165 Skyburner (1/2)

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I ended up finding four other bodies spread out along the border of silver territory and mountainscape. Each espen held the same eggs, in the same pit of their stomach, and it was always a he. Each corpse was fresher, the last one being brand new with blood still running.

I kept my eyes sharp as I leaped up past the mountains. I molded gravity over myself, keeping a casual pace. Otherwise, I'd outpace the damn octo-car. Swarms of birds kept getting in my way to a point I believed it was purposeful.

I wasn't into mass murder, but these fuckers had it coming. They funneled into a line before ramming themselves into me. After wiping off gallons worth of bird guts, I'd had enough.

That's why I cleared the skyline with Event Horizon as I spotted a speck on the horizon. I landed on the ground, staying low and stealthy. I stood still, praying the thing didn't see me first. It hadn't.

It flopped its enormous wings, sailing through the air with grace. It was a gialgathen, though bulkier than Alzoroth. Armor covered it, streaks of mana connecting charged gemstones. These crystals encrusted the dark green metal, the craftsmanship excellent.

Its wings dwarfed Alzoroth's as well, spanning wider than a house. It glided on those sturdy limbs, leaving contrails behind it. Thin, needle claws extended from the wings, just like on its hands. It shut its mouth, but it lacked cheeks, exposing the gums and teeth. It was ominous, nothing noble about it.

In the talons of its feet, an espen man flopped like the broken neck of a chicken. I grimaced as he closed in. I analyzed the body, but it returned nothing. The espen was already dead, his belly swollen and bulbous. I looked at the red gialgathen next.

Ryhstrika, Skyburner(lvl 9,076) - It's quite the rare occurrence that a natural creature gains an unknown status. That's what happens when you hone the physical might of the gialgathen to a razor's edge. You end up creating a Skyburner.

Their armor is composed of star iron, an alloy of orichalcum and meteoric ore. The slaves of these gialgathens encrust this shielding with charged diamonds, enhancing their already formidable mana pool.

Their combat instruction is vast, giving them experience against multiple fighting styles. Their tails are honed until they develop a callused lump of hardened scales. These scales can be ground up and used in place of diamonds.

Their cheeks are removed at birth. This gives them a swifter bite and allows for better care of their teeth, keeping them healthy. This also allows them to develop an augmented magical breath. Without cheeks and with the ability to open their mouths nearly 180 degrees, their breath is a potent weapon.

They hone their talons and claws, giving them the piercing of needles and the sharpness of broken glass. When flying, the draw water from the surrounding clouds to hydrate. Excess water is dispensed outwards once full, letting them leave contrails.

Though believed to be extinct, this Skyburner is alive and well. An ordinary sentient of your level would do well to avoid this behemoth. You, however, will find a good fight facing off against this creature.

I'd seen enough evidence to take action. I ran forward, diving into the ground. My mana charged in an instant, saturating my runic glyphs. With my strength surging, I jumped out of the earth, leaving behind a kinetic explosion.

I manipulated gravity, causing me to fall upwards instead of downwards. Without resistance, I shot through the wind at a blistering pace. Ryhstrika glanced down at me, its pupils dilating. Like a giant cannonball, I crashed into the Skyburner.

He and I shot sideways, the both of us tumbling through the air. To my surprise, his metal held, though my impact left a deep dent in his side. I condensed Event Horizon around him, the espen corpse already destroyed. The Skyburner howled out, snapping his claws at my back.

They left tiny dents in the metal of my armor, each point hard as diamonds. Ryhstrika straightened out his wings, stopping our descent. I fell off of him, tumbling in the air. I stabilized myself with a gravity well. By the time I did, the gialgathen had barreled toward me with his mouth open.

He snapped at me, and I struck at him. With technical prowess, he altered his momentum midflight to whip his tail at me. I deflected it before pulling him towards me with magic. I shot a hook at his armored belly, but he caught my fist with one of his feet.

He snapped from above and below with his jaws and tail. I whipped myself towards his gut, kicking with all my momentum. The clash of metal on metal flung him back, causing him to miss. We battled like this for several minutes, each of us strained to match the other.

