Chương 174: Rage of the Magpie

Liora imbued her Prism Air Slash with an ice element and launched the attack at the gateclaw guardian. But it wasn't fast enough. The monster was already next to Cee, his sharp claw piercing her abdomen. Cee screamed as her blood spilled everywhere when the scorpion withdrew his claw, readying to strike again. At that moment, Liora's Air Slash finally reached the monster, striking its side. In her panic, she hadn't aimed it very well. But it was enough to stop it from striking Cee again and make it back away.

Liora didn't even think twice. She launched herself at the gateclaw guardian, launching ice-infused Prism Air Slashes as she got closer. With its attention on Liora, the damned thing was actually able to dodge the attacks. It was astounding how quickly it could move despite the influence of Bedrock Mandala. She feared imagining what would happen without it. No, there was no time to imagine any grim scenarios. Liora would take advantage of everything she had been given.

Her mana had run out once again, but she still had many tricks up her sleeve. She used Decoy Fade and had her decoy fly from the gateclaw guardian's right side. Meanwhile, Liora herself flew from the left to insert herself between the monster and injured Cee. Smokey was already rushing towards his master, chomping and tossing the smaller scorpion aside. Liora was surprised to see that the wyvern always tried to grab them by the tail to avoid getting stung.

The scorpions were still disoriented from Cee's blast, which allowed Smokey to pull off the tails of several scorpions. The gateclaw guardian was keeping its eye on the decoy, although its overall stance was cautious. The limb Liora had torn off was almost fully regrown. There wasn't much time. She had to finish this thing off before it managed to get its bearings. Before Cee passed out and Bedrock Mandala stopped working.

Just as the scorpion struck at Liora's decoy, making it disappear, Liora used Raptor Lunge on its tail, tearing it off. The monster screamed, but with its lightning-fast reflexes, struck at Liora. It tried to hit her head. That was a mistake. Liora moved it back and used Raptor Lunge again, this time with her beak to tear away the offending limb. The gateclaw guardian screamed, a surprisingly human scream. Its face contorted with pain.

Perhaps, if this had been when Liora had only just obtained the system, she wouldn't have been able to strike at the monster who looked so human. But this thing wasn't even beastkin. Even if it were, Liora held no mercy for someone who had injured her friend. She tore that monster with her claws and beak. With the tail gone, she had nothing to fear anymore. Smokey was doing an excellent job of keeping the smaller scorpions away from the main fight. Not that they could do much with the Bedrock Mandala present.

Even Renir would occasionally launch a small magical ice spear at gateclaw scorpions that got too close. It wasn't enough to do damage, but it was enough to scare the monsters away. Separated from its companions and defenseless, there was nothing the gateclaw guardian could do to defeat Liora. It couldn't regenerate fast enough, and while fast, it couldn't outspeed Liora. Her razor-sharp talons and beak made short work of the monster. [You've defeated <Gateclaw Guardian – Level 60. Experience gained.] [You've reached Level 22.] Three whole levels from a single monster. It really had been powerful, but it relied too much on the other gateclaw scorpions and its speed. In either case, there was no time to celebrate the victory. Liora flew next to the Cee. There was a horrible wound in her abdomen that leaked blood and other fluids. Liora felt her stomach lurch.

"Cee, Cee, are you alright?" She asked in panic, realizing how stupid a question it was. The spider groaned, but couldn't manage any coherent words. Bedrock Mandala stopped working, signalling that Cee had lost her consciousness. She needed healing, right away. But could she even pick Cee in this state? Her talons were sharp. They could injure her more.

"Liora, bring me to Cee!" Caspian called from the oasis, having stopped his song. Liora worried that the smaller scorpion might resume their shrieking attack. But looking around, she saw that the little cowards were running away again. This time, she was sure that it was for good. If any scorpion dared to linger, then he would get a fireball in its face from Smokey. Where had he learned to breathe proper fireballs? Didn't matter.

