Chapter 661: Prey (1/2)

Chapter 661 Prey

Ilea looked through the mesh of magic, trying to find rhyme and reason within the chaos. She could see bits and pieces, and then it all changed again.

“Dragons unfamiliar. Auras, enchantments, runes. Space same. Open your eyes.” the Meadow sent.

She grinned, the answer both unhelpful and calming at the same time. Either she had the tools to find the answer, or she would die. Unacceptable, she thought. To die to the first dragon she encountered. More annoying was that Audur wasn’t even a proper one! Green healing fire that made eyes explode and skin melt just didn’t fit with Ilea’s idea of a dragon fight. She wanted what Pierce had advertised. Not meant to reach this power? I will show you what I can do. You. The Ascended. The Monarchs, and everyone else who wants to be a pain in my fucking ass.

Ilea forced herself to calm down, her entire focus back on the mesh. She sent out a few ashen copies, telling them to stalk the halls and scout out everything. She wouldn’t learn anything but if it occupied Audur for a few more seconds before she decided to find and kill her, it was well worth her time.

‘ding’ ‘Sentinel Reconstruction [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 5’

‘ding’ ‘Azarinth Awakening [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 4’

‘ding’ ‘Sentinel Core [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 5’

‘ding’ ‘Arcane Circulation [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 3’

‘ding’ ‘Authority of Ash and Ember [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 3’

‘ding’ ‘Avatar of Ash [Enhanced] reaches 3rd lvl 4’

‘ding’ ‘Phaseshift reaches 3rd lvl 30’

‘ding’ ‘Bulwark of Ash reaches lvl 10’

‘ding’ ‘Deviant of Humanity reaches 3rd lvl 14’

‘ding’ ‘Identify reaches 2nd lvl 2’

‘ding’ ‘Meditation reaches 3rd lvl 15’

‘ding’ ‘Monstrous reaches lvl 3’

‘ding’ ‘Spear of Ash reaches lvl 15’

‘ding’ ‘Veteran reaches 3rd lvl 23’

‘ding’ ‘Arcane Magic Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 21’

‘ding’ ‘Blast Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 6’

‘ding’ ‘You have unlocked one third tier General skill point’

Ilea immediately invested it into wood magic resistance. She would’ve used her emergency point anyway, considering the circumstances. And of course there’s no resistance against healing. Even if it melts your face.

She smirked to herself. Ironic.

‘ding’ ‘Wood Magic Resistance reaches 3rd lvl 1’

Wood Magic Resistance – 3rd lvl 1

‘ding’ ‘You have challenged Audur, Guardian of the West – One Core skill point awarded’

Maybe I should fight more dragons, Ilea mused with a wry smile, getting up when she saw a wooden bird fly down the corridor. A fully charged blast of Embered Heart burned the creation, the charred bird falling to the ground. Can’t even fully incinerate this tiny thing, she thought, looking at the smoldering walls all around before she burned the bird away with another blast.

She could see Verena’s mark move further away. “You can send me a message. Once day, ten words.”

With everything she had seen, Audur either enjoyed a good hunt or simply didn’t care about the others. Must be boring to be the center of the fucking universe for hundreds of years. That’s how self important she sounds at least, she thought, moving through the corridors in an effort to both map out the place a little and meet back up with the others.

I wonder if we just made too much noise.

She wondered what else it could be, her eyes opening wide. Hereven found us too. My mental resistance? A bright shield to anyone that attacks it. Fuck, I never checked if it could be detected by anyone with a smidgen of mind magic to their name.

It was a gamble. If she disabled the resistance, she could very well be taken out instantly by Audur’s mind magic, if the dragon possessed as much. On the other hand, she couldn’t be located by the same means, if that was a thing at all. Still have one more use of Eternal Sight, so I guess the risk is manageable.

She disabled the resistance, moving on silently, her space awareness mixed with her dominion taking in every change in the auras permeating the whole area. Leaving the range would be the easiest answer, but it’s also what she would be expecting. Either that or she thinks we will go back to the gate. I doubt she would leave it here without ever destroying it for no reason.

There was plenty she didn’t know, but Ilea deemed her best course of action to be her Space Awareness. Nothing else than long range teleportation offered an easy out. Somehow she doubted even Pierce could outpace and escape a motherfucking dragon.

Ilea felt the mana density increase again, her wings stopping her as she twirled and flew into a nearby room. She activated Phaseshift and let herself sink into a stone bed, her body floating down before it was pushed up again slightly when she reached the ground. Good, didn’t float through.

She could see her mana tick down, the cost increasing with each passing second. Ilea could feel the mana increase yet again, several times over now, Audur slowly prowling past the large corridor where she had been in just a moment earlier.

She watched the dragon sniff the air, her sharp claws not leaving a single scratch on the stone floor as she moved.

Audur’s head poked into the room, her shoulders too large for more than that to enter. She growled lightly as her golden eyes scanned the room. Two seconds passed, Ilea holding her breath despite her phased state.

There it is!

‘ding’ ‘Space Awareness reaches 3rd lvl 29’

The pattern had repeated. She was sure of it. Her perception turned to unintelligible mush again, Ilea back to deciphering the new set of combinations. She tried to burn the imagine into her mind. Its repeated appearance meant the Dragon wasn’t a master of space magic like the Meadow, unable to create an infinite set of puzzles but using a set few on repeat, likely an automated process by the spell connected to its aura.

The dragon glanced around one more time, checking the adjacent room before it left, rushing out of her dominon’s range in mere moments.

Ilea disabled her spell, her body pushed out of the solid matter before her wings caught her in the air. She checked the hallway and found no trace of the dragon, the mana density returned to merely heavy. Even when she was close… nowhere near what the Meadow produces. And yet the source… is so much brighter. Is she trying not to kill the creatures that live here?

She could see the many beings move around, insects mostly within the dark and damp corridors of the Taleen facility. Her wings moved quickly, her eyes on the mark in the distance. They went quite far. Good.

It took her the better part of a minute to reach Verena through the many corridors, broken walls, and down several floors.

Both Pierce and Hereven were present, the former badly injured.

“Don’t heal me,” Pierce immediately said.

Ilea noted that the woman didn’t have any visible wounds, but she was in a rather rough state.

“You survived! But… your mind? What happened?!” the demon spoke.

“I disabled my mental resistance in an effort to hide my presence. She went the other way but she’s quick and I don’t know how long she’ll keep this up,” Ilea said.

“Until she has finished her hunt,” Hereven said.

“We should move, towards the open space at the center. I’ll be able to avoid her spells easier, and maybe get us out,” Ilea said.