As our strikes reached a fever pitch, he timed a bit at me. Caught between his upper and lower teeth, I pressed up and down to avoid death. Like a steamroller, he crunched me down, the gialgathen's strength overwhelming. I pushed up, my arms and legs cramping from the strain. Before he crushed me, I created an antigravity point at my center. I strengthened it, pushing everything away in all directions.

With a shaky rise, the monster's maw opened. I charged my mana, saturating my frame. Before I gained enough energy for a singularity, the Skyburner's belly expanded. I shot sideways as he opened his jaws. A plume of chemical fire burst forth, white hot in its intensity.

My eyebrows singed off from being near the plume, my hair igniting. The creature turned its mouth towards me, the fire blistering. I covered my face with armor, getting rid of my eye slit. Darkness covered me. Within seconds, my helmet lit up, turning white-hot from the heat.

I ignored the flashy attack, raising a hand out to the monster. With my charged mana, I created a dense gravity well that slammed the beast's jaw shut. Flames erupted from its nostrils, tears pouring from its eyes. The corneas dried up before igniting, the monster's fiery breath blinding itself.

Before the fiery breath ceased, I reached its jaw and walloped the creature. My fist struck with the force of a train, the monster's head whipping through the air. It turned full circle, letting me kick its face with another crisp blow. It tumbled back, so I shot myself forward. I pulled it in with magic, launching a series of heavy-handed hooks into its gut.

Each blow left dents in the metal. As we closed in on the ground, the Skyburner no longer controlled his descent. I oriented myself above it, speeding our drops with magic. We built momentum and speed, each of us falling at an unnatural pace towards the mountainside.

The beast crashed into the rocky earth, the mountain erupting at the collision. A crater formed as house-sized boulders shot outwards. Heat built from the destruction, rock melting into magma. The monster's armor ripped, bones breaking in its chest. A tidal wave of sound rolled through the entire landscape, bending trees.

Then I landed.

The armor in its chest caved in as blood sprayed from splits in its skin. The ground trembled, a wave rolling through the mountaintop like a tsunami on the ocean. Lava splashed outwards, the heat from friction melting stone. A plume of dust spewed from the mountain like a bomb went off.

The shockwave uprooted nearby trees. They tumbled like matchsticks. Landslides fell out from all angles, the cliffside falling apart. I stood up, unharmed and undazed. The gialgathen was all but slaughtered under the jolt. I waved my arms, sending out an antigravitational wave. The dust blew back, clearing my view of the landscape.

The mountain was devastated. I ogled at the catastrophic might of our battle, flabbergasted at what I'd done. I shook my head, the scene surreal. The trees around me disintegrated from Event Horizon, snapping me back to reality.

I shut down the aura, glancing down. In my status, there was no kill notification. This fucker was still alive. I stepped up to his face, his head twitching. I wrapped my hand around his neck, my grasp awkward. I pulled him up, looking at him.

My armor still glowed white hot from his earlier fire. My hand acted as a brand, singing his skin. He convulsed in my hand, death coming for him. A second later, it got him. I tossed him aside, sighing since I wasn't worming any information out of a corpse.

I whipped out my obelisk, taking pictures of the creature. After getting a view of it from multiple angles, I tore out chunks of its armor. I collected samples of its teeth, blood, and scales. I compressed the metal over the evidence, preserving it for later.

After gathering pieces of it, I leaned down and pressed my hand on the beast. My armor sapped up the corpse, draining it. Over several minutes, it disappeared. The only remnant of the Skyburner remaining was its bent, crumpled armor. It was sturdy stuff, so I decided to keep it.

Over the next few minutes, I bent and folded the metal into a ball. As I did, I ripped out the gemstones, collecting the interconnected diamonds. I put the ball of metal and the diamonds into my dimensional storage. Within a few minutes, nothing remained of the enormous Skyburner.

With the battle done, I dived into the earth before bursting out towards the octo-car. I kept myself falling towards it with a gravity well, flying over trees and other obstacles. I caught up to it over the next minute. The vehicle drove downhill on the other side of the mountain now. As I came up to it, Caprika opened the door. She leaned out of the car,

”Stay back!”