Chapter 21
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"Quickly, pursue her! Although it may not look like it, this spell uses a lot of mana and will run out soon!" Arboria shouted.
"Got it!"
Draylen and Horatio raced off into the dark tunnel, leaving behind Aria and her mother. A few moments later, the spell circle which was projected in the air began to dim slightly. Aria saw that her mother had beads of sweat crawling down her cheeks, showing how hard she was focusing.
'I wan't to help, but... I'm not strong enough.' She thought self-pityingly.
At this moment, the giant two headed bird screeched loudly, causing the dragonling to flinch slightly. It's eyes had turned blood red and the well kept feathers from before were now ruffled and messy. Blood dripped from areas where it had been squeezed by Arboria's root summoning spell.
"If only I could transform!" Arboria moaned in annoyance.
The large bird itself could barely fit, let alone a gigantic dragon. Thus, she had to use her humanoid form to deal with it, greatly reducing her strength and magic powers. If not for that, she wouldn't be in this situation right now.
Her mana had been wasted during the previous fight, summoning the Quaker Golems alone took lots of mana, let alone the spells which were constantly interrupted by the Fallen woman from before.
Arboria quickly put these useless thoughts aside and concentrated on binding the Fallen bird as tightly as possible, whilst also trying to preserve her mana. Aria on the other hand, was unnsure of what to do.
'This Fallen beast is 3 tiers above mine, at tier 8! How am I supposed to help mom beat it?'
She then began thinking about her skill repertoire, trying to recall the spells which would be useful in this situation.
'Aha! I'll try the quick sand spell!'
Aria slowly began to manipulate the earth mana within her body, causing it to circulate through her blood stream before gathering in her feet.
"Quick Sand!" She yelled, whilst simultaneously stomping her right foot against the ground.
-Poom!
Large cracks shot out from where her foot hit the ground, snaking toward the entangled Fallen beast. The moment the cracks came near the beast, they began to burrow in the ground underneath it. The ground quickly became softer, before a flash of brown and green came from the cracks the spell had created.
At that moment, the Fallen bird sank down several metres in an instant. The area around seemed to have become a sticky yet runny earthen substance, pulling it into the ground. It squawked in panic whilst attempting to flap it's wings only to cause the sand to penetrate deeper beneath it's feathers and entrap it even more.
However, before it was even halfway under the ground, Aria felt a wave of dizziness course through her mind.
'Damn! How could I run out so quickly?!' She cursed mentally.
The ground around the bird lost it's strange properties, remaining in the form of soft sand. It then began to slowly crawl out of the pit like a caterpillar. In ordinary circumstances, it would not have been able to move at all, yet due to the increase of mana expenditure which was caused by Arboria's human form, the spell roots became weaker and weaker the less mana she used.
Although Arboria had tried to prioritise the length of the spell over it's effectiveness, her mana was already almost dry. It felt somewhat like pouring a cup of water into a volcano, it would instantly evaporate, even before it was poured!
Thus, due to the weakened spell, the bird had managed to shuffle it's way slowly out of the sand pit. Although it managed to escape Aria's spell, it was still entangled in the thick roots which had ceased to move, the beast was trussed up like a chicken.
Arboria had no more mana for any offensive techniques and Aria's would deal little to no harm to the large bird. Thus, they would have to wait for the old man to return, effectively throwing the battle into a stalemate.
It was a battle to determine whether Arboria's spell could hold out until the old man returned.
The light emitted from her spell circle was dimming slightly every second, whilst the roots wrapped around the bird monster loosened. Aria sat down and quickly concentrated on gathering mana, taking in reckless amounts.
Arboria noticed her daughter doing something that could very well cripple her cultivation, but she couldn't afford to lose focus and thus had to keep quiet!
As the bird monster noticed the root's grip weakening, it cawed in glee and began wriggling at a faster pace, causing ruined feathers to fly everywhere. If someone walked into the area and saw the area, they would probably report this to the adventurer's guild as a strange mutant chicken doing a weird dance.
After almost an hour, Arboria finally ran out of mana. She collapsed onto her knees, sweat falling off of her like raindrops. She panted, with a fatigued expression on her face.
'How could I, a mighty earth dragon lose to some overweight chicken!? Even if I am in human form, this is a bit too much.'
