Mountain Wyvern and Talos' Mercy

Following Talos' run-in with the Baleth clan and their attempt to catch him, he did not think of staying in the tundra anymore despite the constant food supply he had from the mammoths. Over the past 4 years, he had stuck moving north no matter what, but his run-in with the Devils made him take a sharp east turn. 

He did not really know where he was going, but his monstrous instincts had instilled in him a love of freedom. Constantly being on the move brought him pure joy as he answered to no one, but himself. But, on top of his regular training, he began to work on finding a method to become human once more. 

He had little drive to become human as he felt at home as a monster. It was who he was now and a human form would only serve as a convenience. He could use it to enter cities or towns where he could buy resources he had not found in the wild. 

Currently, after a month of no-stop travel, he had reached a massive mountain range. The mountain range towered into the sky with tall white peaks of snow and ice. While he observed the mountain he felt an instinctive pull to it. 

'A metal deposit.' 

As a Glavenus, he was always in search of rare metals to add to his tail blade. In his travels, he had found several metals that his instincts led him to. If this mountain made those instincts react, it had to be good. 

He began to ascend the mountain while keeping his mana sense fully extended. As he ascended the mountain through trails created by mountainous monsters, he kept his mind sharp. This world was one teaming with monsters and they were in every environment. 

Just because he had a use for the metals did not mean the monsters of this world did not. As he kept rising higher and higher the mountain, the more colder it became and the thinner the air. That was no issue for him, but for a regular human, they would freeze in seconds. 

After an hour of walking up the mountain, he stopped as he saw a large hole in the mountain. 

'A cave. That is ominous, but I live for adventure.' 

He dragged his tail blade on the ground a few times as it rapidly heated up before it glowed bright white hot. His night vision was exceptional, but he preferred having a trustworthy source of light. 

With that, he descended into the cave as his instincts were telling him the metal he wanted was in there. The moment he stepped inside he noticed a large gathering of bones at the entrance which made him snort. 

'Wasteful.' 

He ate everything of his prey minus the intestines as that was where the poop was. Other than that, he left no traces of his meals. To not waste the nutrients in the bone he stopped as he ate the old bones. His massive metal-crushing teeth made short work of the old bone which had no marrow after so long. 

Yet, he never wasted a free meal so he spent nearly half an hour eating the bones. When he was done, he could feel his stomach melt the bones down as his body drew out any nutrients or lingering energy in them. 

It was not a lot as they had been left to the elements for who knows how long. However, it was free and took no energy from him to acquire. Once he was done, he licked his lips and walked deeper into the cave. 

There were no bones littering the ground anymore, but the deeper he went the more precious jewels he found embedded in the walls. He walked to one of the walls that had large white, blue, red, green, yellow, purple, and even black gems. He reached out with a claw and dug out a red gem from the wall. 

'Gems.' 

He used his mana sense to analyze the gem and found they contained mana. Not enough for him to dig them for food, but he spent a few minutes collecting a few piles of the gems. When he finally had a human form having them to sell in cities would be helpful. 

When he had gathered a small pile, he ignored the gems and walked further down the cave. The further he went, the more mana the gems had, but he began to run into other things. On the walls were giant claw marks of something big. 

'Whatever that was, it was digging out the gems like I was.'

He stood up and took a deep breath. There was a powerful scent in the cavern. This was the lair of a creature that liked gems and a carnivore. He licked his lips as the instinct to raid the creature's nest had begun to fill his mind. 

He might even find some eggs for him to eat. He still focused on the metal deposit he wanted, but he kept his focus on the creature. At certain points, the cave split into separate tunnels, but using senses he always found the correct one. 

He traversed the underground lair for over an hour until his instincts informed him that he had found what he was looking for. As he entered the last tunnel he walked into a giant open space where the metal he was looking for was located. 

Besides the metal, there was a natural Earth Mana Vein which continued to release earth essence into the cave. Large gems saturated with earth mana littered the space in piles and the black ore he had come here for. 

The entire cavern here was gigantic, enough for several of him to fit inside. But it did not look natural, it was like something big had dug out the cave over a long time. 

'Interesting.' 

All of that was a discovery for him but at the very end of the cavern was a large nest with an egg. He was going to eat it, but just as he was about to walk toward them he stopped. 

At the center of the earth vein, a strange plant was growing. The plant was as large as a small bush and it radiated a powerful herbal scent. It made him hunger for it more than he did for the eggs. Just as he walked over to it and opened his mouth to eat it an enraged roar filled the small cavern. 

Taping into his lightning mana, Talos dodged out of the way as the creature in question made itself known. At first, he thought it was a dragon until he noticed that its front limbs were both its wings and arms. 

'A Wyvern and a big one' 

The Wyvern was massive, 35 meters long making her bigger than he was. She was the owner of this cave and she had been the one to expand these tunnels for her to live in comfortably. 

After returning from a hunt, she comes to find an invader in her nest. 

"I WILL MURDER YOU!"

Talos snorted as he ground his tail blade on the ground. 

"You can talk?"

The Wyvern squinted her eyes. 

"OF COURSE I TALK!"

