'If Drakons are monster versions of dragons, are there monster versions of humans and other sapiens?’ Pyro asks as I slot the last tooth into place. The ground makes a soft hissing noise as the stone floor opens into a maw-like cavern downwards.
“I don’t remember, sorry.” I say, shrugging. “I just remember drakons because we learned about them and a few other monster archetypes when I was younger.”
‘More than my 0 days of schooling.’ Pyro comments, leaning forward to look down the hole. His tail and wings extend backwards as a counterbalance, letting him lean far more forward than he would as a human without gravity or kinetic magic. Me? I just lean my head over. Dragons have longer necks than humans, who would’ve guessed?
“Don’t let Snowstorm hear that. He’ll drag you to a library and lecture you for the next year and a half until you know all there is to know about monsters and magic and stuff.”
‘That sounds… kind of cool.’ Pyro admits, sounding somewhat enthralled by the idea.
“Nerd.” I say, bumping him with my tail.
‘Yeah, yeah.’ He rolls his eyes, batting my tail away with an arm. ‘We all ready?’
“Yeah, I'm good.” I nod, and Phoebe agrees. We turn to the entrance. “I go in first. I can deal the strongest opening blow and can take the most hits because of my mutations. Phoebe, use your fire on its eyes as much as possible from a distance to block its sight. Pyro, you focus on DPS, dealing constant damage. Aim for joints whenever possible. I'm gonna keep hitting as many of my veil attacks as possible.” I snap forward, then lean down.
‘Let's do this.’ Pyro nods.
<{0}>
“He still hasn't visited you?” Miria asks, frowning. She sits on a chair in a large room meant for dragons to rest and stay in for extended periods of time. In the center of the room is a dragon with black scales and augmented limbs.
“No…” Darkness shakes his head, looking down sadly. His form had altered since reaching here, becoming more his own. He had 2 mechanical wings of metal and energy rather than of flesh and blood. One eye was a screen with a blue orb inside rather than a normal eye. His front left arm was made of the same material the rest of him was. As for his species? Shadowsteel dragon, Tier 1.
“Snowstorm has though, right?” Miria asks.
“Yes, he has.” Darkness nods, sighing. His voice sounded slightly synthetic. “But I worry. Abhor was never good at taking loss.”
“Loss? What do you mean?” Miria asks, frowning. Had Abhor and Snowstorm lost someone before coming to the Great Tree?
“I… wasn't the only one…” Darkness says weakly, a tear running down his cheek. His eyes were hollow at whatever thoughts were running through is mind. “I had a… partner, almost. A fellow guardian I spent nearly my whole life with, raising the two of them with. Her name… was Smokewind.” His head seemed to droop further and further the more he spoke, as if the words leaving his mouth drained him of more and more energy.
“She… died. I watched it happen. I wasn't… string enough. But there's nothing I can do anymore. Only grieve, and hope the god of death accepts her soul either open arms.”
“They… had a mom…” Miria felt her own heart crumple at the thought. “Someone else who raised her, and died very recently. That… somewhat explains a few things.”
“He's been overworking himself, hasn't he?” Darkness sighs, already knowing the answer. He raises his scaled arm to wipe the tears from his face. “The way Snowstorm and Abhor react to fear and trauma is different. With Snowstorm, he shuts into himself, eventually going to ask for help when it starts pouring out. But with Abhor, he tries to fix it. He tries to fix the unfixable, prevent something like that from ever happening. He's driven because of that… but he's hurting so deeply inside. He's scared to see me because he knows exactly what I'd say to him, and it'd break that illusion he's set up in his mind.”
Miria's mind spun. “I didn't know he was hurting so much.” She says, slumping.
“He probably doesn't either. That or he's pushing it to the back of his mind.” Darkness frowns but sighs. “All you can do is offer support for him. I know the kid. He's strong. But losing Smokewind hit us all hard.”
“He killed the one who killed her.” Miria says, looking away.
“I know.” Darkness nods. “I would've done it if I were strong enough and got my claws on him. But I'm not, and I didn't.”“Will he be okay eventually?” Miria asks. Abhor was her friend in her mind. She didn't want to see him hurting. He was too good for that.
