Blessed by Night

On the ground, Sei was doing a wonderful job of leading the small force against the large number of abominations.

The explosives and traps planted beforehand had done wonders in trimming down the enemy numbers just a bit, and sending the lot of them into disarray.

Sei only kept a separate detachment of around ten soldiers on the roof of the outpost so that they could act as long range units.

Their goal was to help provide support to any nightfall members in more trouble than they could handle.

Suddenly, there was a huge rumble in the sky followed by an overbearing flash of blue light.

As the mature beauty turned her gaze towards the sky, her jaw fell open from pure shock.

There, she saw a wave of blue flame striking an airborne ship.

The damage was so catastrophic that she felt the waves of power wash over her bones, and the air rose ten degrees from the heat instantly.

Before being brought to the ground, the ship crashed into another and brought it down with it, and the two of them plummeted into the middle of the lake.

'Ah… which one of our personnel was that..? And can they do it again..? … Please?'

Unfortunately for Sei, no matter how long she waited another blast never came.

"Kuso…" Sei clicked her teeth in mild annoyance as a rare swear word fell out of her mouth.

"I heard that, Ma! Swear jar!" read-first-at-MVLeMpYr

The sound of bodies hitting the ground made Sei come back to reality temporarily.

Almost twenty abominations had been put to sleep at once using the aura that she was putting out.

Once they fell asleep at her feet, Serana would walk around with a modified handgun and shot them all in the back of the head quietly.

"I-I thought you weren't interested in having me teach you Japanese? How could you understand me??" Sei asked nervously.

"Oh, I just wanted to learn all the swear words. Are you proud of me?"

"… I should have put in more effort to monitor your internet usage when you were young."

"Too late, I'm grown now!"

Sei rolled her eyes at her well meaning but uncouth daughter and turned her gaze back towards the forest- where sudden vibrations had drawn her attention.

There, she could see the beginnings of a large and horrifying creature knocking over trees to get to the battlefield.

Just by looking at it, Sei could tell that this creature and the three abominations surrounding it were a lot different from the other rabble.

"It is as they said… the meat is plentiful here… a feast will be held."

Any worthwhile parent will tell you that it is their first instinct to protect their child in times of crisis.

Sei had her own shortcomings and things that she wished to change about herself, but one thing was for sure that she was a wonderful mother.

Perhaps that was why she moved to pull her daughter behind her before she even realized it and gave her a very clear cut set of orders.

"Serana… no matter what you do, you need to stay behind me."

"What?! Mom, I-"

"I am not asking you, I'm telling you! Stay behind me!"

For nineteen years of her life, Serana had only ever heard her mother speak to her in this manner twice.

Once was when she caught her about to give their address to some rando who she met online.

The second was the time when she caught her with a cigarette in her backpack in middle school.

Her mother wasn't one to become stern about something unless she seriously feared for her life.

And for the most part, Sei had extremely astute intuition.

Serana followed her mother's gaze towards the forest up ahead, and she found an unnerving pair of yellow eyes staring back at her.

"Such pretty meat… that one will be mine.."

Staring rather intently at Serana and her mother was an abomination that was head and shoulders above its other ilk.

At first glance, he was over thirteen feet tall, with arms and legs as thick as tree trunks.

His skin was a mottled green color and was laced with no small number of scars and lacerations.

He was much too big for normal clothes, so instead he wore a loincloth made from what looked to be a surplus of bulls' skins.

But clearly, he was obsessed with the idea of impressing others.

His fingers were covered in some… rather questionable jewelry.

Smart watches to be exact.

Ten of them on each hand, and his thick neck was covered in diamond and gold necklaces.

His face was rather hard to look at, with a mouth that hung open to reveal revolting yellow teeth and a grotesque reptilian tongue.

Two horn-like tusks jutted out of the side of his face and made him seem like even more of an abominable demon.

The moment that his eyes focused on Serana, Sei felt her instincts scream out that eminent danger was afoot.

"Serana! Mov-"

Before Sei could finish getting her daughter to safety, the abomination leaped across the clearing with incredible speed.

At the last minute she threw her arms up to defend herself and succeeded in atleast saving her own life.

But the bad part of this was that she never anticipated just how much force would be behind that single punch.

Her forearms arms were swiftly broken, and her body was sent flying into the lake almost two hundred yards away.

"MOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!"

Serana's horrendous, gut wrenching scream traveled throughout the entire battlefield and made everyone outside come to a dead stop.

Luna and Bianca only needed a moment to get a grasp of the situation and they understandably panicked.

"SEI!"

"NOOOOO!"

Luna rushed to dive into the water while Bianca flew towards the ground.

After dropping Nadine off in a secure spot, she made a beeline for the hulking green abomination who'd just put his hands on Sei.

She was unaware of it, but her body was starting to heat up just like it had before.

Orange flames licked at her face and arms and spanned across the length of her body until she was once again a woman made entirely of fire.

"ILL KILL YOU!!"

Enraged beyond belief, Bianca barreled right into the chest of the abomination like some kind of living rocket.

She punched through the abomination without much difficulty, but got both of her fists stuck in his stomach when she tried to pull them out.

"W-Wha..?"

"Odd meat this is… wonder if it even counts."

In a twist that no one was expecting, the abomination grabbed Bianca by the head as if she was no more than a basketball.

He lifted her up so that their eyes were at the same level and he inspected her curiously; seemingly oblivious to the searing temperature of Bianca's body.

"Been too long since Vlar enjoyed spicy food… I wonder if I still have the same taste for it."