Chapter 546: Reunion

Chapter 546: Reunion

Auri was back on my shoulder, chirping loudly.

All was right with the world again. I felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders, years of concern and worry melting away with every brrrpt out of her beak. Iona and Fenrir landed next to me, giving us some space but clearly eager to make their own greetings.

Auri conjured up two flaming clones of herself, one circling Iona with frantic energy while the other one landed on Fenrir’s nose, and started animated dancing on his nose.

“BRRPT! Brrpt! BRPT! BrrrrrRRRRRpppT!” Auri was hopping from foot to foot, trying to cram way too many words and sounds together, practically tripping over her own tongue in her desire to say everything. “BRRPT!” She finally demanded in frustration, throwing up a big flaming arrow pointing back the way we came from.

I laughed. When I started talking, it was like the floodgates had opened.

“Sure! Let’s go meet your friends! I can’t wait! Tell me all about your time here. I want to know everything! I missed you so much. I’m so happy you’re back. What took you so long?”

Auri shuddered at the question.

“Brpt.” She made a disgusted, almost throwing-up noise. I put my hand up to my mouth and failed miserably to suppress a laugh.

“You got stuck in a water level?”

“BRPT!”

>

I tried to put on a poker face.

“I think I’m going to need the full details of it, and the rest of what you’ve been up to, just to make sure it can’t happen again.”

Auri rolled her eyes in an exaggerated way.

“Brrrpt!” She fluttered off my shoulder, going first to Fenrir and bopping him on the nose. Then she hovered over to Iona, and tried to ‘whisper’ in her ear.

I could still pick it up though, even without my improved hearing. ‘Auri’ and ‘quiet’ did not belong together.

>

We weren’t traveling at top ‘sprint as fast as we can’ speed anymore, and we started heading back. I sensed one of the Wardens vanishing back the way we came from, and we soon made it back to the valley.

Auri’s friends were busy at the ‘trading post’, and I could practically see a flame lighting itself over her head as she looked from Iona to the post.

“Brrrpt?” She sweet-talked my wife, who laughed and strode over, cracking her neck with a great grin on her face.

The poor kirins didn’t know what hit them. I imagined social skills weren’t exactly popular here, and if they were, it was more like [Posturing] and [Mark Territory] rather than [Social Lubricant]. Add in years of haggling and negotiations with cutthroat merchants, and the kirin’s ‘trading post’ put up all the resistance of a kid’s lemonade stand.

Which naturally put her right in the good graces of all of Auri’s friends. I’d gotten a chance to study them briefly as Iona briskly bartered.

All of them were phoenixes of various sizes. A pink flamingo, a thunderbird with four wings that crackled with electricity hovered high above, a little too big to easily ‘trade’, an ostrich, and a velociraptor. They all huddled around Iona as she concluded her negotiations, handing out prizes to everyone like candy. Burning rocks and caged flames, tasty treats and delicious fruits, phoenixes didn’t seem to have much use for most objects. A downside to being utterly ridiculous and made out of fire.

“Brrpt! BRPT!” Auri shouted out a bunch of suggestions which boiled down to ‘let’s go to my place and party one last time’. Everyone seemed to agree, and we all headed out, following Auri. Apparently, we could simply fly back to the Phoenix Peaks and nobody would bother us. The two grounded phoenixes hopped onto the thunderbird’s back with practiced ease.

“Followers.” Fenrir growled, and Auri translated to everyone else with a sharp “Brrrpt!”

They all stopped on a dime, turning around with impossible agility, spreading into an established formation. I vaguely recognized it from the Sixth Legion, and my heart melted.

Auri had been importing tactics and teaching her friends! They listened to her!

While part of me was gushing over Auri and everything she did, the rest of me was primed and ready. I’d been on edge ever since we’d jumped off the edge of the School, and had been attacked enough to know it was the right move.

