The Whitehills Wyvern was a big lizard.
Back on Earth, pre-System, there had been lots of descriptions of wyverns. Some said they were just small dragons, others that they were a separate species. All depended on the book. Post-System, the wyverns I’d encountered looked like the one I was now facing.
Which answered the age-old nerd question of what exactly a wyvern was.
The thing facing me was long and skinny, the tail mostly as wide as the body and extending a good twelve feet or more past the legs. At the tip, the tail was skinnier, but still pretty thick. The rear legs were short, coming out the side of the body, bending at the knees. The arms were similar, but had the long leathery wings attached. The wings were also attached to the body. The neck, surprisingly, wasn’t that long, the head almost dagger-like, the snout like an alligators with rows of sharp teeth. Bright yellow eyes with red iris glared at me as the monster charged across the rocky ground.
I’d found the Whitehills Wyverns in what I guess were the Whitehills. I wasn’t sure why sections of the Tower Biome had names, but apparently they did. The Whitehills were all the way across from the main entrance, and I’d got to kill some bears, elk and wolves on the way. Gathered more of the needed Resources. I was getting pretty close to finishing this Biome.
After the farce of a duel, I’d talk some more with Sunie, organizing our first run together. He was part way through the Forest Biome too, and it didn’t make sense to work together to finish it. We decided to do the next Biome together. And that would be tomorrow. Today was my day and I wanted to get as much of the Forest Biome done as I could.
The Alphas were going to be the hardest part.
For something so long, and with such weird legs, the wyvern was fast. It was coming uphill toward me, my back to the cliff. The ground was steep, covered in loose rocks. The lizards were hard to find, their scaly hides all shades of gray that blended in with the stones. It was easiest to find them when they were flying, tag it with an Ability, and then fight it on the ground. They didn’t roam in packs, which made it easier too.
I dodged to the side as the wyvern rushed at me, sapping some of its momentum as the head turned to snap at me. Really bad design feature to have such a short neck. But then the front half lifted off the ground and the body bent, bringing the head right at my back.
I ducked low as the head sailed over. That was interesting. Hadn’t thought the thing could bend like that. Did the ones back home do that? Rolling onto my back, I punched up at the soft underbelly.
Only it wasn’t soft.
Was like hitting a wall. Good thing I had the force protection around my fists. My punch still damaged it, I could feel the scaly flesh denting under the impact and the head snapped up, but it had some tough hide. I rolled to the side as it tried to stomp at me. Popping up I could see the thing had bent in a U shape, the tail next to the head. That tail thumped the ground angrily.
They wyvern shook its head, hurt from the throat punch.
I jumped up, giving myself a boost, and landing on the middle of the wyvern’s back. It twisted again, bending in an impossible angle, snapping at me as I leapt off. Big bendy lizards sucked to fight.
The body snapped back, the head turning to bite at me. I dove forward into a roll, popping up facing the wyvern who was coming my way. I darted to the side, punching the head, following with an uppercut. The monster’s head snapped back down and I punched it in the eye. The scaly lid closed, protecting it, but I’d done some damage.
This was taking too long and I had thirty of the things to kill plus the big daddy.
I kicked the underside of the jaw, snapping the head up and exposing the underside of the neck. Shaping the force around my fist into a dagger shape, I stabbed up, adding in the stored kinetic energy. My force dagger burst through the scales, the force dagger stabbing into the brain. The body convulsed and fell to the ground, quickly, dragging me with it.
“Dammit,” I muttered, pushing the head to the side so I could free my pinned hand.
I shook brain, blood and scales off as I stepped away from the lizard. For years, I’d just used my Force Essence to form defensive barriers or add extra damage to my attacks. Figuring out how to shape it into ranged lances had been great but during the duel with Boro, where I didn’t want to show off anything but extra strength in my punches, I’d taken the lance idea and made it smaller daggers. Worked great but didn’t give me any kinetic energy to play with.
Just another tool in my arsenal.
Touching the body, it disappeared leaving my loot behind.
YOU HAVE GAINED +2 WHITEHILLS WYVERN HIDE, +4 WHITEHILLS WYVERN SCALES, +1 FORCE ESSENCE
I absorbed the Essence and pulled up my Status.
