Aella’s eyes began to change; their amethyst color became a minty green, and her pupils became much more foxlike as the world revealed itself to her. Every single cultist had that same eerie aura about them but the aura of some was far denser than others.
“Swords; Search and Destroy!” She commanded; the weapons that circled around her like a halo made of swords flew away, tearing into several of those cultists with denser auras only for them to explode in countless of those bugs, causing even more chaos.
‘So they are clones… System automatically put all my points from leveling into Spirit, and if I hit level 50, don’t give me my third tail right away.’ Aella ordered inwardly before beginning her assault.
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Aella still didn’t know if level 50 would unlock her third tail, but if it did, she needed to not get it right away for her immediate plans to work.
That aside, Aella didn’t quite understand what those bugs were yet, but it made sense how they managed to bolster such numbers with clones. What she did know was that those bugs were capable of eating away the tough scales of the many dragons present, much less their fleshy human partners. That was something she could use.
Dashing forward, she appeared before another of the four problem children she was dealing with, twirling in the air until her leg came into contact with the head of one of them, sending him flying but allowing his dragon to retaliate against Aella, swiping at her with his claws.
Unfortunately, that was what Aella was aiming for. Allowing the dragon to launch her backward by utilizing a minimal amount of mana to avoid severe damage, she got a free ride toward the human she knocked away, decapitating him with her fan before correcting herself with the wind.
“1 down.” She said, already next to her next target, ready to strike, only to be stopped by the other two collapsing in on her. Pushing herself upward with her tails to narrowly avoid the strikes, Aella shot a maelstrom of powerful winds downward, which collided with the fire of the dragon below.
“Hmph!” Aella pushed herself downward into the two colliding elements, falling straight through the searing flames and driving her reinforced fist straight through both him and his dragon, vanishing moments later.
The two remaining cultists who neared the B rank looked at each other before nodding and flying toward each other as they realized that Aella was getting faster.
Of the two remaining dragons, one was aligned with the ground beneath them, causing pillars to rise from the corpses of their allies. Aella, unable to dodge the pillars properly with her current speed, smashed right through them and met with the rocky dragon, her attack not doing more than pushing it back and nearly breaking her hand through mana reinforcement.
With her eyes wide, the second dragon blasted a stream of water straight at her, sending her straight into the river.
While flying through the air, Aella gritted her teeth as she felt the battle in the distance end. Several S-rank presences were flying straight toward them, and she didn’t know if they were friend or foe.
‘Faster! I’m not fast enough to outrun those S-rankers yet. I’ll end both of them with this next strike and run!’
Not another thought entering her mind, Aella conjured a magic circle as soon as she touched the river, pushing forward once again with another reckless charge
“[3rd Tier Wind Magic: Gale’s False Dance!]”
Encasing her body with armor made of rending winds, Aella removed half of the water Dragon’s body and placed a massive hole in the chest of its rider before shifting her whole body and allowing the winds on her leg to tear through the final remaining peak C rank cultist.
“And that’s 4! Swords, return!” She shouted, already darting away across the river, running atop the water, wind guiding her every step.
‘With 10 seconds remaining as well. This world is really pushing me to fight seriously a lot. First, it was those birds, and then this situation. Just a couple hundred more meters and I’m o-’
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Her thoughts were abruptly cut off by an explosion fired off at her. She escaped the initial radius but the shockwave sent her flying and having her slam into a building, reducing the speed which she had accumulated back to what it originally was.
She only had a few more seconds to use it anyway, so it wasn’t the biggest deal, but that explosion was bad news.
“They’re here already?! Even for me, it’d take at least a minute to cover that distance without reinforcing myself. Do they have dragons capable of using reinforcement magic?” She questioned, freeing herself from the rubble while turning to see the two powerful mana signatures that loomed over her.
“This is the brat that Madam High Priestess asked us to watch out for? I thought she was finally going senile when she said the target was a child, but it seems I owe her an apology.” One of them spoke.
The other nodded in agreement. “She’s at least in the B rank, yet she has the aura of an E rank. So now, Naturalis are gaining the ability to alter their apparent level of power freely. We should eliminate her quickly. She’s too dangerous to be left alive.”
With her eyes wide and her spells disabled, Aella took a defensive stance as she worked on figuring out how to get out of this mess. During that, she got a good glimpse of her new opponents. These guys were different from the others.
Unlike the other followers, who had power and nothing else, these two had controlled breathing and faint presences. They were trained killers. Not to mention the Aura of their dragons being like nothing she had ever seen before in this world.
Using [Apprasial] on both Dragons only served to dampen Aella’s spirits further.
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“Ahaha… So you’re the lackeys I have to deal with this time?” Aella shouted up toward them with an arrogant tone.
‘If I use the [Forsaken Gambit], I can kill them both easily, but how far would I need to go? 5 tails? No, in my current state, I’d need at least 7. Forget having to sacrifice the World Tree seed; will I even be able to pull off the ritual?’
The Forsaken Gambit, or the [Final Eclipse of Ages Past, Foxin’s Forsaken Gambit] as it was known, was one of the many rituals that Aella had and the exact one she was referring to when threatening the System. Much like her [Gift to the Grand Greater Will] ritual, which she used during her first trial, it took time to activate.
Foxin was one of the few races that were inherently immortal. They couldn’t die from old age, and after achieving a certain amount of tails, they could simply negate death unless their soul was taken. The Forsaken Gambit was a ritual that removed immortality from them to temporarily increase the number of tails they had.
She had no qualms about giving up her immortality. There were hundreds of other ways to obtain it, whether it was through Cultivation or Alchemy, and she planned to use it anyway to get Aimi on her side, but with these two powerful foes in front of her, there was no way they’d let her do an elaborate ritual in front of them.
“Oh? This little runt has quite the mouth. Hold on, Aymn, hold your fire.” The first man who spoke continued two, hopping off of his Poisonous Dragon. “It’s been a long time since someone has had the gall to call me a lackey. What is your name, illusionist.”
Aella’s head jerked upward toward his dragon as he jumped down. Not because of his actions but because she felt another presence closing in. The one who sat and watched the action by the river.
Even if they were allies, if she played her cards right, she might be able to utilize that guy for her escape.
‘System. What’s my current status?’
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Aella Rossi | Foxin | Young Dragon
EXP: 183,492 | Level 52 (34%) | Stat Points: 0 | Skill Points 56
Dragon Slots: 1 used, 1 remaining
Dragon Core: Auilanthros Stormweaver | Rank: 2
Health: 39,101/51,000 | Mana: 26,378/110,000 | Stamina 5522/9522
Traits: 2 Tails | Whirlwind Maestra
Dragon Skills: [Dragon’s Breath] | [Electricity Manipulation] | [Water Manipulation] | [Wrath]
Personal Skills: [Foxfire LV 2] | [Transformation LV 2] | [Charm LV 1] | [Appraisal LV 1] | [Whirlwind Maestra LV 1] | [Advent Compass LV 1] | [Shared Consciousness LV 1] | [Mana Synthesis LV 1]
STR: 170 | DEX: 140 | SPI: 220 | AGI: 160 | MND: 45 | CHA: 120
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“Illusionist?” Aella asked, walking out from the rubble with a confident stride. “I’m afraid you got the wrong girl, but if you must know. I am just the Fleeting Echoes of the Naturalis that your little group of cosplayers has killed or ruined the lives of. As such, you may call me Echo, the Whirlwind Maestra.”