CHAPTER 156
The wyvern rose into the air and arced back over the fortifications. Tom knew it was looking for a softer target. There was a flash of light letting him identify where on the battlefield Everlyn was. She was taking the opportunity while it was low to the ground to get her strikes in. Without consciously thinking about it, when he had abandoned the defensive walls he had headed west. Everlyn had done the same. They had both had the choice of running their cardinal direction north or south respectively to pick the direction the other would take. As Everlyn had gone west initially to get intel on the wyvern overall, it was a pretty straightforward decision.
Tom jogged toward her while monitoring the wyvern as it swept down, attacking a position on the other side of the fortifications and close to walls. Mentally, he wished whoever was being assaulted luck. He was not sure how his own entanglement with it would have ended up if the tier four spell he had active hadn’t possessed the defensive aspect that it did.
He reached Everlyn just as the creature took off once more. It had been grounded for longer against the second victim versus what it did to him.
He sent a prayer in that direction, especially when he saw large wounds in the monster’s chest and forearms.
Everly was laughing with excitement. “That, Tom, is just a weak wyvern. Can you imagine what a dragon would feel like?”
Tom shivered. “It might not be a dragon, but it’s still terrifying. How can you be so cheerful?” He accused with a glance at where the dragon had landed and fought someone.
Everly grinned unconcerned. “I might as well enjoy the fight while I can. No point worrying about something that might happen in the future.”
“But someone might have just died.”
Crack.
Another arrow flew at the steadily rising wyvern. “No one has died yet. Can’t you sense it?”
Tom sighed. If no one had died, he understood the flippant attitude. Provided no one died, then they would grow stronger.
She had stated no one had died, as a fact!
A jolt of adrenaline ran through him.
“What?” Tom asked dumbly. He realised what Everlyn was hinting at. The location the wyvern had attacked could only be…
Not again.
He had been distracted and hadn’t checked, but now Everlyn had mentioned it he reached out with his magic.
There was no response from his golem.
Distance and opposing magic could, of course block the link, but there was none of that in play here.
The spell form must have been completely shattered. It was the only reason he could see to explain the link being cut off so perfectly.
Tom glanced at the wounds on the monster with new eyes while he remembered the oversized axes he had bought from the auction house this morning. Weapons it could use to hack apart enemies. Tools that were not part of it, so there had been no need to adjust the spell form to encompass them. Those gashes in the wyvern made more sense now.
With the golem destroyed, Tom reached for the elemental. The connection was there along with a sense of shame.
Instinctively, he reassured it and stopped himself from commanding the elemental more directly, but it would do little against the wyvern in its natural form until it landed and then the monster was probably most of the way dead.
The slight advantage of summoning the lesser elemental to him was not worth the risk of losing it in future endeavours if his actions upset it. He wouldn’t risk the relationship by asking it to do anything beyond what they had agreed. It would assess the damage and put together a plan for Tom to rebuild and an explanation on why it had failed.
Not that Tom needed a formal report, but he knew the elemental would want to share so he would accept it. Ultimately, it had lost because it met something more powerful than it. Design could only do so much against overwhelming strength.
Once he had the report, Tom would send it back immediately. Without the cage, it could not last long and he presumed if the golem was damaged sufficiently to destroy the spell form all the internals were probably lost.
“Wait?” He spun to face Everlyn. “You found that funny?”
“Only a bit.”
Crack.
The arrow arced away. This one was larger than usual and glowed with energy. Unlike his meteorites, it was perfectly on target with Everlyn having adjusted firing angles and somehow aligning them to take account of the almost random movements in its flight. Despite her foresight, the monster saw the arrow and veered away.
There was a hiss and the projectile Everlyn fired sped up and changed its trajectory. It slammed into the wyvern on its first wing joint.
“Damn thing triggered the seeking spell.”
“Is that a problem?”
“I lose fifty percent of the arrow’s power and the next time I use the spell it costs more.”
