Aster Fall 48: Natural Enemies (Patreon)

The elements roared in fury, spinning into a shield that shattered a moment later as the monster’s jaws snapped down. Shards of hardened wind and ice flew around Sam, ringing off the tiny scales on the matriarch’s head as his talons swept up to meet her, slashing toward her nostrils and eyes.

There was no time to dodge. Her mouth was almost as large as his entire body, with fangs as long as his arm. He tried to twist to the side with crystal flame flaring around him, but she was too close.

Her fangs crashed into his Essence Shield, long yellow spears stabbing into the crystal pattern, and for a moment they slowed. Then the shield shattered, splintering apart into frozen shards that dissolved into the air.

The jaws closed on him, biting into the Ring of Crystal Shield’s barrier that sprang into existence like a blue sun in her mouth, and Sam’s talons slashed across her face, leaving deep gouges in her scales.

The matriarch jerked her head, biting harder into the crystal shield, but the artifact held. She whipped her head back and forth and then flung him off to the side. Her wing came around, batting at him.

It hit with the force of an avalanche, a violent echo that rattled every bone in his body with a giant hammer blow as it threw him away.

He tumbled head over heels, pulling his aura in tighter as he poured essence into it. At the same time, he reached out to the wind around him. Instead of trying to slow his fall, this time he accelerated it, trying to push himself faster.

He was being knocked around like a child’s toy, but his mind was clear. He needed distance...time to prepare. If he could get a couple of scrolls together....

Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to get it.

The wyvern chased him, jumping into the air with a lunge as her wings beat down with a mighty gust, and then she was airborne, angling after him as her mouth opened again.

This time, there was a building roil of mist at the back of her throat that was quickly growing larger. Spinning trails of mana consolidated into a giant ball of green-tinged ice. All around it, there was a virulescent glow of venom that hissed in the air.

Her mouth gaped wide as the venom ball shot out, heading for him even faster than she was. Even if he dodged it, he would set himself up to be bitten by her a moment later, so he took a different approach.

He hardened the shield around him and added a second, absorptive layer just as the attack arrived. The ball struck the shield with the force of a ballista, caving it inward in an instant.

Sam poured his essence into the shield, focusing on keeping it soft and pliable, as he pushed himself backward through the air.

Crystal flame, wind, and the wyvern’s attack all combined to hurl him away.

Even as he flew through the air, the venom was corroding through the outer layer of his shield, so he shunted it to the side, deflecting the sphere at the same time as he lost the shield.

A new one sprang up, forming out of his aura, but his essence was dropping precipitously. As he looked back, the matriarch beat her wings and angled into a sharp vee, surging toward him again. There were white lines on her snout where his talons had struck, but he hadn’t even broken through the scales. Her defenses were even denser than the first wyvern he’d fought, except the matriarch had truly come into her own

The same sense of calm was all around him, mixing with a desire for victory that pushed him forward. It sharpened his senses, but at the same time it brought with it an acceptance of reality.

The star had been right. He was outclassed in this battle, but there was nothing to be done now.

His hands spread out to the side as a Starfire took shape in each palm. The glowing white runes shone at the heart of cerulean blue spheres, like stars that had fallen from heaven and now burned within the ocean.

His hands crossed in front of his chest as he threw both spheres at her. They exploded across her head and chest, brightening into eruptions that shook even the massive matriarch. For a moment, she staggered in her flight, spiraling to the side as her wings swept around for stability.

But then she dived, her wings angled back as she dropped below the area of the explosions. Her wings beat as her head curved back up, her eyes fixed on him. There was a malicious light in them that said she was enjoying the chase. With a few wingstrokes, she regained her elevation, coming up even with him.

Absorbing the attack had gained him some distance, and the force of it hadn’t dissipated yet. With the help of the wind, he was still hurtling through the air, but his attempts to go faster were failing.

The matriarch swept her wings back and surged after him, catching up easily. Her eyes were malicious, dark green lines as she tracked him. Then her tail swept around, smashing toward him in the air as the spike on the end hammered toward his chest.

Sam crossed his hands in front of himself, hardening his shield again, and took the strike directly. The bone spike crashed through the Essence Shield with a shattering explosion as he felt his essence drop like a rock, but he managed to twist to the side, pushing away from her with the air around him and a blast of evasive crystal flame.

