Demigods vs Werewolves, Pt 1: Bad Luck
[Athan Eubuleus]:
"And you didn't show anyone else this?" Athan asked the three kids before him, gesturing to the holographic scene of what really happened.
"No, Faction Head," the one known as Jabari Ausar replied. "We came straight to you."
"Good. there's no telling who was in on this considering the Dungeon Chamber is to be watched and under guard 24/7," Athan gestured to the chamber that was before them in the video. "Only a high ranking instructor or faction head would have the clearance to even walk near that chamber by themselves, without escort… Or, at least, that is how it should be. Evidently, someone messed with patrol scheduling and positioning. It was smart of you to come to me with this. I'm not entirely certain who can be trusted among the faction heads, not entirely anyway."
Marxes and Jabari shared a look before nodding. Crow, who was firm about changing her name to 'Crowrella,'was just staring dead at the projection coming from her eye, her dead stare both unsettling and unfit for a child of her age… Or would the politically correct term be 'avian'? Athan tried not to think too much about it. That said, her audience was only slightly freaked out by her behavior, but chalked it up to her being a familiar.
'Strange,' thought Athan, briefly eyeing the avian girl. 'I can sense she is at the peak of Chaotic rank in terms of cultivation, but her power also seems sealed… No, more than that. She's restricted her own output power and aura to that of a peak Legacy in some kind of bizarre process somehow… I wonder, is it because she's matching the cultivation of her Master subconsciously?'
"The other faction heads are gathering within the Chamber of Dungeons within 3 hours time," Athan announced. "You will tell no one of what you've told me today. There is no guarantee that there aren't students in on this as well as high ranking instructors. For your own protection, please heed my warning. I will bring Crowrella with me as I enter the Dungeon — the connection between a familiar and its Master is one thing I can use to find Corven."
"Let us come with you, faction head!" Jabari said, boisterous. At Marxes' insistence of quieting down, Jabari then whispered. "We can be of help, too, you know."
"A red color Dungeon is no place for the unprepared, least of all, inexperienced students," Athan stated flatly. "There is no guarantee that even Corven and Celeste will even be making it out of this alive to start with…".
As if he didn't mean to say that last part aloud, Athan fixed the group with a quick and stern look, before speaking once more. "No, you will go back to your dorms. I will be more than efficient on my own."
With defeated expressions, Jabari and Marxes retreated from Athan's study. Crowrella fixed Athan with an unreadable expression before shifting into her bird form and finding a place high up in the study when they left, likely keeping an eye on everything inside from her perch.
"Huh, what a strange bird…," Athan muttered, almost so silently, that only he could hear.
[Jabari Ausar]:
To say that Marxes and Jabari were disappointed by the faction head's decision to go at this without them was evident in and of itself. Sadly they swallowed it, as he wasn't wrong. They weren't strong enough to hold themselves up in a red Dungeon. And they were just students… inexperienced students with hardly anything holding them on-par with the likes of a faction head or even an instructor or higher classman. Athan was the faction head of the Shadow Faction at the Academy. His word was law. Plus he was strong, even for a faction head, or so Jabari has heard.
As the pair of boys made their way back to the Library, they were unpleasantly surprised to see that Sean and his gang whom Crowrella had taken care of were… gone!
"Damn it!" Jabari exclaimed, kicking the wall in frustration. "We should have tied them up. Should we be worried about their retaliation?"
"I doubt it," Marxes stated. "From his defeat at Crowrella's hands, Sean will likely run away, possibly out from campus, while keeping in contact with whichever instructors or faction heads he has under his coin. This is my prediction based on what I already know about the bastard. It has a 91.71% likelihood of coming to pass."
"I see…," Jabari sighed heavily. "We can't help Corven directly, it would seem, and now we can't even bring him the bastard responsible for the whole situation to begin with! We can barely help him indirectly, though Athan. So the least we can do is find out who is working with Sean. I'm sure he's left some informant students and instructors. We can't do anything about the faction heads, but everyone else is fair game. You in. Ginger Genius?"
"Whatever, you Hyperactive Spaz, let's get this over with," said a brooding Marxes to a grinning Jabari. "And, yeah, he most definitely left some of his informants here. Let's go find them."
