The higher layer of cloud was still glowing a bright white when I broke clear into the mists, running for the slopes of the mountain. I killed only a single broadwing as I ran along the stream, soon passing into the shadows of the trees at the mountain’s base. They seemed small compared to the great trees of the swamp, but many of them were more than sixty feet high.

My ability to detect life and biological matter with [Wild Bond] and [Life Magick] let me make good speed through the streamside undergrowth, but whenever the way above me was clear, I flew, launching myself into the air with a [Surge of Might] before filling my tortoiseshell sail with air and pulling myself clear of the forest.

I was close to being able to fly forever now that I had [Avian Grace] to lighten me and [Primeval Mana Hide] to fill my mana pool as I went. The cost of keeping myself aloft was only just barely outpacing my regeneration. If I gained my two available levels and spent the [Bestow 14]’s on [Source] my air time would likely go from three or four minutes to six or seven. Two more after that and I’d be free.

When I ran in the forest, many creatures startled at my passage, but none of them tried to intercept me. Either the aggression that I’d found in the swamp was absent, here, or I was simply moving too fast for any would-be hunters to catch me.

A single, massive bird tried to grab me in its talons while I was in the air—but two shots from my bow sent it away.

In just a few minutes I’d crossed as many kilometers of woodland. The trees began to fade and shrink around me, giving way to spare shrubs and bare rock, the slope steepening ahead of me. If there were wyverns on this mountain, I’d be meeting some soon. They preferred the rockier slopes: nesting in woodlands gave other animals more opportunities to sneak into their nests and steal meat, eggs, or their newly-hatched young.

I made my way up the slopes, flying up the occasional cliffside and searching for my quarry with my eyes and gaze. Above me, the bright cloud grew closer, bathing the stones in warm, bright light. But there were a few distortions in the light, easier to make out the closer that I came. Dark figures moved within, dimming the light with their passage.

I queried my [Life Pool] out of curiosity:

?—[Life Pool] 87/100

All just from keeping me invigorated. With luck, I wouldn’t need it for anything else.

I paused on an outcrop of rock that I deemed big and flat enough to fight on, my eyes on the few shadows that I could see moving through the cloud above me. Then I stopped hiding my presence with my [Wild Bond] skill.

I watched the closest shadow wheel around to make its way toward me in a straight line.

“I see,” I said, smiling.

It explained why I hadn’t seen any of them yet. Wyverns preferred other aerial predators to anything they could eat off the ground, and they were very good at pulling them from the sky. These forests contained truly massive birds and flying lizards: hunting with the cover of the cloud layer was probably all these creatures needed.

I unbuckled my slayer’s axe, setting it down on the rock beside me. If things went well, I wouldn’t be needing it.

The shadow moved fast, and within a few moments it left the cloud-lair to dive toward me, giving me the first glimpse of this world’s wyverns.

Long-necked, long-legged, long-taloned and with a set of wide, webbed wings, it looked like all the other wyverns I’d met save for a few differences. Despite being a stealth predator, it had the same style of glowing markings decorating its body that many of the other wildlife had, though these ones were a bright yellow. The talons on both its wings and feet were longer, and the armored plating on its belly and the crest of bone over its forehead were both larger as well—each, I guessed, to help it handle all of the missile-throwing wildlife.

It swooped silently toward me, using its natural ability with air magic to mute the sound of its passage. As it came within my gaze, I could tell that it was also trying to stealth itself from my [Wild Bond], but my senses were too fine-tuned to let it hide from me.

It flared its wings as it reached me, reaching out with its talons… but I’d fought wyverns before. I used my [Air Magick] to put myself inside a sleeve of undisturbed air, protecting me from the force of wind from its wings that would have caught my sail and ripped me off the ground. I leapt forward, between its talons, then aimed my bow upward as the wyvern reared its head to release a gout of its deadly poisonous breath.

My arrow, enhanced by a [Surge of Might], pierced the armor at the base of its throat, but only a little—six inches deep, it stopped at an odd angle, short of the lethal shot I’d been trying for.

I had no time to wonder why. The wyvern spewed forth a cloud of pale green breath, and I focused on my [Air Magick], keeping my air sleeve intact and pushing the air around me so that it blew the deadly vapors away.

The wyvern used its own [Air Magick], filling its wings not to take flight again, but to push itself backward over the rocks, its talons hovering just above the ground. When it saw that its breath wasn’t reaching me, it cut the stream off with a cough, landed on all four limbs, then lunged for me with snapping jaws.