“Will he get better? Yes.” Darkness nods. “But will he be okay? That… I don't know.”
<{0}>
“So we just… jump down?” Phoebe frowns as she looks down the hole. I nod.
“Yeah, I think so.” I say. “Want a ride, or can you take the fall?”
“My durability and strength are my highest stats, so I should be fine.” She nods, then jumps. Me and Pyro exchange a glance, then jump with her.
Demishift
Me and Pyro fall together, eventually reaching Phoebe.
“This is a long fall.” I comment, pulling a beef sandwich out of my storage ring and taking a bite.
‘Yeah, I don't think I've ever fallen before.’ Pyro comments, looking around curiously. ‘Why do I not feel afraid of splatting?’
“Because you won't, and your body knows that.” I say simply. Phoebe floats over to me and I hand her a sandwich. She lets out a grateful hum and bites down.
“This is a beef sandwich. It's not allowed to be this good.” She says between bites. I hand one to Pyro and he also bites down. He seems visibly pained when he swallows, but nods.
‘Worth it.’ He says.
“Does the corruption affect your eating?” I ask him, frowning.
‘Yeah, it does.’ Pyro nods. ‘I asked Aftermath if removing it is possible, but he said that only high tier beings can remove corruption, and only if it's in its early stages. It's fuzed into my soul now, so there's nothing to be done about it. All I can hope is that it dispels and breaks down on its own as I evolve. It's less painful than it was at first tier, so that's nice, but it's still there.’
“And you got that at tier one, on your first day? Damn, that's some shit luck.” I comment, frowning. “If you were still tier 1, and I was a higher tier, I might have tried some sort of time magic fuckery to revert your body to before it was hit, but I don't have that kind of power, and it'd probably harm your karma.”
‘Why would it harm my karma?’ Pyro asks.
“Time magic tends to mess with karma. It's the only brand of magic that isn't karmic magic that affects karma.” I explain.
“wait, karmic magic is real?” Phoebe blinks in surprise, and I give her a weird look.
“Yeah, of course it is.” I say. “It's the magic of the church of emotion, and the primary affinity of the goddess of Karmic ties. Don't you know this?”
“I thought that magic was a myth, since it's the only type of magic I've never heard of anyone using.” Phoebe says honestly.
“fair enough I guess.” I shrug, understanding of her circumstances. I guess she can't know everything. I certainly don't. Slowly, the bottom begins to come into view. My eyesight is strong enough to be able to make out the bottom. Or, what I can see of it. I see the floor, which looks like grates made of mythril, and nothing much beyond that. It's getting closer, though.
“Pyro, can you make a barrier?” I ask as I squint. blood is rising and flowing out of those grates now. “Preferably shaped like a boat?”
‘Yes, I absolutely can.’ Pyro agrees, able to see it as well. Phoebe can't, but can sense the frantic energy coming from us as a black barrier forms under our feet. We all huddle together.
“Oh, I see it now…” She says, squinting. “Yeah, boat please.” The barrier forms into a boat and we all grip tight.
“Uh, maybe a roof?” I suggest. “Or, actually, just reinforce the bottom for the impact. I'll make the roof.” I raise a hand and start solidifying shadows into a solid roof above us. The bottom will take the force of the impact, so Pyro focuses on that. I focus on something the ocean of blood that's flowing out of there can flow around. Perhaps if Snowstorm were here he could calculate the radius of the room based on the speed the blood is flowing compared to the speed it's rising, but I lack a big brain like that. All I can do is brace.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
SPLASH!
We slam into the blood lake full force. The barrier Pyro made took the force of the impact without sustaining damage, and the blood that splashes up and around us hits my shadow barrier and slicks off. I dismiss the barrier and spread my wings, launching into the air. My trident forms in my hand and I turn about, searching for wherever the boss might be. The room is shockingly large, maybe a thousand meters in diameter, and a perfect dome. 4 pillars rise from the ground mirror each other. Carvings of a thousand draconic heads reaching up to consume the sun are sculpted into the black stone of the pillars. The walls themselves are mostly unadormed, though blood affinity mana stones are embedded into the wall all around.
