Crashing through the thick trees, Moyo narrowly dodged the venom of the serpent. Heart pounding, he activated his step of the titan, blinking towards another tree just in time to avoid the tail of the serpent crashing into the tree he previously stood on. He could faintly sense Ashira somewhere high above on the branches of one of the trees, waiting for the perfect aim, he would give it to her. They had led the serpent on a wild goose chase, keenly aware that any little slip up could lead to fatal injuries.
The advantage of fighting monsters of any rank was the simple fact that they were that, monsters. Albeit with an increase in power due to whatever rank they were, ascenders that were careful enough could take down monsters a rank higher than them, but two ranks higher than them was simply asking for death and Moyo had come across death once today. The serpent reared its head up to spit another dose of venom when an arrow from Ashira’s bow flew through the air towards the serpent with gold rank power blazing along. The serpent sensed it and turned its scale on its body to bear the brunt of the attack, Moyo had been waiting for that moment.
As the arrow impacted its body, exploding into toxic gas, Moyo activated his step of Ogun once more, appearing besides its ruined eye and stabbing dominion into it again. This time he unleashed his intent and the gravitational ability of the blade into its head, holding on to the blade even as it shook its head, spraying venom around in anger. With a flip to its skull, he withdrew dominion, Ashira appearing close to him with her gold ranked speed that seemed like a blur to him. Her blade in hand, she reversed her grip and plunged it into its second eye, the green toxic ability of the blade flushing through the eye into its body.
Still, the strength of a diamond ranked creature proved its vitality as it shook them off in rage, staggering for a bit even as Moyo broke his fall by smashing his body into a tree, grunting at the force that left him dizzy. Ashira flipped through the air, using a branch to arrest her fall as she gripped it with one hand, made a flip and produced her bow, her blade vanishing. Drawing the string back, she shot an arrow for its ruined eyes again, just in time as the blind serpent somehow went after Moyo who was busy extracting himself from the tree he was stuck in.
Removing his body and jumping just in time to avoid being gored to death by the sharp gleaming fangs of the serpent, Moyo slid to the ground and swung dominion, intent and Ashe fused into one attack sang through the air to crash on the serpent, sending it staggering but doing no lasting damage. Moyo cursed, rolled away from the tail aimed to smash him into the ground, if he was having issues beating a level 500 beast, then he had no hope against the dungeon boss. Ashira let loose another arrow that crashed on the skull of the serpent, its blind gaze turning eerily in her direction as it coiled back to strike.
Expanding his realm, he enveloped the beast, even as it effortlessly shrugged away the realm like a fly, it had gotten its attention. Mantle blazing Moyo shouted, running towards the creature,
“What are you doing!” Ashira shouted from above as she suddenly blazed green with power, the very air causing the leaves on the trees to shrivel up due to toxins. Moyo didn’t reply, dodging a swipe of the tail, he latched on to it, driving dominion into the soft tip as the serpent screamed in pain. Using the force of the swing, he released the tail, using it to push himself directly into the line of sight of its head. Ashira’s attack crashed unto the beast like a bomb, destabilizing it, giving Moyo the chance to stab his blade once again into its ruined eye, but this time pushing himself through and into its skull where he released every drop of intent he could muster.
The skull became a whirlwind of intent, tearing into everything, ripping its brain and skull to shreds before exploding with the force of a bomb. Moyo felt the bone shrapnel from the serpent pierce his eyes as he screamed in pure agony. He crashed on the floor below with a bang, ribs cracking, but it was the shards in his eyes that drove him mad with agony, curling and twisting even as the Ashira landed beside him, pouring a liquid in his eyes.
His body seized up, aether and essence pouring into him in a tsunami that shook him to the core, he could faintly hear Ashira groan as her portion of essence and aether flowed into her. He felt his core struggle to contain the aether and essence, venting it into the atmosphere of his core world, his HUD lighting up,
Notice: subject has been poisoned by venom of Savar serpent, Venom supersedes current rank and cannot be healed.
He screamed in agony again, trying to claw out his eyes as his wrath of Oya furiously worked along with whatever elixir Ashira poured into his eyes struggled to heal him. He felt Ashira calling his name, asking what was wrong, but the pain, the pain drove him mad. He felt his body spit out the shrapnel through his ruined eyes, the pain starting to lessen,
Notice: subject has gained minor immunity to Savar venom,
He cursed as his mind dimly remembered his greed of Esu skill,
“the body!, take me to the body!” he shouted in pain,
Ashira dragged his body close to the beast as he laid his hand on it and activated his greed of Esu skill. He felt the legendary skill absorb something,
Notice: subject has gained major immunity to Savar venom, subject has fully resisted the venom of the Savar serpent, +100 to skill: wrath of Oya(r).