I leapt back to one side to avoid them while staying clear of the poisonous cloud, then hissed. I didn’t want to use all my mana when I knew I’d need it if I wanted to escape, but I could see that I needed to throw lightning.

Close-range lightning has only one real weakness. Because lightning seeks mana, the lightning bolt’s endpoint needs to be near enough to the enemy that the spell seeks them, not the caster. I had just over a thousand mana: if this wyvern had only two hundred, I’d need my bolt to end more than five times closer to it than to me, or I’d need to spend enough mana to make up the difference.

Of course, I had a way of addressing this issue.

The wyvern lunged, snapping for me with its jaws, its mouth spewing small gouts of poison—and this time I brought my left arm up and struck it hard at the base of the chin, throwing it off but doing little damage.

But as I pulled my fist back, I unspooled a line of mana where it had been, anchoring my claim into this line of mana with my [Lightning Magick] and leaping backward to fall into a crouch a dozen feet away. I felt the wyvern push against this claim, but held fast, dropping my bow and grabbing my slayer’s axe with one hand as I ignited the mana and the air flashed between us, throwing a thin bolt of lightning that struck the creature in the mouth.

The bolt had only been composed of two hundred mana, but the wyvern reeled, momentarily stunned and blinded by the blow. I surged forward with my axe in both hands, swinging upwards and burying the frontward point of the axe in its throat, then planting my feet and surging [Strength] to tear the blade of the axe out of its neck in a spray of blood that I quickly stepped clear of.

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The wyvern thrashed from the blow, and I rolled beneath its neck to come up on the other side, raised my axe in both hands, and cleaved off its head with two blows.

+ 11,675 Essence, [Boon]

I leapt over the falling corpse to grab my bow, conscious that without my [Aegis], the string could be damaged by the wyvern’s breath. Then I looked at the boon the creature had granted and cheered aloud. I could use it to make a [Reptile 2], a [Wild 2]... and most importantly a [Sight 2]. [Sight 2] was most definitely useful... and I knew I could find more.

I used my [Air Magick] to push the wyvern’s breath away from the small, flat area we’d fought on, scanning the sky above me as I did. It didn’t take long for another shadow to pull free from the glowing cloud, diving toward me as a streak of black and yellow.

My gaze now extended through the first wyvern’s severed head, and I frowned as I saw what my problem had been. These wyverns had three cartilaginous plates beneath their jaw, with more lining theirs necks. It made sense: with so many creatures on the ground that could launch missiles, the instant lethality of a shot to the brain was something they’d adapted to avoid.

I set my axe on the ground beside me, raising my bow. This time as it swooped toward me, I leapt to one side and shot a surged arrow into the softer skin around its shoulder, burying it deep into the flesh where wing met body. It turned to breathe its deadly gas, and I launched another arrow into its throat, then another into its left eye.

The creature shrieked in fury as it belched forth its poisonous breath, and I lowered my bow, called my axe to one hand, and lunged forward to land beneath its neck, dropping my bow so that it stayed within my air envelope and then grabbing the haft of the axe with both hands to drive the point into the wyvern’s neck before surging my [Strength] and tearing it free with a shower of blood.

I backed away, making a breeze around me to push the wyvern’s breath away, the green cloud billowing around me. Ahead of me, the creature gurgled and flailed, blood flowing freely from its opened throat. It made a few motions toward me, and I waited for an opening, then rushed in again to hew through the rest of its severed neck before it could regenerate the wound.

?—Mana 921/1300, 45% Primeval

+ 12,371 Essence, [Boon]

A third wyvern was already diving toward me out of the cloud, and I cloaked myself with the [Wild Bond] again, not wanting to attract any more while I dealt with this one.

I had some experimenting to do. First, I dodged its talons, then didn’t attack it, instead backing away and protecting myself from its poisonous breath. I scowled as it rose into the air again, turning for another pass: I’d wanted to see if it would land without being shot at.

It came for me again with its talons, then cried out in frustration as I leapt out of the way. I seized upon this moment of anger to reach out with [Wild Bond] and try to push on its mind, making it land and fight me on the ground… but the beast only shook its head, and my mana was wasted. It flew back around for another pass.

A shame. I’d been hoping I could kill them with just my axe, but it seemed they’d only land to attack me if I first hurt them from the ground.