Liora flew to the oasis, picking up Caspian, who was still in his merman form, and taking him right next to Cee. He hissed when she placed him in the hot sand, but nonetheless got straight to healing the injured spider.

"Gods, her health had almost run out!" The merman said in horror as her abdomen began to stitch itself together. Or rather, Caspian's magic was healing her. It was astounding to witness how, in just a few minutes, an injury that was all but deadly was healed as if it had never been there to begin with. Cee groaned and shifted, regaining consciousness shortly after the healing was complete.

"Owww… That hurt…" she muttered.

"Are you alright?" Liora asked nervously, looking over Cee.

"I feel sore, and my butt feels weird…"

"It's because of my rapid healing spell. It heals very quickly, but as a result, the healed area might feel a bit strange for a while until the body adjusts to it," Caspian explained.

"Sorry, I was afraid to use my more gentle spells. You were…" The merman trailed off, looking away.

"Close to dying. Yeah, I thought I was dead there," Cee said. Smokey suddenly came leaping towards them, stopping before Cee and spraying all of them with sand. He was whimpering and gently nudging Cee with his snout.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Cee said, patting him and getting up to her feet.

"Ow, that really is quite unpleasant. My carapace really feels weird."

"Yeah, sorry again," Caspian muttered. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"No, I'm not blaming you, you silly merman. You just saved my life. Thank you!" Cee said, patting the merman's shoulder with her leg. Caspian looked at her wide-eyed and surprised. As if he wasn't used to getting thanked for healing. Did those merfolk never thank him for services? Geez, Liora's opinion of them just dropped even lower. No wonder he wanted to leave.

"Oh…" he muttered awkwardly.

"Let's just get you back into the water before you fry in the desert sand," Liora said and picked him up.

"Yes, please. This is most unpleasant," he said, trying to shake the sand off his body. As soon as he was back in the water, Caspian relaxed.

"Hey, little help here!" Renir called, still up in the palm tree.

"Sorry, Renir! We had to heal Cee real quick," Liora said, picking up the gem in her beak and carrying him down.

"I swear, if I had a heart, it would have jumped out through my ribcage. You and Cee are both so reckless. It was a scorpion for fuck's sake, and you both approached it so carelessly. A higher level monster will always have a trick, or two saved up—" So he rambled up, angry about Liora's and Cee's recklessness. But what else were they supposed to do? Not fight? Liora didn't quite understand what was going on with Renir lately. He was like a mother worried for her children getting a scrape.

Previously, he would push her to train her skills and battle monsters, but lately, he had become so jumpy. Was it because of Lucien? Maybe Liora getting captured had gotten to him. Liora actually felt rather pleased about it.

"Aww, so you do care about me?" Liora cooed, bending down and nudging the gem with her beak gently.

"I'll be more careful, okay?"

"What the hell are you talking about? Of course, I care. You take me for some heartless monster?" Renir wiggled his tiny arms up and down in anger.

"No, I take you for an arrogant mage who only cares about his own skin, uh… crystalline body," Liora corrected. Renir paused, then narrowed his little shimmering eyes at her.

"I am the Pillar of Lost Magic. My duties include—" There he went again on another of his rants. Liora sighed and left him to his devices. She wasn't in the mood for that right now. The most important thing was that they were safe; the scorpions were repelled, which meant that they could rest at the oasis without worry. Wait… Where did Na'ikiri go? As it turned out, the antkin had been hiding inside a sand dune, waiting for the fight to end.

She was beyond amazed at their victory, rambling something in her ant language, once again too quickly for Caspian to understand. But ever since that incident, Na'ikiri felt more confident in their group. With her help, they made their way through the desert dungeon, travelling from one oasis to the next. Initially, they had to walk a lot. The progress was slow. However, as Smokey grew stronger and his wings were able to sustain flight for longer, they were able to cover larger distances.

