NOVPUBLuna and Zaroth were able to communicate telepathically, but there was no need to as she was able to instantly tell who was the strongest of the enemy and went to them.
Ashira, her comically large purple hat as well as the nonchalant expression on her face, made it seem like she was no danger at all—just an gorgeous, overworked middle-aged woman that needed a few weeks of rest—but the truth was that she was the most deadly of the council members that had come to attack.
As Luna's massive wings flapped in the wind, allowing her to stay high in the air, she opened her deadly jaws, the back of her throat starting to light up.
Not even a second later, the already hot surroundings seemed to turn even hotter as a deadly green inferno shot towards Ashira, aiming to burn her to a crisp.
Unlike all the people that have faced Luna's breath up until now, she was unfazed . Her expression not changing, she took a long puff of her pipe and opened her mouth in an "O" shape. 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝒐𝒎
An unnaturally large amount of smoke shot out, managing to intercept Luna's fire breath.
It not only managed to stop her inferno, but as the amount of the smoke increased, it went around her attack, reaching her.
Usually, the battle would have already been over, since Ashira's smoke was extremely deadly—even if a little managed to enter your system, you were as good as dead.
Not that this concerned Luna in the slightest—she was an undead; such little things were not going to bother her.
'Seeing that my fire breath is not enough…' Upon seeing that this attack wouldn't work, she decided to change tactics. Stopping her fire breath, she moved her body and flapped her wings with tremendous force.
A powerful windstorm exploded outward, like a tornado descending upon the land. The wind was so overwhelmingly strong that Ashira's purple hat was almost about to be blown off her head before preventing it by putting a hand over it, "Oh, this was a close call," she mused as her lips curled upwards.
Her deadly smoke was blown out, and her breasts seemed like they were dangerously close to slipping out of her attire, and yet she didn't look worried at all.
"You didn't think this was all I could do, right?" Ashira teased as she opened her mouth once again.
However, this time the smoke she let out was different—it seemed that it was unaffected by the strong wind, as if having a mind of its own.
Managing to put a barrier around herself and the dragon, Ashira turned her head, gazing at Velastra. "Sweetie, will you help me, please?"
With a simple nod, Velastra placed her hand over the string of her bow, making it so a blue shining arrow materialized and shot it with deadly speed.
It was pretty obvious something was off about the arrow, as once it reached the wall of smoke Ashira had made, it changed its trajectory, going over it and targeting the dragon.
This was Velastra's power—once she shot an arrow, they would hit their mark no matter what.
One, five, ten.
In the span of a single second, she was able to let go of a dozen arrows, all making their way towards Luna, following different paths as if missiles with navigation.
'Oh?' Luna mused, liking the fact that another opponent had appeared. 'It's only natural the weak team up to try their luck against the strong,' she thought, making her body spin dozens of times in the air like a torrent and shot forward.
The force that she was creating with this movement was so intense that the whole valley began to shake.
She collided with the wall of smoke, not stopping her spinning; on the contrary, she sped up and began to spew fire as well, creating a deadly fire tornado of death.
Not being able to measure up to Luna's power, the wall of smoke finally gave out, dispersing to the sides.
Some of the arrows managed to find their way towards Luna, but all they were able to do upon contact was to slow her down for a portion of a second.
'This is not enough!' Luna shouted inwardly as she moved past the smoke and reached Ashira, opening her jaws wide.
'I wonder how you're going to taste,' Luna thought smugly. But a glance at Ashira's comically oversized breasts made it clear—this woman was going to serve up mostly fat.
Luna's jaws closed shut, and yet there was nobody in them, as Ashira was able to get away in time.
She had commanded a part of her smoke to turn into a lightly fast cheetah; the smoke seemed to be able to copy the characteristics of the animal, as it had very fast running speed, managing to bring her out of harm's danger.
"Let's see what you think about that!" Ashira proclaimed as more of the smoke began to shift. All it took was a second, and it turned into the form of a dragon.
'This woman sure has some skills,' Luna mused, studying the dragon made of smoke. It was about the same size as her and had a similar outer appearance as her. However, it lacked in power—something that Luna had a great reserve of.
Or she had once, but now her powers relied solely on Zaroth's mana core.
'Well, I do hope he won't mind if I use a bit more of his mana,' she thought as she shot toward the imitation of her form.
*****
Zaroth was stuck fighting against Silver, while Nightshade was somewhere fighting against Orin out of sight.
That meant he was burning off his mana dangerously fast, and yet he had no choice.
"You are getting slower!" Silver taunted, lashing out with her rapier.
Twisting his body to dodge the attack, Zaroth grimaced but didn't speak as he was trying to conserve energy.
Sustaining Luna alone was a challenge. Doing so while Nightshade fought at full power left his reserves dangerously low. He was on the brink of collapse. His movements were already sluggish. He could barely defend himself, much less go on the offensive.
He was cautioned to use his skills, fearing his mana would run out even faster.
'In a way, I am fighting against four of the council members at once,' he mused, yet he wasn't in a great mood.
Nightshade was an Epic beast, yet she was going against a member of the council, so Zaroth doubted she would be able to win—at best, she would be able to stall for time.
Luna was busy fighting against two opponents, and while she would eventually win, there was the matter if Zaroth's mana core would last that long.
And he himself was unable to land a killing blow on Silver—part because he was restrained and part because she was skilled.
'I can't even summon my other beasts or my mana core will explode from the pressure,' Zaroth thought, his expression darkening.
This meant there was only one way for him to win, and that was for Eldros to win against the person he was dueling with and come to help.
'You better not disappoint me, Eldros!' Zaroth thought, throwing himself at Silver for the countless time.