“I don’t see the monster.” I say, frowning as I turn about in the sky.
‘I see a thread of death, over there.’ Pyro tells me, pointing far off in one direction. Focusing, I frown. I activate the skill version of my eyes, using my mana to enhance my powerful sight further, yet I still don't see anything. I squint.“Maybe it hasn't spawned yet?” I guess.
‘No, there's something there. Look, the blood is flowing to it.” Pyro gestures to the subtle flow of blood. beginning to coagulate where he said the thread was.
“Yeah, and the mana… is… too. Oh fuck.” I realize it instantly. “Get out of the blood!”
‘What?’ Pyro looks about in confusion but still obeys, spreading his wings and shooting up. I fly down and shift forms, picking Phoebe up. She can fly, but only temporarily due to her wings being made of mana and not flesh. She climbs up my arm and settles on my back, pulling her spear out.
“The blood is the drakon!” I say, and just ad I say it, the blood near the thread forms the beginnings of a first head.
“That's not tier 2.” Phoebe says, grimacing. “That's gotta be low tier 3.”
“Yeah, I've never seen a tier 2 that big.” I agree. I turn to Pyro. “Can you make floating barriers?”
‘I can with normal mana, but not creation mana. It doesn't like floating as much.’ he says, not turning from the forming blood drakon. ‘Why?’
“Make a platform for Phoebe so I can shift and pull out my weapon. I'll need a lot of shattering to get that thing dead.” Pyro nods at my words and forms a circular, floating translucent barrier 10 meters in diameter.
“Thanks.” Phoebe slips off my back and lands on the platform, seeming slightly disappointed. I give her a flat look.
“You wanted to ride a dragon into battle, didn't you?”
“Maybe just a little…” She admits. I sigh.
demishift
I pull out my trident and look down at the creature. it's half formed now, the head and half the body having formed. The scaled look like hardened scaba, the head a warped draconic maw with a thousand dripping teeth. Horns along the head spread down the back in the form of spiky protrusions. It has 2 wings, and it appears another set is starting to form along its back. By my estimation it'll be another 20 seconds until it's fully formed.
I glance about and frown as I notice the blood stones along the walls are glowing ever so slightly, dimming shadows. It would cost a lot of mana to jump through those. Not worth it. The mana would be better used charging a shatter or piercing attack. Or rather, a veil-drill. It's a technique that formed after using shatter the veil along with force drill.
Force drill on its own is a fairly simple technique. It simply involves using will to make my trident's bladed prongs spin at a slight angle while pointed a little inward like a drill. My intent is to, in the future, upgrade it to use my stamina rather than mana. This is slightly more difficult to do than just infusing mana, but I have a wellspring of stamina so large that it's criminal how little I use it.
The reason I created the veil-drill is because it'll give me a little insight on my force drill upgrade. When you upgrade a skill, you usually lose the old skill. That includes fusing a technique with a skill. So one might wonder why I still have force drill if I have veil-drill. The answer is simple. It's different enough to not count as an upgrade. Shatter the veil is the second most complex ability I have, second only to my mythic rank many last times skill. So simply making the trident prongs spin while using the skill? That doesn't add much to the skill, though it does let me solidify a technique out of it.
Anyway, I chose to charge the third-tier. I burst forward, then launch a shadow bolt which I slide into, riding inside as it gets close. Then I wind my arm back as the prongs begin spinning.
Veil-drill: Pierce
Instead of just thrusting I throw it full force, pushing it further forward with as much mana as I can. The trident goes clean through the neck of the drakon, leaving a multiple meter wide hole in its wake and slamming into the wall, causing cracks to spread across the wall as the trident digs over 50 meters in before coming to a stop. I summon the trident to my hands and leap back. I make my way back to Phoebe and Pyro, frowning.
“I obliterated the things neck and severed the head but there was no kill notification.” I say, frowning.
