Chapter 101: Valley-oop

Parth felt something massive at the edge of his heat detection. The ability was still new, so he couldn't maintain it indefinitely. It was still flickering in and out of existence. But he felt the body temperature of something large entering his range. Its running temperature was higher than that of the hot steam coming from the cracks and crevices of this canyon.

"Huge monster! Quadruped. No wings." He shouted. Even though the sense was flickering, he could feel the clear outline of the temperature difference. In a way, it was similar to the heat vision shown in movies, just not as visual. But it was enough for him to understand that the monster was quite big.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"It's that heat sense from before. It's more potent here," he said.

Moira immediately summoned her fairy wings and took to the air. As she floated above, scouting the location, Parth did not want to sit idle.

Sure, he couldn't move in his condition. But his flames responded to his thoughts and mana. For a quick escape, that was enough. He wasn't prideful enough to pick a fight in his state.

He tried to get up, but his body screamed in pain, and he couldn't do much else other than lift his neck a bit.

Hearing his grunt, Moira turned towards him. "Stop. I'll try to get us out of here. You're in no state to fight."

"Maybe. But I can help."

Parth held his hands upwards, spewing a stream of his regular flames. The jets of fire quickly coalesced into a flat flaming construct, reminiscent of Andrea's ice platforms. The shape was there, but it still lacked the weight to carry two people. So, he pushed more mana into the construct, hastening the compression process.

Moira nodded reluctantly, unwilling to let her injured teammates do any work. "Fine, focus on transporting yourself and Kwame. I'll-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence, as the flames flashed blue. For a second, the heat around the construct spiked to unbearable levels and caused her to flinch, floating backward in shock.

The next moment, the platform returned to its orange hue, but the construct wobbled as a result of Parth's shaken confidence.

Generally, Parth kept the temperature at bay, ensuring that his teammates didn't get burnt by his constructs. He had absolute control over his fire. But this sudden spike was not something he had foreseen. He didn't have any control over it.

"It's just one thing after the other," he moaned as he let go of the flames, dissipating the construct. "I can't afford another spike like that. Especially when I'm carrying others."

Thankfully, he didn't form the platform close to them. It wouldn't have been pretty. Especially in this situation.

"Screw it. We're running out of time." Moira said as she swiftly went through her deck and threw the first diamond card she got her hands on. The card landed right between the injured men and formed a rectangular barrier below them. White vectors shot out of her secondary artifact and touched the barrier, lifting it steadily. Moira floated next to the barrier, both her artifacts out and ready.

"Which direction is it coming from?" she asked.

"West."

"Is it inside the canyon?"

"No. It's above us."

"Great," she mumbled. "We can't pop up right now. It has the higher ground on us. If it has any ranged attacks, we'd be throwing ourselves straight into the path of one. We need to make some distance before we gain altitude."

The next instant, the vectors glowed, pushing the barrier towards the opposite direction. The movement was smooth, but to a supine Parth, it felt uncomfortable being lifted into the air like this when he was lying down. The sudden motion bit at his injuries, causing him to wince. But there was nothing else he could do.

Parth checked on Kwame, noticing that his fellow injured teammate was still out of the count. He nudged Kwame a couple of times, seeing if he'd wake. Moira had told him that Kwame had been passed out for a long time, but they hadn't really discussed any further, since the monster had disrupted their conversation. None of his nudges seemed to faze Kwame, as the Knuckleball was still passed out. In this situation, Kwame's ranged attack would be a major help. Unfortunately, it looked like Parth and Moira had to take care of this situation on their own.

He wiggled a bit, trying to turn and see through the transparent barrier.

Moira's curt voice disabused him of the notion. "Don't move around. Your anterior took the most damage from that attack. That's why you are lying supine. If you went prone, you'd be in a bigger world of pain."

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"Fine," he grumbled, as a couple more vectors sprang out of her belt buckle, forming tight loops around the barrier, acting like seat belts. They didn't touch him and Kwame, but they were close enough to keep them contained if any major jolts occurred. Just like the roll cage Moira had made during the tsunami.

Looking at her, Parth could see that she was pushing her limits. She was already drained after all that had happened, it was obvious that she couldn't keep pushing like this.

The best-case scenario would be to kill the beast and rest up some more. But none of them were in any condition to pull that off. From Parth's experience so far, larger monsters were harder to kill. It was not just the size factor. The main issue was that their size directly correlated to their mana capacity. Combat was not an option right now.

Another roar rattled the canyon, as the heat signature pinged in Parth's senses yet again. The beast was getting closer.

"Speed up. I can't turn around and see the thing. But I can sense it. I can take potshots at it while we retreat," he said.

Moira wordlessly complied, as she guided the barrier through the canyon. For the next minute, they flew east, hoping the monster would lose interest. It didn't seem like it was working, as they could still hear the footsteps.

Parth sporadically sensed the beast's immense temperature and each time he did, it seemed closer to them than before.

