Chapter 39 - Grave Wolf

Ash pushed herself back to her feet, eyes once more scanning for more monsters. Yarrow had also turned his attention ahead though his slight frown at her showed that she wasn't yet free of his questioning.

Luna got to it first, "So…That didn't quite look like a sanction," she observed.

"Just a stern talking to," she responded with a scowl.

"Was it thinking of ripping the dungeon apart or?" She prompted, knowing Ash's temper towards particularly uncooperative dungeons quite well.

Ash heaved a sigh and directed the two of them towards another grouping of monsters. As they were dealing with it, she saw something of moderate concern: a large gathering of magic in the center of the nearly-formed cemetery. It would be placed squarely in front of the mausoleum that she had no doubt was the main entryway into the catacombs below. She knew there were other entrances, likely ones that would result in injury considering they seemed to be connected to some of the graves.

"We have an area boss forming for the graveyard," she warned as they fought, always keeping a shielding spell within one of her storages as she launched everything else and replaced it swiftly.

Watching her cast out of the corner of his eye, Yarrow asked a question that had been on his mind, "What was that you did earlier, Ash? You healed me without casting a spell on me."

She explained it as a new passive ability gained from Spellweaving, promising to go further in depth later when they weren't in danger. The paladin nodded slightly and turned towards the swirl of magic that was growing visible even to the naked eye.

Luna scowled at her, the look demanding an answer, "Some of my magic isn't usable here," she responded shortly, returning the scowl, "Why didn't you ever tell me that my immunity to most status effects was negated when my horn was trimmed?"

It was Luna's turn to sigh heavily as a giant skeletal wolf ripped its way free of the ground, taking in the growing magic to wreath itself in deep black fire, "I'd assumed you would be sensible and let me take care of things here, or at least consult me. I'm supposed to guard you, Asha," her voice softened suddenly, growing sad and ever so slightly frightened, "I…didn't want to confront the idea that you'll exist some day without me."

Starborn Unicorn didn't die so long as their magic remained able to sustain them. Starlight elves were not made in such a way. She still had many long years to spend at Luna's side but it was still a finite number in the end. It wasn't something Ash had ever taken the time to contemplate, not since the gods had been sealed from the world and her magic had started to break. She'd known from the first cleansing ritual that her life would end long before Luna's own without repair.

The wolf shook itself and the fire settled to form fur. Violent red eyes observed them, waiting patiently for the challengers to approach. It had enough reason to it from the sheer amount of magic instilled into its creation to understand that the barrier served to protect them. It would not fight near the dungeon exit.

Ash refreshed the enchantments on hers and Luna's spells as well as Yarrow's blade before taking a moment to let her mana return. Concentration on his face, Yarrow took the lead, his shield ready to defend at a moment's notice.

The wolf lunged, snapping its jaws at Yarrow before lithely dodging around him and heading for Luna. Ash had placed the shielding spell on Yarrow the moment it lunged and nearly felt her heart stop at the idea of the thing killing Luri right in front of them.

Luna slammed her own shielding magic into its snout, a harsh reminder that she was not without defenses even if they weren't so strong as Yarrow's. It broke the shielding spell, but not before Yarrow slammed his blade into its leg and cast his aggro spell.

"Wait a moment before you attack. I want to be sure I have its undivided attention," Yarrow warned them both away as he spent a moment fighting back and forth with the wolf. His blade was harming it, though it had no blood to lose, but it was hitting hard and Ash was left with no choice but to refresh the shield spell twice before Yarrow finally gave a sharp nod, "I'll be able to keep its focus now. Ash, I'll need this secondary shield for any large attacks it does, it should show signs of them since it isn't highly intelligent. You can let me take a hit here and there, just make sure you can always cast that shield. Luna, you'll be our main source of damage to this thing. Try water, if it doesn't work move on to the light element."

They took a few minutes that felt like an eternity to get a grasp on how the wolf preferred to attack. It snapped wildly at Yarrow, its great clawed front paws also trying to rip the shield from the paladin's hands. As it did, magic gathered around it and formed lesser undead. Ash took care of those since they appeared slowly, giving Luna the chance to truly focus on nothing but damage and keeping Yarrow from having to deal with multiple enemies. The damage she did to them healed Yarrow any time he took damage, keeping him from gathering small wounds that would eventually render him unable to fight.

After a while, its tail went oddly still and Ash instinctively placed a shielding spell on each of them before preparing Earth Wall. She had barely finished preparing the spell when she had to use it immediately as the wolf breathed a huge gout of flame at all three of them. The wall took the brunt of the attack and the shields took the rest even as the wolf ripped the weakened earthen wall to shreds and set upon Yarrow again.

After that, she kept her storage filled with three instances of the shield and one for Earth Wall, forming the other spells she needed at an increased cost to attack the other undead. Her mana restoration was able to keep up only due to the mana she was stealing with each cast and her passive ability keeping her from having to actively heal Yarrow.

They fell into a sort of rhythm that continued right up until her Unicorn Eyes informed her that the wolf's condition was deteriorating. It leapt back, howling as the one that had triggered the morph had done with the same debuff-inducing quality to it. Flames swirled around it to prevent approach, to keep them from stopping its howling and the undead began to rise at a swift pace.

Luna cleansed them periodically and Yarrow forced all of the undead to pay attention to him rather than the other two as he mowed them down. The humongous wolf showed no signs of stopping after several long minutes that were no doubt threatening to leave Luna without any mana to fight with.

Ash formed the Snare Vine spell, willing it under the wolf's great paws even as Luna cast Starsoak several times, throwing the spell up into the air instead of aiming straight at the wolf. The spells didn't have infinite momentum to them and the water came down on its skull even as its flames ripped Ash's snare apart before it could do anything to the monster. Momentum was what did the majority of the damage for the Starsoak spell, but the water doused some of the wolf's flames and forced it to stop howling.

Ash cast the shield once more on Yarrow as he lunged forward to strike at the wolf once more before conjuring a barrage of Starsoak and Starshine spells that she continuously launched at the wolf. Luna joined in as well, launching spell after spell into it until it finally fell.

The massive wolf's form dissipated into the air, leaving behind a chest that Yarrow stored into his inventory even as he cast a wary glance at the graveyard around them for more monsters.

"There's no worry of a break with that thing gone," Luna said, glancing to Ash for a nod of confirmation, "Let's get back to town to report this, then we can deal with the contents of the chest."

Yarrow scowled slightly but gave a short, sharp nod of agreement before starting towards the exit. He'd barely made it a few steps with both Ash and Luna at his side when he felt Ash's magic wrap around him as it had the previous day. Between one step and the next, they went from the graveyard to the starseeing pond at the temple.

Ash sat heavily on the ground, clearly having depleted her mana almost entirely to get them there. He muttered a brief thanks and made his way to the guild to report the dungeon morph and new formation, surprised when Luna kept step beside him.