At the same time, his talons slashed across her tail, leaving scored lines in the scales there. Unfortunately, that was the extent of the damage. He went flying through the air, tumbling wildly as he tried to right himself again, his senses fixed on the giant monster.

This time, the matriarch chose not to use another venom ball. She simply beat her wings harder as she gained elevation, angling up above him like a hawk as she kept her eyes on him. As she did, she moved slightly farther away, but in reality, the distance was an illusion.

In a second, she would dive, her speed accelerating as she angled down. He could already see how the trajectory would go. Her head would point toward him and her wings would sweep back as she sped down, her claws extended. The impact of a thirty-foot-tall wyvern matriarch would be like a building collapsing.

He reached out to the air around him, feeling the slipping streams as the wind sped past him. He was still flying horizontally across the mountainside, the wyvern's blow and his slow falling effect enough to keep him airborne.

His essence was down to a quarter. The initial attack and the matriarch shattering his shield had drained it. As the monster folded her wings and dived toward him, he reached out to the elements, feeling for anything that might help.

All around him, there was the whipping sense of the wind and the presence of Ice, but there, about a mile distant, he felt an incredibly concentrated presence of Ice that was denser than anything else around. He didn't know what it was, but he seized on it as an opportunity.

He pulled a slanted shield around him, covering it in a layer of slippery wind as the wyvern swept toward him. As best he could, he needed to be a bubble that blew with the wind. Whether or not he survived was down to perfect timing.

All around the wyvern, he could feel a wall of air that her massive bulk was pushing ahead of her as she approached. He focused his will on that layer, reaching out to catch the edge. Then, like a bubble bouncing off a sudden breeze, he used the force of it to hurl himself away.

The wyvern dove past him, her jaws reaching toward nothing, and Sam went flying through the air, surrounded by a layer of wind that carried him across the ground. As he bounced away, he called a new breeze to push him in the direction of the presence he'd sensed.

Tumbling through the sky, he pulled half a dozen auras out of his storage, combusting them one after the other to restore his essence. Six of the advanced auras burned away, returning him almost to full.

The wyvern screeched, her voice angry. There was a sound of mockery in it as she caught herself in the dive and swept upward again, heading for him as she gained altitude. She'd missed him once, but she didn't plan to a second time.

Sam grabbed at the wind around him, using it to keep himself upright and as light as possible. He was losing altitude quickly, but the wyvern's attack had thrown him up high and he was moving at an incredible rate. The presence that he'd felt was just ahead.

He reached out toward it, trying to figure out what it was. It was different from the wyvern, resonating with his Initiate of Ice trait.

The wyvern curved around, her eyes locked on him as she prepared to dive again. All around her, there was a glowing, virulent green aura that felt corrosive and dangerous. Whatever she was doing, it wasn't going to be as simple as the last dive.

She ducked her head, the viper-like wedge of it angled toward him as her wings swept back.

RooOOOOAAARRrrRRR!

At that moment, however, a streak of bright, blue-white frost blasted through the air, striking the wyvern’s left wing. Ice crystals expanded all across the area, covering the wing. The impact sent her spinning around as she lost her balance.

An instant later, an enormous, white blur slammed into her with an explosive blast of wind and muscled bulk. It was even larger than she was, with four claws and legs extended as two gigantic, crystalline wings flared outward to brace in the air.

Those claws seized her by the wing and leg, preventing her from escaping as it smashed her into a dive toward the ground below. As they plummeted downward together, he saw what it was. The presence of Ice that he'd felt radiated from it like a frozen moon.

It was a massive, white-scaled drake.

Ice Drake. Level 130.

It was at least half again bigger than the wyvern, with a long, white body stretching backward. It was covered in scales that reflected the light and had translucent wings like a crystal sculpture that stretched for nearly a hundred and fifty feet. Despite its size, the drake’s body was lean and angular, with four limbs compared to the wyvern's two.

The drake kept a tight hold on the wyvern as they headed for the ground, their speed increasing as they plummeted. His head shot down as he breathed ice across her wings and head, covering her in a thick coat.

When they were only a hundred feet above the stone mountainside, he released her. His tail came around with a resounding THHWAAAACckK, accelerating her fall.

Unable to free her wings from the ice or control her fall, the matriarch’s green-scaled body struck the ground like a frozen meteorite, with a resounding crack of shattering tendons and wingbones that echoed across the area.

