Servant Chicken had a contemplating expression on his face. “Do you mean the Jaw of Thorns?”
Lyri tilted her head. “Is that what it’s called? ‘Jaw of Thorns’?”
“The Jaw of Thorns,” corrected Servant Chicken proudly. “I flew over it on the way here. You saw the black stalagmites, yes?”
Aeries nodded. “It did look like jaws, now that I think about it.”
“Why’d they go in, then?” Zaelen didn’t think that going into what looked like black jaws erupting from the earth was something Iceria and Cryos would do – or approve of.
Lyri’s face flashed with rage. “They were forced.”
“By?” prompted Zaelen.
“The ice wolves. They chased us right into that cave – as if they wanted us to die.”
“You mean the frost wolves?” asked Zaelen, glancing toward Velwraith.
The frost wolf sighed and looked wearily at the group. “Likely, yes. But not by our pack. There are different packs in the tundra, you must know. If I had to guess, it would likely be Slame’s pack.”
“Slame? That’s... an interesting name,” muttered Servant Chicken.
“Not as interesting as yours,” snickered Zaelen.
“His name wasn’t always ‘Slame’, from what I’ve heard. And while it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, it fits him. After all, he’s one of the only wolves in the entire tundra who possess the ability to use icefire. And flames reflect his personality well,” continued Velwraith.
Lyri perked her ears up at the mention of icefire. “I’ve heard rumors about icefire before. It’s apparently a fire that, instead of burning, freezes, from what I’ve heard. Care to elaborate on the subject?”
“No, not really,” muttered Velwraith. The wolf sighed. Again.
Servant Chicken patted Velwraith on the back with his wing. “Cheer up dude.”
Velwraith narrowed his eyes at Servant Chicken. “Cheer up? You do not know anything about me or Fyrn. Do not say such words so easily to me,” he snapped.
“Point taken,” muttered Servant Chicken, backing away. The cetalis didn’t seem the words as an offense, thankfully. Zaelen doubted that Velwraith had intended to hurt Servant Chicken anyway.
The group descended into silence. Hey, system, care to inform me about icefire since someone else obviously isn’t in the mood?
|||Why turn to me?! What makes you think that I know anything on this matter?!|||
Oh, so I guess you aren’t what you puffed yourself up to be.
|||Well, it’s not like I know EVERYTHING|||
Zaelen smirked, which got him curious glances from the others. He was reminded yet again that they couldn’t see the system’s messages. He glanced at the forest, then poked his head out. The blizzard had stopped, from what he could see.
“Has it stopped?” asked Lyri, warily slinking out from under the overhang.
Aeries followed Lyri out and looked around. “From the looks of it, apparently yes.”
Servant Chicken dragged an unwilling Velwraith out with him. The other chickens puffed up their feathers and soon popped back into their original forms. The mystirin still hadn’t woken up and resulted in it being carried between Potato Tea (the aetherin) and Nirros (the aquaerin).
“So, are we going to save Iceria and the other wolves or not?” prompted Aeries.
Zaelen swung his head around to face Aeries. “Woah, wait a second. Who said anything about us going into a death trap?”
“But... won’t they need help?” asked Aeries.
“We don’t know that for sure. And the idea of going into something called ‘the Jaw of Thorns’ isn’t exactly appealing. Besides, I’m not the alpha anymore. I don’t have any obligation to help them.”
Lyri and Aeries both leveled him with skeptical glares.
“What? It’s true,” snipped Zaelen. “I’m not the alpha anymore.”
Horned Phoenix Drake (Medium)
Name: Zaelen
Status: Ash-Risen, Alpha of [Pack]
Level: 87/1500
HP: 1000/1000
MP: 750/755
SPD: 255
STR: 300
Skills: [High Leap Lv3] [Observe Lv--] [Dragon Breath Lv3] [Space Pocket] [Wind Slash Lv6] [Lightning Strike Lv3] [Roar Lv3] [System Interference Lv--] [Phoenix’s Light Lv1] [Flare Wind Lv1] [Blaze Strike Lv1] [Inferno Wings Lv1] [Shadow Tentacles Lv1] [HP Regen Lv1] [Avian Language Lv--] [Wind Surge Lv4] [Wind Barrier Lv1] [Flame Claw Lv1]
Resistances: [Traumatization Lv7] [Fire LvMax] [Acid Lv1] [Lightning Lv3] [Wind LvMax] [Light Lv15] [Death Lv5] [Poison Lv1] [Weakened Lv1] [Paralyze Lv1] [Cold Lv4]
||||Yes, I completely see that...|||
Wha-?! Why’s it back?! Where’d the question mark go?! Whyyyy?!
|||Hey, isn’t it a good thing?|||
|||Oh, the question mark probably disappeared after Aeries and Lyri ‘joined’ your pack. And the kierins are technically part of your pack as well|||
What about my life, then?! I’m too young to die!
|||Your life is worthless. And what do you mean, ‘too young to die’?!|||
What?!
|||You’re technically over a thousand years old! How has your brain NOT gained more braincells?! Do you have some kind of learning deficiency?!|||
Well, at least I have a life, unlike you.