“And, to clarify on the golem, I found it slightly amusing that it’s been totalled twice. The first time it saved lives and this time its given it injuries that will shorten the fight significantly and save lives that way. Still, I know how much it costs in times and credits to rebuild it. Sucks to be you.”
“Shut up.”
She laughed at the funny face he had pulled, but had another projectile strung on her bow. Ready, but she didn’t fire it as the wyvern beat its wings to turn around to take another pass. This time it was focusing on them.
Everlyn grinned in excitement. “It’s coming for me.”
Then she sprinted to the side and Tom flowed next to her his Lightning Feet and similar attributes let him easily match her movements. The overgrown lizard changed course to target them and then flinched when it noticed the spinning rocks around Tom.
Rather than plunging down upon them its wings beat a second time as it sought to avoid the stones.
It crashed to the ground five metres short of them. A puff of wind striking both of them. The distance was only a quick lunge for the massive animal, which was only slightly smaller than the giant lizards, but far faster. That and the scales made it a deadly opponent even when grounded.
Crack.
The arrow she fired slammed into a nostril slit.
It roared and leapt into the air.
Tom smiled. It was smarter than the lizards, but that characteristic had made it hesitate before attacking them and had created the opening.
It wouldn’t happen again all of his honed battle instincts told him. Next time, they would need to create their own opportunities.
The wyvern leapt clear and flapped away. A force of absolute destruction, even if it wasn’t a dragon.
Everlyn laughed happily to see it run.
“We need to consolidate.” Tom suggested.
“Yes. and thanks for following me to protect me.”
“Had to. It got me, and I’m faster than you.”
Everlyn shook her head. “Nope. I had it covered. At least the first pass.” She looked at him sideways. “Remember, I can use my main trait. I have a setup that would have given me a nice burst of speed that would have let me get me clear of an attack. The first time, at least. Though keeping it in reserve is always the best option. So I guess that’s definitely a thanks.”
Tom nodded. He mostly believed her, but his own experience with its speed coloured his perceptions.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
They jogged over to the people closest to them and Tom was pleased to see Legen amongst them.
The tank glanced back the fortifications, and the mist had rolled over the walls and was pooling at the base. “Them.” Legen pointed.
Tom and everyone else nodded at the instruction and they jogged towards a group that contained Rahmat and it was clear that Legen was planning on gathering together a hit squad to try to kill the wyvern.
After the latest encounter and having witnessed the marks that his golem had left on it, Tom was feeling a lot more confident about their capacity to defeat the high ranked monster.
There was a curse next to him and a moment later, he heard the scream. Tom’s eyes snapped towards where the scream was coming from. The wyvern was off the ground with a body held in its jaws. It was lifting into the air, carrying the load.
Crack.
Everlyn’s arrow launched toward the slowly rising wyvern.
It dropped its victim and beat its wings rapidly to gain altitude.
“Its got a precognition skill of some type.” Everlyn muttered. “I’m going to have to get a skill that can block that shit.”
“Tom,” Legen asked. “Can you use another of the meteorites to gets it attention.”
He hesitated for a moment and shook his head. “Too wasteful. Everlyn should be able to get its attention without me. If we can ground it, the meteorites should be a good finisher.”
“Yes, I can.” Everlyn agreed next to him. “It won’t be able to ignore me.”
The monster was circling, looking for its next victim, but despite the initial way they had scattered now that everyone suspected that the poison breath was not as big of an issue as they initially thought they were clumping hard. His little team was up to fifteen and then were five other groups ranged from five to twelve and probably a couple more out of sight behind the fortifications.
Crack.
Another arrow launched, and this time when the monster adjusted its position so the arrow flashed harmlessly past it.
“One point eight seconds.” Everlyn muttered to herself. “I can work with that.” She took a couple of deep breaths with a new magical arrow appearing on the ground in front of her.
Crack.
Almost too fast for his eyes to follow she grabbed one of the pre-prepared arrows and fired them.
Crack.
Crack,
Crack.
The wyvern screamed as it rose higher into the air. Multiple arrows had struck home. All of them unfortunately appeared to have struck intact scales rather than the wounds where the arrows could do more damage.
