Chapter 8

"Daddy, I love you!"

"Do you want to come with us?!"

Two kids were looking at Max and talking to him. He was in a beautiful green garden with differently colored flowers behind a low mansion. A clear, blue sky was above him and the beautiful, single Sun was shining into his eyes. The trees and grass were waving in the wind. It was heavenly and calming. Blissful. Max could see a woman standing alone at the entrance of his home.

The player tried to speak but he couldn't.

Something was stopping him. Some unbeatable force.

He tried, and tried...

Then Max woke up.

"Hey man. You alright?" The knight asked him.

Max realized his face was a mess from the tears.

"Sorry. Had a dream."

"Family?"

"Yeah. I miss my kids."

They silently agreed not to talk about their eal world lives anymore. Players usually try to not think about what they left behind.

Max wiped his tears and got up. The players were in a small cave.

The archer was sitting on a small rock, eating and drinking.

The trio reached the mountain and settled down in this cave for the night.

It's dangerous at night, no matter how strong the players are. There are monsters with night vision. We don't have such a thing. We could get stabbed with a deadly poison or other deadly abilities.

Getting ambushed by monsters with foreign and unique abilities and ways of attacking is too risky. Even for them

After they ate and drank, we ventured outside.

As soon as they got out, Max could see a small river in front of him. Several monsters were also visible.

The players decided to climb this mountain because Max received a notification that the Titan's core was glowing and reacting to something the moment they crossed the river seperating the forest and the mountain.

They started climbing without bothering to fight the monsters. The path to the top wasn't too difficult and dangerous.

Several times, they were attacked by flying monsters but Max took care of them with ranged attacks. His aura was too powerful and fast.

After a few hours, the trio reached the top.

[You are the first player to climb the Rintira Mountain!]

[You have received 2000 EXP!]

They immediately saw an abandoned structure in front of them. It was grey and depressing. It looked ancient. It was covered in moss, greenery and weirdly grown, crooked and colorful trees.

It was quiet. No wind. No sounds of flying monsters around. No visible monsters here either.

"Let's take a look there" Max said quietly.

They approached the temple slowly.

[The Buried Titan's core is glowing more intensely and reacting to something in this area!]

'So there is something here.'

Max signalled to them to be quiet.

He climbed the wall of the structure and looked down.

And his worries came true.

A monstrosity was lying, maybe sleeping inside the structure.

'What's with the monsters sleeping when I come knocking?'

The swordsman charged up the swords and his body to the limit. Preparing to jump off and deal a devastating attack to its neck, but...

It seemed as though it sensed the aura. It immediately woke up, jerked its head at Max horrifyingly fast and flew outside, trying to attack Max as well. He leapt off the wall.

The monster produced a horrifying, predatory sound while in the air.

It had four dark red wings, gray...fur and six legs. Each ending with terrifyingly sharp white talons almost as large as the players.

Its face was sharp as well. Eyes that of a hunter, a predator. It didn't have a beak. But a mouth. No nose. Four eyes, dark red. Color of blood.

It had two red silky tails. One starting at its rear, and another at the back of its head. They were long and wavy.

Its eyes and talons started glowing with a red color.

Aura.

"Thomas! Shoot it! I will keep its attention!"

The monster flew around the peak of the mountain we were on.

"Manuel! Hide and wait until I cut its wings!"

"Okay."

Focus and the coldness of the mind took over.

The archer hit it a few times while Max sent large, flashy aura slashes at it.

The bird located the source of the powerful slashes and went towards it in a deadly speed.

Max leapt out of the way using his enhanced body and the monster flew back up.

Not before he landed an aura slash during the brief moment it had its back...well, rear, towards him after he leapt away. The echo hit it as well.

It screamed. There was a shallow line of blood.

His aura slashes became so powerful that they would simply go through any monster I encountered on the way here and cut it in half with ease. The follow-up echo would simply pass through the gap created by the original slash. This monster only received a shallow wound.

'I need to slash the wings...'

Despite his stats, this monster would surely end him if he doesn't dodge its attacks. It's much bigger than them and its weight would crush him. Had the monster gotten Max with its feet, he would've been a puddle from the force its weight and speed exerted.

Max kept sending just enough slashes to distract it from the arrows sent by Thomas and not waste too much aura. He's only spent about 15% now.

The swordsman managed to land another hit while it was flying, making it scream and it came down once again.

This time, he sent a slash from one sword towards its front, and followed up with a vertical slash from the other sword at its wings on one of the sides.

Aura slashes had a cooldown. It wasn't a simple, usual cooldown though. The cooldown was the time it took for aura to infuse into the sword at just enough of an amount for one slash. Max could send two aura slashes from his old sword and four from his new Hero King's sword when both swords are at max aura capacity.

Virtonia seems to be able to contain more aura than other swords. The time it took to infuse enough aura to send one slash in both weapons was 7 seconds. However, before he was an Awakened it took him about 8 seconds. This probably means that the charging speed increases as his stats increase.

The monster instinctively raised its front up to block the attack with its talons and the follow-up attack struck its wings and...

Dealt no damage.

"Shit!"

