CHAPTER 74(King Of The Skies)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

"So, what can Rocs do?" Welf asks as he rolls the fragment of Roc talon across his fingers.

"Well, they're generally considered the king of the skies."

"Fun," Thalie immediately replies with a grim look.

"And they have good control over the wind, it's like fighting a tornado, or hurricane depending on how powerful the Roc is," Yang says as he takes a deep breath.

"I-I Don't think I'll be much use up there... sorry," Thalie admits, staring at the ground, clearly not used to being this helpless.

"It's fine, honestly that's a pretty damn intimidating tree, and we can't fly up because---"

"lemme guess, it can feel magic..." Welf jokes as he looks over at Yang, only for his jovial attitude to fade away when Yang doesn't respond, "Oh c'mon!"

"Yeah, KING of the skies for a reason, Rocs are kinda a big problem, but we should be fine if we hit it in the nest where it doesn't have much space," Yang says as he points at the tree in the distance.

"Alright, what about you?" Welf asks Thalie with a bit of concern in his voice.

"I'll wait in the trees, if you get into trouble I'll come running," Thalie says with a faltering smile, still disappointed in herself for not overcoming her fear.

---10 Minutes later...

Standing at the bottom of the tree, Yang looks back over his shoulder at Thalie as she backs up into the forest to wait for them.

"I need to move slow, I still can't really control my mana too well so if I move too fast or get too excited it'll detect me, you ready?" He asks Welf.

The redhead taking out two daggers to use as climbing tools looks at him with a smile, "Yeah, and even if something happens, you can always fly us to the valley where it can't fit."

As Welf begins climbing with his blades digging into the smooth bark of the tree, Yang digs his fingers in to break into the bark, making his own handholds with his gauntlets.

---15Minutes later, 300ft above the ground...

"You know, I never imagined I'd be able to do things like this, being an adventurer is pretty awesome..." Yang says as he continues to climb the tree.

"Yeah, well, after all that time in my forge, this is honestly a breath of fresh air, a change of scenery is always nice," Welf grunts out a reply.

On the ground, Thalie can barely see their outlines as they climb the tree, a deep frown on her face as she wishes she could accompany them.

Arriving at the canopy, well over 500ft above ground, Yang signals Welf to be quiet as they proceed onward. The lack of wind in the dungeon making the leaves sit perfectly still, allowing them no noise cover as they approach the monster's nest.

Silently walking along the massive branches, narrowly avoiding touching any of the leaves, larger than their own bodies but leaves no less.

They finally make it to the absurd nest, the size of an entire football field in the middle of the tree, as if the tree was made specifically with the Roc in mind, and judging by how the dungeon acts that doesn't seem unlikely.

Less than a hundred feet away, the sleeping Roc sits perfectly still, it's body moving ever so slightly with every breath it takes. Both adventurers share a quick glance before Yang raises 3 fingers, beginning his countdown.

3.

He spreads his feet to shoulder distance and he prepares his stance.

2.

Both hands are placed in front of him, turning to Welf he mouths 'Pressure Damage' before nodding to the redhead, causing Welf to back up for safety and cover his ears.

1.

He begins to swirl wind around his arm, then fi---

---400ft above the ground, Falling...

*Slap*

Yang wakes up startled, air rushing past him as Welf holds onto him by the shoulder, slapping him awake while forcing a potion into his mouth.

Noticing their situation he immediately uses wind and fire to slow their descent before holding them aloft in the air.

"Ugh, what the hell..." Yang groans while holding his head.

"It felt your magic and reacted way too damn fast, caused a small storm and knocked us out, you got ragdolled and knocked out, uh, what's the plan for that..." Welf says while pointing up above the tree.

"CAW!"

The monsters' cry echoes through the floor as it soars above the massive tree, only to immediately begin a dive toward the hovering duo.

Seeing the danger Yang blasts off toward the tree, holding Welf tightly to make sure he doesn't drop him from this height.

"I'M GONNA DROP YOU IN THE NEST WHILE I DISTRACT IT, CHECK FOR A SMALLER ONE OR SOMETHING!" He yells out, trying to convey his message over the air rushing past them.

"GOT IT!" Welf replies as they make it to the trunk of the tree.

Focusing everything he had into his speed, ignoring the amount of Gs he's currently putting on Welf, potions could probably fix that he thinks, he shoots up vertically along the surface of the tree trunk.

"IT'S COMING!" Welf cries out as a shadow begins to descend onto them.

Tumbling in mid-air, Yang immediately rolls until his feet and head switch places, rocketing downward now he barely evades the razor talons of the Roc as they dig meters deep into the tree trunk.

Looking down at the redhead, Welf is completely unconscious, a severe nosebleed spilling blood into the air as they jet around the perimeter of the tree while ascending once more.

'Shit, too many Gs too fast,' Yank thinks as the canopy comes into view.

Quickly landing on a massive branch, Yang withdraws a potion and forces is into Welf's mouth.

"Mmmm," The young man grumbles and the healing liquid takes effect.

"CAW!"

The Roc approaches.

"Fuck, it's sensing the potion too, alright I hope you remember the plan," Yang says before placing another potion in Welf's hand and rocketing straight up, blasting through an opening in the leaves and flaring his magic, bringing all attention onto himself.

The battle for the skies begins.

Turning his attention to the massive monster, Yang can't help but smile. He's been waiting all week for a real challenge to appear, and now he finally got one.