-Cacawww!!
Realising that it's obscene wiggling wasn't in vain, the Fallen beast raised both of it's fanged beaks and began gnawing on the roots like a dog would with a dog toy. They acted like saws, slowly but steadily cutting through the numerous fibres of the root, until eventually, the bird was free.
As it stood up, it turned it's gaze toward the panting Arboria.
"Caaaaw!!!" It shrieked, emitting a strange sound which produced a similar effect to chalk on a black board.
^(Prepare to die)
Then, it menacingly walked towards her, each footstep making a dull 'thwump' against the floor. Aria, however, was not worried at all. She had recovered all of her mana in the past half an hour and was watching the monster's movements like a hawk.
The moment the bird looked toward's Arboria, it had blocked out it's surroundings, including Aria who was crouching by the side. The moment it began to walk, she quickly prepared an ice element spell and the only one she knew.
"Cawcawcaw... Caw-"
^(Finally, you shall pay... What-)
The bird abruptly felt it's feet slide out from underneath it, causing it to fall backwards onto it's rear. A cloud of dust rose into the air, signifying just how heavy it was. Upon seeing her spell work, Aria quickly moved over to her mother, before pulling her behind one of the nearby bushes.
"CAW!"
^(What the hell!)
The bird shrieked in rage, but by the time it managed to clumsily rise to it's feet, the two people who had bound it for hours had disappeared. The Fallen beast looked around in confusion, wondering how they could vanish into thin air.
Aria waited silently from inside the bush, waiting for a moment to harrass- ehem, attack the bird. It began to take another step, but just before it's clawed feet touched the ground, a patch of clear ice formed, causing it's talons to slide off like skating shoes in an ice rink.
It once again, fell backward and landed clumsily, this time on it's head. It stood up again, shrieked in anger before falling back over. This cycle happened several times, before Aria began to run out of mana for a second time.
'Damn it, why does my mana keep on running out whenever I need it?' She complained to herself, before creating another ice patch under the bird's feet.
'I need to end this somehow.'
She looked quickly around the room they were in, a cave with dense foliage and a small stream flowing through the middle of the room. However, she had stopped casting her ice spells to save mana and inevitably, the large bird could now roam freely.
It patrolled around the area like a watch dog, cocking it's head around to look behind bushes and trees. It was slowly approaching the area where Aria and Arboria were hiding.
'I can't move, otherwise it'll hear me. I'll have to rush out and distract it so that it can't find mom.' She thought resolutely.
Then, she transformed into her original form, a small green dragon with smooth scales, almost like jade. Flowers sprouted from different creviced in her body, creating a fresh appearance. Aria waited for the monster to look away, before darting out into the clearing nearby.
"Caaw!" It squawked, chasing after her and knocking down several trees whilst doing so.
Aria then hid behind a large tree just by the edge of the clearing .
'Now that it's come to this, I'll have to whittle down the bird brain's strength bit by bit, there's nothing else which I can do now.'
-Thump thump thump
The bird clumsily made it's way into the clearing, before cawing in anger.
Why do these puny creatures keep on running? Let me kill you!
It began to turn around, surveying the surrounding foliage and exposing it's back to Aria.
'Now!'
She shot out like a dart and latched onto the bird's back, claws digging into the flesh and feathers.
"CAW?!"
The giant two headed bird began to panic as it clearly felt something attach itself to it's back. It hopped around and flapped it's wings, attempting to swat Aria off but unfortunately for the bird, it's natural body shape and excess meat didn't allow such a wide range of movements.
Aria clung on for dear life, trying not to fall off. She then began to climb up the wall of flesh and feathers, her claws acting like climbing hooks.
'Luckily, it has lot's of meat to grab onto.'
After successfully making it to the bird's head, she began to poke it's eyes with her claws.
"Screeeeeeech!!!" It wailed and shrieked in pain and anger, not only could it not defeat the creature on it's back, the creature was even poking it's eyes!
It was just like tying a fatty to a chair and waving well-done steak in front of his face, the grease spraying everywhere. No matter how hard the fatty tried, he wouldn't be able to dig into his meal!
Soon, Aria had dug little holes in the pupils of the giant bird, yet the monster continued to rampage, in a more frenzied manner due to the immense pain. Now that the monster couldn't attack her, she could get away, making sure to avoid it's flailing limbs whilst darting away into the trees.
