"Huh? So you two weaklings are my opponent?" Dolly Hawks, the short girl with a temper, and breasts and hips that do not fit with the rest of her body said with rings of flames floating around her body. Her waist-long pink hair fanned out to the side, charged with electricity as her eyes glowed like tiny suns.
Standing right across from her are the two kinds of people she hates the most: Weaklings, and couples. And somehow, someway, the attacking squads decided that it's a good idea to bring the two archetypes together into a singular package.
Wu and Lera shared a glance, and they both bumped their fist together and said the same thing at the same time, "Knock-off Ita?!"
The sassy short girl with light-colored hair certainly reminded the two of them of the loli from Kingdom of Talonia who now occupied her time with the running of the Ville college over all else. As a matter of fact, it had actually been quite a while since they met up again.
"What?!" Dolly stomped forward, a massive snaking chain made from lightning engulfed in flames shot towards Wu and Lera when suddenly, a grid appeared on the ground before walls of Bubble bubble rose from the ground, blocking the lightning aside even as the shields themselves were shattered by the impact, "What did you just say?! That's why I hate you couples! Always giggling together!"
"You are jealous?" Lera asked, extending out the reach with her Cast Array before it slowly started to contain Dolly's body from all directions, trapping her inside the battlefield.
"No?!" Dolly crossed her arms before tossing yet another half-dozen flaming lightning bolts in Wu's direction as those attack Casts bounced off the ground and then Lera's shields, loud booms rocking the forest nearby, "I do not get jealous of anything! I can get a boyfriend whenever I want, as long as my idiot brother isn't in the way!"
"Right..." Wu raised his eyebrows, seemingly understanding the deal with Dolly, "Let's deal with her as quickly as possible."
"Always." Lera said, her fingers stabbing into the darkness in front of her body and activating Void Domain instantly. Dolly glanced around, clearly feeling the change in the local Wave field as Lera’s Cast sprung to life. However, before it fully activated to engulf the area around her, Dolly twisted her feet in the ground, and a massive ball of light exploded out from her body, expanding outwards rapidly like an unstoppable vortex before it reached Wu and Lera.
"Lera!" Wu called out, picking Lera easily by the waist before blasting off the ground as the wavefront crushed the ground underneath and completely swallowed up the rows of trees around them.
"What was that?!" Lera asked, her hands still holding forward as strands of the Wave between her body and the Cast Array embedded into the ground became severed due to that single outburst. Then, as the initial front of Dolly’s attack dissipated into the thin air, smoke filled the battleground, adding to the yellow haze of Principal Khan's Cast in obscuring visibility.
"I don't know." Wu admitted, bringing Lera's body closer with his hand before scanning the environments down below. Then, massive arrows made from pure white light shot up from the smoke. Wu and Lera both acted at the same time, with Wu extending out his Void Domain and dissipating the arrows before it got anywhere near them.
However, just in case, Lera had already had dozens of layers of Bubble bubble ready too.
"She was able to create that attack during the timeframe between activation and effect of Void Domain in my Cast..." Lera said, her eyes focused and voice calm, "She also destroyed my embedded Cast Array underground."
"How...was that possible?" Wu asked, as the smoke became cleared in a single blast as Dolly held a pose with her arms at the side.
"She destroyed the ground." Lera pointed her finger straight down, and the desolated forest finally showed itself in full force, as the first few layers of the forest's earth were completely blown open as Dolly stood along in a column of dried up soil as a full-fledged crater formed around her body.
It looked like she was literally standing atop a pedestal.
"I thought you embedded the Casts deep enough..." Wu murmured when massive bolts of lightning shot out from the fingertips of Dolly and they whipped towards the two of them. Lera shot her arms forward, her shields providing next to no resistance as Wu once again activated his Void Domain to shield them.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"I thought so too..." Lera tapped Wu on the arms, signaling him to drop down onto the ground, "I can reestablish the Cast Array, but she might just blow it away again."
"I trust you." Wu said, stepping in front of Lera as pulses of Wave shot out from the corners of his Void suit, "Here I go."
