Jer Patch
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Chapter 35: The skies the limit
🕑 Added 2025-02-28 15:00:08 +0000 UTCMy spear sliced in before I made impact. It dug deeper than I expected, as half the shaft sunk in as my feet finally hit. Pain raced up my feet and my knees trembled as I tried to gain purchase on the massive back of the filer. It jerked down and roared into the air, finally noticing something that was now attacking it.
The giant flier’s wings flapped rapidly as I dug in with the claws on my left hand. My right still clutched around my spear shaft.
Must not let go!
My claws got purchase, and I steadied myself on the thing’s back as it suddenly curved to the left in a tight downward spiral. My feet lifted completely off again as it flew sideways. Between my claws and the spear, I managed to hold on, but only barely.
Pain lanced up the fingers that were wrapped around the metal shaft of my spear, but I didn’t dare let go. Tears streamed down my face and a scream escaped.
I could do this!
A golden creature swooped nearby, arrows firing from its back.
Go, Lenna!
The giant flier pulled out of the curve and dove straight toward the ground instead. I twisted my body to keep as close as possible to its back. Wind flowing underneath me wouldn’t help to stay on, and I tried hard to keep my chest against the Giant beast’s feathers.
The places where my claws attached to my knuckles burned.
I forced more energy into my spear tip, making it burn deeper inside the Giant Creature.
It screamed again, pulling out of the dive but still heading toward the ground. My boots slammed into its back again before bouncing up from the contact.
It twisted sideways, its beak pointed in my direction, clearly trying to take a bite of the thing that was hurting it.
One of my claws snapped.
I screamed. One more followed, and I retracted the other two. Letting my left hand go, I couldn’t keep my place. Air rushed under me, increasing the pull on my right hand.
Then my fingers cramped, released, and I went flying.
Air rushed all around me, and I tried to stop the tumble by spreading my limbs out to catch as much air as possible.
My cloak was in my inventory. I might be able to use that to slow down.
A shadow darted at me and yanked me upward. Golden talons encircled me much less comfortably than before. One was between my legs, with another under my armpit. The sudden jerk made me cry out, but at least I wasn’t falling anymore.
It felt like my shoulder had popped out of the socket while my hip screamed.
Still, better than dead.
My friendly Pteranodon to the rescue. It circled the arena once, slowing down as the counter ticked by in the upper corner. Then it dropped me from a much lower height.
I slammed into sand, bones cracking. I rolled multiple times to slow down. Grit coated inside my mouth as I screamed before snapping my lips shut.
I stopped rolling, though my head continued to spin.
Pain was everywhere. Especially my hip, shoulder, and forearm.
I rested there for a few minutes as my head continued to spin, breathing with my mouth parted just above the sand. The low wall stood several feet in front of me.
Screams reached me, and I opened my eyes again before turning my head.
Flames covered one side of the giant flier’s head, and blood dripped from its eyes. More arrows rained down from above as Lenna rode on the back of a second golden flier.
She looked like a prehistoric amazon goddess raining destruction.
I needed to move. Somehow.
I lifted myself to my knees and almost cried. Meat appeared in my right hand and I tore into it, using as few movements as possible. Each swallow reduced the splitting pain, if only a little.
Hammy grunted as he grappled with the creature’s leg weighing it down, though it flapped its wings multiple times to try to take to the air. His feet lifted off twice before Dengu launched himself into the air, claws outstretched and landing on its back.
The great flier screamed again.
I took a deep breath, pausing my binge to take measure of my body. My hip felt usable while my shoulder still ached, but my shoulder wasn’t out of its socket anymore.
I could do this.
Hammy slammed a spike into its foot.
The flier leaned forward and then slammed to the ground, dust billowing up in all directions. Hammy was still underneath it, and I couldn’t see if he was ok. Dengu was on its back frantically slashing.
I climbed to my feet unsteadily, and the first couple of steps hurt. My speed slowly picked up as I raced to join the battle. Hopefully, my spear remained in the thing’s back. I tried to grow the claws from my left hand, but instead a burning pain raced up my forearm bringing tears to my eyes.
No go.
Back to old trusty.
A sharp tooth appeared in my right hand as the flier stood, leaning forward on its feet and wing joints before suddenly flinging back. Dengu flew off and a wing shot out slamming right into him, sending him even farther away.
Hammy appeared on the far side of the giant flier, looking, thankfully, in decent shape.
The beak stabbed at Hammy as I raced into the range of its right-wing joint.
It stood with each wing joint in the sand to keep itself upright.
Blood sprayed as I sliced into the sensitive area. Its head jerked back, missing Hammy by inches.
Its wing snapped in my direction, but I rolled away. Pain flashed up my body at the movement, but pain was something I could recover from. Death was decidedly more permanent..
Still, getting up the second time took even longer.
Burning rubber filled my nose, breaking through the smell of dust as the creature howled again.
This time the piercing wail had me clutching at my ears.
Its eyes locked with mine as its beak jabbed.
Dengu rushed by, leaping on top of its now lowered head. The filer panicked, stepping to one side, shaking its beak.
Hammy launched himself at its leg.
I limped closer, and this time I cut the taunt skin of the wing.
It shook its wing, trying to hit me.
I leaped up, stabbing in again, as gravity brought me back to the sand.
The smallest whimper escaped the beast as it stumbled again, this time toppling to the arena floor. Dust filled the air, sticking to the wet blood on my clothing.
I started coughing, and it took several moments to stop. The notification didn’t help.
[You have gained bonus experience from combat for surviving against level 30, Giant Pterodactylus. Your experience has been banked.]