The pain lessened as he began to think, his HUD lighting up,
Level 370 (1300 points) – 70% to gold,
Moyo cleared away the notification to see only darkness, blinking rapidly as he cleaned his eyes,
“what’s wrong?’ he heard Ashira say beside him,
“My eyes, where are you?” Moyo whispered, dread feeling his chest,
“I’m right beside you” she replied,
Moyo turned to her, seeing nothing but darkness, his body became cold as reality dawned on him, a notification popping up to his screen,
Notice: you have lost function of sight due to diamond ranked injury, use diamond ranked healing elixir or advance to diamond to regain use of your sight.
“My eyes, I’ve lost my eyes” he whispered,
“Oh no” Ashira replied, her voice weak,
Moyo felt his existence shake, sitting still as he took deep breaths, lest he go crazy in grief. He began to chuckle, holding his head in his hands,
“I hate this life; I hate this life so badly”
Ashira hugged him close as tears freely dropped from his scarred face.
***************
After some minutes Moyo gathered himself, searching for dominion and using it to raise himself up. He tore a part of his robe and tied it around his eyes,
“Bet I look cool” he said to Ashira weakly trying for a smile,
“I’m so sorry” she said,
“For what?” he asked,
“It should had been me, I’m the gold ranker, it should had been me taking that risk”
Moyo shrugged,
“I’m the reckless one remember, you’re the tactical one. Besides, what’s done is done, we need to keep moving” he replied,
He could sense her guilt as he shook his head, it made no sense, he was the one who made the action, it was his consequence to bear. Shelving the topic for later, he unleashed his realm around, being the only way, he could attempt to sense his surroundings when his head became dizzy and he stumbled back a bit, holding and shaking his head,
“what’s wrong?” she asked,
“can’t say” he mumbled
Then he noticed he could see, not see in the actual sense. It looked more like the outlines of everything around him, from the green shading of the trees to the mixture of different colors floating through the air to Ashira who was an outline of three different colors, along with the lines of those same colors that flowed round her body in a network of power. He stared mutely in dumb belief,
“What is happening?” she asked,
“Not sure how to explain this, but I can see…things, colors” he replied, waving his hand around to grasp at them only to watch them dissipate away like literal air,
Congratulations!, you have acquired the skill aether sight!
Aether sight(R): your ingenuity has led you to discover the skill aether sight, the ability to sense the aether and aura in the air and manipulate them to a degree, depending on your rank.
Moyo paused and with Ashe tried grasping at the supposed aether in the air, his Ashe grabbed a hold on one of the swirling colors. Gently he tried transforming it into intent and he watched as a thread of his intent flowed out of his body, a purple glowing thread that fused with the aether he grabbed and slowly transformed it into the purple color of his intent. Dropping the skill, he felt mentally weak and out of breath
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Aether sight(R) level 5!
“What did you just do?” Ashira asked,
“It felt like the aether in my surroundings became…sharp, intent like”
Moyo nodded as he regained his composure, keenly feeling the difference between physical fatigue and a mental one. He turned to her mixed outframe of green, gold and bronze,
“Got a skill, aether sight, not sure how, but I can see aether in the air and in people, manipulate it just a bit also” he said,
Ashira paused,
“Run that by me again, did you just say you could manipulate the aether in your surroundings?” she asked,
He nodded, eyebrows creased,
“why?, something wrong?”
She shook her head,
“Oh no, I’ve heard of the skill before, some masters are rumored to have it. Now that I think of it, the one I know is the blind master of house Irios, forgotten her name, crazy woman, blinded herself” she said,
“So blind people get this skill?” he asked,
“you’d think so, but no, a lot of ascenders permanently disfigured their sights trying to get this skill, but it’s a random thing, based on the whims of the archailect”
Moyo kept that thought for rumination later on, did that mean once he got his sight back, he’d lose the skill?, give up power for sight. Turning back to the green trees, he surveyed their surroundings with his new sight,
“Level 370” he said,
“Got a big boost by killing a diamond ranked monster, took me to 410 also” she replied,
“The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward” he muttered,
Moyo inwardly realized the sort of risks he had been taking since the inception of the archailect, always hitting higher than his rank all thanks to his legendary skill greed of Esu and wrath of Oya. He really owed the ruler of a thousand blades a lot, a debt he would begin to pay from tournament. By his calculations he had less than a week to spend on Duhiri as a whole, if by some absurd miracle, and no doubt lots of pain, he managed to get to gold, it would have been an experience well earned.
