Chapter 164 Wyvern
Asta left for the woods, leaving Lucas alone on the volcano. Looking down upon the forest, Lucas felt his heart starting to thump harder. What he was about to do was extremely dangerous. If he screwed up, he would be done for. The volcano was already very active, and awakening a dormant monster capable of destroying the entire island, could only increase the chances of an eruption.
Lucas knew a bit of history when it came to Aurora. He knew that long ago there was a massive war against all dragons, making them extinct today. Even the strange memories he had when his core experienced changes showed that high ranking mages were actively hunting them down.
In the beginning, humans had to struggle to survive against their power. Now, there weren't any dragons left, leaving Wyverns as one of their descendants. One of the reasons they weren't hunted down was because of their power. Compared to a dragon, a wyvern was nothing but an ant. Lucas was incredibly curious to see its power, and knowing he didn't have to fight, would only make it so much more interesting.
Giving Asta some time to prepare, Lucas continued his climb. Looking over the edge, he could see the boiling magma. Poking out of the magma was a sharp horn. When the magma moved a little, Lucas could see the nostrils underneath the horn.
The mere size of it, was enough to put Lucas on edge. Dropping the bowl into the volcano, he kept staring as it landed onto the magma. Seeing it float for a moment before slowly sinking, Lucas was afraid that his entire plan would fail. He didn't know how magma worked, only the bare basics.
The Goddess of Luck was on his side, though, seeing movement from the horn. A massive beak surfaced above the magma, the nostrils seemed to contract. It could still smell the liquid in such an extreme heat.
The massive beak slowly opened up, letting the magma enter without hurting the inside of its mouth. A large row of teeth, sharper than any sword Lucas had ever seen, almost pierced the vessel. The bowl drifted into the maws of the beast.
Lucas knew very well that right now would be the perfect time to run away as fast as he could, but curiosity got the best of him. He wanted to see it, he wanted to experience the might of a lesser dragon.
He also didn't know if the effect of the liquid would even affect such a beast. It easily infected wolves and humans, but comparing wyverns and humans would be a dumb idea. Lucas didn't have to wait though, as a massive figure started to rise out of the magma.
Two large wings with spikes at the tips, a massive body covered in deep red scales, Lucas was in awe. The membrane on the wings were a slightly lighter red, but blended in nice with the magma. Lucas couldn't help but wonder what kind of protective scales it had to sleep in one of the hottest liquids known to man.
'If that thing is a lesser dragon, then what the hell are true dragons?'
'Beings we shouldn't mess with.'
Though not possible to see on the outside, the infection had spread far into the wyvern's system. It might be hard to penetrate the body from the outside, but the parasite was easily brought into the digestive system, giving it access to whatever it needed. The horns wanted to sprout, but the scales were too strong, making its appearance stay the exact same.
Not that the massive wyvern needed any horns to be an imposing monster. Its head was slowly coming out of the magma. With a large beak and horns at the top of its head, the eyes were tinged red. The wyvern spread its wings far apart, ready to take off. Lifting its head, its eyes pierced through heat and smoke, targeting Lucas in an instant.
Lucas felt a recognizable pressure from its stare, he was stuck in place, pressed down to the ground. As if Elam was in front of him again. Luckily he knew how to resist this kind of force. Relying on his Scarlet Moon, his eyes turned a bit weird. Power flowed through his veins as he slowly got up before launching himself away from the volcano. It didn't matter that he had to suffer from the fall, getting out of its aura was all that mattered.
Removing the Scarlet Moon's presence was harder than he first thought, but part of him kept it in control, while the other made certain that he ran as fast as he could.
Arriving somewhere in the forest, his rapid heartbeat heavy, he slowly tried to calm down.
'What an absolute monster.'
'That...'
'What? Have some insight you'd like to share? I have one, don't activate the Scarlet Moon without saying anything dumbass, you have any idea how hard it was to force it back?'
'It wasn't using it.'
'Wasn't using what?'
'It never used its aura.'
'Are you fucking kidding me?'
The wyverns look was more than powerful enough to pressure a Peak Rank 1 mage. Lucas quickly thought back to the Rank 2's on the island and could only hope that they would be strong enough to handle it. Because if the three Rank 2's fail, then nobody would be safe.
'Well, shit.'
'Shit indeed, still, let's have some trust in the Rank 2's. I'm certain they'll have power beyond our comprehension, and there are three of them. If they worked together, they stand a chance.'
'I'll start preparing for the worst.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon looked at the massive mushroom cloud that shook the entire island. Figuring out where the explosion took place, he was scared all his followers were caught up in that explosion. Not that he had any way to immediately prove it. He could easily run to the camp now, but leaving the Ice Princess behind didn't sit well with him.
The Ice Princess was a beautiful girl with long white hair and crystal blue eyes. She was quite tall compared to most, but Simon still came out on top. What was most impressive about her, were her magic skills in Ice. She was capable of freely controlling water into ice or steam and turn it back. Having full control over her magic, she was more versatile than Simon, who could only control the wind.
"Simon, you said that there are only three mutated humans roaming the island. And I don't think Mino will need to use so much power to fight against anything here. What was that then?"
The Ice Princess was a bit skeptical of Simon's plans, but she knew enough about him to know that he tried to take control over everything. It was a mage's dream to know everything and make plans so deep and complex to be victorious. This also made Simon collect a ton of information before the competition even started. She knew she could probably gain the same amount of info, but she didn't bother with it.
Floating down from the sky, Simon landed near her.
"It's the fourth and hidden party on this island. A mystery man who's been a thorn in my plan. Now, Princess, are you willing to make another deal with me?"
