Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System-Chapter 725: Challenges, Red Haired Werewolf Girl version (part 1)
With Badr finishing his fight, only Arianna has yet to do the same and here an interesting question comes to mind, how come she is left last when the red-haired werewolf girl was the only one whose energy had reached the Arch rank prior to the clash between Daimon and Marcus’s teams.
Arguably you could say that she was the "strongest" in terms of energy before the fights started, so did this happen because her opponents were also the strongest on the enemy’s side...no.
What happened is that those two pirates had been relying in a hit and run tactic, which was possible because they were using a large black water river that crossed the jungle as a hideout.
One of them came out of it to attack Arianna while the other remained hidden and bought time so that the other could jump back into the black water river if their ambush failed and that’s how the red-haired werewolf girl’s fight has extended to the point that she is the only one left.
If we change to Arianna’s battlefield, we’ll see a large black river which’s surrounding area was devastated, broken trees, giant claw marks that scarred the black soil ground and a red-haired girl with wolf ears and a tail floating above the previously mentioned landscape.
All this, while two pirates one with scaled hands and throwing knives being held by those same hands and one with fins on his neck and spiked teeth as well as a spiked chain as his weapon, observed her from the bottom of the black water river with pale faces, to understand why we must go back in time a couple of minutes.
...
"Once I find you, you are dead meat", Arianna who felt exasperated due to her opponents having suddenly jumped into the black river that crossed the battlefield those two chose, mumbled to then point her right palm towards a specific spot of the black water river.
"Booom!", a giant red energy wolf’s paw travelled downwards slashing its claws towards the river, temporarily splitting the black water all the way to the bottom of the river in five parts one per each of the wolf paw’s claws.
Still, the werewolf girl clicked her tongue to her insides, those two had ran from their previous position so her attack missed them, what’s more her wolf ears twitched for a second, making Arianna turn around just in time to see the scale handed pirate appear a few dozens of meters away from her.
"Shredding Rain!", the pirate took out a few knives out of his clothes and cladded them with mana to then throw them towards Arianna who in response manifested the red energy wolf to block them.
"Clang!", the magic weapons accompanied by a spell were stopped by the wolf’s fangs producing the sound of metals colliding as well as sparks, unfortunately when Arianna was about to use the red energy wolf’s claws to rip the knife throwing pirate to shreds, a spiked chain cladded in lightning came out of the black water river to then wrap itself around the wolf.
"Blitz Prison Seal!", from the within the black water river, the spike-toothed pirate used the black water that was on the knives which had splashed the red energy wolf to conduct his lightning mana in order to restrict Arianna with everything he got.
"Humph!", of course it’s easier said than done, under the gaze of disbelief of the spike-toothed pirate, the red giant wolf dismantled into a sea of red energy which expanded in every direction destroying the spell of the enemy and nearly drowning the knife throwing pirate who was about to cast another spell, on the spot.
"Damn it!", the spike-toothed pirate retrieved his chain while the knife throwing pirate directly shot himself downwards diving into the black river in order to escape Arianna’s grasp.
That being said, Arianna’s chase didn’t end just like that, she who was inside the formless mass of red energy tired of those two dragging things up so much, coldly snorted to then dive into the black river herself.
"What!", the two pirates saw in disbelief how Arianna, was moving at high speed within the black water river as she went after them.
"Hsssss!", naturally the black water was corroding the red energy mass which surrounded the werewolf girl, but she didn’t care, the moment a layer of red energy was corroded she poured out twice that amount of it to replace it.
"Booooom!", with a focused mind like a wolf chasing after its prey, Arianna moved through the black water river chasing after those two, causing explosions along the way which made countless litters of black water to splash the vicinity.
’How is she so damn fast underwater, her lineage is that of a land magic beast damn it!’, cursed the spike-toothed pirate as he lashed his chain at Arianna, they were barely managing to keep some distance between themselves and the werewolf girl thanks to the obstruction of the black water and their own attacks.
Which didn’t make sense for them, they have water magic beast lineages and are used to chaotic energy environments mostly packed with a lot of darkness element, so they could move within the black water bodies like fish in the sea.
But then, the enemy not only had a land magic beast type lineage based on her wolf-like ears and tail, but she also clearly had a positive oriented one, given how much vitality she radiated, so why were them being chased while in their own turf, is the question that was repeating in their minds.
’Humph, you think I wasn’t entering this damn black water river out of fear, master made me train until my movement speed and muscle strength was as good underwater as it is on land!’, thought the werewolf girl.
Remember that Aura has gone around the four galaxies fighting all kinds of magic beasts, there were of course times when she had to fight let alone under water but even inside volcanoes, being capable of maintaining one’s battle prowess regardless of environment is one of the staples of her hellish training course.
"Mm?", after having travelled a few kilometers down the black river, Arianna suddenly frowned to then emerge from the water, which made the two pirates let out a sigh of relief, they thought that the enemy had finally used too much energy to maintain the red field around her, so she was forced to stop, but then they felt shivers run down their spine, which forced them to look in a specific direction where a giant red gate with black chains could be seen.
