VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne-Chapter 33: Death From Above

Rummaging around in her bag, and doing so as quietly as possible, Belladonna pulled a handful of Stone-muncher iron balls from her belongings. These had come from the few that she bothered to butcher in her previous grinding session.

Since she already had a knife at that point, she didn’t have a need to trade them in and... Well, she had forgotten that she had them and they had been kicking about the bottom of her bag until she remembered about them just now.

Belladonna rolled the perfectly smooth iron ball in between her fingers, feeling the smooth and refined surface not just with her fingers, but with her newest senses. Something inside her was connected to the metal the ball was made of.

Even without touching it, she could feel where it was. She could feel every pore of its surface and would feel every imperfection in its smelting process if there were any. But there weren’t, the stone-munchers had taken out all the impurities so perfectly, leaving only a ball of smooth, pure iron behind.

Ignoring the fact she was still holding magical rabbit poop, Belladonna made a peace sign with one of her hands and placed the ball between her extended fingers. Since she was perched on a branch, she could conduct her mana elsewhere without falling, which is exactly what she did.

Pouring it into her fingers, she called upon the power of her bloodline. It was strange how natural it felt to do so. She had never done anything like this before in her life, and she wasn’t even sure exactly how a blood line could even have power.

And yet, calling upon that power was as natural as breathing, to the point that she didn’t even need to concentrate on the mana flow. Her natural power took care of it entirely and all she had to do was will it.

Her will stretched the power between her fingers, creating a bridge of invisible, magnetic force that she pressed the metallic ball into. Then, she pulled back.

The magnetic force strained and stretched, wanting to snap back into its previous position, but the strength in her arms wasn’t allowing it. All it could do was fight against the metallic ball as she pulled it back further and further.

Closing one eye, she aimed her hand so that one of the wolves heads was between her fingers. With one last pull, she released the ball and let the magnetic force finally snap back into place and take the ball with it. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The Magnetic Sling shot was completely silent, all except for the whisper of the metallic marble as it sailed through the air like a bullet. It struck the wolf directly on the top of its head, piercing through its brain and shooting out its mouth where the bullet lodged itself in the ground.

The Wolf didn’t even get a chance to whimper in pain before part of its head exploded into a spurt of blood and it collapsed like a rag doll. The other wolves whipped round, baring their teeth and snarling as they tried to find the perpetrator.

Belladonna didn’t give them a chance to inspect the body before she loaded another metallic marble into her magnetic slingshot, pulled it back and launched it. Ball bearing bullets flew, piercing and puncturing wolves in rapid succession.

As they started to move around more, her targets shifted from instant kill spots like the head, to simple chest shots that would cause them to bleed out, or at least keep them out of the fight until she could finish them.

However, not every one of the wolves could be felled by such a basic strategy. The Barghest noticed the source of the relentless assault from the tree tops and, when the next ball bearing came flying at another Wolf, the chain floating around the creature whipped outwards.

The bullet pinged off the chain, as did the next three shots as the Barghest whipped its chain around, deflecting every shot she sent towards the pack, before its body dissolved into shadows.

That couldn’t be good.

Whether by instinct, or the shadows themselves whispering faint warnings into the back of her mind, Belladonna quickly moved. She leapt from the tree at the same moment at the Barghest’s head manifested from the shadows of tree.

Its powerful jaws snapped at the air, just barely missing the meat of her calf as she leapt away.

Flipping in the air, Belladonna launched one more slingshot bullet at the undefended wolves, who let out a pained whimper as a wounded one finally collapsed dead after the second shot.

The Barghest didn’t seem to like that, as it let out a low rumbling growl as its pack member fell, the sound of its chain rattling increased and sent even more waves of discomforting mana coursing through Belladonna’s body.

It tried to mess with her muscles and mind. These were the chains of death, come to drag her down to hell where she belonged. She was a murderer after all. A disgusting creature born of blood, and that fed on it. What could be worse than that?

She was nothing but a wretched existence that deserved everything that happened to her.

The Barghest manifested once more as wispy black tendrils extended from Belladonna’s shadow and curled together into the black furred beast. It’s chain was wrapped tight around its body, the very end of it flickering in the air like the tail of a rattlesnake.

It padded forwards slowly, its maw dripping with saliva as it could already taste the meat of its prey. It moved with nothing but confidence in its paralytic ability, so when the woman’s skin gained a soft orange glow, it paid it no mind.

It stalked around its prey, until they were looking into each other’s eyes. It liked to bite the throat, to watch the life drain out of their helpless eyes. However when the Barghest lunged for its favourite spot, its teeth bared and ready to sink into its prey’s throat, the creature that should be paralysed in fear instead smirked.