A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

…but was thwarted at the last moment. Sand started to rapidly gather within the deep wounds her eyebeams left behind on the Dhashur's body. In the mere blink of an eye, the bleeding stopped, and the sand created new scales to cover its sinewy body.

At the same time, the creature rose back to its feet when Astrid was mere inches away from it. A cunning light shone in its eyes, and Astrid immediately understood she'd been tricked. With high agility and extreme speed, it spun its body around and whipped its spiked tail at the unprepared vampire.

Astrid's instincts and reflexes kicked in. Her own swords changed directions midswing to intercept the snapping tail, but she could only partially deflect the attack. Instead of impacting her chest, the attack caused a deep cut on her arm, causing her to hiss in pain.

Despite the wound, she managed to use the tail's sweeping force to somersault backwards and create some new distance between herself and the third-rank creature.

When she landed back on her feet, her eyes were filled with a solemn and stern light. She inwardly admonished herself for her carelessness. "I guess you've certainly shown me never to underestimate a third-rank beast," she growled as she glanced at her bloody arm. A bright light flashed on her wound as she seared it close with sunfire, a pained scowl on her face.

Meanwhile, despite its successful attack, the creature appeared cautious about a follow-up and started prowling around her. This caused Astrid to inspect her opponent carefully. "I wonder how intelligent you actually are..." she muttered first, before finally noticing the reason for its caution: a slight limp. Explore stories on My Virtual Library Empire

"I see!" the vampire chuckled to herself. "You haven't healed. You've just applied a bandage!"

"Alright then," she grinned as she flourished her swords, and her excitement rose. "Let's make a belt out of you!"

***

Meanwhile, Emily's battle with the bug creature raged on as well.

The Baqum she faced had an elongated, segmented body that stretched up to five meters long and propelled itself with eel-like motions. Its exoskeleton was partially transparent, revealing pulsating, glowing blue veins that ran along its body.

Its countless legs were also segmented, each featuring webbed, fin-like appendages tipped with tendrils. Although probably intended for slithering through water, they clearly allowed it to skitter across solid land with surprising speed.

The creature's front was dominated by what appeared to be the grotesque, oversized head of a deep-sea anglerfish, with a massive, gaping maw full of needle-like teeth. It even possessed a glowing lure that extended from its forehead and twitched constantly.

It saw through at least a dozen irregularly placed eyes that varied in size and glowed faintly. Finally, its long body ended in twin tails, each tipped with a cluster of barbed tentacles.

After the Baqum was body-checked by Emily's summon, its long body flailed on the ground. An ugly screech reverberated from its grotesque mouth, but it took a mere second for the creature to pull itself back on its many feet and glare hatefully at Emily and her shadowy companion.

Emily tilted her head a little, hands already stretched and conjuring inky-black magic circles while she looked at the creature curiously. "You know what? I think Astrid is just a baby. I think you're kind of cute!" She sighed and shrugged, "But then, I've always liked insects."

Dark orbs started spewing from her magic circles until she was surrounded by a dozen of them. At the same time, Emily's expression of curiosity turned to one of vicious bloodthirst. "Anyway, Master ordered me to take care of you, so let's get you dead!"

The Baqum's gaze snapped to the floating spheres of darkness orbiting Emily, its many eyes twitching erratically. It let out a gurgling hiss, shifting its weight as the sand beneath it turned to thick, sloshing mud. Astonishingly, it was capable of turning sand into water with aetherium.

Emily smirked. "You think that's going to help?" With a flick of her wrist, the dark orbs moved in a synchronized rush, darting toward the Baqum like a swarm of hungry predators.

The creature reacted instantly. Its segmented legs rippled in unison, carrying it backwards at a startling speed. At the same time, a spiralling column of water surged from the sand, forming a twisting wall between it and the approaching orbs. The dark spheres met the water, hissing violently as the corrosive energy ate away at the liquid barrier, but the Baqum had already repositioned.

A sharp, reverberating croak burst from its throat as its twin tails snapped forward. A dozen barbed tentacles shot out, writhing toward Emily like disgusting harpoons.

But her shadowy protector lunged, hammer sweeping in a brutal arc. The spectral weapon connected with the nearest tentacles, sending them recoiling with force, but it did not deter the Baqum for long. Its body slithered to the side, flowing like liquid as more tendrils lashed forward.

Emily twisted her fingers, and the remaining dark spheres wove around her, intercepting the incoming tendrils. Wherever they touched, the Baqum's flesh sizzled and sloughed away, revealing the pulsing, glowing veins beneath.

The Baqum screeched and withdrew, its many eyes flicking between Emily and her summon. Instead of retreating, it took a different approach—water surged up from the sand, swirling around its form. The moisture hardened into jagged, ice-like spines along its exoskeleton, its transparent carapace glistening as frozen plates formed across its body.

Emily clicked her tongue. "Oh, clever. That's gonna make things a bit trickier."

The Baqum didn't hesitate. Its body writhed, propelling it forward in a burst of speed. Emily barely had time to react before a tidal wave of water erupted from its form, crashing toward her with the force of a battering ram.

Protectively, shadow Erik leapt in front of her, hammer raised, as the water engulfed them both. Emily looked at the protective form in front of her as it parted the water to protect her and couldn't help but smile as she imagined him to be the real Erik.

But she quickly focused again because she felt the toll this was taking on both of them. It wasn't the impact that hurt, but the drain. Her aetherium burned as her summon's form distorted within the torrent. Any damage it took healed instantly, but at her expense.

Emily clenched her fists, forcing her floating orbs forward through the water's surge. The Baqum had adapted, but so would she…!