To Get Stronger (Olivia POV)

“Here we are.” Olivia murmured, as they pulled up outside yet another church. It was the sixteenth one they’d explored that day. It was starting to get a little annoying to her. None of the others had the creature she was looking for. She was a patient woman, but she was itching to fight, craving the chance to grow stronger.

As those thoughts rushed through her mind, she did the breathing exercise she had developed years ago, when things with Belle had fallen through. It had helped her control herself, measure her strength and prevented her from an outburst. She would let herself loose in the fight. Not before.

They exited the SUV that belonged to Emma, and without any prelude, Olivia made to enter a barrier. There was a barrier to enter, which was the first good sign. As the other members of her guild popped into existence beside her, Olivia scanned the terrain around them to see if she could find the monster she was hoping for.

Churches were the most likely places to find angelwitches, simply because of their religious nature. Monsters and magical beasts weren’t simply created from nothing and places of significance tended to attract creatures of significance. The problem was that angelwitches were still not common monsters to find.

Angelwitches were creatures that used to be angels, but had been so corrupted by demonic influence that they’d lost their minds and had become nothing but unintelligent beasts. Olivia had long decided that finding and killing one would be the next step in her journey to power.

She’d studied different types of magical monsters for a long time, read everything she could find on the subject. How could she not? They were all possible additions to her transformations and skillset. She almost dared to hope that one day, she would get a chance to face one of the cardinal elemental monsters. Maybe one day.

She’d set her sights on an angelwitch for two very important reasons: their control over light (and by extensions, their holy power), as well as their usual role as a long distance combatant. As long as Olivia could get in close enough for a melee, which was her specialty after all, she would have the advantage. And if she managed to kill one, she would add another monster to her slowly growing range.

And finally, as she scanned inside the now empty and slightly rundown church, she saw one. An angelwitch, scratching boredly at the cross hanging on the back wall. Olivia smiled, and turned back to the others. “We got one. Stay back, let me do the fighting. Do not try to help me.” Olivia instructed, and the others nodded.

“It’s level 113. You got this.” Gemma encourages. Olivia nodded appreciatively, and turned to the monster which still hadn’t noticed her. She walked towards it quietly but quickly, and let her magic flow through her. She knew the creature’s weaknesses, and the form she chose would be perfect for it.

As the green glow of her power subsided, she stood with two extra arms and a rush of strength that exhilerated her, that took over her mind. She wanted nothing more than to use it. She did her best to remain quiet as she approached the creature, wanting to see if she could end it with a single surprise punch.

Something must have alerted the angelwitch to her presence because it turned with surprising speed. Before she knew it, her charge was deflected by a shield of light, and she went stumbling to the side. Before she could recover, she felt a tremendous impact and was blown back, breaking through the wall and flying outside, landing with a thud.

She picked herself up, shaking her head and grinning to herself. Her pulse surged, her head cleared and years of experience ripping and tearing kicked in. She loved battle because she could let herself loose. She needed no discipline here. She was speed, she was strength, she was raw brutality. Screaming for no other reason than she felt like it, she charged back at the angelwitch, itself coming through the ruined wall.

She was prepared this time and dodged as the next blast of light came for her. She slowed down fractionally so that when it’s inevitable shield came back up, she wouldn’t be deflected to the side. The monster raised its shield of light once more, and she crashed into it hard, rocking the angelwitch back.

She punched with all her strength against the barrier, cracking it with her might. She slammed her fist once more into it, shattering the magic. In a flash, she rushed forward and her fist collided hard with the beast’s face, sending it careening backwards. She advanced quickly to follow it’s trajectory.

The angelwitch got up, but she was already upon it. It shrieked and flailed its arms as she grabbed it and slammed it back into the ground. She stomped hard down right where it’s face was, but it had already rolled out of the way. Another powerful blast of light hit her from below and she was sent flying up and away.

Light was a different beast of an element than what she’d been training against with her guild. Light could be formed into a solid, but elementalists had no control of the solids beyond their immediate bodies. It could not be used for such a variety of ways as solid shadow could. In exchange, light was usually a much more ranged tool, suitable for intense bursts of raw power, both up close and at a distance.

