This was a problem.

Splat. Getting bat poo splattered on me was a problem, but not the main one. If we kill a bat, it will fall and awaken those below. There are way more bats here than we can kill. Hundreds of thousands, probably. It is only a matter of time before they find and attack the base camp.

Could we burn them out like we did for the bugs? I look around. Will bat poo burn? I scrape a good hunk off the entrance and indicate for Tāwai to head back out. We drop back to the branch below, and I put my poo on the branch and test the charm Spark on it. It flared bright and burned furiously.

“Yes! We can burn most of them if we set enough fires.”

“They fly. They fly”

“Yes, they will fly out, and this won't be the only exit, but it will kill a lot of them. Plus,” I added, “if there is treasure it will be in there. This removes the bats and gives us access to the treasure.” I thought briefly, “After the fire goes out, that is. Take everything we can with the least effort. Do you know Spark?” I asked Tāwai.

He shook his head.

“We will need something to start the fire, but it shouldn’t take much.” I said, “We can set up near the crack and kill some as they exit. OK. We have a plan. Let’s get to it.”

A few minutes later, I was with Rob by the exit and tied in place on the branch so I could release it quickly if necessary. Tāwai flew into the crack with several burning twigs and then flew out again quickly, and we waited.

We didn’t have to wait long. There was a swift chain reaction, and heat burst out of the crack, and it felt a lot like an explosion. I jumped back from the edge, as did Rob. Tāwai was perched further away. There would not be bats coming out of here for a while.

Dark shapes flew in a panic from somewhere above us. That is one big colony of bats. A couple of flaming bats flew/fell out of our crack, but they died on their own.

That went spectacularly well. I figured the tree was going to burn for a while. I really don’t want to get Akina here to water everything down, as then I will need to share the spoils. I may have to, but we will see.

“Let's go and find the other exit,” I said, and Tāwai flew off while I mounted Rob.

Tāwai was soon in aerial combat with several bats, and they were larger than the ones I had seen. As soon as Rob got in range, I started throwing Death Darts.

Tāwai was holding his own, with his Darksteel feathers doing most of the protection. He was ripping their leathery wings, which they were unable to do to him. His Wind blades and Lacerating Claws were very effective.

Then Tāwai was hit by something I didn’t see or perhaps didn’t hear, and he shuddered and missed a wing flap. He caught himself quickly and flew an increasingly erratic flight, I hope was on purpose to avoid whatever it was.

As my skill levelled, the darts I was creating were larger and more robust than before, but they were not quick kills unless I hit something like the brain. I was going for a body shot and trying for the heart as it was bigger, even for my Precision Throw.

Occasionally, a bat would swoop to attack me, but Rob’s tongue would flick out, and he would grab it nine times out of ten.

Then I got hit by something strange. I didn’t hear anything, but I suddenly felt disorientated, and a bat landed on my back and bit down on my neck. The leather of my helmet blunted the bite, but the teeth still sunk in.

I rolled from the saddle, and Rob reached around and ripped the bad from my back, and the fangs were dragged from my neck. I got up, and he crushed it in his bite.

I spun and used Shadowbane to cut a bat from Rob’s flanks. This is how our fight went on: Rob and I were looking out for each other, and I was supporting Tāwai. Smoke was coming out of the gap the bats were. I am assuming there was less bat shit up this high.

The bats kept coming and coming. Only some stayed to fight, while others flew off somewhere. I don’t know if the Trial was sending them to fight us or not. It doesn’t matter. This is what I wanted. A fight to level our skills. I equipped Lightreaver and left the darts to my Helping Hands.

Purifying Dance was still a good technique, even without the bonuses against the undead and infernal. I want to level my Steel Serpent Technique as well, but a sword has a longer reach here.

Rob and I were bleeding, and I noticed Tāwai was missing some feathers again. He had just grown them back.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Finally, the bats were slowing down, and we settled in to wait until the fire died down. We went back down to the first crack we found, and there was a lot of heat coming from it. We continued to wait. I just hoped the tree didn’t catch alight, or we may never get in there, and that was where the loot was.

We waited until nightfall and then decided that being in the tree was safer than being outside the tree. Rob went back to the Tattoo for now. I think the amount of time he spends outside the tattoo and experiencing the world is making him more useful and needing less direction. I think our relationship is growing, and therefore, his loyalty is growing. I wish I could see it, as there are obvious benefits to this.

This time, he went into the tattoo as the only way we would be breathing in that smoke was Tāwai’s Air Manipulation. Tāwai stayed perched on my shoulder, and I started to climb down the inside of the tree cavity. We went down because that is where the bodies fell.