Sharing an easy nod between one another, the duo left to find who else could be behind what happened to Corven and Celeste.
[Sean Luminaris]:
Sean's plan to take out the princess should be a success, but, just in case, when he had awakened from his forced unconsciousness, he quickly gathered his allies and left campus.
For one thing, there was evidently footage of what he had done to those two lesser noble brats that their friends possessed. Sean was sure that they had gone to one of the faction heads — and not one of the fashion heads that he had on his payroll. It would be unwise to continue to be there past this revelation — He'd risk punishment, or worse, expulsion.
Second, he received word that his second part of the plan was a success. His father had been felled and his father's allies were in complete retreat. Luminaris Manor was pretty much in ruins, but he can fix it up again when he takes over the House as his own. The seat of his house was practically his, guaranteed at this point.
'I just have to ensure those two don't make it out of there alive,' Sean thought as he fled. 'Then again, that's a red dungeon. They're only Legacy rankers. They won't survive that. No, impossible!'
Whenever he legitimizes himself as the next lord of House Lumianris, he could return to Mythorus Academy. He'd be a lord of a Great House by then. No one would be able to touch him, even if they had proof of his foul play. Just one of the perks of being the lord of a great house.
As Sean sat in his seat on the supersonic train, heading back to his manor, he was unaware of the challenges that lay ahead. He couldn't have known lengths he would go to or the crowd he'd call 'allies' in a few days' time. He couldn't have known what he'd turn out like. After all, if he had, he never would've enacted a series of events he had automatically enacted the moment he shoved Celeste into that red Dungeon portal…
[Celeste Luminaris]:
They have been hiding right where they were for literal hours, afraid of moving a step and causing a footprint to lead the werewolves directly to them. Corven had tried to summoning multiple shadow wolves, but, considering they were Tier B beasts, going up against a pack of 30+ Tier werewolves, he was just wasting stamina and mana. He eventually gave up on the effort and stopped summoning them.
Instead, Celeste and Corven stayed under the Invisiblis incantation that Celeste had performed. Thankfully, it masked their scent, so, as long as they maintained their silence and didn't move, they couldn't be tracked in the traditional werewolf sense.
'My mana is reaching its limit,' Celeste telepathically whispered to Corven. 'Any moment now, my spell can undo itself.'
The two communicated through Celeste's telepathy and Corven's soul whisper. Celeste was a daughter of Hemera, who was also an underworld deity, so she had the soul whisper, but she still preferred telepathy. It just came more natural to her.
They were still surrounded by 30+ werewolves, all of them being Tier A beasts, except 3, who were at the in-between of Tier A and Tier S. Not quite low Tier S but also not quite peak Tier A, either. They were the perfect example of how different beasts cultivate when compared to normal mortal cultivation. If the beasts were human, there would be no in-between.
'That's probably for the best in our case,' thought Celeste to herself. 'That said, if the Invisiblis incantation becomes undone in the middle of so many werewolves, they'll be jumped on sight. And they would most definitely not survive. Primordial Spawns and Demigods be damned.
'If you de-Invisible us right now, how long would it take you to charge up enough moonlight to do your Lunar Gateway thing?' Corven soul whispered after a moment of silence.
'Wait, how do you know about that ability?' Celeste asked, before answering. 'And not long.'
'Read it in the Luminaris Manor's study,' Corven soul whispered. 'I can hold them off you, but you will need to charge your moonlight energy as fast as you can without killing yourself and open a lunar gateway.'
Corven summoned his twin long daggers, Greenfang Blades, and his armor set, the Greenfang. He began charging his shadow energy, its aura rising, discreetly, but surely. 'They're tracking us by scent, so the moment you de-invisiblis us, we'll be exposed. I'll hold them off however long I can, so don't take too long.'
'Right,' Celeste nodded.
'On three,' Corven mentally readied himself for a hell of a fight based on his expression. 'One.'
Deep breath.
'Two.'
Deep breath.
"Three!" Corven shouted and the camouflage spell lifted right as he charged at the unsuspecting pack of werewolves.
