My Servant System

"Yeah, let me just pull out the spell I have that gives people wings and use it on you real quick... y'know, that spell I totally have and the one that I use oh so often?"

Even in the face of this electrified, glowering, supercharged Gryphon-Wolf chimera monster thing I still didn't feel that... endangered, at least past the normal amount of danger that was very healthy to feel at almost all times with these people around me.

We were magnets for odd things, after all, but because of us being so magnetic to danger I was also rather accustomed to dealing with it, even more so if we were all in a group together; like Leone said, it was becoming hard to feel overly threatened when I had some very strong people backing me up.

That helped bring out some humor in a situation that otherwise should be rather humorless, something that made Draka glare at me from behind while Mom just let out a bark of laughter before she said "Then just give me the next best thing you sharp tongued brat!"

The Chimera let out a growl as it listened to the Demoness, but it still refused to take the initiative and attack us first; it was waiting and watching with a patience that wasn't anywhere close to being worn thin, and that did tickle my danger sense a little.

Anything that had that sort of patience as a predator tended to sit atop an apex in its domain, and right now we were technically in its domain... so could we wrestle this monster down and stand above it, or were we about to get humbled?

The answer was rather obvious to me, but I still wanted to err on the side of caution as I slowly gathered a little bit more mana than was needed for the spell she wanted, preparing myself for the inevitable explosion of action that was to come.

Going from this standstill staring at one another to the clashing of blades against talons and fangs, to the eruption of mana crashing against mana as we vied for dominance over the other was always worrisome, especially now that we had a 'real' weak link.

Keeping Draka safe and ensuring she didn't take any major damage - and keeping the monster from exploiting this 'weak link' of ours - would be a little difficult, but we had to do it even if we didn't explicitly want to.

All of us - including her - knew that, so there was no discussion, no irritation, no attempts to brush it away; we just accepted it and prepared ourselves for the battle to come, and for me that was by blanketing Mom in a thick veil of Wind Mana that gathered specifically around her legs, giving her a boost to her speed that she was going to make use of immediately.

The Demoness shot forwards the second my Wind Mana swirled around her legs, taking advantage of the coiling energy and launching herself straight at the monster, which growled and bunched up its own powerful hind legs as it watched her shoot towards it.

All of the electricity streaking across its thick black fur gathered into a singular focal point just beneath its maw, swirling around its throat and signaling an attack that was going to be quite fascinating and one that I wasn't certain of how to defend against.

I knew it was an attack, but seeing the mercurial nature of it I wasn't sure what kind it was going to be, though it didn't make me wait long at all as it just threw its head back and howled, causing that build up of Lightning Mana to pulse out in waves that only grew stronger the louder it got.

It sounded like thunder rumbling within the beasts throat, and with each crescendo it reached that Lightning Mana surged, arcing across the air like it was leaping through the particles of sand it was kicking up with its 'voice' and hurtling straight towards us.

Straight towards Mom, who was between us and it, the Demoness taking her place as both our shield and our sword, her own empowered mana swirling to life around her while also gathering around her Claymore, protecting her from most of the Lightning Mana and preparing her to strike.

Things were moving at speeds I wasn't fully capable of reacting to perfectly; specifically, the speed with which she moved at her enhanced form and the Lightning Mana traveling as fast as it was made it hard for me to react the way I wanted, but I could still react.

Leone could still react too, the Vampire erecting a dome of translucent flame around us that absorbed and redirected some of the Lightning Mana, allowing me to take the mana I had been gathering and direct it towards a more supportive or offensive use.

Seeing that the Demoness was able to move so fast and catch the monster a little off guard as it deepened its howl and focused on unleashing those waves of Lightning Mana against her, I chose to support her instead of attack the beast, trusting in her to deal a significant amount of damage on this opening attack.

Not wanting to disrupt her timing or knock her off balance, I instead began to send out pulses of my own, battling back some of the Chimera's howls with my Wind Mana as I pushed everything back towards it, letting my mana crash against the monster's as I diminished its power.

That, in turn, allowed the Demoness to put more of her cerulean flames into her blade instead of into her armor, and that single shift of her power brought the Chimera's head back down as it continued its thunderous howl, debating what it should do before the Demoness crashed into it like a meteor.

There wasn't enough time to do anything though, the mere seconds we had exploded into already getting spent up as the two overwhelming bundles of mana got intimately close to one another, leaving no time at all for reaction.