Spectral Vision (Heat) was useless, and my gloves took a burning as I climbed down using smouldering wood. Spectral Vision (See-thru) worked well, and I also charmed several items on my armour to Glow, so Nightsight worked a little. There are some things that Spectral Vision (See-thru) just sees right through.

I got some extra cloth to wrap my hands in to minimise the burns. It was dark, smokey and hot. In a lot of places, the wood was still on fire. Several times, I had to hold my breath while Tāwai used his Air Manipulation to starve a fire of air before we could pass. Once, the cloth I was using on my hands caught alight. It was very unpleasant, and I was pleased that at least the gloves of my Dance with Death set were still self-repaired. The boots were getting damaged as well, and one of them was not self-repairing.

The bottom of the wood cave was not flat, but it was full. It was full of bones, charcoal, and loot. All the bodies that fell and were destroyed in the fire could not be harvested, so the loot dropped. It was the same when Rod ate the monsters.

The fire destroyed all the potions and burned some of the items, but the coins, skill stones, and the less burnable items remained. I got two knives with blood-draining properties, a leather shawl resembling bat wings that were only singed, and a leather helmet.

There were three skill stones, including a Blood Syphon, which I stored away. I had already sold one of these to Austin, who warned me against adding unknown blood to my body. There was Acrobatic Flying, which Tāwai learned straight away. It would make him much more manoeuvrable in the air.

The third skill stone was the most valuable. Echolocation was very rare. Tāwai didn’t think he needed it because he had Darksight. I have Spectral Vision, which is not the same, but it does a lot of the same things. We stored it for consideration. Its value in gold was considerable. It was rarer than Storage, although I don’t think it was as useful.

I dug down into the muck at the bottom of the cave and pulled out a reward chest. This was the true reward. I opened the chest, and there were two skill stones and an ability stone. I appraised the ability stone first and saw Blood Manipulation. I tried to use it and failed. Tāwai tried to use it and failed. Bloody, useless trials give us things we can’t use. It was worth a packet of coins, but it was disappointing that we couldn’t use it.

I had a thought that Austin had a lot of blood skills and he could probably use them, although he couldn’t afford them.

The next skill stone was very interesting. Soundless Stun. I think it was what the bats were using against us. It is an acoustic stun, but it is up outside the normal hearing range of humanoid sapients. I was willing to bet the animal shifters could hear it.

“Do you want this?” I asked Tāwai.

“Screech is better. Screech is better,” he replied.

“Really? I want it, as this will be a silent surprise attack. It will give me a real surprise edge.”

“You learn. You learn.”

So I did. The third skill was something we both wanted. It was called Enhanced Hearing, and it increased the range and sensitivity of what you could hear.

“Mine, mine, mine,” Tawai said.

“But this would massively enhance my…”

“You got stun,” Tāwai interrupted, “Hearing mine, hearing mine.”

There is no talking to him when he gets stubborn like that, and it will help us regardless, so I gave in. Flash a few pretty feathers at me, and I just give in, especially when they are on an aggressive bird.

Apparently the range of hearing improved with the level, that is, both audio range and distance range. Tāwai can be more selective and focussed with his hearing as it levels. I think he was telling me all this just to rub it in.

Before we left, I checked for anything else… like a small shard. But there wasn’t anything except a few coins we missed the first time.

With that, we climbed up. Even with the smoke and darkness and horrible-smelling space, we climbed past the crack and checked all the shelves and nooks and outcroppings for hidden treasure. My seeker's intuition was not telling me of anything in particular, but you never know. We picked up more coins and some harvestable bodies, which I stored to harvest once we got out of there.

Then I felt the trial was mocking us. I found a charm. The Self-clean Charm. This Trial is definatly laughing at us. Both Tāwai and I already had the charm so I stored it to sell. I will find something else to steal here.

I had collected a couple of hundred monster cores and expected there to be a skill in one of them. I was waiting to get out before I did that as well.

We came out of the top exit and found a quiet branch to settle on. I let Rob out, but he didn’t want a bar of us. We stunk of smoke and bat shit, and even the Self-clean charm only went so far.

I stacked the monster cores and ran my Mana web over them. That one had a skill. I pulled it out and stored the rest. I looked at Tāwai. Tāwai cocked his head at me.

“It is probably just another Blood Syphon,” I said.

He looked at me disbelievingly.

“It has a smell of blood,” I reiterated.

Tāwai just looked at me.