I flew above strange, cup-looking ice-crystal hill formed by the eagle’s attack. Just as I flew above the walls, I saw the eagle flying straight at me, claws out and ready to tear me to shreds!
I activated the same lady of attraction and gravitational multiplier combo, hoping to get it to crash into the walls. To my horror, it steadied itself and adjusted right away, as if expecting my attack.
Just as it was about to reach us, I activated [Force Inversion] on lady of attraction as well as field of oppression, and that combination pushed us below the walls and the eagle far above us, its flight path crumbling into a chaotic mess. I deactivated force inversion and field of oppression, then flew out of the structure we were trapped in.
“Any bright ideas?” I asked Nicotris.
“That last attack of it wiped over half of its mana, leaving it with little more than a quarter. It won’t be able to use it again any time soon, but we should kill it quickly before it can pull something like that off again. Let’s split up and circle around it like we did earlier; if you can keep it busy, I’ve got an attack that might just kill it!”
I agreed and heard the sound of her unhooking the harness from her armor. She summoned her golden wings and took off from my back, as the eagle was already on its way back.
I flew towards the eagle as Nicotris took off above us and the distance separating me from the beast rapidly shrunk to less than 40 meters. I tried to fly to the left to dodge the eagle again, but it fired a frost beam in my way, blocking my escape as it rapidly descended on me!
Instead of slowing down to avoid the frost beam, I cast [Mirror Space] right ahead of me and increased my speed to dodge right. It was enough to dodge the eagle yet again.
“There’s your chance, Nico!” I yelled.
It proved to be unnecessary, as Nicotris had already maneuvered above the two of us and rapidly descended on the distracted eagle.
She cocked her arm back as she fell like a deadly meteor, winding up as if to punch the bird herself.
“…Seriously?”
My doubts faded as her arm glimmered with golden light and a divine aura covered her body. Just as she was about to reach the eagle, she released her incantation and punched it with the power of a hundred battering rams!
“[Fist of Justice]!”
My eyes were flooded with golden light as the eagle crashed into the ground so mercilessly that it caused an explosion of snow and froststone dozens of times more powerful than the ones that happened in the battle with the frost troll!
A familiar ping indicated the monster’s death, and at the bottom of the crater lay its battered and broken carcass. The flying rocks and snow settled down as the snowfall of the blizzard returned and Nicotris flew to me and landed on my saddle, exhausted.
“We finally killed the monster.” She sighed.
“Nico, what was that attack?!”
“Huh? What do you mean?” she frowned.
“That. Was. Awesome!”
“…Eh?!”
“You killed the blasted bird in a single powerful hit! And you did it with a punch! That was so freaking cool!”
Nico didn’t say anything for a moment.
“…Let’s go down and see what we can salvage from the eagle’s body. And by it, I mean you, because I am spent.”
I took a look at her and noticed a hint of red on her cheeks as she pretended to watch something else. I grinned and obliged, unwilling to give up the prize of our fight to anything else.
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Most of the eagle’s body was crushed to bits, its condition horrid. That said, it was still in one piece rather than splattered all over the place. In what was left of its chest was the gem that I’d noticed at the beginning of the battle.
“Soooo, how’re we going to divide the spoils?” I said, eyeing the gem.
“I’ve no use for the mana core; it came from a water attributed monster that used frost magic. It’s directly opposite to my attribute, so I can’t cast anything with it. Clearly the best users for it would be you, Jezibel, and Nisos. But Nisos isn’t a mage and Jezibel has the same affinity for the water attribute as you do. Most importantly, neither of them fought this monster with us, so something this valuable should be claimed by one of us.”
“But I’ve got no clue on what this ‘mana core’ is or how to use it. Why waste it on me?” I asked.
Nico sighed in exasperation.
“You’re literally the daughter of the frost dragon, the most powerful frost mage in recorded history. Go and ask her!”
“Oh. Right. That works, but what about the rest of it?”
“I’ve no use for its materials; I am a noble, and I’ve had access to rank A monster materials for all my gear, and they are more suited to my abilities regardless. Just take what you can to make gear out of it for the others.”
