After I entered the hollowed mound, I was greeted by a weird sight, followed by one that was just not right in its head. I'll go over them starting with the less SAN-point harmful one.
The inside of the mound seems to be a gigantic..., what? A gigantic wardrobe? There are a lot of hangers attached to the walls, but looking closely, the setup is crude. Like some caveman found a bunch of metal pipes and suddenly desired to be a DIY master and wardrobe designer. AH! Those clothes over there are Mira's! Cross out the wardrobe bit. This is a stinking thief's hiding place!! Wait, I already knew that.
As for the mind-boggling sight #2... It's a large doggo with wings. To be more precise, we're talking about a large wolf here. It's around the size of a car, and it also has a pair of bat wings on its back. Oh, and its fur is green—grass green. The mentioned wings are also of a lighter shade of green. Leaf green, perhaps?
While that might not be so weird on its own, especially since I've seen a LOT crazier stuff during this second life of mine, it's the bat doggo's actions that are causing me to doubt my sanity. Its most common action seems to be summoning more vines and sending them out to hunt for clothes, but that's not the problem in this case. No, it IS a problem, but let's put that away for a second.
What is all psycho about this dog is that it suddenly stands on two legs to do corny poses like a human (and failing due to it being a quadruple-legged creature), suddenly starts speed bow-bow-ing as if it was doing a speech (to no one at all), jumps up and lands on its snout before spinning around like a top, then it moonwalked (while standing on only its left front leg, I still don't get how) into the wall and continued like a broken NPC in a game.
The first part of the doggo's strange actions made me not want to ever be seen in the same room as it, but the other part made me worried. As in, EXTREMELY worried.
"Hey, Bloom? You there?" - Garami
"*Yaaawn*, I slept so well~. Master, what... What is that dog doing?" - Bloom
"That's what I wanna know. So go and Identify it." - Garami
"Ehm...why me?" - Bloom
"Because if whatever madness curse that is affecting that doggo is infectious, then better you than me." - Garami
"Just thinking that makes YOU the better victim of such a curse! There would be no difference after it hits!" - Bloom
Once again I find myself baffled over how she can retort so loudly, yet silently enough to prevent the monsters from noticing us.
"Also, I doubt [Identification] could lead to such traps. It would have to be a special meta-skill that hurts the culprit if they try to Identify the user, and even if the Werepyre over there has it, I doubt it would end up with Master going bananas." - Bloom
"I got to get me one of those meta-skills one day, but other than that, there's one piece of lingo there that interests me. 'Werepyre'? As in Werewolf?" - Garami
On Terra Sol, there exist three different types of "humanoids with beast traits". One is the Beastkins, who are what you could call "furries". The second is the Therianthropes, who can transform into the animals their species are connected to, either partly or fully.
Then there are the "Were-creatures". They're closer to Therianthropes than Beastkins, except they were not "born" as Were-creatures, but they evolved into them. This is done by having their life force "increased" by adding the aspect of an animal to their own. Some classes even work to artificially create such a state, even if for a limited amount of time.
This leads to some interesting situations. If two Werewolves were to have a child, that child could end up as a Human, a wolf-type Beastkin, or a wolf-type Therianthrope. But that child would not become a Werewolf unless they did their best to learn from their parents and evolve in the same fashion.
Oh, and only humanoids without an additional "beast trait" can turn into Were-creatures. Therianthropes, Beastkins, or even other races such as Lizardmen can't evolve and become Were-creatures. Needless to say, the undead, demons, and celestials share the same fate.
In that way, Were-creatures could be said to be an antithesis to the Vampires. The vamps suck the life force out of living beings to stay "alive", making them pseudo-undead. Or, as in Alf's case, just have enough lifeforce since they evolve into becoming vampires instead of corpses getting more "alive" than their fellow members of the undead.
On one side, there are the vamps who are thirsting for more life. On the other side, the Were-creatures have more than enough, so much that you could call them a "two-in-one deal". Due to this, Were-creatures have been a favorite target for vampires who are not on a non-blood diet like our resident angler vamp.
Hmm? Why am I so interested in the subject? Mira's bunny-girl transformation skill gave me some...furry fantasies. Turns out there are classes that want to replicate Were-creatures. The typical "blue mages" from fantasy games in my old world. Not that there are classes on Terra Sol named in such a way...
"You are almost correct. The Werepyre is what you could call a Were Vampire." - Bloom
"...? As in, the vampire's gotten their unlive long wish granted?" - Garami
"If by that that they have earned enough life force to be considered 'one of the living' while still having their traits as a vampire, minus the weaknesses, then yes." - Bloom
...Holy. Then, that crazy doggo over there is almost a sibling of Alf's. Minus all that fur and stuff. Then...
