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CHAPTER NINETEEN
The wyvern soared through the air, its massive wings casting ominous shadows over the clearing. Each beat of its leathery wings sent powerful gusts of wind rushing across the battlefield, rustling leaves and kicking up dust. The beast’s piercing yellow eyes glowed like molten gold and locked onto its prey with intensity. Its scales shimmered in the dim light, a mixture of deep obsidian and crackling veins of violet energy, remnants of the powerful lightning coursing through its being.
Al and Shin stood their ground, their muscles coiled like tightly wound springs, ready to react at a moment’s notice. The tension between them and the wyvern crackled like the static before a violent thunderstorm, the air thick with anticipation. Al’s grip on his daggers tightened as his mind raced, torn between two consuming thoughts.
The first was a lingering, unsettling feeling—did the wyvern sense something within him? Could it somehow see past the flesh and bone, peering into the very essence of his being? Did it recognize something he himself barely understood? The idea gnawed at him, sending a ripple of unease through his already taut nerves.
The second thought was even more troubling—this wyvern had spoken of another Alcateen, one it called a monster. Who had been responsible for the brutal death of its mate? What kind of power had they wielded to bring down such a formidable creature? Where had that fateful encounter taken place, and how had it led to the deep, festering hatred that now radiated from the wyvern’s every move? These questions circled in his mind like vultures, yet no answers presented themselves. All he knew was that, whether he wanted it or not, he and Shin were now caught in the storm of vengeance that this beast had been carrying for far too long.
“You said you sensed a strange power around me, do you know what it is?” Said Al.
“Even if I knew that why would I tell that to you,” responded the wyvern. “It feels very old,” that statement leaving Al even more confused.
“We have no quarrel with you,” Al called out, his voice steady. “We were only trying to help the dwarven girls in the cage. We didn’t even know you could communicate.”
The wyvern’s eyes blazed with fury, and its bloodlust spiked to an unbearable level, it felt insulted being compared to a low leveled monster. The memory it recalled was steeped in horror—its mate’s dying shrieks had echoed through the mountains, torn apart by relentless brutality. Blood had painted the ground in rivers, its once-impervious scales ripped asunder by an incomprehensible force. The sky had wept fire and fury as its mate struggled, its cunning and strength proving useless against the abomination that had hunted it down.
And now, that same bloodline stood before it.
“He? No! I will never forgive her or her kin for what she did,” the wyvern snarled, its voice dripping with venom. “I cursed my powerlessness against her and vowed to kill any of her kin I come across.”
With that, the wyvern dived, its jaws wide open, ready to end them. Al’s reflexes took over, and he deflected the attack with his daggers, sending sparks flying. The beast roared in frustration, climbing high once more before diving again. This time, it was a feint—at the last moment, it twisted and lashed out with its powerful hind legs.
Just before impact, Shin yanked Al out of the way, saving him from a direct hit. The wyvern screeched in anger and ascended once more.
“How do we fight it when it’s out of reach?” Shin panted. “You’re the only one capable of using long-range attacks.”
Al considered his spells. Most of his wide-area attacks would cause too much collateral damage in this enclosed space. He needed a different approach. His mind raced through his arsenal, quickly analyzing each option. The wyvern wasn’t just fast—it was unnaturally nimble, weaving through the air like a phantom, anticipating his attacks before he could even fully release them.
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With a sharp inhale, Al conjured a volley of fire arrows, each burning with intense heat, their orange glow illuminating the dark battlefield. He loosed them in rapid succession, the projectiles streaking through the air toward their mark. But the wyvern moved like a shadow, its wings tilting at just the right moments, each arrow narrowly missing its target. The frustration clawed at Al’s nerves, but he didn’t relent.
Switching tactics, he summoned ice lances, jagged and razor-sharp, their edges glinting with frozen lethality. He launched them forward, aiming for where the beast would be rather than where it was. But again, the wyvern twisted through the sky, its movements impossibly fluid, escaping unscathed.
Then, without warning, the beast retaliated. It halted mid-air, its chest expanding as a deep, resonating hum filled the space. The hairs on Al’s arms rose as static crackled around the wyvern’s body, arcs of electricity dancing over its scales. Its predatory gaze locked onto Al, singling him out as the greater threat.
