Chapter 38- Second Tail

[Luna POV]

I reapplied the enchantment of Velvet’s sword over and over until her sword looked like it was made out of fire.

“Good enough?”

“It’ll have to be.”

“What kind of curse does this wolf use?”

“It negates healing magic if it’s low enough level and causes the afflicted to slowly rot away from the inside.”

“In other words, don’t let it touch you.”

“Pretty much.”

“Any weaknesses we can use besides the usual?”

“Bad eyesight so it’s easily confused.”

“Guess I’m using some illusions then.”

“Are the two of you ready, cause it’s almost here?”

Velvet and I nodded in affirmation.

“Everyone keep these two safe from the rest of the undead, they’re going to take care of the curse wolf!”

The wolf finally passed through the horde of undead and ran straight for the wall.  I threw a throwing knife and hit its side to draw its attention to us.  It turned our way and let out a dry bark then it started to approach us.

“Let me know when, and I’ll make the illusions.”

“Make them flashy if you can.”

“No point if they aren’t.”

The wolf entered Velvet’s range and she began her attack.  Her sword extended hit the ground and ricocheted at a different angle, hitting the wolf in the stomach.  The fox fire left a burning mark on the wolf, but it just shrugged it off.

“That’s a high-tier undead for you.”

“It was getting too close, so I blinked behind it and threw a few of my knives.  They hit and it turned its attention to me, baring its fangs that dripped with a black liquid.  It jumped at me, and I dodged its attack by jumping to the side.  Taking advantage of that opening, Velvet hit it across the back with her extended sword.

Before it could recover, I froze the ground under its feet, causing it to lose its footing.  I then called down some lightning, but it moved out of the way just enough to avoid being obliterated.  It still got hit, causing it to lose half its face.

“Luna, now.”

On Velvet’s signal, I conjured several illusory Velvets with bright colored clothes.  The illusions spread around the wolf while the real Velvet kept to its blind spot.  It decided to attack the illusions and got tripped up when its claws ripped through air.  Velvet then swung her sword and it wrapped around the wolf, stopping its movements.  The flames biting into it caused it to start roaring as it tried to bite through the metal keeping it still.

“Luna!”

“Already on it.”

I was making more fox fire and shooting it at the wolf.  I got in one lucky hit and a ball flew into the area where the lightning took off its face.  It took several minutes, but eventually it started to turn to ash.  Once it completely fell apart the both of us ran to join the others, or at least we tried to.  A robed figure appeared from the shadows and started yelling and laughing maniacally.

“Kukuku.  Hahahahahaha.  You insolent adventurers!  You dare get in the way of the Great R’lyeh’s revival!  I will personally end you all, then!”

“I guess that’s the cult leader?”

“Yeah.”

“Hoh, not many use a weapon like that, you must be a descendant of those annoying Belmonts.  I will start with you and your disgusting fox pet.”

“I’m not a pet!”

The cult leader then started to rush us.  I grabbed on to Velvet’s shoulder and blinked us away.

“You think if we kill him, the undead will stop?”

“Probably, that is usually how necromancy works, the problem is killing him.  He has evaded death for a long time, so he probably has some sort of escape plan.”

{You don’t need to worry about that.  The God of Death cursed this guy a while ago and his mind has been eroded to the point that he can’t plan properly.}

“Tamamo said this guy won’t get away this time.”

“Ok then.”

“Velvet, I’m going to use my mist to keep this guy confused, think you can land some hits?”

“I’ll do my best.”

The cult leader charged again, this time firing some magic at us, but I blinked us away again.

“Stop running away, you disgusting fox.”

“How about no.”

I started spreading mist around the three of us and soon all that the cult leader and Velvet could see was white.

“Velvet, I’m going to let you know where to attack like this, right now he’s still on our right.  I’ll blink to his other side and distract him, swing when I tell you.”

Velvet nodded and I blinked away.  I created some illusory versions of me and Velvet and spread them out.  I lessened the thickness of the mist around one of the illusions and the leader attacked it.

“Velvet, to your front.”

She swung her sword and hit him in the back, ripping that part of his robes to tatters.  I got a good look at the guy now.  He had grayish skin and a fin on his neck and back that resembled a dolphin.  There was also a hole just above where the fin part of his neck ended.  Seeing that I had an idea.

“Velvet, I have an idea, but we need to get him to slow down more.  Swing your sword to the left and up.”

She did as I asked and managed to cut his leg deeply causing him to fall to his knee.  I was aiming a throwing knife for that hole and threw it.  I managed to hit what I was aiming for, but before I could finish the rest of my plan, he released an area spell.  The spell hit and dissolved all of the illusions and hit Velvet’s side.

“VELVET!”

“I’m fine, Luna!  Just finish it!”

