17 Deep Abyss. Contact.
On the dawn of the fourth day after Kael had formed a team with the Darram brothers, the team reached a precipice in the midst of the forest.
Kael said, "The spiritual fluctuations here are quite strong and domineering. It seems to belong to a creature with draconic blood in it."
"We don't know of any other dragon-related creatures that stay in the Inner Region of the Black Heart Forest. It's most probably the creature that we are looking for." Darram Longhand replied.
"I suppose that's the good news. The bad news, however, is that the spiritual trace goes all the way down the cliff…"
The Darram brothers extended their necks and tried to look down past the precipice. To their dismay, they only saw an abyss and a pitch black darkness. Next, Darram Shorthand threw a pebble down the cliff to determine the depth of the abyss.
No sound nor echo came out from the dropped pebble.
The trio looked at each other, not knowing whether to cry or to laugh. They had finally caught a lead on their target, but it seemed improbable to reach the target's nest.
They turned to Kael, "So what do we do now? Do you have any suggestions?"
"I know of a Spirit Art that can help us go down into the abyss without falling into pieces. However, I have a condition."
Darram Mediumhand responded first, "What condition? Speak and see if we can comply with it."
"If there are two Ice Artifices, one goes to the three of you. I get to keep the other one. How does that sound?"
By this point, the Darram brothers didn't doubt Kael's combat abilities anymore. He would be able to help them greatly in dealing with the Black Line Drake. In addition, it seemed that they would have to rely on Kael if they were to proceed with their mission. If not, there was no way down the deep abyss. Furthermore, it was a boon for them to learn a Spirit Art for free.
"Alright. Deal. What's the Spirit Art?"
"It's called Vuelo. It allows the user to reduce his weight to that of a feather's. This means that we can float our way down to the deep abyss. I suggest that we kill some demonic beasts and create makeshift picks at the same time so that we can go down in a controlled manner."
"That sounds like a good Spirit Art. It will be an easy descent for us if we do this properly. Alright, let's gather the materials first before learning the Spirit Art."
The four of them thus proceeded on with gathering the materials by killing demonic beasts. The reason why they didn't have the materials beforehand, such as bones and claws, was because they only took the monster cores from the corpses of the slain beasts. Thus they had to do the preparation work now for their descent down the precipice into the deep abyss.
After a good two hours of scavenging the area for demonic beasts, they were back at the precipice with the necessary picks created. Each of them had two picks each, perfect for rappelling down without any ropes.
Kael then proceeded to teach the trio the incantation for the Spirit Art. That took about half a day for the trio to learn and master the Spirit Art.
By then, it was already nightfall. However, it made no difference to the team because visibility in the abyss was going to depend on Kael's Spirit Art, Illuminati. They thus decided to proceed on with their descent, with Kael leading the way since he was the one with the Spirit Art that provided visibility.
"Vuelo!" Each of them became light as a feather as they started floating down the precipice. They then used their picks to anchor themselves against the slippery walls, controlling their pace of descent.
There was no flying nor crawling demonic beasts near their path of descent. Kael guessed that it was because the beasts knew clearly that this was the territory of the fearsome Black Line Drake, thus nobody dared to venture in.
The only sound that was heard was the hacking of the picks against the walls.
"Cling, clang! Cling, clang!" This monotonous sound continued on for a good half an hour.
Finally, they landed on solid ground. By this time, they had already travelled at least one mile downwards from the precipice.
"Phew. At least we have landed. Where should we go to…"
"Roar!" Without waiting for Darram Longhand to finish speaking, an earsplitting draconic roar sounded out. It was exceptionally blaring since there were walls on both sides which served to make the echo even louder.
Suddenly, a black figure swooped down towards them from above. The team's battle senses kicked in. They instinctively rolled away from their original landing spot. The figure crashed onto the ground where they landed and roared loudly once again.
It was the Black Line Drake. It was twenty times the size of a normal human and its wings spanned a total of 30 feet. The Drake had ferocious eyes as it stared at the unwelcomed guests.
"It must have been hunting, if not it won't appear from above us. Let's engage it according to our plan!" Kael shouted.
The trio immediately got into action and took out their firearms from their item bags. Darram Mediumhand immediately shot barrels of bullets upwards in a parabola motion. The bullets whizzed through the sky and then descended down onto the Drake like a downpour. The shrapnels within the bullets were able to cause sparks to appear. This was a sign that the Drake's impervious skin protected the Drake from being hurt. However, the shrapnels through Mediumhand's Spirit Art, had an effect of slowing down the enemy.
The Drake wanted to fly once again. However, due to the rain of bullets, it was slowed down and unable to lift up its wings to fly.
Next, Darram Shorthand took action. He fired consecutive shots of bullets on the Drake's wings. The shots had a concussive effect on its enemies. Under the barrage of bullets, the Drake's
wings were deemed ineffective.
Right from the start, the Drake was at a severe disadvantage after appearing. It couldn't do anything under the effects of the Spirit Arts of the two Darram brothers.
Finally, Darram Longhand took action.
He took aim at the Drake's eyes. He then circulated spiritual energy into the firearm and into his bullets.
P.S: Vuelo means flight in Spanish
