The Forgotten Legacy

Shaun didn’t move on to the last islands straight away, instead, he played around with his new air affinity. He didn’t use it on his skill just yet, but rather used it in the way that it was described in the description, or at least, he tried too. The first thing he attempted was to harden the air, condensing it into something that would be able to hold his weight. It was hard at first, but he eventually found that when the air condensed enough that it had an opaque look to it. When he stepped onto his initial attempt it broke instantly, making him fall to the ground, the second time wasn’t that much better but it did hold for a fraction of a second before he dropped.

It took a few goes before he was able to form a platform of air that would hold his weight for longer than a second, but it was enough that if he wanted to he could use it as something to push off of in the air to quickly redirect himself in battle. He didn’t have enough room on the island to really test it out but he was happy with the progress of being able to control the air like that.

Reducing the resistance in the air and using it to aid him when moving were rather difficult to test out, removing the wind resistance was self explanatory but he didn’t know how he could do it, helping him to move though was more interesting, it seemed like he could use the air around him to make him move quicker, how much quicker he didn’t know, and falling off the island still wasn’t high on his to do list.

Sitting down and sinking into meditation, he tested his ability to manipulate the winds around him, seeing if he was capable of redirecting them or even parting them around where he sat. Connecting to the air wasn’t hard, it was as easy as breathing, he sank into the air around him and an overwhelming feeling of being free enveloped him, it was joyous and made him smile to himself. Shaun sat like this for a while, just getting accustomed to the change before moving onto actually controlling the gale blowing around him. When he tried to exert his will and move it in the opposite direction to where he was, he was met with a resistance that no matter how hard he fought against, he couldn’t break.

When he changed tactics and coaxed the air around him to simply flow to both sides of him, effectively leaving him untouched, it was more than happy to listen, it didn’t go against the natural direction it was already flowing in and simply slightly adjusted the course to still going in the same direction. It was a lot easier to do, taking very little energy or will, he realised he needed to work with the wind rather than against it if he was going to be able to fully envelop the element.

Once he had adjusted to using air at a very basic level he decided it was time to move on, he would have plenty of time later to play around more, without the fear of falling off an island. Moving to the last of the path of islands, he couldn’t see any monsters along the way, this wasn’t shocking as the last boss always seemed to have their weaker kin around them when the fighting started.

He could see the islands leading away from where he was, all the way until they ended at a much larger island, if it could even be called that. The last island was more of a mountain in the sky, he could make out shapes flying around it but not with enough detail to get a good idea of what he would be dealing with next. He didn’t have anything more to prepare so instead got started in moving towards his final destination.

When moving through the smaller islands to get to the larger one, he also practised with condensing the air, one platform at a time, until if he wanted to he could run along them in the air without even having to touch the ground. It was a crazy feeling, and he couldn’t help but wonder if eventually he would be able to get good enough with the affinity to be able to fly. If he could condense the air around him fully, like making a suit of air, and he propelled himself forward with his control, it could possibly work. But he was a long way from that, he could barely keep a small platform in place for longer than a second, coating his entire body indefinitely with hardened air was going to be impossible at this stage, but something to look forward to in the future.

When he was only two islands away he stopped and decided to check out the monsters a little bit more, what he saw took his breath away. The monsters were larger than any bird, they had the body of a lion, great big wings coming from their back shimmering gold as they flew, they had a tail like that of a lion as well as back legs that were similar to paws. Their front legs ended in claws similar to a bird and their heads, they had the head of what looked like an eagle. They were griffins, taken straight out of myth and legend, and they were his next monster to fight.

*Griffin Cub – Level 23*

He got lucky with one flying close enough to be able to identify it, it didn’t attack but did note his presence. He was right that they were griffins, but the fact it said it was a cub was odd, they seemed to be the size of a normal lion, there was no way it was a cub, unless a fully grown griffin was significantly larger. He didn’t know if that terrified him or if he thought it was just really really cool.

He wasn’t sure what abilities the griffins would have, he knew it was going to have something to do with air, not to mention the physical damage they would be able to do with their claws, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be scared, if anything he was excited to find out. None of the monsters so far had provided a challenge, outside of the fact they had just been annoying to pin down, but once they got hit with an attack it was all over for them. The griffins though? They may provide a bit more of a challenge.

Shaun practically skipped the final way onto the mountain island, ready to get started and have a little fun. The moment he stepped onto the mountain everything changed, the griffins were no longer leisurely flying around and instead sped up and became more erratic. They started making screaming whistling noises that echoed off of the mountain, he didn’t know whether it was a call to arms or an alert to all of the other griffins that someone had trespassed onto their turf, whatever it was it was soon joined by a much louder, deeper noise that set is teeth on edge.

None of the griffins were close enough for him to attack, he would need to make his way up the mountain to get to their level unless they came down to him, before he could make the decision though one was made for him. From the top of the mountain the boss finally made its appearance, it looked exactly the same as the other griffins, just bigger, much bigger. It was easily twice the size of the others and its wingspan stretched out what had to be 10 metres in each direction.

Shaun didn’t make a move or do anything to prepare, he was captivated by the magnificent sight of the creature. He didn’t really want to fight it, it was majestic and beautiful, he really wanted to give it a pat, or even go for a ride. It wouldn’t be possible though, he had a job to do and there was only one way to get out of the dungeon, and that was to kill the boss. He gave the timer of the stage 2 countdown a look and if he wanted to get out of here in the three day limit to make sure he got the bonuses for the reward, he only had a few hours left to do it. He had spent a lot of time working through the bonding, taking much longer than usual due to the nature of air, it was still worth it but he really wanted to get another A, he had plans for the orbs he was collecting.

