“Is that all you got, pinky?” The werewolf recovered from the pushback and reactivated the crackling surge enveloping his black and bloodied fur.
“…” Lulu landed on her feet, narrowing her eyes at the massive predator.
She clenched her shaking fists and bit her quivering bottom lip. A bunny against a vicious and vile wolf. It was bound to stir up the instinctual nerves deep inside her genes.
“You smell nice… Yes, very nice.” The predator growled, enlarging his pointy claws and licking his lips. “Like sweet and delicious prey hidden among the flowers.”
“On the other hand, you smell like shit.” Lulu scowled and made an effort to block her nostrils. “Did you shit your pants or something?”
“Yes.”
“...”
The blunt answer left the bunny girl speechless.
“You’re admitting to it?” She asked, raising an eyebrow in puzzlement.
“Why shouldn’t I?” He sneered. “Between struggling not to do it, or just doing it and fighting back, isn’t the answer obvious?”
“Huh? You couldn’t just hold it in? What are you, a five year old?!” Lulu took a step back, as if rethinking the choice of opponent. Then she realized. “Wait… The Fortmaster was here?!”
She darted her head around in a panic, but noticing the throne was gone, she let out a sigh of relief.
The werewolf tilted his head to the side slightly, then opened his arms wide, a golden glint accompanying his piercing gaze.
“Enough talk! Let’s go, pinky!”
He leapt forward, his claws swinging at the unmoving bunny.
“Blooming Barricade!” As she shouted, a wall of thorny vines sprouted in front of the predator and pushed back against him. “Rapid Footing!”
Taking off at her usual speed, she instantly ran around, circling the beast. Turning hard corners no longer affected the ranked up runner now.
“GRAAAWWWR!!”
As the vines shredded his body, her opponent immediately released a surge of lightning strikes around him, torching them.
The countless thundering impacts made her repeatedly dodge, the flowery creature on her head swaying left and right, at times even flying high while keeping its little arms latched onto the pink fur.
“Vine Rush!” She shouted as just her enemy turned his focus towards her once more.
“!”
Thorny vines suddenly shot up from the ground, and attempted to pierce through the massive form, only to be bounced off the fur as if they were made of steel.
“One trick bunny! How have you survived this long?!” He launched himself forward, slashing the ground beneath the hopping bunny’s feet repeatedly in chase.
Despite her incredible speed, he was able to keep up, using his massive form to increase his target area. Whenever she ran around to the side or back to come from the rear, he quickly turned to slash at her.
“Hnghh!”
Eventually, Lulu’s constant attempts only served to turn some of her fur red as countless cuts began to appear all over her body. Even though he hadn’t directly hit the bunny girl, his claws were seemingly still able to damage her.
“GRAWWWRR!”
Once again, he flexed his massive figure, releasing a surge of blue sparks around him.
“Floral Frenzy!” The bunny girl announced once more, jumping back.
“Piii!”
“?!”
With the command of the flowery creature, the entire ground around the predator bloomed in a myriad of different flowers, marking all the spots the runner had stepped on thus far.
Some smaller flowers grew on her fur, covering her wounds, while others grew from within the black fur of her enemy. Whenever the sparks torched one, two sprouted back.
“Flowers?!”
“That’s right.” Lulu chuckled as a cheek, wry smile formed on her thin lips. “Trail Blazing!”
“?!”
In an instance, the flower field ignited into violent flames, imprisoning the massive werewolf. Then, before he could react, the fire compiled and merged with the flowers and fur on his body, enveloping him whole.
“GRAWWWRRR!”
Out of reflex, he flexed again, which only seemed to ignite the flames even more. He struggled, grasping at his own body as green smoke surrounded him.
“Lulu!”
“?” The bunny girl looked up at the caller. “Fala? What’s up? Don’t fly too close.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Yes, I couldn’t get close due to the blue sparks, but master has asked to-”
“Don’t need it.” Lulu shook her head and clicked her tongue. “Seriously, why does he worry that much? I think we’re done here.”
“That seems unlikely.”
“What would a crow know? Even with rapid regeneration, he isn’t going to out-regenerate the flames-?!”
“GRAAAAWWWRRRR!”
A sudden shift in atmosphere, a chilling, palpable pressure that made nerves tighten and scream, gave new life to the burning werewolf.
The world had turned from emerald to crimson, marking the hour of wrath.
“A blood moon!! It’s time to hunt!”
“?!”
Lulu and Fala watched as the massive predator grew even bigger, his black fur regenerated to the point where it looked more like flowing hair rather than fur.
The flames had been completely consumed by his skin beneath, which had now completely regenerated once more.
“What a freaking monster…” Lulu muttered to herself, scowling at the vile and foul sight. “Fala, keep Flo safe.”
“!”
