Bat Hunt 2: Electric Boogaloo!

John flapped his golden wings and flew not upwards first, hovering in the air as he got a good look at the four fire bats approaching.

As he stopped in the air, he realized he was glowing. His scales were reflecting the light of the morning sun and infusing with a noticeable golden shine.

His skill, the War Angel's Hours of Glory, was working properly at this point. Based off his own internal rhythm, which was a lot more accurate than it had been as a human, he determined that the day was on the later end of morning.

Maybe around 9 or so in the morning? Provided this world followed a 24-hour day cycle.

Regardless, John's skill was working, and he felt power surge inside of him, and it manifested in curls of threaded light shimmering off of him like tiny little solar flares.

John looked up at the sun, basking in its power.

The sun felt so refreshing, so warm, so comforting, so…grossly incandescent.

"Incoming!" shouted Hemet, and John snapped out of his sun-induced stupor.

What the hell!?

The firebat matriarch was just beyond a dozen meters away from him while the other three bats were still in the distance, a good hundred or so meters away.

How was she so fast!? More than twice as fast as the others!?

That was when John realized that twin trails of fire blasted out from the matriarch's flame wreathed legs.

They looked like the fiery exhaust from jet fighter thrusters, and seeing a bat flying with flaming wings with thrusters on its legs was surprisingly pretty damn cool.

Not the time to admire, though, John noted as he immediately flew downwards, dodging the matriarch as she zipped by him, chomping down on thin air.

Soon enough, all of that would be John's to evolve.

Now that the matriarch had been cut off from the rest of the bats, John went towards them.

"Get rid of the little ones!" roared John. "Then I can solo the matriarch!"

Right now, with the Hours of Glory boosting him, John estimated he had leaped up a full intermediary core stage, going from Medial Mystic to High Mystic.

During the hour of noon, if he tapped into the power of the Zenith over the full hour, he estimated he could leap up a full core grade to the Medial Unbound stage, but noon was far from now, not to mention he did not want to use the Zenith if possible because it had side effects of taxing his body.

With John's current power, he estimated he could comfortably challenge and beat the matriarch if she was alone. Just had to get rid of her pesky entourage.

John performed an aerial drive by on the three smaller bats, swerving past them, and Hemet shot at them with his ice gauntlet.

Bolts of pale white fired out at surprisingly fast speeds, and when they collided with the firebats, they encased the creatures in blocks of solid ice, sending them hurtling down to the ground below.

"Three shots, three hits? You're pretty damn good at aiming that thing," said John with some surprise. "Weren't you an Earthen grade?"

"Shooting and hiding are my specialties. And my young friend, you will come to learn, but core grades are not the be all end all to a battle," said Hemet. "They merely indicate your level of strength and mana, but how you use it is arguably far more important. Not to mention that battles become far more complex when artifacts are thrown into the mix on top of unique Skills and Arcanas."

John snuck a glance behind him to see the firebat matriarch closing in on them again.

"Well then, you got an answer for that?" said John.

Hemet turned around, aimed his gauntlet, and fired. The bolt of white energy traveled to the firebat, but it broke apart and sizzled into steam when the matriarch created a barrier of thin flames in front of it.

"Okay, that didn't work, you got another gadget?" said John.

"No, this is all I have. If you cannot tell by now, I am more an expert at running than shooting," said Hemet.

"Great," said John, draconic sarcasm leeching into his voice.

As things stood right now, Hemet was just a liability, because although John was immune to fire damage, the imp was not. "Hold on tight. I'm going to land."

John made an immediate dive downwards, feeling the air whistle and whip past him as his wings folded close to his body, turning him into an aerodynamic missile of sunshine gold.

The vast green forests below started to get bigger and bigger as he approached, and he tracked out a decent clearing by a stream to land on.

Streams of fire shot by John as the matriarch breathed beams of concentrated flame, and John used the motion sensitive plume on his head to detect the flames without looking back, dodging here and there.

John slowed down as he crashed into the water of the stream, and immediately, he shouted, "Get off and hide! Try and get a good shot in from behind!"

