Chapter 101

[Third Person's PoV] 

In the middle of the night, while Lucian slept, his eyes snapped wide open. Without hesitation, he rushed out and jumped straight from the window on the second floor.

He saw a little mouse with a bag of golden coins and gems on its back, happily skipping away.

The mouse heard the sound of fast footsteps and looked behind him, letting out a frightful screech as its eyes nearly popped out of its head.

The mouse grabbed Lucian's pouch and stuffed it into his own little travel bag that was slung over his shoulder. Like magic, the pouch was sucked into the bag. The mouse dropped to all fours and started to run into the forest.

As it was running away, it looked back and saw Lucian running efficiently, his arms moving accordingly, his posture straight, and his breathing even.

The mouse started to cry and shed tears while dodging and weaving between the trees.

Not far from Lucian's, the hut with chicken feet started following them. Both Baba Yaga and Thalia looked out the window as Lucian chased the mouse.

"What is he doing? Why is Lucian chasing the mouse and not capturing it?" Thalia asked, confused.

Thalia saw the mouse was starting to outrun Lucian, but before she could comment, she saw something that left her mouth agape.

As Lucian ran after the mouse and saw it getting away, he jumped forward. As he jumped, his figure started to change shape. Hair started growing from his arms and legs, and his mouth elongated into a snout. When he landed back on the ground, he appeared as a black wolf with glowing red eyes.

"DID LUCIAN JUST TRANSFORM INTO A FREAKING WOLF!? IS HE A WEREWOLF!?" Thalia screamed, pointing at the wolf running on all fours.

Baba Yaga put a hand over her mouth and chuckled, "No, silly, he's using magic. Here, let me show you."

Thalia was confused until she was hit by Baba Yaga's spell.

Her form started to shrink until she turned into a green frog.

*ribbit*

Baba Yaga snapped her fingers, undoing the spell. Thalia found herself on all fours on the floor in the same position as the frog. She blushed as she stood up.

"Don't you ever do that again," she glared at Baba Yaga.

"How did that feel?" Baba Yaga asked.

"It felt uncomfortable… like you were forcing my body to compact into itself and take the form you pleased."

Baba Yaga nodded, "That's exactly what Master is doing, except instead of forcing the change onto others, he does it to himself. Think of it like shape-shifting magic… or a curse, like in 'Beauty and the Beast' or 'The Princess and the Frog.'"

"I see… wait… you know about those fairy tales?" Thalia pondered. 

Baba Yaga looked at Thalia in confusion, "Of course, after all where do you think they come from? They take inspiration from the myths and story about us" 

Thalia nodded in understanding before focusing her gaze back towards Lucian. 

"Magic is amazing… it makes me almost jealous…" She muttered. "But still, why is Lucian doing this? You know what, never mind, I can already guess."

Thalia sighed, "He always liked to play around with his so-called 'prey.'"

And that's exactly what Lucian was doing, playing with his prey. Lucian gained sadistic pleasure watching the little mouse cry while trying to escape.

The mouse took a deep breath as it ran and let out a loud screech that resounded throughout the forest.

"Uh oh," Baba Yaga muttered.

Thalia snapped her head towards Baba Yaga, "What do you mean, uh oh!?"

Baba Yaga sighed, "That was a call to the Guardian of the Forest."

"The Guardian of the Forest? Who's that?" Thalia asked, unfamiliar with Slavic mythology.

"His name translates from Russian to 'from the forest.' He is a deity of the forests, protecting them and their wildlife."

Just as Lucian was still chasing the mouse, a blade of grass quickly grew underneath him. It grew so fast it knocked Lucian back with enough force to send him flying, crashing against the trees and breaking some apart. Even with his danger sense, Lucian wasn't fast enough to dodge it.

The blade of grass grew to a giant size, towering over the trees.

"ROOOOOOAAAAAAR!!!"

"He is known as Lesnik or Leshy…"

The giant had blue cheeks, vivid green eyes, pale skin, and hair and beard made of grass and vines, making him appear as an old man.

Seeing Lucian, Leshy made a fist and slammed it down towards him, but Lucian in his wolf form reacted quickly. He jumped to the side, then onto the arm, running up it.

Lucian's wolf form then came undone, and in his hands were two swords: one was his bonded weapon, and the other was a sword made using his Tracing Magic.

Thalia, seeing this, jumped on the window frame and surrounded herself with lightning. The lightning took the shape of gauntlets and boots.

She then launched herself towards the giant, leaving a trail of lightning behind her. Meanwhile, Lucian ran both swords along the giant's arms, cutting them open and causing blood to spill out. However, instead of the usual red or golden color, the blood was a bright blue.