Everlyn frowned. “Another skill, well, I won’t be getting any critical hits, but I’m definitely going to piss it off.” She grinned at him.
Abruptly, the wyvern changed and dropped into a dive. Someone who had been playing dead had decided to make a run for the safety of one of the larger groups.
Everyone responded instantly with a combination of offensive spells to knock it off course and the melee fighters springing forward to reach the wyvern.
It was all too slow. Especially the melee fighters. Tom could see their efforts were going to be in vain the moment it started plunging.
The wyvern screaming in triumph plunged all the way, leading with the claws. The girl, some sort of tailor by trade, flipped sideways with impressive agility and battle sense that was better than Tom’s own. The huge claws slammed into the earth next to her and the wyvern slammed into the earth. Rocks got popped out of the ground and its wings snapped out as far as they could and it came to an abrupt halt.
The woman, despite her combat experience had been knocked off her feet by the roiling earth. That terrible mouth struck forward with its rank twenty speed, which was three times what the tailor possessed. No matter how tuned her instincts where sometimes an attribute bonus could not be crossed, especially when the higher ranked creature used a skill to increase the speed of that snap further. The head had flashed forward impossibly fast.
The teeth closed upon her and the creature leapt into the air before the ranged attacks reached it. Around where the wyvern had been, the first wave of spells and projectiles landed.
It swept upward.
The monster tossed the human in the air casually like a bird flipping its latest fish capture. The body’s angle changed, and the mouth closed over the woman’s head to encase the torso, head, arms, part of the legs. It bit, gulped, and then swallowed.
Half a leg tumbled down to the ground.
Tom swallowed hard.
Crack.
Another of Everlyn’s arrows struck it.
She was sending them in waves where it would dodge the leading arrow, but that same dodge would run it into the three that followed.
They all felt it when its eyes turned to face them.
Crack, crack, crack
It dodged into more arrows once more.
The monster roared and then plunged down towards Everlyn.
“Mine Tom,” Legen ordered, and leapt in front of Everlyn. The tank now had a dedicated class Tom realised and the tank’s magic swept around him. The wyvern did not crash into Legen with the suicidal force like the Lizard did. It seemed smarter, but not intelligent enough to fully stop its momentum. Instead, it half paused, which meant it was striking Legen with as much speed as it had on the ground earlier.
The difference was that Legen didn’t move. Not even a few millimetres.
The monster’s claws were stopped dead, but the rest of the body kept going.
The wyvern’s claws crumpled, followed by the giant back legs bending with the bones shattering. It crumpled against Legen.
It roared.
Annoyed frustrated, maybe even scared, it huffed and clearly acidic or venomous mist spewed from its mouth. Legen promptly retreated to stay out of the green water mist that spewed out from the monster.
It tried to leap up.
It screamed in pain as its shattered legs failed it and it plunged forward.
This was their chance!
The wyvern was not defeated.
Its wings, even hampered by being so close to the ground, beat furiously. They came to a halt just before slamming into the earth and the wind blasted out to hit the surrounding fighters and even at five metres it was almost like being physically slapped. The uplift each sweep of wings was generating must have been immense.
The wings beat again, and that almost too large body hovered. If it got a little higher, it could beat its wings naturally and Tom knew it would be able to fly then. If it changed its strategy to launch breath attacks at them from afar, the fighting it would become a lot trickier.
They had to stop it getting high enough because even if its legs were ruined it was not like they were needed for flight, only for takeoff.
Lightning Feet engaged and Tom sprinted forward. He was not the only one.
A wind gust blew him from his feet but two of the rocks that were whizzing around him were briefly at his back and pushed him forward to oppose the magical attack that had arrested his momentum.
Tom roared in surprise as he was darting forward again. Harnessed Meteorite in theory could defend against magical attacks and that was what it had done just not in the way Tom had been expecting. Tom spent an active thirty fate to give him a chance to carry out this attempt.