The wyvern came around again, but I didn’t shoot arrows. Instead I pushed two hundred mana into the air as it dove, aiming carefully so that when it pulled up to aim for me with its talons I blasted a hole in its wing.

The wyvern shrieked, falling forward and favoring its good forelimb as it stumbled to the ground, its momentum carrying it forward. It spun away from me, barbed tail snapping toward my chest, but I stepped back and simply cut the bony tip of the tail away with one swing of my axe.

The wyvern let out another cry, spinning to snap at me with jaws that were spewing poison, but I thrust forward with my axe, stabbing into its mouth with the upward point. It reared back, blood now falling from its jaws along with poison, and I rushed forward, swinging with both hands to bury the front-facing point of the axehead in its neck and rip out a part of its throat.

Much like I had with the others, I dove under its neck to avoid its instinctive thrashing in my direction, then surged [Strength] to sever its head from its body, spraying myself with hot blood.

+ 11,989 Essence, [Boon]

“Hah!” I cried, taking a quick glimpse at the boon. It held an [Air] aspect—finally. If I killed more I might be able to upgrade my [Avian Grace] to [Kite’s Grace] today, without having to wait for the windcallers to sieve the aspect from the air. The wyverns wouldn’t negate our need for [Air] aspects generally, but they would alleviate it a little.

My elation faded in an instant, however, as I saw another wyvern dive through the cloud layer, then tracked several more shadows coming closer as if to do the same. When a second wyvern emerged several hundred meters from the first, also diving toward me, I realized what had happened.

I’d triggered a primeval convergence.

And so close to the first. I could think of what this meant for the colony later, for now I had to deal with the wyverns.

I didn’t like spending my levels now, but I didn’t want to take any risks.

You spend 22,000 Essence to gain 2 Levels! You are now level 23 / 23

You gain 2 [Bestow 14]

You spend 2 [Bestow 14] to increase your [Source] by 28. Your [Source] is now 158.

Or rather, I didn’t want to take any risks I didn’t have to. There was no avoiding some of them, now. Letting wyverns dive for me and cutting off their heads had been a safe strategy, but that was when they came one at a time. Being surrounded by powerful, regenerating enemies that came at me from all sides and blanketed the world in acidic poison would spell death even to me.

I slid my bow into the small gap made to fit it in my tortoiseshell sail harness, then clipped it there. It was next to useless, now: I’d be juggling it out of my hands every time I wanted to do anything.

Then I dove out of the way of the first diving wyvern, leaping back to engage it as it reared up its head to spew forth a poisonous cloud. It flared its wings and used its air magic to pull backward and keep me within range of its breath, and the point of my axe met empty air.

The second wyvern reached us, and I leapt into the air, filling my sail to carry me high above them as I built a path of mana. I maneuvered myself into position over the first wyvern, still breathing out its deadly gas, and finished pouring seven hundred mana into the air between myself and the second.

Then I ignited the bolt, and a thunderous crack echoed off the mountainside around us as the air flashed red and the second wyvern’s head was blasted to pieces.

+ 12,121 Essence, [Boon]

I was already falling, pointing my axe straight downward at the first wyvern as it reared back, startled by the flash, noise, and explosion.

I landed on its neck point-first, burying the point of my axe deep in its flesh as my momentum slammed it down to the ground. I tore the blade free, regained my balance on the ground beside the wyvern, then hacked its head away before leaping free of the poisonous cloud.

+ 10,789 Essence, [Boon]

I looked up at the sky. Three more were already diving toward me and would reach me in a matter of seconds. What was more, I felt another creature enter my gaze, and I snapped my head toward it to see a snow-white cat with red eyes bounding down the mountain toward me, a trail of fog in its wake.

The cat and I both lunged at one another, and the point of my axe pierced it through its open jaws, our colliding momentum bringing us to the ground a moment later, at which point I regained my footing, tore my axe free through the side of its jaw, and then put the cat down with a fierce blow to its head.

+ 3,845 Essence, 2 [Boon]

Compared to the wyverns and their armored, high [Aegis] bodies, the cat’s flesh had burst like a rotten fruit.

The first of the three wyverns fell upon me, and I leapt away, rushing up the steepening slopes of the mountain. Ahead of me, I saw a fourth emerging from the mists and let out a grunt of dismay.

It was time for a new strategy.