However, just when everything was going her way, the fat bird began making it's way in the exact direction where Aria had left her mother. Her face went pale as she imagined the consequences.
'I must distract it somehow!'
After thinking for a moment, she decided to hurl abuses at it.
"Hey you! Fat chicken! Can you even touch your toes with that oversized belly?"
"Did you weigh so much that your master decided to abandon you in this forest?"
"If the amount of mana you take up is directly proportional to your size, then it's no wonder!"
"Did your ancestors come from a food chain called McDonalds?"
Although the bird couldn't understand the insults, it understood that what was being said wasn't friendly. It wanted to find the source of the noise, but also knew another thing...
She wants to distract me and stop me from going in this direction!
Therefore, I shall continue!
The Fallen beast sped up it's pace and flailed even more wildly than before, destroying even more trees than previously. It had created a trail of wreckage all the way from the nearby clearing, leaving brown marks in the earth where the trees had been uprooted.
'Damn, it didn't work!' Aria cursed.
She then shook her head.
'I can't stop it with my force alone, I'll need to find another way to stop it.'
The dragonling quickly looked around, looking for anything to help her.
'Wait a moment, we're in a cave, how is there light?.'
She looked upwards and noticed several large luminous jagged crystals embedded in the ceiling. An idea promptly found it's way into her mind. Aria flew up to the ceiling and gripped onto one of the cracks on the crystals.
Then, she began to shoot out dragon flame, slowly melting away at the base of the light crystal. After a while, only a small chunk was left, holding up the weight of the rest of the crystal.
The one she held onto was coincidentally directly in line with the bird monster's path and was also the largest of the crystals in the ceiling, which meant the damage it could deal would be enormous. Aria waited nervously.
'I only have one chance, I mustn't screw this up!'
Soon, the Fallen beast came just before the predicted landing point. Due to it's wild flailing, the nearby trees slowed it's movement greatly, allowing Aria more time to execute her plan.
"Dragon Blade!" She muttered, causing her claws to turn glowing jade green and increase in size.
Aria used her full strength to slice away at the remaining chunk, rapidly cutting away at it and quickly decreasing it's width.
-Crack!
There was a moment of silence, before Aria felt the world beneath her fall and then her insides turned inside out. There was a whistling sound as she fell, created by the large size of the falling crystal.
Below, the bird had no idea that a crystal was approaching from above, licking it's jagged teeth in glee at the thought of finally defeating it's elusive enemy. However, a sudden heart shattering pain broke out across it's body, causing it to freeze and shriek in pain.
This wasn't the pain from the impact of the falling crystal, rather, the pain of the familiar bond breaking. This meant that the bird's master was dead. The moment the bird stopped in it's tracks, it was exposed directly under the falling crystal.
-SPLAT
And then brain matter flew everywhere in an explosion of soggy flesh.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
"Quickly, pursue her! Although it may not look like it, this spell uses a lot of mana and will run out soon!" Arboria shouted.
"Got it!"
Draylen and Horatio raced off into the dark tunnel, leaving behind Aria and her mother. A few moments later, the spell circle which was projected in the air began to dim slightly. Aria saw that her mother had beads of sweat crawling down her cheeks, showing how hard she was focusing.
'I wan't to help, but... I'm not strong enough.' She thought self-pityingly.
At this moment, the giant two headed bird screeched loudly, causing the dragonling to flinch slightly. It's eyes had turned blood red and the well kept feathers from before were now ruffled and messy. Blood dripped from areas where it had been squeezed by Arboria's root summoning spell.
"If only I could transform!" Arboria moaned in annoyance.
The large bird itself could barely fit, let alone a gigantic dragon. Thus, she had to use her humanoid form to deal with it, greatly reducing her strength and magic powers. If not for that, she wouldn't be in this situation right now.
Her mana had been wasted during the previous fight, summoning the Quaker Golems alone took lots of mana, let alone the spells which were constantly interrupted by the Fallen woman from before.
Arboria quickly put these useless thoughts aside and concentrated on binding the Fallen bird as tightly as possible, whilst also trying to preserve her mana. Aria on the other hand, was unnsure of what to do.
