Ch.199Jewel Wings (2)

“I” “Savior?” “Understand” “Impossible”

Adhigh Orr found it hard to believe what Ham Oort had told her.

“I” “Body” “Small” “Strength” “Weak” “Savior” “Impossible”

She had been small and frail since birth. Though fortunate enough to grow thanks to good connections, her body remained small. As for strength, her body size was even smaller than a Hatchling.

For someone like her to be a savior? Impossible.

“You” “Are small indeed” “But” “First companion” “Taught me” “Savior” “Related to power of stars”

“First companion?”

Just as Ham Oort was the third companion, there were females who had bonded with the black dragon before her. The very first companion was an ancient dragon of rank 5.

“First companion” “Where is she?”

“Dead”

“!”

“Odd Grad” “Truth” “Feared” “So” “Killed her”

Adhigh was startled by these words.

Though her rank had fallen due to aging, the first companion was the oldest member of the pack. In terms of respect, she was as revered by the pack as the great Odd Grad.

Yet he killed the first companion? It was almost suspicious enough to make her wonder if Ham Oort was lying.

Adhigh exerted her senses to their fullest to examine the pure white female. Her psychic powers extended to touch Ham Oort’s body. Ham Oort knew her daughter was monitoring her but remained still.

After this process, Adhigh confirmed that Ham Oort at least believed what she was saying.

The death of the first companion was regrettable to Adhigh as well. She had been the only pack member who treated Adhigh well.

Even more so than Ham Oort, her birth mother.

However, whether the first companion’s words were true and whether she was truly special were separate matters.

Ham Oort said she possessed the power of stars, but it didn’t particularly resonate with her. If she truly had such power, she wouldn’t have been captured in the first place.

“Daughter of the meteor” “Savior” “Evidence” “More exists”

“?”

Ham Oort pointed to her green scales with her front paw.

“Growth” “Faster than” “Pack members”

“I” “Hunt directly” “Food” “Much” “Consumed”

She objected, but Ham Oort shook her head.

“Not” “Wrong” “But” “Too” “Fast” “Pack members” “Growth” “Power” “Food” “Much” “Much” “Needed”

Adhigh, having been exiled at a young age, didn’t know well, but Ham Oort did.

When she discovered traces of her daughter who had left this planet and returned, she sensed it. That the daughter of the meteor was growing abnormally fast.

Among those born with her, quite a few had scales that changed from water-colored to grass-colored. They surpassed her in both size and power stored in their bodies.

But Ham Oort sensed it. That the day when this small daughter before her would change into the same scales as herself, pure white clothing, was not far off.

The daughter of the meteor had grown this much without receiving any benefits from the nest where dragon power flowed. What did it mean that an exiled being was growing faster than pack members who received all benefits?

The answer was simple.

Before dying, the first companion had said: though the savior appears humble, she possesses tremendous potential. If the conditions to release that potential are met, the daughter of the meteor could bloom into a being only known in legends.

“Daughter of the meteor” “Special food” “Needed”

“Special food?”

“Flesh of kings” “Needed” “Follow me”

Having stretched her body sufficiently, she rose from her place. As she went outside the cave, Adhigh quickly followed behind her.

Since bringing the daughter of the meteor, Ham Oort had continuously gone hunting without rest. It was to obtain food for the daughter of the meteor.

And today at noon, she succeeded in hunting a monster that existed far away. Though not fully grown, the monster was enormous. It was so large that she couldn’t move it alone and needed pack members to help carry it.

“What is that?”

Adhigh projected a thought wave as they entered the forest together. Before them lay the corpse of a massive beast. The creature was torn into several pieces, with each piece larger than a white pack member.

Seeing Adhigh tilting her head in front of the beast’s corpse, Ham Oort proudly explained.

“King of serpents” “Immature” “Specimen” “Ham Oort” “Hunted” “Daughter of meteor” “Growth” “Catalyst”

She expected her daughter to be surprised, but Adhigh’s reaction was completely different from what she anticipated.

“I” “Ate before”

“?”

“Was delicious”

“?” “?”

Ham Oort was bewildered.

Adhigh, unconcerned with her reaction, licked her lips while looking at the Ice Horror’s corpse.

–

Crystalwing hesitates as it sees my transformed self. It’s understandable to be shocked when a creature that was barely half your size suddenly appears larger than you.

After a roar, I charge toward it. Thanks to the “Stealth Movement” effect, my footsteps make almost no sound. Only the noise of trees breaking as they collide with my body fills the air.

Then I crash into Crystalwing.

“Kuaak…!”

Too startled to dodge properly, it screams. Even when my body was small, my horns tore its wings. Now that my body is larger than its wingspan, it couldn’t possibly remain unharmed.

The creature whose wing was left tattered by my charge opens its mouth. Just before the particle beam fires, No. 26’s support arrives.

“Kuek?!”

An uprooted tree flies in and lodges in its mouth. While it chokes, corrosion tentacles spring from my back and wrap around its wings.

Like a snake hunting a flying bird, the corrosion tentacles quickly tighten. The broad wings tear and bone fragments protrude.

I open my lower jaw wide to finish it off. My jaw splits into two branches as I try to swallow its head whole, but it counterattacks.

It chews and swallows the tree in its mouth and fires a particle beam.

The extreme heat scorches the roof of my mouth, forcing me to quickly close it. While my body may be harder than a ship’s outer wall, the inside isn’t the same.

Having overcome the crisis, it uses its particle beam to slash at the wing wrapped in tentacles.

“Kuaaaak!”

Surprisingly, it fires the beam to tear its own wing. After escaping the tentacles by damaging its wing, it quickly retreats.

