The morning eventually arrived, the sun filtering through the branches overhead casting the world into a flickering emerald tapestry. Violet slowly awoke and with her movement Luna who was still bundled up at her side awoke too.
Their combined movement seemed to awaken Rhyana and Susan who jolted awake, clearly not used to having others nearby when waking up.
As they stretched and went about the process of getting up Luna turned to Violet and spoke through their bond to her. "Hey are you going to be testing out your new skills in your dragon form or are you still wanting to test out your humanoid form?"
Violet pondered that for a moment, it was true that just before they started their journey into the central valley she was intending to test out combat in her other form. But did she want to do so now when she also needed to get used to her new skills? After a few more moments thought she replied to her companion.
"I think I’ll stay as I am for now, once I’m used to my new skills then I can try out fighting like you." Luna accepted that and simply shrugged.
"That’s fair enough, no need to try out too many things all at once eh. And not like we are in a major rush anyway."
With that decided the group had a quick breakfast of leftover bird before getting up and heading off towards the East.
The group had decided to just head East for now, no true direction other than that. The group knew that it would take quite some time for them to travers the distance to the Kingdom. Plus given how powerful the Kingdom was they had no intention of rushing towards it. Violet definitely wanted to have evolved once more and preferably be well over level 100 before they entered that land.
Which shouldn’t be too challenging of an goal. Given that their was a plethora of dangerous wilderness between their current location and the edge of the Endless Forest. Thinking on that Violet turned towards Rhyana and asked.
"So if the Forest is so dangerous, how did you two manage to travel through it without being killed by the truly strong beasts there?"
"Well quite simple really, when we came across a place with particularly high mana levels we tried to skirt around the outskirts. When that did work and we had to travel through them we were actually kind of ignored by the denizens. I think we were considered too weak to even bother fighting, we would likely have not provided anything other than a light snack for some of the truly powerful beasts, so they saw no need to kill us."
Her response surprised both Violet and Luna, they had half expected the answer to be about how they flew or ran away, or even that they could at least push back some of their foes. Yet to hear that a dragon was considered too weak to even bother fighting was a sobering reminder, in this Forest there will always be something stronger than you.
Yet at the same time in this region, the Elemental Valleys it would appear that their group was now at the peak of power to be found here. Thinking in it after their adventure through the central valley Violet did notice how the mana levels here no longer felt powerful. When they first arrived here she had noted how the air seemed suffused with mana.
Yet now that she was stronger, the mana around them felt... not quite lacking, but not exactly abundant either. It would seem that they were outgrowing this region.
Time passed by without the group running into anything worth fighting. Sure they encountered a few beasts but they just felt too weak to bother battling, and when the other beasts laid eyes on their group they instantly bolted. This was starting to annoy Violet who just wanted to get a good fight in. So she was happy when the group came across a particularly large valley suffused with powerful fire mana.
The valley in question reminded Violet of the fire domain within the central valley, it was ringed by a river of lava that bordered the valley. In the centre of it rocky terrain dominated, with many caves and hills for beasts to thrive. Seeing this and feeling the presence of a strong beast Violet grew excited.
"Oh we are going down there! I feel something strong and I want to fight it!"
Luna looked at her companion with a wry smile. She too had sensed something powerful down there and was also quite looking forward to challenging herself and testing out her new skills. She was slightly annoyed that it had to be another fire domain but, it could be good to see how her skills have grown to endure the scorching heat.
Rhyana and Susan did seem to mind either way but after Violet asked them to just let her and Luna have the first few battles they found themselves relegated to being silent supporters.
Shortly after Luna hopped onto Violet’s back and together the two dove down to explore the area and try to lure out a strong foe for them to battle against.
Landing near the centre next to a particularly large magma lake, the two instantly felt attention had been directed towards them. And it did take long for the mastered of this domain to emerge from the lake to slay the unlucky fools that dared to challenge them within their domain.
Out of the lake slithered two figures, their crimson scales dropped with lava. They were easily over 10 meters in length and as wide around as Violet was. Long smooth bodies and a spade shaped head with vertical irises that blazed with subdued flames. The two magma snakes hissed their challenge to the two interlopers, a wave of scorching heat billowing out towards the two companions.
Nimbly hopping off Violet’s back Luna opted to not summon her usual spear and instead utilised Ice Blade to summon a long glave into her outstretched hands. It shimmered in the heat yet it refused to melt, the very air around Luna seemed to freeze a moment later as the oppressive heat was slowly pushed back from young woman. Etherial snow began to drift down around her and ice coated the floor at her feet as the Arctic environment from which she thrives was manifested around her.
Violet stood a couple of meters away from Luna her body now covered in a layer of void itself, making her figure stand out as a whole in existence. When the void coat was complete it seemed to sink into her scales, no longer obscuring her from vision. Her tail swished from side to side in obvious excitement as the two sides stared each other down.
Neither side wanting to be the first to make a move.
Yet Violet was unable to hold back her excitement to try out her new skills any longer and let out a roar of challenge, imbuding it with a burst of her aura. Bolstering Luna whilst momentarily shocking the two giant snakes.
Seeing their foes flinch a wicked smile rose on Luna’s face and she dashed forwards to meet her foe.