“Zaelen?”
Zaelen paused, focusing his attention back onto Aeries and Lyri, who were both staring at him expectantly.
“Eh? What?”
Lyri groaned. “Where you seriously not listening?”
“They basically just made up a long speech bout’ why you should go after your lil’ pack of wolves,” supplied Servant Chicken.
“Huh.”
“Don’t ‘huh’ us!” screeched Lyri.
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Zaelen winced back at the shrillness of her voice.
“Don’t think you have a choice here...” muttered Servant Chicken.
“Personally, I think we should go,” added in Potato Tea. “I want to see Iceria again.”
Chicken Nugget and Nirros furiously nodded.
“What about the mystirin – oh.” Zaelen blinked as he looked into the eyes of a mystirin which was clearly awake.
“Chrrr!” announced the mystirin.
Lyri stopped inches from Zaelen. “Any more excuses?” she prodded.
“No...” Zaelen looked away.
“Then its settled.”
⋆❖^⧫/-\⧫^❖⋆
Zaelen didn’t like this idea, but he was outvoted by the rest of the group. Even the system agreed, though Zaelen didn’t know how much of that decision was influenced by a grudge. Aeries and Lyri were still practically glowing from having won over Zaelen. The chickens bounced around energetically, running in circles around Zaelen. It seemed that Servant Chicken had his reservations too on going into the Jaw of Thorns but clearly, the cetalis didn’t want to gain yet another whack on the head from either of the two wolves.
Their feet crunched through the pine needles littering the floor as they drew nearer to the unwelcoming stone ‘jaws’ that opened to show a dark hole leading down into the earth. Lyri paused at the brink, then leaped over one of the stalagmites that had looked like teeth from afar. Aeries followed, leaping much higher than Lyri without effort.
“Hey, are we sure about this?” asked Servant Chicken again for the fifteenth time. Zaelen agreed with him wholeheartedly. Also, Servant Chicken was pretty much 10 times as powerful as Zaelen. If someone like that was worried about this, then he doubted the decision even more. But the wolves (and kierins) clearly weren’t giving up so easily.
Aeries lifted her head up confidently. “Of course,” she replied.
Zaelen flicked his tail uncertainly but followed in the wolves’ wake. I’m definitely going to regret this. They descended down what seemed like a steep slope of smooth rock. The hazy light from the sky soon vanished.
“Any light here?” called Servant Chicken.
“Can’t you see in the dark?” called Aeries.
The barely visible shape of Servant Chicken turned toward Aeries. “Unlike you, I’m not a wolf.”
Potato Tea squawked agreeably.
[Potato Tea] has gained the ability [Light Cast]
Seriously?! Potato Tea just gets an ability out of nowhere?! Zaelen figured he was grateful too for the ball of light that soon sparked into life, chasing away the shadows clinging to their surroundings.
Zaelen glanced around as they continued to descend. He paused as his claws touched onto something cold. He glanced down to see the shiny sheen of wet rock.
“Does anyone else hear a river?” called Lyri.
“Yes?” responded Servant Chicken. “I also see some bats.”
Aeries rolled her eyes. “And how, exactly, would a few small bats be dangerous to us?”
Servant Chicken squinted into the distance, where the tunnel that they’d been walking through opened up into a massive cavern. “Errr, what if they weren’t exactly small? And there’s not a few of them.”
“How do you know there’s bats anyway? I clearly don’t see some nonexistent bat or two above me.” Aeries waved vaguely in the direction up around her.
“Oh, I can hear them,” replied Servant Chicken. “In that cavern ahead. And they don’t sound very... small.”
They’d reached the cavern entrance, and Lyri took the lead, ears pricked.
“I don’t hear anything -” A shrill screeching sound from above drowned out the sound of Lyri’s words. There was the extremely obvious sound of rustling, leathery wings. The entire group looked up in unison, where pairs of glowing eyes stared right back at them.
Creature: Spirang
“You see what I mean?” asked Servant Chicken as Potato Tea summoned more balls of light to swirl up to the top of the cavern, illuminating several ‘spirangs’, as they were called. His words carried a resigned edge to them.
They looked as if a dragon (more specifically, a wyvern, but we don’t get into specifics, do we?) and a bat had merged together. They still had the signature large ears of the bats, but two stubby horns stuck out of their head like a dragon’s. Their claws were sharper and longer than those of normal bats as well. Or maybe that was just Zaelen’s poor eyesight. Along with the scales scattered along its head, back, and wings, its snout was elongated and more draconic. And the worst part about all this? The bats were each the size of an extremely large eagle. Add in their sheer number, and that made this not exactly... an ‘exciting’ encounter. More like a traumatizing one.
“Any chance they’re not hostile?” muttered Lyri.
As if in response to the question, a few spirangs screeched as they swooped mere inches above Zaelen, allowing them to see the sharp fangs in the spirangs’ mouths.
“That answer your question?” muttered Servant Chicken. “I told you that we shouldn’t have come into this accursed place.”
“How was I supposed to know there was an entire colony of murder-bats in this place?!”
“They’re called spirangs?” offered Zaelen.
