As I bounced over the deck a few more times, I finally stopped to halt when hit the railing at the edge. Not far from there, I could see one of its turbines. This was one of platform type ships.
I crash... I mean, I landed on the ship when was to slow dealing with one spell aimed at my back. It detonated outside devour soul reach and I was busy with ship's barrier...
"You... naughty girl, I told you to stay out of this!" I heard Sei's voice from the amulet. " What will you do if... Forget it, just be careful. Don't hesitate to retreat if needed."
I smiled while rising from the metal floor and then quickly dodged to the side, the place I was just a moment ago was stuck with dozens of spears and quite a few bullets.
Those rascals... my body has enough holes as it is.
Twenty-one opponent was facing me from all sides, and I could see even more a bit further. Though those had their hands full operating the ship.
More than half of them were from a race that looked like werewolves, save for horns on their heads and the fact that almost all of them were clad in armor. My attention was quickly drawn to a few frogs and lizardmen. Unlike others, their weapons were modern firearms. Frogs had handguns in each hand, though with their size looked more like shotguns, lizardmen were armed with rifles.
Without my Space Time Magic, I couldn't summon my own. Should start carrying a few just in case something similar happens. Hmm, with space sealed, ST2 and spatial magazines wouldn't work though. Yes, I should make a few guns that have nothing to do with Space Time Magic...
After evading a few more spears, I was forced to summon my phantom claws to block bullets I couldn't dodge... along with a few spells. While bullets weren't a problem yet, even with devour soul to assist, my phantom claws dissipated from the impact of lightning ball and before managed to summon another, had a hard time to evade bullets that followed.
This 'spell erosion' is so... annoying! A lot of mana is lost when my phantom claws fade in this manner. Using phantom beast fully was totally out of question. At least, now that I landed on the ship, I had to deal with fewer attacks and it seems they hesitated to use stronger magic. How come everyone of them can use...
My gaze stopped on bracelet one Eli mage was wearing, just like his sister... and that werewolf mage.
As they were preparing another spell, weird symbols danced on their surface. Oh... I need to get my hands on one of those.
My body split into three, drawing most of their attacks to my illusions. At the same time, my metal bracelets shattered into many pieces and a moment later hundreds of needles launched in all directions. Most of them were stopped by invisible force and floated just a few meters from their targets.
Someone with stronger metal manipulation? No, this is something else... and when my own body was lifted into the air, I realized what.
Telekinesis!
Or according to books I read with Phoenix, 'force manipulation'.
I immediately started using my devour soul to absorb all forms of energy around me and just a moment later was free. The enemy wasn't sitting idly though and that moment was enough to make their move. Suddenly flames burst from the ground all around me.
"Aaaah!" I screamed within the flames and released my grasp over needles and illusions.
"Just kidding." I grinned and launched my phantom tail at the floating slime. I judged it was the one using force manipulation, quite obvious now that I think about it, without any wind or magic, its body was floating in the air.
Sadly one of the werewolves reacted quickly and blocked my attack with his sword.
So fast! Champion?
Just like my amulet prevented them from using analyze on me, something in their possession did the same. Even with my mana perception, it was hard to tell who among them was a Champion.
His sword wasn't normal either and managed to dissipate my phantom tail. I really need to get my hands on those enchantments...
The flames around me started to shift and were drawn to my body, and just in a few moments were completely absorbed.
With my current heat resistance and absorption, even my own 'Hellfire Armor' can't harm me. This 'attack' of theirs... was no different from a warm weather at the beach.
All needles that were now on the ground once again rose in the air. That slime might have the ability to stop them, but they should also keep its attention.
While dodging attacks from all around me, I materialized another phantom tail and swept at female werewolf opposite from the slime. Two illusion split from the tail and when werewolf with her companions tried to block, misjudged my aim. Just like I did during spar with the devil.
I cut her in half and finished the sweep of the tail by piercing dryad looking guy at the side.
The werewolf I suspected as their Champion quickly attacked me and I barely managed to evade. The floor hit by his sword left a deep cut on the metal. Yes, definitely a Champion. Freezing had absolutely no effect on him.