‘I think I know what this is.’ Pyro frowns, glancing side to side. ‘We couldn’t kill the dog until its heads were destroyed. There must be some condition to be able do- DUCK!’ Pyro raises an arm, forming a barrier of creation mana as a stream of boiling blood shoots at us with the force of an asteroid. The barrier shields all three of us, but cracks form along the shield.
“Is it too late to say I've never done anything like this before?!” Phoebe asks, a little breathless as she channels fire mana into her spear.
“I've only fought a few third tiers before, and they were all hastily raised with shit stats. That thing is neither.”
“You mean the commanders?” Phoebe asks as the pulls her arm back.
Phoenix arc
She threw her spear with full force. The spear exploded with fire, forming wings of etherial flame, like a phoenix. As it impacted the now nearly formed drakon, it exploded in raging fire. The spear vanished, reappearing in Phoebe's hand.
“Yeah, the commanders.” I say, nodding as I watch the drakon rapidly reform. “Rosaline is decent, though. Not the strongest third tier I've met, though. That title goes to Miria and Autumn.”
‘Both?’ Pyro asks, confused.
“Yeah. They have this weird bond ritual thing. It boosts their stats and lets them share skills, but it tethers their lives together, meaning if one dies the other does, and they can't be too far away from each other."
“That's… kind of sweet.” Phoebe smiles slightly at the thought. “They're lovers, right?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “Only a few months now, though. They've had the bond for years.”
‘They had the bond before they were lovers?’ Pyro asks, forming another barrier to block a stream of steaming blood from the drakon's direction. Nearly all the blood forming the lake below us is gone, funneled into the massive monster. Each of its individual scales must be the size of my talon in dragon form.
I look down at my human hand and dragon talon and frown. “I really need to figure out how to use my real body better. My demi body has been all I've used lately, since my shatter the veil is so strong. I feel like I'm turning into a 1-trick kind of dragon, though.”
‘I don't see it that way.’ Pyro says, launching a death mana bolt at the drakon just to see what happens. The bolt impacts and the blood that makes its form ripples in displeasure, but expels the mana after a moment. ‘You can teleport, change forms, manipulate 3 of the 4 elements with ease, manipulate darkness, manipulate time, use spear techniques, fly, use a breath attack, and probably more stuff I haven't seen yet. You just meed to get a little creative.’
“Get a little creative, huh…” I pause, thinking on that. What do I have at my disposal. I start by using my eyes to watch the threads of mana flowing about like waves, trying to see where they're going. The dragon hadn't fully expelled the death mana yeat, and those tiny threads of it were wreaking havoc inside the last little bit of the blood it was in. The blood that was damaged…
“The damage we do is making blood flow into the crystals along the walls.” I say. “Kind of like a phylactery.”
“Are you saying that thing is a lich?” Phoebe asks, seeming horrified by the idea.
“No, not exactly. I think its mana is drained by the crystals so it doesn't infinitely regenerate. If it could do that we'd be screwed.”
‘So we just need to do a lot of damage?’ Pyro grins. ‘We can do that, now can't we?’
I grin.
Demishift
“Phoebe, get on.” I say. “I've got an idea and that idea is get above is and rain hell. Pyro, hop on too. You'll use shields while me and Phoebe use fire and time mana to rip it apart. You can attack when we aren't being attacked.” I pause. “Actually, Phoebe, use ice mana whenever possible. Freezing the blood will make it shatterable, which is always a plus when dealing with a liquid monster.”
Phoebe nearly cheers as she climbs on, which I find amusing. I like this side of the woman. Pyro seems a little bummed about being relegated to defense duty, but agrees that it's necessary.
“Both of you have eye mutations, right?” I ask. At their nods, I grin. “Good. I won't infuse too much aman into this, so it'll be fine. I only need it for the movement.”
‘Need what for the move- oh. Now that's smart.’ Pyro chuckles, then coughs. ‘Damned throat.’
“What's smart?” Phoebe asks, confused.
“There aren't many shadows here.” I say. “I don’t plan to use my veil skills, since they're too cost intensive for too little damage to this thing. i need damage over time with this. That means my mana is freed up for this…” I shoot up into the air towards the roof. “May the world turn black.”
