After the fight with the large harpy, Icarus was awarded 500 XP. It appeared that, regardless of the different strengths of some creatures, XP only depended on the rank of a monster. The large harpy from earlier was much stronger than the harpies we found outside, yet gave the same amount of XP. Hazel dealt with the other four harpies on her own and added 2000 XP to her XP bar.
Once the fight was over, Hazel walked over to Icarus and me but quickly stopped when she noticed the number of wings on his back. Her body seemed to shake with anger as she looked at Icarus, almost as if she was preparing to attack. I looked at Hazel with a concerned expression before I remembered what Icarus got after he leveled up.
『 Heir of the skies: As the last Dragon Fury in existence, Icarus has become a beacon for other sky creatures that seek his throne 』
Was Icarus in danger now? I looked at Hazel, nervous as I prepared myself to step between them. As Hazel stared at Icarus, Icarus began to shrink under the pressure of her gaze. Then, almost as if nothing happened, Hazel looked away from Icarus and turned her gaze toward me.
I felt my entire body relax as Hazel looked away from Icarus. Even Icarus seemed to relax. I walked up to Hazel and began to lead the group as it was my turn again. Hazel and Icarus followed close behind me as I walked, but I made sure to keep an eye on Hazel, just in case.
Just because she seemed relaxed didn't mean she wouldn't do anything bad. Because I was unable to communicate with her in this form and didn't want to be the one to break our agreement two days early, I had no idea what was causing her to stare at Icarus in such a menacing way.
As we walked, the cave slowly began to decline deeper into the mountain. We found several forks in our path which would only diverge with another later on. Eventually, after another six hours of walking, we decided to call it a day.
We found a good spot away from any obvious signs of an ambush, then began to rest for the next day. As we settled down upon the cold cave floor, Hazel moved over to me and began to rest her body underneath the comfort of one of my wings. Icarus did the same and attempted to sandwich himself between us.
As I felt the warmth of their bodies, I began to feel my heart warm with contentment. I rested my head on the cave floor as I bundled myself closer to Hazel as I protected Icarus with one of my legs. Then, I closed my eyes and began to sleep.
No harpies even dared to attack us while we were asleep. None of them would've been able to do any damage, anyways, as our ACs were far stronger than any damage they could do. Icarus, who was too weak to ignore their attacks, was nestled safely between Hazel and me.
When I opened my eyes, I looked around to find the same scene as when I first fell asleep. Hazel had moved a little closer to my body and managed to push Icarus onto my arm. I felt myself smile as I looked at them, then stood up and let my wing fold closer to my body.
Hazel instantly woke up, disturbed as if her blanket had been stolen from her. Icarus, who had been sleeping on my arm, also woke up but wasn't as disturbed as Hazel was. Hazel looked at me with narrowed eyes and gave me a death glare before sighing and standing up.
I looked at her, nodded, then turned my head back to the path. By the time we started walking, I was getting a little hungry. We managed to eat some foxes we found before we went into the cave, but none of us humored the idea of eating harpies.
Icarus seemed drained of energy, as he had the smallest stomach out of all three of us, and had eventually settled to rest on my back. Ordinarily, he would have to slowly climb up one of my legs, but I was proud to see him put his two sets of wings to good use.
Two hours later, when the hunger was beginning to get unbearable, we decided to turn back around and head to the surface. We were unable to fly in the cave, but running wasn't an option. Hazel and I only needed to share a look before we both agreed to leave. Hazel and I knew none of the harpies would be an issue for us so we didn't bother to be careful.
After an hour of running, however, the path began to look unfamiliar. I gasped in fear as I realized our crucial mistake. We had taken a wrong turn somewhere, which wasn't likely considering all of the forks we had encountered just reconnected. We shouldn't have gotten lost, but we were.
The decline of the caves even got steeper, even though we had turned around, so it was like we were traveling down a stairwell. I groaned in frustration, then turned around. As we looked to the path behind us, we began to hear cracks in the walls.
The entire cave shook and trembled as we turned our gaze away from the decline. Then, within the next few seconds, several dozen figures began to climb out of the wall. No, they were the wall. Dozens of creatures made out of rock, each double the height of most humans, began to fill the cave-like water.
I looked at the rock creatures with shock. Within a few seconds, there were already twenty-four of them. Then, in the next second, there were thirty. The number continue to climb, so I pushed myself to action. I didn't have enough time to think.
I quickly opened my mouth, then let out a strong stream of fire that crashed into a few of the rock creatures. I watched as the stream of fire traveled toward them at a high speed, but quickly noticed that none of them even attempted to dodge the attack.
The first rock creature died, followed by the second. However, the resistance they had against my fire breath frightened me. Soon after the second creature died, all of the others pushed through the fire and marched on like it didn't even bother them.
『 +1,500 XP 』
『 +1,500 XP 』
I quickly stopped my attack before I used too much MP, then began to take a few steps back. By the time my attack had finished, the number of creatures had easily reached fifty. There were simply too many of them. I looked to Hazel, who stood at my side and used her own breath attack but quickly noticed that she wasn't doing much damage to them, either.
We both looked at each other with fearful expressions, then turned around and began to bolt away from the rock creatures. Icarus held onto my back with as much of his strength as he could, but he was proving too weak to fully protect himself from the bumpy ride.
His grip eventually lessened and he began to slide off my back. I quickly stopped as I felt his grip leave the scales on my back, then turned around and watched as he fell to the ground. In the distance, I could hear the thundering footsteps of hundreds of rock creatures. They were slow, but I knew that I wasn't strong enough to deal with that many.
They most likely had magic resistance topped with a high HP pool. They were the worst enemies to fight while protecting Icarus, so I had no other choice but to run. I felt frustrated at the lack of my personal strength, but I knew that Icarus was more important than my pride. I quickly picked Icarus up with my mouth and gently held him there, then turned to look at Hazel.
She was standing next to a small opening in the wall, almost as if she was inviting us in. I nodded, then dashed through the opening. Luckily it was just large enough for me to squeeze my body through, but I eventually met a point where I was unable to fit.
With no other option, I used『 Morph 』and transformed myself into my human body, shrinking my size enough to fit through the small opening. Once my form changed, I opened my arms to catch Icarus as he fell to the ground, then clutched him tight to my chest as I dashed forward.
Hazel was right behind me as she also changed back into her human form. We continued to run through the small opening, which was almost like a ravine in the cave, before finally reaching the end of it. I was surprised to see a large room waiting at the edge of the opening but didn't care as long as it lead me to safety.
I jumped into the room and landed safely on the flat ground, then turned around and watched as Hazel did the same. We both looked at each other and took a separate glance at the opening to see if we were followed, then sighed in relief as the sound of footsteps passed by, unaware that we had hidden away from them.
"Are you alright?" I asked, my human voice unfamiliar and strange to me as I spoke. Hazel looked in my direction, then slowly nodded. She turned back to the opening and kept her eye trained on it as she relaxed her breathing. I turned toward the room and let Icarus back onto the ground. All of us were rather exhausted after that chase so we were glad to have a moment to relax.
Then, once Icarus was safely on the ground, I turned around to face the room we had recklessly jumped into.