Chapter 72—Serpent’s Call, Heroic spell.

Chapter 72: 72—Serpent’s Call, Heroic spell. Lucen jumped behind a wall as a shockwave rolled over the city. His ears had been ringing for a long time. They’d heal then Koril would swing his damn sword and the air would pop. The fires in the city were dying down. A lot of the buildings were now just piles of rubble, long gashes ran along the stone streets, and huge black shapes battled with men in the shadows of the fires. He settled down by the wall and filled his blood with mana. Automatic healing was something you always wanted available. [So what’s the plan? We wait till the Tyrant coughs in our direction and obliterates us?] There was someone here. A person that Windy told him not to shake. He or she had to be around here somewhere. [Windy’s mystery person might not be around now. Maybe we can relax.] The ground shook rhythmically. Like footsteps. Both Lucen and the Devourer system grew quiet. [You only devoured some of the Fiend’s strength. You cannot fight one by yourself.] The Fiend rose from the building, its shadow stretching across the street. Ivory horns brushed against buildings, and its crimson fur glowed in the fire’s light. Lucen started running, leaping over a fence the moment the wolf laid eyes on him. Not even half a second later the fence and crumbled building behind him were exploded as the Fiend charged through them. He launched off walls in an alley to climb a house, and began jumping from roof to roof. The houses exploded in piles of rubble moments after he passed. "I don’t want to fight, but he sure as hell wants to." [Don’t be disgusting, that wolf might be a she.] "She, he, i don’t give a fuck. How do we kill it?" Lucen slammed through someone’s window, and crouched down, trying to relax and slow down his heart rate. [I’m not the fighting part of this duo, that’s your job.] The least the system could do was help him think. His mind was slowly sinking into that feral mode, but even that wasn’t enough to kill a Fiend. [Try the superior Veil we used against the other Fiend. It didn’t upgrade Breath of Veil last time, so this is our chance to upgrade it. Just pray Discovery is on our side, and that you don’t die.] The Fiend outside was searching the area, growling and sniffing the air. Its head twitched towards the house Lucen was in. Shit. He sprung to his feet, and barreled through the wall behind him, sending wood and dust swirling around him. The Fiend slammed into the house at the same time. Lucen jumped as he burst through the wall, he was outside the house now. Cold air swished by him as he grabbed the tiles of the roof, and swung himself up. He ran along the roof of the collapsing house, thinking of where to land. Then a dumb thought struck him, and there wasn’t a lot of time. He leapt from the house, sailing through dust and debris to land on the Fiend’s back. Lucen grabbed the coarse red fur and considered his next move. [Remember the skill you gained from killing Thomas.] His mind was in shambles at the time, so he didn’t. He still had the man’s body in his storage. But he was on a very dangerous ride now. The Fiend bucked and spun, trying to throw him off, and turned to snap at him. But Lucen chose behind its tail to hide, a dog’s greatest dilemma. While the wolf chased its tail, Lucen shouted over the roaring wind. "Fusion?!" [Yes of Serpent Wind and Will’s Breath. We could also use the ring he had, the shield could take one blow from the Fiend before breaking.] "Do it!" Lucen immediately summoned the ring to his finger. Thomas, what a rich bastard. But money can’t save you from death. The ring made him feel a bit safer though. It could activate by itself. He wondered if using the shield now was a good idea; the sound of wind and the wolf’s rapid circles were hurting his eyes. [I already started the process a while ago, because they were so compatible, and I thought I would just apologise if you didn’t like it.] The lack of seeking his approval was alarming. But Lucen wasn’t complaining now, he needed a heavy hitting spell. [Congratulations! You’ve gained a Heroic-rank spell, Serpent’s Call.] Lucen’s eyes almost bulged, but he was so dizzy. He let go of the wolf’s tail, and got flung across the street like a bullet. The blue shield of the ring activated before he started skipping across the road like a stone on water. His blurry form shot through a building and the entire thing collapsed on him. But he was okay thanks to the shield and some luck. He could push his way out of the rubble, but he had other plans. He gathered his Dominance and loomed over his mana for the second time. The fires struggled against him. "Not now, not now..." The road trembled. The Fiend was getting closer. But he wasn’t scared, he wanted to be here. Footsteps made the world tremble, dust rained from the debris Lucen was buried under. He had barely an inch of space to him, sinking into himself was easier like this. He didn’t really focus on his murderous intent to force his mana to obey this time. Instead he made mana an extension of his will. The will to kill the Fiend. The mana flowed and Veiled his spell usage. Lucen summoned the runes for [Serpent’s Call] and he grimaced, they formed slowly. [You might wanna speed things up.] He muttered under his breath, "Now I miss [Will’s Breath]." The runes for [Serpent’s Call] obeyed his summons, but sluggishly. He sensed the wolf lingering over him with mana sense, and he let some of his Life mana shine through, to deceive it into thinking he was half dead. The wolf sniffed worrriedly, then dug up the rubble to see his body. Sweat pooled over his brow, he clenched his fists tighter as each part of the rune shimmered into existence. The wolf kicked a piece of rubble aside, and he was revealed. Perfectly fine, covered in dust, and smiling ever so slightly. His arm and spear shot up and pointed at the wolf. "Thanks for that." The spear turned into a beam of white light, and [Hunter’s Edge] sunk into the white. The wolf opened its jaws wide to snap him up, unable to sense the large amount of mana he just poured into his spear. He let go of the spear, and willed the ring on his finger to activate its blue shield. The beam of light didn’t shoot forward as usual. This time it expanded with the mana he poured into it, turning into a great luminous serpent. Its force was many times greater than his five breath enchantments. Lucen only saw a flash of light when it started moving, and then world exploded around him. A Heroic-rank attack was as powerful as he expected. Which was why he used the shield to protect himself. The spots in his eyes cleared slowly, and the world returned to his eyes. He was lying in a huge crater. All the houses around them had been blown aside. If he hadn’t seen the spear go off he would have thought one of Koril’s stray attacks landed here. He climbed out of the crater, groaning, and looked for the Fiend. Its skull was still on its body, dimming Lucen’s glee. But it was definitely dead. Most of its skin had been blasted from bone, its eyes popped right out and were a couple meters away. Its head was still attached, but the bone was severely damaged, and its brain must have been slosh. "So if I hit it in a non-lethal spot, it would still be alive?" Lucen muttered, "and I’d been out of mana." [You have enough to run while it’s on the floor. Also, congrats, you can get its Spirit Light, i think, Discovery might fuck you. And Breath of Veil——"Stalker’s Edge] Well, Heroic spells were crazy, at least, Bull wolves were just absolute tanks. He worked his way over to the wolf, and started the process of gaining its Spirit Light. [Extraction failed. Sorry, I almost got it.] Lucen clicked his tongue. Well, it was time to run away. He’s shown off more than enough today. "Everything’s destroyed, I don’t even know where I am. Where is Fr—" The ground exploded. Something crashed from the sky down on them with ten times more force than his best attack. The ring had cooled down enough to activate the blue shield, but Lucen was still sent tumbling through a storm of dust. He landed on his feet, and raised his eyes to the center of the explosion. His blood turned cold. The Tyrant Bull wolf was in front of him.