Magic-Smithing-Chapter 121.1

Two warriors stood side by side in the dark, neither of whom had seen sunlight in a week.

Above them was the same shaft they had fallen into when entering this forgotten tomb.

Tabitha and Aaliyah were once again back in the room where one of them nearly died twice, and the other almost turned into a soul-devouring monster. The entrance above was still covered by bones, preventing even the tiniest ray of light from piercing the dark depths.

Neither could see the other without wasting precious mana to cast a light spell, but both women instinctively knew they were looking up at the same thing. They were directly under the center of the lesser dragon’s mana zone, and Aaliyah didn't need to tell Tabitha that it had continued expanding since they cleared out all the undead hiding in the ruins.

The death mana had been the only thing foul enough to fight back against the serpent’s poisonous mana zone, and now that it was gone, it was free to expand to its natural limits.

As soon as either of them touched the slowly encroaching mana zone, the beast above their heads would sense them. Worse, it had expanded halfway down the shaft, meaning Tabitha and Aaliyah couldn’t even reach the surface without the lesser dragon being made aware of their approach. And that was assuming it wasn’t just waiting for them right outside the exit.

Both had a feeling the lesser dragon knew they were alive. They had no proof of this, but neither questioned their instincts. Besides, as soon as they breached the surface, if the serpent weren’t already waiting for them, it wouldn’t be far behind.

Death was waiting for them, but neither of them shied away from what they had to do. The last week had been brutal on so many levels, but even in the abyss, the two survived and did what they could to prepare for the battle to come.

Neither were at 100%. Aaliyah's arms still had burn scars on them from making Tabitha's shield, and Tabitha’s weren’t much better. The health potion she took helped, but she couldn’t fully recover after injuries that severe, even with her Vitality. Her bones had healed enough to fight, but would remain weak for a few days longer.

If the two were honest with themselves, Tabitha was roughly at 85% fighting capacity, while Allyiah was only slightly better at 90%.

Both were in fighting shape, but every bit mattered when facing a dragon, even if it was only a lesser one.

One option available to them was to continue hiding until their bodies were in slightly better condition. Still, with nothing but tree-root tea to fill their stomachs, they would likely only grow weaker over time, not stronger.

And the bad news didn’t stop there; it wasn't just their bodies that were battered, but their gear too. The cloth parts of Aaliyah's armor had large holes in them from when she dropped Mana Skin during the final stages of forging Tabitha’s new shield. The metal parts were relatively okay, but not a single piece would stand a direct strike from a lesser dragon.

Overall, her armor would only weigh her down, so Aaliyah had already decided to remove it and leave it down in the dark with everything else they could reasonably afford to leave behind.

Other than her necessities like her waterskin and weapon, Aaliyah was leaving almost everything else behind. If they won, they could retrieve their stuff after the battle; if they somehow escaped, it was worth abandoning everything else. Gear could be replaced, but the same couldn’t be said about their lives.

Tabitha wasn't leaving as much as Aaliyah behind; she still wore most of her armor, minus an armguard, though that didn’t mean she was as protected as it sounded. Her chest plate was still weakened after taking that critical damage during their last escape attempt. While Aaliyah had successfully hammered out the massive dent in the metal, allowing Tabitha to breathe easier, its structure would remain compromised until it was reforged. Neither knew if it could take another hit without shredding to pieces.

All in all, things weren’t looking good for the duo.

But in the darkness, there was light.

Fastened to Tabitha’s unarmored arm was a shiny new shield, and Aaliyah was proud to say she finally put her sewing skills to good use. She had thankfully managed to fashion a rope from the last tree root by weaving its fibers together. It was a hundred times stronger than the tree root by itself, and the only thing securing Tabitha’s shield to her arm.

The two’s hopes and dreams were held together by that horribly spun-together rope and mishapen buckler. The shield could take all the hits in the world, but if the twine securing it to Tabitha’s arm broke, the duo would be dead before they even had a chance to fight back.

“Ready?” Tabitha’s voice roared in the darkness with the fierceness of a war drum. Of the two, she was the most experienced. This wasn’t her first time rushing into battle against a stronger foe, and yet, unlike all those times before, she didn’t have an army or her master’s help this time. All she had was Aaliyah.

“Let’s kick some ass!” The fifteen-year-old shouted in return, with the zeal of a veteran warrior.

Tabitha couldn’t say it, as it might distract her sister disciple, but she was immensely proud of the young girl standing beside her. No, the young woman standing beside her.

Aaliyah had been in her fair share of fights, way more than your typical villager would usually see in their lifetime. She'd faced an unbeatable monster and somehow won in the end….

That said, her life had only just started. Tabitha knew Aaliyah lacked the battle experience and the proper gear needed to fight a lesser dragon. Her tenacity and loyalty meant she would never run, but that’s what Tabitha feared most.

