Chapter Sixty-Seven

What felt like an eternity later, the power rushing in slowed to a trickle. The surrounding dungeon faded away, leaving only a room with the living dungeon core slumped forward. It didn’t speak another word. All it did was limply wave its branch-like hand. Then they found themselves outside. In an instant, both of them activated their territory card teleport, but after a moment of nothing happening, they locked eyes, both wide in panic.

Arden flipped flopped between flying there from their current location or try teleporting to the trial dungeon. Solanine decided for him. One blink she stood in front of him, the next she vanished. A prod of their bond told him she was in the direction of their territory core, likely the trial dungeon. Annoyance spiked as he too teleported to the trial dungeon. They should have decided together. Whatever attacked their core needed both of them. If the living dungeon core felt the need to give them a power-up, that meant it was a great danger to their territory. Now he had to follow her because she trapped herself in the trial dungeon. At least he thought she trapped herself. Maybe there was another way out now that they beat the dungeon. A maybe he didn’t want to take a risk on.

His surroundings shifted to a familiar heavily forested cavern. A quick scan revealed he stood on the same ledge he started his dungeon delve on. Unlike his last delve, there was no platform. Another source of annoyance revealed itself. Where the platform was before, there was a vine ladder. His parents probably planned for the platform to land on it, forcing him to figure out his own way down. Whatever. There was nothing he could do to change the past. He had to ensure his territory survived into the future.

At first, he didn’t spot Solanine. It only took him a moment to realize what that meant, sending his gaze toward the ground. Even then, it took him another couple of seconds to spot her. Her dark green scales blended well on the grassy ledge.

Before shifting, he glanced up to find the same tunnel leading to the surface, though there wasn’t light shining through. He hoped it opened for them otherwise, trying to save their territory would be the least of their problems. His bird form was fragile. He would rather not test its survivability against solid stone.

A sigh escaped him as he returned his attention to Solanine, who laid limp on the grass. Every few seconds, a tremble ran through her entire length. She tried her best to hide her discomfort from him through the bond, but some leaked through. Before she gave into her panic, he shifted to his bird form and grasped her in his talons. A few flaps later, they were airborne, aimed at the tunnel hopefully leading out.

As they flew up, the sound of something heavy and violent rumbles reached their ears. The ground trembled with each step, followed by loud crashes. Whatever attacked their territory core felled several trees. That prediction sent a wave of fury their him.

Arden flapped his wings harder, gaining a little more speed, but there was only so far he could go in the tunnel. As he approached the end of the tunnel, an opening formed. Ominously, the trembling also ceased.

For a split second, he wavered between slowing to a stop and taking the cautious route, but he waved that idea away. They needed to get a view of the situation. If whatever attacked their territory already sensed them, there was no point in taking it slow. They needed to blitz.

His wings strained to push him even faster. The air pressure buffeted his body, straining his talons, but he held onto the snake as he shot upward. Just before he reached the end of the tunnel, a massive eye cast a shadow over the tunnel, activating his dark vision. Too close to slow down in time, all he could do was aim for the small gap to the right and flap even faster.

That was when a burst of energy shot through his body, launching him upward with a crack. It happened so fast it took him a moment to realize what it was. The boost gifted to them finally made its presence known.

It took him several seconds to slow down. When he did, he looked down, both pain and rage warring for supremacy. Their once peaceful and beautiful clearing was no more. Well, the clearing was there. In fact, it was much bigger than before, but the peaceful part was long gone. It was like a tornado touched down on their little forest, then stayed for lunch. There was nothing left untouched. Every recovering tree fell over. The destruction even reached the stone trees. Only their territory tree remained standing and not for a lack of trying from the invader.

His eyes locked on the culprit. Any fear he should have had for the towering creature overshadowed by rage. Standing nearly at the height of their territory tree was something he only read in books on myths. He thought they died out before Ortus’s arrival, but apparently one didn’t. A giant.

How would they fight off something said to fight off armies on its own? Even with their power-ups, they were just two mages. Worse, as soon as he focused on the aura radiating off the giant, any thoughts of matching its strength head on vanished. The power-up pushed them to grade three, but the giant standing in front of them was at least grade five, maybe even higher. It was hard to get a good grasp on the strength of something so much stronger than they were.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Before he came up with a plan himself, Solanine spoke through their bond. “We need to reach out territory tree. I may have an idea to buy us some time.”

There was one problem about reaching the territory tree. The giant watched their every move while keeping itself between them and the tree. Unless he got another speed boost, there was no way they could reach the tree without sharing the same fate as a pesky fly.

