Yuki and Luna moves through the floor, dispatching the smaller groups of the Fallen ghouls with the help of Adam and Anna.
So far, they have been successful in their plan of ambushing the weaker groups, while Sirius and Chad baits the other groups and the werewolf with Sirius' mana beacon.
Thea and Sol is to make sure that Yuki and Luna is first fine before going to where Sirius and Chad is in case the werewolf do get baited to come to Sirius.
"Luna, how are you holding up?"
Yuki asks, whipping his katana as the blood that smeared his katana splatter across the ground. The ground is a mess of bundle of corpses, both Yuki and Luna have been going around massacring them after all.
Luna nods at Yuki, looking around them as she sheaths her rapier.
"I'm fine, let's go to the next location. Adam, where to?"
Luna asks to the direction of a house, emerging from the empty window frame is Adam and Anna.
"To your west."
Luna nods as she looks back to Yuki's direction.
"Wait... Luna! Yuki! Incoming! A lot of them! They're surrounding us!"
Both Luna and Yuki tense in alarm, they have yet to spot the enemies that are coming thanks to Adam.
Unsheathing her rapier, she looks around in tense fashion, while Yuki walks up to Luna and stand behind her back.
Adam and Anna scurries back inside the house to hole up in stealth.
Soon, they discover that they have been encircled. Groups of dense ghouls form a circle around the area, trapping them inside the circle of ghouls that expand to houses and houses.
Yuki clicks his tongue as he furrow his brow.
"What the hell is this... how did they escape Adam's Rune?"
"I don't know."
Luna responds as she tightens her grip on her rapier. Her shoulders and body tense as both her and Yuki stand back to back.
The ghouls roar, some with bat-like wings flies to the two Evokers with murderuous intent. While the ones that don't have wings run to Luna and Yuki.
"****!"
Yuki roars before slashing through the horde of ghouls, his mana seeps through the wind and the joints of the enemies as he dashes forward.
It is risky to dash right onto the enemy, but he has to. Otherwise he would risk Luna's movements.
Unfortunately for Yuki, his control over mana has yet to be precise to the point he could allow his mana to only freeze his enemies and not his allies.
Dozens of ghouls jump up to Yuki, scratches and punches still manage to hit him. This was bad. He needs to get out of this situation fast, and with Luna.
His mana is draining in an alarming speed after a minute.
A minute in the battlefield has never felt so long and stretched out.
Luna meanwhile accurately stabs at the ghouls' head, killing them instantly. But the mana required to do so is draining her by the moment.
She dodges and weave through the swipes and punches, and even if some do manage to be aimed at a vital part of her body, she redirects the blow somewhere else.
'At this rate...!'
Luna clench her teeth, thinking of the worst thing that could happen.
At the corner of Luna's eye, she spots a black blur approaching from the distance to her left.
"That's..."
A werewolf jumps from one rooftop to another with loud booms and cracks.
"... Damn it...!"
The rate of the ghouls' attack intensifies, they seem to be in a manic as they throw themselves at Luna and Yuki.
A loud crackle of lightning and thunder echoes.
'...!'
Luna widens her eyes.
'Thea...!'
The ground shatters near Luna, the ghouls scatter from the impact of Thea and the werewolf descending upon them.
Dust picks up Luna's line of view, everywhere to be more exact.
After a while, the dust clears up, on a few meters away from her, a small crater is formed as Thea engage in a flurry of blows and strikes.
Bruises and cuts are visible on her fair skin, but the steadfast warrior continue enganging the beast despite the pain.
Though it is evident that from the earlier descent, Thea suffered injuries. Whether from colliding to the ground hard while crashing against the werewolf or from the blows and swipes the werewolf gave her.
"EVERYONE RETREAT!"
Thea shouts as she tilts her right shoulder and weave the sharp claws that aimed at her right arm.
She locks the mangled right arm of the werewolf and twist it as she roars and thrust at the werewolf's joint.
As Thea battled the werewolf, she began to notice something that she hoped isn't the case. But as it went on, it was apparent what was going on.
It was a vital information.
Adam and Anna from the inside of the house upon hearing Thea's word retreats. With the help of Adam, he picks up on Sirius' mana and the others.
Guiding Anna, they rendezvous with the three of them.
Luna and Yuki meanwhile carve their way out of the hellhole, using up their mana at an alarming rate.
They desperately slash and stab away at the ghouls hindering their path to their teammates. Enduring fatigue and blows from the swarm of enemies.
Stellar blue mana procs at the heads of the ghouls, needle like threads help thinning down the enemies as Luna and Yuki sees Sirius coming towards them.
"HERE!"
Sirius roars, with the help of Chad as they clear a path to Luna and Yuki.
Meanwhile, Thea flies midair as she is thrown towards a house. The mana in the air feels more dense and thick which alarms Thea.
Coughing, she peers out of the house and looks at the werewolf that is seemingly more powerful than before with the dense mana emanating from it.
Her heart beats up quickly, drumming loudly against her chest. She grits her teeth and her form blurs as trail of lightnings blurs behind her.
Her eyes narrows down at the werewolf. She needs to go faster.
Faster and faster.
Even beyond.
She needs to buy time.
With gritted teeth, she burns away at the mana. She wills the world to give her the speed and dexterity of a cheetah. She commands her body to move desperately.
Her body burns, but she needs to go faster.
Her eyes burns, but she needs to go faster.