Aaliyah was quite possibly the most talented person in the combined history of Scholl and Olebert, including their founders. She knew that with Aaliyah's skills, they finally had a chance to banish the true dragon plaguing their lands. And that very same person refused to prioritize herself—the same person who refused to leave her behind.

Besides her master, Tabitha had never been shown such loyalty before. Not by her family— Not by her country— Not even by her fellow disciples. Aaliyah’s safety made Tabitha want to succeed at any cost, even if it came at the cost of her life!

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Tabitha hid all these complex feelings behind a mask of indifference, but just as she had learned to read her young apprentice in their time together, so too did Aaliyah learn to read Tabitha.

Aaliyah was fully aware of Tabitha’s emotional state. She knew that if the opportunity presented itself, her mentor would sacrifice herself if it meant she’d survive. After all, she’d tried to do so multiple times now.

It just so happened that they shared the same goal: to see the other live no matter what.

Neither was going to leave the other behind. They would either escape together or die together; there was no other option.

With that in mind, the two jumped towards the surface, propelling themselves off the walls of the dark shaft like ninjas in a movie, climbing dozens of feet with every kick.

Aaliyah took the lead as it was her job to punch through the blockage separating them from freedom.

Both felt the exact moment they entered the winged serpent’s mana zone, but they didn’t slow down; if anything, feeling the disgusting sensation of the lesser dragon’s mana zone wash over them made them push themselves even harder.

At breakneck speed, Aaliyah swung her hammer into the pile of bones barring their exit. Hammer met bone, and hammer won.

The impact was fast enough and significant enough to cause a small explosion. Bones flew everywhere, and many tumbled down into the ruins below, but Tabitha and Aaliyah were free. They had planned for countless things that might happen once they left, but—somehow—it hadn’t occurred to either of them to consider what might happen once they were exposed to the sun again after a week of near total darkness. And because they didn’t, the two were immediately blinded the moment they stepped outside the ruins. However, the two of them didn’t let such an insignificant detail slow them down. Tabitha and Aaliyah didn't need to see to know which way they needed to run.

Together, the two turned and rushed southward without saying a single word to each other. Both knew it was futile, but they agreed they had to try to escape at least once, if nothing else, to say they tried. And, if, by some miracle, they managed to get out of the winged serpent’s mana zone, there was a small chance, if however minuscule, that it wouldn’t follow them outside the clearing.

Tabitha and Aaliyah streaked across the desert-like forest clearing, rounding the massive dead trees in their way, as their eyes slowly grew used to how bright it was on the surface. With each step, they moved faster and faster, but they couldn’t outrun sound.

It hit them like a blast wave, sounding like steam exploding from a broken pipe, mixed with the roar of a lion the size of a building. The winged serpent’s cry seemed to echo from everywhere at once, not giving away its position, yet at the same time, containing a physical weight behind it that rattled a person’s insides.

Aaliyah felt her joints lock up mid-run as a veritable wave of killing intent hit them like a punch to the face. She had to remind herself to breathe; luckily, after years of running, her body knew instinctively how to keep moving forward.

“Don’t falter,” Tabitha reminds Aaliyah through gritted teeth.

"It's a skill," Aaliyah yells back after finding her voice, not bothering to regulate her volume, knowing that the winged serpent already knew where they were anyway. She could sense in her soul that they were under a sort of anti-movement skill, though both were fighting it in their own way.

“I’m aware. Keep your head on a swivel; it won't be long until it shows up," Tabitha reminds her, deathly serious.

In the heat of the moment, Aaliyah wanted to snap at her mentor that she was already doing that, but a flash of movement from the corner of her left eye changed her plans drastically. "Dodge, right!" Aaliyah frantically shouts without hesitation, activating all her movement skills at once.

Tabitha didn’t second-guess the order, nimbly flash-stepping with Aaliyah to the side, successfully dodging the winged serpent’s sneak attack.

Not a second later, the ground exploded where the two once were as the back third of the winged serpent slammed into the ground with the force of a falling plane.

“Up!” Tabitha shouts afterward.

Aaliyah listens and jumps as high as she can, just as the lesser dragon sweeps its gigantic tail underneath them in a follow-up attack. And though they successfully dodged the main attack, both are blown off course by the resulting shockwave. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

With its sneak attack and its following strike missing, the winged serpent pulled its tail back quickly and retreated to the sky, where it postured in the air. The massive 300-foot creature bared its fangs, dripping with deadly venom, and let out a terrible hissing sound, like a million angry snakes ready to strike.

Tabitha and Aaliyah quickly formed ranks on the ground below, meeting the chilling gaze of the lesser dragon above them. It was subtle, but there was a change in its eyes. Its vivid green scales still caught the light as they had, while its black wings lazily flapped in the wind as it soared through the sky as if swimming through the air, but there was something different about it than last time, something hard to quantify.

Although its appearance hadn’t changed since they last saw it, there was an unmistakable shift in its presence. Last time, it had looked at Tabitha and Aaliyah like they were nothing more than mice scurrying to their deaths, but this time, there was something else in the snake's eyes.