Light burned in a way somewhere between mana and fire, as her charred skin could attest to. As she got back up, she changed forms. Evidently, angelwitches had enough close range defences that brute strength alone would not be enough. She needed a way to trap it.

She emerged from her transformation, her body made of crystals. The angelwitch sent another blast of light at her, and she manifested a shield of her own, deflecting the light harmlessly away from her. In an instant, she saw the possible use case, and instead of immediately charging, she walked slowly towards the creature.

Brutality did not mean she fought stupidly. She knew what form was most useful in a given situation. She advanced and the monster watched her warily. It fired another, more powerful blast of light. Olivia braced and she blast nearly pushed her back, but she held her ground, angling the shield just right, purely on instinct.

The beam of light shot straight back at the angelwitch, and it hastily manifested its shield again, blocking the magic. Olivia advanced quickly, running towards it. It fired more blasts of light but she dodged, deflected and blocked until she was right on top of it. She’d practiced and sparred enough with the others by now to know exactly the capabilities of her Petrodon form.

When the angelwitch turned to gain distance from her, it found that it couldn’t move. It’s feet were rooted to the ground in crystal traps. Olivia smirked and punched, her fist lined with sharp crystals. She cuts bloody trenches into the monster’s chest and it howled in pain. Her fist exploded forward once more towards its face, and it managed to dodge out of the way.

Seeming to have a semblance of intelligence left from its former life, the angelwitch desperately blasted light at the crystal trap surrounding its feet and preventing it from moving. The crystals cracked and it redoubled its effort, blasting everything it had at the trap. Just as it got out, Olivia grabbed the monster and sent it crashing to the ground once more, this time binding it further with more crystals.

She left its head exposed and fired a crystal blade directly at its face. That damned shield came up again, even with its arms binded. Olivia transformed once more, back into her Tetramand form. As she completed her transformation, she found the beast glowing with a golden light. Her crystals shattered and exploded outwards, freeing the monster again.

The strength of the blast **** her to step back as the angelwitch got to its feet, snarling at her. Shrugging off the blast of light, she advanced forward again with blinding speed. The creature, ready for her advance, met her with another shield, ceding ground as she struck again and again at that damn thing, shattering one after another.

She screamed and shattered two of them with a lightning fast series of punches, dashing forward and closing her fist around the neck of the damned beast. Another powerful blast of light singed through the skin of her stomach, leaving a deep burn. She clenched tighter and the monster turned its hands on hers, burning her wrist and singing its own skin in a **** effort to get away.

It knew as well as she did that if she managed to lock it down in a melee, it was as good as dead. She opened her fist involuntarily, using two of her four hands to grab the arms of the angelwitch and hold them back, pointed away from her. Grunting and growling with effort, she pulled as hard as she could and a moment later, the sound of cracking bone and tearing sinew filled the air as she ripped its arms clean off.

She dropped the useless appendages, only realising after they were gone that it had managed to let off another blast of light, burning a two inch hole through her sternum. She tasted blood and coughed. She hoped the creature’s control of light would be diminished after its limbs were ripped off. It started glowing again all over its body and Olivia crossed her arms over her face and chest to protect against the burst of light that enveloped her.

She was right, its control was gone, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t release raw power. She had to end this before its raw power broke through her defences. Surging forward, gurgling and doing her best to ignore the pain, she unleashed lightning fast punches with all four of her arms, utilising her overwhelming strength to end this before it could get another one of those awful blasts of power off.

She heard bones shattering, she saw bruising, she felt its body deforming and breaking under each impact, but still it started to glow. Desperately, she kicked with all of her strength, sending the beast flying away from her. The light exploded out from the angelwitch, dissipating before it got to her. She ran towards it, unable to sprint at her normal speed anymore.

The angelwitch was flat on its back, bruised, bloodied, blood still spurting from the loss of its arms. She saw it in its eyes: that last burst of power was it. It had no more fight left. She raised her foot and stomped down hard on its head. The fleshy thing exploded out into gore, and she knew she’d won.

She howled a scream of victory as her innate ability took over, absorbing the magic from the dead monster. She felt its essence surge through her, empowering her body far beyond what she was now. Her wounds healed, her fatigue gone, and her something beyond her full might returned. She beat her chest and screamed again, letting out the rest of her bloodlust, before she sank to the ground, suddenly tired. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her guildmates rushing towards her.