'This Fallen beast is 3 tiers above mine, at tier 8! How am I supposed to help mom beat it?'
She then began thinking about her skill repertoire, trying to recall the spells which would be useful in this situation.
'Aha! I'll try the quick sand spell!'
Aria slowly began to manipulate the earth mana within her body, causing it to circulate through her blood stream before gathering in her feet.
"Quick Sand!" She yelled, whilst simultaneously stomping her right foot against the ground.
-Poom!
Large cracks shot out from where her foot hit the ground, snaking toward the entangled Fallen beast. The moment the cracks came near the beast, they began to burrow in the ground underneath it. The ground quickly became softer, before a flash of brown and green came from the cracks the spell had created.
At that moment, the Fallen bird sank down several metres in an instant. The area around seemed to have become a sticky yet runny earthen substance, pulling it into the ground. It squawked in panic whilst attempting to flap it's wings only to cause the sand to penetrate deeper beneath it's feathers and entrap it even more.
However, before it was even halfway under the ground, Aria felt a wave of dizziness course through her mind.
'Damn! How could I run out so quickly?!' She cursed mentally.
The ground around the bird lost it's strange properties, remaining in the form of soft sand. It then began to slowly crawl out of the pit like a caterpillar. In ordinary circumstances, it would not have been able to move at all, yet due to the increase of mana expenditure which was caused by Arboria's human form, the spell roots became weaker and weaker the less mana she used.
Although Arboria had tried to prioritise the length of the spell over it's effectiveness, her mana was already almost dry. It felt somewhat like pouring a cup of water into a volcano, it would instantly evaporate, even before it was poured!
Thus, due to the weakened spell, the bird had managed to shuffle it's way slowly out of the sand pit. Although it managed to escape Aria's spell, it was still entangled in the thick roots which had ceased to move, the beast was trussed up like a chicken.
Arboria had no more mana for any offensive techniques and Aria's would deal little to no harm to the large bird. Thus, they would have to wait for the old man to return, effectively throwing the battle into a stalemate.
It was a battle to determine whether Arboria's spell could hold out until the old man returned.
The light emitted from her spell circle was dimming slightly every second, whilst the roots wrapped around the bird monster loosened. Aria sat down and quickly concentrated on gathering mana, taking in reckless amounts.
Arboria noticed her daughter doing something that could very well cripple her cultivation, but she couldn't afford to lose focus and thus had to keep quiet!
As the bird monster noticed the root's grip weakening, it cawed in glee and began wriggling at a faster pace, causing ruined feathers to fly everywhere. If someone walked into the area and saw the area, they would probably report this to the adventurer's guild as a strange mutant chicken doing a weird dance.
After almost an hour, Arboria finally ran out of mana. She collapsed onto her knees, sweat falling off of her like raindrops. She panted, with a fatigued expression on her face.
'How could I, a mighty earth dragon lose to some overweight chicken!? Even if I am in human form, this is a bit too much.'
-Cacawww!!
Realising that it's obscene wiggling wasn't in vain, the Fallen beast raised both of it's fanged beaks and began gnawing on the roots like a dog would with a dog toy. They acted like saws, slowly but steadily cutting through the numerous fibres of the root, until eventually, the bird was free.
As it stood up, it turned it's gaze toward the panting Arboria.
"Caaaaw!!!" It shrieked, emitting a strange sound which produced a similar effect to chalk on a black board.
^(Prepare to die)
Then, it menacingly walked towards her, each footstep making a dull 'thwump' against the floor. Aria, however, was not worried at all. She had recovered all of her mana in the past half an hour and was watching the monster's movements like a hawk.
The moment the bird looked toward's Arboria, it had blocked out it's surroundings, including Aria who was crouching by the side. The moment it began to walk, she quickly prepared an ice element spell and the only one she knew.
"Cawcawcaw... Caw-"
^(Finally, you shall pay... What-)
The bird abruptly felt it's feet slide out from underneath it, causing it to fall backwards onto it's rear. A cloud of dust rose into the air, signifying just how heavy it was. Upon seeing her spell work, Aria quickly moved over to her mother, before pulling her behind one of the nearby bushes.
"CAW!"
^(What the hell!)
