Chapter 146: Ravens
Crucis looked over towards the centre of the ins, as it grew visible through a long, twisting valley. The battle was growing louder there, as monsters began to overwhelm the many yers trying to resist them. The major Guilds began to give up and fight each other instead, and tworge groups of yers were fighting on one side of the ins. One side was gaining a clear advantage. He squinted to try and make out the details.
Arge shadow suddenly dropped across the dusty ins and rocks, making it look like dark gauze had been draped over them, as a ck shape appeared in the air above.
After hovering quietly for a few seconds, blotting out the light, the Night Raven swooped down in one movement and grabbed a yer from amongst the fray.
Crucis could vaguely make out that this yer''s name began with ''A,'' but no more than that.
The yer began to struggle, heaving from side to side desperately, but the bird simply flew on uncaring. At a high enough altitude, the yer went faint, and the bird began to easily bite through his or her head as it disappeared into the distance.
Crucis guessed that therge bird would soon be back, to find more prey who were low on Divine Mana. A few yers in the centre were still refusing to fight other yers, even though the monsters were bing too difficult to use as a consistent and safe source of Divine Mana, and the raven was hence bing a more frequent visitor.
As Crucis and Starfighter walked through the East, avoiding the crowded centre for now, Crucis remained concealed in trees and bushes when possible.
Soon, a level 50 warrior named [Manxeander] saw Starfighter alone, and ran up for a fight. Carrying arge sword, he set upon Starfighter, who used his own sword to parry near his body, and bound the two swords together with the curved de of his Hdie.
In a moment, Crucis emerged from the bushes with [Agile Step], and easily beheaded Manxeander.
He noticed that he had received an extra reward from this kill, the [Urn of Apollo]. It increased resistance to damage from heat and fire, and could make it easier to explore high-temperature areas where HP would otherwise be drained quickly by the heat.
On their way down the hill, Starfighter had picked up the [Urn of Boreas] from another kill, which increased damage in icy ces, and reduced the slowing effect of the cold.
While they hadn''t yet had to venture into extreme conditions, several rewarding higher-level areas required heavy resistance to the elements in order to enter safely. Some contained dazzling infernos,va pits swarming with powerful smanders, or icy tundra. As such, these items could be quite valuable in the long-term, to give a leg-up in exploring those areas.
Soon, they came to a cross-roads, where thergest path forward led directly towards the central ins, and was bordered by severalrge boulders. Starfighter gestured Crucis to keep away from this path, because it was likely that some groups were hiding behind these boulders and preparing to ambush yers on the path.
Sure enough, as soon as a group of six level 50-55 yers began to walk down the path, they were set upon by nine Hashin pouring in from both sides.
The familiar figure of Dr1fter led five yers from one side, and a female Hashin named [Immisera] led the group from the other side. She wore a ck-and-white mask that almost looked like it was smiling, but not the typical Assassin''s hood. Instead, her light-brown ponytail iled out behind her, with a few blue highlights dyed on, as she rushed forwards more enthusiastically than others.
Crucis hadn''t heard of her earlier, but she seemed tomand arge amount of respect among the Hashin, who followed her closely despite her slightly manic haste.
Although she was nearly set upon by two opponents as she rushed in, herrades quickly leaped in to block out danger.
The Hashin seemed to be quickly taking charge of the fight.
Crucis and Starfighter, meanwhile, hustled quickly towards the leftwards path, heading towards the South.
Thend spreading on both sides of this path was like arge, white desert, with huge, frail sand dunes rising across it. Weaving mazily between these dunes, they kept an eye out for anyone approaching.
Soon, they heard another yer trying to sneak through the sand,ing up from the South. This yer was audibly struggling as they made their way over the dunes, with the sand slipping away from under them.
As the yer began tiredly climbing another dune, Crucis quickly rounded a neighbouring dune to the left and attacked this yer from the rear. At his sight, the yer''s feet began trying to turn, but as the sand give way could only lose bnce and slip. His feet kicked desperately, trying to find some sort of footing, but merely passed through the soft sand.
Crucis easily caught him and shed through his throat.
"It sounds like there''s a few yers between the cliffs up ahead," Starfighter said, catching up.
Crucis perked up his ears, then nodded. "Yeah, though they''re mostly spread out to avoid danger from each other. We should be able to take out a few at a time. Let''s go."
As they approached therge cliffs, which formed a wall on three sides of the valley,rge, t rocks rose up on each side of the path and grew into the towering, brown-red mountains which grew over the cliffs.
Crucis suddenly gestured at Starfighter to pause.
"Wait a moment, I saw something moving on top of that rock," he said, pointing to a t rock on the left of the path. "I think there''s someone there setting an ambush."
"Has he seen us?" Starfighter replied.
"I don''t think so, he seemed to be facing the path quite intently."
"Alright, should we get up closer and see if we can attack?"
Crucis took in the situation for a moment, then replied. "No, wait. There''s someone walking down the path from inside the valley. If this guy is nning an ambush, then maybe he''lle down to attack them. We just need to stay close, then we can attack him once he''s down."
They crept up behind arge sand dune, which hid them from the yer on the rock, and watched across the path in anticipation.