"A woman!"
Half an hour after Mo Si entered Huckabay Iceberg, a snow-white ape monster suddenly leaped out from beside the path.
It was a Vulcan, the very monster described in the request, and it looked quite similar to the magical beast she had encountered in the forest before.
Only its fur color was different. It was probably a regional subspecies or something of the sort.
The moment the Vulcan appeared, it lunged straight at Mo Si like a starving man lunging for bread.
"..." Laxus watched quietly, with no intention of intervening.
His task was not to drive away the Vulcans, but to keep the newcomer, Mo Si, safe.
Vulcans were incredibly fast and immensely strong, making them formidable monsters. If one got close to an ordinary mage, that mage would be a lamb to the slaughter, helpless to resist.
But...
Mo Si was no ordinary mage.
Eight wings unfurled behind her. With a slight beat, they carried her into the air, dodging the Vulcan's lunge.
"Wow~" The Vulcan looked up at Mo Si in midair. The view from that angle left its eyes glazed with infatuation. Its nostrils flared, puffing out two streams of white vapor, and it resolved to make this beautiful woman its own.
Although it knew no ranged attack magic, it possessed tremendous strength. It snatched a fist-sized stone from the snow and hurled it at Mo Si like a catapult.
Whoosh!
Mo Si beat her wings and shifted a little to the right, dodging the stone.
"I want the woman!" Seeing its first attack miss, the Vulcan grabbed a stone in each hand and hurled them at Mo Si.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Mo Si darted and weaved, mocking it with a smile. "Almost! Just a little closer! You really can't aim at all. You're so big, but you're nothing but a small fry. Small fry, small fry~"
Her evasive movements looked like a dance, or as though she were showing off her figure.
"Aah!" The sight sent the Vulcan's blood racing. Frustrated and furious, it threw stones even more wildly, trying to knock Mo Si out of the sky.
What a nasty woman... Laxus's eye twitched as he watched from a distance. He had never expected a woman with such an angelic appearance to have such a wicked personality.
Still, it was a valid strategy. She used her own advantages to provoke the Vulcan's anger. However strong it was, it would eventually exhaust itself. Throwing stones over and over steadily drained its stamina, and after a while, she could win without a fight.
If Laxus had not been there, Mo Si might have used that strategy.
But precisely because Laxus was there to back her up, Mo Si had the confidence to try another, more aggressive strategy.
"Full-body Take Over: Myotismon Soul!"
While the Vulcan paused to catch its breath, tired from throwing stones, Mo Si cast Take Over Magic.
A cape appeared behind her, her clothes turned dark blue, their patterns changed to skulls, and her boots became black leather with red soles...
Her angelic sanctity vanished, replaced by a cold beauty, like a queen of blood in the dark of night!
"Oh, she's gone from an angel to a demon." Laxus chuckled, a hint of anticipation appearing on his face.
Mo Si approached the Vulcan at incredible speed. With a sweep of her right hand, a long scarlet whip emerged from her palm.
"Demon Blood Whip!"
As soon as the scarlet whip touched the Vulcan's body, it coiled around it like a nimble snake, binding its two thick arms and leaving it momentarily unable to move.
Seizing the chance, Mo Si darted behind the Vulcan, opened her mouth to reveal two sharp fangs, and bit down.
Her fangs pierced the Vulcan's fur and sank into its flesh, drawing in its magic power along with its blood.
To be precise, the magic power was her real target. The blood was secondary.
"Aah! Stop!"
"No! It's almost gone... gone..."
Vulcans were monsters that used Take Over Magic to inhabit human bodies. Once their magic power was drained, they could no longer maintain their Take Over Magic.
After a few breaths, the Vulcan had been drained of all its magic power and disappeared.
All that remained was a gaunt-faced, middle-aged man who appeared to be a villager from nearby. There were signs of a beating on his body, too. Apparently, the Vulcan had knocked him unconscious before taking over his body.
Losing its host meant death for the Vulcan.
Does it have something to do with blood? Laxus wondered as he watched.
Mo Si wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and thought, After absorbing that Vulcan's magic power, my own magic power increased by about ten percent...
That was no small amount. Even with Angewomon's help doubling her training speed, increasing her magic power by ten percent would still require a month of dedicated training.
I wonder how many more Vulcans there are on this iceberg? Mo Si licked the corner of her mouth, itching to get started.
She was a hunter!
A hunter who harvested magic power!
Then she dispelled her Take Over Magic and returned to her original form, that of an ordinary Angewomon.
However, the extra ten percent of magic power in her body made her feel somewhat uncomfortable, as though she had eaten something bad.
Mo Si asked quietly, "Why is this happening?"
Angewomon said, "It's probably incompatible. Channel the magic power you absorbed into the Holy Ring, and let it adjust the magic power into a form suitable for us."
"The Holy Ring can do that, too?" Following Angewomon's instructions, Mo Si channeled the extra magic power in her body into the Holy Ring.
Sure enough, the strange sensation faded. The magic power taken from the Vulcan was filtered through the Holy Ring and converted into clean magic power.
It was like a reserve of energy that Mo Si could draw upon whenever she wished.
I want more Vulcans! As she thought this, Mo Si released Healing Light to heal the villager who had been freed from the Vulcan's possession.
Once the villager woke up, she asked him where she could find more Vulcans.
Unfortunately, the villager had no memories at all of his time under the Vulcan's possession and could offer no information about their whereabouts.
The only thing he could tell her was where the Vulcan had attacked him.
After learning the location, Mo Si first escorted the villager down the mountain, then headed for the site of the attack. Along the way, she encountered one group of three to five Vulcans after another.
She used her beauty to turn the Vulcans against one another, making them fight over her and wear themselves out.
Once they were exhausted, she took over Myotismon's soul and absorbed their magic power.
She manipulated them this way, over and over.
Her magic power increased, increased, and increased again!
Mo Si flew all over Huckabay Iceberg, finding and eliminating thirty Vulcans and absorbing the magic power of all thirty. Her own magic power rose to four times what it had been when she first climbed the mountain, the equivalent of two and a half years of training on her own!
As her bodyguard on this trip, Laxus merely watched at first, and by the end, he was still merely watching.
Having seen what Mo Si could do, he made up his mind and invited her on the way back. "Mo Si, help me out in this year's S-Class Exam."
Participants in the S-Class Exam could choose one assistant.
Laxus felt that Mo Si's healing, flight, binding, and other abilities made her an ideal assistant for his S-Class Exam.
With her there, nothing could possibly go wrong!
Mo Si did not particularly mind whether she helped or not. She simply asked, "When does the S-Class Exam start?"
"At the end of the year," Laxus said. "Six months from now."
"I see..." Mo Si said. "If I'm still here then, I'll help you."
If she's still here?
Laxus was taken aback. Did that mean she was planning to leave?
Mo Si only knew that in another half month, she would travel to another world again. Whether she could ever return afterward was still unknown, so this was the only promise she could make.
Before you continue