The bird shrieked in rage, but by the time it managed to clumsily rise to it's feet, the two people who had bound it for hours had disappeared. The Fallen beast looked around in confusion, wondering how they could vanish into thin air.
Aria waited silently from inside the bush, waiting for a moment to harrass- ehem, attack the bird. It began to take another step, but just before it's clawed feet touched the ground, a patch of clear ice formed, causing it's talons to slide off like skating shoes in an ice rink.
It once again, fell backward and landed clumsily, this time on it's head. It stood up again, shrieked in anger before falling back over. This cycle happened several times, before Aria began to run out of mana for a second time.
'Damn it, why does my mana keep on running out whenever I need it?' She complained to herself, before creating another ice patch under the bird's feet.
'I need to end this somehow.'
She looked quickly around the room they were in, a cave with dense foliage and a small stream flowing through the middle of the room. However, she had stopped casting her ice spells to save mana and inevitably, the large bird could now roam freely.
It patrolled around the area like a watch dog, cocking it's head around to look behind bushes and trees. It was slowly approaching the area where Aria and Arboria were hiding.
'I can't move, otherwise it'll hear me. I'll have to rush out and distract it so that it can't find mom.' She thought resolutely.
Then, she transformed into her original form, a small green dragon with smooth scales, almost like jade. Flowers sprouted from different creviced in her body, creating a fresh appearance. Aria waited for the monster to look away, before darting out into the clearing nearby.
"Caaw!" It squawked, chasing after her and knocking down several trees whilst doing so.
Aria then hid behind a large tree just by the edge of the clearing .
'Now that it's come to this, I'll have to whittle down the bird brain's strength bit by bit, there's nothing else which I can do now.'
-Thump thump thump
The bird clumsily made it's way into the clearing, before cawing in anger.
Why do these puny creatures keep on running? Let me kill you!
It began to turn around, surveying the surrounding foliage and exposing it's back to Aria.
'Now!'
She shot out like a dart and latched onto the bird's back, claws digging into the flesh and feathers.
"CAW?!"
The giant two headed bird began to panic as it clearly felt something attach itself to it's back. It hopped around and flapped it's wings, attempting to swat Aria off but unfortunately for the bird, it's natural body shape and excess meat didn't allow such a wide range of movements.
Aria clung on for dear life, trying not to fall off. She then began to climb up the wall of flesh and feathers, her claws acting like climbing hooks.
'Luckily, it has lot's of meat to grab onto.'
After successfully making it to the bird's head, she began to poke it's eyes with her claws.
"Screeeeeeech!!!" It wailed and shrieked in pain and anger, not only could it not defeat the creature on it's back, the creature was even poking it's eyes!
It was just like tying a fatty to a chair and waving well-done steak in front of his face, the grease spraying everywhere. No matter how hard the fatty tried, he wouldn't be able to dig into his meal!
Soon, Aria had dug little holes in the pupils of the giant bird, yet the monster continued to rampage, in a more frenzied manner due to the immense pain. Now that the monster couldn't attack her, she could get away, making sure to avoid it's flailing limbs whilst darting away into the trees.
However, just when everything was going her way, the fat bird began making it's way in the exact direction where Aria had left her mother. Her face went pale as she imagined the consequences.
'I must distract it somehow!'
After thinking for a moment, she decided to hurl abuses at it.
"Hey you! Fat chicken! Can you even touch your toes with that oversized belly?"
"Did you weigh so much that your master decided to abandon you in this forest?"
"If the amount of mana you take up is directly proportional to your size, then it's no wonder!"
"Did your ancestors come from a food chain called McDonalds?"
Although the bird couldn't understand the insults, it understood that what was being said wasn't friendly. It wanted to find the source of the noise, but also knew another thing...
She wants to distract me and stop me from going in this direction!
Therefore, I shall continue!
The Fallen beast sped up it's pace and flailed even more wildly than before, destroying even more trees than previously. It had created a trail of wreckage all the way from the nearby clearing, leaving brown marks in the earth where the trees had been uprooted.
'Damn, it didn't work!' Aria cursed.
She then shook her head.
'I can't stop it with my force alone, I'll need to find another way to stop it.'
The dragonling quickly looked around, looking for anything to help her.
'Wait a moment, we're in a cave, how is there light?.'
