“So, you’re his girlfriend?” Dark asked.

One of the negatives of having a dragon in one’s realm was that the dragon had access to a lot of information, not to mention that it, like Dallion, was an empath.

“Something like that,” Eury replied. Maybe because it was the only entity she could talk to, she found the dragon rather amusing.

“Cool. Are you stronger?”

“She’s strong enough to beat you to a pulp if you don’t start flying straight,” Dallion interrupted.

Watching his trainee and hopefully still significant other discuss him wasn’t the most comfortable experience. Now he understood how Vend must have felt at the time. The only difference was that Dallion didn’t consider himself as annoying.

Dark snarled, then deliberately made two hoops in the air. The sad thing was that Dallion couldn’t tell whether it was to annoy him, or to impress Euryale. Mostly likely it was both.

Having a dragon to fly with definitely presented an improvement to the standard mode of transportation. With Lux unable to manifest fully for some reason, Dark reduced the amount of time spent traversing the realm from weeks to hours. Already he was above the desert sea, which marked the mid-point of the realm. So far, there had been no trace of all the towns and settlements on the map. They hadn’t come across any temples or other structures, either. The only hope remained the last major city in the hilt area.

“What level are you?” Dark asked.

“You can’t ask that.” Dallion sighed.

“Why not?” The dragon sounded surprised. “I’m twenty-nine.”

“You need to keep your level and skills secret. Otherwise, opponents will use that against you.” I’m starting to sound like Nil again, Dallion thought.

“It’s alright.” To Dallion’s surprise, the gorgon didn’t seem to mind. “I’m seventy-two.”

Dallion did his best to hide his surprise. It had been a while since they had discussed levels, but he distinctly remembered her not being that high. Similar to him, she had increased quite a lot levels recently—far more than Dallion had. Clearly, her desire to rejoin the hunter guild wasn’t a fancy made at the last moment. It was clear that Dallion was going to have to up his game and, in more senses than one.

“Wow! That’s a lot! No wonder you can beat him up.” Dark didn’t miss a jab as his mentor. “Maybe you should train me instead. I might actually learn something.”

“Guess I’ll need to have a word with Harp,” Dallion said in a low voice.

The dragon instantly tensed up. If there was one being he remained terrified of it was the nymph guardian.

Pleased with the result, Dallion split into instances to check the map.

“The fifth temple should be on the other side of the sea,” he said once back to normal. “At least it used to be. Maybe we’ll get lucky and—” he abruptly stopped. “Eagles!”

Everyone prepared for battle. Even this high up in the air, there were still creatures willing to fight. In this case, the culprits were massive eagles that rivaled Dark in size. Individually, they weren’t difficult to handle. However, they were quick to adapt and just as stubborn as the other predators in the world. It seemed that the plague had changed the fauna in exactly the same way, the dryad ruler had hoped it would change the population. All non-awakened creatures had perished, some faster than others, leaving only awakened to roam the land. Even small critters like mice and rabbits were awakened at some level. As for the larger predators, they had developed egos and abilities reserved for one at the top of the food chain.

COMBAT INITIATED

Line attacks split the air, flying towards Dark and his passengers from a flock of eagles so far in the distance that they looked like dots in the sky.

Both Dallion and the dragon burst into instances. Dark used his acrobatic skills to fly safely from the attacks, while Dallion shadowed him, making sure to intervene only when the dragon messed up. Fortunately, there was no need to.

Passing through the cat’s cradle of destruction, Dark let out a cone of air aimed at the flock of enemies. To no surprise, it didn’t hit any of its targets. The eagles easily evaded the air cone, not even going through the trouble to resort to combat splitting.

“You’re too far away for ranged attacks,” Dallion said in a harsh voice. “Keep the element of surprise until you can actually do something with it.”

The dragon snapped his tail like a whip. It was obvious that he felt embarrassed by being corrected in front of Eury.

“A second group’s trying to flank us,” the gorgon said. “I expect there might be one more hiding in the clouds.”

“They’re using strategy?” Dallion sounded surprised. “That’s not something you see often.”

“You say that because you haven’t had to hunt shadow crows.”

More line attacks descended upon the group, this time coming from two sides. To a hunter, this was a normal, be it slightly difficult attack. Anyone else watching, though, would get the feeling that they were observing a magic duel.

In his mind, Dallion played out a few strategies. If a third group was laying in wait, as Eury suggested, then the best approach was to continue the approach at the present speed. Any rash action would allow the new group to try and attack from Dark’s blind spot. However, with two people able to force split, maybe that wouldn’t be the worst option.

“Dark, pick up some speed!” Dallion shouted. “We’re going towards the flock in front.”

“Got you!” The dragon grinned and flapped its wings energetically.

Holding on, Dallion glanced at Eury. The gorgon remained calm, observing the entire situation with her snakes, almost as if she were assessing them. Given that she had volunteered him to take his hunter’s exam, maybe she was making sure he had what it took.

As the distance between Dark and the flock decreased, the eagles moved closer together. Then, when both sides were twenty feet apart, merged into one massive eagle. A strong torrent of wind hit Dallion’s group as the giant eagle flapped its wings.

Gritting his teeth, Dallion remained still. Almost on cue, the third flock emerged, letting several line attacks from behind.

“Swoop down!” Dallion ordered, though not before doing a point attack of his own.

The distance was far enough, so the eagle managed to break up into a flock once more without receiving any harm. However, in doing so, half of them got caught in the line attack coming from their own side.

TERMINAL DAMAGE

Damage dealt is increased by 1000%

Red rectangles appeared as several birds were reduced to clouds of feathers. Splitting into instances, Dark swooped back up and dealt with two more using his air torrent breath.

