Rise of the Devourer

Book 3: Chapter 34 — Wyvern Cliffs Pt. 4

It took nearly an entire day of walking, even with their speed, before the group finally found their destination. It was the smell that Noah noticed first, the distinct smell of water somewhere in the distance growing stronger and stronger till it was everywhere. Next came the sound, of water flowing through the area.

Tony moved swiftly through the sky, staying low enough to be under the canopies above to avoid being detected by the wyverns, scouting the area ahead. It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the shores of the river, looking upon the rocky banks as humid and cool air flowed all around them.

Vion walked close to the river, leaning down as she cupped her hands, picking up some water within it. There was a faint glow present within it, and Noah could sense mana swirling within the water. Vion drank it.

“This river comes from the heart of the cliffs, where the wyverns live. Both of the peaks, and their subsidiaries are a single mountain range and right from their center, this river flows out, carrying a lot of the residual mana from the wyverns,” the dragon woman said, taking out a water container which she began to fill up.

“That’s quite a lot of mana. Even the air has more of it,” Noah remarked. He looked at Vion, who seemed almost relieved drank more of the water, and Noah remembered how Zax’s status had said he was… mana deficient, that there wasn’t enough mana in the area to sustain him properly.

“I’m surprised how you live in the city. Don’t dragons need a lot of mana to survive?” Noah asked.

Vion glanced up at him, standing up as she put aside her waterbed into a storage device. “Well, I’m not a full dragon, am I?”

“Are you not? You looked like a dragon when you were fighting Zax,” Noah said.

“It’s… complicated,” Vion said, glancing aside.

Noah heard a beep from his bracelet, before Aurelia’s voice came to him telepathically. “Don’t pry. There’s clearly a lot of complicated things going on with her background.”

“If we’re going to be here for a while together, I think knowing more wouldn’t hurt. Not to mention… is Vion even giving the trial? Her level isn’t very high, and she’s an actual honest to god dragon. What would the title even do for her? I feel like the whole point Zax sent her with us is so we can learn more, and maybe help her control the dragon form or whatever.”

Aurelia didn’t reply, and Noah continued. “How does the dragon thing work anyway? It says all Draconians are descendants of dragons.”

“I don’t actually know. My growth was slowed down by spells and potions and all sorts of things, and then, I was given this form at birth, a human, not even a Draconian but a human instead. It’s all sorts of complicated,” Vion said, before facing towards the river.

“Let’s worry about crossing this thing for now. I can see the sea serpents further up the river. This is the one area even the wyverns avoid. Sea serpents are nasty.”

“Can’t we just rush across quickly?” Aurelia asked.

“Or I could teleport us across,” Noah added.

“Won’t work. I’ll show you,” Vion said, as she picked up a somewhat flat rock. Heat rose in her fist as the rock began to glow, soon turning red, before she swung it. The red hot rock shot forward, arcing through the air, as it sizzled.

Boom.

A bolt of lightning came from nowhere, striking the rock as it vaporized into thin air, leaving nothing behind.

Noah and Aurelia simply stared in surprise.

“What was that?” Noah asked, trying to search his senses for the source of the lightning, but failing to find something there.

Vion pointed in the water, and after looking for a few moments, he saw it. A giant crocodile like creature slept under water, eyes glowing as it peered up at them through the surface, as if waiting. Others around it swam through the river as well.

“And that’s just the deidacrocks, a bit further you have the serpents who can cause hurricanes and also shoot lightning,” Vion said, pointing upstream. “And then downstream you have the sea, where you’ll find the big mom whose kids all of these ones are.”

“Alright, I see the point. But why can’t I teleport us over? Just in and out, easy,” Noah said.

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“Can you?” Vion asked, skeptically. “The river has a lot of mana. Idk if you feel it or not, but this entire river is chock full of mana, and it’s just gushing outwards up into the air. It’s like a wall.”

It took Noah a second to realize what she was talking about. He’d gotten so used to the gradual increase in the mana that he had almost not noticed the giant current of mana moving in front of him, flowing outwards and surrounding him in all directions. It wasn’t the air which had more mana. It was the river, whose mana presence was so strong that it was making the mana in the air denser, spanning out into the entire forest.

Noah looked at the river thoughtfully. A second later, he let mana flow through the sigils formed onto his arcane body, as magic twirled and twisted. A moment later, he flashed as Arcane Step activated and he was gone.

