwhelming my own, they are not even trying to fight it to begin with. Instead, the exact moment that her Aura fully covers her body, my Spell ceases to affect her entirely. A Unique Skill in the process of Awakening is the only reasonable explanation behind this situation. An Anti-Magic Unique Skill?" She guessed semi-confidently, her mind trying to figure out a workaround.
"Well, if she is nullifying Spells, I just need to not use a Spell to heal her then." She nodded resoluted, pulling her Human against her own body, ceasing Casting on her entirely and simply starting to share her own Vital Mana, trusting that she would properly Recover on her own given enough Energy.
Bet that she was correct on as she confirmed how her hurt Mate was slowly starting to recover to her relief.
JouleMark's electricity raged around their body, repeatedly forming spears to impale the Phoenix in place yet only succeeding in forcing her to bat them away, lowering the amount of sword attacks that Amber could launch at them slightly, a not inconspicuous change in the tempo of the fight to be sure, yet far from their hoped outcome.
Especially considering how they had the least amount of experience fightning the burning one, in their previous Timelines having done their upmost to separate the two before the fight could ever really begin by using various Dungeon-based Artifacts.
Yet, even with their lack of specific memories concerning fightning the Phoenix, the lack of enough overwhelming talent to instantly adapt to the way she fought and the gulf between their physical ability, they were still able to force a battle of attrition.
And considering Flux's constant support forcing Amber to expend even more focus and Energy into maintaining this stalemate, aiming on using this time to finally learn how exactly she fought and to minimize Luna's forces upon her reappearing.
Yet, despite the shower of lightning, steam and embers that surrounded the two of them, both were still able to feel a tremor, stretching through not air or the earth but through space itself, their fight stalling briefly as they turned their attention towards Luna's current position within her orb.
The sphere floating ominously in the sky, sphere that was almost forgotten about because of the intensity of the combat, started sounding out a series of dull thuds, twisting slightly time and space alike around it, a pace that gradually grew in both intensity and speed, becoming a couple of beats that remembered a beating heart.
An even harsher thump followed as the cracks upon its surface spread wider and more numerous, pieces of the solidified liquid falling into the orb because of its own innate pull, revealing how its inside shone in a rainbow of colors, existent and not alike.
The fissures widened rapidly, breaking it apart completely and leaving behind only a blinding sphere of Energy and light alike.
Once the glow passed, in the sphere's location was something that caused JouleMark to scowl and reassured grealy Luna's Mates.
Luna floated in place with an aspect different from both her natural and her previous state.
While she appeared more or less like her natural form, having the same number of limbs and eyes, her current state was unmistakably different.
First of all, her pale skin was completely covered in a complex Runic Array that highlighted her body and shifted in colors continuously, showing at least twenty different shades in a given moment and shifting multiple times a second.
And speaking of her body, despite her clothes having dissolved into nothing, she was now clad in a dense layer of completely lightless black Energy dotted with iridescent, glowing stars that took the vague form of a pair of gloves down to her elbows, a pair of socks going to her knees, short pants that covered just her tights and a sleeveless top that reached down to her bust.
And while her current aspect was without a doubt erotic, thing not hard for her to be considering the combination of her abundant curves, defined physique and distinct features, the without a doubt most striking part of her new forms were the countless extremities, made from the same Energy enveloping her form, that emerged from her back.
And those were not countless because they were hard to count due to any difference in their shapes or sizes, changes that were present, but because the tendrils constantly changed in numbers, joining together and separating, changing in size and shape, all of this without any appearent rhyme or reason, forming a very chaotic and distracting disharmony.
Luna floated before the image of the night sky caused by her tendrils, her white hair floating freely in the wind as the Lunarian opened her eyes, bright crimson orbs floating among the deepest darkness, similar to the Blood Moon whose light she was Reborn from.
Twin horns around 10 centimeters tall of the same material as her various extra limbs, in a much more metallic configuration however, emerged from the crown of her head, pointing directly towards the sky.
In between her two horns floated a miniaturized black hole, a physical rappresentation of her Unique Skill Singularity complete with glowing accretion disk around it that spun rapidly in mid-air. "I see." She opened and closed her hands a couple of times, enjoying the power contained within her body and in so doing revealing how the inside of her body was made up of the same Energy as her extra limbs.
JouleMark immediately closed the distance to theirhis enemy, hatred for an instant clouding theirhis judgement, activating theirhis Time Walker to cross the distance between the two faster, taking advantage of the time stop and her theoretical unfamiliarity with her new Skills to strike at her.
It was a futile action fueled by emotion that Amber didn't bother stop, instead deciding on attacking Flux to stop them from helping the Human-Spirit Hybrid out.
JouleMark's fist enveloped in Shining Bolts crashed towards the Lunarian's face, aiming right towards her head.
Said punch was stopped not by Luna grabbing theirhis arm but instead was unable to even land, the Lunarian's Will filling the space around her and solidifying in a layer that theyhe was unable to breach.
Glowing blue eyes widened, mouth opening briefly in surprise before theyhe was thrown back down to the ground, slamming down hard on the ruined floor, Luna turning her attention to the Notice she just recieved.
*Luna's Skills are in the process of reformatting.
*Initial Changes done.
*Ulterior changes as the Soul finishes adapting.
*List of Skills:
*Racial Skill_Lunarian D-Rank.
*Unique Skill_Singularity C-Rank.
*Growth Skills_Soul Exaltation E; Unique Arma: Thaumaturgic Armor of the Singularity C; Everlasting Ascension E; Will Manifestation E.
*Innate Skills_Familiar Summoning C; Enhancement: Senses E; Enhancement: Status Alteration D; Authority: Astral Ichor E; Enhancement: Soul E.
*Ability Skills_ArcaneArmageddon E; Creation by Annihilation E; True Calamity Eternal Supremacy E.
Four Growth Skills, five Innate Skills and three Ability Skills, all of them at E-Rank except for a single D-Rank and two C-Rank.
Yet her power was higher than ever before.
----
Thanks for reading, comment if you have any thoughts about this chapter and story in general or any suggestion at all.
If you want to read chapters in advance of this and my other story, I have a P@treon.
( [email protected]/White_Chaos )