Chapter 225: The First Abyss (IV): Up A Mountain

They met up with a couple other teams of grey rock demons, and just like the first skirmish. The encounter with them had been really short and bloody. After their first three encounters where communication seemed impossible with the demons preferring to go for conflicts rather than a peaceful resolution. Never the less they made their way across jagged and scared earth, nestled and hidden by horn like stalagmites that jutted meters into the air and pulsed with veins like ribs and limbs of an ancient eldritch entity. Rezar didn't know which was which, but eventually they got to the mountain and began to scale it upwards to get to the castle that was built one hundred and fifty meters on top of it.

Halfway up the mountain Rezar noticed something, the closer they got to the castle the more the air seemed to smell of Sulphur, how his nose knew what he was smelling was Sulphur he wasn't exactly sure, but it was there alright, and it was somewhat invasive. And at the same time the scent seemed to carry an intention, Rezar shifted his gaze to the left and noticed a paused Kitagawa who raised his sensitive nose into the air, tracing the direction the Sulphur seemed to come from. Rezar followed his gaze, letting his sharper than average vision helps him locate anything untoward that's not supposed to be here or rather what was the source of the Sulphur. And then his gaze met that of a dragon, prompting his heart to skip a beat in shock.

A few more minutes of looking at the creature that was quietly staring at them let Rezar know that he wasn't exactly looking at a dragon. The four limbs weren't there, just a pair of powerful hind legs and wings similar to that of a bat. Its snout was a little bit longer and stretched wide in a flat manner like that of a crocodile, and them there was of course the single horn in the middle of their head. Rezar shifted his gaze to Tristian and Screet, and then at the castle above his head. he knew he didn't have much of a choice anymore, a wyvern was a lesser dragon, and while he was sure they could probably fight it, a battle with a wyvern would bring a lot of attention to them, they needed to leave, that was enough exploration for the day.

"Kitagawa you and I will play with this over grown lizard for a while, the rest of you take the chance to come down the mountain and get into the stalagmite forest. Make your way back towards the direction we came from, we've seen enough." Normally they would argue about wanting to protect him, but the person speaking wasn't Rezar the Man with a mischievous streak and an uncontrollable curiosity. The King of the bone horde had given an order, and it would be treason for anyone of them to go against his wishes.

Rezar gave Kitagawa a snarky grin, prompting the commander of his king guard to roll his eyes at him. Kitagawa knew exactly what that look On Rezar's face meant. It meant win or lose he was going to enjoy this fight a lot more than he should. Rezar took a deep breath as his eyes changed color from the normal piercing blue, this time it wasn't the hetechromia of red and gold, now all that could be seen from his eyes was red, red as deep as the red of blood, and in those orbs of red the wyvern saw a challenge, and in return it sounded its own right back.

*Roooooaaaaarrrrrr *

[Mana Charge]

The moment he used the skill, he pushed off from the mountain's surface, it was almost as if he was committing suicide by jumping from this height, but that was far from his current plan. One of the Khophesh of Vita Gratia shot out, its gleaming silver blue chain shining like a beacon within the confines of hell. It stabbed into a ledge, and Rezar willed it to pull up, whilst swinging him the direction of the wyvern.

The Wyvern seemed even more annoyed that Rezar would want to challenge its dominance, it started crawling over the mountain face towards Rezar, its wing stabbing into the hard black rock to keep it balanced. It opened its mouth and released a roar that was actually a blast of compressed air. Rezar twisted his body and made the chain retract until he was underneath the ledge it had stabbed into previously. The compressed air dug a trench on the mountain side, barely missing Kitagawa who was right behind Rezar. The path of destruction left by the compressed air ended 6 meters away from the rapidly descending Screet, Tristian and the remaining kings guard that had followed.

Kitagawa reacted and lobbed a small ball of pale green flame at the wyvern, the flame though smaller than what Rezar remembered from the kitsunes exploded with a lot more force than he expected, eliciting a cry from the wyvern as its right wing lots hold and it started slipping down the mountain losing a bit of traction. It didn't matter much to Rezar though, it being off balance was just what he needed right now.

[Spectral Skull]

The skull was red instead of a dull silver, and it was a little bit larger than normal. It slammed into the forehead of the Wyvern prompting a loud roar of pain from it. Kitagawa pulled out a massive Naginata from God knows where, ignoring the Katana at his waist as he jumped down. Rezar wouldn't want Kitagawa to have all the glory of possibly slaying a wyvern, so he shot Vita Gratia into the right wing of the wyvern, getting securely and stiffly stuck in its wing bone, then he let it d rag him down as furious speeds, going past the still descending Kitagawa, and right into the unforgiven path of a swinging tail that smashed him back into the sky with a couple of broken bones for his trouble. Looks like this fight wouldn't be as easy as he thought it would be

"Fuck!"