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  [colpse]Chapter Eighty-Eight - Wyvern

  I had been looking forward to the day where I would get to meet a dragon since... about the time I discovered what dragons were, really.

  Big, magical fire-breathing creatures that were at once majestid terrifying. There was so much lore and mysticism around them. I had spent tless hours imagining what it would be like to talk to a dragon, to ask them about their life story, to make friends with something that no one would ever dare bully, and that I could ride across the skies on.

  They were the stuff of legends, both good and bad.

  The dragon on the fifth floor of the Path of Broken Refles wasn’t a creature of flesh and blood as I had imagined, but it was beautiful heless.

  Five meters long--I guessed--from snout to tail, wings that had to be lohan its entire length, all made with delicate curves. It had a pair of horns ed around its head that ended in jaggedy points, and its teeth were as long as my hand.

  Its size alone was impressive, but this dragon was more than just big, it was like a mosaic of stained gss. I could see the ceiling on the dragon’s other side, ed and shifted by the gss that made up its body. Delicate filigree of spun gss circled out across its wings. It turs head our upils like golden mirrors log onto us.

  It didn’t move though, probably because we had yet to ehe room proper.

  “Whoa,” I said. “So pretty.”

  “No,” Amaryllis said. “You ’t walk up to it and ask to be its friend.”

  “I’m sure it’s nice,” I said.

  She sighed. “It’s draic. Their idea of being nice is eating you ter instead of eating you now. Besides, if it eats you, Awen and I will have to face it alone. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

  “Awa, I don’t want aing Broccoli,” Awen said.

  “You’re n to guilt trip me into n to talk to the pretty gss draght?”

  “I would never,” Amaryllis deadpanned. “Who am I to staween you and an opportunity to be chewed up by a wyvern.”

  “Wyvern?” I asked.

  She gestured to the dragon. “No forelimbs, the wings are at its sides, not its back. That’s a wyvern. They’re the more... animalistic cousins ons. Not nearly as dangerous, but still a threat.”

  I sched up my face, but gave up with a nod. “Fine. I guess. No talking to the pretty wyvern.”

  “It’s a dungeoure, and the boss at that. There’s no way you’ll be able to iate your ast it,” Amaryllis said. “Which means that we’ll have to fight and kill it. Which I’m not sure we’ll be able to do.”

  I looked from her to the dragon, then fired off an Insight at it.

  The Stained Wyvern of Mirrored Paths, Boss, level ??.

  “Oh, that’s not very good,” I said. “ you see its level, Amaryllis?”

  The harpy shook her head. “No. But I guess. Judging by the level of the dungeon it has to be between levels eleven and thirteen. Basically, you expect it to have a sed css waiting in the wings, probably far below ten, but still there.”

  “Ah,” I said. “That’s not good.”

  There were a few problems with trying to fight a dragon... or a wyvern. First, it was a giant predatger than a minivan and we were just three very small girls that would all ly fit into its tummy once we’d been chewed a little.

  Sed, it had wings, and could presumably fly.

  Third, it was a few levels above us. I couldn't say how much stronger I was now pared to when I arrived in this world. Or rather, I couldn’t say how much of an impact levelling up on its own had. Skills, oher hand, were huge boosts to both my power and abilities. I bet that the Wyvern would have a whole bunch of really good skills.

  I winced. “I say we try. But we also prepare to run out of here if we o.”

  Amaryllis tapped her talons against her wing, then nodded. “I agree. We’ll try a few things, then if those fail to work we leave and try something else.”

  “Awa, I’ll go where you do,” Awen said. “I, I help from afar now, too.” She raised her crossbow. It only had a few bolts, but they might help.

  “You’re both able to fight at range, so maybe we focus on that?” I asked.

  “It fly. That will ly e any advantages we get from e,” Amaryllis said. “And as much fidence as I have in Awen, she is very o that toy of hers. Hitting a moving target will be a challenge, and I doubt a couple of bolts will be enough to hurt that thing.”

  “We’ll try anyway,” I said. “Are we all ready?”

  Amaryllis sighed, then did a few quick stretches. “I suppose so.”

  “I’ll try my best!” Awen said.

  Grinning, I stepped into the arena with my friends at my back.

  The wyvern shifted on its huge haunches, its chest puffed up, and it let out an ear-pierg shriek.

  You have heard the screech of a fearsome creature! Your soul is shaken.

  I tripped, almost falling before I caught myself. Bck spots flickered in the ers of my vision and I was worried I might faint for just a moment before it all receded. I looked up, saw that the wyvern was still ihen turo chey friends.

  Amaryllis' wings were trembling, but she wore a fierd dht mean scowl as she gred up at the Wyvern.

  Awen... didn’t look so good. She was on her knees, eyes wide, and her entire body was shaking just a little bit. “Awen!” I called.

  She gasped and snapped her attention around to me.

  Our eyes met, mirying to be reassuring, hers filled with uears. “You’ll be okay,” I said. “It’s just a scary monster. You’re better than it is.”

  “Awa,” she said. She seemed at a loss for words, but still climbed back to her feet and hugged her crossbow close. “Right.”