Dengu chirped into the air, near Hammy. He nudged him with his head, making me smile. I tossed the tooth into my inventory and studied the giant carcass in front of me.
It was done. Now I just needed my spear back.
Lenna joined us on the ground after a few moments, saying goodbye to the golden creature. She literally hugged the beast before it took off for the skies.
It took longer than I’d hoped it would to find my spear. During the fight, the shaft had bent slightly, but it still retracted. Yet, I didn’t know how to reinforce the metal any more than it was. John had used some of the shielding from the spaceship to repair it last time. Hopefully, he could do more once we finished this dungeon.
I took several moments to get to the heart of the Giant Pterodactylus, but I didn’t bother cutting any of the rest of it up for meat. The weight of time bared down on me, like some sort of doom clock ticking in the back of my mind.
Dengu dove in, tearing and eating several bits while I dug for the heart.
[You have devoured a Giant Pterodactylus and gained bonus experience. Your experience has been banked.]
Still no wings. Maybe this wasn’t the way to gain flight.
I pulled up my screen for the banked experience to see where I stood.
Banked Levels: 11
Banked Stat Points:
STR: 22
DEX:
>QUICK - I: 22
>FLEX: 22
CON/TOUGH: 22
INT: 22
WIS:
>FORT: 22
>WILL: 22
CHA: 22
FREE: 66
My free stats made me grin, though the rate at which I banked levels had decreased, which made sense as I thought about it. If each level needed more experience than the level before, the system would logically require the same even when banked. I’d be able to fine-tune my build however I wanted, though, with that many stat points stockpiled.
We just needed to finish this temple first.
I snacked on my stores and ate each bite slowly, to help the deep ache in my left forearm along with any other leftover pain.
If growing wings happened the same way growing the claws did, I wasn’t sure if I could handle the pain level. I made a note to get more information from Noseen about how to actually get wings. Or, what type of skill would make that possible?
Hammy approached me with a tired expression.
I tried to smile, but failed as I tossed another piece of meat in my mouth.
“That didn’t go as planned.” He looked beat. An enormous bruise covered the side of his face.
”I mean, we won. That was the plan, right?” I asked with a soft grin. That feeling of falling in the sky had terrified me, but I kind of wanted to do it again. I finally understood people who went skydiving.
”I mean, I did my best to hold the creature to the ground after you stabbed it from above.” He shook his head with his lips open. “How did you not break your legs?”
I paused, taking a moment to think about it.
“My armor skill reinforced them right before impact, but it still hurt. A lot.” It hadn’t just been that. I pulled up my physical skill.
[Adaptive Body - II: Your body is improved from head to toe, needing less water and rest. You automatically heal poison and venom. Whatever you devour provides energy and speeds up the healing of any injuries or fatigue. When threatened, you can create heavily armored areas providing increased resistance to damage.]
I assumed that the armor and improved body kept me from shattering my legs. Some of those free stats probably needed to go toward my toughness, just in case something like this happened again. Not that I leaped on the back of things to stab them all the time, but I had to admit that I hadn’t really been a part of the system all that long, and I’d already had to do it at least once.
“And you did it anyway,” he mumbled.
”Of course. I didn’t want us to get stuck in this temple.” This time I glanced at him, a little confused. “There were only two options: the Golden Fliers, or touch the eggs in the nest.”
The three eggs in the center of the arena remained untouched.
I shrugged. “I noticed you didn’t join us in the skies.”
“Did you think I’d remove my armor and get on the back of one of those? No, thank you.” He tossed his golden egg at me. “I think it's the last one left. Lenna fed hers more than one to stay in the skies.”
I studied the egg again, not sure how useful it’d be.
[Golden egg, Temple Reward.]
Okay, I liked rewards.
Lenna approached us and laughed at Dengu, who was a mess. Then again, she also glanced at me. I knew dust, dirt, and blood covered me from head to toe, but there wasn’t anything to do about it. Yet, she hadn’t gotten a spec of dust on her, or a single injury.
How did that work?
“Are we ready?” I asked, turning to the only opening in the temple. Hopefully, we’d find a different way back down to the fountain. Or maybe it worked like the other temples.
Most of my pain had faded. Despite that, I hurt. Rest would help, but we didn’t have the time for it.
”How did you know golden eggs could bond beasts?” asked Lenna.
“Not a clue.” I chuckled, grinning at her. “I guessed. We had five golden eggs, and there were five statues. It kinda made sense. It was that, or hurt the Giant Pterodactylus’ eggs, upsetting it.”
“We wouldn’t have wanted to do that,” she said, frowning. “It might have flown into a rage.”
Hammy chuckled on the other side of her at the pun, but Lenna kept talking.
“Different golden objects can start a bond between you and a beast.”
Dengu approached and then bonked Lenna on the shoulder.
“That’s how me and this guy bonded. I earned a golden egg from my class.”
That hadn’t been my assumption. I’d thought it must have been an earned skill or something.
”Do eggs work with any creature?” I asked.
“Only if they come from an egg.”
“Are you sure you want to give this to me?” I held up the golden egg to Hammy.
[Golden Egg, Temple Reward, Used to start the Bonding process with certain beasts.]
“Oh yeah, I’m gonna Nope the whole Bonding thing.” He shook his head.
“What about you?” I asked, turning to Lenna. “Do you want this?”
“You can only bond once.” She smiled at Dengu, who chirped happily as she patted his neck, even covered in blood and dust.
They were too adorable together.
“We both choose this. We wouldn’t want it any other way.” She turned back to me. “Keep it, you might find someone to connect with.”
