'We will stay within bounds of the fence for now,' Hydra said after we stopped ascending. I nodded, and he continued, 'Right now, your flying ability is worse than a hatchling.'
I wanted to argue with him on that, but he was right, 'What do you suggest?'
The dragon sent me an emotion wave of smugness and pride as he explained his training idea to me. It sounded dangerous at some parts and I could think of many ways this could go wrong, but the little voice at the bottom of my heart growled out for power. I relented, and sent a simple reply, 'Okay.'
As soon as my answer left my mind, the dragon started to fly away from me, thus beginning the first phase of our agreed-on plan. This would only end when I became too tired to move, or when I catch up to him. I took a deep breath and followed, trying to keep up with him the best I could. However, the dragon was too fast. He was already at the end of the starting field when I reached the halfway point. There was no clear sign that it was the half point, so it was only a guess based on how long Hydra took to reach the end.
By now, my wings were aching so painfully that it might as well be burning, and sweat had begun gathering on my face.
Gritting my teeth, I pushed through, beating my wings again and again while trying my best to ignore the agonizing way my muscles were straining themselves. Every part of me rebelled against my command of continuing the exercise, but I reached down deep inside me and pulled out the voice that had been urging me on with the promise of growth. Strangely, my mind was quiet without the semi-constant presence of my other self, who would be screaming my ears off by now to go faster, faster, and then some more.
When I finally reached the other side, Hydra had begun heading back. I had to blink away tears of pain to focus and follow, clawing at the air as if it would make me go any faster. I felt so helpless, watching as Hydra flew further and further away from me despite me putting in my best efforts to reach him. Every once in a while, when the distance between us were so wide that I could barely see him, the dragon would slow to a stop and wait for me to go closer. Once I could see him clearly again, though, he zoomed off, and this cycle repeated.
It went on for a while, and by the time I was back at the rough midpoint, my wings felt like they were melting away, and every flap felt laborious. I had to gulp in large mouthfuls of air, and even then my body shouted for more oxygen. The mere bites of snake meat I had eaten about three hours ago felt completely inadequate to satisfy my body's needs.
My vision blurred, and I thought I could see Hydra waiting for me at the starting point without flying away. I rubbed my eyes with all the strength I had to spare, but he was still there. As I approached him, the melting sensation in my wings continued, and gradually, I began to descend without meaning to. Hydra dropped by half a metre to catch me on his back, delivering me to the ground.
He huffed, 'Weaker than I thought. But at least you have a breakthrough now.'
'What?' I asked, and Hydra placed his claw on my back, where my wings were. I turned to slap his claw off, but then I realized that my wings were gone. I panicked, frantically trying to call the wings back out, but only a System notification greeted me.
Currently molting... 38% Completed...
'What does this mean?' I gasped, confused.
Hydra removed his claw, replying as we walked towards where Elias and Kaelen were resting, 'This means that you are going to grow stronger when your wings come back. Dragons molt, and some kinds of more mutated birds do too, so I assumed you would, if I push you a little.'
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I shivered, remembering the agony I had experienced thanks to his training plan. He called that a ‘little’ push? It wasn’t that I was too lazy to go through this training, but after all this, at least he could do more than brush it off. The dragon must have sensed my emotions through our link, because he explained nonchalantly, ‘Hatchlings go through much worse than this, birdie. I was thrown into the centre of an elven city and had to fly my way back out to survive with arrows, fireballs and lightning bolts chasing after me.’
There was nothing you could say to that, but Hydra did not sound bothered by what was done to him. It was normal for him, you supposed. Sighing, you slumped against the fence, picking out another piece of snake meat from your inventory.
”Terra, where did your wings go?” Kaelen asked.
You chuckled awkwardly, not sure how to explain a process that you did not know about until five minutes ago, “It’s a complicated story.”
She shrugged, not pushing for more answers.
Silence prevailed for a few seconds until Elias changed the topic, “What have the two of you been spending your New Gems on? I have enough to spare and I want to spend some on my stats.”
“The stat build you want to go for should be a little different from mine and possibly Kaelen’s,” I hummed, “All of my Skills use Mana and I am a long-ranged fighter, so I spent most of my New Gems on Magic. During that battle with the owl, I had to boost my Mind because the owl tried to invade into my head. But Corruption requires you to get close up with enemies and your boulder-dropping Skill needs Corruption to work…”
I trailed off, thinking, and Kaelen picked up from where I had left off, ”I think you should put most points in Defence and Magic. Terra explained choosing Defence better than I can, and your Skills are still mana-based, so Magic is a good choice too. None of us really needs Strength for now and Mind is only for situations like the shadow owl.”
I nodded, silently agreeing with the girl’s advice. After considering our words for a moment, Elias began typing away at a System screen I could not see. He inputted his stat choices before frowning, “I don‘t feel any different…”
“Of course you won’t. The amount of New Gems the three of you have to spare is not enough to make a big enough difference for you to feel it. You might sense that you have a larger mana pool, but your skin won’t harden into steel,” Hydra cut in, amusement lacing his deep, commanding voice. I was surprised. I did not remember giving him vocal cords.
‘It comes in the same package as the sentience,’ Hydra explained through our link.
A System ding! interrupted my thoughts and I eagerly pulled the notification up, expecting to see an update on the melting process. It did not let me down.
Molting Complete! Your wings have been restored! 1000EXP gained!
You have levelled up! You gained 500 New Gems!
I stood up, extending my wings to test how they had changed. For one, the ache that I had from even having them on my shoulders have faded into a dull nudging in my brain, and the horns did not feel that awkward to be jutting out of my head. Together with the acclimation, the strength of my flight muscles and the control I had over them also more than doubled.
I grinned, beating my wings as hard as I could to test how powerful they had become. A heavy gust of wind pushed me off the ground, and I called out to Hydra from my position, ‘I’m ready!’
He shot up from the earth too, meeting me in the sky as he explained the second phase of our training, ‘I will attack you, going faster and faster each time. Try to dodge. If you need me to stop, shout into our telepathic link.’
It sounded easy, but it was not easy in practise. As Hydra blew fireball after fireball towards me, it grew harder and harder to dodge. For example, when I moved to the left to escape from a sphere of fire, there would be an attack meeting me there, forcing me down, where another shot of flame would graze my arm. Hydra did not seem to tire, but I did not regret making him this strong.
The efforts of our earlier practise had paid off in the sweet increase of power, and that taste of success drove me on further. I knew that the fireballs were coming too frequently for me to handle, but how could I improve if I didn’t take any risks and push myself to the limits? It was worth it. I could just imagine myself after molting for the second time and-
Boom!
A fireball crashed into me, sending a wave of searing pain throughout my entire body. Dark spots danced at the corner of my vision as I fought to stay afloat in the air but to no avail. As a sea of darkness engulfed me, all I could hear are the screams coming from Elias and Kaelen as I plunged helplessly towards the ground.