Chapter 22: Hunting Wyverns

I have been wandering the mountains for about half a day, I haven’t picked up anything for awhile. It’s not that surprising considering this mountain range was huge, but from what I remember I shouldn’t stray too far north. I might run into the dwarfs if I go there…

For the past hour I have been smelling something strange in the air. It wasn’t a trail I could follow, it was more like a scent that permeates the air. It smelt like burning propane for some reason. Judging by what I can remember there are only two creatures in this mountain range that have fire abilities, both of which are my targets.

The first is the Feathered Wyvern, it’s essentially a mini dragon that is covered in feathers. The full fledged dragons are the size of castles with twenty metre long wings. They are rumoured to drown towns and cities in the shadow of their wings and those are just the normal dragons. There are also the Primordial Class Dragons who’s age predates humanoid civilization. Apparently even the Angels avoid their territory…

The Feathered Wyverns in contrast were much smaller belonging to the weaker Wyvern class of the Draconic type species. The key difference here was that dragons had four limbs and a set of wings, while Wyverns only had a pair of legs and they used their wings to sort of crawl along the floor. From what I read their bodies were about the size of a carriage, so about the same size as me when I am at full size.

They have no regeneration thankfully but they make up for it in armour and offensive power. They are covered in feathers which are fire proof and very durable. The feathers were apparently as hard as steel, which although sounding bad isn’t that much of a hindrance to me. It had two other abilities I was more worried about. Since it’s a type of Dracon, it naturally could breathe fire. Its last ability were claws and fangs that were laced with venom.

The venom wasn’t that strong, even humans could survive it but the issue was the humans always brought the antidote with them when they went to hunt a Feathered Wyvern. I don’t have any on hand and Cecilia said she couldn’t make it as she didn’t know how. Apparently only Beastiarians knew how to prepare anti-venoms and toxins. The Alchemists and Rogues knew how as well to an extent but the most effective ones were made by Beastiarians. Cecilia was trained as a Mage not as a Beastiarian.

The second target on the list are the Phoenixes, these are apparently the apex predators of this mountain range. They are only slightly larger than a Wyvern but they boast powerful fire abilities. Their bodies are also constantly aflame and most attacks lose most of their power as the magic fire can melt physical objects as well as disrupt magical attacks. They do have a critical weakness however, the Phoenixes lack staying power in combat, they can only fight for a short time before having to retreat. Their combat strategy relies on a burst of initial firepower to instantly overwhelm their targets. It wasn’t a bad strategy considering pretty much everything on this mountain can’t withstand that initial attack.

My plan is to get some Wyverns first and steal their resistances to fire. After that I will go Phoenix hunting. I probably will just kill one or two phoenixes. They are really rare and a pain to find. I can always double back to the mountain later down the line if I really need to. I need to get back within a week, it isn’t wise to delay Cecilia’s plan. If news of me spreads beyonds Averlon who knows what will happen.

I continued my search trying my best to trace the scent but still nothing. The smell was everywhere, although I did notice the smell was getting stronger. I might be getting closer to the source of the scent.

I think this isolation in this unknown territory is making me jumpy. I keep feeling like I'm being watched. Ever since I wiped out that troll village I felt something was off. I’m not sure if it’s just because I’ve grown a little stronger and I could now sense if someone was actually watching me. Or I was just being paranoid. I looked around obviously, I scanned the cliffs around me but still I found no trace of anything. It was just a vague suspicion at best, my danger sense wasn’t going off, just this nagging suspicion in the back of my mind.

Then I heard a loud roar, I looked up and saw a Feathered Wyvern fly overhead. I immediately felt a hunger grow in my belly, it looked really delicious…

The Wyvern had your typical dragon-like body. It had two legs tipped with sharp claws and no front arms. Instead its wings had small claws at one of the joints and its head was shaped like a beak. I guess the closest comparison I could compare it’s head to would be a feathered head that looked like a snapping turtle.

The Wyvern didn’t spot me since I was invisible but now I had a scent to follow. I raced along the cliffs, [Gravitic Hover] as the name implied, let me hover not fly. So I was still grounded more or less. The Wyvern was flying but it was flying low amongst the peaks and crevices of the mountain range. The book I read told me those Wyverns prefered to fly low because if they flew too high they might be spotted by Phoenixes. The beastiarians also suspected that was why they evolved their scales into feathers to improve flight control as they needed to weave around tight corners.

Well I could keep pace with it, the Wyvern doesn’t look like it was in a hurry as it soared overhead. In its jaws it clutched what looked to be a troll, the troll was dead with its head missing. It looks like Wyvern bit its head off…

If it hasn’t eaten it on the spot it might be delivering food for something, maybe it would lead me to a nest… my luck has been really good these past few days…

Sure enough I followed the Wyvern to a nest that was in a crevice along the cliff face. It would be impossible for most creatures to get here seeing as the cliff was at an almost vertical incline. For me however, I could scale the surface easily. I observed the nest while making sure to keep a good distance to prevent detection. I saw there were two parents and about four hatchlings. I don’t want to deal with all of them until I eat one of them at least. Judging by the size of their hearts and how much they were glowing, I can bet one of these would be enough to give me some of their abilities and strengths.

Hmm I have an idea…

I waited patiently for hours as I examined the nest. The hatchlings ate the corpse as the two parents groomed each other, they licked each other to smooth out any stray feathers. I could tell this experience was pleasurable for them judging by how they arched their necks when licked.

Eventually the hatchlings became restless sometime into the night. One of the parents licked the other one on the face in their version of a goodbye kiss before taking off into the night. I smiled as I saw this and I immediately followed after the Wyvern. The Wyvern eventually led me to another troll village, I’ll be back for them later…

The Wyvern swooped down and grabbed a stray Troll that was walking around. The other Trolls shouted and screamed as the Wyvern flew over them carrying their screaming fellow in its claws.