The monster started attacking Max on the ground with its talons.

Max blocked and evaded. Thomas kept sending arrows.

He leapt out of the right leg strike and parried the left as the monster pivoted to follow Max's movements.

His arms ached with every parry. But didnt seem to get any worse than that as he continued to exchange blows.

The attacks were fast and powerful but Max held on. Virtonia and his Awakened build managing to keep a stalemate in a contest of strength and power on the ground.

Manuel threw his spear at the monster's side. It dug in at a decent depth. The blood red glow on the spear increased as the knight held out a hand to which the spear returned to on its own.

Then, the monster extended a wing at Max that hit him in the chest, damaged his armor greatly in the torso area and sent him flying away into the grass on his back, near the edge.

"KUGH!"

Max regained his footing as he rolled with the momentum and leapt away as the mighty bird pounced at him.

Then he sent two aura slashes from both swords. They all hit the monster, including the echo. Dealing a serious wound.

After that, the bird went up again.

The monster flew back up and something changed.

It flew high up and it pulled its wings back. The wings glowed intensely with red aura.

Something inside Max told him that an attack was coming.

"TAKE COVER!"

Thomas and Manuel immediately bolted for the structure to hide in it. They were closer to it than Max was too.

The monster's wings suddenly jerked forward from the retracted position. And dozens of red, glowing projectiles blown at them.

Max activated Phase.

The temple stone was cut and blown to produce dust all around the building by the feathers.

Phase worked because each feather was a single-target attack. If the attack was a giant fire ball for example, it wouldn't work. If it was an arm swing of a giant that could hit multiple people at once, it wouldn't work.

"Thomas! Keep shooting it! We have to give it a reason to get down and fight on the ground!"

Thomas was spending his aura rapidly. Sending one powerful aura infused arrow after another inside the ruin. Already at less than half of his aura capacity.

The wounds accumulated on the monster.

Hard to notice, though. The monster was large. Eight meters long.

Arrows were visible on its gray body.

Thomas shot from a safe place in the temple while Manuel simply waited for the moment he would join.

Another wave of red projectiles fell upon him, he only had 3 seconds left of Phase. It was enough.

Max sent more slashes after Phase, his aura now at 60%, hitting it twice on the body. This time it didn't go down. It still flew high above. He didn't see this, because he immediately bolted towards the temple. It sent another barrage while he was retreating. The player leapt forward with incredible speed and went inside the temple. Likely not sustaining any damage.

***

Manuel decided to look around the structure.

There was nothing else he could do now, but maybe find something that could be useful or valuable.

He soon looked at where the monster was sleeping, and saw something red.

It was an egg.

"Perhaps..."

He approached it.

And raised his spear.

***

The monster instantly changed its behavior. Once it saw a human approaching the egg in the roofless room of the temple where it slept, it rapidly descended towards him, landing in the large room, not damaging the egg. The floor shattered.

"GUYS! OVER HERE!" Manuel screamed.

He imbued himself and his equipment with aura and prepared for the fight.

The archer was the first to arrive. He took cover and fired arrows once again.

Manuel clenched his charged spear and threw it at the monster. Piercing its neck. His aim wasn't great. He aimed for the head.

Then the spear flew back into his hands.

The monster didn't move. Not an inch. Possibly because of the egg needing protection.

Instead, it used its wings to strike Manuel.

This was incredibly fortunate for him. Even he couldn't endure getting hit with its full bodyweight, plus he was slow to dodge. Well, he did believe that the monster wouldn't move after what happened in the last few seconds.

Two of its front wings hyper-extended and went towards Manuel, threatening to slice through his armor and him with ease.

He raised his aura imbued shield to block, and flew away.

The shield was ruined, and Manuel was lying flat on his back. He was defenseless. Damaged, but alive.

But he didn't have to worry anymore. He smiled when he saw what was about to happen.

Max jumped from a higher floor, glowing with his blue aura, landing right on the monster's neck with a powerful slash.

The neck wasn't cut greatly. But it didn't matter. Max kept slashing. The monster now panicked and flew up outside. Forgetting about the egg. It tried to shake Max off, but he held on.

He could only use his right hand with the Hero King's sword to slash now. His left hand was holding his old sword and merely two of his left hand fingers were holding onto the fur, preventing him from falling.

After a few moments of wild flight and attempts of the monster to shake him off, it stopped moving.

Its neck wasn't even cut yet, but the spine was.

They fell from the mountain together.

"Not yet!"

Max didn't jump off it until the neck was fully cut. He didn't want a random monster to finish it off. Was it pride or something else? Who knows.

Once the neck was cut, he jumped off and equipped his glider. Slowly descending to the bottom.

[You have defeated an Awakened Mini-Boss Monster: Temple Predator of the Sky!]

[You have received Predatory Wings!]

[You have received a passive ability: Aura Sensing!]

[You have received 100000 EXP!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

'Awakened? Never saw this before. I thought it was an extremely strong boss monster. It would've been the strongest boss I ever fought if it was that.'

The battle was over.

The victor descended back to the familiar entrance of the cave he slept in. Intending to relax and check the drops.