And that’s how we reach the current scene were those two were temporarily in shock after feeling the pressure coming from Badr’s battlefield, despite the distance.
"What the hell was that red giant gate?", said the pirate with scaled hands Rigle, Badr’s last technique was visible even from here since the gate was huge.
"I don’t know but the aura it radiated was no joke, that was nether without a doubt but there is no way those two muscle-heads could pull of something like that...", answered the spike-toothed pirate, also known as Luis.
Their conversation was interrupted by Arianna’s voice which traveled deep inside the river to reach their ears.
"When you said you’ll choose the location for the fight, I thought it was going to be a place that would help you get stronger not help you hide, anyway there is no need for you to keep stalling, no one from your side will come no matter how much the fight extends".
The werewolf girl’s words, made the two pirates frown for a second, they tried to contact their teammates only to realize that their connection was cut off, it’s not that their messages were blocked like it happened with any of their tries to contact Marcus, courtesy of Daimon’s silver energy by the way, in the case of all their other contacts the messages didn’t proceed as there was no one to receive them, which in other words meant that just like Arianna said, they were the only ones left.
"Damn it, are you kidding me, even that snake and the panther are gone!", exclaimed the scaled handed pirate, while the spike-toothed one was lost in his thoughts.
’It hasn’t been even an hour since all the fights started so how is it possible that our side was defeated so fast, should we have not split like Lord Marcus wanted... no, if the enemies are that strong letting them fight in group is for the worse so this was our best possible move’, he thought to then say.
"We have to go out and kill her as soon as possible, if her allies are still alive, recover and then come this way we are dead, also even after having been constantly ambushing her, she is not tired at all, in a battle of endurance we’ll lose".
As pirates that had been born and raised in the harsh Maelstrom Sea, these two put survival as their priority, and for that they will resort to every and all tricks as they had to, the word "coward" didn’t mean a damn for them.
They had defeated enemies stronger than them before, the hit and run tactic is perfect for that, tiring out a magic beast while conserving their energy waiting for the chance to deal a deathly blow is their staple plan of action.
However, here they kicked an iron plate, because Arianna’s vitality is insanely high, they could ambush her all they wanted and at the end it’s more likely that they’ll end up tired instead, escaping wasn’t an option either because while they could hide inside the black water river, they could only remain somewhat indetectable if they didn’t move around too much.
Arianna’s senses are quite sharp after all, so the moment those two tried to leave, she’ll go after them and once again, they are no match for her in terms of endurance, so at the end they’ll get caught, well, there was another tactic that passed through those two’s minds, which was running in different directions and hope to not be the one the enemy will chase after, but while that allowed immediate survival of one of them, in the long run chances were that the survivor would meet another one of the enemies and being alone against someone that killed the snake, the panther or the two nethereals by himself, they would most likely die.
Having both reached the same conclusion, the pirates slowly emerged from within the black water river and then floated until they were at the same height as Arianna, facing her with only few dozens of meters of distance in between.
"So, you two finally realized that it’s either do or die, or more accurately you finally accepted that you’ll have to risk your lives", said the werewolf girl to which the scale handed pirate snorted in response.
"Humph, we are from the Maelstrom Sea, risking our lives to survive is a daily thing for us".
"Domain!", immediately afterwards, mana gathered from all over the place while it also poured out of those two’s bodies, they went straight for their domains which is understandable as they have been testing the waters with ambushes for quite a long time so they knew that they wouldn’t be able to deal any significant damage to Arianna without the boost from their domains. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎
"Tide Piercing Steel Domain", the scaled handed pirate was surrounded by a metal mana domain with water mana on its borders, thin metal dust which could potentially turn into metal constructions could be seen all over the place.
"Electric Shock Storm Domain", as for the spike-toothed pirate, he was surrounded by lightning mana with water mana on the border, electric sparks that could give birth to currents floated here and there.
Not only were their domains apparently dual attributed, but maybe because of that, but they didn’t repel each other, those two’s domains stuck together, maybe not overlapping with each other, but they probably because of the common water mana they shared, they acted as a whole instead, covering quite a large area.
Seeing the expanding domains of those two coming her way, Arianna’s hair, wolf ears and tail shone in a bright red light before the giant energy wolf manifested with her at its center, of course a fifty something meter energy wolf, seemed "small" inside the around three-hundred-meter sized domain result of those two’s domains sticking together.
"Crack!", the moment Arianna was engulfed by the domains the attack had already started, steel and lightning mana particles clashed against the red energy wolf, producing small shattering sounds and crackling electric sounds upon contact.
"Shredding Knife Rain!", with the scale handed pirate’s order, hundreds of arm sized knives formed above him to then descend upon Arianna who beckoned with her hand making the right paw of the red giant energy wolf slash their way.
"Clang!", continuous clinking sounds echoed through the sky as the wolf used its claws to destroy the incoming rain of knives, however they weren’t meant to actually cause damage to Arianna, but were a "marker" so that the spike-toothed pirate could land his spell more easily instead.
"Lightning Shock Descend!", electricity gathered high into the sky to then descend in the form of a pillar which was drawn towards the remains of the knives around the giant red energy wolf.