"Then the reason Alf isn't classified as one is...?" - Garami
"That is because Alf was a living human turned into a Vampire of the True Ancestor-type while the green fellow over there seems to have been a Wood attribute-attuned vampiric bat monster that somehow got its fangs on the evolution requirements for becoming a Werewolf... If it was not a Vampire. Instead, it evolved into the current specimen we are looking for, a wolf-type Werepyre." - Bloom
The "Wood attribute" comment must be something Bloom deduced from the wolf's color scheme and its green thumb when it comes to these bandit vines.
"Thank you again, Professor Bloom." - Garami
"Professor? ...Can we keep calling me that?" - Bloom
"Nope. How do we kill this thing? And more importantly, why its fixation on clothing...if you can't explain all the other crazy stuff it's doing." - Garami
Even as we speak, the vines that remain in the hollow mound are still decorating the walls with random outfits stolen by the plants outside. The "Werepyre" continues summoning the vines and having them do their dirty work. Then again, the vines might be running on auto-pilot. The doggo doesn't seem to be commanding them.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"How should I know? The creature has many strengths, but no defined weaknesses. As for its behavior, your guess is as good as mine." - Bloom
And there goes Bloom's reliability. It's nothing new, but it irks me every time...
"Well, it doesn't seem to have the marbles to stop whatever it's doing, so defeating it is the only way." - Garami
"Oh, you should try to finish it as quickly as possible. Werepyres all have incredible self-healing abilities." - Bloom
"*Whistle*. You don't say." - Garami
A fusion between an "over lifeform" and a "no-life creature" sounds like its HP quality would be from a different world. Trapping it and slowly extinguishing its health with poison doesn't seem like a good plan for once. In that case, let's act like a proper assassin and finish it in one surprise blow.
Taking a deep breath, I activated the skill [Genocide Drive: Speed] while preparing for my assault. In a blink of an eye, I had run out from our hiding place, aiming my Nightmare Scythe at the Werepyre's. While doing so, I invoked [Assassination Arts], accessing one of the various Combat Arts I had learned and stored in it.
My scythe took a deep black color, much darker than it already was, causing it and even me to fade from everyone's perception as my Art hit the wolf's neck with an arc-like movement.
"Hidden Crescent." - Garami
The Combat Arts I had unlocked struck the dog with a critical hit. Blood flew out from its large wound as the so-called "undead living being" yelped from both pain and surprise.
All my Arts are not bound to a specific weapon type but to the act of "assassination". Therefore, they're all trying to be as lethal as possible. While some might be restricted to some types of weapons, their effects are largely around stealth, ailments, and critical hits.
Among the Arts I've managed to unlock, "Hidden Crescent" is my best option for inflicting a high amount of damage. It's restricted to only scythe-type equipment, but by staying hidden, my attack power and critical hit ratio skyrocket if I manage to be in stealth mode until the curved blade finds its target.
And this time, I hit the jackpot. I hit it so hard, I'm starting to pity the soon-to-be-dead doggo. Rest assured that I will not torment you anymore, o' crazy wolf. Even if you deserved a lifetime of pain for stripping my perverted...knight...?
Crap, the blood geysir has stopped already. And the doggo is looking pretty pissed. Wow, I sure underestimate the Werepyres' recovery abilities. Not.
With eyes clouded in rage, the green wolf...bat...thing jumped into the air with its large mouth open for a piece of demon burger. Sorry pal, not on today's, or any day's, menu.
Even dodging felt like an insult to my abilities when faced with the doggo's aggressive, primitive, and honestly, plainly stupid method of attack. Pal, you could just call back all those giant vines of yours and try to pummel me. Not that I don't have a solution to that tactic as well, but just saying.
"[Quick Summon], Dead Flesh Golem!" - Garami
My trusty zombie-type creation, the E-rank Dead Flesh Golem, came out from its summoning circle almost instantly and ready for combat, all thanks to a little support from the auxiliary-type magic skill, [Quick Summon]~. I doubt I need to explain its effects, but just to go into details, it not only speeds up the summoning, but the skill also gives the summon mental commands regarding the purpose of its summons.
Like, say now. The more-than-2-meter-large golem composed of patchworked dead flesh blocked the Werepyre's fangs with its bulky arms before the beast could get to me. To give the doggo some credit, it was damn fast, making it impossible to summon the guardian Golem under normal circumstances. These auxiliary summon skills sure were a good investment on my part.
The downside with [Quick Summon] is that the summoned creature will be recalled as fast as it was summoned, so I had given the Golem 2 orders before bringing it out. Block the wolf...then throw it out of the court!!
Grabbing the car-sized wolf, my equally giant Golem started to turn around as if preparing a hammer throw. Though, we need to redub it as a "wolf throw". The doggo's crazed mind must have been blanketed by confusion, as it didn't even try to break loose as its mouth tried futile to bite off the Golem's dead flesh body.
