Chapter 37 - Morph

Notifications started appearing in Ash's vision as it swiftly blurred, the howl was causing tons of status effects.

Luna cast two spells that were new to Ash, though not entirely: Mass Cleanse and Mass Dispel. Blurred as her vision was, she couldn't grasp the portion added to each to morph it so it would target multiple people. Normally she'd have contemplated asking Luna at a later time but there was danger to deal with first.

Yarrow backed closer to them, his expression grim as he cursed vehemently. The wolf's howl was changing the dungeon around them, twisting it into something new. Attacking it wouldn't stop the process, though Luna destroyed it anyway if only to make the awful debuff-causing howl to stop.

Ash didn't bother to test the barrier at her back, it would remain solid until the dungeon solidified into its new form. By then, though, they might well be dead. They were caught in one of the most dangerous dungeon phenomena, a dungeon morph. Something had happened in the beautiful, safe little meadow dungeon to cause the wolves to appear. The emotion tied to the dungeon was no longer calm and safe.

A twisted monster appeared, turning a blood-stained face towards them. Ash launched her stored Starsoak spells at it watching them swiftly joined by Luna's own casting to rip the monster apart.

"Luna, show me one of the spells you just used again," she said, eyes moving around in hopes to catch the next monster forming. Luna obliged before pulling out a mana potion and downing it. Ash grasped onto the new portion added and used her own magic to create it, adding it to her own version of heal using her Spellweaving.

With a slight nod, Ash admitted internally that mana was going to be a major issue even as she willed the earlier ignored notification to appear before her.

It wasn't a particularly strange revelation, just her own quirks in spellcasting once more showing themselves as skills. She wasn't sure if it would help them and turned her attention to the mana issue once more. She dismissed all of her spells and cast Mana Thief on her own weapon to test if it could be used as a temporary weapon enchant.

With a slight nod, she cast it on Yarrow's blade before staring at her spell list and willing something useful to jump out at her.

Seeing her intense concentration, Luna spoke up, "What are you plotting, Ashterra?"

"Without mana, we die here," movement caught her eye and she joined Luna in launching an attack on the creature that appeared. She was beginning to put together what had happened in the little meadow. Many lives had somehow been lost in it and fear and rage had formed the wolves and begun to twist and change it. The death of the wolves had been the final catalyst needed to push the dungeon into a full morph.

Yarrow glanced down at the enchanted blade in his hand, "Use Mana Thief. With your weaving, can't you just attach it to your other spells?"

Ash frowned, calling up Mana Thief and Starsoak, considering the monsters appearing still seemed to be tied to the flame element. Combining the two would create an even more complex spell than Stone Wall. Left with no other choice, she did so, moving the building blocks around until the spell locked itself together. She was surprised by the result.

The explanation of the enchantment stated that it would allow the spells of the person to steal mana from what they struck for a short while at a slight reduction of damage. After talking it over for a few seconds, she cast it on both Luna and herself.

"Ash," Luna drew close to her side, lowering her voice ever so slightly, "Could you get out of here if you had to, Ash?"

She knew what Luna wanted and frowned slightly before doing something that hadn't crossed her mind before. She called on the magic she used to teleport and pulled it into one of her storages to experiment with it. The spells tied to her being a Starborn Unicorn were, after all, still spells. She had more building blocks to work with than she'd previously thought.

She made a slight adjustment to her personal teleportation ability, allowing her to designate targets with it by using the piece that made Mass Dispel target multiple people. Unlike most teleportation spells, Ash could use hers while in combat. She couldn't do anything while the dungeon was still morphing without extreme backlash, though, so it was an escape rope to get them out the moment they could do so and nothing more.

Luna's lowered voice hadn't been because she was contemplating having Ash abandon them to seek help, but to keep Yarrow from overhearing. Her intent was for Ash to take Yarrow and run the moment they were able to do so. Unlike them, he couldn't come back from death. She'd happily stay behind if it meant Yarrow lived on even if she wasn't keen on the idea of experiencing death even in a temporary way. The paladin would not agree to such a thing on principle.

Ash downed one of her own mana potions and turned her attention towards figuring out how to keep Yarrow alive long enough for them to get out of the dungeon now that the mana issue was somewhat resolved for a bit. She caught hold of Mana Thief again and frowned at it before impulsively reaching for Heal to combine them somewhat.

That done, she tried to pair it with an attack spell while adding on another building block from heal that wasn't needed in the thief spells, that of the ability to choose a target. Once more, the result was surprising, though in a completely different way than before.

Reading it, all of her attack spells going forward would heal designated allies for a small amount of the damage she was able to deal. It would be very important for her to target vital points with her attacks and use the proper elements and spell types in the future in order to maximize the potential to help her friends while harming foes.