He stood at the other edge, looking back to see Vion and Aurelia. Noah gave the two of them a wave. A second later, Arcane Step activated once more as Noah jumped back around next to the two women.

“Well, consider me impressed,” Vion said, sniffing. “That’s a powerful teleport ability. But at the same time, even if you can make it across all on your own safely, I’m not sure you can do it with the two of us in tow.”

Noah looked at Vion, raising an eyebrow. “Is that a challenge?” He asked.

“No, no it’s not. It’s a prediction, because I don’t want your teleport to fail midway and send us sinking into the river, or worse,” Vion said.

“I think you’re too pessimistic,” Noah said, walking closer to Vion. He gestured to let him touch her shoulder and the dragon woman shrugged. Putting a hand on Vion’s body, Noah let Arcane Step channel, feeling the resistance she created against his ability.

He frowned.

She was right about one thing at least. She was difficult to teleport. Noah had been expecting it, despite the woman’s level being lower than his, she was, after all, a dragon, and Noah knew by experience that it wasn’t the levels so much as it were the cumulative stats of someone that really affected how difficult that person was to move around with his teleport abilities.

Still, he had also been right as well. She was definitely underestimating him. He had two simple and easy ways to transport her, and he decided that he was going to use both.

“It can be done,” he said, looking at Vion.

She did not seem convinced.

“Are you sure Noah? We don’t necessarily have to push ourselves, especially since we may have to fight a wyvern at any point. And there might be areas without any monsters for us to cross if we walk along the shore for a little bit,” Aurelia said.

“Just hold on,” Noah said, as he called onto his shadow. The shadow specter emerged, without any need for Noah to explain the plan to him or anything. Vion looked horrified, watching the dark specter manifest out of nowhere.

“You’re with my, m’lady,” the shadow said, curtsying towards Aurelia as he extended her hand. The woman looked extremely uncertain, glancing in Noah’s general direction with an expression that said ‘what are you doing?’ As she accepted the shadow’s hand. The arcane spells swirled around the two, Arcane step activating as the shadow and Aurelia both were on the other shore in the next instant.

“Our turn,” Noah said, extending his hand to Vion.

“It won’t be that easy with me—”

“—Just trust me on this one,” Noah interrupted.

Vion stared at him, then, after letting out a quiet sigh, she put her hand in his.

Noah activated metamorphosis. His body transformed, a monstrous form starting to appear, but Noah did not let the physical transformations happen completely. Or rather, he asked Tony to dial them down. His teeth still turned to fangs, and the vertical slits in his eyes grew longer and sharper, and there was a downright threatening aura of void around him, but otherwise, he remained unchanged.

All except for his attributes. Noah felt power rippling through his body, as all his attributes doubled in power. Letting Arcane Step channel, he barely felt a blip as the two of them appeared on the other side of the river.

Vion let out a quiet ‘oh’ as she stepped back, while Noah let go of Metmorphosis, the short burst of power not giving him the usual exhaustion afterwards. He’d been experimenting with more fine tuned control of the ability like this, but there was still some tricky parts that he and Tony needed to figure out together.

He grinned at the two women, as his shadow merged back into him. “See? I told you I could do it.”

Vion almost seemed disappointed.

“You don’t look too happy?” Noah asked, looking at the woman. Then, he realised something. “Did you… want to cross the river? With some kind of plan?”

The dragon woman did not reply for a long minute. The silence held between the two of them. Vion glanced back at the river behind her. A second later, in a quieter voice, she admitted. “I had thought of a plan. We could single out a deidacros, fight it, as these creatures are always hungry to fight, and then when it knew it couldn’t beat us, we’d use the prey we caught as lure and sit on top of the monster and sail across.”

Noah and Aurelia simply looked at her. The two glanced at each other. He knew Vion was something like a century old. But he also knew that she was treated like a teenager for all intents and purposes, and that was starting to become evident over time.

She was not a child, she was capable and a powerful young woman, and dragon, but she certainly wasn’t a mature adult.

Not that I am one either.

He patted Vion’s shoulder. “How about this. If we have to cross back at some point, we’ll use your method instead.”

That seemed to placate the Dragon woman, as she gave Noah a little nod.

“Let’s not waste too much time now, the hive is just there,” Aurelia said.

Here, through the gaps of the cleared near the shore, they could see it more clearly, the mountain peaks, as the foliage thinned down a little.

The group made their way closer.

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