— Hikari —-
[Physique : 843 -> 850]
[defense : 856 -> 860]
[mana : 961 -> 980]
[mind : 911 -> 920]
[Blessing of Eon potency : 50 -> 80]
[wyvern heart: 120 -> 130]
Hikari opened her eyes. Ella was right in her face.
She could see the scales on the underside of her face. Her golden swirling eyes. Her scaly nose.
She was smiling. Her tail wagging behind her.
"(You are awake)"
Hikari blinked. Ella's claws scrunching ticklishly on her abdomen.
She was back in the cavern. The warm golden light of the mana vein illuminating the stone walls.
Drip. Sizzle.
Drip. Sizzle.
She felt sweaty and sticky. She reached for her canteen.
Her hand stopped just as she reached for the lid as she felt it bulging in pressurized steam.
Hikari moved her arms. She felt stiff from sitting in the same position for an unknown amount of time.
But the soreness from marching through the tunnels was done.
She stood up straight and stretched her entire body.
Ella was chasing her tail in circles excitedly in front of her. She was brimming with energy from the mana from the vein.
She even started doing backflips. Her tail slithering behind her in circles.
"The strange dream again. It's just some stupide plant demons that I can burn with my flames. Why do I keep seeing it?"
Her mind was still hazy with images from her dream.
She shook her head, grabbed her sword and began swinging it.
Her movements were getting more and more fluid.
She swung the sword at a boulder.
The edge of the blade stopped. She pulled her sword back. A horizontal scratch mark remained on the boulder.
"Lets go"
Ella landed on the ground. She slithered one around her, stopping beside her.
Hikari dropped her caterpillar boot soles on the ground, placed her foot on them and assembled the sides.
She began marching. The heat of the stone above could be felt even through the thick soles.
Suddenly, the ground rumbled before her. A large rock formation rose from the ground, firing a hail of mineral shards.
Hikari stood still. The shards simply bounced off her body.
The Stalagmite beast's head rose out of the ground. Its crystal teeth glittering in the golden light of the mana vein.
Ella spread her wings. She had raised them in a shield to block the hail of mineral shards.
She circled the beast, hissing and snarling at it as it hissed and snarled at her.
Her claws sink deep into the stone with every step.
Another hail of mineral shards. Ella flapped her wings, sweeping away the volley.
The Stalagmite beast snarled and slammed its teeth together.
Ella charged up her fire. The runes on her body flared up.
The fire fed on the ambient mana.
Ella released the flames. The entire cavern was filled with blinding light.
Patches of lava appeared on the ground.
The stalagmite beast curled up. The crystals on its back glowed as it raised its mana barrier.
Ella growled and prepared to charge up another shot.
"Sit" Hikari suddenly ordered.
Ella meekly powered down her flames.
Hikari approached the stalagmite beast. The beast kept its head down and growled softly as she approached.
Hikari stopped.
"Shoo"
The beast stared at her. Its growling petered out.
Debris rolled off the beast's spiked back as it lifted its thick hoofs off the ground.
Step by step. It shifted back away from Hikari.
Its hind legs churned up stone as it drilled away into the caverns.
As the beast left the cavern, Ella suddenly sprung to life, slithering around the cavern at break neck pace, aggressively digging away with her claws.
Hikari heard a rare purr from her as she pulled a peculiar stone ball out of the ground.
She sank both claws into the stone and pried it open. A putrid stench rushed out of the stone as its sticky insides were exposed.
Ella breathed fire, burning the sticky goo to ashes.
A trove of glittering crystals of a rainbow of colors revealed themselves as the half wyvern dusted it off.
Grabbing them one by one, she nibbles on the tip of each of the crystals.
"Ella. Let's go." Hikari opened her satchel. Quickly, Ella dropped the crystals into the satchel, not missing a single one.
They begin their march back up the tunnel.
Hikari felt the cool air of the tunnels.
After meditating in the scorching heat, the chill of the small crystal formations protruding out of the walls felt more pronounced.
Drip. Drip. The sound of underground water.
She stopped.
Ella froze behind her.
She pulled out her throwing dagger.
Paused.
With a slight flick of her hand, the dagger flew, whirling through the tunnel.
As it reached a tunnel intersection, its path bent into the neighboring tunnel.
Splat! Hikari felt the dagger tearing into a floating eye's flesh.
Skitters and hisses could be heard all around them.
The dagger returned to her hand.
Plant demons converged on where the floating eye fell, seeming oblivious to Hikari and Ella.
Carefully, Hikari moved.
Ella followed behind her, gently griping on the jagged stone ground to minimize her sound.
Hikari brushed the vines along the cavern walls with her fingers.
Badum! Badum! The sound of a beating heart echoes through the vines.
Each of the vines were like tiny mana vessels.
They respond to her touch, resonating with her.
Through them, she could map out the entire underground.
All the movements of the plant demons and the floating eyes.
And the path to the heart.
Progress was much quicker than wandering around aimlessly in the tunnel. Tiny pink flowers began appearing on the cavern walls.
She paused at a corner.
A massive golem lumbered past a tunnel intersection down the block, a horde of zombies and skitterish hopping plant demons following behind.
She drew her throwing dagger and threw, scoring another kill before the floating eye could clear the corner.
Hordes of plant demons waddled past them, sometimes mere metres away.
And yet they don't seem to sense them.
They continued cautiously.
So far so good. For some odd reason, the hordes plant demons seemed to just drag themselves past them with no sign of seeing them as hostile.
Perhaps picking off the floating eyes prevented the defenders from identifying them.
Hikari wisely avoided looting the bodies of the floating eyes as the hordes of plant demons gathered around the corpses.
Badum! Badum! The sound of the beating heart got stronger and stronger.
The vines on the walls got thicker and thicker. The patrols of plant demon hordes and golems are getting more and more numerous.
Gigantic pink flowers glowed brilliantly all along the cavern walls.
Floating eyes showed up one after another to get skewered by her throwing dagger.
Badum! Badum! They were getting close.
At last, they arrived at an ivory gate.
The imposing structure made even Hikari feel small.
The walls and ground were no longer the jagged stone of the cavern but a smooth elastic surface, populated by beds of eerie pink flowers illuminating the entire space.
Badum! Badum! Hikari could sense the pounding of the beating heart coming from behind the ivory gate.
The chamber was warm. No. It was hot, scotching hot. The heat emanating from beyond the ivory gate was piercing the skin.
"This is it. I can finally get a shower after this."
Hikari turned to Ella and saw her determined face.
She nods.
Hikari drew her sword and stabbed it into the ground facing the entrance from where they entered the chamber.
She kept her boots on this time. The ground is no longer made of stone which she could manipulate.
Ella opened the satchel containing the heart of the elemental.
The crystal suspended in mid air between her and the ivory gate.
"(I'm ready Hikari)"