Then again, he could die before the second day in this dungeon, all his ascensions for naught, he was beginning to consider those who stopped climbing the ladder of ascension wise. His sight dragged his attention to a fluctuation in the aether on a tree a few meters away, raising a hand for Ashira to pause, he gazed at the tree and realized what he was seeing. The aether that flowed through the tree, gigantic as it was a bright healthy green color of nature and a whitish glow of life, also on that same tree was another creature of vile green aether that wrapped itself around the tree so still, it messed with its flow of aether on a fundamental level.
He pointed at the tree,
“Savar” he whispered,
Ashira squinted till she noticed it, a level 502 serpent, Moyo had a disturbing theory that the birds who were the main denizens of this diamond ranked dungeon fed on the serpents, and this island was in fact a sort of farm. Time would tell, but if this was the dungeons methos of helping him rank up to at least gold, then he’d take it, dominion humming in his hand, Moyo concentrated, focusing all his attention on his step of Ogun skill when an idea came to him. Turning his head in the direction of Ashira,
“I’m about to do something stupid again, but I need you to trust me” he said,
“Trust you to kill yourself, yeah sure, apart from that no, I’m the gold ranker, let me take the brunt” she replied harshly, catching Moyo off-guard,
He paused, letting her simmer down,
“I’m sorry, just don’t like seeing you place your life at risk that way” she mumbled as he nodded,
“The bigger the risk the bigger the reward” he said,
“doesn’t mean you need to throw your life away” she replied,
“Believe me I know, but our best shot at taking down these serpents are to catch them unawares, and I’m the one with the teleportation skill” he said,
“About that, gold rank apparently lets you hop distances, sort of like eating away at a distance. The higher you go the more distance you can eat, and I’m pretty sure I can crossover to that serpent” she said,
Moyo took that in, he really needed to get to gold,
“Better that way, here’s the plan” he said as he explained it in detail,
Moyo couldn’t the see the expression on her face, but he was pretty sure it bothered on astonishment or alarm,
“are you mad?, scratch that, you are, I’m informing master Killian you need counselling, suicidal tendency and that’s saying a lot for an ascender” she remarked,
Moyo figuratively rolled his absent eyes,
“I have resistance to Savar poison, I can do this, I have the skill set to get it done” he replied,
“What if you die?” she asked
“let’s not be pessimistic, alright?”
He saw her shake her head,
“First sign of you screaming in agony again and we’re waiting out this dungeon till either of the kingdoms apparently show up, I don’t care what side, deal?” she asked as he nodded,
With Ashira reluctantly agreeing to the plan, she took her position, bow drawn with her green toxic arrow appearing as she drew the string back. Together they activated their skills, Moyo using his step of Ogun to appear beside the skull of the serpent and Ashira at the other side. The serpent snapped open its eyes and reared up immediately, only to get an arrow piercing through its eye on the side of Ashira.
As it opened its mouth to release a shrill scream, Moyo blinked directly into its mouth and fell down its throat. With a shout he released his intent and realm, staving off the worst of its liquid venom that lined the insides of its body and his body resisting the rest. The body of the serpent was neigh impenetrable from the outside, but from the inside though, it was as soft as any other creature, and Moyo’s intent delivered devastating damage to it.
He was jostled around violently as the creature writhed in agony, Moyo drew dominion and with his dance of Sango skill, shredded the insides progressively as he moved towards its skull. With one stab infused with Ashe and intent, the blade went deep into its brain, killing the beast as he blinked out to a good distance away, avoiding the gory explosion that took place. The force of the explosion still blew the air around him, pushing him towards another tree which he punched his hands through, catching himself.
He could see the dimming toxic green aura that was the serpent fall to the ground with a loud crash, a notification blinking to inform him he was level 372. The essence and aether reducing a bit as he made a free fall for the ground below, he landed nimbly, freezing as his aether sight alerted him to another serpent coiling up to strike from behind. Rolling out of the way just in time for its fang to graze him, he swore, dominion ringing in the air with intent and Ashe to spark off the hardened scales of the Savar serpent.
Noticing it was a level 510, he used his step of Ogun to blitz clear of the area, Ashira on a tree nocking an arrow towards the incoming serpent,
“510!” he shouted,
Her body language indicated tenseness, but Moyo had no time to make sure she understood the gravity of their situation. Making a beeline for the edge of the trees that indicated the shores of the island they were in, Moyo continually activated his step of Ogun, weaving between the trees as the serpent remained wholly focused on him. Ashira’s aether signature of three glowing colors weaved out of the trees above, crashing unto the head of the serpent with a loud thud, her glowing gauntlet claw punching a few meters into the head of the serpent as it hissed in obvious agony,
“a little help!” she grunted,
The serpent preoccupied with the annoying creature on its head gave Moyo a chance to turn, dominion swinging at its head with intent and Ashe so compressed into it, the blade glowed and hummed through the air. Dominion connected with the serpents’ head, a loud crack broke the air as the serpents’ head was whipped into a tree, disorienting it. Moyo wasn’t sure how to feel about one of his strongest attacks doing nothing but slapping the serpent.
