'Is it… speeding up?'
She looked at it for a bit longer and it indeed was accelerating at a alarming rate.
"Wake up Az!"
Her calls did not amount to much because Azadi was already awake sitting up and looking at the creature silently.
He woke up out of pure instinct.
He could feel it, the same feeling he felt when that starving beast almost had his head the feeling that sent shivers throughout his whole body.
Death.
"Dahlia, we need to run.. We need to run now!"
Azadi had returned Boris back into his dream, they were only maybe a handful of hours away from the city what a shame. However before they could even land on the ground a black streak was about to tear through them.
Azadi was barely able to put up a barrier which was instantly shattered sending them flying through the air.
Neither of them could tell what it was it was far too fast to tell any distinctive features.
We heard a cackle before it spoke.
"Nice reflexes kid."
Azadi's eyes sparked with white light and concentrated.
'I need better vision if I don't want to die!'
He forced his vision to become enhanced it was as if the world was moving slower around him.
It hurt, his head was aching but that was fine because now he could see it.
It was humanoid but definitely not human.
It had black feathers covering its body like a crow, it's face had two ruby eyes and it's skin was black for the parts the feathers had not covered such as his face.
It wore an cloak shrouding him but with him moving at such a speed it was more like a cape of darkness trailing behind.
'He's fast, really fast and incredibly strong too. Damn and Dahlia is practically useless in the air right now so I need to think. Think come on what can I use that won't drain me instantly but still let me beat… No not beat I just need to survive this guy!'
Then he thought of something it could work but he has no clue how much it would drain but it would have to be less than just straight teleportation right?
As the it attacked once more Azadi looked to have his body contort before vanishing.
'I'm behind him? Damn! I was hoping the glitch would bring me farther ughh! the randomness does help with energy drain though.'
He flipped himself up right and and slammed his feet against his back and grabbed his wings.
"You brat!"
He was smiling now that he had the advantage.
"Set ablaze you flea ridden Kretin"
Before the flames could be could conjure up the flames the bastard proceeded to flip around making him lose his grip and feathered fiend grabbed him by the throat crushing his windpipe.
"Who do you think you are huh. Just because you caught me off guard doesn't make you any better than the rest of the scum I've encountered in the entire continent of Auralis. You humans are all the-"
Before he could finish his sentence his voice contorted.
Instead of Azadi glitching it was him.
"W- What the hell did you do!"
Before he could get an answer he was slingshotted off in the distance unable to slow down.
"You piece of sh-!"
Before his sentence was complete he was far gone and now Azadi was safe, kinda.
He was falling down to earth and spotted Dahlia who was still streaking through air.
'Ughh I have to get her before she goes too far. Well atleast a flight dream is pretty basic. That glitch dream I died in it the same way I just slingshotted that fiend. Sucks I don't have another one of those who know what we will run into.'
He flew and grabbed her before falling back down.
'Damn it! Now we are like weeks away from the city too!'
Dahlia stood back on her feet.
"That is the second time have been randomly put in the sky."
Azadi laughed at her comment raspily.
'Welp should we even still head that way? Nah the bird bastard was slung that way and just by going off how strong he was he can probably survive that.'
Before he could think more the searing headache from his enhanced vision hit him along with the pain of his throat essentially being crushed it all struck him in one go.
"Auggh!"
He quickly deactivated his dreams as to not cause further damage.
"You okay? Want me to heal?"
He looked up at her after he had keeled over in pain and raspily replied:
"P- Ple"
This was all he was able to say but it was enough to let her know that he did indeed need the healing
She placed her hand on his head and closed her eyes before she began healing him.
'Huh what's this red thing?'
She fixed his headache and windpipe but also using her ability pulled out the red thing she had found in his brain and as she did it transferred over to her.
It was the memories of his arms being blasted to pieces, the memory of feeling his chest burst open from making the house, the memory of having his windpipe crushed but it wasn't really the memories, but instead the pain of them.
"Aughh!"
She was breathing heavy as it hit her and now she was the one keeled over instead.
"Hey you okay? I've seen you heal way worse stuff so what's up? Were you already low or something?"
Before she responded she thought and decided it would actually be best to keep this to herself.
"Y- Yeah I was a bit drained after I helped keep Boris up"
Looking at her confused Azadi asked:
"You can transfer energy? That convenient."
Azadi thought a bit on what they should do next.
"Let's head this way."
Dahlia looked at him now back to her usual calm demeanor though she did seem a bit more... dead?
"Yea better than meetng feathers again over at the city."
Azadi seemed to be a bit more gleeful than usual now.
"Alright let's get this show on the road. Though I don't have many more dreams of Boris I do have three left and that should be good."
Dahlia nodded in agreement before he summoned Boris once more.
"Of course we ended up back in the forest huh haha."
His laugh was half hearted but still brought solace to the two.
She looked at him as if she was about to speak but decided against it and got on board the beast this time the saddle was more of a room on his back or a better term would be a very small house.
The box of slick fancy wood was indeed wonderful having the same intricate patterns as the saddle but the inside was even better.
Inside was two beds to the right with a nightstand inbetween and a window on each side of the room. On the left was a small dining area and in the center was a couch pointing towards a large windows on the wall with a table inbetween the two.
Boris was quite a steady walker or it was probably due to his immense size but it was more like they were on a boat which didn't seem to mind any of them.
Azadi proceeded to jump on the bed and immediately head right back to sleep which she couldint exactly get mad at him at because his entire ability does revolve around sleeping.
'I'm tired too.'
She stretched and yawned before sitting on the couch and ate some of their food rations from the pouches before she too headed to bed well not before putting up a barrier on the door and covering the surprisingly durable windows.
Before she fully fell asleep she jolted back up and hurriedly dumped energy into Azadi.
'That was close he was probably already running low who knows how much longer could have kept Boris up it wouldint be good to be sleeping and just have everything disappear.'
Now with a clear mind she went back to bed and this time she still wasn't able to sleep well.