When the griffin boss took to the air it circled around three times, all of the other griffins falling in behind until it formed a V formation in the air with the boss leading the charge.

*Griffin – Level 25*

He was momentarily shocked when he saw the level of the boss, it now showed level 25 instead of question marks, but in a way it made sense, he was now the same grade as the monster, if they even had grades, so he could now see the level of everything from E grade or equivalent lower.

When the griffins all did a final turn around they then started flying straight towards him, he didn’t bother running, not that there was anywhere he could really run, instead he powered up a fire infused elemental strike, his go to move at the moment, and waited for them to come at him. When they had reached half of the original distance each monster's wings started to glow with the power of air, he didn’t know if they were going to dive bomb at him like the eagles did or what the plan was, but he did want to be prepared to shelter the storm.

He grounded himself into the mountain and turned on his stone skin so that he was protected, when he was confident in his protections he waited until they were close enough for him to fire his attack. As soon as the boss came into striking distance he let the strike fly, at the same time the griffin folded its wings down in his direction and blade of air were sent his way, where the attacks met the explosion that ensured was bigger than anything he had ever seen, he ended up covering his face to shield from some of the blow back.

As he couldn’t see past the blast, he didn’t realise that each of the griffins had released their attacks just as they came into range. Standing there unaware he was hit by two dozen of the wing blades, one after the other, effectively hammering him into the ground with their strength. The damage wasn’t major as the level 23 griffins were significantly lower level than him, that added with his stone skin, protected him from the worst of the attacks. They did manage to make him bleed though, he was covered in scratches from each of the hits, barely going through his skin but still enough to sting. If the boss had hit him with one of those the result would be much worse.

He couldn’t wait for them to come to him anymore, he knew he would need to go to them, and the only way to do that was by getting into the air. He saw the griffins make another loop around, some of them looked like they got a little burnt from the explosion but none of them were on fire. Before they had a chance to attack again he started running up the mountain, where he couldn’t find anywhere on the ground to step he would create a platform of air to use, sometimes multiple times in a row. He started to feel like he was just running vertically but he was gaining a lot of height very quickly. He used his echo to track when the griffins came back into range, and as expected they were in the same formation and heading right for him.

Rather than wait for them to approach, Shaun did something slightly more erratic, using the compressed air platforms he ran out from the mountain directly towards the griffins. He had to focus on making sure he was always producing the platforms ahead of where he was going to be to make sure that he wouldn’t fall from the sky, but it was good practice and he figured he would be able to slow his fall if he had too.

It didn’t take long for him to get close to the griffins with how quickly they were coming for him, and just before the boss launched the air blades again he started running vertically up into the air to get above their height. The attacks completely missed him, and when the boss made to turn and get away from where Shaun was in the air he decided to give chase. He wasn’t as quick as the griffins but he did have the same affinity to air as they did, so trying something he had never done before, he focused on removing the air resistance in front of him and tried to will the air to blow him right towards the boss.

It ended up working, better than expected, he was sent forward as if he was a rocket, sent straight at the griffin. They collided in the air and he nearly ended up going straight over the side of it, but he managed to grab hold of some of its feathers to keep him on its back. It must have hurt when he started grabbing fists full of its fathers as it let out an indignant squawk that nearly made Shaun laugh.

He only had a moment to get on its back, legs around its massive body, before it started to twirl around in the air, going upside down and doing loop de loops, trying to throw him from its back, he didn’t let go though. He had always loved roller coasters as a kid, and this was even better than anything he had experienced before. He yelled out into the air around him with joy, its was the most fun he had had in ages and he was planning on enjoying it for a while.

The other griffins refused to attack him while he was on the bosses back, and the griffin could manage to get its head around enough to do any damage either, he was reasonably safe in that moment, and he just rode the monster for a while before he decided he needed to actually finish the fight.

The griffin he was riding seemed to just give up after a while, after he didn’t attack it for a while or do anything more than hold on and enjoy himself, it seemed a little more content to just let him do what he wanted, trying to get him to let go of his grip a bit so it could attempt to throw him off again. He didn’t give it a chance though, turning his body he powered up his sword with a strike and sent it flying into the griffin cubs around him, they were too close to be able to dodge and also refused to run away, he was on the boss after all. They still wouldn’t attack him and risk hurting the griffin he was on so they were all sitting ducks to his attacks.

It didn’t take long to dispatch the twelve griffin cubs, the boss had started to try and throw him off again the moment he started the attacks, but it was no use. When it was only himself and the boss left he couldn’t help but hesitate, he really didn’t want to kill the griffin, if he could take it out of the dungeon with him he would, if only to see it fly above the forest and see it glittering in the sun, but he knew that the dungeon needed to end, that he had to keep going on his quest of completing all the dungeon and moving on.

With a heavy heart he stabbed his sword down into the griffins neck, aiming for a quick and painless death. He knew it was dead when it started falling from the sky and the notification confirmed it but moments later. He looted the body as soon as he could, not wanting any of it to go to waste, he received the wings feathers as well as its beak. When he started to free fall towards the ground he slowed his descent with more compressed air platforms until he had reached ground safely.

* Wings Fury Dungeon Completed. Dungeon will automatically eject successful participants in 5 minutes.*

He should be happy with having finished the dungeon, instead he just felt sad about having to kill the griffin. It didn’t stop him from running around trying to find any of the other griffin bodies to loot though, he only had five minutes after all.