[Corven Umbrovante]:
Willing his shadow wolves to come out to fight alongside him, Corven also summoned Eclipse, the shadow sphinx whom had broken through to Tier A(Peak) recently. He willed them to take on the lower level Tier A werewolves as he charged towards the mid-level Tier A werewolves, aiming to engage them in combat.
There were 3 Tier A(Peak) werewolves, 8 Tier A(High) werewolves, 7 Tier A(Mid) and 12 Tier A(Low) werewolves. As he charged towards the mid-level tier a werewolves, Corven killed a few of the lower level Tier A werewolves, shrinking their numbers from 12 down to 8. His shadow sphinx, Eclipse, killed 2 with his claws, the cat was almost enjoying it — Looking at the glee in her eyes, the cat was definitely enjoying this. He even swallowed a third whole somehow. Eclipse then proceeded to swallow the first two. His shadow wolves, though a whole complete tier below them, ganged up on one of the werewolves, not letting up; even when some were thrown away, they'd just keep returning, overwhelming the enemies with tenacity and their sheer, undead willpower.
By the time Corven had reached the 7 brown werewolves(Mid Tier A), the 12 low level Tier A werewolves had shrunken to 4. And, just before reaching his enemy, Corven willed his shadow to extend, claiming the 5 bodies of the Tier A(low) werewolves, intending to turn them into his shadow undeads or use them as cultivation fuel.
"Rah!" one the mid-level Tier A werewolves choose to charge at Corven with a battle cry. For whatever reason, likely ego, the other 6 Tier A(Mid) werewolves decided to watch. Corven didn't care, though. If anything, this was a help to him. The werewolf threw a clawed jab at Corven.
Corven managed to dodge, not stopping, even as he ran up to the werewolf, cutting a line from the private parts up to the top of his head in a instant. And he kept going.
He didn't even stop rushing ahead to see the werewolf hit the snowy ground, as his adrenaline was reaching an all-time high. He just willed the remains to sink into his shadow, and continued to run forward.
At this sight, the other Tier A(Mid) werewolves decided Corven was not someone they could afford not to take seriously. Deciding to jump Corven, three of the 6 wolves charged forward at the same time. One aimed a claw to Corven's chest, to which Corven crossed both his blades to block. He was successful in blocking the strike, but the force of the attack had him stumbling backwards by a few feet.
The other two charging werewolves didn't stop their advancement, seeking to gain the upperhand as the momentum of the battle were on their side. One of them, a russet werewolf with amber eyes and a nasty snarl, aimed one claw at Corven's chest, to which Corven was able to block somehow, and a second one at Corven's side, to which Corven was not able to block, sadly.
Corven grabbed his side, oozing a claw-like wound in blood, grimacing. He blocked a third werewolf's claw to the head with his blades, but that left his other side open — An opening that said werewolf;f was eager to mark up. Corven fell to one knee, grasping his bleeding guts, his hand coming back crimson.
"Submit and DIE!" exclaimed the werewolf.
"Bitch, do you know who fuck I am? I am Corven Nexus Nox Umbrovante. If you bastards think I'm dying to some overgrown, bipedal, shaggy man-dog bitches, you are sadly mistaken cause that means you don't know me at all!" screamed Corven, as he, ignoring the pain, willed himself to stand, swords in hand as he blocked the russet werewolf's two claw strike, before placing his hand on the russet werewolf's chest, willing darkness to consume the werewolf, raising him as one of his Tainted through his Taint ability.
The werewolf stepped back, horrified expression worn, as the darkness spread across his body like a web of a plague, turning his russet colored fur black and ash grey. His amber eyes became a glowing indigo blue and his aura quickly skipped a level, transforming him into the very peak of Tier A. His muscles thickenned, and his canines extended.
"Arise… my Asher," Corven said, grinning, even as blood poured from his mouth and wounds.
As the werewolf arose from the knee he took, Corven watched as the other werewolves watched on, shocked by what they had just witnessed. One of their own had undergone some kind of drastic transformation, both by appearance and by cultivation aura.
Corven chose not to waste any time. They were distracted at the moment, and he would use this opportunity. "Go, Asher, kill your brethren werewolves, except for four of them —- Four of them I want you to leave battered and bruised, but alive."