"It's closing in, we need to go faster," Parth shouted over the wind.

"I can't go faster inside the canyon. We're risking a nasty crash as it is."

"Then let's go up," he urged.

"I can't do bursts right now, Parth. Not enough mana for it. The climb will be slow. And as I said before, it's risky."

"Our current position is no better. If we keep doing this, it'll pounce on us from above anyway. If it could fly, it would have already gotten to us. It has been chasing us on foot from the beginning. Our best option is to fly away."

Moira pondered Parth's words for a few moments before she spoke. "I can't attack. My bigger cards are useless now because I can't prime them right now. I can only fly at a steady speed. If you do this, your injuries might get worse. And you'll be relying on a newfound ability to aim. Not to mention whatever that blue fire was. Are you sure?"

"Beats dying. I'll heal from my injuries, but not the guaranteed death that awaits us down here," he said, his neck aching from turning sideways and shouting over the wind.

"Then once again, I leave my life in your hands, captain," she said solemnly.

"And I, in yours. Let's do this."

The vectors pulsed as Moira fed them more mana and changed their direction. Steadily, they began ascending.

Parth closed his eyes, focusing entirely on his new ability. He didn't want his sight to disturb the heat sense. The temperatures all around him flickered in his mind's eye, as he still didn't get a complete hang of this ability. But even a sporadic map of the area was enough for him.

Without hesitating, he lifted his hand, pushing mana through it. He didn't see the fireball, but he could feel his mana and his heat sense painted a beautiful picture of the flames in his mind. Parth didn't let up though. He continued pouring his mana into the fireball until the three of them rose above the valley. While the fireball grew in size, Parth ensured that the compressed flames churned inside, ready to break free at any moment.

"It's a goddamn drake," Moira hissed as she finally caught sight of what had been chasing them.

Parth couldn't turn around and see the monster, but he didn't need to. "Well, then it can't follow us up in the air." He grinned and tossed the fireball behind him.

The flickering senses were enough. He was not aiming for the creature. Parth was under no delusion that he could kill a fully grown drake in one fell swoop. Not yet. Fortunately, that was not his objective.

His eyes still closed, he guided the fireball towards the monster. It was hot on their heels, but that made it all the more easier. He didn't have pinpoint accuracy right now, but that was a moot point. He knew the general direction, and that was enough.

Right as his fireball closed in on the target, Parth forced it to drop sharply and explode. The fireball impacted the cliff on command and detonated wildly. Once again, for a moment, his flames behaved uncharacteristically. They turned blue, increasing the heat and the potency of the explosion. He really needed to get a hang of this blue fire.

Nonetheless, the explosion fulfilled its objective. The precarious floor atop the canyon crumbled and began falling into the chasm. His heat sense flickered out once again, and he was momentarily blind. Parth opened his eyes and turned around, ignoring the pain. With growing elation, he saw the canyon breaking down and causing a major chain reaction. He had previously felt the monster effortlessly jump through his flames. Which was a given, since this was a creature of fire. But the drake couldn't escape the collapsing edge.

Once again, he was up against a draconic creature. Its red scales glistened in the heat, and its orange, reptilian eyes glared at him. It looked the part of a dragon, sans the wings. Which was fortunate for them. Wings would have made this gamble moot. The creature was way closer to them than necessary anyway. As the ground caved in beneath the wingless dragon, it bellowed one last time before belching a mouthful of lava at Parth and Moira.

"Hard left!" He shouted.

The next moment, he grunted in pain as the makeshift flying carpet banked hard as instructed. The jostling caused him to go completely supine once again, seeking the least painful posture. The gout of lava missed them by a wide margin, owing to its weight and poor mobility, in contrast to their aviatrix's nimble maneuvers. If they had stayed inside the valley, it would have rained lava on them. Fleeing when they did was the right move.

His heat sense flickered back on, notifying him that the drake was down in the canyon, amongst rubble and dust. He knew that it was still alive. The fall wouldn't have damaged it all that much. When he was at full health, if the beast still wanted a match, then he'd give it one. But right now, he needed to heal.

They steadily kept ascending. Once Moira was sure that they were well behind the creature, she plopped onto the barrier, resting her wings.

"When I was scouting the place, I used the binoculars a lot and saw a spot that we can use. About ten minutes of flight from here," she said.

"Sounds good. We need all the rest we can get," Parth said, poking at Kwame once again.

"Let him be. He'll wake up in due time. No use trying to rouse him before his body is ready."

"Yeah..."

"What's up with the blue flames, by the way?" she asked as they corrected their course towards the location Moira had scouted.

Parth couldn't help but scoff at that question. "Had another one of those weird dreams. Woke up like this..." As he began retelling the weird dream to Moira, a part of him felt nostalgic as he peered at the view from up in the sky.

He didn't know why. He didn't know how. But this entire layer of the dungeon felt so very familiar.