“THERE YOU ARE BELMONT!” The cult leader yelled and started charging where he heard Velvet.

I was pissed, so I put a lot into the spell I was conjuring.  I raised both my hands into the air and brought them down.  A giant pillar of lightning fell from the sky and hit the cult leader.  When the pillar hit the cult leader, it travelled through the throwing knife frying him from both inside and out.

“GGGGGGGYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I continued to fuel the pillar of lightning with mana until I could feel it out-pacing my passive mana regeneration.  Since I wasn’t focused on maintain it, the mist started to dissipate, and Velvet made her way over to me.

“Luna!  Calm down, I’m fine, it’s just a graze.”

I stopped the lightning and turned to check Velvet’s side.  It looked like a large bit of Velvet’s side was petrified.  I immediately started using healing magic, but it was slow.  Granted it was probably faster than normal, but it was slow for me.  After several minutes, Velvet’s side turned back to normal.

I was about to sigh in relief, but I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye.

“How is he still alive?”

“You….you damn fox….I’ll make sure to kill you…last.  The Great R’lyeh will surly be revived…..if I offer up your soul.    Hehheheehehehheeehhheeee.”

“Just die you damn porpoise mongrel.” I said as I lifted my hand and conjured a large ice spike and let it drop on him.  It impaled him, then I snapped my fingers and ice spikes ripped through him making him look like a pincushion of ice and burnt meat.

I then heard crumbling sounds all around us.  Looking around, the skeletons started falling apart and ghouls collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.  After a few tense moments the knights and adventurers started letting out cheers of victory.

At that same moment I felt a searing pain in my lower back.  I fell to my hands and knees and bit down on my cheeks to stop from screaming.  Velvet looked back to me and started freaking out.

“Luna!  Luna, what’s wrong!?”

{She’s fine, Velvet.  Bring her away from there to someplace away from prying eyes.}

She didn’t say anything and just did as she was told.  She picked me up and brought me over to a shaded part of the wall.

“Goddess what’s wrong with Luna?”

{She’s reached the point where she gets her second tail.  It is a painful process to be honest, but she is taking it quite well.  When it happened to me, I passed out for a week and messed up the moon phases for a time.}

The pain kept getting worse and I could feel blood filling my mouth from biting my cheeks so hard.  I managed to pull a belt out of my inventory and started to bite down on it.

“What can I do to help?”

{Just make sure no one comes over here.  If you need to, set up a shadow barrier and talk to that leader person.  Get him to send the others to the other areas of the city to see if everything is done there.}

“But we took out the leader.”

{Velvet calm down and think.  Cults don’t have just one member, you may have taken out their leader, but he couldn’t possibly have enough power to control hordes of undead that can surround a city.}

“Fine.”

Velvet walked a bit away and put up a shadow barrier.

{Don’t worry Luna, it’s almost over.  Good job with taking care of that stupid porpoise.}

All I could focus on was the pain so I could barley hear Tamamo’s words, but her feelings made it to me.  After what felt like hours, the pain started to subside.  Once it was gone, I spit out the now ruined belt as well as the blood in my mouth.

I healed my cheeks and tried to stand up but couldn't.  I was exhausted.

“Hey Velvet, are you there?”

I didn’t receive an answer.

{Just rest for a bit, Luna.  She went to talk with the knight leader and then was dragged off with the crowd to the other city gates.  She’ll be back in about an hour.}

‘Ok.  So, how does my new tail look on me?’

{It makes you look stunning, even after hours of fighting.}

‘Hahaha.’

{What did you think of your first real group battle?}

‘I feel like I could have done better.  Thinking back on it, I was getting too emersed and I started to get tunnel vision.  The whole time I only ever saw me, Velvet, and the enemy.’

{You did rescue and heal one person.}

‘That’s just because he was right next to Velvet.  If he was a little farther away, I wouldn’t have noticed at all.’

{Well, now you know what to watch out for next time.}

‘True.  Now that I think about it, how did I level up so fast?  I was at level 10 when this started but I’m definitely at least at level 20 now.’

{It’s because you used your fox fire to enchant Velvet’s weapon.  Doing that treated her sword as an extension of your skill and gave you experience from her kills.  It wasn’t all of it, but it was enough to push your leveling to what an average person would gain.}

‘A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.’

{I wouldn’t expect it to happen like that very often.  Atmos had a little hand in this as well, seeing as the opponents this time were in large numbers and you had a skill that was extremely effective at dealing with them.}

‘Why would she do that though?’

{I would tell you, but she asked me to keep it a secret.}

‘Ok then, I am feeling really tired, so I think I’ll take a nap.’

{I’ll wake you when Velvet comes back.}

‘Thanks.’

Author's Note:

Life stuff is done for the day so here is the next chapter.  Thanks for reading.