‘Hyper-regeneration ability.’

I thought it had just become an adult, but it’s quite impressive. It understands its abilities very well.

A new wing instantly grows from the wounded area. Spreading its freshly regenerated wings, it flies upward.

It must have realized it’s at a disadvantage in close combat. Crystalwing has changed its strategy to aerial bombardment, its specialty.

‘But you’re not the only one good at bombardment.’

I had already anticipated this move. I was prepared for bombardment too.

As it rises above the forest and prepares to fire a particle beam.

Simultaneously, the tentacles that have grown to my neck and jaw move.

The black glossy carapace turns purple. Energy stored in my body converts to psychic power and gathers at the tips of the tentacles.

Dragon power, Psychic Breath. This is the pure state without activating “Abyssal Chromatics.”

The moment the male Crystalwing fires its particle beam, the monstrous tentacles on my jaw and neck also release their power.

Cyan light and purple light collide above the snow-covered peak shrouded in black clouds.

A thunderous boom echoes through the storm, and the entire mountain peak shakes violently. Before the roar subsides, the sound of the sky collapsing comes from below the peak. An avalanche has started on the mountainside.

The confrontation between it and me is shaking an entire mountain. And No. 26 intervenes in our power struggle.

Trees, rocks, ice, soil, and all sorts of terrain objects float up and rotate like a giant drill. This is the technique No. 26 used earlier to inflict fatal wounds on the Ice Horror.

Seeing this, Crystalwing quickly cuts off its beam and dodges. My psychic breath grazes over its crest.

The moment their confrontation breaks, the psychic drill created by No. 26 launches toward it. The formless energy mass tears through the air and blows away one of its wings.

“Ku, kuaaak!”

“Blew away” is not a metaphor. The creature, instantly half-bodied, plummets to the ground.

Meanwhile, I activate Abyssal Chromatics. The tentacles that were glowing bright purple now wear a garment of mixed colors. Green, purple, and other complex colors difficult to describe swirl around the tentacles.

With the chromatics prepared, I activate “Gaze of Terror.”

Energy escaping from my tentacles clumps in the air. The liquefied energy mass seems to boil constantly as if heated by fire.

The amorphous mass, writhing ceaselessly as if possessing consciousness, transforms into one giant bubble.

‘Bigger than I expected?’

The bubble, glistening with ominous colors, appeared to be about 5m in diameter. Whether it’s enhanced by the Hunter’s Emblem effect or because my body has returned to normal, I can’t tell right now.

Eventually, the giant bubble begins moving toward its target.

The bubble’s target is its torso. The bubble that delivers nightmare-like pain to all creatures cuts through the air.

“Ku, kuak! Kuak! Kuaak!”

Crystalwing lets out fearful cries upon seeing the approaching Gaze of Terror. Its wild instincts must have sensed that the bubble is extremely dangerous.

Instead of counterattacking, it tries to dodge the bubble by throwing its body aside. If it had fired a particle beam from that position, the bubble would have burst and poured over it.

‘I already expected that. Next move…’

This attack was just a bluff anyway. As I was about to pull out my next prepared move, something surprising happened.

The giant bubble splits into dozens of smaller ones and begins flying toward it at a much faster speed.

‘No. 26?’

Each of those bubbles had a thin purple thread attached to it without exception. The owner of those threads was No. 26 behind me.

Thanks to its assistance, the bubbles flying at tremendous speed burst in front of Crystalwing’s belly. When the bubbles burst, their contents covered its head.

Colors spread like dye in clear water. As soon as the colors touched it, it froze in place. The extreme pain left it unable to think.

Now is the opportunity while it can’t move. Deactivating Abyssal Chromatics, I fired a second Psychic Breath. The purple beam, cutting through the falling snow, pierced its heart.

“…ku.”

With pain that makes consciousness fade and a lost heart, Crystalwing staggered and collapsed onto the snow. It let out one long sigh as if feeling wronged, then moved no more.

The hunt was much easier than expected, but what’s more important is what just happened. Because something completely unexpected occurred.

‘I didn’t expect it to end this easily.’

Originally, I planned to subdue it with distraction tactics using Abyssal Chromatics. But thanks to No. 26 showing a new power, there was no need to use my prepared moves.

‘I knew it handled psychic power well, but…’

To think it could intervene in my psychic-type techniques.

‘It seems it can only intervene in techniques with Abyssal Chromatics applied.’

Otherwise, it would have assisted when I first fired my Psychic Breath.

‘Or is it related to the form of attack?’

It might be that while dense energy masses like heat beams are difficult to control, it can only control attacks that are small in size and slow in launch speed, like bubbles.

‘…Whatever it is, it’s a remarkable achievement.’

Even if it can’t intervene in all my psychic-type attacks, it doesn’t matter. If it can control even just the enhanced Gaze of Terror, I can apply it in many more diverse ways.

I unconsciously turned to look at it. Meeting my gaze, it waved one tentacle gently.

“I thought it might work so I tried it!”

A confident statement from it. There’s only one response I can give.

[Zz-zz zz-zz-zz (You did very well)]

“Yes!”

This Crystalwing operation was primarily to improve my mobility, but I gained an unexpected benefit.

I wanted to pick it up and praise it right away, but enemies still remained. Let’s save the compliments for No. 26 after we deal with the female.

[Zz-zz zz-zz-zz (Shall we go then?)]

“Yes. Let’s help Middle One and friend.”

I ran to help the others fighting at the peak, carrying it on my back.

About 5 minutes after the male died.

Two pairs of brilliantly shining jewel wings fell side by side on the nameless peak.

After two days of waiting, we successfully hunted two Crystalwings.