NOVPUBKilling the fue follets was a fun experience for Luna in her werewolf state, thanks to her primal instincts that found joy in pursuing moving things and since they were just beast rank cryptids, their projectiles didn’t cause any harm to her. Not only was she an ascended, her werewolf fur was thick and it allowed her to shrug off the attacks.
Uriel, though, was beyond frustrated. As a heavenly rank he wasn’t afraid of those weak creatures, but their projectiles could still damage his clothes and even worse, soak them wet. Walking in the marshlands was already uncomfortable enough for him and he wasn’t thrilled when those creatures began hurling mud balls at him.
"You look like the swamp monster." Luna chuckled with a gurgling wolfish sound after they finished the last of the fairy-like creatures.
"Swamp monster?" Uriel gulped down a lump of saliva, just as Sam did whenever someone ’raised a flag’.
"It’s a mysterious creature that incarnates the spirit of the swamp. It’s made of vegetation, mud an all the things that can be found on a swamp."
"But those are all the things I hate!" Said Uriel after slapping a mosquito, even though it was unable to suck his blood.
Uriel hated bugs, he despised them and they grossed him out. It was a visceral feeling that came from deep within and he couldn’t stop himself from shivering at the sight of bugs, even Water warlock’s influence did close to nothing to appease his disgust for bugs. It was such a strong feeling, Uriel was certain that if he was a cryptid, bugs would be his weakness.
"There’s something over there..." Luna sniffed the air and pointed towards an open area. The water shimmered in a pale white under the elegant reflection of the moon, but as beautiful as it was to see, it was also troublesome because it made impossible to see what was beneath the water surface.
"Please, don’t tell me it’s the swamp thing."
"No, it smells... delicious." Drool dripped down from Luna’s maw and before Uriel could stop her, she darted forward and began prancing on the shallow waters trying to catch whatever it was that caught her interest, leaving Uriel alone in the dark.
After looking around and confirming he was safe, he climbed a tree and sat on a low branch to rest. He also took the chance to dry his clothes as he watched Luna having fun in the water. Seeing her like that made him realized that, contrary to the usual, she had no issue showing her emotions and feelings while she was in her werewolf form.
She wagged her tail when happy, yelped when in pain and even laughed, though her laugh sounded like it came from a hellish beast instead of a young woman.
Now that Uriel was free, he took some time to sort out the flux orbs they obtained. It was a long night of painstakingly hard labor since hunting in the swamps was far from an ideal scenario, but it did pay out.
"63 beast rank orbs and 12 monster rank orbs, not bad for a first day." He smiled as he put them all back inside the backpack. For a brief moment, he was tempted to take a look at Luna’s clothes. It was just out of scientific curiosity and had nothing to do with her underwear, or so he convinced himself, but in the end he decided against it because he didn’t want Luna to think he was a pervert.
Out of a sudden, he felt a small breeze hitting him on the neck accompanied by the familiar sniffing sound Luna often made in her werewolf form.
"I wasn’t looking, I swear!" He inwardly congratulated himself for not doing it as it turned out to be the right decision, but the sniffing continued. "Stop, it tickles!" He mindlessly tried to shake Luna off of him and realized his shoulder was wet with drool. Just when he was about to scold Luna for that, he lowered his sight to the ground where Luna was piling up the alligators she hunted.
’If Luna is there, then...’ Cold sweat began forming on his forehead at the possibility that the creature behind him was the one Luna called ’the swamp monster’. He tried to jump down, but the tree branch cracked and athe cryptid captured him mid fall.
Suddenly, Uriel went from falling to being dragged through mud and vegetation at an insane speed and since he was drying his clothes, he didn’t have a lightsource with him and couldn’t see his attacker. He didn’t suffer much damage, but he couldn’t fight either. All he could do was let himself be dragged for as long as the cryptid wanted and try to cover his head to avoid getting knocked out.
By the time the cryptid let him go, Uriel was all bruised up and covered in scratches. He looked as though he was tied to a vehicle and dragged for a long distance over the pavement, but all those wounds were only superficial and he was able to stand up.
He lifted his guard and waited for the incoming strike, knowing full well that the cryptid’s intention was to get him separated from Luna to kill him.
He closed his eyes and focused on his mystical sense, managing to spot the general direction of the creature’s position. Then, he activated Dash and readied himself to dodge, but as fast as Uriel in his new heavenly rank was, the cryptid was even faster.
The creature bashed at him, which sent him crashing onto the forest and he broke three whole trees before stopping.
Enduring the pain was nothing to him who was accustomed to face much worse than that and he attempted to stand up, but without Water warlock’s blessing his body didn’t respond like he wanted and all he could do was listen to the noises caused by the cryptid, crossing his fingers to survive the next attack.
