After a rejuvenating 12-hour rest on the Haven, Arlo felt his vitality restored.
Yearning for the freedom of the skies, Arlo wished to reset his Wings of Life, hoping to soar to the next cloud in his relentless quest for the elusive chest.
The thought of jumping and gliding through the vast expanse was daunting. It would take him a minimum of 3 to 4 hours to locate the right cloud, not to mention the physical toll of being teleported nearly a hundred times.
Undeterred, Arlo activated his Wings of Life.
[Wings of Life Activated:]
[Duration: Unlimited]
[Weakness: Once the user lands, they won't be able to fly for another 12 hours.]
A solitary black wing materialized behind Arlo, propelling him through the clouds. He noticed an increase in the number of clouds compared to his previous journey.
Eventually, he spotted a purple chest resting on a cloud. He surmised it must contain a reward item, as green chests typically held skills.
As he descended onto the cloud, he noticed it was denser than the others.
"SQUAWK!" "SQUAWK!"
The cacophony of birds filled the air. Arlo scanned his surroundings, trying to locate the source of the noise,
"SPLOSH!"
Suddenly, a green substance splattered onto Arlo's hand.
"Argh… It's burning," Arlo cried out as the substance began to dissolve his hand, turning his body a sickly green.
A prompt flashed before his eyes:
[Poison Detected]
[Burning Soul of Agnes Activated]
[Passive Activation: All poisons, fires, and diseases will be cured upon affecting the player. Player health will be restored upon injury.]
Arlo's body reverted to its normal state, and his wound healed, but a faint tingling sensation lingered in his hand.
More of the poisonous substance rained down near Arlo. He nimbly dodged the droplets, leaping left and right as the cloud turned a toxic green wherever the poison landed.
"Damn it," Arlo cursed as a large portion of the cloud began to disintegrate. He made a desperate leap to avoid falling.
"Whoa!"
Arlo let out a startled cry as he nearly plummeted but managed to cling onto the edge of the cloud. The invisible field he had hoped for was absent, and he painstakingly climbed back up.
"SQUAWK!" "SQUAWK!"
Arlo spotted five enormous eagles, their bodies made of white cloud, with lion fur on their necks and snake-like tails spitting venom, circling the cloud he was standing on.
The once pristine clouds had turned a noxious green from the substance. Although the poison had no effect on him, the memory of his skin dissolving sent shivers down his spine.
Unsure of how to defeat these airborne adversaries, Arlo unsheathed his sword, aiming it like a javelin at a griffin's wings in an attempt to ground them.
As the sword hurtled toward a griffin, it took notice.
The griffin flapped its wings vigorously, causing the sword to lose its momentum and plummet. Arlo sprinted to retrieve his falling weapon.
"No. No. Noooo…" he bellowed as the sword slipped from the clouds, and Arlo found himself weaponless.
Stripped of his ability to use the Wings of Life and having lost his sword, Arlo felt a sense of despair creeping in. He cast a forlorn look downwards.
"CLANG!"
The sound of metal striking something hard echoed around him. Looking up, he saw his sword embedded in the cloud. A smile spread across Arlo's face as he declared, "Now I know how to slay these half-breed monsters."
With a newfound strategy in mind, Arlo sprinted towards his sword, retrieved it, and leapt from the cloud.
One of the griffins looked down to spit venom and noticed Arlo's absence. It seemed perplexed.
"Miss me already? Look up," Arlo taunted. He plunged his sword into the back of a griffin.
The griffin let out a pained cry as it began its descent. Arlo used the falling griffin as a springboard, propelling himself towards another griffin. He grabbed its wings and, swinging underneath, stabbed through the griffin's neck.
Just like with the Agnes Divines, when faced with an unexpected situation, they seemed disoriented, becoming easy prey.
Arlo swung himself towards another griffin, seizing its leg just as the snake-like tail prepared to spit venom.
"SLICE!" With a swift motion, Arlo severed the snake tail of the griffin.
The griffin let out a blood-curdling cry as Arlo drove his sword through its guts and leapt towards the next griffin.
Arlo brandished his sword, aiming directly at its face, and began to swing.
To his surprise, the snake spat venom directly at his face.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…"
As the pain surged, Arlo's face slowly began to melt, and he also began to fall.
A prompt appeared:
[Poison Detected]
[Burning Soul of Agnes Activated]
[Passive Activation: All poisons, fire, diseases will be cured upon affecting Player. Player health will be restored upon injury.]
Arlo slowly began to heal, but the sensation of his face melting lingered in his mind.
Arlo teleported again, falling, and looked around for his sword. It seemed he had dropped it somewhere. He looked down and saw it stuck in the cloud.
Wanting to land on the cloud and grab the sword to battle again, the pain slowly burned through his body.
So, Arlo fell onto the griffin, which spat poison, and, hanging from its neck, grabbed it, holding it in an arm lock as the snake-like tail wiggled, attempting to spit at him. Arlo used the griffin's head as cover.
Suddenly, another griffin spat at Arlo, swiftly breaking his arm lock. He fell.
The poison fell on the griffin's face, and as its face slowly melted, it cried out in agony, falling from the sky.
"How do you like your face melted?" Arlo grinned.
The last griffin, seeing this, grew frightened and began to escape by flying upwards, out of Arlo's reach. Just as it neared the top, it saw Arlo, sword in hand and a grin on his face, falling from the sky.
"SQUAWK!"
The griffin pleaded for mercy, but Arlo cleanly severed its neck, letting its head tumble onto the cloud below.
Arlo landed on the cloud, and a prompt displayed:
[Defeated 5 Common Class Agnes' Protectors, Lord Griffins]
[Exp: 10]
[Current Level - 5 (49 Exp to Level 6)]
Arlo looked at the chest to open it, it was not there.
"HUH!"
It was not there.
"HUH!"
It was not there.
"HUH!"
Bastard, it's not there.
[End of Chapter]