My Three Beautiful Vampire Wives can hear my Inner Thoughts-Chapter 156: Bloodlusted Owl

The cry of the enormous owl rolled through the forest like thunder trapped between the trees.

Both sorcerers froze where they stood.

The younger mage still had his staff raised toward the Moonshade family, yet his arm slowly lowered as the sound echoed again through the clearing. His face turned pale as he stared toward the smoking crater where his final spell had struck.

"...That..."

His voice trembled.

"That’s impossible."

Beside him, the injured sorcerer who had been maintaining the bubble shield felt his stomach tighten with dread.

"It... it survived?"

The smoke from the explosion slowly drifted away with the night wind.

The forest grew quiet.

Even the insects that had been chirping earlier seemed to have fallen silent.

Then a pair of glowing eyes appeared through the fading smoke.

Dark crimson light burned inside them like two coals buried deep in a furnace.

The massive shape behind those eyes slowly spread its wings.

Feathers covered in blood rose into the air as the creature stepped forward.

The blood beast owl emerged from the ruined ground.

The younger sorcerer felt his throat grow dry.

"It’s... still alive."

But something about the creature had changed.

Before the explosion the owl had been wounded.

Its feathers had been torn.

Blood had been dripping from its wings.

Now the blood covering its body moved like flowing liquid. The wounds along its feathers looked darker and thicker, as if the blood itself had hardened into armor.

The owl lifted its head toward the sky.

Then it launched upward.

WHOOSH.

The enormous wings cut through the air as the beast soared into the night.

The force of the movement knocked loose branches from nearby trees.

The younger sorcerer quickly raised his staff again.

"Stay alert!"

The owl circled high above them.

Faster.

Higher.

Its wings beat through the darkness like giant blades slicing through the sky. Each turn around the clearing made the wind roar louder across the ground.

The sorcerer gritted his teeth.

"It’s faster than before."

The injured mage strengthened the bubble shield around them.

The transparent barrier shimmered as he poured more mana into it.

"Don’t let it get close!"

Above them the owl continued circling.

Its glowing eyes never left the two sorcerers below.

The creature’s wings stretched wide against the moonlight.

Then suddenly it folded its wings.

The dive came like a falling meteor.

The owl shot downward toward them with terrifying speed.

"NOW!"

The younger sorcerer fired a lightning spell upward.

A bolt of white energy streaked into the sky and slammed into the descending beast.

CRACK.

The lightning exploded across its chest.

Yet the owl did not slow.

The talons reached forward.

The defensive sorcerer shouted.

"Shield!"

The bubble barrier flared bright as the creature crashed against it.

BOOM.

The impact shook the entire clearing.

The shield bent inward under the pressure of the massive body slamming into it.

The injured mage felt the shock run through his arms like lightning.

"Ah!"

The owl beat its wings violently and pulled away before diving again.

This time its talons scraped across the surface of the barrier.

SCRRREEECH.

The sound cut through the air like metal grinding against stone.

The younger sorcerer fired another blast of fire upward.

"Burn!"

The flames exploded against the owl’s wing.

Feathers scattered into the air.

Yet the beast turned in midair and dove again. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The defensive sorcerer shouted in panic.

"It’s attacking too fast!"

The owl slammed against the barrier once more.

BOOM.

The ground cracked beneath the sorcerers’ feet.

The barrier flickered.

The injured mage struggled to hold it together.

His breathing grew rough as more and more mana drained from his body.

"Keep attacking!"

The younger sorcerer launched spell after spell.

Lightning.

Wind.

Fire.

Each blast struck the owl while it swooped across the clearing.

Yet the creature kept coming.

Its wings tore through the night like a storm.

The sorcerer aimed another fireball.

But before he could release it the owl suddenly turned sharply in the air.

Its talons lashed forward.

The barrier shattered.

CRACK.

The bubble shield exploded into fragments of light.

The force of the impact sent both sorcerers flying backward across the ground.

They rolled through the dirt and broken leaves like rag dolls thrown by a giant.

The younger sorcerer crashed into a tree trunk.

The breath burst from his lungs.

"Ghk!"

Before he could stand the owl landed beside him.

Its talons struck the ground with terrifying weight.

The creature’s wing slammed into him like a hammer.

The impact sent him rolling across the clearing again.

His staff flew from his hand.

Pain exploded across his ribs.

His body rolled again and again through the dirt while branches scratched across his face and arms.

The defensive sorcerer fared no better.

He tried to gather mana for another shield but the owl’s wing swept across him before he could finish the spell.

The strike lifted him off the ground.

He spun through the air before crashing down beside a broken tree root.

His vision blurred.

The clearing spun around him.

The owl let out another powerful cry.

Its wings spread wide as it stepped forward toward the fallen sorcerers.

The younger mage struggled to push himself up.

Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

His fingers trembled as he reached for his staff lying a few feet away.

The owl’s shadow fell over him.

For a moment time seemed to slow.

His thoughts began to drift somewhere far away.

He saw another place.

Another time.

A field outside the academy walls.

A young girl standing beside him with her arms crossed.

Her hair moved gently in the wind.

She had been laughing at him.

"You’re obsessed with explosions again."

The memory came back so clearly that his chest tightened.

"Molina..."

He remembered the day he met her.

She had been a student from the healing department.

Always calm.

Always gentle.

While he had been the opposite.

A boy who loved destructive magic more than anything else.

She had once asked him why he liked explosive spells so much.

He had laughed at the time.

But the truth had been much deeper.

His mind drifted to another memory.

The village where he had grown up.

The smoke rising from burning houses.

The smell of blood in the air.

And the giant shadow that had walked through the streets that day.

An orc.

Massive.

Brutal.

The creature had crushed his father with one swing of its weapon.

His mother had tried to run.

The orc had caught her easily.

The young boy he once was had hidden beneath a broken wagon while the monster destroyed everything around him.

He had watched helplessly.

He had heard the screams.

And when the monster finally left he had crawled out of hiding and looked at the ruins of his home.

That day something inside him had hardened.

He had sworn that he would become strong enough to kill that monster one day.

Explosive magic had seemed perfect for that purpose.

Powerful.

Violent.

Impossible to ignore.

Years later when he entered the academy he had met Molina.

She had been the first person to listen when he spoke about revenge.

She had smiled softly and told him something he never forgot.

"You should live for something better than hatred."

He had laughed back then.

He had promised her that once he found the orc he would destroy it with the biggest explosion the world had ever seen.

But fate had never given him that chance.

One day a group of orcs attacked a border town where the academy students had been sent for training.

He arrived too late.

The battlefield was already covered in blood.

And Molina...

She had been lying on the ground among the bodies.

Killed by an orc’s axe.

He never found the monster responsible.

Not even after years of searching.

Now as the owl loomed above him he felt the weight of those memories pressing down on his chest.

His fingers finally closed around his staff.

He pushed himself onto one knee.

The owl stepped closer.

Its glowing eyes stared directly at him.

The young sorcerer raised his staff weakly.

A small spell gathered at the tip.

He whispered softly.

"Molina..."

His voice sounded tired.

"I may not give the vengeance I spoke of."

The owl spread its wings.

The defensive sorcerer behind him tried to raise another shield.

But his mana was gone.

The spell collapsed before it could form.

The young mage fired his attack.

A burst of fire shot toward the owl.

The flames struck its chest.

But the raging blood beast barely moved.