Emily's head was on a swivel as she tried to keep all the Miragestalkers in her field of view. She was heavily regretting coming here without a plan.

A single glance back saw that the people she had seen behind her just seconds ago were gone now, lost in a haze of illusionary sand. Even Cupcake was still a ways away from her, resting under the tarp when all this happened.

It would be difficult to find her in this storm, and yet, a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

Emily, thickening her gown, glanced around the space. Whether all these Miragestalkers were real or not was beside the point.

She was alone for now, so she'd better act like it.

Blood rushed from behind her and blossomed into a growing ball at her back as she widened her stance.

The action caused the Miragestalkers a great deal of stress, and their hackles raised at her. Their screams were the signal she'd been waiting for as they began to rush toward Emily as streams of fur.

Just before they arrived, Emily spotted the desert fox that had started all of this. It still sat lazily on the rock like a monarch watching its brethren swarm.

Emily couldn't even get out a curse before the first one arrived.

She released the wave of blood bolts she had been holding up until now and crushed several foxes, only their bodies dispersed in a wave of air cold air.

The next waves that arrived were very much real because they crashed into Emily's legs, almost taking her off her feet.

Using her gown to hold her in place, she endured and shot out several more bolts from behind her.

She managed to hit two or three that had jumped on her, but that didn't stop the other five from tearing into her.

The only good side about the exchange was the wail the ones she knocked away let out. Luckily, her gown took the attacks with ease.

Before she could even deal with the ones still biting into her, the next wave arrived.

Emily pulled more blood again and shot out two dozen bolts in all directions.

This time she was rewarded with a couple of bodies for her trouble, but too many still got through, dodging the attacks.

When they arrived, Emily saw almost fifteen of the little foxes bite into her.

One even lunged at the neck and bit partway through her gown, where it offered less protection. Tested flesh hardened her carotid so that the flailing beast couldn't rip it from her neck.

Emily grunted as the weight of almost two dozen beasts pulled her down. Their screams of delight and fury surrounded her, drowning her under their pelts and sharp claws.

The number of flailing bodies smashed against her and thrashed, their powerful paws scratching to find purchase.

Some fell off, but when one of their back paws scratched across Emily's cheek, it left a faint red line.

Emily flailed for a second more, but her patience had run out entirely.

Spreading out her arms while wreathed in fur and blood, she sent a ripple of power out from her chest.

The gown of blood around her trembled, and as though they could feel something bad was about to happen, the Miragestalkers all began to flee, but it was far too late for that.

Emily's gown ballooned around her, quickly turning into countless sharp spears and stabbing outward.

For a second, Emily's form vanished behind a sea urchin's shell of barbs. Spearing every single fox in her vicinity and even some that were still approaching.

The barbs killed over a dozen of them but there were also a good few she only caught with a glancing blow. Emily took this opportunity to draw their life force from them using her blood. To achieve this she had to have direct contact with the barbs, but seeing as she was cocooned amongst them it wasn't hard. Emily drank in their vitality pulling it through her blood. The Miragestalkers thrashed for a moment but were quickly drained of their strength as she swallowed it down.

Drawing in the life force into her chest, she reshaped her gown and turned to look at her enemy with crimson eyes.

The beast that sat surrounded by its kin was still just sitting there quietly as several other Miragestalkers backed away, their large ears pressing against their skulls in fear.

"That's it, if you fuck off and give me that one, I won't even kill you all," she said, her voice almost being drowned out.

Hisses went up and Emily could see she'd pissed them off even more. They were not used to someone surviving in their territory for so long.

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Good, they started this, she'd happily end it if they weren't going to.

The sands beneath her feet began to tremble, and Emily took to the air as fast as she was able.

Drifting above them wasn't her best bet, but it also gave her a good view of the land as a venomtail exploded out of the sands.

Emily was surprised at first but then her eyes narrowed on the disgusting-looking beast.

It shook the sand from its body, only to turn and look up at Emily. The thing was tall enough to reach her with its tail, so it did.

The large stinger struck out at high speeds with incredible precision, but Emily remained where she was.

She didn't bother trying to dodge or even block. Keeping her eyes set on her mark. The stinger stabbed Emily straight in the unguarded chest and went right through it.

Seeing their illusion didn't work only pulled more hisses of anger from the creatures around her.

The scorpion warped and popped like a soap bubble, expanding into a kaleidoscope of colors.

At first, Emily thought it was just disappearing, but she was quickly proven wrong as it grew into the space. She tried to put some distance between it and herself, but it moved too fast and washed over her vision.

Emily growled as she covered her eyes, trying to shut out the seizure-inducing colors. It was a smokescreen, she could see them from the gaps in her fingers, and it was enough to make her eyes water.

