"YES! Haha!" Amon laughed wholeheartedly as he moved back, raising his arms to protect himself from the heat produced by the flames. "That's exactly what we need to make it out of here, Akane!"
A deafening screech of pain resonated as the flames burst forth.
Thankfully for the Corrupted Draconic Spawn, those flames were a source of light, which caused a large shadow to loom behind its body. The monster's body quickly sank into its own shadow and re-emerged a couple of meters further!
'...?' While Amon had expected Akane to keep moving or maybe even go berserk, the complete opposite happened.
She had turned towards him momentarily after he called out her name, then turned her palm around and stared at it.
'Dad…' She thought as distant memories flooded her mind.
***
"Hmm… I hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it." The child repeated while gazing through the window, an exasperated expression on her face.
"What is it? The snow again?" A voice again.
"Everything, everything is covered by it!" The child complained. "Everything is white, and the others keep making fun of me!"
"Is that so?" The voice chuckled.
"Don't laugh!" The child turned around. Again, it was all white. "If even daddy starts making fun of me…"
"I'm not making fun of you." The child's father took her in his arms and picked her up. A moment later, he took a seat with his daughter in his lap.
The child momentarily stared at him. His hair was long, and white. His clothes, kimono-like, were white with tints of red. His ears were covered by white pelt.
"I stick out, they say…" The child said, her gaze falling on her red hair.
Red hair, red pelt over her ears, and a red tail.
Everything in the village was covered by snow, and everyone was snow-white, apart from her.
The father stared for a moment, smiled, and raised his hand.
The daughter's eyes immediately started shining. She knew what was coming.
The air above his palm started rotating, spinning, and cooling off. Eventually, it turned into a cube made entirely of ice. A perfect cube. It floated right above his palm, rotating gently.
Her gaze moved towards the back of her father's hand.
A white mark lay there.
"When will I be able to do that?" She asked.
The father's face held a distant gaze for a moment.
"It is said that our ancestors could use all types of Magic, you know?"
"So we can do that too?"
"In theory." He nodded. "But the secrets to doing so have been lost to time."
"It's because of the humans!"
"Hahaha. Well, let's not cast any blame here."
"But everyone says that the humans hunt us down. That they want all of us dea-"
The father's hands firmly lay on the daughter's shoulders.
"You might think that you are different, and you would be right to think so." He said.
The daughter listened carefully.
"One day, however, you will come to understand what truly makes you different. And when you do, that difference…"
***
"Dad…" Akane whispered as a tear shone under her eye.
Before that tear could make its way halfway down her face, it suddenly evaporated as Akane clenched her left fist.
Instantly, a torrent of flames burst out of her body, as if the flames had been previously held in every one of her muscles.
"Wow…!" Amon muttered, forced to jump back to distance himself from the heat.
[Mana Stat: 5.]
[Mana Stat: 7.]
[Mana Stat: 11.]
[Mana Stat: 17.]
"It just keeps increasing!"
The Corrupted Draconic Spawn screeched at the sudden increase in light.
"Amon!" Akane called out, her body entirely soaked in the scorching flames. He turned in her direction, stunned by the transformation. "Let's do this." She said with a smile. "Let's beat it to a pulp!"
His lips curled upwards as the ground below his feet cracked.
"Hell, yeah!" Amon shouted, his fist tightening around the strands of skin he had stolen from the Corrupted Draconic Spawn. 'They're still moving. Still, I'll…' His hand twitched. 'Devour it!'
Akane was the first to close the distance. The Corrupted Draconic Spawn reacted properly. Its mouth opened, shooting a stream of black goo in her direction. That move allowed Amon to steal the Corrupted Skin covering the back leg. Akane, having jumped up and over the Corrupted Draconic Spawn to dodge, landed right behind it. Her shin, engulfed in her flames, landed powerfully on the exposed thigh muscles!
Their superior intellect and agility made for attack combinations that the Corrupted Draconic Spawn simply could foresee or react to.
"Too easy!" Akane shouted as her flaming fist collided with the monster's side.
"Keep your endurance in mind." Amon scolded. "Don't go passing out on me."
"D-Don't worry about me!"
A safe distance away from the battlefield,
'Those two are…' The female Hobgoblin gulped. 'I should… Maybe I should… Should I… Join them?'
In front of Syl wasn't just any battle. It wasn't just any fight.
What she had witnessed was a transformation.
The captive, enslaved, and weak Fox girl had turned into someone…
'Special.' Syl clenched her teeth. 'Those two… No, those three. They are special beings. Three special beings are fighting… We couldn't do anything against it. Yet those two… Are completely destroying it!' Her hands were trembling. 'I should jump in. I should fight too. I am special too…'
But her feet were refusing to move forward. Her logical mind was against the idea as well.
Syl shuddered.
'I'm special enough to have escaped my fate… My fate of being a weak and enslaved female Hobgoblin… Using my wit and my strength, I…'
Having escaped that fate, Syl thought of herself as special.
Yet now, she was faced with three, which were…
'Truly special.' She thought, her heart trembling deep in her chest. 'I have… No place on this battlefield.' The female Hobgoblin bit her lip and turned around.
It took a moment, but she did end up stepping away.
'...?' She raised an eyebrow, but only momentarily.
Syl shook her head, convincing herself that it was nothing.
But it wasn't. Something had indeed moved in the dark.
The black Corrupted Liquid that the village had been splashed with was bubbling, moving, searching.
The Liquid grew strands and searched.
Soon, it would find its target.
Only a dozen meters separate the searching strands from the Black Stone.