"I am Clyde." Tiagon returned the gesture and took her hand.
Her cheeks turned red as he took hers.
"Elda of the Crimson feathers. This is Tom and that's Rink. We are C-rank adventurers"
Tiagon looked at the team once again, he observed their features.
Elda who he knew to be their leather was a short woman with Crimson hair tied into pigtails, she had pointed ears and Tiagon noticed…
'A human halfling.' there was a surprise in his eyes. Interbreeding between races had become much more accepted and unsurprisingly, Elda had the most Mana of the three.
The two men of her team were average-looking humans, Tom had long black hair and little bottles of potions were strapped around his chest and back while Rink was an average man with average facial features and average black short hair.
Elda continued.
"We overheard the interaction you had with the receptionist, you're going fight a great Basilisk that had been blocking the path for miners to get into the mountain."
"Yes" Tiagon responded with a wryly smile.
"Mr Clyde!" She yelled.
"Take us with you please."
"Huh?!"
Tiagon calmed himself and pondered, his hand on his chin.
" I will not be responsible for your lives, I take it that you all should know that. I'll also judge whether you deserve getting paid part of the reward depending on how much you all contribute."
"Sure, we just want in on the experience. The gold is secondary."
"I see, then come with me team Crimson Feathers."
They got out of the guild and as soon as they did, Tiagon activated a wind spell.
"Wind magic: Soaring heights!"
Swirly lines of wind crept around him and built up forming around his legs. They propelled him upwards and high up he went.
"Keep up!" Tiagon yelled.
Elda thrust her hand to the side, and a wooden staff with a design of angelic wings at its tip appeared.
"Levitation." She muttered and an ample amount of atmospheric mana gathered by her feet and thrust her up.
The two men followed suit and took to the skies.
"He's so fast!"
Tiagon jet through the sky leaving a trail. The mountain was in the North West outside of Minastoma.
After a couple of minutes, he arrived at the foot of the mountain that seemingly thrust through the clouds.
There he waited for his followers.
"Ahhh ahhhh, you're fast." Elda landed behind him almost short of breath as she leaned on a tree.
Then the guys came, they landed terribly–not on their feet but on their faces.
Rink rolled on his back.
"You should have slowed down for us."
"Nobody deserves anything in this world, whatever happens, happens, deal with it." Tiagon replied. He unrolled the parchment and saw the mark on the path across the mount where the Basilisk was commonly seen.
"Hmmm?!" Elda blurted, she heard the rustling of leaves and it wasn't the wind.
She held her staff in a defensive stance and squinted her eyes at the distance.
Cries from multiple areas suddenly erupted confusing the group. Tiagon swiftly turned to see the sources but even he couldn't spot them.
A protrusion appeared in the group away from the sight of the group and it grew and zoomed forward. It got to the point where Elda could see it.
"Huh."
She swung her wand releasing a blade of wind at the protrusion but it was unaffected, it zoomed in front of her, broke off the soil and swung at her. A shield of Mana swiftly appeared in front of her protecting her from the strike of wood that was conjured up not without pushing her back however.
Her teammates got up, they looked into the woods for the assailers.
Tiagon hid the scroll and walked past the groups.
"I know what they are. They are Blue ether monkeys."
"Blue ether monkeys?"
"They must be masking themselves with a camouflage spell. I can't even see them but I sense their Mana."
He held out his hand and a ball of wind materialized on it releasing powerful snakes of wind into the trees.
The cries erupted again but this one wasn't of excitement like earlier but of pain, they all fell to the ground with bruises on them.
The monkeys had blue fur, the spots where they had no hair–their face, hands and legs were black. They were little and when they stood up, they hunched. There were six of them.
"Disgusting beasts. Our Mana must have called them here, they relish in the taste of concentrated mana and that includes us mages as well, especially our brains where occasionally, they can siphon spells from. To think they still exist."
They all flipped back up in unison like they were connected. The biggest of them and the Alpha came forward and the others followed from behind with in a column.
It struck forward its hands, the others did as well and Mana coalesced in their digits. A white sticky substance grew and shot out as threads at the mages.
Tiagon swung his right hand to the side slapping nothing and a violent blast of wind followed and blew away the threads.
The Alpha's eyes widened, this was a mage they couldn't defeat and he scurried into the bushes, the others followed suit.
"Are you going to let them go?" Rink blurted.
"Their fertility rate is one of the worst of the creatures of the continent and they develop interesting ways to use magic. It'll be a waste to slaughter them, I certainly won't be the one to make such a waste. Now let's embark on the hurdle before us."
Rink grumbled, he was embarrassed over feeling scared over a bunch of mage monkeys and he wanted nothing more than to kill them.
Tiagon activated his wind spell and took for the heights, the others joined. Rink stared at the directions the monkeys went, he sighed and then joined the others.
Many rocky surfaces later, they spotted a cleft in the mountain–the defile the miners use.
They flew sideways looking for holes by the path where the Basilisk might be but found none and then they spotted a gaping hole at the end of the path where the miners get valuable minerals from.
Tiagon dropped at the end of the path, same as the others. He lifted his hand and a wisp of fire burned on his index finger. He then thrust it forward and then it grew and shone brightly.
The light emanated from the flame was cast about on the walls of the cavern and a sleeping beast.