The drake circled once to regain his balance, his wings snapping out to the side, and then he followed her down, his mouth opening in a roar. A blast of frozen air condensed in front of him, forming into a massive ice crystal. The crystal shot ahead of him and slammed into her side, shattering her scales.

The drake didn’t stop there. He followed the ice crystal down and slammed into her, forcing her deeper into the ground, as his claws and tail swung around, slashing through her hide and hammering her deeper into the ground. His actions were quick and savage, as if there were old hatred in them.

His jaws opened wide to reveal long, translucent fangs like icicles. Green blood and scales exploded in a fountain as he tore at her neck, covering the land around the matriarch.

That was all Sam had time to see as his trajectory through the air dropped and he headed for the mountainside below. He grabbed at the winds around him to slow his fall and they hardened, providing some resistance.

His flight halted and he began to drift down in a slow arc, but before he could land, an icy wind swept upwards, swirling in a wave as it pulled him to the side. A sudden surprise flared through him, as well as a sense of panic.

Where had that come from?

His aura flared outward as he prepared to fight, but then Crystal Field brought back an image of what was around him and he halted, pulling his essence back in.

The presence that he'd felt had to be the ice drake, but this...this was a surprise. They had blended into the snow so easily that he hadn't even known they were there.

He pulled the wind and ice around himself, halting his fall as he drifted to the ground, and when he came to a stop, he was directly in front of six people, their lean, angular features setting off their crystal blue eyes.

The Ice Sylphs regarded him with severe expressions, their faces puzzled. A swirl of Ice came from them, testing his aura. The sense that radiated from them was similar to Siwaha's, but not as deep. Hers was a hundred layers of snow and different moods, like incense mixed with winter. Theirs was simpler and a little more jagged, auras that fit a hunter.

The one in the lead stepped forward, pushing a white cloak back around his head to fully reveal his face. His long hair was ice white, tumbling down his back, and there was a long bow slung over his shoulder.

“I am Siwasir,” the sylph spoke slowly, his words betraying only a trace of irritation. There was also puzzlement. He looked somewhat like Siwaha, as if they were related, but Sam wasn’t able to tell for sure.

“Elder Siwaha told us about you, Sam Hastern, but I did not expect to see you here. We have been hunting these Outsiders, but we were still studying their defenses when you attacked.”

“Young and impetuous, despite your strength,” another of the Ice Sylphs spoke up, her words flowing like the wind. “If you had spent longer watching before attacking, you would have seen that it was a trap.”

“Still, your attack allows us to seize the opportunity,” Siwasir added, nodding to Sam. “Elsanar smelled the wyvern matriarch here, which is one reason we waited. He is pleased that you lured her out and sprang their trap. It was good work to bring her to us.”

The words crashed around Sam in a whirl of impressions as he stared at the Ice Sylphs, the reality of what had just happened settling in. Off in the distance, the titanic form of the ice drake was still tearing apart the wyvern’s corpse.

A mile or more distant, the flaw gleamed in the air, and he could just make out the surge of monsters around it, which were even now headed their way, chasing the path the wyvern had taken.

“Your attack drew their attention and broke their shield,” Siwasir added as he followed Sam’s gaze. His hand reached up to touch the bow across his shoulders. “Now, we need to finish the work.

"Come! There will be time to speak later.”

With that, Siwasir and the rest of the Ice Sylphs turned. Then they were moving, their forms rippling like a spreading frost in the air as they were suddenly more distant.

They were running so swiftly and smoothly that their motions could barely be called an effort. As they started to pull away, Sam pushed aside the questions on his mind and launched himself after them. Crystal flame and wind surrounded him as he raced to keep up.

As they ran, he glanced at the Ice Sylphs ahead of him, examining them. They looked like six siblings, all of them with very similar angular features, ice blue eyes, and white hair. They were wearing matching long, white cloaks and three of them had a bow slung over their shoulders.

Siwasir. Ice Sylph. Ice Spirit-Ranger. Level 112.

Ice Sylph. Sky Mage-Healer. Level 108.

Ice Sylph. Ranger-Ice Weaver. Level 114.

Ice Sylph. Ice Walker-Ranger. Level 104.

Ice Sylph. Healer-Ice Shaman. Level 121.