"Right behind you." Lera said, a warm smile filling her face as Wu leaned forward, dodging one of Dolly's ranged attacks before he sent himself forward, drawing immediate attention of their opponent.
"How are you blocking my attacks?!" Dolly shouted, both of her hands shooting forward as more and more energy crackled out of her.
"I guess you weren't exactly keeping up with the current affairs~" Wu smiled, projecting the Void Domain forward and shutting down Dolly's entire body. Her eyes shot open as her body glowed brighter and brighter. Then, Wu swooped right by her body and kicked her on the stomach as she flew through the air and landed hard on the ground.
The hit was solid, but Wu felt something strange on his body right after as he moved away from Dolly. He kept the focus of his Void Domain, but as he glanced down onto his feet, the sole of the boots he's wearing had somehow been completely burnt through by heat so intense that he now ended up barefooted.
"Is that..." Wu recalled the memories from an instance ago when he flew by Dolly, and that flash of heat that was all so brief must have originated from...her body?
"WU!" Lera shouted from way ahead before she reached her hands up to the side as massive glowing Vines shoot out from the earth and slammed onto Dolly's body. However, she easily melted through them while floating higher and higher up in the air when before she waved her arms in a circular pattern, her fingertips leaving behind glowing trails of orange in the air as her pink hairs had also turned orange.
"Void Domain! Combination Attack!" Wu and Lera shouted at the same time, activating their Void Domains simultaneously as the dark auras rushed towards Dolly from both sides.
"Flow Zone." Dolly murmured, her entire body glowing like the sun before the image of her body flickered once and vanished from thin air.
Then, she appeared outside of the focus of Wu and Lera's attacks, her little body hovering off the ground just to Wu's left. Then, she appeared over his head, over his right, underneath his feet, and over his head.
"Void Domain Laser!" Wu immediately switched over the Casts tattoed onto his body before directing the power from the gem towards his wrist. He pointed his knuckles and swiped around, his feet angled to allow his body to spin around as the dark beam cut through the bodies of the Dollys, but none of that made any difference.
If anything, it was like trying to cut water, as simply more and more copies of Dolly formed around him.
Then, all of them moved at the same time, a light whip forming over their hands before every single one of them shot straight past Wu and wrapped around Lera's body, pinning her in place before her Cast started burning into Lera's skin.
She grunted in pain and tried to break herself free, but one of the Dolly's simply whirled her fingers around and ripped away her Book of Casts.
"Still trying to use a book at this stage of power?" All of the Dollys said tauntingly at the same time, the combination of their voices creating a mesmerizing echo, "You are way out of your league, girl. What are you without the Book?! You are nothing! Absolutely nothing!"
"Let her go!" Wu growled, his body dashing through the air when suddenly, half a dozen Dolly suddenly rallied around him to block his path. Even as Wu blasted out his Void Domain in full force, nothing happened as he rammed straight into the bodies of the six little girls. Each of them grunting and moeaning in pain as their combined weight started dragging Wu down into the ground.
"And what are you, without your stupid trick?" Dolly mocked right beside his ear, "You are far more worthless than the girl ever was. She was way out of your league!"
"What...why isn't this working..." Wu, completely shocked by the ineffectiveness of his ultimate moves, struggled to break himself out from underneath the Dolly's pressed over him.
He knew that the Void Domain would only work on Casts and those with Wave running through their bodies, so...why didn't all of those Dolly's disappear?
"Wu! Wu!" Lera shouted, though more and more of the whips started circling around her face, covering her mouth in the process.
"I am coming to save you!" Wu said, trying to climb himself away as more and more Dolly's slammed into his body like super heavy pillows. He heard the crunching of his bones, the screaming of his muscles as his arms became weaker and more fatigued, “SHIT!”
Why was he so weak...why hasn't he trained his body to be as strong as Fatera? Why had he been so absorbed in the success of Void Domain that he became complacent?
Why WAs Lera paying the price for his arrogance... Wu reached his hands out towards Lera, letting out a final cry when her voice pierced through the whips of light, through the air, and through the barrages of Dolly's.
"Turn off the PC."