Bloodlines Online

When the health bar of the scorpion reached twenty-five percent the elite activated the same skill which healed it just like before, except the healing was even higher.

The scorpion healed so quickly that unlike the previous time the shell did not harden nearly as much, the stinger and the claws were deadly sharp but the durability of the shell was nearly nonexistent in addition to the speed being so much higher.

The scorpion even seemed to release the rest of it’s poison aura to attempt to keep them away as it healed itself to fifty percent.

The immediate attack of the scorpion threw Ezekiel back with such force that his wings snapped between the tree and his body, hot and raw pain making his mind hazy when he stood back up.

He used his own life affinity to cycle mana through his wings for healing so he would habe full control during the attack.

The lowered defense meant he did not have to spend time reducing the armor of the scorpion which also meant Layla did not need to wait for him to create openings.

She slashed out with her blade on the regenerated limbs of the scorpion, ignoring her defense and unleashing her raw power of a flaming aura helped her to match the scorpion blow for blow.

When Ezekiel felt his bones had properly set in his wings he dashed back into the fight at her side while creating extra openings for Keith to target to get full advantage of his damage.

He smiled to himself as his claws slashed through the shell like paper each time he struck, he even noticed that Amaru had begun to fire her spells at the elite now that her damage could affect it.

Through their efforts the creature was being beaten down even if it managed to cause severe damage to them.

Without Hope as their skilled healer they would have never been capable of fighting this monster.

”Zeke, take the tail!”

”Your damage is higher, you take the tail I have the legs!”

”It knows I hurt more so it wont let me close.”

The back and forth of trying to figure out who was best to cripple the beast happened a few times before Ezekiel finally used another small teleport to appear behind the creature and slash at the base of the the thick tail.

This seemed to enrage the creature as it felt the deep wound on it’s body so it spun wildly to hit him away, the increased speed of the monster after it’s second molt made it hard to dodge so even with his speed the tail clipped him.

Layla was repeatedly clashing with the claws of the scorpion and leaving burning wounds across the creature while Keith was using an attack speed increasing skill to apply more Reaper’s marks throughout the fight, each mark taking an entire percent of health away now that the defense of the elite had fallen so low.

Hope began to use constructs to cause internal damage by hitting it with wind mana infused blade constructs that sank deep inside of the body with each cast.

The scorpion began to glow red again after all of their damage brought it to thirty percent and it’s claws lashed out at Layla in a rapid flurry of snaps and stings from the tail.

With hope providing assistance Layla was barely able to keep from being cut in half as the claws snapped shut on her over and over again, the claws being slashed away with each parry of her sword until she even had to try and risk using her armored arm to clash with the claws.

She would be forced to punch or bash away the claws while her sword clashed with the sharp edge of the pincers that tried to cut her apart, those motions opened her to the stinger as well which she would try to parry but still suffered glancing blows.

Her health was already fighting against the poison damage that Hope tried to heal constantly but with the venom of the tail and the damage of the sting itself she saw her health start falling.

Ezekiel had to step in to take more heat off of her when he saw how fast her health was falling, his attacks targeting the tail allowed him to draw the ire of the elite.

When the first claw strike came towards it he felt rage bubbling up inside of him as he thought about the harm this creature had caused Layla and at the fear for his friend who had pulled away enough to get healed properly.

He saw her move away just enough and decided to let loose.

As the claws came toward his face he met them with his own clawed wings snd slammed them to the ground by enhancing them with void mana constructed armor.

His eyes burned with anger as the scorpion fought to pull away but making itself so light through molting had also made it’s strength fall to a more manageable level.

The stinger shooting forward was expected but seeing how fast it really was now did surprise Ezekiel a bit, his hand lashing out to catch the stinger in his grasp and forcing yhe scorpion to fight to release itself.

He sneered at the scorpion before pulling out his bladed wand to stab directly into the stinger he gripped in his hand.

”You are nothing and you do not deserve to hurt them, you wasted too much time with all this healing!”

Obviously the creature could not understand but screaming at an enemy gave him some satisfaction as he cut through the stinger until it hung from the tail by a few strands of muscle and nerves.

He then infused the remaining mana he had into his blade as he slashed across the face of this beast repeatedly.

The wounds across the face had blinded a few of it’s many eyes leaving him the chance to finally pull away.

He had sensed Keith lining up a shot behind him and waiting for an opening so he jumped away in time to watch a mana infused arrow pierce the skull of the scorpion.

It was such a deep wound in a critical location that the damage was significant, he made sure Amaru had a good view to target with spells during this as well to hopefully give her the consumption.

He moved along the side attacking the legs as Amaru launched many needles into the body, each leg sheared away from the joints removed more of it’s mobility.

The others seemed to notice Amaru attacking it now and they went for less effective strikes to help her get this kill.

The scorpion struggled to move and fought with it’s claws no matter how much they attacked or how futile the attempts were by this point.

When the health bar sank to the single percent mark the others quit attacking and Ezekiel let Amaru attack from afar to get her consumption.

It took a few seconds but the effect took place, turning the scorpion into black blames that slowly moved to Amaru like dust being absorbed by a fan.

He felt her body grow larger after that kill and she even needed to adjust her position again as she seemed to grow by another foot.

”Yes!”

”Nice!”

”Stop jumping Layla! You’ll open the wounds im healing!”

”You guys saved my butt, that stinger hurt.”

They found a place to sit and take a breather, some of them even using the time to cycle their mana and cultivate in the case of Ezekiel.

The spot wasn’t necessarily special or great for mana density but they had drained their mana and stamina so much that it took a few minutes just to get back to peak condition.

Keith had to keep watch for them and at one point had to assassinate a monster just to keep them from being bothered by enemies during the recovery.

”Hey Zeke those wings didn’t look like the wings of the other devils we saw in town, what’s up with that?”

Hope was staring at his wings while he cultivated and although she was interrupting him he had a feeling that this mana density would not help him get far.

”Well actually I don’t think I qualify as a devil anymore, I evolved into something called a Void Beast.”

This seemed to peak their interest so he began to explain what he had seen through the visions of the birth of the universe.

As he explained the vision to them he saw Hope looking distracted.

”Hey what’s wrong?”

She didn’t respond at first and he started to think that she hadn’t heard him until she looked him in the eye.

”Tell me more about the things you saw in that vision because I just got a unique quest from hearing that story.”

”A unique quest? What’s it called?”

”It’s called the Aether Mystery.”