Holy Blood 16

Morning everyone!

Chapter 16

Everyone was brought back to almost full astral and health once I offered the bodies of the bears to Otris. I made sure to leave a chunk of the meat for her, similar to an animal offering, when using the skill. I didn’t want to cheat her by only offering the bones and the parts that weren’t edible. I knew that we could harvest those for various classes and profession, but none of us possess the skills. It was a good enough use to just offer it to the goddess. 

With my astral energy back, I did something I’d been dreading since the end of the fight. I used my summon skill. I made sure to focus on Mohr as I wanted him back by my side. I felt he was closer to me then some of the people I knew back on Earth and he hadn’t even spoken yet. 

The portal opened and a Fallen pulled itself out. It wielded a spear but that didn’t mean it was Mohr. Once it was fully out of the portal and stood at attention, I moved up to it. 

“Mohr?” It nodded and I grinned. “Nice finishing move man.” He nodded again then bowed slightly. “Let’s try to keep you alive from now on.”

“If you two kiss I’m going to barf,” Lulu said from the side.

“Stow it. You’re just upset since you can’t get any of this,” I said gesturing to myself. Lulu narrowed her eyes at me but kept quiet. 

After that we started making our way north again. The bears had settled down since the morning. We proceed cautiously which involved using Lulu’s skeleton to rush the trees and stab at them with its sword. He was made out of bones and many times the branches would go right through him. 

“Well this is different,” I said as we came upon a chasm that stretched for as far as the eye could see. It wouldn’t have been visible from the air as the tree we tall enough around it to cover it unless you were looking directly down on it. Still it was easily fifty meters across. 

“Hey boss, I think we have a slight hiccup in our plan,” Lulu said glancing over the edge of the chasm. 

“No fucking shit,” I replied.

“When can you fly with those pretty wings of yours?” she asked poking me with her wand.

“I’m not actually sure. Been using them as shields this entire time,” I said rubbing the back of my head.

Lulu looked up to the sky. “It is still a few hours until dark and even if we tracked the chasm, I doubt that we’ll find a bridge or anything. How about we walk along it and kill the monsters for a bit of farming while you try to get airborne?” she suggested pointing to the right.

“Sounds like as good a plan as any. I don’t feel like sitting around anyways,” I said with a nod. Heading east would keep us in the direction of the ruins. 

We turned and started walking along the chasm. I hung back a bit and started to play with my wings. I’d gotten pretty good at moving them for defense or blocking blows. But flying was a completely different monster. I would have to concentrate on flapping them to keep the air under me. Maybe after a while they would do it automatically but to start with, I knew it was going to be an effort. 

Thankfully, all the damage from the fight this morning had healed completely. I spread my wings out fully and found I almost didn’t have enough room on the edge of the chasm to work with. The edge was only about thirty meters to the tree line, while my wings nearly matched that at twenty-six, give or take a few centimeters. 

I knew from some paragliding training I did, that these were horrible conditions to work with. I really needed a hill or long stretch of plains to gain speed and lift. I would just have to pray that the game had taken that into account when designing the flying races. To start out, I began by going through the motions of flapping slowly. I wanted to familiarize myself with the sensation of the process. 

A single slow-motion flap still managed to create a lite gust of air when I brought my wings down. I went through it several times, getting faster each time. I nodded as I got the feel of it. I dug my foot into the ground then took off, flapping my wings as fast and strongly as I could. I’d crossed about seven meters when I felt my feet leave the ground. I won’t lie, I was surprised and lost the rhythm of my flapping ending in a pile on the ground.

I heard clapping from the side and saw Lulu and the Fallen standing to the side. “I think that’s pretty good for a first try,” Lulu said as she made her way over and helped me up.

“Thanks. What happened to walking along the chasm?” I asked then realized that I’d probably stopped walking behind them as I was concentrating. Lulu is smart enough to not risk the monster without a healer with them. A wrong move could send her back to respawn and I would be left on my own out here.

“From the look on your face, I think you realize why,” she said, patting my arm.

“Sorry.”

“Let’s just wait here while you practice. The chasm isn’t going anywhere, and we are not likely to find anything walking aimlessly along the breach other than our own deaths,” she said taking a seat on a stump nearby.

I nodded then got back to work. The process was simple but painful, I learned by mistake. I won’t lie and say it only took me a few tries and I was soaring in the skies. After four hours, I was just barely able to maintain a hover. Lulu clapped for me and I did a midair bow which resulted in me flipping in air and landing painfully on my back.