Arden circled out of reach of the giant, looking for an opportunity to dive toward their territory tree. The giant continued to watch them, though, leaving no openings. At least it stopped destroying their territory, not that there was anything left to destroy aside from their territory tree. He had a feeling that would change if they didn’t do something soon. Even though the giant stopped attacking the tree, he still felt pulsing pain radiating from the tree. It may not look like it from the outside, but the giant left a mark.

An idea came to him as he looked down at the giant transfixed on them. As long as the giant remained fixated on him, they may have an option. On the same wavelength, Solanine opened a line of communication at the same time he did. Though this time Arden beat her to speaking. “Do you think you can sneak past the giant if I keep its attention?”

Solanine shifted in his grasp as she scanned the ground, as if looking for something. Whatever that was, she must have found it, because she answered soon after. “Yes, I should have a path to our territory tree. Fly to the west until I say so. We don’t want to give away our plan to the giant.”

Arden did just that. Though he made it look like he was just changing his flight orbit. With each rotation of their territory tree, he made his flight a little more oval toward the west. Finally, just beyond the revived border, Solanine wiggled as if signaling to drop her. Since most of the trees between them and the giant were no longer upright, he had to be careful how he pulled it off. No cover meant the giant could see them. Though he didn’t know how good the giant’s sight was. A human would struggle to spot a small snake from a kilometer plus distance, but who knew what the giant could see? Because of that unknown, he took a sneaky route. Like his rotation, he gradually lowered his flight near the stone tree tops each time he passed, then let go of Solanine as if dropping a bomb. For all he knew, he was dropping a bomb. He hoped he just dropped a bomb. A highly poisonous Solanine bomb may be their only hope.

As if he didn’t drop his payload, he continued on and gradually returned to his previous rotation. To ensure the giant remained focused on him, he flew a little lower every couple of rotations just out of the reach of the giant. He knew the giant’s range because, in its frustration, it took swipes at him. Of course, like that pesky fly, he did an excellent job of dodging the attempts to squash him, though it was a close thing.

Curious what Solanine was up to he felt at their bond, pausing for a moment when he found she was directly under the giant. His eyes scanned the ground as he flew. He expected to find a little green snake slithering between the giant’s legs, but even his super bird eyes couldn’t spot the snake. That left one option, well maybe not. Maybe she had an invisibility potion or something, but that was unlikely. Those were incredibly expensive and highly controlled. Besides, if she had that, they wouldn’t have to be as sneaky. That meant she shifted from murder noodle to earthworm. At least she seemed to get over being in their snake form.

Suddenly the giant froze then looked down near where Solanine was prompting Arden to dart down. He needed to keep the giant’s attention. If only he could use his magic while in his bird form. His bird form was both freeing and incredibly limiting.

To his horror, the giant’s gaze jerked back up, locking eyes with him. Its hand was already in motion to swat him. His mind whirled, calculating his chances to dodge, but the numbers weren’t good. The hand approached as if in slow motion, but in reality, it had been a few moments. In desperation, he focused back on the feeling when he got the speed boost. His instincts both screamed to do something, but also warned against what he wanted to do. He had no choice, though. As long as he dodged the giant before he burned himself out, he didn’t care.

That was all the answer his body seemed to need as a moment later, a rush of power shot through him once more. Unlike last time, the power brought a burning pain, as if his body wasn’t ready for another boost so soon. He didn’t care, he welcomed it.

His surroundings blurred as he rocked off. Feathers ripped out of him, adding to the pain either from the speed or the hand brushing past him. The hand brushed past him so close he felt it touch him, or maybe that was his imagination. His mind failed to keep up with the pace as the next thing he knew, he was several kilometers away from the territory, tree wings seizing up. The only thing keeping him upright was his momentum. When he tried to move his wings to correct his trajectory, all they did was twitch as molten pain flowed through him.

An enraged roar buffeted both his ears and feathers. At first, he thought it was because of his escape. Upon craning his neck around, trying to ignore the pain, his eyes widened. The previously passive territory tree was no longer passive. Roots wrapped around the giant, pinning its arms and legs together. The giant’s muscles bulged, causing the roots to tremble. It wouldn’t hold long. He had to get back to provide support. With each passing second, the pain he felt from the territory tree skyrocketed. Whatever Solanine did bought them some time, but it came at a cost.

Since his bird form was useless, he shifted back, stalling his momentum. He shifted back and forth to feather his fall. The moment he landed, he took off in a sprint, hoping the gift they received did more than boost his flight. If it didn’t, they may not be territory owners for much longer.