Sylrin and I stuck close to the walls, where the group was separated from us below by at least two layers of jagged rock. And there we waited for an opportunity to snatch the elf girl.

It made me a little uncomfortable watching the group inch their way across the hazardous path, when they didn't know they were being observed. And to think I had to separate one of them forever.

Sensei's requests were really getting out of hand!

But not even a minute in, I began to pick up vibrations of something on the layer of rock above us.

I stopped to look up because it sounded like a crawling creature.

However, the sound faded away as soon as I fixed my attention on it, the unknown creature never revealing itself.

Weird.

My first thought was spiders – the darkness and shadow of the valley seemed like their ideal habitat, and I scanned the rocks above us hoping [Heat Sense] would reveal something.

But when no trace of any creature showed up, my sense of danger became even more pronounced.

I felt as if I was the mantis stalking the cicada, but I couldn't find my oriole even when I looked.

Sylrin didn't react, and perhaps he wasn't that worried as he continued watching the hunting party make their way across the path. They were passing a rather narrow stretch of the overhanging pathway, and the danger of falling was especially precarious.

But I couldn't ignore the noise I just heard so I decided it was best to go higher to see what the sound was, just to be safe.

And it took some convincing but eventually Sylrin also followed me to scout from above.

We maintained a good distance from the group while flying above, staying out of their detection range. The distance would also make it easy to dodge their arrows if they were alerted anyway.

And we just rose up in the air when we encountered the wreckage of something.

Embedded in the rock was the exposed wooden structure of what looked like a roof. Most of it was long worn away, leaving large areas open, but from what I could see of its basic frame, the style was similar to that of a cathedral dome.

It was very wide and spanned across two layers almost like it had been carved out of the rock face. Aside from the exposed dome, I could make out some walls but because it was made out of a similar material, they appeared to melt seamlessly into the rock.

If a building could be carved out from start to finish, this would probably be the finished product.

I was a little shocked at the discovery that appeared like a leftover relic from a bygone era, similar to the one above the valley. I wondered what ancient civilization had created them, and if I didn't have this quest to complete, I would have gladly gone inside to investigate.

Wouldn't it be amusing if this was what they were looking to find and it was right on top of them?

However something about its worn out stone surface told me I would probably destroy it by going inside. It seemed too fragile to withstand my weight - especially Sylrin who was easily double of me.

Instead, I landed on the rock beside the dome's structure to take a closer look, instructing Sylrin to do the same. There I carefully slithered towards the opening to peer inside, while Sylrin kept a lookout for the group – they had successfully crossed the precarious ridge and were now moving onto steady ground.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for calamity to strike.

The moment I touched the stone below the dome, my clawed wings punched right through it like it was made of paper, and the solid structure that should have taken my weight, crumbled away like sand.

How misleading!

A large part of the wall structure directly dislodged from its rock foundations and fell back in the dome, and I found myself wondering if I was just too fat, or if the stone wall was simply too old! I too almost fell in, but I adapted quickly, spinning away from the structure to steady myself in flight!

It was only a slight touch – how could everything turn out like this?

The dome collapsed from within, as its structure was pulled down, and as the continuous sound of falling stone turned into a small avalanche of rubble, it became clear the structure was too fragile to ever recover.

However, as the falling rubble rolled to a stop, I picked up a new sound.

Scattered noises of things shuffling around, followed by multiple shrill cries echoing out from within the structure where the rubble would have impacted, as a large plume of dust went up in the chilly wind.

The hunting party looked up at the collapse in shock, and Sylrin and I exchanged worried looks. If past events were any indication – we had probably disturbed something.

Sylrin who was positioned on the wall quickly activated his [Stealth], and just as I was rushing away from the collapse, a great flurry of winged beasts burst out of the opening, in a cloud of leathery fluttering wings and I soon lost sight of the hunting party and Sylrin.

The winged creatures surrounded me, each three feet tall and sporting two pairs of streamlined insect wings that they used to manoeuvre through tight passages. But none of them attacked me aside from the few unfortunate enough to collide with my flying figure.

H-How? Where did these creatures even come from?

When I scanned with [Heat Sense] previously, nothing had shown up!

And why did they fly past us like they didn't see us?

It must be because of my [Shadow Shroud] and their inability to detect my temperature.

Most rushed down the chasm towards the hunting party to viciously attack them with their sharp mandibles and stingers, and those that collided with me actively sought to find me but kept missing in the air due to how quickly they sped to attack.

The creatures mostly seemed to detect movement and heat. Their eyes glowed pale in the dark as they rushed at me, long limbs and tail stingers stabbing aggressively like spikes made of steel. There was also a rather musty scent attached to their dry cracked bodies that bore numerous flakes of dust.

They were like moths drawn to a flame, if they were only savage and hungry for blood.

No matter how many times I cut them down, more surged forward to replace the fallen like a pack of vicious dogs in a frenzy, and for some reason they didn't seem to experience pain like a normal monster.

The worst were those against the hunting party below.

They faced off against a large number while also struggling to avoid falling into the hazardous terrain.

For some reason they choose to deal with them with only their weapons, as none were chanting spells, and they were easy targets for the monster's ferocious strikes. If not for their armour and shields they would long have been riddled with holes after so many stings.

While this accident was a great distraction, I didn't want anything to snatch the prey I'd been stalking for so long, and so I quickly dispatched the creatures around me with several poison blades, leaving the area quickly before more caught wind of my movements.

My targets remained in an arc, their backs against the wall, but they were quickly getting overrun by the creatures. One was even knocked down by the creatures, allowing an opening in their shield wall before the elf girl was dragged by the hem of her robe.

In the tussle, she fell and was pulled by the creature, leading her to hang dangerously over the gaping chasm.

Unluckily for her, the others were busy fighting off the creatures, and even the archer was busy with the many creatures he was keeping at bay by himself.

This was exactly the opportunity I needed, and I swooped in to grab her just before she fell.

However, Sylrin beat me to it.

Surging ahead at a much faster speed, he opened fire at the creatures attacking the group, burning them to a crisp in a wave of sticky flame. The mortals had to shield themselves to prevent the flames from scorching them as he swooped down, and in one fell swoop, he snatched the elf girl with his claws while the group reeling from a flurry of attacks.

But this only made me angry at his carelessness.

With most of the creatures around them burnt to death, it gave them an opportunity to shift their attention to Sylrin. Several precise arrows shot after his flying figure, one piercing his wing and on his leg where the elf was frantically struggling.

The archer was determined not to let him get away and he shot out more and more arrows rapidly. Sylrin managed to dodge some, but more found their mark to varying degrees of lethalness.

There were arrows on both of his legs, another in his wing, and one just barely grazed his heart to embed itself in his shoulder blade.

And to my shock and dismay, the silly lizard was more focused on not letting go of the elf instead of defending himself.

I was beyond pissed and immediately diverted all the shadows acting as my concealment, condensing them into a large shadow blade and aimed it at the ground at the group's feet.

In an instant, my shadow blade blasted through the rocks around the archer and soon the pathway collapsed, dragging everyone down into the chasm below.