The warning’s never seemed to arrive in time, just as she was getting a letter the werewolf found herself stumbling out of her chair and whipping around to look outside of the window. What she saw was something out of a nightmare; flying beasties tearing across the town ripping up portions of buildings and flinging them around between one another in some sick sense of ‘fun’.

The alchemist had been getting more brazen, more foolish. Leaving more clues but also making it really damn difficult to do anything at all about him given that the clues really only meant they knew what he was working on and how to vaguely combat it. It was earnestly frustrating to her given that she had to combat the symptoms and not the actual source. It was grating.

Among other things she had found herself in an odd position of magic that was slowly tearing her body apart in a way that she wasn’t sure was entirely natural. Like where had this magic come from? Where had her ice magic gone? She’d adjust her armor and wince a bit as it grated against the woman’s ‘wounds’.

It wasn’t going to be going away anytime soon until her body got used to it. She’d bite the inside of her cheek as she approached the balcony; the engineers had been a little cross about last time and she’d look to watch the beasts fly around. Each was the size of a small plane but looked to be strong enough to rip buildings off of their foundations. Letting out a tsk she’d jump off the balcony again. Whinging a bit as she landed. The pain was getting worse and she wasn’t sure if it had even reached it’s maximum yet. She’d find out eventually she figured…

She’d inspect her opponents a little more as she approached them. Permafrost sat resting over her shoulder and her offhand remained in it’s sheath. How would she strike them from here? There was a soft tingle and the werewolf’s eyes widened as she got the premonition of something. It wasn’t power like before that had ripped apart her ‘veins’... but something else that she hadn’t been able to do before.

She shouldn’t try it without being more accustomed to it and shook her head even as that massive orb looked down at her with a sense of distaste. Huffing a bit she’d jump up onto a building that stood among the ruins and waited for the beasties to get closer…

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The first one that swooped down looked like a giant parakeet mixed with a monitor lizard; quite the miss match and its massive talons swiped just inches above her head. The werewolf had to throw herself back and away from its talons while her sword came up lashing out at it and cutting deep into its flesh. She heard its screech as it flew away and adjusted her stance as she came stumbling up.

It wasn’t a real deep cut but it was enough to where lucretia knew that if let be the beast would die on its own. But that wasn’t something she was about to risk; watching it circle back around she opted this time to swing at a more vital point on them. Up, over and through its neck. The beast crashed down on the pavement below and didn’t move. Lucretia extended her sword out to one side violently; the blood that was on the blade splashing out. With a small snarl she’d note the other beasts.

There were six in total and all of them just noted that she had killed one of them. A cascade of roars, screeches and one long winded bellow followed suit. The various dive bombs that ensued had the werewolf rolling, jumping off of the building and then kicking off of one of the beasts so hard that she sent it slamming down into the pavement. It’s head cracking like an egg as it slammed down.

She was getting good at this but she was honestly also getting upset that it was taking this long for her own troops to get onto the scene. Many of them couldn’t even keep up with her and it showed. She’d tsk a bit as one of them knocked her spare sword off her belt as it went for her primary.

Seeing it spin away into the rubble didn’t really make her feel any better but the follow up where she slammed her fist into the face of the beast and made it scrunch up like a slinky certainly did. She’d watch it flop around for a moment before turning her attention to the other four that remained…

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The fourth beastie that dived at her earned a roundhouse kick that sent it crashing through another building. Spiking it on some jagged metal; lucretia noted that it’s hide was no where near as thick as the others and it quickly died. It was a bit smaller too and when the other’s roared she had to figure that it was the youngest out of the bunch. Hopping back and looking towards her barracks she noted that people were still scrambling… What was taking so long?

The fifth beastie swung down, using a pillar like a club and lucretia punched it mid swing; blasting the pillar apart and making the beast blink slowly as it held up it’s shattered weapon. A few seconds more and it was missing it’s head too as Lucretia took it off while it was standing there dumbly. She really hated this sort of thing. Really hated that the beasts were just tools and weren’t even given the consideration from their creator. But she wasn’t able to just stop them without hurting or killing them in spectacular ways.

Seeing the remaining two beasts circle gave lucretia a good idea of how smart they were. They were examining her; not moving excessively and letting her know that they were trying to find a weakness. Lucretia just stood there, letting them. She’d stand tall, taking a powerful stance. Holding her blade in two hands before leaping upwards towards one of them. She would clearly miss…

Until something exploded within her and she shot forward like a missile through the air. So quick that she was surprised and rather than slicing at the beast she’d slam into them so hard that she went through it. Spinning in the air for a moment out of surprise she’d watch the beast plummet to the ground before she started falling too…

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Her body was on fire, whatever that was had to be connected to the magic that was swirling deep within her now. She felt the intense gaze of something much bigger than her as she fell. Half conscious and half not. The werewolf brought a hand to her head just as she hit the pavement. It didn’t hurt at all but she sat there in her own little crater. Staring up into the sky as she could see that last beast circling her.

What was happening to her? She could feel the pain of this magic through her entire frame and rather intensely on the ‘lines’ of her body. She’d groan as she started to sit up. She could feel the fire. She could see the fury. It was absolutely something that she wasn’t sure that she should be doing. She’d inhale a little bit and get a whiff of the scents around her. Too many civilians. Too few knights. She’d tsk a bit and struggle to stand; the fall and the beasts hadn’t really hurt her.

She had hurt her. She’d look up at the beast with bloodshot eyes and there was something there that made it recoil a bit. An intenseness that it likely had never seen before. The intense magical aura that started to exude from Lucretia seemed to hit it like a truck. Even if it wasn’t her magic it was still what was within her. She’d exhale a little bit; the arcane nature of this magic tickled along her throat.

...This magic… It’s…

She realized a little too late what this magic was as it roared from her throat, spewing up in a powerful blast that shot through the sky. Skewering the beast and ultimately blowing its body completely away. She dropped permafrost and started coughing until she saw stars in her eyes.

This magic was untrained so it was hitting her even harder than before. But how could she have known? How could she have known about this magic that felt like it was tearing into her bit by bit. She’d use permafrost to stand up again. Wincing a bit as it hurt to breathe. She must have looked strange to the civilians that were popping their heads out of the rubble or their little hidey holes. She’d pull herself away from the now finished ‘battle’ if you could even call it that.

It was painful to drag herself all the way back to the barracks where her own men flinched at seeing her. She’d push past them and just fall into her bed there. Staring at the ceiling as she went over the fight in her head…

I think I got you now you… bastard…

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