Hiro opened his eyes and frowned, creases forming between his brows. The tail with a striped pattern of blue and purple coiling around his body really bothered him as the soft feathers at tip tickled his nose.
Wait, a tail?
His eyes followed the tail to find Tsuki sleeping peacefully. The changes in Tsuki boggled his mind. The blade-like feathers on its wings were nowhere to be seen as new shiny blue soft feathers replaced them. It also discarded the dragon-like helmet on the head to put on a crown made of feathers. Tsuki's previous body looked really rough compared to the current elegant and beautiful.
He also noticed pale purple streaks running from feathers to Tsuki's chest, creating an interesting pattern similar to the crest of his own magic circle which looked like an orb placed on top of a blooming leaf.
That pattern is there because Tsuki is my familiar?
Waking up to find Tsuki binding him was unexpected but the changes it went through after evolution were unimaginable.
He gripped the tail and freed himself, waking up Tsuki in the process.
"Hiro?"
He heard its voice, which sounded clearly soft and feminine instead of its usual childish neutral one.
He stood and stretched, shaking away the drowsy feeling. "What happened to your body? Even your voice, don't tell me you changed your gender from being genderless?"
Tsuki raised its head hidden in the wings and revealed a yellow short and curved beak and shining eyes of silver blue.
"Why? Does our gender bother you? Are we not fit to be a female?"
He slightly averted his eyes from her powerful gaze, trying to bore into him. "I never said that. Your defense went down from evolution?"
"It did not, look," she said and spread her wings wide. Every feather of hers glowed with a silvery light and turned hard like a stone.
For a moment he was really mesmerized by the beauty of Tsuki bathing in pure light before he squinted his eyes in deep thoughts.
That's a great powerup, she can fly and perform many movement tricks with her agile body. Furthermore, she can use them for defense when needed…
"It's time to go, we have only killed forty one out of thousand and nine monsters… I hope we can contend against Ultimate Class after this."
He placed a magic circle of teleportation and led the pouting Tsuki outside the cave. They climbed down the deserted mountain and headed toward the forest to kill some random monster.
"Tsuki, scan the area from above. I don't want to meet that Cave Troll until I'm assured enough to kill it."
"Hiro can't fly?"
"I can if I create wings from origin energy. But the process is not efficient for the current me."
"Then let us help Hiro! We really enjoy flying. Before it was hard to fly with our hard scales but now, we can fly all we want!"
Before he could deny, Tsuki hooked his scruff with her beak and shifted him on her back.
Soft and warm...
That was his first impression after touching the silky soft feather on her back.
Tsuki flapped her wings to create a frigid gust of wind, he steadied his position as she launched in the air. He focused the stealth aura to maximum or they might attract a group of dragons at once.
This process is more consuming than me flying but it's really new…
The soft breeze fluttered his hair as he tried to keep his eyelids open for scouting. In a few minutes, he was already done mapping the mountain range with «Demonic Perception». Their results were much better than he expected, the amount of Low-Class monsters were quite high in these areas, with a few Mid Class monsters acting like a boss of sorts.
"Tsuki, I'm done. Let's start with that place with the highest numbers. Land near that pass between mountains."
Tsuki slowed down and lowered her altitude before landing where he pointed. Hiro jumped and turned his glare at the caves built on both sides.
Hm, it's pretty calm for a settlement with hundreds of monsters…
He considered his choices for the attack, stealth or frontal. Let's check it out first, he thought and entered the cave. His devil ability to see in the dark worked perfectly here. Keeping an eye on his surroundings, he moved deeper. He noticed some old symbols carved on the walls. Wiping the dust over it, a picture appeared showing a dragon with multiple heads.
Don't tell me, this silence...
"Tsuki, move faster!"
He boosted his physical strength with touki and rushed forward. The cave opened in a wide hall as if a whole mountain was hollowed.
He glared at the giant serpent in the center of the hall. Hundreds of lizard men surrounded it without any words.
Hiss!
The serpent lifted its head and hissed. Every lizardman dug their claws in its own chest and crushed the heart mercilessly. The hundreds of bodies crumbled into specks of dust and gathered around the serpent.
The massive wave of chaos element gathered in a place chilled his body to the core.
These monsters even learned to perform rituals to evolve… Even at the cost of their own lives.
He turned to Tsuki, her face floated a battle-hungry smile. Mostly all dragons were battle junkies and true to their desires. The serpent in front was also evolving in a type of dragon.
Hydra…
"Tsuki, we are going out. It will be Ultimate Class at the very least. I don't have any confidence to survive a single hit, much less fighting it."
"No, Hiro. We can do this. We will ambush it right after it finishes evolving. We believe Hiro and I can do anything together."
That might be an overstatement...
"As you wish, but I'll teleport the moment we begin losing. No need to risk our lives when we have two whole months left to complete the objective."
"Fumu."
He shook his head and walked closer to the mass of chaos swirling around the serpent, ignoring the bells ringing inside his mind. He took position behind it and ordered Tsuki to stay in front.
Finally, the chaos settled down along with the curtains of the battle against yet another Mythological beast...