Hikari left through the air.
Boom.
The giantess created a crater in the mud as she landed.
A drizzle. Gloomy clouds hang overhead.
Splash. Splash. Hikari waded through the mud.
Roads that were already in disrepair could ill support her weight and were pushed down into the mud as she stepped.
Shortly after, Ella landed beside her.
Her full wyvern scale.
She slithered beside Hikari. The mud affects her little as she spreads her lesser weight amongst her four legs.
The old Carla territory.
The land had been abandoned.
Homes left in disrepair.
It had been a battlefield not long ago.
And it still is.
The butt of cannons half sunken into the mud stinking out here and there.
Much of its forests still stand.
The old flat farmlands were covered with weed.
The duo approach a town.
Dead, dried out vines from when the cult of Eon harvested the town still wrapped around each building.
Hikari stopped.
A red midst hung over the town.
"I don't think this one is the forward camp."
"(Ella senses it too. The red mist.)"
"How is only the town covered?"
"(Ella thinks there must be a spore somewhere in the town. Ella think we should burn it.)"
"Right."
Thud. Splash. Hikari marched towards the town.
"(Wait. Ella thinks Hikari shouldn't expose herself to the red mist yet)"
"Does my barrier not work?"
"(No. The red mist can penetrate Hikari's mana barrier. But the red mist is not lethal. Ella can move in the red mist.)"
As they spoke, noises came from the town.
Gnawling, hissing noises.
A ghoul emerged from the mud.
It turned to the giantess intruding on its territory and hissed.
Crunch! As the man eating fiend was about to lunge, it was crushed beneath the giantess's boot.
Its flesh was flattened, its bones splintered and the remainder squeezed into the mud under the weight.
More gnawling and hissing noises.
The sound of wooden planks being torn apart the ghouls emerged from their lairs.
Their twisted tongues. Distorted flesh.
Clusters of eyes atop what resembles their heads.
Their veins glowed as they absorbed the red mist into their veins.
Without warning, they charged the giantess.
Skittering across the mud on their four limps.
"They move fast."
"(Yes, the red mist gives them power)"
"I'll take them on."
"(Yes, Hikari)"
Her wyvern companion hovered in the air behind her.
The ghouls charged in a straight line towards her.
As they converge on her position, they begin bumping against one another.
A ghoul was knocked rolling to one side, crashing into an abandoned wooden cart and smashing it into splinters.
Hikari jumped backwards, causing the mindless ghouls to trip over each other as they formed a congo line.
She drew one of her throwing daggers.
It flared with wyvern flame.
She landed and bent her knees.
With a low swing of her arm, she let loose the flaming dagger.
The dagger flew close to the ground in a straight piercing line.
The searing heat from the wyvern flame melts right through the flesh of the ghouls it pierced.
"Retrieve."
The searing dagger flipped its course and flew back to Hikari, piercing more ghouls that it missed.
As it approached her, Hikari knocked it upwards, sending it spinning upwards.
She catches it above her hand.
The searing heat receded.
A surviving ghoul lunged at her, jumping high enough to reach her hips.
She swatted it onto the ground like a bug.
Crunch! With a step, the ghoul was ground to paste beneath her boot.
Hikari circulated her mana to absorb the blow back from the cast.
It was manageable.
It actually felt good to be back in the field.
The raw power of her attack.
Her mana sense.
The range at which she could exert her telekinetic powers.
All improved tremendously with her size.
The wyvern flame, hot enough to melt through steel, gave her a deadly attack option as opposed to the slow accumulating damage of the RazenHeir flames.
On the flip side, her new power was not easy to control.
But she managed to control just one throwing dagger precisely.
Her fighting style does depend heavily on her mobility.
But sudden movements with her heavy body generates a lot of heat and strain.
Deep, slow breathes.
She just traveled miles from the estate and she could feel the sweat build up inside her tight suit.
Ella landed behind her and channeled her mana, resonating with her suit.
Hikari could feel her excess heat leaving her body.
"(Ella enchanted Hikari's wyvern skin with Ella's scales. Hikari can use her wyvern powers more easily)"
It wasn't just her wyvern heart.
The wyvern scales also improved her mana flow, her telekinetic powers and in turn her physical movements.
"It's good"
Hikari felt her body temperature return to normal.
More ghouls emerged from the ruins of the abandoned town.
Gnawling and hissing at the giantess from afar.
"We have to get to the scout master. Ella, I'll draw the ghouls. Burn the source of the mist."
"(Yes, Hikari)" The wyvern spread her wings and flew.
Hikari advanced towards the ghoul's lair, taunting them to attack.
But unlike the first horde, they stood perched in their positions.
Hikari advanced.
She held up her hand.
A ball of RazenHeir flame took form above her palm.
She hurled it towards the ghoul's lair.
The flames splashed onto a building, setting the ghouls in its vicinity alight with RazenHeir flame.
Yet, they sat still even as their flesh was slowly being consumed by the fire.
The horde moved.
Not in a mindless charge towards Hikari. But they fan out in two directions, attempting to wrap around their intruder.
Hikari continued her advance. Being surrounded by numerous lesser foes is nothing new to her.
She stopped. She heard the sound of bubbles popping.
Streams of acid appeared over the town.
Hikari observed their trajectory.
She stood still.
The acid projectiles splashed around her, melting dead trunks into the mud.
The ghoul horde approaches. Circling around her in a tightening ring.
"I haven't practiced this, hope this works."
She threw one throwing dagger.
It flared brilliantly with RazenHeir flame.
She lowered the dagger to the level of her shin.
It stayed still, hovering parallel to the ground.
Then, it spun in a circle around her.
The flames were pushed outwards in concentric waves, igniting the ghoul horde circling her.
But it didn't stop them. The ghouls suddenly charged her.
Hikari drew a dagger in each hand. They were the size of great swords.
As the ghouls leaped at her, she spun her body.
Her blades cleave through multiple ghouls.
The ghouls that made it past her blades were knocked aside by the force of her spinning motion.
She lost her balance and fell onto the mud.
Quickly, she rolled over and returned to her stance.
She could feel a ghoul being crushed between her thighs.
The RazenHeir flames burnt through the ghoul's thick hides before they could muster another charge.
The second horde lay burning into the mud.
She looked in the distance, a ghoul almost twice the normal size.
It sat atop the abandoned town hall, glaring at Hikari.
Another volley of acid was hurled towards Hikari's position.
She blocked a projectile with her mana barrier.
Hikari hurled another ball of RazenHeir flame towards the abomination.
It hopped to another building, dodging the flames.
Hikari hurled another ball. It dodged again.
It gnawed and hissed. It let out a deafening roar.
A streak of wyvern flame descended from the sky.
The half wyvern sinks its searing claws into the abomination's back.