“Can we not fight when there are... ‘spirangs’ flying and swooping about above us, looking to take a chunk out of us?!” snapped Aeries.
As Aeries finished that sentence, a spirang dived down low on cue, jaws open to bite down on Chicken Nugget’s wing. The elderin gave a squawk of fury, beak opening to snap at the spirang. The dragon bat veered off, but the whole group was still tensed in anticipation of more attacks to come.
“You know, I think I heard something about spirangs before,” muttered Servant Chicken. “I think it was... oh right. They can’t go under things close to the ground for some reason.”
“So you’re saying that if we get under one of those ledges, we’ll be safe?” Lyri jerked her head toward a few small outcrops of stone jutting from the wall of the cavern. Another spirang flapped down, and this time managed to sink its fangs into Lyri’s back. Nirros, who was the closest, managed to grip the spirang in its beak and rip it off the wolf, albeit a chunk of flesh came with it as well.
The aquaerin crushed the spirang in its beak, effectively killing it. In response, several other spirangs swooped down as if to avenge their dead friend, if there was such a thing for them. Nirros gave an angry shriek as a barrier of water condensed around it, blocking it from the spirangs attacks. Servant Chicken ducked as a spirang flew mere centimeters past where his head had originally been. Claws of shadow erupted from the ground to crush the dragon bat in its grasp.
Zaelen made a lunge for the nearest crevice and instead smashed into five fluttering spirangs.
“Are they trying to get killed?!” Zaelen set them ablaze in a burst of [Dragon Breath].
[Dragon Breath Lv3] -> [Dragon Breath Lv4]
Lyri darted past him – through the burning wolves – and was about to reach one of the ledges when two spirangs crashed into her, sending her wildly off path. Zaelen frowned. Did the spirangs know that they couldn’t go under the ledges? Was this on purpose – even if it killed many of them? But even with what seemed like the hundreds of spirangs swirling around in the cavern, they couldn’t last forever. But that would mean that they were either just stopping them from going under the ledges without any further thought... or they were stalling for something.
“Sooo, anyone thinking what I’m thinking?” called Zaelen.
“How exactly are we supposed to read your mind? Please, be my guest to tell me!” answered Lyri. The wolf pounced on a spirang, snapping its spine.
“The stalling thing! Do you think they’re stalling for something?”
“Maybe? Who cares, obviouasly they don’t want us to get under those ledges, so maybe focus on that for now?!” screeched Lyri back.
Potato Tea gave a furious screech as one of the spirangs embedded its fangs into the aetherin’s tail feathers. However, the spirang didn’t last long as it was soon sucked into a gaping hole in the air. Potato Tea fluffed its feathers up in satisfaction for a few seconds, before it was suddenly bombarded by several more spirangs. The aquaerin had to flap over and blast several of the spirangs away with its water beam before Potato Tea could move freely again. The aetherin then snagged one of Nirros’s tail feathers and disappeared, taking Nirros with it. The two reappeared under a ledge.
Oh, right, Potato Tea has [Teleport]. Hold up, couldn’t Potato Tea just teleport all of us to the ledges?
Apparently, Potato Tea was thinking the same thing as soon, Lyri, Servant Chicken, Chicken Nugget, the mystirin and Aeries were sitting under their respective ledges as well. Well, Lyri was with the mystirin, who had somehow still not woken up.
And then, the problem hit. Potato Tea had officially run out of mana. Which meant Zaelen was stranded with the murdery murder bats. Zaelen yelped as he practically threw himself out of the way of the spirangs, who were right on his tail. He glanced toward a ledge mere feet from him. He glanced at the spirangs closing in on him from both sides, before using a [Wind Surge] to push the spirangs back and making a run for it. He succeeded.
The first few spirangs that recovered from the [Wind Surge] dived toward him with no sign of stopping. Zaelen was momentarily worried that Servant Chicken had been wrong when the bats suddenly swerved away, as if some invisible force was stopping them. He gave a sigh of relief. Close call there, eh?
|||Very|||
The spirangs fluttered around the ledges. “So, when are the murder bats going to go away?” called Servant Chicken.
“How are we supposed to know?!” responded Lyri, a sharp edge to her voice.
“They’ll uh, go away eventually, righhhhht?”
Aeries rolled her eyes. “Probably. But what about the thing they were stalling for, if that idea was correct? We have to get out of here before whatever that thing is comes or something.”
“I see how that’s going to happen when the spirangs are still flapping around with no sign of going away!” said Lyri with a cheerful smile plastered on her face.
Zaelen glanced at Potato Tea. “Could you uh, teleport us all out anytime soon?”
The aetherin’s head drooped. “No, my mana can’t replenish that fast.”
“Well, the good news is that lil silver birdy is up, apparently.” Servant Chicken jerked his head toward the mystirin, who’s head had risen up to stare blearily around at the scene around it. “Applause, anyone?”
Apparently, there was going to be no applause. There might’ve been if the spirangs hadn't all given screeches of alarm and flown away in the wake of the giant snake that conveniently slithered in.
"Sooo, maybe you should've listened to me?" Zaelen broke the shocked silence with a smug look at Lyri and Aeries.