NICHOLAS MARCUS HOWELL
Path Of The Blitzstriker
Level 103
Strength: 147
Endurance: 163
Dexterity: 169
Willpower: 179
Perception: 147
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Primary Essence: Motion Level 104
Secondary Essence: Manipulation Level 104
Support Essence: Force Level 105
Support Essence: Resistance Level 107
Support Essence: Regeneration Level 105
Support Essence: None
Multiversal Points: 25,242
Tower Points (First Floor): 26,240/200,000
QUESTS:
FIND 120 CLUMPS OF WHITEMOSS 75/120
FIND 300 OAKEN ACORNS 275/300
GATHER 100 BUSHELS OF PONDTAILS 83/100
GATHER 120 STACKS OF BIRCHEN LOGS 107/120
GATHER 75 WHITEMOSS WOLF HIDE 57/75
GATHER 100 HORRISLEAF ELK ANTLERS 71/100
PERMITS:
HUNT ALPHA HORRISLEAF ELK 0/1
HUNT ALPHA WHITEMOSS WOLF 0/1
HUNT ALPHA URSASPINE 0/1
HUNT ALPHA WHITEHILLS WYVERN 0/1
SLAY 50 WHITEMOSS WOLVES 50/50
SLAY 50 URSASPINES 43/50
SLAY 30 WHITEHILLS WYVERN 1/30
I’d gotten a good amount of Resources too, but just from talking with Jeriyan and Fields talks with the crafters in Solace, it took a lot of Resources to make anything. One hide wasn’t enough to make even a set of leather bracers. If it was as easy as one hide to make something, there wouldn’t be a need to farm the Tower floors.
The Whitehills were not really hills, but just a rocky slope leading up to the mountains. The forest ended, a pretty abrupt line, and then the slope began. There were little cracks in the hill, kind of like small valleys, lots of boulders and small cliffs. All leading up to the big cliffs, which I stood in front of. They were tall and pretty unclimbable, forming the border of the Whitemoss Forest Biome.
I couldn’t see any more wyvern, but there had to be more. There was supposed to be a Dungeon around here too. The Cliffside Walk.
That sounded all kinds of fun.
***
Three more wyverns later and I found the Dungeon entrance.
A wide gorge cut through the rocky hills, a river flowing along the bottom that ran through the forest and to the pond. The river came out of the cliffs at a fall about a hundred feet away from where I stood. Loud, crashing against the rocks below, sending up spray making everything slipper. The entrance was across the gorge. A cave set into the cliff, a narrow ledge out front, a rickety old rope bridge leading across.
One of those with wood planks tied to the bridge, a plank every foot or so.
I’d seen far too many movies. I knew how this went.
Granted the movies were twenty-five plus years ago. Back in Solacetown, one of the engineers was working on a way to use the arcanum crystals we harvested as some kind of projector so could maybe play movies again. That would be cool.
A movie on a big screen, beer in hand, burgers. Back in a simpler life.
I studied the bridge some more. It looked pretty bad but it couldn’t be that bad. Other people walked across it all the time. The Dungeons were instanced, but not the biome itself. I still hadn’t encountered any one else yet. And of course, as I was thinking that, I heard a strange buzzing.
Looking across the gorge, two people walked out of the cave. I could see a faint blue shimmering behind them, brighter around their bodies as they moved and stopped short, looking across the bridge at me.
Two beastmen. A tank and support, judging by their gear. Both looked like walking goats, complete with the bent knees, covered in shaggy fur. One was mostly gray and the other was brown and white. Even with the bent knees, both would be at least a foot taller than I was. The one with brown fur wore a light green robe, slit on the sides. He carried a gnarled staff topped in a green gem, with horns that were short and pointing back. The gray furred guy was big. Very big. Muscular, wearing a leather kilt and vest, leather bracers. His horns were long and curled, the tips pointing forward. The big guy carried a trident and shield.
We stared at each other across the bridge for a bit, sizing each other up. I was pretty sure I could take ‘em, and they were probably thinking the same thing about me.
“Let me move out of the way,” I finally said, figuring they weren’t going to cross the bridge with me directly on the other side.
The biomes weren’t safe rooms. Which is something I had to keep in mind now that I was making enemies. With that obelisk in the Hub recording times and records, it was pretty easy to figure out which biome someone could be hunting in.
I walked about twenty feet down the trail, giving the area the once-over to make sure no wyverns had been trying to sneak up on me. I may be the trustworthy sort but I didn’t know about the goatboys. Maybe they’d see me fighting a wyvern and think some extra loot would be worth backstabbing a lone Adventurer.
The big guy walked to the bridge, eyes never leaving me. He walked across without stopping, the bridge swaying under his weight. Of course he’d trust it, he’d walked across it at least once already. He had to weigh two of me, so if the bridge could take his weight, it could take mine.
Once across he waited a couple feet from the start, eyes not leaving mine. His stance was easy, but could shift pretty quickly if I tried anything. The thinner, but still taller than me, goatman walked across. The two stood there, watching me watch them.
“Are ya doing it alone?” the thin one said, his voice harsh sounding.
They had the really freaky goat eyes, which I’d always found hard to look at.
“I was planning to.”
The Cliffside Walk was rated as a duo dungeon, but Stylo had said I should have no problem doing those. The two solo I had done had been pretty easy. Relatively. My easy was probably someone else’s difficult.
“It’s a hard one,” the goatman continued. “Be tough alone.”
“I think I’ll do okay.”
“Be yer death,” he said, tapping the big guy on the shoulder.
With a grunt, the two walked down the path, passing within easy trident reach of me. But they did nothing, their eyes never left mine until they were about twenty feet down the path. I turned my back on them and headed for the rope bridge.