I exchanged a few blows with him, and just with that, could tell that he was strong. With my martial arts, I would win if this was a duel, but this wasn't and with the opponent like him, I had a bit of trouble dealing with attacks from all around me.
That slime was also very annoying. Now that I knew about its ability, I could protect myself, but it was still not enough to completely negate it. Slowing down even a little is deadly in a fight like this.
When one more bullet pierced my shoulder I once again split into three and together with illusions charged to different locations.
Even Champion couldn't tell which of us was real and rushed after one of them. My target was the slime, but yet another werewolf managed to block my attack with his shield. The action was not without consequences, unlike that Champion, he wasn't immune to cold and the shield along with his body started to freeze.
I had no time to finish him and was forced to dodge as my own needles attacked the place I was just a moment ago. With its life in danger, the slime started to use a lot more force and simply overpowered my control over them. I recalled all my illusions and recreated them a new. Even with this, a few bullets and needles pierced my legs.
Regeneration would take care of that in a moment, but the process wasn't instantaneous. With wounds and the slime affecting my mobility, I couldn't dodge everything. When a warhammer was about to hit me, I summoned my barrier and was sent flying.
The barrier shattered like a glass, but managed to do its job. Passing the Champion while still in the air, I blocked his swing with phantom claws. A moment later I stopped myself by stabbing phantom tail to the floor. It wasn't a coincidence that one lizardman ended up in its path.
I actually wanted to kill a few more, but they were tossed away by invisible force.
Now, this is what I call a fight!
Sei might easily deal with ships as a whole, while I struggle just with the crew of one, but it doesn't matter, for each its own. I quickly looked to the sky where he was supposed to be and saw one of those sci-fi type ships. The amulet he gave me allows more than just a communication and detecting the position of the wearer was one of them.
Suddenly, with my own eyes, I saw how the ship in question vanished. A powerful explosion tore it to pieces and it was strong enough to destroy ten nearby ships as well.
"Sei!" I shouted in horror.
A winged dryad charged at me from the side while I was distracted. My instincts kicked in at the last moment and I managed to redirect her spear with the hand, without any delay, I pierced her through the chest with another.
"Sar~!" she screeched something in her language. Even without a heart, and technically dead, she managed to grab my hand inside her before was completely frozen.
With my free arm I blocked another attack aimed at me, but with slime's interference missed to block the swing of Champion. His sword cut through the flesh of my neck and my blood sprayed in the air...
I wasn't dead yet.
It's not that easy to cut off my head with my altered bones in the way. Nonetheless, it was very dangerous. The power of that swing was enormous and with just a bit more force he might have succeeded.
With the sword still halfway through my neck, I looked at the Champion with a bit of madness and grinned from ear to ear. I activated my lightning armor and a strong current of electricity numbed his senses. Next, using nearly half of my remaining mana, I overloaded his sword with it, eradicating all its enchantments in the process.
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The sword split in two, sharp part in my neck changed into a collar, allowing my wound to heal and offering some protection. Another part, still in his hands, changed into liquid and started to travel over his arm. It entered through the mouth and he started to scream, though not for long. Soon, many needle-like spikes, pierced his armor from within.
Metal Manipulation reached level 7.
Next, I created a powerful burst of wind with my wind manipulation. The wind was actually not strong to harm them, but paralyzing gas and deadliest poisons I released through my pores in the air, were.
Frogs reacted immediately and started to tremble, white foam dripping from their jaws. Others were affected a bit slower but affected nonetheless. Even if they came from another world and had different anatomy, I released hundreds of poisons.
Still, this has used more nutrients than I would like...
Only four opponents were immune to everything. One winged dryad, a few lizardmen and of course the lad that gave me so much trouble all this time... the slime. The dryad guy quickly spread his wings and flew away.
"Flame Serpent!" I activated my spell and ten meters long snake of flames materialized near me.
With their mages out of the picture, there was no danger of some spell triggering explosion.
As my flame serpent launched forward, lizards managed to fire their rifles only a few times. A moment later they were thrown to the side by an invisible force which saved from a certain death. As for their bullets, they were now easily stopped with my barrier.