The moment stretched into eternity before the wyvern unleashed its attack. A blinding bolt of lightning burst from its maw, illuminating the battlefield in a flash of searing white. The sheer force of the energy roared through the air like a vengeful storm, a destructive force that threatened to reduce everything in its path to ash.
Al had only a fraction of a second to react.
Al fired more arrows in an attempt to disrupt the attack, but they were useless. He barely managed to dodge in time as the blast struck a massive tree, disintegrating it and everything nearby. The wyvern prepared to attack again, but Shin sprinted at full speed, leaped off a tree, and used a wind technique to propel himself upward. He grabbed onto the wyvern’s legs, swinging onto its back and unleashing a barrage of blows.
The wyvern had the advantage. It spun rapidly in the air, forcing Shin off its back. As he plummeted, the wyvern dived, jaws wide open, aiming to rip him apart mid-fall. But at the last moment, Shin kicked the air, somehow stopping his descent. He blinked in surprise—an ice platform had formed beneath him. He glanced down and saw Al, who had created it.
They exchanged knowing glances and nodded. It was time to turn the battle in their favor. Al had recalled the Cat monster's fight where it kicked the air and ran on it. He used that as an inspiration for this situation.
Using Al’s ice footholds, Shin sprinted through the sky, closing the distance between himself and the wyvern. His aura flared as he focused all his energy on a powerful kick. His attack struck the wyvern’s side, sending it spiraling away. Al kept up, generating more platforms for Shin as he pursued the beast.
Shin unleashed a devastating punch to the top of its skull, sending it crashing to the ground near Al. Wasting no time, Al conjured a Giant Ice Lance, enhanced it with the spell Accel, and hurled it at the wyvern. The lance spun at incredible speed, drilling through a rock as it barely missed its target freezing anything in its path. The wyvern retreated into the sky, its hatred seething.
“I will disintegrate you both!” it roared, conjuring a barrage of lightning bolts. It fired them at Al and Shin, splitting the attacks to overwhelm them.
Al recalled a spell designed to bind large creatures. He chanted, “Chains of Valec, unwind and restrain my enemy"
Byund!
A massive chain erupted from the ground, latching onto the wyvern’s feet. The beast struggled, barely slipping free, and retaliated with another lightning breath this time aimed directly at Shin.
But Shin didn’t dodge. Instead, he let himself get hit.
The wyvern laughed. “One down! Now, only you remain.”
But Al smirked. The chains wrapped around its wings, pinning it in place. From the smoke of the lightning blast, Shin emerged, electricity crackling around him.
“You thought you were the only one?” Shin taunted, his body now coursing with absorbed lightning energy.
With a fistful of light, he struck the wyvern’s eye, blinding it. The beast howled in agony, losing control and going berserk. It released a final barrage of lightning bolts in all directions, but Al couldn’t evade them all and a shield made with a wall of earth saved him just in time. Then, he cast another spell—Whirlwind. A powerful vortex engulfed the wyvern, stealing the air from its lungs.
A shadowy figure darted into the storm, blinding the wyvern’s remaining eye. As it came crashing towards the ground, whilst screaming in agony.
Al prepared his final spell. He conjured a flame, compressing it until it turned from red to an intense, bright blue. He shaped it into an arrow and whispered, “Flame Arrow Charge.”
The fiery projectile shot forward at immense speed giving off immense heat as it went flying. The wyvern couldn’t even react before the arrow struck beneath its neck. The explosion was deafening. Fire and blood rained from the sky as the wyvern fell to the ground. When the smoke cleared, the elder wyvern lay dead, its head barely attached to its body with a big gaping hole from its neck down to its chest.
Al called out to the dwarves, who emerged from hiding. One of them had saved his life with an earth wall. He thanked them, but Shin called him over to inspect the wyvern’s corpse. Inside its body was a large swollen pouch, Al dug his hands inside the creature's gut and they found an egg.
“That’s why it attacked the mercenaries,” Al realized. “It was pregnant.”
As he reached for the egg, a dagger flew at him. He caught it effortlessly with his fist wrapped in aura, his eyes narrowing.
“Show yourself,” he commanded.
A camouflaged figure emerged from the trees, their voice cold and threatening.
“That's quite the reflex you've got kid," the figure said. "Drop the egg and walk away with your life.”