Ice Sylph. Ice Walker-Sky Mage. Level 106.

This had to be the warrior group that Siwaha had mentioned, the one that had been out hunting Outsiders in the ruins. The snow fluttered around them with a friendly curl and he could feel a sense of kinship with them. It was a comfortable, relaxing chill that calmed the nerves and cleared his mind.

He wasn't sure how they were here, but with their levels...the Outsiders had been kicking a hornet’s nest to attack their village. It made a lot more sense now how the sylphs survived here in the mountains.

But the ice drake.... His breath caught as he looked back to where the enormous beast was still ripping the wyvern apart. How were they working with it? There was more going on here than he understood.

The monsters were racing in their direction at the same time as they headed toward the flaw, and it took only a minute to reach them.

The impact was a massacre. The Coldfangs that had tried to attack him were the first in front of them, and a ripple of white arrows with blue fletchings sprang through the air as they approached, accompanied by twisting blades of Ice and a sweeping wind that froze everything in its path.

Sam poured out a wave of crystal flame arrows and summoned a Starfire, throwing into the mix, but it was only one part of a much wilder battle.

Behind the Coldfangs, Icesoul Wraiths and a line of Hoarfrost Serpents and Diamondfang Ice Vipers rushed toward them, but the instant they struck at the Ice Sylphs' line, they were torn apart.

The six Icebloods tried to turn when they saw the disparity in the forces, retreating toward the flaw, but they hadn't prepared for this type of assault. With their trap sprung, they had no time to react. A wave of white arrows and spells struck them, ripping holes in their shields. Pale blue blood splattered across the ice.

Before long, the area was silent. The Ice Sylphs spread out across the air with their bows and spells ready, searching for anything that was still alive. After a moment, they returned, with Siwasir in the lead, and stopped in front of Sam.

“Thank you for the assistance, Sam Hastern,” Siwasir said sternly, even as he bowed slightly, inclining his head to Sam. "Your attack was ill-considered, but without it, the battle would have been much harder." He sounded like an older brother or uncle lecturing him.

“But tell me, why have you come here? You are a long way from your family, and you are not strong enough to be here alone. The monsters in these mountains often reach the First Evolution, like the wyvern matriarch that pursued you.”

“I was planning to destroy the flaw,” Sam answered slowly, pulling his attention together as he looked at the dimensional tear behind Siwasir. “The church has sent reinforcements into the ruins, but they won’t be able to close them in time without help. There are five subsidiary flaws, including this one, and then the Grand Flaw.”

It took him a couple of minutes, but he explained his idea and the timing to eliminate all of the flaws. As he spoke, the Ice Sylphs' attention on him increased, their eyes widening.

“There are four other flaws?” The female Ice Sylph asked who was standing behind Siwasir, the Ranger-Ice Weaver. There was a blue tattoo that curled like a flower around her cheek. Her expression was shocked. "Then we have to get them as soon as possible."

“If you know their location, you must lead us there," one of the other Ice Sylphs agreed, switching to the new goal in an instant. "We knew there were flaws in the area, but not how many or where they were. We have been searching, but they are well hidden, and all we could do was follow the trail of the monsters and the tracks of the Outsiders.

“If Elsanar had not smelled the wyvern and thought something was suspicious here, we would not have found this area,” Siwasir agreed as he gave Sam a considering look. “We’ll destroy this one and then head there at once. If the humans are on the move as well, we will match their speed. We cannot allow the Outsiders to escape. They would only return again.”

In the distance, the ice drake, Elsanar, flared his wings as he tilted his head back and roared at the heavens. Below him, the wyvern matriarch’s corpse leaked green blood onto the snow.

The rest of the introductions took a few moments and then the Ice Sylphs turned their attention to the flaw. The rainbow dimensional tear was shimmering at the center of a devastated circle that was decorated with the remains of the building. Iceblood and monster corpses were scattered around.

Some of them were pinned through with white arrows that had blue fletchings and others were ripped to shreds by claws and ice magic. Chunks of ice and swirling frost marked the ground, its light blue color a hint different from the snow that was all around. He could sense the impression left behind, especially the ice that they’d used. It felt familiar to him, with a trace of welcome, like a neighbor he’d seen but hadn’t met.

Without speaking, the Ice Sylphs darted around the area, collecting the experience and seizing everything useful from the Icebloods. The silver stream of experience began to bubble through the area, some of it coming to him.

