Darkness over casted the rocky walls of the under-crest cave and hid itself well from any diurnal eyes. Although just the right pitch for those who lived in its shadowy Caverns, the hundreds of huge 9 feet tall bats, being one of the many creatures that inhabited its shadowy cast of darkness and even thrived in it, swooshing around in its confines better than any day animal could ever wish to.
As they ruffed housed with one another, while simultaneously searching around for prey to stalk, while far off in the distance, hiding from any of their prying eyes, was a smaller 4-foot bat, that hid away from all the other ruffians and enjoyed herself, and as she lay upside down with her head in a book, one that was pretty large compared to her petite size, at least in comparison to that of her much larger siblings, who were currently zipping around in their 9 feet glory. as she hung there, less than a quarter of their height.
Occupied, and engulfed in what she was reading, while still making sure to stretch out her senses enough to allow her to survey her surroundings, given the fact that unlike her silky Black siblings. her black coat of shadowy fur was stained with slithers of white streaks here and there, which set her apart from her other relatives, who all were completely jet black, which wasn't great for hiding from a bunch of siblings who wanted to kill and eat you.
And as if on cue as she swung there happily reading over a book by the name of Fugo the great hero, she suddenly sensed the presence of an incoming intrusion heading her way with great urgency, accompanied by the strong aura of malice and greed, which was written all throughout their mana signature making it known that whatever was coming, was no less then set on killing and eating her. So as promptly as she could, she hurriedly released her grip on the rocky perch and allowed herself to fall for a total of a minute, before dropping her book and quickly grabbing it in her claws. giving her free use of her wings so she could effortlessly fling herself right side up and hover a foot or so above the floor.
She eagerly watched as her attacker smashed into the rocky perch she previously was hanging from and continued that momentum as they yet again found themselves crashing into the wall this time. dust and gravel flung as they did. "Serves you right," she said as she prepared to fly off. 'What a headache, hopefully, that crash was strong enough to knock the danm beast unconscious' she thought. And unfortunately, against her wishes, her murderous sibling was now slowly picking himself up from the mess of rocks, dust, and grabble they created, while aggressively shaking all of the mess out of his fur.
"One moment, all I wanted was one moment of solitude!!! danm you assholes," she screamed once she noticed her attacker, was conscious. In the current moment, she didn't have the time, nor the strength to fight any of her hulking bat siblings, due to the recent bottleneck that has been impairing her for a year. So, this wasn't ideal for her. 'why is it that these brutes can't seem to do more than crash around and fight all day,' She thought. as she faced her very unhappy sibling before he began to screech and squeal at her while surging with currents of static that rhythmically danced about their body with a blue radiancy. 'well don't just stand there asshole, let's get this over with already,' and as if answering her thought suddenly, a streak of lightning came rushing at her, at a speed too fast for her to evade in such proximity, so she decided to instead counter it with and attack of her own. [voltaic ~hailing~Strike]
Lightning sparked and arched about the little bat's body. before maneuvering to the center of her chest and blasting in the direction of the oncoming matching attack. meeting it in a Collision of sparks and combustion, followed with a blinding blue light that the little bat used as a cover to escape her sibling and fly off to somewhere a little less dangerous, and far away from any prying eyes.
….
"This is not working," she said while landing in on the rocky floor beneath her and catching her breath. "As mindless, and abrasive as they are, they still happen to be getting extremely stronger by the week.
Seeing how fast their progression rate is, compared to my previous efforts, there's no way I'd be able to keep up. Even if I hadn't suddenly become incapable of progressing, besides. I'll never find any solution to my problem here anyway. All the books in the treasury are just a bunch of fabled tails and stories of those who've passed, which is strange, why carefully decorate, embellish, and siphon mana into some useless story books, whether it's fiction or telling of true events, it's still just entertainment is it not?" she spoke to her self while pacing the rocky floors, her claws clattering with every step.
"Well, I guess I wouldn't understand the mines of rich fools anyways, from what I've read, they do a lot of strange things, I shouldn't think too much about it, I have bigger problems at the moment. The most pressing one being, how I plan to get out of here. It's only a matter of time before I'm bat-food. especially if I stay cooped up in this cave with all my murderous family members. If I can even call them that. Last time I checked, not even beasts are supposed to be so cannibalistic,
And given the fact I've never seen them try and eat one another; I know that fact is also true for our species. So why am I the only one there willing to risk cannibalism for?" asked the young bat."
