Chapter 76: Night of the wolves - magic steal

"You...!"

Cranberry growled grabbing the head of the werewolf that was riping her stomach apart and dug her fingers deep into the eye socket of the monster.

Even so, her furious shout wasn't directed to the beast trying to rip her apart, but to the werewolf that protected her father by killing his comrade.

"Don't you dare touch my big brother, traitors!"

Sapotle roared, his eyes glowed, his fur bristled and he seemed to grow twice as large as he was before, undoubtedly because of a skill that he was holding back on before.

The terrible growl shook the earth and caused every werewolf, no matter frenzied or not, to turn to him and charge.

Even the one that was biting on to Cranberry, let go of the girl as if completely forgetting what he was doing even though his eye got gouged out, and rushed at Sapotle.

"That's right you fools! Come at me!"

The leader of the werewolves roared and started running away, leading the whole pack away from the mansion.

"...Sapotle, you idiot...!"

Lord Blackberry gasped and fell limply on the ground, losing his consciousness and releasing his skill.

All of the werewolves that he was holding back rushed after Sapotle instead of jumping at him as if the giant werewolf was the only thing they could see.

"Graough! (Master!)"

Zombie growled and hurried to Cranberry's side to support her.

"I'm fine...!"

She scoffed at him, pushing away his hand, even though the blood soaking through her shirt at the alarmingly fast rate was saying something very different.

"Graough...! (B-but master...!)"

Zombie wasn't dumb enough to believe her but didn't try to grab her again, worried that she would keep struggling and worsen her wounds.

"Go... to my room... there are... health potions... in the back of the closet ..."

The red-haired girl was barely standing upright but still was stubbornly walking towards her father.

"Bring me them..."

She ordered and pointed at the mansion with her baseball bat.

But because of all the blood, the weapon slipped away from her fingers and fell on the grass.

"Go!"

Cranberry gritted her teeth and clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"..."

Zombie turned around and his body glowed blue.

Cranberry blinked once and Zombie was already nowhere to be seen.

"...haa... my lovely rotten brain..."

Cranberry breathed out heavily and her legs gave out, making her fall right by her father.

She slowly put her left hand to his face to check for breathing.

"Haa..."

She sighed with relief after confirming her father was at least alive.

When she tried to move her right hand from the wound, the fresh blood splashed on the ground beside her.

"...shit... system... show active quests..."

Her shaking voice was becoming weaker and weaker.

/You have 1 active quest:

Get your powers stolen and die

Reward: ---

"...fucking... I didn't even receive... a single quest after leveling up...?"

She smirked and looked up at the mansion.

"...haa... you should know that I don't keep any potions in my room... stupid..."

Cranberry breathed out heavily and her head dropped on her chest.

"I just... didn't want you to see me die... in such a pathetic way..."

She laughed weakly and her eyes closed.

...

One of the corpses twitched and slowly got up.

A large man in a butler's uniform stood up and dusted off his body as if the horrible wound on his stomach was nothing.

When his eyes stopped glowing, his whole body begun melting and molding into something different.

Where the burly man with his guts hanging out of the ripped stomach was standing before, now stood a tall serious looking silver-haired gentleman with a mustache, his clothes remained the same but there was no trace of the deadly wound.

"Miss Fillia, this is our chance."

He said and offered his hand to the corpse of a young maid beneath him.

The girl opened her eyes and the light of the skill faded from them too.

Similar to what happened to the gentleman, the skin, flesh, and bone structure of the girl seemed to melt, turning her into a completely different person.

"Those idiots! They almost got me for real!"

The maid that changed into a thin, sickly-looking girl with reddish hair, ignored the man's hand and instead touched her throat checking for wounds.

It was the very same girl that was disguised as a maid in the Durian's mansion.

"What would those disposable cretins do if they'd hurt me?! I'm a fiancé of a damn prince! I can't have my skin getting damaged!"

She complained and complained.

"Carambola, mirror!"

The girl demanded extending her hand expectantly to the older gentleman, Carambola, while still on the ground with no intention of getting up.

"Miss, it really isn't the right time for worrying about that... the corpse puppet can return at any moment."

Carambola sighed and instead of giving Fillia what she wanted, he grabbed her hand and got her up.