"Time to knock you out of the sky buddy," Yang says as he lifts both his hands toward the Roc, the monster making a beeline directly toward him from below.

'PRESSURE DAMAGE'

Roaring flames and the colliding wind rushes forward, Yang's eyes open in a bit of surprise as the power behind his attack seems to be noticeably weaker.

His attack is suddenly blown apart as a beak easily larger than his body is mere meters away from him, wide open, not intent on devouring him, but dividing him on its razor edge.

Boosting himself to the right he narrowly avoids the bite, as the monster's wing passes under him the draft caused forces him to fight simply to stay in place and not be dragged along.

As he steadies himself and the Roc makes a wide circle, never letting him leave its sight Yang considers what the hell just happened.

"Pressure damage makes flames constantly blaze with repeating colliding layers of wind, so what the---ah, I always use it in the dungeon, in rooms with walls, I'm effectively in the sky here so the attack can't keep bounding back in on itself and becomes weaker spread out, shit."

Noticing the monster lining up to grab onto him, Yang steadies his breath, building blue flames into his right hand, then concentrating them into his fingers, then into just his index finger.

Rushing forward in the most absurd game of chicken he can imagine, both combatants push the speed toward each other, neither taking their eyes off the opponent.

Within two hundred feet of each other, Yang is the first to strike.

Raising his right hand, index finger pointing forward.

'HEAT SHOT!'

One blazing line of blue flames, effectively acting as a condensed version of one of his fist attacks, taking the half a minute it did to prepare the stronger heat in the attack.

Seeing this, the Roc reacts instantly, raising its head up and flapping its wings forward.

All 200 ft of its wingspan grinds to a halt in mid-air as a burst of wind cancels its momentum completely.

A tidal wave of green wind magic rushes forward and slams into Yang, he gets knocked through the air, ironically having the wind knocked out of him as he can't even stabilize himself.

Flames blaze on his body in every direction as he tries to try to make himself stop, slowing his momentum just enough before he slams into the wall of the dungeon, hard enough that he just knows he'll be feeling it in the morning.

"Ahhhh, fuAHHHHH!" His curse is immediately turned into a scream as he opens his eyes to be greeted by talons descending onto him.

Digging him and a chunk of the dungeon wall out, the Roc begins flying around holding Yang between its talons and the boulders it tore out of the wall as it shakes them like a rattle.

Taking his chance, Yang grabs onto the offending talon and begins to use his flames, pushing everything he can into his hands as they hold onto the talon.

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" He cries out as blue flames erupt in the Roc's entire foot, the entire foot going up in flames.

As the talon barely even reacts, much less the Roc itself, Yang finally realizes what's going on, a sheen of green wind dissipates his flames and heat before it can properly set in.

'Its mastery of wind is ridiculous, fire definitely won't work and the wind was never an option, I need to get to the crystal with one try then... I'll just cut to it.'

Moving his hands from the talon to the boulder behind him, Yang focuses his heat on the already melting stone, completely liquefying it, with some effort on his part admittedly.

The sudden lack of grip allows him to slip out of the now roomy claw.

"CAW!" The monster cries out as it feels everything it was holding now gone.

Not straying far from his opponent, Yang remains on the underside of the bird, cautiously maneuvering himself around, dodging the flapping wings, and pushing himself more than ever before just to keep up and not be knocked away as he just barely manages to make it onto the monsters' back.

As the Roc notices the new passenger, it immediately begins to struggle, thrashing around and even doing barrel rolls, but Yang held onto the feathers, he refused to be shaken off.

Crawling onto the middle of its back, Yang could barely catch his breath at the speed they were going and the intensity of the fight.

These few clashes took more mana than anything else he's fought during this expedition.

"Alright, one cut!" Yang declares as he raises his hand, open palm and all fingers facing downward into the thrashing Roc.

The flames around his body fade away as lighting begins crackling on him, deep steady breaths cause his chest to rise and fall, the rushing wind making it difficult to focus but the high stakes make it that much easier. Death is one hell of a motivator after all.

'Elemental wheel'

A ring of purple lightning arcs to life at his back, his muscles become tense, twitching from all the power running through his being, his eyes spark as lightning jumps off his body and into the atmosphere.

'Lightning blade' he thinks with one deep breath.

Focusing more magic into this than any attack he's ever done, lightning always takes more mana than all but creating earth from magic, but this time he couldn't be stingy with his mana.

A purple blade forms around his fingers, shifting from sparks, to crackling tendrils of current, to a thin veil completely surrounding his hand, and eventually ending as a full purple blade formed around his straightened fingers.

With one straight thrust downward, his lighting clashes for an instant against the windshield on the monster, before piercing it with ease, as his attack finally breaches the feathers and flesh of the monster

Opening his hand and spreading his fingers inside the creature, his lightning instantly spreads out in all directions, pouring any mana he can spare into this strike, the blood pouring out of the wound evaporates before it can even run up his arm, the wound itself becomes burnt shut after as arcs of lightning dance around the monster.

"CAAAWWW!"

The Roc cries out one last time, before it shatters into a massive cloud of ash, the crystal finally shattered.

As the body disappears from below him, Yang finds himself falling through the sky, snapping out of his daze he stretches a hand forward to slow his fall, only for the flames to barely even ease his mind as it changes nothing.

"Shitshitshitshit!" He cries out, while crashing into the canopy of the forest below.

END CHAPTER---