664 10/12 0:14 (Autumn, Sunrise, Midrar)
The smiling Child of the Moon turned her attention fully towards her Mates.
This was an immediate signal for Sabel to move, the Human crossing the distance between the two at once, thrusting with her sword and aiming on impaling the Lunarian in the chest.
A pale hand flashed forward, fingers closing in and completely stopping the charge, causing cracks to spread among the construct's surface, the Human's left wrist being grabbed by the Lunarian's free hand, lightening the sudden stop while at the same time making sure she would be unable to just retreat.
The fingers around the sword clenched, shattering the Shaped blade and opening the black-haired one for a rapid strike to her gut.
Fortunately for her, Amber intervened, a concentrated line of flames forcing Luna to give up on her attack and retreat, dodging at the same time the spike of solid Curses by Mafel.
Luna's left hand flashed out, Will forming sharp claws around her fingers and cutting into Sabel's shirt alone, the black-eyed one having already jumped back just in time to evade the rest of the attack.
Yet the Lunarian couldn't continue on with her attack, her Phoenix flying in and taking the place of the main distraction, having once more activated her Form: Living Flame to maximize the amount of force she could bring to bear.
The red and golden curved sword slammed into Luna's joined hands, being stopped entirely and causing the Lunarian to smile at feeling the difference in physical abilities compared to her previous self.
Luna's shadow erupted, solidifying into long stakes that impaled the two, or at least would have if the pale one didn't shift small parts of her own body into Astral Ichor to flow around the spikes, being left completely unharmed.
Amber, meanwhile, had her physical form impaled in multiple parts, flames escaping from within through the openings made in her, thankful for her current lack of any nerves or organs.
The golden-threaded Humanoid inhaled strongly, air flowing in between her threads and forcefully feeding the flames inside of her, minimizing the loss caused by her teared threads while at the same time solidifying into more of her golden strands.
Done with it, her flames soon detonated, enveloping the two of them in a precise bubble of liquid flames, taking advantage of her own natural Fire-Attribute Absorption to recover more Energy that she was actually spending.
Luna was constantly dedicating part of her Will to isolate herself from the flames themselves while letting the heat harmlessly wash over her body, satisfied of the opportunity of testing out her natural environmental resistance as a Lunarian.
Bathed in light as the two were, the shadow spikes soon fell apart completely, freeing the Phoenix to transfer some of her prepared golden threads to patch up the holes in her body, her Unique Arma thrusting in the same instant towards Luna's face.
Pale lips twitched upwards, scarlet eyes narrowing in glee. 'I'm sorry but if you think this is enough to slow me down, you are sorely mistaken.' Her mental message was immediately followed by Luna Casting [Atlantean Fall], creating a very small bubble of Condemnation-infused heavy water between her joined hands.
The bubble soon detonated, a wave of cold and dark liquid erupting from the Lunarian and rapidly eating at the flames, extinguishing the liquid fire immediately around the white-haired one and dragging the two fluids and their creators into a prolonged battle of dominance.
Sabel watched as bright, orange flames fought against the black tide, the two stalemating and forming an ever-growing mass of shifting elemental conflict.
Her focus sharpened towards a single point, the ever-shifting border between the two elemental effects, her fingers clenching hard around the hilt of a new constructed greatsword, its shimmering surface rippling in concern with her concentration.
As the golden curved sword clashed with the black armour amidst the constantly writhing masses of fire and water, the Human blurred forward, her weightless weapon swinging through the heavy water, its edge passing through the dark liquid and swinging towards the Lunarian's pale back.
Weakened as it was by having to pass through the dense fluid and the hardened layer of Will-laced Astral Ichor, the sharpness of the blade was eroded enough to be unable to pierce through her skin, merely transmitting the force into the white-haired one and sending her flying away.
The red-eyed one flipped in mid-air, her previous Spell terminating in exchange for Casting a very simple Air-Attribute Spell that would safely bleed off her momentum, landing back on her feet to observe her two Mates, her gaze soon moving around to seek her third one.
Well, Mafel was actually her first Mate if one was to consider the chronological order of their Markings, but Luna decided to ignore this thought.
Her crimson orbs peered into the zone around her, her lips twisting in a smile upon seeing no trace of her, the reason being the semi-transparent dome of extremely thin Curses that she hurriedly created to surround a nine-meters wide structure centred on her.
During her brief skirmish against Amber, Mafel evidently retreated further back, releasing a large quantity of materialized Curses that she then redirected to form that barrier, barely visible to the naked eye and without any Effect beyond its presence.
Yet its existence alone meant that her True Sight was unable to perceive the World beyond its confines, unable to see the medium's current location or status.
Casually moving around, she was able to confirm that the construct roughly moved with her, either because of some innate property of the barrier or because of manual control by the former Boss Monster.
Amber closed the distance to the Child of the Moon with an explosion, the sword in her right hand flashing towards the pale throat yet striking only air, the Lunarian dodging inwardly instead of outwardly, grabbing the forearm itself before slamming directly into the Phoenix, taking advantage of her much greater mass to send her back.
Sabel, following after the blonde, jumped over her body, landing on her shoulder and throwing herself in a thrust with her 128 cm long sword, trying to stake the Vampiric one.
Luna moved sideways, dodging entirely the falling body only to see, with a smile growing even wilder, how Sabel upon landing and, taking advantage of the weightlessness of her blade, twisted in herself to turn the thrust into a deadly horizontally swing.
The ethereal blade slammed into Luna's crossed arms, forcing the white-haired one to retreat a couple of steps.
Simultaneously, Amber returned to her Humanoid form, her once more available Pyrokinesis adding to her Air-Attribute Mana and unleashing a burning, cutting tornado around the pale one before it twisted inwardly.
Burning air fell upon the Lunarian, the wind blades composing it opening wound after wound upon Luna's body and in so doing letting the flames lacing them invade the white-haired one's body.
An attempt to either apply the Status Alteration 'Burn' or inflict Internal Damage to the pale one.
An attempt that failed, however, as the intensify of those flames was far from enough to overcome a C-Rank Lunarian's natural Resistances, especially considering her Internal Resistance and the qualities of the Astral Ichor in her veins.
Before Luna could deal with the tornado that constantly battered away at her body, Amber passed right through the wall of flames and super-heated air to thrust into the pale one's chest.
Yet the Lunarian predicted this strike, pushing against the wind to dodge the blade, grabbing her Mate's wrist, kicking her ankle before launching a punch to her chest, Astral Ichor boiling and releasing a wave of force that sent her crashing away towards Sabel, counting on the natural survival ability of the Phoenixes to turn an otherwise deadly strike into a much less critical one.
As the blonde flew towards the black-haired one, this last one merely narrowed her eyes in concentration, jumping over the flying one, stepping on her shoulder briefly to alter her own path.
The black-eyed one swung once more her greatsword, moving in concert with the last fading current of the twister.
Luna rose her arms in the way, calculating the force behind the blow, before her own eyes widened in surprise at feeling the Human letting go of the construct before the impact could actually happen.
The swordswoman's other hand flashed forward, striking the greatsword itself and causing it to cut a couple of centimetres into Luna's arms before the construct detonated, releasing a wave of sharp shards that carved even more into Luna's body.
Mafel, floating at the moment far above her dome, watched as Amber faceplanted in the ground because of Sabel, feeling and then sending to her mortified Mate her own amusement.
Done with taking enjoyment out of the Phoenix's shame at Sabel's actions, the Elf prepared to rejoin the fight, her armour twisting around herself, forming a more effective version.
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