Liora carried Renir and Caspian, while Smokey carried Cee and Na'ikiri. Thankfully, the antkin wasn't too heavy. With each day, the distance Smokey could fly increased. Caspian's Landwalker skill also leveled up, reaching Expert level. This allowed him to remain human for 10 hours when combined with Cee's tidesilk clothing. His recharge time in water was reduced to three hours. This meant that if the oasis was in a particularly dangerous area, they didn't have to linger there anymore.

There were plenty of dangers as they progressed through the dungeon. Scorpions and sharks were the most common, but there were also some crazy man-eating camels, five-meter-long sand snakes that liked to ambush their prey in oases, and vultures. Two-deaded vultures were by far the nastiest bunch. They tended to gang up on them while they were flying. It took quite a bit of Prism Air Slashes and Smokey throwing fireballs until the pests finally gave up.

One time, one of the vultures managed to snatch Renir from Liora. Needless to say, none of those vultures survived. They traveled this way for about three weeks, until finally one morning, Na'ikiri announced that they were close to the exit of the dungeon.

"Finally! I'm so tired of all the sand and heat," Liora said.

"How do you think I feel?" Caspian grumbled, sweating profusely. It was late evening, but the desert was still hot. They mostly traveled either in the morning or evening, since days were too hot and nights too cold.

"I'm certainly ready for a change of scenery, as is Smokey," Cee agreed.

"At the very least, you managed to get a lot of training done," Renir noted.

"And I got a lot of glimmerstones! Chak-chak-chak!" Liora cheered and brought up her profile just to gaze at the wonderful number. She truly had made a lot of progress.

[Profile] Name: Liora Species: Prismfeather Dracoryx Level: 33 Health: Great Mana: Abundant Glimmerstones: 1845 Skills (13/14): Resonance Mimicry II [Adept] Meteor Strike II [Novice] Prism Air Slash II [Novice] Decoy Fade II [Adept] Raptor Lunge [Expert] Mana Conversion [Expert] Poison Shot [Expert] Holy Light [Expert] Wind Blast [Expert] Purify [Legend] Featherflash [Expert] Aegis Cyclone [Adept] Theft [Basic] Traits (12/14): Prismatic Twilight Vision II [Novice] Treasure Sense [Expert] Aerial Agility [Legend] Glimmerlust [Legend] Shadow Glide [Legend] Inventory [Adept] Magpie Disguise [Expert] Ailment Resistance [Adept] Fluid Flight [Expert] Sound Resistance [Novice] Predator of the Deep [Novice] Prismfeather Mantle [Adept] Next Evolution: Requires Level 50 and???

Glimmerstones to unlock"You are getting much stronger," Renir noted. Since he was hanging around Liora's neck, secured by Cee's web, he could see her profile too.

"More than halfway to the next evolution. I feel like I'm ready to face the antkin!" Liora announced.

"I just hope it doesn't lead to a fight," Cee said, looking nervously at Na'ikiri. The ant was growing more excited by the minute, her antenna wiggling back and forth.

"So long as you don't do anything dumb, we should be fine. We have brought back Na'ikiri safely. The antkin should be grateful," Caspian said.

"That's not what I'm worried about. It's not like we're heading there without a purpose. Maybe the antkin won't take kindly to us asking about the ritual book," Cee said, looking at Renir.

"Let's hope they do. I would like to do everything peacefully, but we've already lost a lot of time. We need to break the next part of Renir's seal," Liora said.

"Indeed. Although I'm really getting a bad feeling about this…" Renir muttered.

"No turning back now," Liora said, looking far ahead. There it was. She saw the exit of the dungeon. Two bulky antkin stood guard there. They were far larger than Na'ikiri, with scary-looking mandibles and with a spear in each hand. It didn't take a genius to conclude that these guys meant business. [Antkin Guard – Level 60] Their name was distinctly red. Liora really hoped that they wouldn't have to fight them.