The wyvern had risen to almost a metre off the ground; he leapt, activating the spell Hard to Move from his pants as he did so. Was he initiating the contact in some ways he was just falling so it might not be necessary but he paid fifty mana to double his effective weight for five seconds besides the passive effect that already had it increasing his weight from two to eight times depending on whether he was deemed to be initiating contact. He was falling the wyvern was actively flying upwards. It was possible that it might be deemed that he was not responsible, but Tom doubted it.
All four hundred kilograms of him slammed down onto the top of the wyvern’s back.
Additional fate not from his fate pool was expelled thanks to his falling skill and despite that he slipped… then fell.
To balance, he half stepped toward the wings. The fate that had been used was still in play, swirling around him changing things, possibly helping him stabilise.
The wing flinched, and he lost his feet and was tumbling onto the scaly back. He focused his mind and demanded that the meteorites all strike the rapidly beating wings. He wanted to break bones or tear the membrane. Either option would be preferable, but even if the weight of the collisions tipped it sideways, that would be sufficient. He needed to get it out of the air.
There were a series of thumps.
And then Tom was sliding down the back towards the tail. He tumbled and got his feet under him so that he was running almost vertically straight down.
Lightning Feet flared, and he leapt up and out just as the tail flashed back through the spot he had occupied. Then he was scampering free and away from it. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw it turning to face him. Its mouth spewed out more of the dangerous gas and, figuring it was not something he wanted to experience he kept running. The breath attack used in its usual way was far quicker than Tom realised and despite his head start he would not outdistance it.
A cyclone of air whipped from the side and pushed the dangerous gas away from him and everyone else.
The wyvern, thankfully, was not following him.
He turned to have a look and smiled. One of its wings was hanging limp, courtesy of Tom’s attack and like the professionals they were, the other fifteen had circled around the helpless monster. The melee fighters reluctantly were not closing instead they remained at ready to attack to disrupt another attempt to escape while the ranged fighters attacked the exposed monster.
Tom was almost forty metres away from it. His desperate dash having opened up the distance. With a smile, he ran further away and a little to the side to open up the angles. And then turned to face it. The wyvern was crippled and had not moved through. Its breath attack was creating mayhem amongst the human attackers.
He waved.
Legen saw him. Nodded once and then started shouting at those around him.
Beyond the monster, they moved further back.
Tom smiled and then focused on the trajectory he wanted. They would orbit high above his head and then launch in a straight line down at the monster.
There was a whoosh as the first meteorite launched itself.
It roared away from him the soccer sized ball quickly expanding to a beach ball size. They glowed red hot.
The wyvern tried to dodge, but he had expected it and instead of going for the glory kill he had aimed for lower down in the centre of its mass. It tried to leap up using its tail in lieu of its crippled legs and was partially successful. The spell’s power had been depleted, and it did not grow past the beach ball size, but it clipped the creature. If the Spell had been at full strength, the fight would have ended right there.
But it was not to be and the missile still stuck its under carriage. It bounced it briefly in the air and was sent it tumbling into the area that had been cleared of humans.
It settled.
A second, third and fourth missile fired simultaneously. They were grouped in a lethal triangle aimed at the centre of the monster’s body.
Tom liked to think that its eyes widened, but he was too far to see. But the panic was there. Both wings, including the broken one, beat as hard as they could.
It rose off the ground, but it was too little too late.
All three-hit home. One bounced off without hurting it. Another ricochetted to strike the good wing. The third impacted an existing gaping wound near the centre of the creature’s back. With a sizzle, it exploded through the scales.
The monster was blasted forward by the force. Its body crashed against the stone and it somersaulted, its neck limp and the head dragging against the ground.
There was a ding and the more distant dome that had expanded to almost four kilometres away vanished.
There was a cheer from around him a variety of grins. Tom didn’t feel so happy about the result.
Two dead, he reminded himself bitterly. The cost of farming experience was becoming too much. There is no way anyone would face another wave, not that he had ever been planning on it.
Tomorrow he was leaving here.