The giant swung his hand over, trying to flatten Lucian like a mosquito. Unfortunately, Thalia was in the way and got hit as well.

Lucian performed a backflip to get off the giant.

When the giant lifted his hand to see if he got Lucian, all he saw was Thalia squatting with her shield to the side, unharmed. In a blur, she took off running with a spear in hand.

She mimicked Lucian's earlier move, thrusting her spear into the giant's arm and cutting it as she ran up. Her speed was so great that the giant let out a loud cry of pain.

Thalia then appeared by its shoulder, stuck her spear in its blue cheeks, and jumped down, holding onto the spear and letting gravity do its work.

Bright blue blood escaped from the giant's cheeks, enraging it. The ground around them began to shake and tremble before splitting apart. Sharp roots sprung forth, each going for the kill.

"Ara~ Ara~" From the skies, Baba Yaga appeared, sending bolts of her magic power towards the roots, causing them to explode into harmless splinters.

Meanwhile, Lucian, back on the ground, smirked, "Arise, Ainz Ooal Gown!"

From Lucian's shadow, a skeletal giant figure rose up and uppercutted the giant, causing it to stagger back.

The giant roared in anger and punched Ainz across the face, causing its jaw to come unhinged.

The two giants began trading punches, the sound of their blows resounding throughout the entire forest. Trees were uprooted from the damage they caused.

Baba Yaga flew around on her broom, providing support by destroying all the roots and thorns sent their way.

Thalia rushed for the giant's heels and ran her spear right through them, causing the giant to become unbalanced.

She quickly spun and plunged her spear into the other heel.

"Just leave this forest, you parasites!" Leshy shouted in pain and anger.

"Nah, I'd win," Lucian said, a bit surprised that the giant talked.

"What does that even mean–!" Leshy began to shout, but Ainz swung his fist once more across its face.

As previously stated, Thalia was only afraid of heights when she was aware of them, but during fights, her fears became inconsequential.

Thalia jumped into the air and started spinning in place. Lucian saw her and immediately knew what she was planning.

"Asura, Golurk, Ainz, and Chicken Feet. Hold him down," Lucian commanded. They did just that.

Asura and Golurk both appeared from his shadow, tackling Leshy to the ground and causing it to roar in annoyance.

"Let go of me, you undead parasites!" Leshy struggled as they pinned him down, occasionally punching them off before they secured their hold.

Ainz, the giant skeleton, grabbed hold of Leshy's legs, while Chicken Feet came running and jumped, sitting down on the other leg.

Thalia, still in the air and spinning like a blue saw, couldn't stay airborne much longer and came dropping down.

Lucian and Baba Yaga watched as Thalia descended from the sky, her spear acting like a saw blade as it cut into the giant's head. The giant screamed in agony, its head splitting open like a watermelon against the relentless force of Thalia's spear.

With one swift and powerful drop, Thalia finished the job.

Lucian and Baba Yaga quickly moved to secure all of the giant's parts, from its unique blue blood to its heart, before the entire body began to turn into dust.

"Arise," Lucian commanded, causing a guardian to appear in the giant's place, kneeling down before him.

Meanwhile, Thalia stumbled off to the side, her balance compromised. "Too dizzy… can't walk straight… Lucian, help," she called out before colliding face-first with a tree. The others winced as she fell to the ground, clutching her forehead and rolling around in pain.

"Owwwww!" Thalia cried out, her voice filled with frustration. "I blame this all on you, Lucian! If you hadn't been playing with your prey, we wouldn't have needed to fight a giant!"

"Sorry," Lucian responded sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

Lucian then sank into his shadow, reappearing a minute later with a mouse and a treasure chest. The mouse, locked in a cage, looked defeated, its tiny hands gripping the iron bars like a prisoner. Lucian, however, smirked as he eyed the chest.

"Just what I wanted. There's a reason why I hadn't caught it when it first appeared. I wanted to chase it into its home to see if it had any treasure, and luckily for us, it did," Lucian explained.

Turning towards Baba Yaga, Lucian said, "Beatrice, help me take Thalia inside Chicken Feet so we can go home…"

"Beatrice…?" Baba Yaga muttered.

"Yeah… your new name. I'm not going to keep calling you Baba Yaga. It's a mouthful."

"Now then, comrades, although we couldn't taste the divine liquor that is vodka, I'd say we explored a good bit of the motherlands. So, although it pains me, we must cut the journey short," Lucian declared in a thick Russian accent as he walked towards Chicken Feet.

Thalia, still holding her head and glaring at Lucian, slowly got up and followed him inside.