Ashley

The ash blizzard continues following us all the way through the distance between the pyramid and the wyrm den. And even when we enter the den, it still continues to follow us.

It isn’t until the two of us move around several wyrms that are going from one wall of the den to the other that the ash blizzard finally gets interrupted. With the blizzard slamming into more than one of these wyrms as the things get in the way.

Blake and I pause near one of the den’s walls to look back at the wyrms as they roar in anger. Only to find the monsters all rushing out of the den one after another. With even more of the wyrms bursting out of the den walls to leave as well.

I share a glance with Blake before we both turn to look at the wyrms again. Many of whom are attacking the ash blizzard with large rays of destruction mana from their mouths. And others are literally swallowing the ash whole.

“Looks like the wyrms are taking that ash blizzard as a full-on assault by the skeletons,” Blake mutters, making me nod my head in response.

The two of us watch as the wyrms rush out of the den, seemingly ignoring us in the process. Probably because we’re so tiny in comparison to them and haven’t attacked the monsters yet either.

A few seconds pass while the wyrms both attack the blizzard and rush out of the den before Blake and I leave the den to look out over the wasteland between us and the pyramid. Where we find a small army of a couple hundred skeletons marching in our direction.

An army that soon clashes with the wyrms. With the wyrms flying down to gobble up the skeletons, meanwhile the skeletons blast away at the wyrms with destruction magic.

Hmm.

Guess we started a war.

I glance at my status to look at my energy and mana, only to frown.

Not enough mana or energy to fight.

I look at Blake to find him nodding at me, seemingly understanding what I’m wanting to say. Then we both fly out of the den and head off in the opposite direction as the pyramid.

And as we fly, Blake begins to speak quietly, “I’m sorry about earlier. I missed the spells attached to the pyramid walls and it almost got us both in trouble.”

I turn to look at him as we fly before facing forwards again. Not saying anything in response.

If there were spells on the pyramid walls, those are probably what led to us being teleported.

“I wasn’t able to study them well, but it looked like those spells were traps linked to a single being within the pyramid,” Blake continues, making me understand what he’s left unsaid.

That it was most likely the mini boss in charge of the pyramid that activated those traps and split us up.

Meaning the pyramids are not a place we can rest in.

We continue flying through the sky, simply searching for a new place to rest. Which ends up taking over two hours to find in the form of a large sand whirlpool things, with sand falling down seemingly without end into a dark hole in the center of the thing.

I’m not really sure what they’re called personally. In fact, for all I know, they could literally be called sand whirlpools.

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But I doubt it.

The only reason we know there’s even anything down there are the strange creatures occasionally jumping into the thing. Creatures covered in cloth all over without a single shred of their flesh revealed. To the point that all I can see are the barest hints of glowing crimson light leaking from the cloth and bandages.

I frown a little when I see the result of their identify.

♢ Level 102 Destruction-Touched Mummified Ash – 520 Potential Skills – X ♢

Yeah, no idea what these things are. Unless they’re just destruction touched mummies?

Maybe?

Probably.

Anyways, Blake says he senses entire catacombs down beneath the sand whirlpool, so we both head down after the latest monster. And just seconds later we find ourselves in a rather dark catacombs whose walls are made of sandstone with crimson cracks running through the blocks.

And the mummified ash that we see after arriving immediately attacks us.

Using the cloth and bandages beneath said cloth as their weapons by sending them flying off of their bodies towards us.

Blake teleports out of the way and I flap my wings to push myself backwards. Causing all of the cloth and bandages to slam into the ground where we were just standing.

Making bolts of crimson lightning course through the cloth and bandages to strike at the sandstone floors.

A faint grin stretches across my face before I activate Assimilate and spread both of my arms outwards while summoning dozens of bolts of destruction mana above my head. All of which I send flying at the mummies in front of us, with Blake attacking the ones behind us.

All of the mummies begin whipping the bandages and cloth from their bodies around, sending crimson lightning along with them as they block my and Blake’s attacks. But I just use more and more different types of attacks to counter them.

Whether it’s sending vines at the bandages, launching silver metal spikes at the creatures, throwing bolts and blasts of different types of magic at them, or sending feathers flying through it all at them.

I find myself being rather surprised though when my attacks don’t do much.

Or, rather, most of them don’t do much.

Almost all of my attacks are deflected by the bandages with ease.

With the sole exception of my feathers, which pierce straight through the bandages with ease.

Even all of Blake’s spells are deflected as if the monsters were just slapping away pebbles.

Until Blake seems to realize what’s going on and changes his attacks to physical ones. Attacks where he enhances his physical strength and summons a sword from his storage ring before striking at the mummies with the blade.

And this time around the blade actually pierces through and starts cutting apart the mummies.

My eyes narrow a little before I focus entirely on just my feathers and claws, finding that the claws work as well.

Because these creatures seem to be incredibly resistant to any sort of non-physical attacks. Sort of.

I’m still not fully sure what they resist, but I can tell that at the very least, biological parts and weapons seem to work.

The monsters also seem to be rather hard to kill. Because even after I mutate half of one of the mummies and cut off its arms and legs, the thing just refuses to die.

Until one of my feathers strikes it square in the face, mutating half of its head until a fireball explodes inside of its head through an effect. And I finally get a System Message.

{You have been granted 3 Skill Points for killing a monster within a Unique Domain.}

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Destruction-Touched Mummified Ash }

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Crimson Shock, is now unlocked for your usage.}

I frown at the sight of the skill, feeling a little disappointed that it doesn’t look like it’s the skill that gives them that resistance. Or their incredible toughness.

But my disappointment fades a bit when I open the skill’s description.

{Crimson Shock – Allows the user to naturally generate lightning of the destruction affinity and expel it through their skin.}

And right around the same time as I finish reading the skill, I notice a slight change to my skin. Specifically, some very tiny and hard to notice sparks of crimson lightning running across my skin.

I look at the lightning for a few seconds before returning my attention to the mummies.

Mummies who are only growing in number by the second as more of them find us while we struggle to actually kill the things.

Fortunately for us though, other than their lightning, they aren’t very strong.

Physically they’re far weaker than the two of us, and magically all they have is that crimson lightning which they seem to need those bandages to use. And even with the bandages and cloth, the lightning isn’t very focused or well-aimed.

I spread both my wings out fully before flapping them multiple times in a row, beginning to send feathers as quickly as I can at the creatures. Aiming specifically for their heads in the process.

Time to see if these things have more than one root skill too.