Rise of the Devourer

Book 3: Chapter 38 — Wyvern Cliffs Pt. 8

They arrived in a room filled with a bunch of juvenile wyverns. The place looked almost like a play area, with more than a couple wyverns fighting over scraps of food, or different sticks, or just wrestling one another.

Vion looked around the area, a couple of the wyverns coming up to her and sniffing her in greeting. More than a few approached Noah and Aurelia as well, though with more wariness.

One wyvern tried to push Noah, but was surprised to find him not budging as easily as it seemed to have expected. Noah looked back with an amused look at the creatures acting like giant cats. Though not everyone was friendly, not even most. The majority simply looked at them warily.

“Quazithril has told them about you guys, so you won’t get attacked here, if if you were to wander off. But try not to do that if possible,” Vion said, glancing around the chamber.

“Honestly, there’s not much to say, pick any one you think you can bond to, and then you’ll have to get the wyvern to agree to it. Typically that’ll mean besting it in combat,” Vion said.

Noah looked around at the many many wyverns all around him, struggling to contain his excitement.

He went through the group, trying to look through the many wyverns present here. More than a couple watched him pass by, curiosity rising at a human amidst their mist. One caught Noah’s eyes, a wyvern with four wings and a shimmering yellow body. He used analyze.

[Juvenile Light Wyvern (Legendary/Variant) - lvl 178]

A light wyvern. These creatures have a rare form of magic imbued into their bodies, allowing them to control light. With enough practice these wyverns can go invisible or blind your enemies, or just create some really fun light works. This is a mutation, instead of a normal normal, making this creature particularly rare.

Noah tried to walk closer to the wyvern in question, but it disappeared from in front of his eyes. Noah paused, squinting, before he focused his senses on the aura being given off. A little further, he felt the wyvern, moving away from him. With an Astral Step, he teleported, arriving directly in front of the wyvern, who seemed to think it had ditched him.

The wyvern paused, appearing again, looking down at him in surprise. It let out a little rumbling noise, light flashing in its eyes, and Noah extended to let the creature sniff him. The wyvern leaned down and sniffed him and Noah patted the wyvern’s face.

“I don’t think we’ll go together, but I have a friend who’ll probably go well with you,” Noah said, as the wyvern rumbled, before turning around and vanishing once more. Noah turned away, looking at some of the other ones.

His display had caught some eyes, and now a larger wyvern was making his way towards him, as if to check him out. Noah looked at the big creature, noting its dull grey and brown body and the two horns jutting from its head, giving it a draconian look.

[Juvenile Mud Wyvern (Legendary) - lvl 182]

A juvenile mud wyvern, the result of a water attuned wyvern getting it on with an earth wyvern, with a gift for both earth and water magic combining to form a mud wyvern. Though that doesn’t sound very threatening, these creatures can control both water and earth, drown you where you stand, crystalize you in earth, and they can swim through the earth itself and shape their environments. Though their magic is not on par with a mud dragon who can do these things with greater skill, a mud wyvern makes up for it with their great endurance and resistance to all sorts of elements.

The mud wyvern looked down at Noah, its body larger than most of the juveniles present here, as it snorted. It raised its front wing towards Noah, as the ground beneath Noah’s feet began to turn into a puddle.

Noah teleported away, going behind the wyvern, but the wyvern seemed to have anticipated it, as a wall of earth rose from the ground, the entire area turning to mud around the creature as it sank into the earth.

Noah jumped back as jaws rose from the ground, like an alligator snapping to catch its prey, almost dragging in Noah. He tried to land, but found the earth once again turning to liquid. Instead of resisting, Noah let himself sink into the muddy waters, letting Tony alter his body so that he could still see. The viscosity of the ground was high, but still enough to allow him to move and swim around. The wyvern moved like it was just swimming through water, circling around Noah as it waited. A moment later, when it realized Noah was not just drowning, it began to head towards Noah.

Noah let the creature come to him, and then grabbed the wyvern’s jaw as it tried to bite at him. He knew Vion had said he wouldn’t be attacked, and he suspected he wouldn’t die but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t try to rough him up. That was fine. That worked just fine with him.

Noah charged abyssal inferno, still holding onto the wyvern’s jaw. As the heat gathered around him, the wyvern shook him off, launching him back, as it circled away, sending waves of water spiraling around him, trying to dragon Noah deeper into the thicker earth and incase him there.

Not letting the wyvern succeed, he shot the abyssal Inferno from his hands, the water bursting with the heat as the blast created propulsion that pushed him upwards. Reaching the surface again, Noah took a deep breath, then he dove back down again.

The wyvern seemed less sure now, but Noah wasn’t done just yet. Using Arcane step, he teleported onto the wyvern’s back, and latched on. The creature thrashed, trying to pry Noah off, but Noah’s claws were sunk in. The creature began to swim around, jets of muddy water forming as the earth turned to a strange smooth liquid thing wherever the wyvern moved, as it tried to shake Noah off.

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The creature spun and moved around, jumping up out of the ground and then slamming back in, trying to shake him off, but Noah continued to cling on. The thrashing continued, slamming into other wyverns and into walls as the wyvern desperately continued, and Noah simply laughed, enjoying the ride.

After a few moments, the creature emerged out of the earth, lying low on the ground with a whiny squeak as it admitted defeat. Noah finally let go of it, jumping in front, he looked at himself, finding himself soaking wet with brown muddy water that covered him from head to toe.

He laughed, and the wyvern, to his surprise, seemed to be amused, as it bumped his head into him, snorted, and then turned around and walked away.