She looked upwards and noticed several large luminous jagged crystals embedded in the ceiling. An idea promptly found it's way into her mind. Aria flew up to the ceiling and gripped onto one of the cracks on the crystals.
Then, she began to shoot out dragon flame, slowly melting away at the base of the light crystal. After a while, only a small chunk was left, holding up the weight of the rest of the crystal.
The one she held onto was coincidentally directly in line with the bird monster's path and was also the largest of the crystals in the ceiling, which meant the damage it could deal would be enormous. Aria waited nervously.
'I only have one chance, I mustn't screw this up!'
Soon, the Fallen beast came just before the predicted landing point. Due to it's wild flailing, the nearby trees slowed it's movement greatly, allowing Aria more time to execute her plan.
"Dragon Blade!" She muttered, causing her claws to turn glowing jade green and increase in size.
Aria used her full strength to slice away at the remaining chunk, rapidly cutting away at it and quickly decreasing it's width.
-Crack!
There was a moment of silence, before Aria felt the world beneath her fall and then her insides turned inside out. There was a whistling sound as she fell, created by the large size of the falling crystal.
Below, the bird had no idea that a crystal was approaching from above, licking it's jagged teeth in glee at the thought of finally defeating it's elusive enemy. However, a sudden heart shattering pain broke out across it's body, causing it to freeze and shriek in pain.
This wasn't the pain from the impact of the falling crystal, rather, the pain of the familiar bond breaking. This meant that the bird's master was dead. The moment the bird stopped in it's tracks, it was exposed directly under the falling crystal.
-SPLAT
And then brain matter flew everywhere in an explosion of soggy flesh.
"Quickly, pursue her! Although it may not look like it, this spell uses a lot of mana and will run out soon!" Arboria shouted."Got it!"Draylen and Horatio raced off into the dark tunnel, leaving behind Aria and her mother. A few moments later, the spell circle which was projected in the air began to dim slightly. Aria saw that her mother had beads of sweat crawling down her cheeks, showing how hard she was focusing.'I wan't to help, but... I'm not strong enough.' She thought self-pityingly.At this moment, the giant two headed bird screeched loudly, causing the dragonling to flinch slightly. It's eyes had turned blood red and the well kept feathers from before were now ruffled and messy. Blood dripped from areas where it had been squeezed by Arboria's root summoning spell."If only I could transform!" Arboria moaned in annoyance.The large bird itself could barely fit, let alone a gigantic dragon. Thus, she had to use her humanoid form to deal with it, greatly reducing her strength and magic powers. If not for that, she wouldn't be in this situation right now.Her mana had been wasted during the previous fight, summoning the Quaker Golems alone took lots of mana, let alone the spells which were constantly interrupted by the Fallen woman from before.Arboria quickly put these useless thoughts aside and concentrated on binding the Fallen bird as tightly as possible, whilst also trying to preserve her mana. Aria on the other hand, was unnsure of what to do.'This Fallen beast is 3 tiers above mine, at tier 8! How am I supposed to help mom beat it?'She then began thinking about her skill repertoire, trying to recall the spells which would be useful in this situation.'Aha! I'll try the quick sand spell!'Aria slowly began to manipulate the earth mana within her body, causing it to circulate through her blood stream before gathering in her feet."Quick Sand!" She yelled, whilst simultaneously stomping her right foot against the ground.-Poom!Large cracks shot out from where her foot hit the ground, snaking toward the entangled Fallen beast. The moment the cracks came near the beast, they began to burrow in the ground underneath it. The ground quickly became softer, before a flash of brown and green came from the cracks the spell had created.At that moment, the Fallen bird sank down several metres in an instant. The area around seemed to have become a sticky yet runny earthen substance, pulling it into the ground. It squawked in panic whilst attempting to flap it's wings only to cause the sand to penetrate deeper beneath it's feathers and entrap it even more.However, before it was even halfway under the ground, Aria felt a wave of dizziness course through her mind.'Damn! How could I run out so quickly?!' She cursed mentally.The ground around the bird lost it's strange properties, remaining in the form of soft sand. It then began to slowly crawl out of the pit like a caterpillar. In ordinary circumstances, it would not have been able to move at all, yet due to the increase of mana expenditure which was caused by Arboria's human form, the spell roots became weaker and weaker