“I’m going to hold off on the fancy tricks for a while,” I said with a groan. I sat up and looked to Lulu. “Time to see if I can make it across by myself for now.”

“Oh yes, so when you die, I’ll be stuck out here by myself,” she said putting her hands on her hips.

“Well. I don’t think we’d be apart for very long,” I said with a grin then took off running towards the edge of the chasm. With a leap and a downward press of my wings, I was launched into the air. That got me across the first five meters. I flapped my wings as fast and as strongly as I could managing to rise. I was almost halfway across when my momentum gave out. 

I was still moving towards the other side, but I was starting to drop. When the edge of the side disappeared I almost lost hope. I did everything in my power to keep myself calm and flap my wings in concise patterns. When I fell maybe fifty meters and thought all hope was lost, something in my body clicked. 

Muscle memory I shouldn’t have kicked in and my body moved to stabilize my fall. The angle on my wing beats changed catching more air. I felt a trickle of Astral energy enter my wings and I soared up. Just as I broke over the edge, I saw Lulu looking over the edge with a terrified expression that morphed into relief when she saw me.

I swiftly cut to the other side of the chasm and landed. I breathed heavily as flying took a lot out of me. A few moments after I landed, I noticed Kano and Mohr’s bodies twisting in weird ways. Blood red wings similar to mine shot from their backs and they took off and started flying to me.

“Wait! Grab Lulu!” I shouted and they turned around to grab her and her skeleton. They set down on this side a minute later. “Is there anything else I should know about you two?” I asked looking between the two of them. They just looked at me but didn’t make any moves to reply. “Fine then. Keep your secrets.”

“They are Fallen angels of Otris right? It’s actually not weird they can fly. Though it would be nice if they told us beforehand, at least you learned how to fly right,” Lulu said looking the two of them over.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” I checked my status and saw a new skill.

Flying

As a race with a method of flight the sky is your playground. However, the spirits are not welcoming to outsiders and tribute must be paid to have a smooth flight. 10-1000 astral per minute. (dependent on current environment)

Interesting. I quickly glanced at my astral energy and saw that nearly fifty astral energy had been used. I wouldn’t be using this skill often. At least not until I gained more astral energy. I popped my neck as the stress from the flight made me stiff.

With the chasm out of the way, we needed to find a place to camp for the night. The sun hadn’t set yet, but it was getting close. Something inside me was telling me that camping next to the chasm was a bad idea. I motioned to Lulu and we set off. We should have set up camp next to the chasm.

“Now that I think about landmarks like that usually signify a change in the difficulty of the monsters,” Lulu said as she threw a curse at a deer made of shadow. That was being nice. It was shaped like a deer, but its head was more teeth than anything else. Spikes extended from its back which leaked smoke.

“Game novice here!” I replied sending a stream of healing onto Mohr as he held the beast at bay. Kano launched arrows but the spikes on the back of the beast would launch and intercept the arrows before they reached the beast. Mohr dodged around the beast’s maw and struck with his spear. I followed up his attack with a Raining Blood hitting everything in the area. 

Lulu’s skeleton ran under the fighters and ran his sword into the belly of the beast. It neighed roared, honestly, it was a strange sound that was hard to describe. Kano finally got a clean shot in, sending an arrow through the shadow deer’s eye. The thing still fought for a good thirty seconds after that, but we managed to take it down. 

“Fuck! The thing is level forty-nine. This only a few days from the city,” I said sitting back once I was done checking the creature’s information. A handy trick I’d gained from the constant butchering I’d done.

“Well that chasm is going to make it hard for any non-flying race to get over here. Not to mention most people wouldn’t want to separate the party like that. We are definitely the odd ones out here,” Lulu said plopping down against a tree to rest.

“We should set up camp here. I don’t want to risk another battle with the sun waning as it is,” I said glancing at the sky.

“Sounds good to me. I’m tired!”

“I’ll take first watch, but I should stress to you that we are in a dangerous area. I’m not sure the stats of our tent are high enough to keep the monsters here at bay,” I said setting up the tent. It only took up one inventory slot, but you had to set it up the good old fashion way.

“I know. I’ll do laps or something to make sure I stay awake this time,” Lulu said pounding a fist on her chest.

“I hope so,” I said with a sigh.