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“Do I get a bonus for soloing the boss?” Aella mused to herself
Exhaling deeply, Aella approached the severed head of the Harpy Queen, which had rolled a short distance away. He picked it up before turning to the ongoing battle of Aetherion and Stormy, who had at some point joined his larger dragon companion in the battle against the additional Harpies.
“Ahem.” Aella cleared her throat, projecting her voice so that everyone could hear her despite the apparent distance.
“The head of your queen is in my hands! You have lost your leader, Harpies! You have one chance before you meet the same fate! Scatter and never return!” She commanded, her tone echoing the authority of a battlefield commander.
The harpies, caught in a mix of fear and confusion, quickly began to disperse. Whether it was the uncanny ability to hear Aella's voice from over 100 meters away or the unexpected demise of their queen at the hands of an 8-year-old, the harpies fled, emitting terrified cries, but not before Stormy got a few more bites out of them, somehow managing to not kill a single one.
‘Just how weak is Stormy right now?’ Aella chuckled inwardly, her companions flying down to join her, Stormy in particular shooting straight at her, claiming his usual spot as her neck warmer.
“Aella!” Seraphina cheered, waving enthusiastically
“That’s my name. And I’m not on the brink of death this time! How did it go? I see that nobody is hurt.” Aella remarked, waving back.
Seraphina once again tried to hug and tackle Aella. This time, however, she was prepared, avoiding the attack from Seraphina, causing the girl to fall over, only to be caught by the wind before she could hit the ground.
“Not hurt at all.” Aella reinforced.
Giggling, Seraphina nodded. “Aetherion was so majestic and strong! None of the harpies even managed to hurt him! But uhm… I think he’s tired.”
Aella gave an understanding nod. Even if it was her, she’d probably cut it pretty close with her Stamina and Mana in a battle against that many foes. However, with her newly increased Agility and Dexterity stat, she could win against all of them.
Neither of those stats increased her speed. Agility increased her mobility via her body’s flexibility. In other words, it makes her really good at parkour. Dexterity, on the other hand, increased her hand to eye coordination, ability to use different complex items, and the damage she dealt with weapons.
In other words, it makes her really good at parkour AND good at stabbing things. Not that she was bad at either, but you can only fight in a wasteland so many times in a row before you have obstacles you need to navigate through.
“We can rest for a while if you want. Need to wait for the reward calculation before the boss shows up anyway… If I had to fashion a guess, I assume Mom and Dad will probably go there as well.”
With nothing else to do but wait, Aella was going to continue meditating, but Seraphina had stopped any chances of that as she immediately started bombarding the younger girl with countless questions. This time, however, she wasn’t just asking about Aella’s likes and dislikes.
“Hey, hey, Aella? How do you control the wind like that? Isn’t Stormy a dragon of the Water and Lightning elements? And that fan you keep grabbing from nowhere! How do you do that?”
Raising a brow while looking at her fan, which had already started fading away, Aella couldn’t help but wonder about that question. Her fan was a construct of Mana and, as such, needed mana to be maintained. If it didn’t have mana, it would return to Aella’s inner world.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Although weapons like this were rare, just about every decent combatant or rich kid had one. Did this world, despite being so advanced in magic technology, not have Spiritual Weapons?
“I’ve been meaning to ask you that as well. Is it a magical artifact that your mother gave you?” Blair questioned.
“No? Do you not know what an [Aetherstream] is? The cultivation technique… Makes your body more durable. Ringing any bells?”
Aella had heard that Naturalis could call upon the power of their Dragons, so she had thought that only Naturalis could use magic and normal humans simply couldn't, but that was disproven time and time again as her dad, a normal human, had magic.
He never showed any great feats. The most he had any reason to do was create a small light when the power went out, but he could still use magic. This wouldn’t be possible if Aetherstreams didn’t exist in this world unless they found an alternate way to cultivate but even then, utilizing magic should still be possible, and Blair’s question wouldn’t make any sense.
“You mean [Qi Flow]? The thing that Easterners who couldn’t find dragons to bond with came up with? You're a Naturalis. You shouldn’t physically be able to use that.”
Pouring mana into her fan so it didn’t dissipate, Aella pointed it at Blair, about to say something really sarcastically until… She couldn’t think of anything.
“I…”
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Before Aella could answer the question, Blair presented her with, intense heat shot through her body as a flurry of notifications clouded her vision before that heat was quickly expelled from her body as light.
Everyone involved, excluding Stormy, who went through the same thing, was forced to look away from the blinding scene.
By the time the scene had ended and the family could look back at Aella, they saw her and Stormy looking slightly different, both with equally shocked expressions.
Stormy’s change was far less noticeable. He had grown a few centimeters in length, with his horns elongating slightly.
Aella, on the other hand, outright gained a second, much fluffier tail, along with her first tail becoming more fluffy to match. Not to mention that her fur and hair became pristine.
“WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!” Aella exclaimed in a panic.
Obviously, she could read the notification she got and see her second tail, but that shouldn’t be possible. Foxin gained a tail every 100 years they lived, each tail multiplying the strength of their physical body based on the number of tails.
Essentially, the system forcibly forced her biology to age at least 100 years, but her body didn’t change! She still had the body of an 8-year-old child! This defied all logic that she knew, and she could talk to wind!
What was worse, before she could continue questioning what was happening, the world around them began to shake furiously much like what happened when her family got dragged into the Abyss Nest.
This time though, instead of being transported to another place, a massive castle far larger than any human structure she had ever seen appeared in the distant sky with a staircase leading up to it.
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Even after the massive castle-like structure was revealed, the shaking refused to subside for another dozen minutes. Aella spent the time to make sure nobody hurt themselves during the shaking, masterfully keeping them upright with her wind.
She was lucky, and if they were near a higher cliff peak, it would have been extremely difficult to protect them from falling rocks on top of the major rumbling.
Only after it all ended could Aella even think about something else. Specifically about how the Abyss Nest gave her a perfect excuse to avoid Blair’s question. No doubt the woman would bring it up again, but Aella just had to stall until she understood what this Qi Flow thing was.
“I’m gonna go on ahead and find my mom and dad! We’ll meet up at the stairs!” Aella said, making a perfect excuse before running off.
Thankfully Aetherion couldn’t keep up with her speed, allowing her to quickly create a distance away from her and the suspicious Blair while knowing full well this was going to lead to a whole nother situation with her parents questioning how she beat two minibosses alone.