And away it goes~! The Golem, right before the magic circle underneath it glowed again to signalize its retrieval, sent the Werepyre into the sky, er, flying toward the ceiling. Feral as feral can ever be, while low on intelligence, the wolf's primitive instincts allowed it to react to its situation and land with its paws on the floor, as in, the ceiling. You get what I mean. From there, it leaped toward the ground again, but a little too late. My next set of undead servants was ready to play.
"[Multi Summon]: Smoke Ghost Princesses." - Garami
Using the auxiliary skill to bring out multiple summoned creatures at the same time despite its higher costs, a set of four ghostly princesses came from the black, necromantic magic circle.
These femme fatale ghosts are the E-rank evolutions of the previous common Ghosts I used mostly for searching before, such as that time in Tir na Nog. They have gone from ghastly floating globes of ectoplasm into proper ladies in fancy Victorian dresses. As for their appearance, which should have been randomized, they always seem to lean away from the "cute ghost girl" category...and into the more adult ones. Has Filyn infected me with some lecherous curse?
The Ghost Princess monsters are all based on different attributes, mine are from Smoke, and they are magically gifted among these "attribute-centered ghost evolutions". There's also a "Prince"-counterpart who uses physical blows, but they're ghosts. Even if they're allowed to cheat in a fencing match, you gotta go magic when you go ghost.
The Princesses had already been deployed before the doggo could kick off the ceiling and were now in attack range. Their ghostly bodies, which looked like a smoky reflection of their (possible) past lives, turned their arms toward the commander of floral thieves and cast their spells. Plumes of smoke, along with glowing, burning embers mixed in, struck the wolf snout first, covering it in deadly gas and smoldering flames.
Now, this is the reason why I went with Smoke when I was choosing the evolution line for my Ghosts! Smoke is nasty in that, while it lacks direct attack power, it can block your breathing, has access to both Poison and Burn ailments, and is damn difficult to block unless you have the Wind attribute. I do try to enhance my repertoire of ailments, but sometimes, it's easier to let your (sexy) goons take care of it for you.
As a bonus, in some cases where you have an attribute-affined evolution, some advantages and disadvantages of that attribute might carry over. Like with the doggo here, who is attuned to the Wood attribute, its weakness to burns and poison should give it a harder time. Wood is a widespread attribute, but it has lots of famous weaknesses. Kinda similar to vampires. Alf better be aware of that.
Just as suspected, the wolf came dropping down from the smoldering cloud of death with burn wounds, red eyes, and coughing all the while. As expected, Wood is the most suspectable to Smoke after Fire and Poison. And it didn't help that the cloud is rather a Smoke attribute version of the classic Fireball spell. Not that it's enough to completely deplete its HP, so it's good I've already executed my next move.
The falling dog was, almost right after it exited the smoke cloud, the giant jaws of my Zahhak attack. The wolf was caught in its deadly maw, forced to crash into the smoke cloud again, collide with the rock ceiling, and then fall into the cloud for a third round of its poisonous embers.
Not wasting time standing around, I had moved so I was right underneath the wolf now, my final weapon ready in hand. The Werepyre, now filled with burns and lower health than ever, especially after having its stats reduced by Zahhak's effect, came falling to where I was waiting for it with my arms open. Or, at least my "book".
"Tatata-taaa~. Kigal-Note, goo~!" - Garami
A whirlpool of energy was released from the Kigal-Note and sucked the vampiric wolf into its pages. The beast, too weakened after the quadruple combo of my first slice at its neck, the toxic flames and smoke, the physical trauma of crashing into the ceiling, and the dark powers of my Extra Skill had weakened it more than enough to prevent any chance it might have had to escape my proof of Championship.
"Aaaand, the end~." - Garami
"Who-hooo~! Master, that was amazing!" - Bloom
Bloom fired off a party popper she had taken out from god knows where while the four Ghost Princess gave me a "floating" applause. Hehehe~. One good thing about this lucky pervert luck of my necro summons is that it is always a pleasure having them cheer for me~.
"Yeah, yeah, you guys can chill now. Let's get back to town." - Garami
"What about all the stolen clothes?" - Bloom
"No way we can take them all with us, so let's have the mayor bring his guys with him or something." - Garami
"Sure, but I was thinking more about Miss Mira's clothes." - Bloom
......The flying dustball's got a point. Where did I see those again? Can't have some buff jerk be all grabby-grabby with that woman of woman's clothes. Who knows what they'll do to them before they return them?
Speaking of clothes...when the analysis of the doggo is complete, it's time to prepare that project. Hehehe-hehe~. I can't wait!