Chereads / The Archaic Dragon Mage / Chapter 282 - 17

Chapter 282 - 17

They would if they had any decency anyway. I decided to head back when the sun started to set. Circling low over the settlement twice before coming down to land just a few feet from the doors of the warehouse I was being allowed to use as my resting place. That party was on foot, and a good way out. If they headed back at first light it would take them most of a day to walk back.

The guild leader started stationing two guards outside of the doors of the warehouse after I'd threatened the vice guild leader. They'd looked at me as if I were going to eat them as I went past them quietly. I wondered what would happen when they figured out I knew how to open the doors. I yawned as the pressure of exhaustion came down on me. I may only need four hours of sleep a night now that I'd evolved into an adolescent, but I still needed those four hours.

Maybe I could go check out how that party was doing when I finished my nice little sleep. I smirked as I thought about how tough it would be for them to survive the night. They weren't weak by any means. Hell they might even be able to would me if they all came after me at once, but they would never be able to kill me, and there were a few. Granted it was a very rare few.

That were strong enough to kill me on this planet. I could feel it in my bones. I wondered if I would find those few. The sense of danger I felt for a brief moment while flying outside the walls gave me a little thrill. If it was strong enough to kill me then it was worth a buttload of XP.

Now all I needed to do was find it. That made me think of Aurora's first evolution. I'd stayed just long enough to see her shed her baby grey scales for pure white ones. Her eyes still retained that silver from when she was a hatchling. Her form was much more feminine than mine had been.

An image of what she might look like when she matured flashed through my mind as I was falling asleep. I couldn't help but to find that thought more than a little alluring. I shook the image from my mind. She'd just hatched. Even if we were close in age physically I was technically much older than her.

I'd lived without the presence of a female so far, and I could continue to do so. I fell asleep with that image of an older more mature Aurora still stuck in my head. I really hoped that would stick with me all night. Four hours later I was fully rested, and ready to go. I went to the doors of the warehouse, and pressed the button that opened the doors.

The two half asleep guards that were watching the warehouse were frightened back to full awareness. I shuffled my wings as I stepped through the doors. Frightening them enough that they drew their weapons on me. I jumped onto the roof of the warehouse while decreasing my weight with my shapeshifting skill. It was difficult to control the urge to snigger at the two frightened guards.

From there it was easy to get to the wall, and disappear into the dark night sky. The glow of the blue moon barely made my outline visible in the night sky, but to me it was no different than flying during the day. I could tell where I was, and what direction I was going on instinct. It would take me a little over an hour to find that party. I wondered if the group of twenty had decided to turn back or planned to keep going.

I wanted to know what they were hunting. If it was as dangerous as I thought it might me then it would be a worthwhile misadventure. I wasn't at nearly as much risk as they were since I could always fly away in an emergency. I slapped a few giant bat like creatures out of the sky. They were interesting creatures to look at since they didn't appear to have any legs, but they did have clawed hands on the front bend of their wings.

Their body was big fluffy, and round. The vast majority of their body was a giant mouth. They tended to swarm whenever one screamed. They were about the size of a human head, but the danger of these creatures wasn't the claws or teeth. It was the swarm.

They turned from a minor annoyance to a flying version of a ravenous group of piranhas. They weren't to bright though. They kept on flying into the swing of my massive wings, and being beat out of the sky with each wing beat. The natural swing of my wings was enough to kill most of the agile little annoyances. Luckily the ones that died from hitting the ground were also counted as my kills.

I smiled to myself in the night as the swarm kept growing larger around me. Each one was a comfortable hundred XP chipped away from how much XP I needed. I got tired of them trying to take bites out of me after a while, and sent out an electric pulse that shot through my body. Arcing off of me to hit every single one of the little annoyances near me, and branching out to all the little annoyances near them. Surrounding my outline in the sky with the blue crackling light.

The scent of burnt hair lingered around me for a second as the vast majority of little beasts fell away from me. Killed the instant my lightning had so much as touched them. That's far too easy. I snorted a bit of fire to kill a few of the ones that weren't hit by my lightning. I wanted more of a fight.