"Yes, my Master," Asher said, with a bow of the head, before leaping into action.
Asher pummelled one of the Tier A(Mid) level werewolves in the face, instantly knocking it out, before doing the same to the second one. He then went towards the other three werewolves, intending to take them on.
All this happened in a matter of moments.
Corven, no longer externally bleeding thanks to his healing factor, hobbled over to one of the unconscious werewolves his Taint ability on it, causing it to take on a similar grey and black appearance as Asher, as it awakened one more, now bowing before him in submission. Both of them now possessed indigo blue eyes and a cultivation level of a peak Tier A beasts.
"Help your brother out and kill the other Tier A(High) werewolves over there," Corven nodded towards the 8 (High) Tier A werewolves that Asher was now fighting now that the other Tier A(Mid) level werewolves were either unconscious or dead.
They immediately went to work.
Corven, now almost completely healed, walked over to the 2 oher unconscious werewolves and 1 dead one, doing the same process on two of them, and sinking the dead one into his shadow.
'At this point, Celeste might now need to open a Lunar Gateway,' Corven thought, seeing that the shadow wolves and Eclipse had almost completely finished the Tier A(Low) level wolves, and Skyron must have arrived sometime during Corven's struggle against the mid-levels, because he was chomping away on the (High) levelers, too, and, with the aid of Ash and his friends, it wouldn't take too long to finish this fight. 'Maybe I can kill these werewolves without having to retreat.'
There were originally 8 High level Tier A werewolves, but, as Eclipse and the remaining shadow wolves went to join Skyron and Ash, the bodies kept piling —- Piling to the point that the Peak Tier A werewolves decided it was time to intervene. They immediately killed Eclipse by ripping its body to pieces to fast for the shadow sphinx to regenerate. And the shadow wolves joined the sphinx at the same exact time.
'Shit. jinxed it,' Corven grimaced.
Before Corven could resurrect them, one of the peak Tier A werewolves instantaneously vanished from his spot, appearing directly in front of Corven in barely a blink, backhanding Corven on his side, which, not being fully healed internally, ruptured once more externally. Blood trailed his fall.
Getting up, Corven spat out some more blood. He felt that his wounds were bleeding both externally and internally at the same time. His strength and stamina weren't drained, though — It was still night, so he had a constant influx of energy he was getting in that regard. But the assaulting Peak level Tier A werewolf would teleport around, beating Corven up faster than his wounds would be able to heal.
The werewolf grabbed Corven by the neck, squeezing him like it was nothing, before chucking him many feet away into a boulder.
"Aagh!" Corven, groaning in pain, didn't even manage to get up before the same werewolf had teleported before Corven once again, kicking him hard on his other side, causing his other wound to ruptured, just as it had begun to heal again.
'Damn, I just had to say something!' Corven thought to himself, between getting pummelled. 'Now I'm getting my ass handed to me by a fucking overgrown mutt! This is humiliating!'
Summoning forth Eclipse once more alongside the shadow wolves buy more time.
Over by the other Peak Tier A werewolves, Asher and Skyron was holding their own well as their other (Peak) Tier A unnamed Tainted brethrens dealt with the rest of the (High) level Tier A werewolves. Meanwhile, a ways back, Celeste sat in cultivation position, but, instead of cultivating, she was gathering moonlight, absorbing it inside her core. Corven glanced her way, before willing his shadow into linen that he used to wrap around his sides to help stop the bleeding.
Getting up, he turned to see the werewolf that was now forcing Eclipse and the shadow wolves' hands.
He willed one of the faster shadow wolves his way, sinking into its shadow, he then willed it to get in close to the teleporting werewolf, which, in and of itself, was hard. Everytime the shadow wolf got close to the beast, it would teleport away, behind one of the other shadow wolves and kill that one instantly.
Eclipse soared overhead, searching for an opening, refusing to show itself until it found one. Everytime Eclipse would think it found one and dive down, the werewolf would teleport away.
Just then, the werewolf teleported behind the shadowwolf Corven had been hiding in the shadow of. Before he could process anything, the werewolf slit its neck, decapitating it at the same time as ripping the rest of its limbs apart, killing the undead once more. This caused Corven to be thrusted from its shadow, as it turned into a shadowy mist.