It didn’t immediately return to the nest, instead it dropped the Troll on a high ledge. The Troll scrambled to its feet as the Wyvern landed behind it. The Troll turned to look at the Wyvern eyes wide in terror. The Troll had just enough time to scream when a jet of fire emerged from the Wyvern’s maw torching the Troll. It screamed as it thrashed, its body now aflame. The Trolls were vulnerable to fire because whatever is regenerated is burned, so they ended up in constant pain and often just thrashed around in panic.

The Wyvern approached the Troll intent to finish it off but this was my chance…

I pounced down onto the Wyvern, the Wyvern flinched as it detected me and it turned. It turned too late however, I delivered a hard slash with all four blades to its wing. I’m not confident I can decapitate it so I decided to take out its main form of mobility. My slash tore deep gashes in its wings and the Wyvern shrieked as the wing that it was using to support itself gave way from the wound.

I was about to follow up the attack but the Wyvern spun its body and hit me in the chest with a tail slam. I was thrown back as I felt my armour crack but as far as I can tell I took only superficial damage. I was about the same size as the Wyvern that means my claws were quite large as well. With its wing disabled, it just lost its escape route.

Grounded Wyvern, dead Wyvern…

The Wyvern opened its maw and let out a jet of fire. But I had already retreated into invisibility while leaving a decoy behind. The fire engulfed the decoy and it shattered into motes of light. The Wyvern reared back in surprise at the sight as it looked around warily. It looks like it was dropping its guard, I guess it has never fought anything that could use a decoy like this.

The Wyvern turned to look mournfully at its shredded wing as if contemplating what to do next with such an injury. Well with its guard down I wasn’t going to let this chance go to waste. I leapt at the Wyvern this time going for it's now exposed throat. The Wyvern sensed me again, but again it was too late. I delivered a hard slash at its throat but the Wyvern managed to pull away from the strike. The wound was deep but not fatal.

I continued to press the attack, intending to carve deeper wounds into the Wyvern’s body. It couldn’t regenerate which means if I kept my attacks it was only a matter of time before it succumbed to blood loss. Its wounds were already bleeding profusely; it wouldn’t be long now.

The Wyvern then did something unexpected: it flapped its one remaining wing and lifted off just enough to use its powerful clawed legs to slash at me. I blocked the strike but I felt one claw tear through my shoulder’s armour and bite into the flesh underneath. I took this opportunity to trade a hit in as well, with its body reared up it left its belly exposed. I slashed at its unprotected belly creating another wide gash.

The Wyvern roared in pain as it landed and fired a jet of fire at me. I couldn’t get out of the way this time and I saw the jet of fire consume my body. I felt the heat and I could tell I was taking damage but I had an ace up my sleeve.

I [Molted] off my flaming armour plates purging the [Flaming: Status Effect]. Immediately I felt my armour plates start to regenerate but I started to feel a little weak. It must be the poison… I got slashed by its claws…

Warning unknown [Venom] inflicted

Categorising unknown [Venom] as [Alpha Venom]

Adapting…

Solution obtained...

[Alpha Venom Resistance] adapted

Immunity requires assimilation of [Genome]

Oh… It seems my body can adapt to threats to a certain extent even without the essence of the target species. Then again I knew this venom was relatively weak, it was meant to debilitate not to kill. I felt the weakness subside, I still felt a little weaker but the difference was minor now.

That must be why the Wyvern pulled off that move; it must have hoped to weaken me with its poison. A sound strategy if it wasn’t fighting something like me…

The Wyvern started to panic as it realised its main two weapons were ineffective against me. It started backing away to the edge of the ledge. Well I’m not going to let a prize like this get away from me…

I pounced forward again, blades raised and the Wyvern shot another jet of fire at me. I knew I could handle the fire for a while, my body felt pain but it didn’t bother me. More importantly when it was breathing its fire it left its face exposed. I fired off a wave of spikes and managed to take out its eyes. The Wyvern shrieked as it recoiled, its leg slipped and it fell off the ledge. I shed my burning plates and looked down to see the Wyvern falling down the cliff. It tumbled down shrieking all the way before finally coming to a grinding halt.

I followed it down as I started to feel the hunger in my belly grow into an ache. I guess my regeneration and that on the fly adaptation needed energy. But that wasn’t a concern, my next meal is right in front of me…

When I reached the Wyvern I saw it was whimpering on the ground, its damaged wing was now broken, with bone sticking out of the snapped joint. It was also barely able to stand as it tried to drag its broken body forward. One of its legs was also dislocated from the fall, with its clawed foot dragging behind the Wyvern as it crawled forward.

Looks like this was as far as this one was going to go. End of line…

I slithered up to it and jumped on its back. With half it’s limbs broken it couldn’t support my weight and all it could do was shriek as it put up what feeble resistance it could muster. My blades were sharp and my arms were strong, but my teeth were sharper and my jaw was stronger. I transformed my claws into hands and pinned its body onto the ground. Then I opened my mouth and bit down hard on the back of its neck. I tasted the blood and I could feel my hunger roar up with a vengeance.

I started to feel that same frenzy I had when I was tearing up that bandit camp. The sweet taste of that crimson nectar and my hunger was pushing me over the edge. I felt my vision go red as I tore a chunk of flesh from the neck to the mournful cries of the still living Wyvern. I swallowed the flesh and found my hunger wasn’t sated in the slightest. In fact the desire for food roared even higher and I began to hear one single thought resonate in my mind.

Consume and devour…

I looked down at the large red hole in the back of the Wyvern’s neck, I could see blood pouring from the wound, as that nectar flowed from the major arteries.

The smell was intoxicating...

Well what was wrong with a little indulgence?