There was also a surge of experience that flowed from the wyvern, although most of that went to the ice drake. By the time it was all collected, it was almost enough to push him to Level 80.

Total Class Experience: 54,709,990 / 56,000,000.

It wasn’t the conclusion to the battle that he’d expected, but he was lucky to be alive. If the wyvern hadn’t been here, he might have managed, but he wasn’t the only one with traps and unexpected forces.

He’d been impatient. The wyvern had been more than he could handle, and it drove home some of the differences between him and the First Evolution. There had to be a higher mana or aura density in monsters after they evolved, which was why the wyvern’s scales had been so hard to pierce.

The rainbow tear in the world slowly sealed over as the natural auras of Aster Fall flowed toward it, covering it in layer after layer of the elements and other, more abstract concepts. It was a flood of mountain wind, fluttering snow, quick-flourishing grasses that smelled of mint and jasmine, and a distant ocean breeze with a red-gold sun soaking into the sands.

With a final, ear-popping snap of air rushing in, the flaw disappeared, leaving nothing but the chill air of the mountain behind. Then the World Law spoke, its tone a little warmer than usual as it announced the results of the battle.

Congratulations, Guardian. You are Acknowledged.

Seal one more Flaw to remove the Trait: Defiant.

The Ice Sylphs looked around the area at the scattered corpses, making sure everything was still. Among the corpses, there were the translucent forms of Icesoul Wraith like blankets tossed to the earth, a couple of Arctic Cave Trolls, and the various serpents and Coldfangs.

Siwasir turned to Sam with an intense look. His head tilted toward him, a question on his lips.

“How quickly can you travel, Sam Hastern? I sense your Initiate of Ice...but that alone will not grant you the speed we need. We must move before the Outsiders learn of what happened here.”

“I’ll move as fast as I can,” Sam promised, feeling a sense of challenge. Then he glanced around, looking at the dead monsters and Outsiders. “Just give me a moment to gather resources.”

With that, as the Ice Sylphs looked on curiously, he turned toward the Icebloods and the other Outsiders as he tore the essence from their corpses with a slash of his talons. The glittering stars of essence rose up in an array of red and yellow stars from the Icebloods, the Icesoul Wraiths, and the Coldfang Beheaders. They surged toward him, turning blue as they struck his body.

Essence Constellation (Second Layer): 3,197 / 7,500.

Strength increased by 2.

Constitution increased by 3.

Agility increased by 1.

Intelligence increased by 4.

Aura increased by 4.

The average level of the monsters here hadn’t been that high, but it was still around six hundred points.

After that, he darted around the area, pulling auras from every monster he could find. There were fifteen monsters and he ended up with a dozen advanced auras, including some Advanced Auras of Desolate Life from the Icesoul Wraiths, which tasted of ashen despair.

When he was finished, he stood above the Outsiders, looking down at them. He reached out, touching the corpse of one, and he felt it. It was the aura that he’d touched back at the Ice Sylph village, but that had burned away in his hand.

Aura of Blood Winter.

The taste of blood in the snow filled his senses as he pulled the auras from the corpses. It was a swirling, red taint as if a vein had been cut open on the ice. It was a natural aura of Aster Fall, something the Icebloods had stolen, so it wasn’t evil, but the taste of it was...uncomfortable.

It felt like a mountain climber who had fallen into a crevasse, desperately reaching their hand up to the edge to pull themselves free as they sliced their palms open on the ice, only to fall back into the depths below. Five of the auras flowed into his storage as he pulled them free.

While he worked, the Ice Sylphs watched him curiously, but either Siwaha had told them about him or they felt no need to ask what he was doing.

As for the wyvern, everything about that corpse belonged to the ice drake that had saved him. As he turned to look, in the distance, Elsanar took to the air, his enormous, crystal wings beating as he began to circle above them. The sunset gleamed through his wings, sending a vivid rainbow of light that rippled across the snow.

Sam turned, facing to the southwest and the direction of the next flaw. His face hardened as he gathered his energy around him and reached out to the wind and the snow, preparing himself to move. He looked around, making sure the Ice Sylphs were ready, but they were only waiting for him.

“Follow me,” he said. Then he burst into a run, leaping across the snow with long, gliding steps as the Ice Sylphs flowed along behind him.