CHAPTER 69: SUNSHINE AND SPARKLES

As our two companions stood just past the edge of the wall of shadows they eagerly enjoyed the sun shining down on them. Its rays washed away to persistent chill they had felt whilst within that hellish world behind them. Not to say that the lightning filled wasteland before them looked all too welcoming.

In fact it could be argued that this environment was worse. For at least in the past section you only had to look out for ambushes. Here you had to worry about that on top of the real risk of being struck by a bolt from above. As demonstrated when they witnessed the giant trunked beast they witnessed earlier barrel its way through the cracked ground only to let loose a trumpet of pain when it was struck by a bolt of lightning.

The beast only paused long enough for the electricity to run its course before it too continued forwards towards its goal.

Without further ado Violet and Luna followed suit and began to journey forwards.

As they moved forward they both took note of what lay ahead of them and readied themselves for the inevitable clash that they were sure to face. For not far in the distance they could see beasts of all kind battling each other. The only consistency that they could make out being that seemingly all electrically attuned beasts were loosely working together.

Working together may be a stretch as they did not exactly coordinate with each other. But it was more like they did not battle each other and only fought against the invaders. Violet pondered if they had perhaps been granted a quest to defend their domains from the invading hordes.

It would make some sense as why else would they remain in place here and not be charging towards the central area themselves?

Regardless of the reason though it didn’t change the facts before them, and in turn didn’t help the companions in the incoming battle. For they had now been spotted by the electrical hoard and the first wave of foes was approaching.

A group of 4 being was approaching them from the front. They floated above the ground and resembled a slightly deformed ball that was constructed of dazzling blue lines of lazy lightning. They moved in a deceptively smooth way, they would seem to jerk to one side only for the motion to be followed by a graceful swerve that propelled them forward at quite impressive speeds.

They moved in a loose formation with the largest of the balls at the front. Stray sparks occasionally flashed out of the creature and would ground itself out on the ground below.

With a wide draconic grin on her face Violet sent out a beam of void towards the front for only to frown slightly as the beam nearly passed right through the creature with the blue sparks that make the creature up simply moving out of the way in an astonishing display of... agility? Violet wasn’t quite sure but she knew nevertheless that this could be quite the entertaining battle.

She changed up her strategy by launching server bolts forward opting for quantity over quality right now. The opening salvo was joined by a smaller number of Icicles as they raced forwards.

The electric balls responded by sending forward beams of lightning that impacted and destroyed their own attacks in a series of blinding flashing a explosions.

Suddenly Luna’s fur stood on end and she felt a shiver run down her spine as she instinctively dove to the side just in time to avoid the worst of the bolt of lightning that just fell from the sky above and landed where she just stood. Small clumps of earth struck Violet’s side but as she felt that Luna was alright she focused back on the foes before them.

The three smaller balls opted to spread out and looked to be charging up a blast of some kind whilst the larger leader charged forwards heading right at Violet. Opting to engage in mele Violet readied her pounce and coated her claws in the void.

When the creature was close enough she dove forward, now able to cover multiple meters in a single leap the gap was closed in moments and she swiped down with her claws and tore a rent right through its body. She did however receive a small jolt of electricity for that though. Her void did nullify some of the initial shock but some did still make it through.

The large creature was severely wounded from that one strike and Violet was eager to finish it off quickly so continued her attacks with a series of rapid swipes that tore into its body. She did have to back up when she saw the other balls unleaded their charged attack.

Dozens, if not hundreds of pebble sized bolts of electricity erupted from the three creatures aiming right at Violet. She responded with a shield that managed to soak up over half of the initial salvo before the shear number of attacks managed to overwhelm her spell and it shattered.

She was then pelted by countless pebble of pain and let out a roar of complaint. Each individual pebble wasn’t too painful but taken together they built up into quite the attack.

Luna seeing this opted to take out the back line first and void stepped into their midst. Thin layers of frost covered her body and her spear elongated with ice before she unleashed a dervish of attacks. Opting for more swipes and cuts instead of thrusts and stabs. She managed to devistate the first creature and separated it up into small chunks before it dissipated into nothingness.

Not wasting any more time she dove towards the second one who had now noticed her. It tried to respond but didn’t have the time and it too found its life ended in a series of rapid blows.

The last one now had time to respond and launched another lightning bolt like they had at the start. Luna tried to intercept it with a spear of ice that she swiftly formed but found that her hasty spell was unable to withstand the attack and was destroyed midair.

However it had achieved its goal of creating space and she had time to step through the void to appear behind the startled creature before ending its life with a multi strike before it could respond further.

As soon as the onslaught of electric pebbles halted Violet looked up in time to see Luna begin to lay into the back line balls. She then noticed the heavily injured ball of electricity before her was now sparkling. The currents that make up its body were flashing irregularly and with ever increasing frequency. Not liking the look of that she launched a void spear before telling Luna to get away and void stepping back.

She was just in time as a area 10m around from the location of the larger ball was suddenly engulfed in a last ditch explosion of lightning that left the ground black and charred. But it seemed that was its last move as for then the dust settled nothing remained of the damaged sparkling ball.

[Your group has defeated Electic Sprite lvl 52~54 x4 exp rewarded]