“What I can, huh?”
***
I dropped the monster’s body at the layer’s entrance. Given the lack of surprise from the other three, I am guessing that Jezibel saw the whole thing through her owl and told them how it went.
“I am not dragging that thing all the way up.” Jezibel said pre-emptively.
“Of course you aren’t, I will. Watch this.” I shot back with a smile.
I cast [Lady of Attraction] and [Force Inversion] on the eagle. The racial trait was strong enough at level 10 to slightly overpower gravity, so I had to slightly adjust it to make it perfectly weightless. I then pointed at the camping gear that was left near the layer’s entrance.
“I am not dragging that thing all the way up.” I said with a cheeky grin, as Jezibel’s brow twitched.
“Now do excuse me, I am going to change back into my human form, so all of you step out of the tunnel for a moment so I can change.”
***
With a hand dragging the carcass through the air, I walked behind the rest of the party as we made our way back to the second layer. I took the time to look at my spoils from the battle.
You have killed an [Abyssal Crowned Frost Eagle Lv. 72]!
2,123,458 EXP awarded!
3,285,716 bonus EXP awarded due to the effects of [Giant Slayer]!
Experience gain from kill split between combatants based on contribution.
Experience gain divided between [Dragon Shifter] (37%) and [Sovereign of Gravity] (63%)!
“Huh?!”
“What’s wrong, Kiara?” Ati looked behind and asked me.
“Wait a minute, this doesn’t make any sense! Why is my experience gain from killing a rank A monster only twice that of a rank B monster? And why did giant slayer give me bonus experience now of all times? I killed rank B monsters, but it didn’t give me anything then! Hey Nico, how much experience did you get from killing the eagle?”
Nicotris looked back as well to answer me.
“I don’t know how your giant slayer skill works, but I got about 8 million EXP from the fight. How much did you get?”
“Urgh, this is so unfair. I got 2 million and a bonus of 3 million from giant slayer. Why’d you get so much more experience than I did?!” I grumbled.
Nico chuckled.
“Well, I did block its attacks and dealt most of the damage. I think the system gave you credit for slowing down the monster and redirecting its strongest attack, but not much more than that. Though that’s just conjecture on my end. In any case, did that unlock a new class for you to choose?”
“No, unfortunately.” I sighed.
“What I did get was two levels on my race, but nearly two-thirds of the experience went into my class, which is already waiting to advance. The experience isn’t going anywhere, so maybe looking to get those last five class skill points may unlock a new class for me. How did you say I could get them?”
“Mostly missions, but you can get them through a few other niche means. For now, they’re your best bet. We still have a lot of time before we have to go to the guild, but we should probably start doing quests for the adventurer’s guild if that’s what you’re after.”
Nisos agreed a little too intensely.
“Yeah, seconded. I know I said a month and everything, but I need to catch a break from staying in the dungeon this long. I am not coming back here for quite a while, no matter what you say. Our returns have been fruitful enough as is.”
“Boo… Fine.”
Jezibel was next to scold me.
“Quit whining, you’ve got your way the last few decisions we had to make. It’s about time we go up so we can learn what to do with my little Yasha. Anyways, what are you going to do with the eagle’s carcass?”
“I agreed with Nico to make whatever gear we can out of it for the party, then sell the rest. Dibs on the best we get out of it though!”
“What? Why do you get first picks?” she asked in response.
I prepared the smuggest, cheekiest grin I’ve ever showed her.
“Quit whining, you’ve got your way with the last few decisions we had to make. I am the one carrying the eagle, we’re leaving the dungeon, and we’re going to the guild to start climbing the ladder. Besides, it was me and Nico who did all the work killing this thing and she doesn’t need any of it.”
“You know, this is the second time she used your words against you, Jezibel. Perhaps anticipating her words may help?” Ati said in what I think he sincerely thought was helpful advice.
He ended up rubbing salt in the wound as I laughed again as she silently gave the two of us a resentful glare.