Being thrown up, the flowery creature changed means of transportation. It landed on the crow and grabbed onto the piece of Grudgekeeper she had been wearing, as if it was some kind of saddle. When it noticed the teeth salivating at it, it quickly grabbed onto the feathers instead.
“What are you planning to do?” Fala asked, flying out of harm's way.
“Getting you a meal.” Lulu took off running towards the beast, its size still growing. “Boundless Momentum. Rapid Footing.”
Reactivating her skills, with the boost of her Personal Titles, she almost seemed to disappear from view. The runner went in circles around the beast, and the green smoke floating around it, which now looked more yellow due to the red lighting.
“GRAWWWRRR!”
The evolved werewolf noticed her, charged his lightning surge with a deep breath, then flexed again, causing the surroundings to fall under a violent rain of thunder claps.
It took Fala’s quick maneuvering to get out of its radius in time, lest she be devoured as the smoke cloud had.
However, Lulu was knocked back by the shockwave, then, before she could react, got hit by multiple lightning strikes before she managed to land on all fours.
“Hah… Hah…” She panted, trying to get up once more.
The naturally sweet aroma of her fur was fighting off the pungent stench coming off of her burnt body.
“You’ve made this a fun hunt, pinky.” The werewolf dug his feet in the ground and growled loudly. “I can’t wait to taste you!”
“...”
With smoke protruding from her blackened fur, she rose up. After a glance at the permanent burn marks left behind from the fight alongside her childhood friend, she brushed off some blood from her mouth with them, as if making a silent vow to him.
“Heh, I think you’ve had your fill of me by now.” She snickered. “You’ve been tasting me this entire time.”
“?!”
Suddenly, one bunny girl became two. Then three. And four, and five.
“What?!”
“Scented Mirage!”
Lulu shouted with all of them, increasing her innate strength even more. Then, they all took off running toward the beast.
“Come! More prey for me to hunt!”
The werewolf jumped forward, clawing at everything that stood in his way. And yet, all his claws cut were mirages of the bunny girl.
Then, they all shouted.
“Seismic Stomp!”
“...”
From the back, a flying dropkick landed, not budging the massive figure from its place.
“Rapid Growth!”
“Gruh?!”
As she added another skill, the werewolf suddenly shuddered and reached for his throat.
“You’ve been inhaling my sweet scent this entire time, and earlier, you consumed all those hidden spores within that cloud. Poisonous spores.” Lulu jumped back, making small flowers bloom on her body again to mend some of her smaller wounds. “You can regenerate all you want. It won’t help against this.”
THROOSH!
Suddenly, the massive figure stood in place, thorny vines growing out from inside his body, and wrapping around him. Yellow-ish green liquid overflowed from every new hole, resisting even the occasional blue sparks.
The werewolf’s rapid regeneration continued to counteract the effect and wounds, only for more vines to grow and poison the body due to the [Rapid growth] skill.
In the end, the two were locked in a never ending battle, but that was all Lulu was aiming for.
“Sorry, Fala, but that will have to do.”
“That’s okay.” Fala flew down and dropped a piece of the infamous glutton. “I’m not the one eating it.”
In an instance, the piece of cloth distorted and grew in midair, changing into a massive ravenous Dreadbeast. It opened its entire maw before swallowing the supposed predator whole.
“...” Lulu stood with her mouth half-agape. “What the hell was that?”
“Piii!”
“!” She looked up and saw her familiar falling towards her. She reached up and gently grabbed it from the air and put it on her head once more, right between her two long bunny ears. “We did, Flo. You should be proud!”
“Piii!”
“I see you’re done here too.”
“!”
Mathros suddenly landed next to them, looking around the throne room. A clone of Fala accompanied him on his shoulder.
“You too? I guess we’ve grown a bit, huh?” Lulu asked.
“Maybe a little, but I’m not sure our progress was sufficient for what comes next unfortunately.”
“What do you mean?”
Noticing her friends’ gaze, she followed it towards where Somnu was supposed to be.
“!”
While she had expected him to either be fighting or to be done with his enemies already by now, she saw them standing over his motionless body instead. A moment later, the same enemies turned to look at the strawman’s allies.
“What happened?” Lulu asked.
“...”
“It’s fine.”
“?!”
A voice from behind alerted them both.
“I’m fine, we have more pressing matters now.” The strawman patted both his friends’ shoulders, still in the process of taking form. “The progress you two showed was incredible, and I’m glad. However, we all need to get out of here quickly.”
“What’s going on?” Lulu asked, turning around and finally seeing what she had been talking to. “You… You’re not here?!”
“This isn’t the time for that. The Nightmare Creatures around us are about to turn into Dreadbeasts!”
“?!”
“Actually, the truth is, that goes for every single Nightmare Creature on this Layer!”
