Chapter 576 Furless Fury

Lily sighed as she hooked the conch back onto her belt. She and Keng have been trying to get in contact with the others, but the magic wasn't working. Keng stared at the empty map. The maps had seemingly lost connection with where the others were. HE had quickly marked where he saw everyone last and marked the spot Calis and them would meet.

'Right, I almost forgot…' Keng thought to himself. He glanced at Lily, who was fanning herself. It was uncomfortably hot down in the ravine, so maybe some rest would do them both well. 'Pull up the Class screen, AI.'

The map faded from his view as his Class appeared in front of him.

Class: Energy Trickster, Lv. 5

Class Skills:

[Energy Siphon] Lv. 5 *Augmentation Available!*

[Displacement] Lv. 5 *Augmentation Available!*

'No new skills.' Keng sighed. 'Such a shame… I was looking forward to getting cooler Energy Trickster stuff.' He flicked his finger in the air and tapped Energy Siphon. The screen switched over and revealed three Augmentations he could take.

[Energy Siphon] Augmentations:

- Trickster's Siphon Augment: Changes [Energy Siphon] into a passive skill. Lowers the amount you can siphon off of an enemy by ~20%, but in return, allows you to siphon off of any attack, regardless if [Sky Devourer] is used or not.

- Energy Tether Augment: When the user casts [Energy Siphon], [Energy Siphon] can tether to another nearby enemy, sapping them of some of their energy. The tether can go up to 25 feet, tethering up to *3 enemies.

- Vampiric Essence Augment: Allows the user to sap life while using [Energy Siphon]. Saps up to 5% of the enemies life, revitalizing the user.

'I think I'll take Vampiric Essence. As much as Trickster's Siphon would be great to use, I think sustaining myself to not die would be a better choice.' Keng watched the augment glow as the others faded away.

[Vampire Essence has been added to Energy Siphon!]

Keng moved onto the next skill, [Displacement], noticing three Augmentations like [Energy Siphon.]

- Energy Bomb: Whenever the user uses [Displacement], an AOE energy blast lashes out, sapping energy from whatever is around him.

- Marked for Dead: The user may expend a [Displacement] mark and cast a de-buff on the enemy, allowing for [Energy Siphon] to deal extra damage.

- Spectral Fox: Whenever the user Displaces or Marks, Spectral Fox has a 33% chance of activating. When Spectral Fox activates off of a Mark or [Displacement], a wave of energy clones flies out in every direction, shrouding the user's movements.

'Hmm.' Keng bit his lip. 'Having cover would be nice, but it could easily give me away every time I cast… Energy Bomb would be useful for fighting a group, but it doesn't say whether or not it'll affect my allies… I think I'll take Marked for Dead. It'll help blow through the enemies since I always recharge my Marks after use.'

[Marked for Dead has been added to Displacement!]

"Alright, I think that'll do." Keng sighed, shrinking the screen. It faded from view, replaced by a small map. "Ready to go?" Keng looked at Lily. She swept her hair back, wiping the sweat on her as she did it. The ravine was uncomfortably hot and they were sweating easily.

"Yeah." Lily answered.

Keng and Lily followed a random direction, changing when they hit a random dead end or even started going the completely wrong direction. The two eventually continued upwards, rounding the corner as Lily fanned herself.

'It's so hoooot.' Lilly groaned through telepathy. Keng followed, fanning himself as his eyes occasionally glanced at the map.

'Still going the right way at least.' Keng sighed. His eyes scanned the area around them. They were entering a dark spot in the ravine. It wasn't rare for something like this to happen, but the area they were just in had loads of lava holes.

'It's pitch black.' Lily commented. 'If we couldn't see in the dark well, this would be a problem.' The two slowed even more, taking a moment to look around. Their vision seemed to not show the full size of the room.

'Weird.' Keng broke the silence between them, telepathically. 'The darkness… It isn't disappearing.'

'I've read about stuff like this.' Lily came to a full stop. 'It's magical darkness. Something must've casted this on this place. It's hard to see.'