"Don't be stupid! A future queen can't allow herself to have blemishes like that on her visage!"

Fillia scoffed at him and tried to pull her hand away.

"Miss... weren't you the one who said that you would never show yourself to prince Roan in your original form? Wasn't that the reason we've spend so much time to catch you the most beautiful elf we could find?"

Carambola tried to reason with the girl while dragging her towards Cranberry and lord Blackberry.

"Shut up! Even if he wouldn't notice anything, I would know about it! It's not like I'm the avatar- like father, nor I have the natural good looks like Mason! I don't need another reason to feel inferior!"

She growled spitefully and managed to free herself from Carambola's grip.

Or rather he released her since they were already by Cranberry's body.

The old man Carambola crouched by the red-haired girl and touched her neck.

His eyes shone and he sighed.

"Still alive, but barely. I'll have to use some healing on her or she'll die before you'll be able to take her powers."

While he was saying that his hand already started glowing and the gentle pale light was getting absorbed into Cranberry's body.

"..."

Fillia closed her mouth and gulped down the saliva nervously.

"Finally... That cursed inborn one-time use skill will prove to be useful!"

She kneeled by the unconscious Cranberry and touched her face.

"Tsk... Annoying. Although her face could barely be qualified as pretty, her breasts are huge, and she has strong magic and a cool magic-bound servant..."

Fillia clicked her tongue holding Cranberry's chin up as if she was appraising her.

"Oh well... soon, at least her magic and servant will be mine!"

She giggled in the red-haired girl's face.

Cranberry's brow twitched and her eyelids shook as if she was about to wake up.

"Miss Fillia! Please use your skill now! If I'll heal her any more she will regain consciousness!"

Carambola stood up and rubbed his hands together nervously.

His eyes and ears started glowing as he scanned the area in search of dangers.

"Tsk. Fine. If the puppet shows up before I'm finished, you'll have to keep him away from me at all cost!"

Fillia nodded and firmly grasped Cranberry's head and her eyes started glowing with green light.

"Miss... you've seen what he can do...! Are you telling me to fight to the death?"

The old man sounded hurt.

"As soon as I'll steal her powers that guy will be under my control, so you have nothing to worry about. Now shut up and let me concentrate."

The skinny girl scoffed at him and continued to stare at Cranberry.

Slowly, Cranberry's body started to emit a green light that, piece by piece, left her body and was getting absorbed into Fillia.

The minutes were passing, the green light was slowly soaking into the skinny girl, and Carambola was starting to sweat from the stress.

"Miss... can't you hurry a little bit...?"

He asked rubbing his hands together expecting the blue undead to show up at any moment.

"Damn it! I've told you to shut up!"

Fillia cursed and gritted her teeth.

"Unique magic steal isn't some measly appearance steal skill that you can just activate in a few seconds! I have only one chance and if it fails, everything gets returned to the owner while I will not be able to use it anymore, ever! So would you kindly stay fucking quiet while I concentrate?!"

She growled, clenching her hands on Cranberry's face so hard that her fingernails started digging in in the red-haired girl's skin.

*KA-BOOM!!!*

Just as she finished telling off the silver-haired gentleman, a loud explosion shook the earth and a whole wing of the mansion crumbled down.

"Wh-what the...?!"

Carambola flinched and took a step back.

"...shut up, shut up, shut up...!"

Fillia chanted while doing her best to make her skill work faster.

"Graough! (Master!) Graough! (There were no potions in your closet!) Graough! (And in your whole room neither!) Graough...! (So I broke into your mother's medicine storage and...!)"

Zombie growled running towards the group, holding as many bottles as he could with his left arm and half of the right one.

Then he saw the silver-haired gentleman getting into a fighting stance, whose body began shining showing that he was activating some skills.

Then the blue undead looked at his master and saw a scrawny girl with reddish hair, wearing a maid's uniform that was clearly too big for her, clawing at Cranberry's face and using some strange skill that was producing a green light.

"GRAOUGH! (GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY CRANBERRY!)"

Zombie roared, all the bottles he was carrying fell to the ground and crashed as his body glowed purple and he charged right at the girl grabbing his master.