Chapter 3769: New Powers (Part 2) ’I hate to admit it, but I’d never thought of this on my own.’ The Agni thought as he smashed into Piretha, the Dryad-Upyr. ’Using heat rays for superior aerial mobility and closing the distance instead of attacking is a brilliant move.’ The Dryad lacked the resources to craft herself an armor fitting her new size and still retained her previous height. "You are all bark and no bite, little beast!" Piretha took the blow in full, relying on her superior mass and regenerative abilities to stop the living projectile in his tracks. "You can’t hurt me like that!" She grabbed the Agni from the sides and started squeezing. "Indeed, I can’t!" Nalrond uncurled his body, slashing left and right with his forearm’s bone spikes and up with those coming out of his knees. Mere bone spikes wouldn’t have been much of a threat to an armored Divine Beast. Bone spikes coated in the Adamant of Orion’s Featherwalker armor and packing the heat of a tier four Light Mastery spell, however, cut through Piretha with ease. The various pieces of the Dryad were still reassembling themselves when the hard-light constructs reached their master and pinned every fragment of the Dryad to the ground. The Void Flames they carried consumed Piretha’s vitality and blinded her with pain. Nalrond used his Earth Vision to spot her Root and incinerate it with a focused heat ray. The fight had barely started, and two Upyrs were already down. "What can you do, little girl?" Ulthane the Manticore was much bigger than Friya, but after seeing two of his allegedly immortal comrades die in the blink of an eye, he didn’t feel very safe. He ignored orders and released his Frost Soul bloodline ability to protect himself from any trick the human woman had up her sleeve. "How long do you have?" Friya smirked from behind her visor as her body disappeared amid golden sparks. ’Behind you!’ An Upyr telepathically yelled at Ulthane, who turned around in a whirlwind of claws. ’Above you!’ Another Upyr said while the Manticore was still off balance. He looked up and whipped his tail, releasing a swarm of poisonous darts. ’Stop mocking me, you bastards!’ The darts hit only air, just like the claws. ’We are not mocking you. She’s-’ The golden sparks of Dimensional Ruler had finished surrounding Ulthane, turning his size into a disadvantage. She kept Blinking around him faster than he could see her or his Full Guard spell could follow her. ’This is impossible! Frost Soul stops all spells and bloodline abilities.’ He thought, and he was right. Frost Soul did turn spells and bloodline abilities against their casters, but only those that were conjured inside its area of effect. Friya had cast Dimensional Ruler before diving in, and the already formed golden sparks were unaffected by the Upyr’s bloodline ability. "Stop running and fight, you coward!" Ulthane roared. "Okay." The Manticore turned toward the voice just to see a small dimensional opening right in front of his face. Friya spat her acidic venom from all her heads at point-blank range, soaking Ulthane’s eyes and still-open mouth. The Emperor Beast clenched his burning throat, gasping for air in a desperate attempt to use his breathing technique. Friya encountered no resistance when she lunged twice at the blind Manticore with her rapier. She pierced Ultahne’s heart and head, flooding them both with Blight Flames for good measure. Another Upyr died before anyone could come to his rescue. "Do you have the guts to fight someone your own size, cowards?" Tista landed in an empty area and was quickly surrounded from every side. No one was willing to discover what her battle claws were capable of, preferring to take her down with spells from a safe distance. The Upyrs stared at her, envying even her funny-looking armor. Bad equipment was better than no equipment, and most of the Upyrs fought naked while in their Divine Beast form. "I’ll take that as a no." She extended her arms, and the Upyrs jumped back, activating Frost Soul to protect themselves and kill the Hekate in one fell swoop. The right Firefang glove turned black and released a jet stream of Void Flames, while the left turned white and released a burst of Blight Flames. Frost Soul didn’t hinder the flames, but kept the Upyrs from activating their Spirit Barriers. From so close, there was no way to dodge the Cursed Flames, and two Upyrs fell to the ground. Tista extended her arms again, and the remaining Upyrs ran away or took flight to dodge an attack that never came. Firefang could only store one kind of Flames at a time, and their reserves were now empty. Tista exploited the sudden absence of Frost Soul to take a deep breath and recharge her weapons. At the same time, she unleashed the spells stored in the Mouth of Menadion and finished off the wounded Upyrs. "Come back! You don’t leave a lady without a dance partner!" Yet her battle claws were ablaze again, and no one dared face her. "Come and stop me, you bastards!" Lith came down slowly, hurling Flames and releasing spells while they were still effective." ’There he is!’ The Upyrs unleashed a volley of tier five spells. ’Remember our orders. The others are just extras. Our mission is to stop Verhen!’ "That’s really nice of you." Morok bolted in front of the Tiamat, lighting his colored scales and six eyes. They drained the elemental spells of their power and sent them back after the Tyrant added something of his own. Six elemental pillars struck as many Upyrs, throwing them off balance. Morok’s blasts lacked the power to kill the Divine Beasts but created an opening that Lith exploited to sunder them with Double Edge. The Life Maelstrom coursing through Lith and his equipment made him too fast for the Upyrs to follow, and the silvery flames left in the wake of the angry blade killed even the Fae. Another group of Upyrs tried to approach Lith, but the ground below their feet became unstable. Bodya dug through the mansion’s park while hurling rivers of acid, turning the grassland into a toxic marsh. It kept the Fae waiting in ambush below the ground from joining the fight and interfered with the footwork of those above. A few Fae and plant folk tried to stop the Niddhog, but the Void Flames shrouding him burned their tendrils to ashes before they could take hold. ’Kill them quickly! Don’t give them the time to think and strategize!’ Lith said as the Upyrs stopped charging forward blindly and restored order and discipline. ’The fight will turn into an attrition battle once we lose the surprise effect, and time is not on our side. ’Every second we waste here is a second that Protector fights alone against the gods know how many enemies. If Jadon and Keyla die, even if we slaughter all the Upyrs, I’d lose two precious friends, whereas Meln will have no trouble finding more cannon fodder to turn into more Upyrs.’ *** Inside the Lark Household, at the same time. Protector sighed in relief when he walked past the broken entrance and the Monocle of Menadion picked up the energy signatures of Jadon and Keyla Lark.