Gi and Poe left Igna towards the Barrens with a full [Expanded Pocket] and Tiria in charge of everything else. Igna itself was rocky and barren even around the river or lake. Outside though? Hot volcanic air blew in off the volcanoes in the east. Their ash and smoke constantly churning into the sky-ocean.

The ground itself was cracked, not like dried clay, but instead by a thousand impacts that had the land splitting into dark crevices. The Barrens were the home of every monster that couldn't or wouldn't listen to the Faithful. It created an enormous near constant battlefield of newly spawned monsters.

It wasn't unique to just jobbies though. Some classers roamed the Barrens, their entire way of life born through combat. Most of these were entirely driven by instincts. It wasn't long before the first monster tried to take a bite of them.

A giant lizard darted out of one of the cracks as they passed grabbing on to Gi's tail. A startled yelp and a [Divine Bolt] later, the lizard had been turned into a scaly pulp. The bite hadn't done any damage, but Gi had almost blasted his own tail off. They'd have to be more careful.

Drop Drake defeated!

1 Soul Orb received. Current Soul Orbs: 27.

"Poe, why don't you fly up? If you see any Classers, let me know and we can avoid them. I'll watch the cracks for anymore of those Drop Drakes."

"Aye aye, Boss Boss!" Poe flittered up into the air diligently watching the ground on the way they were headed while Gi kept his eyes peeled on the ground. The last thing they wanted was to take too much damage before reaching their destination as there might be a Classer near the Oasis. Others thought it was just a mirage, but assuming Elizabeth was right, then something was emitting a large amount of light aspected energy.

All of his other Opportunities had been a Progenitor so he assumed there would be a fight.

He kept walking through the dry volcanic land, his skin beginning to itch from the dry heat. A few more Drop Drakes tried their hand at him from the cracks, but now that he was prepared for them, it amounted to little more than free Soul Orbs. Frankly, he’d only been walking for a few hours and he was already starting to hate this trip. He scratched irritably, stopping as something caught his eye.

A small dark shape sailed along the ground and Gi leapt into his fighting stance. The shape grew closer to him and as it did it grew larger and larger. Yet, it still seemed… flat.

A shadow!

His mind finally recognized what he saw and his eyes shot upward. Giant wings blotted out a sun beam from the sky-ocean… directly above Poe and his dragonfly companion hadn’t seen it.

“Look out!”

Gi’s scream only caused Poe’s head to perk up and look down at him. A bird with its wings seemingly made of spikes of stone snatched Poe out of the air into its huge dark talons. Poe screamed out and Gi raised his palm to the sky, but even as large as it was, he had almost no chance of hitting it especially without hitting Poe.

Poe used [Size Matters Not] and burst free from the spiked birds talons. Not even trying to fly, he let his increased mass drop him like a stone to the ground as he rushed towards Gi who watched nervously with his hands raised.

The bird banked, turning back around to dive for its missed prey. Gi fired off a burst of [Divine Bolt], but the bird simply dipped under the shot as it dove towards Poe. Its increased size and perhaps a skill made it much, much faster.

Poe glanced back and seeing the bird shoot towards him, he tucked his legs as tight as he could to try and pick up any tiny bit of speed to get to his Boss. He almost made it. Gi fired off another burst that the bird this time had to roll to avoid. It slowed it down, but not enough.

When Poe was less than ten feet away, the bird snatched him again in his claws. Poe screamed again, but at the same time, he activated [Multi-Tool] and his tongue shot out of his mouth like it belonged on a toad. Gi leapt and just barely managed to grab onto it.

Even with his D Strength, it was all he could do to hold on as the stone bird shot upward into the air. Poe wasn’t able to use [Multi-Tool] and [Size Matters Not] together so he wasn’t able to pull him in. Gi had no idea where this monster was taking them, but he wasn’t about to let it get its way.

Wind buffeted him, spinning him back and forth as they flew. He held on with an iron grip and used his abdominal muscles to flip himself upside down. The ground looked a very, very long way down.

“That Prehensile Tail would be damn useful right now,” Gi muttered to the wind. He could still hear Poe’s screams and whimpers over the roar of air so he had no choice but to continue. He gripped Poe’s tongue with both feet and started shimmying up it backwards.

A glance in the direction they were headed and it looked like the bird was taking them towards the closest volcano. As he inched forward, his muscles strained to keep him from falling as the assaulting wind only got worse the closer he got to the bird’s stone wings.

His eyes had started to water from the cutting wind, but when he felt his foot finally reach Poe’s main jaw, he opened them wide towards the stone bird. It hadn’t seemed to notice Gi’s ascent with its gaze focused on the quickly approaching volcano. Let’s change that.

Gi squeezed hard to maintain his grip with legs and released the hold he had with his hand. Palm forward, he shot a point blank burst of [Divine Bolt] directly into its flapping wing.

Shards erupted, one smacking Gi in the face and making him accidentally release his grip. With the birds wing destroyed its smooth flight turned into chaos, and it flapped wildly. Its good wing smacked Gi away from it and he started to drop into a free fall. He couldn’t see if he’d managed to save Poe as flipped around wildly and he plummeted towards the ground.

Frantically, he examined his skills, trying to think of anything that would save him. Nothing stuck out until a wild idea came to him.

“Poe Fighting!” He heard Poe in the distance, but a quick glance told him that they’d been pushed too far away for him to reliably get to him in time despite his friend rushing towards him. He’d have to give his idea a shot.