  A huge ‘’ sound had me looking up in time to see the wyvern jumping off and taking to the air. It was truly majestic to see it wheel around above us, that is, until I remembered that we had t it down.

  The arena’s many pilrs ranged in size from a meter wide to about twice as much, and eae was nearly three Broccolis tall. That means that the wyvern couldn’t just scoop down and snatch us off the ground, but it also limited our visibility a bit.

  “I’m going to try and draw it closer,” I said. “You guys try to knock it out of the sky.”

  “Got it,” Amaryllis said. Awen nodded behind her.

  I bunched up my legs, then kicked off to nd atop one of the rger gss pilrs. It took me a moment, searg the wide ceilinged arena, to spot the wyvern spinning past above. It’s brilliant gssy body fshed past walls made of shaped mirrors and ed gss, sending prismatic rainbows against every surface that it flew past.

  “Now, how am I going to get you down here?” I wondered. All I had was my spade--my backpad Awen’s having bee by the entrance--and that wasly handy frabbing a wyvern’s attention.

  Maybe magic? ing magic wouldn’t do much to a wyvern, I didn’t think, but it might be enough to grab its attention. I didn’t have anything to lose except a few points of mana.

  Shrugging, I aimed a hand up towards the wyvern, pinched my too help with my aim, and fired off a tiny but fast ball of ing magic.

  I missed by about fifty meters.

  ing magic was not hit-s. I hadn’t ated for the amount of lead time it would take to hit even a target as big as the wyvern.

  My sed shot missed, and so did my third. Its circur path wasn’t perfectly circur as it avoided spikes and eltions in the ceiling. I had to either aim a whole lot better or...

  Sg up my nose, I started to fire more and more ing balls, eaaking my mana tick down by a point or two, but I was filling the air with glowing balls of mana. I hoped that the wyvern wasn’t into bullet hell games.

  A few of my spells hit with a series of dull plops, like dropping a pebble into a bathtub.

  The wyvern spun around in the air, golden eyes log onto me.

  “Get ready!” I called out.

  I saw the girls moving over to stao a pilr, Amaryllis with her hands sparking and Awen with her crossbow raised.

  Wind battered around me as the wyvern came screaming down towards the pilr where I stood talons-first like a bird of prey. I stood my ground for just a little bit longer, coiled and ready to jump.

  Then lightning rammed into the wyvern’s side.

  I jumped, moving towards another pilr that I bounced off of on a path towards the far end of the room.

  The wyvern wheeled upwards with huge beats of its wings. There was a faintly darkened spot on its side, but little else to show that it had been hit.

  “Darn,” I said. Then the wyvern flipped around and came r down towards the girls. “Double darn!”

  The wyvern’s chest began to glow and it pulled its head ba a way that I was certain was very bad news. Then it opes mouth wide and a cloud of sparkling dust poured out of it and spshed out towards the girls.

  Lightning filled the air between them, Amaryllis doing her best to stop the deluge, but while it pushed some of the particles back, plenty still nded around the girls.

  I took off at a hopping spring, boung from pilr to pilr while the wyvern fpped its wings and regained some altitude.

  The dust it had spat was gss. Fine particles of loose gss, like sand that choked the air. I began to fire my ing magi little bursts as I jumped down into the cloud.

  Finding the girls was easy. They had huddled together under Awen’s long jacket, using it as a barrier of sorts. Seeing them coughing up blood and wheezing was a lot harder. “Are you okay?” I asked rather stupidly as I moved to their side. They were both covered in multicoloured, sparkling dust. A fresh burst of ing magic took care of some of that, but I was starting to run low on mana already.

  Amaryllis tried to say something, but just choked and wheezed instead. She tapped her bandoleer.

  I caught on and reached over to yank a pair of potions from her chest. Popping the cork off of one, I pressed it to her lips, then I did the same for Awen with the sed potion.

  It took a few fretful seds, but my friends were soohing easier. “That was disgusting,” Amaryllis said.

  “Awa,” Awen agreed.

  “Good thinking with the coat,” Amaryllis said. She shook her wings and a few strands of gss tinkled out. “That was... unfortunate.”

  “I--I think I hit it with a bolt,” Awen said.

  I tried a smile, then looked up as a shadow flitted past. “That didn’t quite work as pnned,” I said.

  “We noticed.”

  “Right. One more thing, then we leave and regroup, okay?” I said. “Are you both up for it?”

  “I won’t let otle setbae down,” Amaryllis said as she stood taller and shifted her wings.

  “Awa, I, I try!”

  Grinning, I told the girls the bare bones of my pn, then I jumped onto the top of the pilr. “Alright, buster, it’s time to... get...”

  My voice trailed off as I stared around and at the three wyverns flying just over the pilrs all around us.

  “Oh, shoot,” I said.

  ***

  Annouspan>

  Guess what!

  A few weeks ago I was tacted by a representative of Podium audio, because they were ied in amon Bun.amon Bun (And Love Crafted too!) is going to get it's own audiobook! It'll be an Audible exclusive ing out... eventually!

  Rec and such is meant to start on the 2nd... ie: today, so there's still a ways to go.

  I barely tain myself!

  I'll bring more news as time goes on and the projeears pletion!

  I'mma go practice my happy-dang!