The force of gravity weighs down on her, but she adapts as much as possible.
The werewolf tries to dodge as Thea wrecks its body with lightning speed slashes. The ghouls approach the site where both fight, leaving Sirius and the company alone. Seemingly called to help the werewolf.
Thea lets out a roar, her form blurring from the eyes of the bystander. Her form ravage through the battlefield, slicing away at the ghouls that dare to step in her and the werewolf's battlefield.
Thea frowns, as much as she wanted to precisely cut at the werewolf's neck or limbs, she couldn't due to how fast she was going.
She could barely keep up with the environment as it is to try not to collide or trip.
But the werewolf stays silent.
With bulging eyes, Thea roars as the armor heats up, crackles from lightning and fire and friction apparent as steam rises.
She was about to go but a shout stops her.
"THEA! WE'RE OUT!"
Thea stops herself, she looks back to the source of the voice and sees Sirius running towards her. Behind him, the group has rendezvous as they maintain a careful distance.
"Sirius...! Kh...!"
Thea coughs, her eyes dizzy and her legs trembling. It was apparent that her earlier reckless attack is finally taking its toll on her.
Her mana is at an all time low, she was sure that had Sirius not stop her. After her move she would be a sitting duck due to her mana going out.
Sirius, upon seeing Thea's trembling form quickly reach out and throws her left arm around his neck. He was about to pick her up but the wolf is already upon him.
This time though, its movements are obvious.
Akin to a puppet.
"CHAD!"
Sirius roars as he steps forward swings an arc, pulling out every ounce of strength from his body to block the oncoming pounce from the werewolf.
The impact of the pounce was heavy, Sirius falls to his knees as his eyes widens.
'The wolf's gotten stronger!'
A chill breeze through his body. The mana in the air feels even more dense as Sirius looks at where the most prominent is from. The source of the danger alarming his mind.
A haze, a dense mist.
When did it come?
Sirius sees from the distance that the mist is slowly converging and forming into a heavily clumped mist as it strides towards the werewolf.
Sirius grit his teeth.
Thea could also see it too despite her blurry vision and tears.
Chad noticed it as he is running towards Sirius and quickly grabs hold of Thea to run back. Sirius, still struggling quickly pulls in all the mana in the atmosphere at a fast rate.
Like filling a balloon with air, he waits.
The werewolf seems alarmed and press down harder.
Sirius groans in pain. He dismisses his red sword and cross his arm in guard. The werewolf doubles down and tries dug its claws onto the black armor.
But the durability of the armor is good enough to not allow it to be pierced, only slightly dented.
From the corner of Sirius' eyes, he could see the mist growing closer and closer. His heart beats even faster and faster, he is sure that if it touches him, something bad will happen.
Feeling the dense amount of mana inside him, Sirius roars and explode the mana inside his body that threatens to make him explode his insides, finally releasing him from the intense feeling.
Shockwaves of mana and air blast through, the ground underneath cracks and explode, shattering.
The werewolf is thrown away, the mist also fades backward from the explosion, as if blown away.
Sirius coughs, his eyes growing hazy as he quickly tries to stand up. His body trembles, it was such a painful experience of feeling his insides expanding, as if he was just closing his mouth to take in as much air and tighten his cheek and the air is pushing out in retaliation against his cheek.
But this time, it was his insides threatening to explode outwards, it was also his soul that was threatened to explode outward.
From the distance, Chad watches as Sirius explodes the mana that Sirius accumulated and exploded.
Chad grits his teeth as Thea looks at Sirius in worry.
"Sirius...h!"
She groans with trembling legs, the others join up to Thea and Chad as they watch the ghouls that were thrown away, and some even died as if flattened or crushed.
The werewolf too is blown away, and the dense mist that were creeping up to it and Sirius.
Then, they see Sirius crawling out of the crater. Trembling hands grabbing onto the edge as Chad quickly run towards Sirius. Sol too follows Chad as Thea reaches out to Sol.
"Careful...!"
With the weak plea from her sister, Sol merely nods without looking back and running as she follows Chad.
Quickly picking up the weakened Sirius, Chad lays him behind his back as they run away from the battlefield. Sol, upon seeing Sirius just realize that how useless she had come here for.
Sirius' entire body aside from his neck and head is covered with armor. Unless she touch his body part directly she can't heal him.
Biting her lips, she could only follow back Chad as they retreat while thinking of how amateurish of a mistake that was.
The party retreats back to the bridge and into the pillar to scale up back to the first floor. Back to their hideout.
As Sol first heals Thea, letting her burning muscles and injuries cover up and fastening her recovery rate, Sol moves to Sirius and check in on him.
"How bad do you feel?"
Panting, Sirius lays down on the floor as he dismisses the armor and let Sol apply her healing once more.
"Jello. Also... in pain."
His body is a mess of injuries, the blood vessels that previously had been healed is now back bursting. His insides are a mess from abusing [Supernova's Crown] and the fights.
"Right..."
As Sol heals him, Sirius looks at Thea.
"Thea, you've noticed it too right?"
Sirius asks weakly as Thea nods, groaning as she looks at him.
"The wolf's a puppet. It looks like it had long been dead maybe? Or at death's door."
Sirius nods as the others upon discovering the news widen their eyes.
"That mist we saw most likely was the puppeteer."
The news brought deathly silence in the dark room lit by moonlight, Sirius sighs as he looks up at the sky.
"It might be an Usurper class."