GRrrrwww….

'What was that?' Keng whipped his head around to where they came from. For a moment, he thought he would see something walking past, but he saw nothing. The darkness surrounded them, snuffing the dim lava light. 'There's no light behind us.'

'Be careful.' Lily warned him. She kept her back to Keng as they slowly turned. The low growling went off and the two whipped their heads in the same direction. In that one moment, Keng's senses started to blare for him to look the other way. He quickly turned, only to see something fly out of the magical darkness. It slammed into him, rolling him and itself out of Lily's sight.

'Keng!' Lily shouted. The growling grew louder. Lily pulled the ukulele close, eyes scanning the limited space of sight around her. 'Keng! Are you okay!'

GRAAAWWW!

The ukulele smashed to bits as Lily fell backwards. The creature was hunched over. IT looked like it could've easily been eight or nine feet tall. It had spotted fur with loads of gray skin. It slowly turned to look at her, red eyes glowing at her as it snarled. It's eyes pulsed and fear swelled in Lily's chest.

It had used Fear on her. She whimpered as she scrambled backwards. The monster kind of looked like a furless bi-pedal dog. Its snout protruded outwards as it snarled at her. It rushed forward, going in for the kill as Lily threw her arms up and turned her head.

"Ahh!" Lily screamed. A bolt of light flew out, crashing into the furless dog. The furless monster flew into the magical darkness as Keng stepped into view of Lily. She shielded herself as Keng's arms healed.

"That's useful.' Keng smiled. Hydrosphere appeared in his hands, lighting up the magical darkness as shouts from the monsters grew louder. "There's more of them. Of course there are…"

Lily peered from her shielding arms and noticed Keng was a couple feet away from her. He was looking around, waiting. Three furless monsters flew out of the darkness and at him. They shrieked as their milky white eyes glued themselves to Keng. Keng smiled as white Marks grew on the wolves. They turned ethereal blue as Hydrosphere grew into large short swords.

Keng swung at the first furless wolf, knocking it past Lily as the other two went in for the kill. The two furless wolves split their attacks, one high and one low. Keng ducked, the second furless wolf sweeping him off of his feet as he hit the ground. The third wolf's hand straightened, turning sharp as it went in for the kill.

A blast of gravity flew out at the third wolf, pushing it into the second wolf. The two flew backwards as the first wolf shrieked. Keng jumped up as a large drum echoed right next to him. The wolf flew backwards as Lily moved over to Keng.

"Keng! Are you okay?" Lily asked.

"Are you okay?" Keng asked.

"It used Fear on me." Lily replied, sourly. "And it broke my favorite ukulele! Ugh, I spent so much time on that one!" The three wolves surrounded them. Keng's Energy Hearing chimed all around him.

"There's more than three." Keng informed Lily. "Can you boost me?"

"Wouldn't that be too risky?"

"Just do it. I've been dying to try something." Keng's fingers stretched as he adjusted his grip on Hydrosphere. Lily summoned the flute and brought it to her mouth. She began to play a melody as the wolves flew in at them. Keng's body swirled with energy. He could feel Lily's buffs as his muscles began to grow.

He fired for the wolf in front of him, dodging the strike as he quickly slashed its arm off. It shrieked as the short sword flew straight through its head. Blood showered in front of him as he watched three wolves rush at Lily.

Large drums wrapped around Lily, banging as the wolves struck it. The reverberation of the drums pushed the wolves back as Keng flew past Lily. Pink energy billow out of the drum shields, firing out at the darkness as energy bolts lit up the magical darkness around them.

Keng slashed upwards at the second wolf, killing it in an instant as three more wolves appeared in his sight. A Displacement Mark appeared at the edge of his sight, burning as he suddenly disappeared. The wolves slammed down into the spot their prey was, only to realize they had just caught each other.

Flames shot out of the drums, igniting a couple wolves on fire as Hydrosphere glowed brightly.

"Energy Siphon." Keng whispered. "Altered Weapon Art: Raging Sea Slash!"