[Bishop] activated and two more otters joined him in free fall. Unlike Gi, they didn’t seem to be much bothered by the quickly approaching ground. Using his skill to guide them, he had them float closer to him. He spun himself around so both of his feet were on their backs. Now staring directly down, he only had a few seconds.

He leapt with all of his D-rank Strength. His two summons launched downwards whereas he moreso just slowed his descent. However, he’d slowed it very, very fast. It felt like a train had struck him on his head and his legs flew up as his head spun down. Despite feeling like his head was a rung bell, it hadn’t stopped him like he’d hoped. The ground was still coming much too fast.

It had slowed him though.

Poe crashed into him, snatching him out of the air with his enlarged form. Gi’s momentum wasn’t so easily arrested though as his previous attempt demonstrated. Poe slowed the two of him down even further, but they couldn’t stop.

Gi smashed into the ground, his flesh catching on the cracks in the earth, and tumbled over Poe as the two of them eventually rolled to stillness. Gi’s heart beat wildly in his chest and his entire body felt like he’d been beaten by a gang of angry Iron Ferrets. He flopped lifelessly onto his back, the gesture sending another wave of pain coursing through his body.

A system notification provided him a little satisfaction despite the pain.

Spiked Eagle defeated!

1 Soul Orb received. Current Soul Orbs: 32.

“Poe, you okay?” he shouted. That eagle had only been a jobbie. They were almost as scary as he was now.

Poe’s reply was broken and stuttering. “I t-think my… leg’s broke. Boss, it hurts.”

“It’s okay,” Gi said, "we’ll find a spot to recover and-“ More shadows appeared overhead, each of them swirling like vultures looking for dying prey. “Fuck.”

Gi sent bolts of light off towards their attackers and then scraped himself off the ground long enough to scoop Poe up. The dragonfly whimpered, but didn’t complain. Gi started running with an awkward gait and flicked on [Concealing Light]. They’d fallen at the base of the mountain so the invisibility wasn’t perfect as its crags blocked the beams of light, but hopefully, it would be enough to confuse the Eagles from the air as he struggled towards the light.

One of the Spiked Eagles crashed into the ground where they’d just been and started searching around. They were still too far away from the light outside of the volcano’s shadow and Gi wasn’t sure how good their senses were. If they could spot a dragonfly in air though, they were probably very good.

Looking backward, Gi tripped over a crack at his feet and almost fell directly into a dark crevice. The ground was split wide about the size of his own body and shadows hid its bottom. With the Spiked Eagle still hunting them, Gi stepped into the hole, planting both his feet on each side of the wall and slid down.

The sparkles of his [Concealing Light] did the opposite of its name, revealing both him and the trench that formed at the bottom of the crack, only maybe the size of three otters standing on their heads. It also revealed a full clan of Drop Drakes.

The first one that lunged towards him got a furry foot to the face. With his strength, the small creature smacked bodily into the others, but it didn’t go down. A glance behind him told him that he only had to worry about the monsters from one direction so he stepped back and laid Poe down. They seemed hesitant to fight him, but Gi needed a spot to treat Poe who still whimpered behind him.

Light from [Divine Bolt] would probably attract the Spiked Eagles and dropping [Concealing Light] meant that he’d probably be in almost complete darkness. So, he pulled a mace out of his pocket.

…and immediately banged it against the rock wall of the trench.

The area was way too tight to swing something as long as a mace. Seeing his difficulty, the drakes growled, rushing forward to try and take advantage of the awkwardness of his long weapon. Gi’s [Fighting Style] was geared less for front to back and more side to side, but it would still be of some use. However, he’d need at least some kind of weapon.

For a moment as they rushed in, he considered the simple dagger that had miraculously stayed on his belt, but that wasn’t his preferred weapon. Using [Expanded Pocket], his river stone appeared in his fist. He darted back just as the first drake reached him. Its jaws snapped shut where he’d just been moments before and Gi shot back forward, slamming his stone in between its reptilian eyes.

Drop Drake defeated!

1 Soul Orb received. Current Soul Orbs: 33.

Another used its dead body as a springboard to launch at him. His injuries from the fall caused him to be a second too slow and the Drop Drake bit down onto his hand. Its bite was pathetically weak, but it had still managed to cover up his main weapon.

Or had it? Anything could be a blunt weapon if you were brave enough.

Despite his aching body, he raised the Drop Drake on his fist up and smashed it downward just as two more were coming to attack him. With the slightly increased range, his [Fighting Style] had devolved and he just slammed the Drop Drake into its fellows over and over.

Notifications rang out as each died. Eventually, his makeshift weapon had practically disintegrated into gore around him and he was left with just his river stone again. Efficient that, he thought as he ended the life of the final two jobbies who’d tried to attack him. A few more were cowered further back into the tunnel, but as he moved forward to finish them off, he realized that only one of them was actually a jobbie. The others were only children.

Disgust ran over him like he hadn’t felt in since his first couple days in Igna. He’d eradicated almost an entire clan. It hadn’t bothered him with the Multilimbed Larks, but seeing these child monsters look at him with fear in their eyes made his heart stumble.

Trying not to focus on them, he wiped off his stone and tossed it and the mace back into his [Expanded Pocket].

“B-Boss,” Poe mumbled and Gi hurriedly made his way back to him. He finally got a good look at his leg. There wasn’t any blood, but it was snapped at a right angle, very precariously hanging on.

“Shit,” Gi said. He wasn’t a doctor, but he couldn’t leave Poe unattended either. “Time for us to learn why they call it practicing medicine."