They were no longer simple prey; there was a hardness in those slitted orbs, a hunger that couldn’t be hidden.

Like all innate magical animals, the winged serpent had an inborn drive to grow stronger. All magic beasts sought strength in various ways, but as a predator, the serpent soaring above them only subscribed to one method—The law of the jungle.

Its nature as a lesser dragon only fueled this mindset. Lesser dragons weren't dangerous because they were part dragon; they were dangerous because their sole goal in life was to reach that coveted position—to push past that flimsy ceiling and claim the title of true dragon.

The 300-foot serpent coiling in the sky’s only goal was to become stronger, and it saw Aaliyah and Tabitha as the perfect prey for this. They had somehow managed to survive its venom and clawed their way back up from the undead hidden underground.

The serpent hadn't yet obtained a human's level of intelligence, but it was close. It knew the threat of what lay beneath its territory; its inborn draconic pride meant it refused to move despite the danger, but it never ventured underground.

Until a few days ago, the lesser dragon’s mana zone had never been able to push lower than a few feet below the surface; now, it was expanding unimpeded as it should have.

The winged serpent knew there could only be one explanation for this— The lesser beings below it had somehow cleared out the undead, a threat not even it would dare challenge. That was why it was hesitating above after its sneak attack had failed.

The lesser dragon’s instincts told it that they were weaker than it, but then why did it feel like it was in danger?

Instincts clashed with common sense, and the winner was apparent.

The snake let out a third war cry as it dove at its prey below, mouth wide open, preparing to launch another cloud of venomous mist. It knew they would try to dodge; its prey always did. It would catch them in the act and swallow them whole! Their strength would be made its own!

The winged serpent’s considerable mana turned into a foul substance in its lungs that could snuff out life in seconds. The sides of its head swelled as it struggled to contain it all until it no longer could.

In one large breath, the winged serpent bellowed a cloud of death at Tabitha and Aaliyah that seemed to block out the sun. The serpent continued to rush at them as it did so, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. It would be any moment now, it thought, as its venom cloud closed in.

Any second—now!

The cloud of nocuous fumes was mere feet from the two women when a small part of the winged serpent's brain finally realized something was wrong.

It's prey, they weren't moving!?

The smaller of the two stood in front of the larger one, but neither tried to escape its deadly attack.

The caustic mist engulfed Tabitha and Aaliyah, and still, the two did not move. With its lower intellect, the winged serpent couldn't fathom why its prey had chosen death over trying to flee. It didn't even enter the serpent's mind that the two could somehow survive a blast of its venom head-on, not for a second time.

It continued flying forward, diving headfirst into its own cloud of noxious secretions with its mouth open, ready to devour its prey whole, and in so doing, made its first mistake.

At the same time as the winged serpent blindly charged into its own venomous smog, the duo of Tabitha and Aaliyah made their own move. Using the snake's all-encompassing attack as cover, the two rushed the snake while it couldn’t see them.

By all accounts, they should’ve been dying on the floor as the toxic venom destroyed their bodies from both inside and outside, but that wasn’t what happened.

They might not be as strong as a lesser dragon, even with their combined strength, but Tabitha and Aaliyah had something the lesser dragon didn't: wisdom and the ability to adapt to a stronger foe.

Right before the snake’s deadly attack engulfed them, Aaliyah had chanted a spell. It was nothing more than a simple self-cleaning spell, barely considered tier-1 in the magic community. It shouldn’t have done anything against the snake’s venom, but it did.

Overcharging her spell, Aaliyah had created a shield of cleaning magic strong enough to briefly fight toe-to-toe against the caustic nature of the snake’s venom, thereby protecting herself and Tabitha while simultaneously hiding themselves using the winged serpent’s own attack as a smokescreen.

The winged serpent learned all of this too late, as even with its mana zone active, it couldn't react quickly enough at the speed it was charging forward—Not until it was too late.

Aaliyah stood right behind Tabitha with no more than a few inches separating the two. She had to stay close and match Tabitha's movements precisely as they moved, or her mentor would leave her spell's limited range and be affected by the poison surrounding them. That's how they were able to move inside the poisonous fog.

This had been their plan from the start: to use the wannabe dragon’s attacks against itself. If anyone else had tried the same, they would be dead, but because Tabitha had Aaliyah backing her up, the two of them were able to pull off the impossible together. Thanks to Aaliyah, Tabitha was now within striking distance.

With lightning-fast speed, Tabitha drove her blade deep into the serpent’s wide-open mouth before it could pull up in time, plunging her sword into the side of its exposed throat.

Blood erupted from the wound as the winged serpent reeled back in pain and began writhing in agony.

At the same time, Aaliyah and Tabitha shot out of the venomous cloud and continued running southward. While their opponent coughed up huge amounts of blood, they once again made their escape.

Less than two minutes had passed since they reached the surface, and the humans had managed to draw first blood.

But things were far from over— Not by a long shot.