Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

In any case, Kaya had taken the suggestion and turned it inward in her private study/practice to arrive at this.

Each vine created branches that twisted and became more branches that twisted and became more branches. On and on until stems began to grow from where many of those branches came together, revealing them to actually be roots.

The stems became larger, becoming tree trunks that didn't grow out strong and straight but twisted and wound tightly around the Bullcroc's body.

In seconds the Beast was completely encased in a structure of twisted Tree trunks. But there was a reason the roots even existed at all as the first things to come to be in this large long cast spell spell-casting Kaya had created for herself.

Despite its scales and its sturdy body that was so strong that its fleshy underside could shrug off attacks, the Bullcroc was not immune to the energy-sapping effect of the Nature Element. It just required a much grander spell-casting attempt.

The roots were spawned by Kaya's mana and magic but every growth from then on, was due to the energy the roots had siphoned from the Bullcroc's body. Its mana fed the twisted stems that became tree trunks and went on to imprison it. Every swell the trunks experienced and every thickening of their hard barks was due to the energy that had been siphoned from it.

The entire beast was soon encased in the tangle of root and tree stems. Its front limbs were not visible. Neither were its tail nor hind limbs.

Whether due to the weight of what it had been encased in or due to the energy that had been sapped from its body, the Bullcroc finally keeled over backward and hit the ground with a powerful thud. The twisted tree trunks continued to grow bigger and bigger.

And then, their growth stopped. Kaya felt a tug in the pit of her stomach and suddenly, the spell was drawing from her Mana once again.

"Ah…" she let out in a gasp. Her hands shook as her large spell circle became erratic. The Arcane Symbols within it began to revolve in a manner that they should not.

The Beast resisted her energy siphoning through sheer will backed by a natural advantage it had by being at the equivalent of the Fourth Circle while Kaya was still at the Third.

A deep roar sounded from the thick encasing of tree trunks and there was a creaking sound like someone pushing hard against wood.

The creaking lasted a minute before the was a bang sound and splinters of wood went flying as the Bullcroc surfaced, its maw open as it let out a powerful roar…

*Shhinnnnnggggg!!!*

… that was interrupted when something white flew at it and slammed into its head before encasing it in a massive icy structure.

Kaya, who had doubled over gasping, looked to the side at Aylin who had an icy blue spell circle above her palm. The Bullcroc shattered the ice over its head by widening its mouth but its nostrils remained clogged and when the spell circle above Aylin's palm didn't fizzle into nothingness and just revolved into activation, it became clear that the nostril clogging was Aylin's actual plan.

"Ngh!" She groaned in effort as she spread her fingers wide and ice shot out of the Beast's nose. It was only the ends of two pikes that she had conjured to pierce the Beast inside its body where it should be more vulnerable.

The Bullcroc snorted hard and the icy pikes shot out of its nose and hit the ground to shatter into pieces.

There was a bit of blood on one of the pikes' shattered ends before it flaked into Mana nothingness. Seeing that, Aylin's eyes widened in excitement. Of everyone so far, including Aurelius and Caius, she had been the first to make the Beast bleed.

She began to form seals to follow up on this win of hers when she heard Caius's voice from behind yelling out.

"Just hold it down!"

Aylin whipped her head around to look at him.

"What?" She asked.

"Just hold it down," Caius repeated.

"No. I can kill it," Aylin said.

"No, you can't," Caius answered immediately.

"I made it bleed," Aylin said and she pointed at a splatter of blood where her icy pike had been a second ago before becoming nothing.

Caius shook his head.

"That wasn't you," he said, "It was all of us."

Every attack they had made thus far had been wearing the Beast down. Physical attacks that had broken past its fourth-star defences and rocked its shit and magical attacks that had avoided the defenses entirely like Aurelius's ~Freya's Benevolence~ spell and Kaya's energy-sapping spell.

"We've all had a hand in getting it to bleed, but we don't have time to actually finish the job," Caius said.

Against a Beast who actually wanted them dead, they wouldn't have even had the time to rack up the attacks they had so far.

Speaking of which, Delia had allowed herself some rest on the ground after getting smacked down earlier but now, she controlled the wind to lift her back to feet and conjured a large Elcetric blue-grey spell circle that created a massive barrier akin to a stormy shield that collided with the Bullcroc's head right as he prepared to charge at Aylin who was being distracted by Caius's words.

Joining Delia was Aurelius who was still on his footholds of light. He drew his hand back and multiple spell circles appeared, all conjuring Arrows whose shafts were thick like pillars and struck the Bullcroc with force that hoped to keep it from advancing.

Doran also got back in the fray with two giant Earthen fists that he used to clobber the Bullcroc even though it shrugged off every hit.

While all that was happening, Caius studied the look in Aylin's eyes in reaction to his words, and he could tell she was seeing reason. So he continued,

"And killing it was never the point of the exercise anyway. Let's just hold it down, and let Eloise do her thing."

"Do my thing?" Eloise said with a scoff, "I've been singing and it's done squat. The stupid thing doesn't even seem to care. I gotta say, that hurts a little.

Caius winced at the pain in his ribs but his stance was stable as he looked to the side at Eloise and gave her a charming smile.

"You're supposed to sing with Magic dear," he said, "Not without it."

"Oh. Right." Eloise said and looked like she was close to smacking herself on the forehead for not even thinking of it.

Caius looked back at Aylin and then at Kaya who was within one foot of her and seemed to have recovered nicely from how much of her energy she had expended earlier.

"Are you alright?" Caius asked Kaya, concerned.

"I should be asking you that," Kaya said with a head gesture at him.

She had stayed out of the fight a bit after Aurelius stepped in with his spell and Caius stepped up with his physically augmented attacks but it was watching him get attacked and watching him spit out blood that riled her up to get back in it and use that large spell.

Caius smiled at her response and then became serious again.

He could feel the time he had with the Trait Acquisition already running to an end. He had maybe two minutes left of it if he went all out from now on with the max level of exerting the boost as he possibly could.

"Let's go," he said and started charging the Beast.

The swiftness of the Wyvern Trait boosted his speed and he was spinning a kick at the Bullcroc in a second.

Kaya formed a spell circle and conjured a tangled whip of massive vines that smacked at the Bullcroc. Aylin conjured icy constructs to strike at it over and over again while trying to get her bodily functions-shutting icy chill to invade its body.

Eloise finally involved Mana into her singing and magical musical notes appeared, revolving around her before they flew at the Bullcroc, circling its head as though seeking an entry into its brain before settling for the most obvious option;

Its ears.