A different wyvern, a blue one, walked closer, and opened its mouth, before a stream of water began to shoot itself at Noah. It took him a second to realize this wasn’t another wyvern attacking him, but that it was helping him clean itself.

Noah let the mud wash itself off, before charging abyssal inferno and letting it heat himself up from the inside to dry himself. A moment later, he looked at the wyvern and nodded in appreciation.

“Thanks buddy,” he said.

The wyvern chittered, in an almost squeaky noise, before turning away from him.

Noah slicked his hair back, feeling rather refreshed. More wyverns were starting to come check him out, sniffing at him. One just pulled Noah onto his back and began to flap its wing as thick smoke bellowed out of its mouth.

He realized a moment later that this was a game to all of them.

“Alright, I guess I can play with you this time,” Noah said, as the wyvern shot up into the air, ember and smoke bellowing out of its hot body as it spun through the air, trying to shake him off.

Noah just laughed.

***

Noah lay on the ground, exhausted as more than a few wyverns lay curled up around him. Many had looked at the game and decided they wanted to join in, some had tried to play with one another, and more than a few had been fighting one another to be the next one. Eventually, he’d just made them line up and made groups which would then chase Noah till he was caught.

The process went on for a few hours, till he was truly exhausted. The wyverns didn’t play easy either, biting, snapping and clawing at him. One had straight up bathed him in fire, almost burning away his clothes till he’d slapped that one on the nose to stop it. Aurelia had gotten caught up in the stir he’d caused, the other wyverns pestering her as well, though she’d eventually convinced them to enjoy her light show instead.

Vion had just been watching in fascination, a smile plastered on her face.

Noah pulled himself up, pushing off a wyvern’s leg from his body, as it slept. He turned to face the woman, seated next to her acid wyvern, scratching its giant head.

“I can see why you come here to hang out with them. They’re quite fun to hang out with,” Noah said.

“They are. I love them a lot. Wyverns are smart, they have a reputation for viciousness, but to people they consider family, they are extremely kind to,” Vion said.

Noah stretched. “Honestly, at some point I just started having fun and forgot that I needed to pick one of them to bond with. Most of them were quite fun, it’s a little hard to pick,” Noah said.

Vion gave an understanding nod. “It can be difficult. You need to have the right temperament, or the wyvern will not work. But you also need the right magical balance. Not all wyverns will work well with all riders,” she said.

“Yeah… it’s tough,” Noah said, scratching his chin.

Vion looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, pausing in her generous scratches to her wyvern, who seemed annoyed that she had stopped. “I wasn’t going to comment, because this is best done naturally. But… there’s one you should take a look at,” Vion said, glancing behind Noah.

He followed her gaze, and saw a pristine wyvern. Its body was a deep shade of black, its eyes draconian, and its body almost seemed to meld into the shadows, like it cast a shadow on the world around it.

Noah used Analyze.

[Juvenile Nightshade Wyvern (Legendary/Variant) - ??]

A Juvenile Nightshade Wyvern. These are a rare form of wyverns who have the aspect of darkness and fire in them. It’s not really known how they are born, and attempts at breeding shade and flame wyverns has only ever been successful. Creatures of the night, these creatures are the rare lone hunters and ambush predators who prefer to work by themselves instead of in groups. Aloof by nature, nightshade wyverns are notoriously difficult to tame, but the few who have can attest to their ability. One of the strongest wyvern magic types, these creatures can fly nearly silently ripping the jaws off of anybody. Blessed with the flight speed of a sky wyvern and the stealth of a shadow wyvern, there’s hardly a better wyvern type to be found.

The wyvern seemed to notice Noah’s glance, but simply glanced away, returning to the bow it had been crunching on. Noah walked closer to the wyvern, and the creature flapped its wings, flying a little further.

Noah looked at the creature, raising an eyebrow, before he used Arcane Step to come closer. As he did, he felt heat wash over him as blue flames burned in the wyvern’s throat, a warning growl as it looked down at Noah.

“Hey there bud,” Noah said, raising his hand as he stepped back.

The wyvern closed his mouth, smoke rising as the flame dissipated. The creature snorted, and then returned to its bone.

Noah looked at the wyvern, thinking for a second. A moment later, he reached into his inventory.

“You know, you’re chewing on that bone. But I have something better for you,” he said, as he brought out a section of the wild boar he’d caught.

The nightshade wyvern looked at the offering, glancing up at him, before snorting as if scoffing.

“Alright, fine fine, how about this,” Noah said, bringing out half of the giant wild boar.

The nightshade turned around, raising its wings to fly off.

“Alright here,” Noah said, taking the entire thing out, and then just to add onto it, he threw in a D grade mana stone on top.

A bunch of wyverns had perked up at the sight, and some had already began heading towards Noah in a rush.

The nightshade wyvern paused, considered it for a moment, and then leapt onto the wildboar’s body, growing at any of the wyverns who tried to come near, threatening them. It took a giant bite, swallowing all of the crystals at once, before digging into the pieces.

More than a few tried to snip, but the nightshade wyvern formed shadowy extensions on its claws, swiping the earth, and growled with blue flames glowing in its mouth and eyes.

Noah watched the creature in fascination, smaller than most of the wyverns in the area, but still strong enough to hold itself up against all of them. He walked closer, putting a hand on the creature’s head who glanced at him, but then continued to eat its meal.

“Yeah, it has to be you. We’re gonna have some fun times together buddy,” Noah said, grinning to himself in anticipation.