Her last question seemed to elicit some strange emotions for the little bat, ones that made her starry eyes begin to blur, before a deep sense of longing began to build in her heart but before the emotion could overtake her, she did as she'd always did when this happened, pushed it down and moved on to the next train of thought, "I wonder if I can find more books on magic or maybe even somebody to help me learn more about it when I escape here," she stated, trying to feel her mind with thoughts of hope and things to look forward to, as a counter to the sadness that threatened to leave her immobilized in her loathing.
who knows, if I'm lucky, I can become as powerful as Asteria the rainbow mage of legend, she thought as she commenced to spread out her wings before jumping upward and taking flight, 'I read that there are civilizations of many different races of higher intelligence, which are willing to teach and exchange knowledge with one another. Maybe if I can find a place like that, I might be able to find someone to help me, but first things first … I need to get out of here,' She thought as she flew through the caverns.
Her only option at the moment was to check the area that her mother and father chalked full of assorted items, varying in their unique mana signatures, and although this wasn't her first time checking this area with the same objective in mind, something in her gut was screaming. "This is your way out, this is how you'll gain freedom" it also helped that she was the only one capable of going in there, all be it for not that long, less she wanted to fall unconscious for a month again. "Here's to hoping that I'll finally find something in there to break the seal that traps us in here." She said as she flew toward the treasury at full speed and hoped for the best.
'I wish our parents would have told us how to leave this place,' she thought "If only they were here long enough to do so. Regardless, I don't have any option elsewhere, if I go too deep in the cave, I'll be hunted by other beasts that are way stronger than my siblings, and if I try and just brute force my way through the barrier, I won't get all that far, and might even end up as someone's food. so I'm just going to have to hope for the best," said the little bat as she flew into the huge blocked-off cavern, full of gold, treasures, books, and shiny items of all kinds.
If this was a dragon's lair, some might even call it a horde. Except, Voltic bats didn't just collect hordes of treasures for the simple likeness of it, but to enrich the area they gave birth to their children in with dense levels of mana. as well as blocking the area off with a seal of sorts to keep them from leaving till they reached the 4th tier. unfortunately, this was something that our little bat friend was unaware of, so she was at a loss at the moment, and she unfortunately couldn't ask her parents because they had left for good, within the second year of building their treasury.
Regardless she still decided to land in that area in hopes of getting clues on how to escape the cave. "There has to be something here, our parents couldn't have just left us here with no way to escape right, I mean I've seen at least one of my siblings leave since their absence, although he was pretty strong, so I wouldn't be surprised if he brute forced his way through somehow.
honestly, he had to be at least 4th tier, regardless of that fact though, none of that truly mattered, I'm not strong enough to brute force my way through anything at the moment, since I'm currently the weakest bat here, at least physically that is, my mana has gotten me out of some tough situations, but that won't matter much in the long run. since we all know and use the same magical attacks. it's only a matter of time before they're able to catch up to me In magical strength, and then all I'll have to stand on is how innovative I can be, which can only take me so far.
shit, I hope I'm able to gain power, soon." she said as she rummaged through the room for more books are whatever she could find that could help her, although she didn't have much to go off of as she did so, she Unfortunately didn't have even the slightest of a clue as of to what any of the things in the caver was at the moment, so her only real way of figuring out if something was useful was reading its mana signature, and hoping for the best whenever she tried to investigate it, which hadn't did much for her as of yet.
but she had hope that maybe just maybe, if she looked hard enough she'd get lucky, it wasn't the best plan but it was all she could go off of at the moment, although she still had doubt in her mind that anything in this room could ever really help her, until suddenly, something dark, abnormal, and unsettling started to flood her senses as it polluted the air with its veracious mana signature. causing her to pause almost involuntarily, as the sound of her rummaging through all the treasure briefly came to a stop. 'What is this vile presence I'm feeling?' She thought as she peered in the direction, she felt the strange signature protruding from.
As she did, she was met with the sight of a pile of mostly silver and diamond-encrusted jewelry before her eyes fell onto something that was a contrasting black and red. At first glance, it seemed like just a circular Ruby-encrusted clasp. until she realized.
'That wasn't there before,' she thought. as she cautiously and slowly flapped over in the direction of the clasp while staring at it with a glint in her eyes.
'What exactly am I looking at right now,' she thought as she observed the clasp, and as she did, something piqued her interest, the clasp seemed to be somehow siphoning the mana from the item around it, with this revelation she decided to slowly step away from it, "yeah. I'm not touching that" she said while abruptly turning at a 90-degree angle and preparing to fly off. Before she heard a deep distorted voice ring out and say "𝕯𝖔 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖍 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖋𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖉𝖔𝖒"