Ashira withdrew her clawed gauntlet, the weapon turning to mist as her blade appeared in her hand. Moyo didn’t think twice, mantle locked firmly in place, realm encapsulating the head of the serpent, he blasted forwards it as he roared a command,
“HOLD!”
It was a minor itch for the serpent, a distraction, but it was enough of a distraction for Ashira to drive her claw straight through the injury the claw made and straight for its brain, Moyo following suit and stabbing dominion through its eye before it could even register the pain on its skull. Intent running rampant through dominion, he activated his step of Ogun and blinked away, Ashira following suit immediately. Just in time for the skull to explode, along with its body, Moyo panted on the tree he rested on, notification bringing him up to 375. Catching his breath, his head aching a little due to his Ashe being rebuffed consistently, he spoke,
“Did you find it weird we haven’t seen any loot?” he said in between breaths,
Ashira nodded,
“Not considered dungeon monsters” she replied,
He slid to the ground, dropping dominion and stretching his legs out,
“Thought as much, probably some food for the birds”
“Like worms?” she asked incredulously,
He nodded,
“you’ve seen those birds, their sizes, nothing short of a full-grown serpent can satiate their hunger” he replied,
She rested her head on a tree, their bodies and minds finally calming down,
“We need to find a place to hole up for the night, I’m guessing this place is worse at night” she said,
“Serpents are sometimes nocturnal creatures, I’d hate to be on this island by nightfall” he said,
Sitting up, he continued,
“Then again, these serpents are all we can hunt for now, those birds are not on the menu, it would be a shame to leave this island” he said,
“We could always come back, pretty sure there’d be a way to do so” Ashira said,
“Maybe, but I noticed something when we landed on this island. The islands glow, some more than others, the more islands we go forwards the brighter the glow” he said,
“You think it means the level of strengths for the monsters” she replied as he nodded,
“While that may be true, we can’t stay here. We need somewhere secure,”
Moyo stood up,
“then we find somewhere safe on this island, maybe the shores?, bird feed that way” he said coming up with the idea and crushing it immediately,
“let’s get searching then” Ashira said as she stood up,
Moyo glanced around, the myriad of colors blazing through his aether sight, they began creeping silently through the trees. Trusting Moyo and his aether sight, the two of them quietly made their way through the trees, pausing whenever they encountered a serpent and going around it to avoid drawing its attention. Their theory was tested right when a serpent roused itself up from its slumber and stretched its head out of the canopy of trees, only for a searing cry to ring out around them and sharp talons from a sonic avian grabbed it and flew away.
They had stared in terror, mouth opened at how fast the level 512 serpent had been dispatched by a level 505 avian. It cemented the realization in them that they were nowhere near the level to fight said creatures yet, and so they crept deeper into the trees. Ashira finally spotted a crevice in the ground that seemed like a cave in, it didn’t register on Moyo’s aether sight as more than a brown clump of aura, earth aura he was beginning to understand.
They crept closer,
“You do realize that snakes sometimes go into the ground, right?” he asked as she froze,
Apparently, she didn’t think of that, she glanced at him,
“No choice than to check it out” she said,
He nodded,
“Let me do it, aether sight and all, I’ll see any serpent before it sneaked up on me” he whispered,
Ashira paused, indecision clearly warring in her mind,
“Be careful” she whispered as he nodded,
Slowly creeping into the hole, he let his aether sight survey the whole area, finding nothing in sight,
“All clear” he whispered as she followed behind him,
Together they trudged down the slowly cavern hole, step by delicate step they went, both keenly aware they could be beset at any point. Moyo smelt it first, a whiff of decaying flesh, he paused,
“Do you smell that?’ he asked,
Ashira took in a deep breath and paused, nodding her head slowly,
“Something died here” she said,
“let’s go find out” he replied,
Together they slowly crept through the hole, extra careful now at the apparent theory that something occupied the dungeon. When they eventually saw the hole enlarge into a bigger room, they paused and laid on their stomach and slowly began to crawl forward. Inch by inch till they got to the mouth of the bigger hole and stared in,
“Lord almighty” Moyo whispered,
His aether sight revealed a monstrosity in their front, coiled and large enough to take up the entire cavern floor, Ashira whispered a word he didn’t hear,
“How in the archailects name are we going to deal with that?” she whispered, stricken with fear,
Moyo narrowed his eyes, unsure of what to say, for in their front lay what he would consider a mini boss,
QUEEN SAVAR SERPENT, LEVEL550