Hemet sprung out from John's back and tumbled onto the bank of the stream with a surprisingly agile roll, immediately breaking out into a sprint into the forest cover.

John noted that Hemet had the Bag of Holding on him, and he wondered ever so slightly if the imp was just going to run.

But too little time to think about that.

The firebat matriarch screeched as she smashed into John from above. John was prepared for this, and he braced for impact. The two of them tumbled in the stream, the water sizzling as the matriarch's flaming aura doused in it.

In close combat, John, a mighty dragon, was far superior to some silly little bat, and he quickly got a pin down on the firebat matriarch in the water. He held her down by the wings with his frontal legs and opened his jaws to bite down at her throat.

But then the matriarch ignited her leg thrusters explosively, driving her out from under John. She tumbled in the air before righting her balance and landing on the ground, growling at John.

Huh, thought John. The matriarch seemed to be a lot more intelligent than the normal bats.

Then, the matriarch literally went into some kind of super sa1yan state.

The fire wreathing her fur became a lot more intense, surging out into a blazing aura of flames that burned the grass beneath her and melted the rocks around her.

Those were good rocks too, lamented John.

The matriarch's breaths were superheated now, distorting space with heat waves, and she seemed to be breathing heavier.

Whatever this state was, it was not sustainable.

A temporary burst of power.

And judging by how she did not fire off a supercharged flame breath, she instinctively understood that John did not take damage from fire.

Instead, she postured forwards with her jaws open and her talons spread out, obviously wanting a charge attack.

In this current state, the matriarch was just as strong as John, if not even stronger.

Combined with her energy draining bites, he did not know what would happen in a straight up confrontation.

However, the matriarch seemed hesitant to attack, wary of John, and he hatched an idea.

John spread his wings out and stood on his lend legs in the draconic version of a T-pose, allowing the shine of the sun to radiate brightly out of him. He exerted some magical energy, as if he was preparing for a massive attack, and the matriarch narrowed her eyes and hissed.

"You would dare to challenge me, a dragon!?" roared John, solar light beginning to spill over his teeth as he charged up a solar beam.

He knew from Hemet that his words were universally understood, and the matriarch was smart enough that she got the gist of what he said. "I have merely been holding back my power! Now, you will pay for your insolence!"

The matriarch immediately went into alarm and began to gather a shield of condensed flames in front of her.

"For you know not what strikes you!" shouted John, his voice radiating outwards in a dramatic roar, obviously signaling Hemet to fire.

"Uhm. You know not what strikes you!" repeated John, his roar echoing. A second of silence, and the matriarch cocked her head, wondering what was going on.

John wondered the same too. Had Hemet actually run?

That was when finally, a bolt of ice emerged from a thicket of the forest behind the matriarch, freezing her from her blindside where her fiery shield was not active.

A block of ice encased her in frozen motion, but it was evident that by the way the block shook and melted that she was not going to be imprisoned for long.

"Finally!" shouted John. "Took you long enough! I was starting to look pretty stupid there!"

Hemet leaped into the clearing with a smile. "My apologies, my friend. Getting a good shot is harder than you think. And your battle cries are only to be admired."

John first unleashed his full solar beam on the matriarch, and because she was frozen, she had no way of fending against it. The beam of light washed over her frozen body and then in a manner of seconds, disintegrated it away.

All of her life essence was captured from that breath, going straight to John's essence bar.

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*Essence Obtained: +1000*

Essence Level: 1650/10,000 > 2650/10000

Current Evolutionary Stage: Wyrmling

Next Evolutionary Stage: Greater Wyrmling

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*Origin Obtained: Firebat Matriarch*

Stored Origins:

-Mudclaw Crab (Medial Earthen Grade)

-Quill Fern (Low Earthen Grade)

-Plumed Rabbit (Low Earthen Grade)

-Verdant Panther (Low Mystic Grade)

-Nueralizer (Low Phantasmal Grade)

-Firebat (Low Mystic Grade) *NEW*

-Firebat Matriarch (Medial Mystic Grade) *NEW*

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