the less mana she used.Although Arboria had tried to prioritise the length of the spell over it's effectiveness, her mana was already almost dry. It felt somewhat like pouring a cup of water into a volcano, it would instantly evaporate, even before it was poured!Thus, due to the weakened spell, the bird had managed to shuffle it's way slowly out of the sand pit. Although it managed to escape Aria's spell, it was still entangled in the thick roots which had ceased to move, the beast was trussed up like a chicken.Arboria had no more mana for any offensive techniques and Aria's would deal little to no harm to the large bird. Thus, they would have to wait for the old man to return, effectively throwing the battle into a stalemate.It was a battle to determine whether Arboria's spell could hold out until the old man returned.The light emitted from her spell circle was dimming slightly every second, whilst the roots wrapped around the bird monster loosened. Aria sat down and quickly concentrated on gathering mana, taking in reckless amounts.Arboria noticed her daughter doing something that could very well cripple her cultivation, but she couldn't afford to lose focus and thus had to keep quiet!As the bird monster noticed the root's grip weakening, it cawed in glee and began wriggling at a faster pace, causing ruined feathers to fly everywhere. If someone walked into the area and saw the area, they would probably report this to the adventurer's guild as a strange mutant chicken doing a weird dance.After almost an hour, Arboria finally ran out of mana. She collapsed onto her knees, sweat falling off of her like raindrops. She panted, with a fatigued expression on her face.'How could I, a mighty earth dragon lose to some overweight chicken!? Even if I am in human form, this is a bit too much.'-Cacawww!!Realising that it's obscene wiggling wasn't in vain, the Fallen beast raised both of it's fanged beaks and began gnawing on the roots like a dog would with a dog toy. They acted like saws, slowly but steadily cutting through the numerous fibres of the root, until eventually, the bird was free.As it stood up, it turned it's gaze toward the panting Arboria."Caaaaw!!!" It shrieked, emitting a strange sound which produced a similar effect to chalk on a black board.^Prepare to dieThen, it menacingly walked towards her, each footstep making a dull 'thwump' against the floor. Aria, however, was not worried at all. She had recovered all of her mana in the past half an hour and was watching the monster's movements like a hawk.The moment the bird looked toward's Arboria, it had blocked out it's surroundings, including Aria who was crouching by the side. The moment it began to walk, she quickly prepared an ice element spell and the only one she knew."Cawcawcaw... Caw-"^Finally, you shall pay... What-The bird abruptly felt it's feet slide out from underneath it, causing it to fall backwards onto it's rear. A cloud of dust rose into the air, signifying just how heavy it was. Upon seeing her spell work, Aria quickly moved over to her mother, before pulling her behind one of the nearby bushes."CAW!"^What the hell!The bird shrieked in rage, but by the time it managed to clumsily rise to it's feet, the two people who had bound it for hours had disappeared. The Fallen beast looked around in confusion, wondering how they could vanish into thin air.Aria waited silently from inside the bush, waiting for a moment to harrass- ehem, attack the bird. It began to take another step, but just before it's clawed feet touched the ground, a patch of clear ice formed, causing it's talons to slide off like skating shoes in an ice rink.It once again, fell backward and landed clumsily, this time on it's head. It stood up again, shrieked in anger before falling back over. This cycle happened several times, before Aria began to run out of mana for a second time.'Damn it, why does my mana keep on running out whenever I need it?' She complained to herself, before creating another ice patch under the bird's feet.'I need to end this somehow.'She looked quickly around the room they were in, a cave with dense foliage and a small stream flowing through the middle of the room. However, she had stopped casting her ice spells to save mana and inevitably, the large bird could now roam freely.It patrolled around the area like a watch dog, cocking it's head around to look behind bushes and trees. It was slowly approaching the area where Aria and Arboria were hiding.'I can't move, otherwise it'll hear me. I'll have to rush out and distract it so that it can't find mom.' She thought resolutely.Then, she transformed into her original form, a small green dragon with smooth scales, almost like jade. Flowers sprouted from different creviced in her body, creating a fresh appearance. Aria waited for the monster to look away, before darting out into the clearing nearby."Caaw!" It squawked, chasing after her and knocking down several trees whilst doing so.Aria then hid behind a large tree just by the edge of the clearing .'Now that it's come to this, I'll have to whittle down the bird brain's strength bit by bit, there's nothing else which I can do now.'