Chapter 329: Tia Unleashed (1/2)
”You ready, Tia?” said Li as let Tia hang from his arms.
”Ready!”
”Alright, off you go.” Li let go, and Tia flew straight down, passing through clouds and pockets of ash and distorting waves of heat. Her body glazed over with a sheen of gleaming black and green until she disappeared in the thick of a particularly large cloud.
When Tia emerged out the other side of the cloud, she was in her full draconic form. She had changed a good amount since the time she fully unleashed her draconic form against the undead haze. She was slightly larger, for one, and now there were several new elements to her that showed signs of the journey she had taken so far with Li.
Her antlered horns were wreathed in black magical energy. Her scales were a bright emerald green on the upper half of her body, gleaming with a luscious shine like the green of leaves reflected off of early morning dewdrops. The scales lining the underside of her neck and belly were a lighter shade of black, but overall, verdant green dominated her color palette.
The scales over her wings and around her tail were thicker and colored like oaken wood, arranged in a tiled formation reminiscent of plate armor. This was the [Living Armor] and [Hollow Branch] spells that she had absorbed from Li.
Both of them manifested as defensive features on Tia's body, showing that despite being a fighter, she was always one to look into the souls of others, to understand them and to protect those she loved before all else.
Some patches of scales around Tia's vitals, around her chest and lower stomach, were studded in gleaming blue adamantite from having devoured the metal back in the Triforge Mountains.
A single red gem shone with a fiery luster on Tia's neck – this was Lira's necklace.
Li felt proud of Tia, that she had come so far in so short a time. All of the time they had spent together was manifested on her so clearly, and in her strength, too, she had progressed.
Tia was now level 68 with extra stats from being a dragon, so she was comfortably stronger than the vast majority of all of humanity by this point. Strong enough to take on the Gigant, that was for sure.
Li watched carefully as Tia soared downwards, her wings flattened against her back to give her an aerodynamic boost.
The Fire Gigant roared and fired two more beams of flame from its hands. Tia dodged these with graceful ease, weaving past the beams and shooting straight down to the Fire Gigant's head.
Meanwhile, Li saw as the Alpha Rocs engaged in battle with the Flame Sprites. Where the Alpha Rocs were level 60, the Flame Sprites ranged from level 20 to 40. Individually, the sprites were no match for the Rocs, but the sprites numbered easily in the hundreds, seemingly emerging in an unending swarm from the lake of fire that spawned them.
The Rocs would quickly get overwhelmed over time.