After missing its attack, my flame serpent continued forward and caught up to the dryad, with one gulp it swallowed him in the air and detonated a moment later, creating a rain of blood. In the meantime, I was using my metal manipulation to regain control over my needles, my phantom tail was held by invisible force a few meter away from the slime.
The slime started to glow and the whole ship started to tremble. Swords, spears, shields, even sheets of metal were torn from the deck and raised in the air.
I grew even more excited and for a moment lost control over my reason.
With the speed that looked almost like teleportation, I appeared right in front of it and my arm pierced its body. This was only a first battle, and I already used my limit break.
Normally, it exhausts the body to the state it can barely move, but with my body manipulation, I could restore its condition almost immediately. Without Space Time Magic it was a bit different now, I don't have infinite reserves of nutrients to do that.
I reached deep inside the slime and grabbed its core, for a moment I considered to just absorb its mana, but decided against it. It was a worthy opponent, not a food. I clenched my hand into a fist, crushing the core in the process.
A terrible mistake...
*BOOM*
With a powerful explosion, I was sent flying outside the ship, just like bodies of the dead and two lizardmen who not long ago were still alive. The force was so strong that I crashed into a barrier of another ship far away.
I was heavily wounded but still alive. But my mind was clouded from the impact, and I could barely think.
When I finally regained my ability to reason, I was hundreds of meters down below, falling to the ground. The speed was slower than it should be. Those winds...
"See? Told you should stay out of this." I heard Sei from the amulet.
"You are alive!" I almost screamed.
Even I don't know if I was more happy that he was alright, or angry that he decided to let me know only now.
"Of course I am alive, it takes more than that to deal with me. Friendly spar with Razel is much more deadly... Still, want to continue?"
I looked at the missing right arm, clothes were in tatters, and by using poisons, limit break, and healing wounds, I exhausted over half of my supplies. Even so...
"Yes!" I said with a grin and my own winds started to surround me.
"Listen, I think you..." started to object Sei but my mind was already set and I searched for another ship, I barely even heard what he was saying.
"Hellfire..."
I looked at the fleet above me and licked my lips. This is exactly what I was missing!
"...Armor!"
Flames ignited over my body and with wind manipulation to assist, started to direct the heat down below me, creating an imitation of propulsion.
Wind manipulation has reached level 3.
*
"Lend me a hand," the moment I landed on another ship I cut the arm from one werewolf and attached it where mine was missing. Body manipulation activated almost immediately and started to invade foreign cells to change DNA. When I was done, both arms looked identical, not a sign one belonged to someone else.
Without Space Time Magic my regeneration might be limited, but that holds true only if you lack imagination.
All on the ship just stood here bewildered and only screams of werewolf brought them back to their senses. A new battle quickly unfolded.
It was fierce and deadly. A single mistake could easily spell my doom at any moment, but it made me only more excited. A part of me knew that something is wrong with me, but I didn't care. I never felt so alive, and I wanted more. Slowly my mind was clouded by madness as the beast within me was awakened...
*
...More!
"Sis!"
More!
Leave none alive...
"Sister! Wake up!"
Suddenly I recovered from a dream-like state and realized I was attacking Sei. I quickly stopped and then looked around. We were on the ground, back in the dead world with a giant red sun in the sky.
Yes, the world of the devil. Should I just call it Hell? Probably not... I always associated Hell with flames and Sei told me, it's a world of another Devil, a former Goddess of fire. It must haven't been pretty when she lost control over her aspect.
A bit further I noticed a twin of Sei watching us... Twin? Dahaal! There is no way I could forget his aura.
I then finally looked at message floating in front of me...
Drastic changes to the body detected, your race has been changed into Demon.
No!
When I looked at myself, I could barely recognize my own body. I was nearly two meters tall, ears still looked like cat's but were twice as long, and the tail almost three times, claws looked like something only a demon would possess. Worst of all, I now had long fur all over my body.
I quickly activated my body manipulation and started to change everything back using memories of my old DNA. Well, almost everything... I noticed that my bones as the demon were even better now, just like eyesight, and muscles and... Hmm, maybe I will leave a bit of this and that...
