After the defeat of the Ursa the two companions decided to call it for the day and find a spot to set up camp and begin to cook up some more food. As such they wandered around for a little while, wanting to stay close to the stream but also not too close so as to attract unwanted attention.
So it was that they stumbled upon a den, and quite literally stumbled upon it as Violet fell face first into the hole much to her dissatisfaction! And whilst Luna desperately wanted to laugh at her companions misfortune in that instant saddly the den was not exactly unoccupied. In fact it was occupied by a whole host of beasties.
As Violet fell face first into the hole a ruckus was raised as it wasn't just any hole she fell into, no she managed to jump right into a ant nest, specifically a giant monster ant nest where each ant was the size of a small dog.
Bang, BOOM, BOOM! Screeee!
Luna watched on as a series of explosions and gobbets of Earth were sent flying in all directions as the young dragon waged war with a small hoard of giant ants. "Need a hand Violet?" Luna called out.
"No!"
BOOM!
"Iv. Got. This."
ROAR! KABOOM!
"Whew! There all done!" Violet said as she walked out of the hole in the ground whilst covered in dirt and random parts of ant viscera.
Staring at her companion in a mix of amusement and exasperation Luna couldn't help but shake her head at the little dragon. "So are we using here as a spot to sleep or?"
"Oh no not a good spot, too much ant there, they don't takes great." Violet replied whilst being completely serious, after all why would she ever lie about the taste of food!
And so after that small disruption the two did manage to find a spot of set up camp. Walking along they spotted a canyon opening up in the ground, this canyon was around 2km wide and maybe 20km long from what they could see at the top, but what was ideal for them was that they spotted a path that led slightly down into the valley. Following that led them right into a cave that overlooked the valley itself.
Seeing the new valley the two approached that pathway and peered out over the edge. Below them was a truly unique environment, running down the center of the valley was a river, except this was no ordinary river, no this was a river of lava running down the center. The valley itself was a obsidian hellscape, jagged spires of black stone littered the floor, at one side of the canyon a waterfall of lava continually spurts from the wall of the canyon itself.
The river of lava is the main feature and seems to be the main congregation point of the area with a number of beasts sanding around the supposed lifeblood of the valley. Given that every monster down their seems to be a mix of fire, lava/ magma and earth related. The two spot creatures of all types, from a wolf type beasts who's fire was in fire, to a giant worm type that seemed to be swimming through the lave river.
After observing this unique environment for some time the two companions followed the path the rest of the way and found themselves on a overhang that looked down upon the hellish landscape but also covered them from sight from the forest above. In other words a perfect spot to make a base camp whilst they grow stronger in preparation for taking on the orcs.
Settling down Luna soon took out her flint and with some branches and twigs that Violet ran up to grab they soon had a fire going and began to cook up a variety of meat. The smell was tantalising for Violet and she had to struggle not to just jump at and devour the cooking meat before they were ready, but with a force of will she managed to hold herself back.
By the time the food was mostly cooked the sun had hidden itself behind the horizon and night was falling once more. The two companions settled down and enjoyed both the food and each others company as they rested their bodies from a day of endless fighting. True they had grown considerably stronger but that doesn't mean they all of their aces and pains have vanished, they likely will be sore for a day or so but, given that they plan to get right back to more fighting come the morning they are likely to be in some discomfort for quite some time to come.
Settling down the landscape below is still illuminated by the river of lava and it creates a truly unique atmosphere, granted the smell of sulphur isn't ideal but the visuals of a valley of lava and obsidian in the middle of a lush forest is something that is quite hard to wrap one's head around. Still the night soon passes and morning once more comes about.
Waking from their sleep the two companions get a better look at the hellscape before them and notice that their appears to be a pathway down to the valley floor not far away from them. "What do you think? Should be try exploring down there? Do we bother risking it or shall we stick to the forest up above?" Luna asks her dragon companion.
Violet doesn't respond immediately, instead she studies some of the denizens of that expansive valley down below. Trying to make note of how fast they can move, what sort of attacks they may use and most importantly if they will be able to beat any of them before. Eventually she does form a reply. "If will be hard for you, lava and fire against your ice. But it could also be a good chance to see how you do in a places that is bad for you!?"
Luna considers that and has to agree that it likely will harder for her than Violet just based on the elemental disadvantage. But she still wanted to try it out, if she could fight effectively against foes that countered her in a environment that is similarly disadvantageous to her. "Let's go down, can see how we both do against fire monsters." She flashed a wry smile towards her dragon companion and received a feral grin in return.
Making their way over to the narrow path down into the valley they double checked to make sure they it will be possible for them to use it to go both up and down. The last thing they want is to be trapped down there if all goes wrong! Once they are happy that they should be able to traverse the path they begin to head down into the valley of fire.
The path started out fairly normally as a dirt track, this went on for around half of the decent. At the half way point the ground changed into a rocky substrait littered with shards of obsidian making it quite treacherous to traverse. Thankfully they were not in a rush and could carefully make their way down the track.
As for the environment, the temperature continued to steadily increase the deeper they went, similarly the mana density also increased, but its was odd. Normally when mana density increases it is due to the neutral mana of the area becoming more abundant, that is not the case here. No in this location it is not all neutral mana that is increasing, no it is fire mana that is becoming more abundant. In fact is is almost drowning out all other mana types in the area.
Whilst Violet is able to deal with it to an extent Luna is struggling much more in this environment. Her speciality is Arctic Ice afterall and this is about as much of an opposite as you could possibly find. Still she soldiered on and coated herself in a thin layer of ice courtesy of her body of the arctic warrior skill and a bit of her manipulation skill to keep it fresh and trap in as much chill as possible.
Still by the time they finally arrived on the valley floor both girls were quite uncomfortable with the area they found themselves in. "Do we need to stay down here?" Violet asked her ice attuned friend.
Gritting her teeth Luna made her decision, "let's find at least one decent fight and before we leave yeah? Would be a shame to have come all the way down here to just leave right away, even though I won't mind leaving right now." She muttered the last part to herself.
And so they decided to head towards the lava river that flowed through the center of the valley since that seemed to be the place to go for a fight from their observations the night before and during their climb down this morning. As they got closer they noticed that they were in fact being watched and it was not by just any old monster. No that would be too easy for the two, no what they found was staring them down was a cousin of the dragons. So whilst not quite as powerful or well known as their winged cousins the Fire Drake that emerged from the river of lava and growled at them when they got close was still a giant compared to our resident dragon. Standing almost 6meters long with the tail accounting for 2 of those the obsidian scaled monsters was not something either of the two girls were exactly thrilled to see.
The drake however? Well from its perspective lunch had just delivered itself to his feet.