Chapter 22: Misty Valley (Part 2)
Over a dozen winged wyverns, several times larger than griffins, quickly caught up. Linley immediately activated the Coiling Dragon Ring, pushing his flight speed to the maximum while silently chanting the incantation for the ‘Earthguard Armor’ spell.
“Whoosh!”
Only the sound of rushing wind could be heard as Linley left the green-striped python far behind. But the winged wyverns were incredibly fast, closing the distance with each passing moment. By the time Linley reached the top of the canyon cliff, the dozen or so winged wyverns had already charged straight after him, continuing their pursuit.
Linley leaped and fled at top speed through the forest, but no matter how fast his legs moved, they couldn’t compare to the flight speed of the winged wyverns.
“Caw~~~” The piercing cries of the winged wyverns rang out.
With wingspans exceeding twenty meters, the dozen winged wyverns spread their wings, blotting out the sky above Linley. The area around him darkened as the wyverns dove down simultaneously, spewing scorching flames from their mouths. The surrounding trees instantly burst into flames.
The ‘Earthguard Armor’ on Linley’s body flowed, protecting every part of him.
“Sizzle~~” The flames burned against his skin, and the rocky surface of the Earthguard Armor shimmered with earthen yellow light.
Among the dragon race, winged wyverns and ground dragons were the lowest tier, but even the weakest dragons were rank 6 magical beasts. Ground dragons and winged wyverns, in particular, were pack animals. A dozen rank 6 beasts attacking from the air would force even a rank 7 warrior to flee for his life.
The dozen winged wyverns dove down—
“Screech!” A wyvern’s sharp claws struck Linley’s Earthguard Armor hard. The armor trembled slightly, its golden-yellow light flickering.
“I can’t take this head-on!”
Startled by the force of that claw strike, Linley immediately dashed frantically through the forest, heading straight for the roughest terrain. Leaping, jumping, climbing… Linley was giving it his all. The dozen wyverns jostled above him, each trying to grab him with their claws.
“Yowl!”
Bebe let out an angry, piercing shriek. The Shadowmouse ‘Bebe’ suddenly expanded, growing from twenty centimeters long to a full half-meter. But even at half a meter, Bebe was still a tiny speck compared to the wyverns with their twenty-meter wingspans.
“Swish!” Bebe pushed off Linley’s shoulder, turning into a black blur as it shot toward a diving wyvern.
With the sound of cracking bones and the wyvern’s terrifying screech, the beast plummeted from the sky. Bebe leaped from that wyvern onto another, sinking its teeth into the creature’s neck twice, killing it outright.
Winged wyverns were only rank 6 beasts, while Bebe could even drive off a rank 7 ‘Velociraptor’ in a fight.
Moreover—
The gap between rank 6 and rank 7 was a massive chasm, with a huge difference in power. Bebe couldn’t fly, but once it got onto a wyvern’s body, the wyvern was as good as dead. In just a short while, three of the dozen wyverns had been killed.
The remaining wyverns, terrified, immediately flew higher. Bebe stared up at them helplessly, unable to fly itself.
The wyverns circled in the high air for a while, then let out a few mournful cries before flying back toward the Misty Valley.
“What a terrifying valley,” Linley muttered, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
As he retrieved the magical beast cores from the three wyverns, Linley pondered the Misty Valley.
“Grandpa Doehring,” Linley called out. Doehring Cowart flew out from the Coiling Dragon Ring, still dressed in his immaculate moon-white robe. He smiled at Linley. “Linley, what is it?”
Linley’s heart hadn’t yet calmed.
“Grandpa Doehring, I just entered a misty valley. I didn’t expect it to be filled with so many magical beasts—green-striped pythons, huge reptilian creatures I couldn’t fully see but were no smaller than Velociraptors, and winged wyverns… And what I saw was only a small part of the valley. I never even glimpsed the valley’s true depths.”
Just thinking about it made Linley shudder. A valley teeming with so many magical beasts.
“Oh?” Doehring Cowart looked intrigued. “This Misty Valley has so many beasts? Interesting. Normally, magical beasts of the same species gather together. The ones you mentioned aren’t even the same type, yet they’re all gathered in the Misty Valley. Interesting, very interesting. If I were still alive, I’d probably go in and explore.”
Linley shook his head with a wry smile. “There were also Azureheart Grasses in that valley. I didn’t have time to pick one earlier; I only managed to get one.”
“Azureheart Grass?” Doehring Cowart’s eyes lit up. “A place where Azureheart Grass grows is no ordinary place. There must be some treasure in that Misty Valley, or perhaps an extremely powerful magical beast—like a rank 9 beast, or even a Saint-level beast. But…”
Doehring frowned. “Powerful beasts usually have territorial instincts. If a strong beast were there, it shouldn’t allow winged wyverns, green-striped pythons, and other beasts to coexist.”
“Yet the winged wyverns, green-striped pythons, and those reptilian beasts you mentioned all get along. Strange, very strange.” Doehring couldn’t figure it out either. The situation in the Misty Valley seemed contradictory.
Linley smiled. “Grandpa Doehring, don’t overthink it. I’ll come back to explore once I reach rank 7 mage and can cast ‘Flight’.”
At rank 7 mage, his Earthguard Armor would reach the ‘Jade’ level, and auxiliary spells like Supersonic would also be far more powerful. Then Linley would have absolute confidence in facing those wyverns. With ‘Flight’, he’d be confident enough to venture into the Misty Valley.
“Rank 7 mage? You’re only a rank 5 mage now. That’s a long way off,” Doehring said, pouring cold water on his hopes.
Linley knew it too.
Reaching rank 6 mage might not be too hard, but going from rank 6 to rank 7 was a huge hurdle.
“The path is walked step by step,” Linley said with a faint smile. “I’ve been in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts for nearly two months now. It’s time to head back. The return journey is nearly a thousand miles and will take several days. It’ll be good training.”
With Bebe perched on his shoulder, Linley began his journey back.