"Ack!" Corven coughed up blood. He didn't know how it felt to get thrusted from someone else's shadow, but at least he did now. It was not pleasant, it was not pleasant at all.
Suddenly, the werewolf raised Corven by the neck, choking Corven and Corven finally got a good look at his would-be killer. The werewolf had coffee brown fur, a much more lean build than Asher had and the same amber eyes. Unlike others, this one wore a piece of cloth — specifically, a blue loincloth that had black etchings on it. This fact made Corven think that maybe this one was a high ranking one, in that brief moment his psyche was not fading away.
He still struggled as much as he could, but his vision was still darkening. His limbs were becoming numb and hard to feel or move. He was certain he was about to die.
"What did you do to my packmates?" the werewolf gestured around to Asher and the others, increasing the hold around Corven's neck, as Corven still managed to struggle to get air to no success. He was purple now. "What have you done?! Fix them!"
"F-fuck…y-you…," Corven struggle to get out.
"ROAR! I'll kill you!" the werewolf suddenly began choking Corven with both hands, increasing his grip's strength on Corven's neck. "I'll rip your skill from your body and shove it where the Sun don't shine! I'll then—-."
But, before he could kill Corven nor finish his sentence, Eclipse landed atop of him, the size and weight of a lion weighing the werewolf down, pinning him down. The werewolf let go of Corven, releasing Corven instinctively.
"You were saying…?" Corven clutched his throat, finally able to breathe again. "This is Eclipse, by the way. Say 'hi' Eclipse."
"ROARRR!" the shadow sphinx answer.
"Thanks, buddy," Corven said, still clutching his throat.
Eclipse squealed in approval of the appraisal.
Bur Eclipse began whining suddenly as the werewolf that was pinned underneath her began lifting her with incredible strength.
"I will not lose!" the werewolf roared in fervor.
"Checkmate," Corven muttered, acting as the werewolf held the sphinx over his head like he was Hercules. He reached out, touching the werewolf's forehead directly, willing his Taint ability to taint the beast in his darkness.
Unlike Asher, who turned ash grey and black, this werewolf turned a pitch midnight black with indigo blue eyes. His presence, Corven didn't sense if it rose or not, as he was just too tired. Clutching his throat, exhaustion tiring him like he just ran a marathon, Corven noticed that, with this one done with, he only had to deal with the stragglers. And, as this werewolf fell to one knee, he sensed it hadn't grown a level or two, either, but Corven had an idea about why that was already.
"My Master," it said.
"Rise up… Flicker," Corven grabbed his side as he spoke. The werewolf obeyed. "Now, let us—."
"So this is where you guys went," suddenly a voice sounded directly behind Corven, its heaviness causing Corven to shiver. "Interesting ability you have there, by the way."
Turning around slowly, shivering in terror, Corven saw that the being that had managed to sneak up behind him was also a werewolf, only this werewolf was many, many, many times stronger. Corven could feel its strength just by being near it; its presence reminded Corven of being near Faction Head Athan Eubuleus, meaning this being was at least Tier S or a Chaotic ranked being!
It had ash colored fur, eyes as gold as the morning moon, that seemed to listlessly shift from morning moon beta gold to crimson sky alpha red interchangeably. It wore no top, but it had blue exomis bottoms lined in gold etchings. It was very muscular -– Corven meant it was jacked, in the most muscular sense of the word — and tall, like a warrior should be, but its powerful presence was both refined like royalty but powerful like the fiercest of beasts. It was at least 13 feet tall, and had claws longer than any talons and sharper than any sword. Corven could sense his aura and it filled him with dread.
"W-who are you?" Corven asked, internally cursing at his shitty luck for his situation.
"I… am Prince Pallas Lycaon, second born son of King Lycaon, a Progenitor of the original family pack of werewolves," the werewolf said, eyeing Corven with a hunger in his eyes. "I have come to eat you and everyone present. I'm sure you'll all taste quite scrumptious, no?"
Making a face, all Corven could mutter was "Well, shit. Fucking Hell"