Below her, she could hear yips of triumph as something crashed into her lower half and began crawling up her body. Emily tried to swat it away, but it persisted making its way up her back.

Emily moved her blood and realized it was the desert fox that had started all of this.

She couldn't stop it crawling up to her neck in time and the hairs on her arms stood on end before the little fucker bit her ear.

Emily yelped at the sudden pain and hot breath blowing into her ear canal.

"You little shit!" she cursed.

If it weren't for Tested flesh, the piece of skin would have come clean off.

Reaching back, Emily grabbed the fox and yanked it upwards. It growled in her ear before being pulled away, thrashing in her hands.

Still unable to open her eyes, Emily sent a band of blood to bind the creature's front and back legs.

"I'll deal with you later…" she said as she bound its snout too and tucked it under her arm.

"As for the rest of you…"

Emily pulled the the blood at her back and merged it with her gown until she was drifting in a perfect sphere of red, amongst a storm of illusions.

Pulling more blood from her chest hurt a little as she was still not completely recovered, but for the first time in a while, she had access to some of her more powerful techniques. And what better way to celebrate the advancement of her power than with a demonstration?

Of course, no one would see it, but that was almost better.

Emily kept increasing the volume of blood until it was at the upper limits of what she could control comfortably.

If a bolt took about ten milliliters of blood, and a spear would be around two liters. After that, the most she'd ever been able to use at one time was around a thousand liters, but that took a huge amount of concentration, and she'd only managed that once inside the tomb.

Now though things were different.

With her powers advancing so had the volume she was capable of controlling.

What Emily created now was a mass of blood ten thousand liters deep, with herself drifting through the center.

When it was ready she let herself fall back to the sands like a meteor, crash landing in the center of everything.

The colors surrounding her had not let up so she couldn't see, but then again she didn't need to.

Using the feedback, her blood became an extension of her touch, spreading out across the dunes like a veil, blanketing everything nearby.

Those it washed over were unable to pull themselves free and the illusions were completely bypassed.

She expanded the blood out to its limit, sending the three-centimeter-thick sheet, ten meters in all directions. However, even with how far she could send it, there were still Miragestalkers that escaped her range, so she pulled all the little creatures in and drifted up to repeat. Doing this three more times before the illusions in the air began to fade.

Glancing around she saw she had pulled more than forty Miragestalkers into her control, and before their grande illusion could fade completely, Emily turned towards the ball of beasts.

"Sorry guys you're cute and all, but I think one of you is more than enough," she said, turning to look at the thrashing murder machines.

Their aggression had not dimmed even slightly since as they snapped at her from their vantage point.

Reaching a hand forward she extended a cord to herself and drank in their life force using her blood as the medium. Lines of glowing red traveled down her connection and into her hand causing Emily to shiver.

That amount of power was nothing to sneeze at, and only once she was done did the large illusion begin to disappear.

Quickly pulling in the blood Emily let out a sigh as her chest began to ache at the overuse.

Throughout the entire fight, she had felt Cupcake moving towards her, and she turned to see the Rime wolf stepping through a dissipating wall of shifting illusions. Behind her were Kael and Alex but when they spotted Emily they paused.

Casting an eye about she realized the area around her was littered with dried corpses.

Pressing her lips together she walked toward them with an even look.

"What happened here?" Kael asked, looking around with concern on his face.

Emily shrugged.

"I got lucky, These little guys are a bad matchup against me. They're endurance hunters and so am I. Luckily they lost, you're welcome…"

Kael's eyes were still fixed on the carnage around them, but he finally nodded.

"Fine, you were supposed to alert us so we could all deal with these things, but I suppose this works too. And you're sure you're okay?"

Emily bobbed her head quickly.

"Better than okay," she said giddily, still digesting all the vitality she had just gained. "Oh, right, there's a reason I came out here."

Emily turned and searched the scattered sands near the rock where the confluence orb had been left. Walking over to it she picked it up and dusted it off.

Luckily, foxes couldn't activate it or she would have lost a useful tool

Just as he stood up, Emly felt someone behind her. Turning around, she saw Alex.

"Are you doing alright," he asked.

Contrary to his words his face was a mask of restrained anger.

Emily was struggling to figure out why this was the case when his expression changed to one of concern.

Emily turned to him, thinking he'd seen something, and he had, but not anything dangerous.

What his eyes had fallen on was the little dessert fox currently dangling from the understanding of her shoulder like a purse.

"What in the world…"

Emily looked down at the struggling beast and shook her head.

"Oh, this is the one that started all of this, so I thought I'd catch him to see if he can be useful."

Alex's face fell, and he shook his head.

"Emily… No, you know what, how about you come back with me to my tent? I doubt Kael will have us set out now, so we're safe. We need to talk..."

Blood points: 598

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