89 Crossing the Wild Lands

Yun and Wuying rested and recuperated for a few days on that ledge, taking care to ensure they were mentally fit for the perilous paths they were obviously traversing. After nearly another week of careful travel and rest they managed to trace a winding path north that led them to some extreme valleys that left the mountain range.

In front of them lay a large tract of land—2,000 kilometers of hills and dales—before they would reach the banks of the river across from Myhrrwar. The river itself was half-again this distance, so they were roughly 3,000 kilometers from their destination.

Within the hilly country before them would likely be any number of fierce battles, as this was the main front of the conflict with the Volvaka. These open lands were sparsely populated with larger plants—mostly featuring small shrubs and scrub-brush. Visibility was fairly good over the long distance, but there was a good deal of cover to conceal behind if one were to try.

Larger groups of bodies would be quite easy to discover within such terrain, but thankfully there was only two of them and it would be easy to hide.

They quickly started looking for a path down the massive cliff beneath their feet, but realized before long that they would have to detour quite a ways before there was a safe path. Nowhere within view was there any path down the mountain, and the valley below them was shrouded heavily in mist. The only thing they knew for sure was that valleys shrouded in mist were probably not safe for the two of them to adventure on their own. These were prime real estate for high level beasts to make their dens, as well as high level materials to grow. The two frequently went hand in hand.

Finally finding a downward path they began do descend, occasionally finding areas where they could climb a bit down and reach another path. They constantly watched the cliffs below them for climbable areas as they traveled along the ledges.

Halfway down the cliff they finally encountered their first instance of trouble. They climbed past an overhang and found that on the underside of it was a small cave, but this small cave was nothing ordinary. This was the den of some sort of vicious beast that could either climb extremely well or fly, both of which would be a nightmare in the current situation.

As they tried their hardest to stealthily climb down the worst that could happen did. Yun's hand slipped, knocking the stone from the wall that she had been gripping, and sent it tumbling down to smash loudly against the cliff below. She slowly looked up with dread in her eyes—straight into the beady eyes of a massive iridescent Immortal Wyrm. She knew that insectoid beasts could have immense lifespans, and frequently they would change appearance a bit as they reached certain levels of growth. Some insects would even shed their previous outer shells as they outgrew them.

The Immortal Wyrm was one of these types.

Even the body of the Immortal Wyrm she had killed before the tournament was extremely valuable, capable of being broken down and used to make all sorts of extremely high end equipment, so how valuable would the corpse of one that had advanced a number of ranks be? Yun felt some measure of confidence based on the fact she had advanced by an entire realm since last time she fought one, as well as her new weapons and skills.

The only problem was. . . She was hanging from the wall of a cliff a thousand meters from the ground! Even if she could put her feet on a solid piece of stone it would only be a meter wide at most. This was definitely what would be called home turf advantage. The Immortal Wyrm had a massive advantage in this environment.

As she was readying herself to retaliate against a charging monstrosity she had a strange feeling on the back of her neck. At the same moment she felt this she immediately launched herself to the side, seeking a new grip nearly five meters to her left.

Crack!

Nearly faster than he could see Wuying watched a chunk of stone where Yun had just been shatter into millions of pieces.

Yun had an expression of shock on her face. She couldn't believe how fast the Immortal Wyrm had been! She scurried down the cliff face as fast as she could manage, leaping from one side to the other rapidly as she descended nearly fifty meters in seconds.

Wuying also descended rapidly, following Yun's example as he darted side to side to throw off the aim of the Wyrm. It seemed to work, as neither of them experienced the incredibly powerful jaws of the insect, but they did see a number of chunks of rock disappear in a blur of motion.

Yun was no longer confident in her ability to defeat this iridescent Immortal Wyrm. It was so fast that it was leaving its cave, shattering the spot where they had just been, and returning to its cave without leaving more than a fleeting shadow of itself. What terrifying speed on a sheer cliff! Just how long must the body of this wyrm be for it to accomplish this nearly fifty meters away while still returning to its cave instantly?

Suddenly Yun spotted a ledge, just half a meter wide, below her. She shouted out to Wuying and dropped herself onto the ledge before she started launching herself sideways even faster, trying to create even more distance, and thus opportunity, for her to evade.

Once again she felt the shake of the cliff face as it exploded beside her, but this time she got a good glimpse of the body of the Immortal Wyrm. As it retreated this time it fully exited it's cave and returned head first, revealing its nearly hundred and fifty meter long body!