She rolled her eyes in response, Simon's deals were always somewhat beneficial, but the princess thought that he put way too much effort in being seen as smart and cunning. Instead of simply asking it, he had to make it seem like a deal to look cool, or that's what she thought.
"Fine, what's the plan?"
"I've been trying to get Mino to help out, but he's been ignoring my requests, not that it matters, of course. We can easily deal with this hidden player without him."
"But you don't want to take the risk?"
"Precisely, I don't know what this player has in store for us next, but I believe that he'll do whatever it takes to win."
"Don't you think that if that person wants to win, that they would have to be Rank 2? Even if they reached the elemental pools on the first day and gained enough energy to open the gates to Rank 2, they wouldn't have evolved yet."
"Correct, I think they have bigger plans in store.", Simon said as he tried to contact one of his followers. The lack of response made his face lose a lot of emotion.
She looked at him with a skeptical look, "How? We already agreed to not fight each other, and there's nobody else here to stop us."
"Not someone, but something. I believe he plans to awaken the Rank 2 monster on the island.", Simon said as he pointed to the volcano at the center.
"I guess that could work, but we're with three, how is one Rank 2 monster going to stop us?"
"It's a Magma Wyvern."
"Oh.. I see now why you wanted Mino on your side. A blockhead like him should hold his ground against it. I have someone he likes, want me to bring him over?"
Simon nodded and immediately proposed an agreement.
"Since we'll be with three, how about we make the deal that we'll work together to defeat it and the person who has the finishing blow gets the token?"
The Princess agreed and contacted one of her followers to fetch Mino. Since she trusted Simon enough, she knew that the wyvern would wake up. His plans weren't perfect, but he had a great grasp on how other people acted.
Simon knew perfectly well that although his deal seemed to be fair, it was not even close to an even match. With his mastery over wind, the fastest element, he knew that he had the biggest chance of dealing the final blow. Although, to kill a wyvern he needed a strong attack, which wind wasn't the best at. Still, that didn't matter, if he read the battle right he could succeed.
'The only thing left is the hidden one. I truly do wonder how you're going to affect this play.', like the Princess said, he knew that anyone below Rank 2 is completely helpless against their might. So he was more excited about the tools and spells this figure would use.
'Perhaps I'm raising my hopes too much, let's deal with the wyvern first.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The day was only halfway, but most of the students knew that there probably wasn't going to change much now. There were barely any mutated wolves left, so the only way to efficiently get tokens was to fight other students.
The thing that held them back were the jades. One would need to quickly kill their target before they could use it. So in the end, many were wandering around with no real goal in mind.
All of a sudden, the ground started to vibrate lightly, it wasn't something many immediately noticed. Those who did, turned towards the volcano.
"Is it going to erupt?"
"If it did, we would all have to use our jades."
"Well, the competition was meant to last 5 days, and those have almost passed. Perhaps this is the teacher's way of saying that it's time to come back."
The vibration started to grow heavier and heavier until it stopped.
ROOAAAR
A roar so loud it reached every corner of the island. All the birds quickly left their nest, while the other animals ran away from the volcano. The roar was so loud, the ones who were too close had to block their ears to not get ruptured.
"What the hell is that!", one of the students pointed to the tip of the volcano. A large claw grabbed the edge of the volcano's crater. The large body of the wyvern showed itself to the students. A bunch of them immediately grasped towards their jade and vanished from the island. Others were lost in the power it exhibited, freezing in place as the massive wyvern spread its wings. Anyone who dared to look in its eye, even from far away, could feel their body being pressed down.
It let out another roar to make its presence known to anything living on the island. The red scales were so hot that it evaporated the water in the air, making every movement create steam.
"So you were correct.", a silky voice spread across the island, shaking the students stuck in place free.
"Of course I was. Now, then, let's teach this lizard how to respect its superiors.", with their voice reaching everyone on the island, the students started to gain hope and excitement.
Simon started to float high above the trees. Mino created a large earth pillar, making him stand a bit higher than Simon. The Ice Princess created a throne of ice that made her reach the same height. Looking at the wyvern without any kind of obstructions showed what they were dealing with.
"Its claws are strong enough to rip apart any kind of wall.", Simon gave some advice, which wasn't very appreciated.
"Hahaha, says you! I'll show you what this Fortress of Steel can truly do!"
"I'll start by cooling it down.", the Ice Princess said cold.
The wyvern was looking at the trio and could instinctively tell that they were the only threat. Releasing a battle cry, the wyvern spread its wings and flew towards them. Without saying anything, Mino jumped forward. Conjuring his magic, ginormous stone chains rose up from the ground and caught the wyvern's legs.
Being locked in place for a mere second, the Ice Princess made the streams and tiny rivers on the island come together to assault the wyvern. The water immediately evaporated, but Simon made sure that all the water stayed around the wyvern, giving the Ice Princess an easy time to continue cooling the beast down.
The wyvern wouldn't just sit there though, it bend its neck and simply tore the chain from the ground, pulling up an entire patch of ground, killing anything that wouldn't still be there. With a claw free, it didn't take long before the other chains were completely destroyed.
Staring at the Ice Princess, a patch of its scales around the neck started to light up. "A fireball is coming, can you block it?"
"Sure.", she conjured a wall of ice while drawing the water around the wyvern towards them. The wyvern launched a giant fireball right at them. Even with all the water in the air and the ice wall, the fireball still reached the wall and exploded, making ice fly everywhere. Simon used his powers to redirect all the ice back to the wyvern.
The Princess didn't look pleased, Simon glanced at her and knew that the power of the attack was higher than what she expected. Mino started to throw massive boulders at the wyvern, attracting its attention. "What are your thoughts?", Simon asked calmly.
"It's strange, that attack should be easily dealt with, yet it almost broke through the wall. This isn't a normal wyvern."