The two companions quietly made their way over to the base of the cliff, the darkening sky provided plenty of shadows for them both to slip between granting them some sense of security. The cliff itself was easily 500 meters tall so it would be quite the treck, nevertheless thanks to their improved stats it was something that both of them were more than capable of doing without too much struggle.
They did have to wait for a group of 4 orcs to pass by before they rushed to the start of the trail, and whilst still shrouded in Violets void began their assent.
They managed to get around half way up the cliff before anything of interest happened.
CAW!
A loud cry echoed from above Violet and her head snapped up to search the sky, as the sun was now reaching the horizon it took her a moment to spot anything but when she did she only had a moment to summon forth a void shield as a shape was rocketing towards them from above.
CRASH, CAW!
Her hasty defence only succeeded in slowing the foe down before it shattered the shield and dove forwards, but that thankfully gave Luna enough time to dive out of the way and summon her spear forth. Violet was momentarily stunned from the backlash of having her spell so easily broken but she still managed to get a good look at the creature that had attacked them.
It was a eagle of some kind, just considerably larger than any eagle Violet had ever seen before. It had a wingspan of around 2 meters, its plumage was a mix of sky blue and green, its talons were particularly large for its frame and were tipped in vicious claws that better resembled daggers. Lastly its beak was tipped with a elongated hook shaped tip perfect for eviserating flesh.
Whilst Violet recovered from her backlash Luna had swiftly drawn her spear and coated herself in a thin layer of frost before she dashed toward the now grounded beast and aimed a ice strike towards one of its wings. The owl in return coated its wing in a swirling shield of wind which diffused the ice, saddly for the bird though it didn't fully stop her thrust and the spear tip impaled the wing eliciting another loud caw!
At this point Violet had recovered and was readying a pounce. The eagle now thourghly annoyed at its prays refusal to die flapped both of her wings and sent out a creamy blade of condensed wind towards Luna. Violet in turn used her void shield again, this time readying herself in case it shattered again. It was a good thing she had prepaired for that as the wind blade easily shattered the shield . This time however Luna was too slow to dodge out of the way and revived a glancing blow along her side drawing a pained yelp from her.
Thankfully it didn't seem to be too deep but as Violet saw this a silent fury built up in her. 'How dare this overgrown bird hurt my companion!' With that Violet launched from her pounce and landed on the eagle back. Her void coated claws digging trenches into its skin and shredding its wings making them hang limply to its side.
SKREEEE!
It howled in pain at this sudden injury and as it tried to dislodge its unwelcome passenger it recived a ice coated spear to its chest. A wet gurgle of pain escaped its beak before it collapsed to the ground with the angry dragon still atop it.
[Your group has defeated Zepher Eagle lvl 28 exp rewarded]
[You have leveled up]
Lvl 13->14
Agility - 28->30
Strength - 22->24
Intelligence - 42->43
Wisdom - 35->36
[New skill unlocked]
Void Claw lvl 1
[Your skills have advanced]
Void claw lvl 1->2
Pounce lvl 4->5
Void shield lvl 4->5
As soon as the Violet recived that message and felt the influx of new stats she instantly checked on Luna who was holding her side in pain as blood proceeded to slowly seep out and around her fingers. "Are you ok Luna? Can I do anything?"
Luna grimaced but shook her head as she continued to apply pressure to the wound. "No, no your okay, I'll be alright that wind blade just caught me off guard. It managed to get through your shield, my ice and then my leathers." She shivered then before continuing, "I dread to think what that could have done to me if you hadn't blunted the damage, thanks for that by the way, that's twice that fight you saved me." She gave Violet a weak smile.
Huffing Violet walked over to Luna and bumped her chest with her snout. "Silly stupid tall one." She thought, however it turned out she may have thought it a touch too loud as a grin split lunas face.
"Oh did I hear that right? I'm no longer just the silly stupid small one I'm now the tall one? I should feel honoured my dearest companion." She did slowly crouch down and wrap the dragon in a quick hug.
After they had rested up for a bit and Violet had a quick bit to eat from the oversized bird the two contined up the cliff. They made good time but by the time they arrived at the top the sun had well and truly set and darkness was encroaching quickly. Not wanting to risk stumbling about in the dark they hunted for a spot to sleep at and managed to find some trees up here and settled down in the roots of one of them.
Huddling up together Luna ate some of the pre cooked meat she had stored in her storage necklace whilst Violet curled around her companion acting as a mix between blacker and pillow as she wrapped her in one of her wings. Like that they quickly fell asleep exhausted after a long day.
Morning came swiftly with nothing bothering them during the night thankfully. The two girls stretched out as they slowly awoke from their slumber, when they managed to properly get up they finally had a chance to properly investigate their surroundings for the first time. What they saw was breathtaking.
Looking back down the cliff both girls could see for miles, far off the the south east they could just make out the giant lake based on the glittering expanse that lacked any green but in front of them the rocky area that had been walking through most of yesterday could be clearly seen as it slowly merged back into the regular forest which looked more like an endless see of green spreading out for as far as the eye could see.
Violet could also make out the mountain that housed her cave, it looked so small from this far away. In fact she could even see more mountains even further south than her lone mountain and whilst they looked to be far, far away they still looked larger than her one. This made violet gape as she tried to imagine how much bigger they must be to still look so big from so far away.
"It really is endless isn't it?" Luna softly spoke out loud.
"It's beautiful." Violet replied, still slightly awed at the sight before her.
Eventually the two managed to get ahold of themselves and reorient on their current objective. Turning around they followed the cliff towards where the canyon that the orcs were based out of was.
They did do a quick sweep over the cliff top they found themselves on first though. And found that it was just more forest just at a higher altitude, they did notice that the mana density was slightly lower up here than it was down at the bottom of the cliff though.
They walked along a bit back from the cliff edge so as to not be easily spotted from down below, the trees only started around 30m back from the cliff edge leaving them a nice open stretch of land to traverse.
It didn't take them all too long to locate the canyon in question as it was quite obvious to see given that it looked like a huge jagged scar on the relatively even cliff top. Approaching the edge they carefully leaned over it and looked down to see what they could.
Below them the canyon opened up after the initial opening and bend into a wide basin easily 1km across and several km deep. Their was spare vegetation within as most of it seemed to have been cut back leaving only a small grove towards the back end of the canyon. Towards the front of the canyon a series of defenses had been built, they were only basic wooden spikes dug into the ground and pointing at the entrance but it would make it somewhat challenging to attack them head on. Their was also a small gathering of orcs there numbering around 8, they just stood around brandishing their crude weapons.
Further back from the defensive line was the village. A collection of tents and huts were constructed and many more orcs wandered around going to and from various spots, some gathered around a central fire othered looked to be working on constructing new buildings.
The longer Violet watched the worse she started to feel about this whole endeavour as she managed to count no less than 50 orcs just within the village. Add to that the 8 at the entrance the ones within the structures and likely the ones currently out hunting, well Violet wouldn't be surprised if this tribe numbered closer to the 100 mark.