She took a deep breath and blasted a stream of dark grey flames at him. Talos spun around with his Sword Will and sliced through the flames with his tail blade splitting them. 

He leaned forward and got on all 4s while bringing his tail blade over him like a scorpion. 

"Then you will understand this." 

He whipped his tail around and bit down on it before dragging his teeth across it. His tail blade became razor sharp on top of burning hot. He rushed forward while he ignited his body with extreme heat. On top of his flames, purple lightning sparked and raged in the cavern as the Wyven rushed toward him. She took to the air with more than enough room to maneuver as she had planned for this. 

Her cave had been expanded to have room for her to fly comfortably and not be stuck to the ground. She could fly, he could not, she would use that. Using her earth mana she caused her scales to shine like metal as she flew over him. 

Like an eagle, she descended toward Talos with her talons extended. She expected him to retaliate with his tail sword, but using one of his speed techniques. He focused on his lightning magic and sent it toward his feet. 

He leaned forward and he dodged with purple lightning sparks causing the female wyvern to miss. 

'NO!' 

Talos spun around teeth first and grabbed her neck. His massive teeth pierced through the metal scales and with pure strength he spun around and launched the female wyvern toward the opposing wall. 

Not letting that chance go, he charged forward on all 4s, before he leaped into the air. He spun around the tail blade first and brought it down with his sword will. Feeling pure danger, the female wyvern rolled out of the way, but her left wing got sliced nearly all the way through. 

Roaring in pain she forced herself away from Talos who squinted his eyes at her. She put herself between him and her egg not caring for the herb she had been raising for over 200 years. She looked at her mangled wing which grounded her. 

She could heal in time, but would he even allow her that honor? Talos slammed his tail on the ground and advanced ignoring the herb. Seeing that, her eyes began to waver as she did not know how to protect herself and her egg. She couldn't fly away, she could not fight him off what could she do? 

"WAIT! HEAR ME OUT!" 

Talos squinted his eyes and bared his teeth. 

"What?" 

"We can stop fighting, take the herb, just don't kill me." 

"And why would I do that? Your flesh will feed me for a time and your diluted dragon bloodline will nurture me. You are better to me dead than alive." 

She backed away even further wrapping her tail around her egg. Talos slowly approached dragging his tail on the ground causing a large molten gash to form in the hardened stone. He eventually arrived in front of the larger wyvern who planned to fight to her last. 

She rose up and ignored the pain coming from her mangled wing. She glared defiantly at Talos. She rose to her back legs as she struggled to put weight on her mangled left wing. 

It pained her like lava was flowing in the wound, but the heat of his tail blade had cauterized the wound. It was the only reason she was not bleeding out, but now it was her time to fight for her offspring. 

However, to her shock, Talos turned and walked away from her. He walked toward the herb in the ground as he was taking it. 

"You have a name Wyvern?" 

She did not know why he was suddenly going to let her live, but she answered. 

"Auxesia." 

"I am Talos." 

Auxesia scowled as she watched him approach her means at more power. 200 years wasted on that. She watched as he dug it up before he tossed it into his open mouth. He did not bother chewing it and swallowed it roots and all. 

When he did so, an extremely pure earth elemental mana flowed through his body. it refined his scales, teeth, claws, spikes, and especially his tail blade. He even felt his affinity become much purer than before. 

It flowed into his bones to increase their strength and density while some stayed dormant in his cells for his next sleep. Under the watchful eye of Auxesia, she watched as he collected the metal from the cavern walls and forged them into his tail blade.

Seeing how he might not be killing her or her egg she began to treat her wound ignoring Talos. When he was done, he looked at his reforged tail blade and instinctively felt how much stronger it was now. The metal in question he had used was earthen mithril

After absorbing earth essence for countless centuries, the mithril had become extremely resistant to stress a good ingredient for his blade. Satisfied, he was about to make his way out before Auxesia called out to him. 

"Wait." 

He turned around wondering what she wanted. 

"You spared my life and my egg. I owe you some compensation for your mercy." 

He tilted his head. 

"I will accept. I took your herb and wounded you so what will you offer." 

She struggled with her wound before she glowed a dark light and she took the form of a brown-haired woman with draconic features. Her left arm was mangled, but it was healing ever so slowly. 

"I can teach you the method to turn into a human form. It helps to enter cities to trade." 

"I am interested."

He turned around and waited for her to explain. All she wanted was for him to leave her alone so she taught him her method. After listening to her method he shook his head at how simple and yet complicated it was. 

His mana surged through his entire body for a few moments before in a bright flash of black, purple, and red light his massive size was reduced into a human shape. When Talos had finished his transformation he noticed his scales had taken the shape of clothes so he was not nude. 

He took a single breath before he used magic to form a smooth surface to look at himself. When he saw his reflection he nodded. He still looked like he used to in his past life. Same age as well which was welcomed. 

(Image here) 

He turned around and looked at Auxesia with a nod. 

"Thanks. Good luck. If we meet again, let's finish this." 

"I rather not." 

With that, he returned to his monster form and left her cave. She sighed in relief that he was gone. As for Talos, once he left the cave he made his way across the mountain range. 

'Let's see what else I can find.'