<{0}>
Phoebe did not enjoy the experience of flying through portals in the darkness very much. No, she did not. It made her stomach wobble in a way it hadn't done since she was a tier 1. Flying on the back of a dragon into battle had been a dream to her as a small child. She got the chance to ride on Abhor's back on the ride to the city, along with her kids, though she hadn't really had the chance to enjoy it. She had been too focused on being suspicious of him. Her children had loved it, though, and now she was actually enjoying the ride, she was actually enjoying the ride. She couldn't help the grin that split her ear to ear as she rained fire and ice javelins down on the drakon as it roared.
The drakon opened its jaws and sent a blast of blood at us full force. Pyro raised an arm and blocked the blow, pulling all mana he could back into himself.
“Is this all it has? It's got to have lost 20% of its blood by now, right?” Phoebe asks, leaning forward and gripping one of Abhor's back frills for grip. It's shockingly solid for such a flimsy looking part of his body.
“Don't jinx us.” Abhor mock-scolds her, grinning. He opens his jaws.
Breath of distortion
Purple energy, denser than any time mana bolt she had seen him throw, blasts out of his jaws and down to the drakon, impacting and spreading through the blood. The damage it causes is unconventional, basically forcing the blood to be in multiple points of time at once, overlapping points in time, making things exist in no point in time, etcetera. The damage is clear, though. The drakon clearly didn't like that, though. It opens its jaws and lets out a roar.
Blood frenzy
The drakons form explodes outwards in a wave of blood which forms rapidly into many more, smaller drakons.
“Whoops.” Phoebe says, chuckling nervously. “Jinxed it.”
Name:Pyro Akabis
Level:70/150
Age:16
Titles:Cold-blooded, Enigma, Broken, DEATH, Other-worlder
Soul weapon: Six fingers of Infinity
Strength:172.5
Durability:150
Speed:150
Stamina:150
Intelligence:150
Essence: 33001
Class:Reaper of Creation
Species:BlightBane Demidragon[2/5]
Skills: Greater Enhanced Strength(Medium)Rare, Mind mana Manipulation(Medium)Rare, Death mana bolt(Medium)Rare, Sickle swap(Medium)Rare, Reaper’s boost(High)Epic, breath of inevitability(High)Rare, Demishift(low)Rare, Kings vault(High)Rare, Voice of the world(high)rare
Techniques: Creation mana manipulation(E), Mind mana manipulation(D), Sicklemancer arts(C), Death mana manipulation(D), Creation mana construct(D), Potential(???)
Mutations: blood of the fallen(B), Heart of Creation(B), Black thread eyes (A)
...
Name:Snowstorm
Level:51/150
Age:16
Titles:Frostbreaker, knowledgeer, study master, FREEZE, Tier 2 evolution, Humanify, magic prodigy
Strength:150
Durability:150
Speed:150
Stamina:150
Intelligence:180
Essence:1,009
Class:Frostbane boxer(Epic)
Soul weapon:Frostbane gauntlets
Species:Frostwing demi-wyvern
Skills: Heat vision(low)Uncommon, Overwhelming intelligence(High)Epic, Enhanced knowledge intake(medium)Uncommon, cold barrier(high)epic, swimming(low)Common, body temperature reduction(Medium)Uncommon, ice mana manipulation(medium)Rare, Mind magic affinity(Medium)Uncommon, heat shift foundation(Low)Uncommon, Herald of the ice age[Species max]Epic+, Eternal library[Species max]Legendary
Techniques:Swimming(D), Mana manipulation(C), Mind mana manipulation(D), Ice mana manipulation(C), Mana claws(C), Ice spear(C), Iceout(D), Icicle hail(D), Mind bridge(D), Ice mana barrier(C), Heat shift(D), Mana bolt(D), Mana sense(D), Mind mana manipulation(D), Illusion mana manipulation(E)
Mutations: Knowledge intake stomach(B), Multi-Mind system(A)
Spells: Freeze water(Lesser), Frostfield(Lesser), coldsnap(Lesser), amnesia(Lesser), Frost spikes(Lesser), frostzone(Average), Information sharing(Lesser), Glacier bomb(Average)