One of the silver-faced Wardens halted in the air a few miles from us. With everyone’s stats and skills, it was pretty close. I couldn’t tell what he was doing behind the mask, but it was pointed at us, a pair of swords pointed down and held loosely in his hands.

I couldn’t quite reach him with my skills, although I pulled out a dozen spellbooks, having them flutter behind me. Ten of them were useless chore and quality of life spells, but I couldn’t cast that many spells at once, and I didn’t want to offer up all my battle tomes for easily getting picked off. Smoke and mirrors. Iona summoned her bow and arrows, Lightning crackled on Fenrir’s claws and the thunderbird’s wings, and all sorts of flames started to grow around the phoenixes.

It was the same Warden from earlier at level 1991, and I had no idea how a fight between all of us would go. We had numbers, the utter bullshit that was phoenixes and their refusal to die, and class quality on our side. On the other, weaklings didn’t end up as Wardens, and having twice the levels on us was significant. I could fight eight level 450 [Warriors]. It wouldn’t be easy or pretty - that was the level the Sentinels in Remus were - but I thought I’d come out on top.

The Warden was running the same calculations I had, and came to the conclusion it wasn’t worth it. He angrily slammed his swords back into their sheath, then drew a thumb across his neck before speeding back to the Dungeon.

“You know, I’m not sure why we worked so hard on hiding where we’re from when Auri’s about as distinct as they come.” I said.

“Gives them the whole world to search, instead of narrowing it down.” Iona answered.

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“Somehow, I think three minutes at an information broker asking for ‘phoenixes’ will get them what they want...”

“Sure, if they remember to ask. Although, yes, maybe we were going a little overboard.”

“Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpt.” Auri blew a raspberry at his back.

“Brpt!”

Then promptly complained about anyone possibly forgetting her, or not being able to find her. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same!

The immediate crisis averted, we continued onto Auri’s peak, landing in a meadow near the top of the mountain.

“Brrpt! BRPT!” Auri fussed over her friends, making sure they were well-settled and happy before bouncing back over to us. “Brrrpt!”

“Yes! Give me the tour! Show me everything!” I said.Yôur favorite novels at n/o(v)el/bin(.)com

“Brrrpt!”

[Dexterity: 71,971 (Effectively: 766,347)]

[Vitality: 225,977 (Effectively: 3,530,891)]

[Speed: 213,209 (Effectively: 4,196,593)]

[Mana: 739,932]

[Mana Regeneration: 1,755,814 (+ 4,773,619)]

[Magic Power: 969,337 (+ 43,377,831)]

[Magic Control: 968,513 (+ 43,340,957)]

[Class 1: [The Arbiter of Life and Death - Celestial: Lv 895]]

[Celestial Mastery: 895]

[Aurora Curialis: 795]

[The Stars Never Fade: 56]

[Luminary Mind: 610]

[Universal Cure: 895]

[Etheric Aegis: 240]

[Event Horizon: 655]

[Zenith Everlasting: 615]

[Class 2: [Seraph of the Dawn - Radiance: Lv 870]]

[Radiance Mastery: 870]

[A Light Shining in the Darkness: 50]

[The Rays of the First Dawn: 870]

[Radiant Angel's Spear of Obliteration: 45]

[Celestial Dew: 870]

[Sunrise Halo: 870]

[Wings of the Seraphim: 870]

[Six Wings, Six Million Feathers: 870]

[Class 3: [Erudite Archmage - Spatial: Lv 740]]

[Spatial Authority: 490]

[Cozy Reading: 740]

[Teleportation: 200]

[Repository of the Magus: 559]

[Tower of Knowledge: 94]

[Reality, Writ As You Will: 540]

[Astral Archives: 333]

[Endless Pursuit of Knowledge: 650]

General Skills

[Long-Range Identify: 533]

[Handy: 30]

[Companion Bond between Elaine and Auri: 895]

[The World Around Me: 220]

[Oath of Elaine to Lyra: 895]

[Sentinel's Superiority: 895]

[Persistent Casting: 670]

[Tender Gardening: 108]