Chapter 58: My magic wand!
On a distant hill, Liliane and Seraphina’s hunt was interrupted by a deafening roar. They turned in unison, watching the ancient tree, Dawn Plains’ landmark, shudder and collapse in a cloud of dust.
“No beast on the first floor should cause such destruction…” Liliane’s brow furrowed.
“Man-made?” Seraphina asked, her expression grave.
“I fear not, Lady Liliane,” Seraphina replied. She raised her wand, swiping it before her eyes, a clear blue film covering her honey-colored gaze. Her vision pierced the distance, revealing panicked adventurers fleeing toward the exit, pursued by a snow-white rabbit with an ominous red horn. Each flash of its horn unleashed lightning, carving blackened trenches and shattering hillsides.
“That’s…!” Liliane’s calm shattered, replaced by shock and anger. “Calamitas Rubicorne? A red-named beast from the dungeon’s depths… why is it here?!”
No time for questions. Liliane raised her wand. “Ventus Impetus!” (Wind Surge)
A gale gathered beneath her, lifting her petite frame. She became a silver streak, speeding toward the chaos.
Ailiya felt like a fox hunted by every hound in the world. The red-horned rabbit had fixated on her, hurling relentless bolts of lightning. Carrying Aurora, she leaped, a massive bolt grazing her, scorching the earth red-hot.
“Help!!” Ailiya’s scream was her loudest yet. “Ancestors, save me! If I survive, I’ll never… never… never eat cilantro again!!”
“You don’t even like cilantro,” Aurora, jostled on her shoulder, muttered dizzily.
The rabbit screeched, its horn charging another deadly blast. But the sky darkened.
Ailiya looked up. Liliane floated above, silver hair and black skirt billowing, her violet eyes glaring down at the tiny beast with godlike disdain.
“Lady Liliane!!” Ailiya nearly sobbed with relief.
Liliane raised her wand, a massive iceberg forming above, radiating bone-chilling cold. “Glacies Monumentum!” (Ice Monument)
With a wave, the mountain-sized ice crashed down, its oppressive force swallowing the plain.
Ailiya stared, brain stalling. Wait… that’s gonna hit us too, isn’t it? A stray thought: Could dungeon ice make good shaved ice?
“What’re you standing there for? Move!” Aurora kicked her back, snapping her out of it.
“Shaved ice?! You’ll be strawberry jam!” Aurora yelled.
Ailiya jolted, sprinting with Aurora. Aurora, fumbling, aimed her wand at Ailiya’s legs. “Celeritas Aura!*” (Swift Aura)
A light breeze enveloped Ailiya’s legs, boosting her speed to a three-second hundred-meter sprint.
The rabbit roared defiantly, channeling all its mana into a colossal lightning bolt that struck the iceberg.
“Naive,” Liliane said coldly, her wand glowing. A shimmering runic shield coated the iceberg, deflecting the lightning with mere ripples.
Boom!
The iceberg smashed down, the shockwave tossing Ailiya and Aurora like kites in a storm. They landed, battered but alive.
Liliane touched down, her icy gaze fixed beyond the iceberg. The rabbit, at the last second, had escaped, now limping with a twisted leg, trembling with fear and venom as it glared at her.
Liliane circled the ice, advancing slowly. The rabbit hobbled back, a tense standoff like a Western duel.
The rabbit bared its fangs, firing another bolt. But the air around it shimmered with near-invisible ice crystals—Liliane’s trap, set when the iceberg fell.
Her lips moved softly. “Crystallo Catenis.” (Crystal Chains)
The crystals fused into icy chains, freezing the rabbit and its lightning into a crystalline statue, which clattered to the ground.
Utter, overwhelming dominance.
The ravaged Dawn Plains lay in ruins.
“We won!” Ailiya scrambled up, clapping wildly. “Lady Liliane! I’m your biggest fan! You saved my life!!”
She lunged to hug her savior, but Liliane’s cold glance at her dirt-caked clothes stopped her. “Hug me, and I’ll make you shaved ice.”
Ugh, still so prickly! Ailiya pouted, brushing off dust.
“Where’d this red-horn come from?” Liliane asked.
“We were resting, about to hunt again,” Ailiya said, pointing to the charred tree stump. “It popped out of the ground near there.”
From the ground? Liliane frowned. Red-horns weren’t burrowers. She approached the stump, finding the hole. The residual mana was dense, deep-layer thick. It dug up from the dungeon’s depths… through dozens of floors?
Odd. Deeper floors had richer mana; a beast like this should loathe the upper layers’ thin mana. Why come so far?
As Liliane pondered, Ailiya stretched, joints creaking. “Ow! Why’d my first dungeon trip have to be so unlucky?” She kicked the frozen rabbit. “Stupid bunny!”
The ice glinted, refracting rainbow light. Ailiya paused, squinting. The ice… was empty.
“Huh? Where’s the rabbit?”
Her hair stood on end as she recalled its second terrifying skill—spatial magic.
It had escaped! And its first target—
“Lady Liliane! Behind you!!” Ailiya screamed.
Liliane sensed the lethal mana surge. The battered rabbit, one eye bloodied, leg glowing with spatial magic’s residue, lunged, its horn aimed at her back—a fatal strike.
Too far to reach her! Ailiya’s eyes widened. If I had something to throw… wait!
Her superhuman reflexes kicked in. She yanked her cheap wand from her waist and hurled it like a javelin.
Thwack!
The wand pierced the rabbit’s remaining eye, the force snapping its head back.
Liliane reacted instantly, her wind blade slicing the beast cleanly in half.
She exhaled, sweat beading her forehead, clearly rattled.
Silence fell. They’d report this to the officials, who’d investigate.
But one small issue remained.
Liliane’s wind blade, in killing the rabbit, had also cleaved Ailiya’s wand in two.
My wand!!
At the dungeon’s exit, a figure leaned against the wall, watching with a refined smile. “The Calamitas Rubicorne is dead, but it proves luring deep-layer beasts to the surface works.”
“Ailiya and Aurora… I hope you bring more surprises… heh…”
The figure turned, ascending the dark staircase, vanishing into the shadows.