Gleam, Dallion said. Take care of the last one.

The shardfly didn’t delay, flying to and through the nearest creature. The first thought Dallion had was that he was grateful that this was a realm. In the real world, he had seen shardflies slice through creatures and it seldom was a pretty sight.

“One down, two to go,” Dallion said.

To his surprise, none of the remaining two flocks followed. For several seconds, Dark flew about, expecting them to engage. Then, tired of waiting, the dragon turned around, set on taking the battle to them.

“There’s no need for that,” Eury said. “Leave them. If they attack, then we’ll deal with the situation.”

“But they started it!” Dark grumbled.

“They aren’t starting it any longer. We’ve still a way to go to cross the desert. You’ll have more chances to fight.”

Dark wasn’t pleased with the prospect, but still turned around. Just to be on the safe side, Dallion kept on splitting and looking behind for the next few minutes. As it turned out, Eury was right.

“Why do you think they gave up?” Dallion asked.

“They’re probably escalating it to the next level,” the gorgon replied. “Right now, they’re probably gathering all the eagles in the realm. Next time we fly back, there will be a swarm waiting for us.”

It made sense, although Dallion was slightly alarmed at the rate the creatures were learning. As a hunter and former item clearer, he knew that everything adapted to the actions of the awakened. That was why during early expeditions, everyone used only basic skills, no matter how difficult it was. Here, the eagles had formed a strategy in a matter of hours.

“Are shadow crows similar?” Dallion asked.

“Hopefully, you’ll never find out,” the gorgon replied. Even Dark understood it was better to keep quiet.

The next few hours passed uneventfully. If there was an eagle in the distance, it would make sure to get out of the dragon’s path without engaging him. Boredom subtly crept in, and when it did Dallion started thinking about things. First on the list was his level. Suddenly, sixty-one didn’t seem all that much, not with Eury getting into the seventies. It wasn’t so much that she had managed to get there—the gorgon had been a hunter decades before Dallion had awakened. The greater concern was that if it had taken her that long to barely pass the seventies, how long was it going to take him? Even with the recent setbacks, there was no denying that his rate of advancement was extremely fast, in part due to his empathy skills and familiars. At some point soon, though, he feared he might hit a wall.

Worrying is counterproductive, dear boy, Nil said. It only makes your task more difficult. And it’s not like you don’t have anything else to do.

Thanks, Nil, Dallion grumbled, then recited the names of the seven Moons.

“One more temple gone,” Eury noted.

“Are you sure?” Dallion asked.

The desert sea below was coming to an end, changing abruptly into wide plains full of grass and flowers. Looking from above, it seemed like an idyllic place. Yet, to a non-awakened it was like slow poison.

There was no sign of the temple at the “coast” or any large cities, for that matter. However, in the distance, Dallion managed to glimpse something familiar.

“There’s a city of towers,” he said. “Think we should check it out?”

Euryale didn’t reply.

“They might know something.”

“If you want,” she didn’t sound convinced. “Not with dark, though. He might freak them out.”

“I can change into someone else,” the dragon quickly said. “I can change into a gorgon even.”

“Despite his looks he’s pretty good at illusions,” Dallion admitted. “I think it’ll be better if he keeps his form, though. Less people will be inclined to attack a dragon.”

“Alright. Just be careful.”

A dozen instances of Dark flew to the city, landing on the tallest tower. In none of them was there any attack. In fact, in none was there any reaction at all.

Drawing his harpsisword, Dallion prepared for an attack as he walked about the roof of the tower. But that didn’t happen either. After a while, Dallion started noticing subtle signs that the place was abandoned: grass growing in the cracks, moss visible in parts of the walls, not to mention a complete silence only broken by the whistle of the wind.

“Is anyone here?” Dallion shouted in dryad. His worlds bounced off the towers with a slight echo, but nothing happened. “Gleam, check the buildings on the ground. Dark, you fly about and keep an eye from the sky. We’ll check the towers.”

“Why do you get to have fun?” the dragon asked, but still flapped into the air.

It’s hardly fun, Dallion thought.

Soon he was proven right.

The remains were on the eleventh floor of the main tower—a pile of clothes in the center of what should have been a gathering hall. The entire floor was nothing but one big open space with partial walls depicting pictures of a glorious past: mighty rulers in heroic poses, the Star bringing its blessings from the sky, the city in its creation, the erection of the towers. At some point, the dryads must have believed that they were on the verge of achieving a utopia. Maybe they had died believing it as well. There was no sign of the bodies. Dallion had no idea how people in this realm would die, but judging by the animals, they must have left bodies behind. The fact that he couldn’t find them suggested that someone had done something to evaporate them, or put them to rest.

On the floor, carved with crude letters, was a phrase: the last thing someone must have written before giving up on life.

“What does it say?” Euryale asked.

“We thank the Star,” Dallion whispered. “They probably died waiting for him.”

“In that case, it’s better that they died before seeing how wrong they were.”

It was a harsh thing to say, but Dallion saw her point.

“Do you think the plague got them?”

“That or starvation. When there’s no awakened to bring safe food, there’s nothing they can do.”

“Maybe some managed to get out and reach another city?” Dallion suggested.

“Maybe,” Eury said in a tone of voice that suggested that she didn’t believe it.

“We should bury them,” Dallion said, moving away from the message on the floor.

“There aren’t any remains left to bury.”

“There’s still the clothes.”

“It’s pointless.”

“Maybe, but at least we can get a Moon to see what happened and do something about it.”