[Corven Umbrovante]:
Slicing through the neck of yet another Lightningwind Mountain Lion, Corven savagely simultaneously ripped its heart out in a single grab, before feeding it — and the corpse — to Eclipse, who swallowed both quite gratefully.
"Mreow," Eclipse meowed, purring, clearly satisfied with the gift.
Corven took a brief moment to smile at his first shadow summons. She was currently roughly the size of a lynx, with her black, shadowy mist-like fur coating her solid body. She didn't currently have wings like she would in combat and her form was shrunken then how it would be during combat, when she'd change her size, but to Corven, she was the same old cat that he made his first shadow.
A sudden beam of lunar light pierced the skull of a lightningwind mountain lion that had been intending to sneak up on Corven —- Corven had already sensed its shadow, no matter how well it had hid it, though Celeste wasn't convinced. "Watch your self, Cor."
Turning, Corven merely smirked. "I had that, you know."
Celeste, wearing a matching smirk, jus answered with "I know," before returning to combat some more lions.
Corven watched her go, slightly distracted by the way she moved. It was so fluid and effortlessly graceful, it made Corven catch his breath. Despite this being a red gate, she was clearly comfortable in the field of battle… or at least in the hunt, anyway.
She wore no amour or protective equipment, though her legendary ranked rapier, Silvermoon, was in one hand while her old hand was all claws. Her wand was popped out the back pocket of her white jeans —- It was the same Peak Chaotic ranked wand Corven had given her, the Unicorn's Wand, as it was justly named.
Between that and her longsleeve red blouse and red and black combat boots, her hair tied back into a ponytail, except for two strands hanging before her face — Corven could only muster one thought and one thought only when he looked at her: 'Gods,' he thought. 'She's beautiful.'
REOW!
A mountain lion's deadly battle cry knocked Corven from his reverie. On instinct, Corven ran to his right, sliding down low on the forest dirt as he raised his blade overhead, deliberately cutting through the stomach and torso of a surprised, mid-leap lightningwind mountain lion, its guts and innards spilling from the wound even before it touched the ground, painting the forest crimson with blood.
'Focus, Cor,' Corven thought, whipping blood and guts from his face with his free hand, before storing yet another corpse into his Shadow Space. 'You have an agenda to get through while here, Corven. You cannot afford distractions.'
Corven came here to do a variety of things. Catching himself some more monster corpses to turn into an undead and getting stronger were only one such objectives. Another was to explore the usage of abilities gained via his Absorb ability or any sealed, unawakened affinities he had yet to discover within himself.
For instance, he knew he had a natural affinity for darkness and shadow, both as an ability and as magic — Dark magic. But he also had an affinity for Sky, Spatial and Night elements, and, from how brightly the lights of the affinity crystal shone during the Avouching Ceremony, he evidently had a pretty strong affinity for each of these elements — A surprisingly rare affinity to them that bordered possibly on a monarch territory.
'I should be able to draw on my natural affinities to create corresponding elemental abilities, right?' Corven thought, eyes closed in focus as he looked inward for the familiar flames within himself — the flames of his awakened affinities like lanterns within his soul. 'Where are you…? There you are.'
Upon finding the blue-violet flame of his spatial affinity, Corven immediately willed the fire to flare, similar to how he used his shadow abilities, just less instinctive. He willed it to travel through his mana veins and meridians to the entirety of his body.
He felt the change instantly.
He suddenly became all too aware of his environment at a level his perception capabilities rarely ever allowed him to see before — A clarity that was equal to his shadow sense during night time, but with much more detail of the environment brought to his senses. If Shadow Sense allowed Corven to sense the shadow of everything/everyone around him, then this awareness allowed him to see around himself in perfect 360° angles with basically 4K resolutive clarity in all directions.
He 'sensed' the side of the mountain Celeste and he were on. The trees, tall and a mix of oak, pine and various others of the forests below —- they were all in his range to perceive. He could sense every mountain lion within half a mile radius of himself before things got too blurry. Even with his eyes closed, he could 'see' Celeste fighting her own monsters behind him.
And lightningwind mountain lions were swift creatures, with many basic ones reaching supersonic levels in speed and agility. Yet all of them were under Corven's sensory range and Corven could perceive them so well, it was like they were running in slow motion.
He felt an urge to move in any direction, though not by walking or running, but just by willing himself to do so… So that was what he did.
Immediately, he opened his eyes to find space blinking around him before it blinked him back into existence, this time, though, he wasn't where he was before. No, now he stood at the side of the mountain's edge, easily 3/4ths of a mile ahead from where he was before, looking out at the forest below.
"Teleportation..." Corven smiled in pride. "Oh, I like this. I like this a lot. What else can I do with my affinities? I wonder..."
Suddenly, an idea came to Corven. Drawing power from his Spatial Affinity, Corven raised both hands out in front of him, in focus. Willing the space before him to rupture, Corven opened his eyes to see a spatial portal, glowing at the edges a blue-violet, while, in the center, on the other side, Corven saw Celeste, cutting through lions with deadly grace—She was beautiful, covered in the blood and guts of the lightningwind mountain lions she slayed, as she moved in a blur through combat. She had physically gotten faster and stronger—both as a cultivator and a Primordial Spawn. Her alpha werewolf status has only added to that power, no doubt. Physically, Corven knew Celeste was able to fight on par with Peak Chaotic rankers before she got the bite, and that was as a Legacy ranker—Now, she may be able to hold her own against Low Legendary rankers for a short timeframe, now that she was at Peak Demigod rank.
Choosing to step through to join his arranged in combat, Corven decided he would use this opportunity to see what more else he could do with his Spatial Affinity.
"So, you decided to stop watching me from afar, Cor?" Celeste asked, wiping blood from her face with her sleeve, smiling. "Can't say I blame you, though. I know I'm pretty."
Corven simply rolled his eyes at Celeste's comment, though he had tried hard to fight the smile threatening to blossom on his face. Though, by the outright giggle Celeste let out, she must've seen his lips twitch. Fucking hell.
"What…? A spatial portal…. New ability?" Celeste questioned, evidently curious. When Corven didn't answer, she resumed her fighting with a shrug.
Corven liked her, but he didn't want her to know all his secrets… Even if she was right at guessing it, it wouldn't be right to confirm her thoughts… At least, not until he mastered such abilities.
Upon entering this Dungeon, everyone split up in groups of 3's—J.C, Jabari and Marques made one group while Achlys, Corven and Celeste made the other. Achlys had broken off further up the mountain where the Tier S lightningwind lions dwelled, with a promise NOT to disturb the sleeping boss at the Peak of it.
Or, at least, Corven thought that that was where the Boss lion had its den, considering the higher they went, the stronger the lions they encountered.
Cimon had decided to watch over J.C and Jabari, as they went further east from the mountain range—closer to the territories of the other 3 bosses of the Dungeons—the shadowflame bears and shadow wolves.—Those were the 3 monster types of this Dungeon, Corven had noted when they had first encountered one of each type upon entry, as a greeting party.
Thankfully, they were only Tier A beasts, so Corven and his friends broke no sweat killing them—They did, however, learn that to the West, the Mountains were the territory of the lions; the Northeast and North were the territory of the shadow wolves; and to the southeast and South, layed the territory of the shadowflame bears.
And all 3 beasts were very territorial.