-Thump thump thumpThe bird clumsily made it's way into the clearing, before cawing in anger.Why do these puny creatures keep on running? Let me kill you!It began to turn around, surveying the surrounding foliage and exposing it's back to Aria.'Now!'She shot out like a dart and latched onto the bird's back, claws digging into the flesh and feathers."CAW?!"The giant two headed bird began to panic as it clearly felt something attach itself to it's back. It hopped around and flapped it's wings, attempting to swat Aria off but unfortunately for the bird, it's natural body shape and excess meat didn't allow such a wide range of movements.Aria clung on for dear life, trying not to fall off. She then began to climb up the wall of flesh and feathers, her claws acting like climbing hooks.'Luckily, it has lot's of meat to grab onto.'After successfully making it to the bird's head, she began to poke it's eyes with her claws."Screeeeeeech!!!" It wailed and shrieked in pain and anger, not only could it not defeat the creature on it's back, the creature was even poking it's eyes!It was just like tying a fatty to a chair and waving well-done steak in front of his face, the grease spraying everywhere. No matter how hard the fatty tried, he wouldn't be able to dig into his meal!Soon, Aria had dug little holes in the pupils of the giant bird, yet the monster continued to rampage, in a more frenzied manner due to the immense pain. Now that the monster couldn't attack her, she could get away, making sure to avoid it's flailing limbs whilst darting away into the trees.However, just when everything was going her way, the fat bird began making it's way in the exact direction where Aria had left her mother. Her face went pale as she imagined the consequences.'I must distract it somehow!'After thinking for a moment, she decided to hurl abuses at it."Hey you! Fat chicken! Can you even touch your toes with that oversized belly?""Did you weigh so much that your master decided to abandon you in this forest?""If the amount of mana you take up is directly proportional to your size, then it's no wonder!""Did your ancestors come from a food chain called McDonalds?"Although the bird couldn't understand the insults, it understood that what was being said wasn't friendly. It wanted to find the source of the noise, but also knew another thing...She wants to distract me and stop me from going in this direction!Therefore, I shall continue!The Fallen beast sped up it's pace and flailed even more wildly than before, destroying even more trees than previously. It had created a trail of wreckage all the way from the nearby clearing, leaving brown marks in the earth where the trees had been uprooted.'Damn, it didn't work!' Aria cursed.She then shook her head.'I can't stop it with my force alone, I'll need to find another way to stop it.'The dragonling quickly looked around, looking for anything to help her.'Wait a moment, we're in a cave, how is there light?.'She looked upwards and noticed several large luminous jagged crystals embedded in the ceiling. An idea promptly found it's way into her mind. Aria flew up to the ceiling and gripped onto one of the cracks on the crystals.Then, she began to shoot out dragon flame, slowly melting away at the base of the light crystal. After a while, only a small chunk was left, holding up the weight of the rest of the crystal.The one she held onto was coincidentally directly in line with the bird monster's path and was also the largest of the crystals in the ceiling, which meant the damage it could deal would be enormous. Aria waited nervously.'I only have one chance, I mustn't screw this up!'Soon, the Fallen beast came just before the predicted landing point. Due to it's wild flailing, the nearby trees slowed it's movement greatly, allowing Aria more time to execute her plan."Dragon Blade!" She muttered, causing her claws to turn glowing jade green and increase in size.Aria used her full strength to slice away at the remaining chunk, rapidly cutting away at it and quickly decreasing it's width.-Crack!There was a moment of silence, before Aria felt the world beneath her fall and then her insides turned inside out. There was a whistling sound as she fell, created by the large size of the falling crystal.Below, the bird had no idea that a crystal was approaching from above, licking it's jagged teeth in glee at the thought of finally defeating it's elusive enemy. However, a sudden heart shattering pain broke out across it's body, causing it to freeze and shriek in pain.This wasn't the pain from the impact of the falling crystal, rather, the pain of the familiar bond breaking. This meant that the bird's master was dead. The moment the bird stopped in it's tracks, it was exposed directly under the falling crystal.-SPLATAnd then brain matter flew everywhere in an explosion of soggy flesh.