Drastic changes to the body detected, your race has regressed into Cat Beastkin (Demon).
Still a demon... well, it couldn't be helped, I am a bit greedy. I might look like before, but my insides were different. My altered bones have already saved my life, there was no way I could pass all this power.
When I changed my body, I used excess mass and fur to create new clothes and technically, all this time was naked, well, if you still could be called that with all this fur...
When I peeked at my memories, where I was in a state of madness, I quickly blocked it.
Uhh, that was... gross. The things I did... it was even worse than when I assimilated that arm. I was no different from an animal. It would be better to seal those memories forever.
"What... what happened?" I finally asked aloud.
"It's me who should ask you this. Killing enemies is one thing, but to attack your own brother... tsk tsk tsk." smiled Sei then his face looked a bit more serious and pointed at the devil. "His fault."
"Hey, I just wanted to be sure she has a motivation fighting my wars, this wouldn't happen if my guidance was not interrupted. I might have underestimated her passion a little..."
"Wait!! This was all because of you?!" I shouted.
"Me? No, no. This is all you. I just amplified your own desires hidden deep within. Even I can't do much when mental resistance is at maximum."
"This... this can't be. Then what about my body?! No way I changed into a demon on my own!"
"Ah, now that is my doing. A part of reward for the job done well, even Razel had some trouble fighting against Champion for the first time. Actually, I wanted to add a few tentacles, but Sei said you wouldn't like it..."
"Dahaal." Sei interrupted him.
"Ah yes, we are short on time. When I sent Razel to the rescue, she became aware of you. Naturally, she wants to play with her new sister. As you are now, you will not survive her 'attention'. What a reckless girl..."
"Razel? But I thought space was sealed." I said and carefully reached within my memories, trying to avoid unpleasant parts. There. I was deep inside the ship with blood all over my body. The core of the ship was right in front of me and I was absorbing its mana when suddenly half of the ship went missing. Countless stars covered the sky and...
"On the surface, yes. Don't you remember her entrance riding one of the meteors? That mad woman... almost killed us in the process." Sei complained.
"Ha ha ha, yes, that sounds just like her. Anyway, Sei persuaded me to allow you a vacation a bit earlier. A pity. I really wanted to see what you will do once have enough mana to get back on your own..."
When I heard his last words, a shiver ran over my body. I am so glad I never had a chance to enact my escape plan. From his tone, it was obvious something terrible would happen if I did.
"Oh and a little farewelL GiFt..." his body started to change and grow, in a moment he was once again in his real form. "In CasE MarDEaL haS deCidED To plAy DirTy."
Jaws of one snake opened and with a horror, I recognized a familiar glow. It was the same attack I saw him use against God of Chaos.
"Nooo!" I shouted and started to calculate teleport destination. The place I appeared when got there for the first time should be far enough.
"Spell Steal!" stopped me Sei with a hand over my shoulder.
Will this even work?!
But there was no time. Even if I managed to escape, Sei showed no signs of moving away. I can't let him die.
I quickly summoned phantom beast and burning reserves of mana, increased its size to ten meters. When the devil launched a bolt of energy I activated my spell steal and it vanished in my claws.
Spell Steal has reached level 2.
Spell Steal has reached level 3.
Spell Steal has reached level 4.
I am alive!
I dropped to the ground breathing heavily as the phantom beast vanished like a smoke. When I tried to reach my pocket dimension I realized it was 'fried' for at least a few weeks.
"YoU HaVe TeN YeArS... OH, AnD TrY To GeT StrOnGeR. WheN YoU ArE BacK, TheRE WiLL bE No EscApE FroM RazEL."
"Take care, Sis." I heard Sei and caught a small orb he tossed. In the next moment, blinding light surrounded me and when my sight returned I was back in my world.
*SPLASH*
"I. Am. Back!" I shouted with joy and then started to cough when some water got into my lungs.
I couldn't wait to meet Phoenix and the rest. But first... I reached for my link with the dungeon. Yes, just as I thought...
"Why the hell did he send me to another side of the planet?!" I shouted while looking at the ocean all around me.