"Boooom!", the lightning exploded engulfing the giant red energy wolf in continuous currents of electricity, once again that was not a spell meant to cause damage it was just preparation, since its purpose was to immobilize its target, not physically, the spike-toothed pirate had learned his lesson, Arianna could freely change the red giant wolf into a formless mass of energy and still maintain its properties, so he aimed to restrain the energy itself with mana of course.
"Steel Piercing Step!", the scale handed pirate who had flashed from his previous position appeared next to the giant red energy wolf, a twenty-meter sized metal knife manifested at his side which he then threw at Arianna by thrusting his left palm towards her.
"Armor Breaking Throw!", the idea behind this spell was to get rid of the annoying red energy wolf which got in the way of their attacks every single time, this was a spell that left a mark that would prevent the enemy from gathering energy for a few seconds by injecting sharp metal mana into the enemy’s energy.
Unfortunately, the pirate didn’t take into account one simple thing, Arianna might use the red energy wolf as a defensive technique, but its main purpose is to act as an extension of her body, since it is made out of the excess vitality she can produce.
In other words, she doesn’t need the wolf to block for her, so with a sharp light flashing through her eyes, the werewolf girl opened a path for the giant metal knife to reach her to then user her red tainted claws to take the attack head on.
"Screeee!", a loud screeching sound made the pirates feel as if their ears were being drilled with a needle as Arianna’s claws broke through the enemy’s spell ripping it apart the next second.
"Dodge you fool!", the spike-toothed pirate yelled at his teammate, there were five invisible slashing waves sent by the enemy’s claws, flying the scale handed pirate’s way, it was as if it wasn’t a human but a giant wolf the one that had done it.
"Steel Scale Gauntlets!", being too late to dodge, the knife throwing pirate casted a boost spell instead, one that covered the scales on his hands in a thick layer of metal, this is not a spell meant to be used as defense but to increase his throwing power, but steel has a high defensive property so in a pinch it could be used this way as well.
"Agh!", or at least that’s what he thought before seeing his metal cladded scales being peeled away upon contact with the shockwave of Arianna’s attack, luckily the spike-toothed pirate had acted fast and used his chain to drag his teammate away, preventing his hands from being shredded.
’What the hell, she is not a knight so where did that stupidly high physical strength come from!’, inwardly screamed the scale handed pirate, that wasn’t a technique, Arianna simply clawed his way and he nearly lost his hands.
"She fights like a knight, but instead of battle aura uses vitality to saturate her flesh and increase her physical strength", said the spike-toothed pirate to which the scale handed one snorted.
"So that’s why, we are fighting against one of those suicidal maniacs, no wonder", he said, in their minds the werewolf girl was burning her lifespan to produce all that vitality as a mage, since they can tell that her affinity is not blood, light, wood, water or any derivation of the previous which are the ones that often come with abilities related to production of vitality, Arianna’s affinity is lightning after all.
Feeling insulted by the sudden change in the expressions of the enemies who went from fearing her, to look down on her, Arianna softly snorted, her body suddenly vanished from plain view.
"Red Lightning Step", the werewolf girl whose legs were cladded in red energy appeared above those two the next second, the giant red energy wolf manifested around her as she descended upon them, it looked like a wolf pouncing on its prey from afar.
"Lightning Spiral Chain!".
"Shredding Knife Wall".
Seeing the towering figure descending upon them, those two immediately called out their own defensive spells, first the spiked chain extended and surrounded them to then start rotating at high speed, while at the same time a whole bunch of knives with their tips pointed towards Arianna appeared in front of them, both were spells meant to harm the enemy if they didn’t cease their attack.
Which is why those two thought Arianna was going to cancel her charge and then look for a different path to get to them, and that’s when they were going to rain spells on her.
Imagine their expressions when they saw Arianna... charge through both spells, which of course caused a lot of damage to the red giant wolf, cutting and shredding large pieces of it.
"Boooom!", the damaged red energy wolf self-destroyed the next second, getting rid of both of the enemy’s spells on the spot, another thing that differentiated this technique of Arianna when compared to a knight’s battle avatar is that damage suffered by it doesn’t cause her any harm, she can go as wild as she wants with it and her body won’t suffer any backslash.
Of course, she only gained this much maneuverability over it, being able to dismantle and even explode it, after she reached the Arch rank, previous to that she could only manifest it in parts and at distance at most.
Not to mention that Arianna’s hair, wolf ears and tail not always dyed red so she wasn’t as strong as the red giant werewolf at all times, unlike now as the dread instilling fist which was about to land on the chest of the spike-toothed pirate, suggested.
"Clang!", at the last second, an invisible barrier blocked Arianna’s fist, which released a five claw slashing shockwave upon contact.
"Crack!", the pirates nearly had a heart attack when they saw cracks appear all over the barrier of an altar spell, so the scale handed one also activated his spell and now a double layered barrier was protecting them.
Only then did they stop feeling the threat of death coming from those red claws, that being said Arianna manifested the red giant wolf and then used it to bite down on the barrier, which resulted in its mouth being engulfed in black flames as its fangs pierced through the barrier.
