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CHAPTER START---
"Well, I guess this is the place," Oberon says as he sees a few large tents set up ahead.
There were a few caravans parked nearby, and people walking about with tools and fabrics, along with some men wearing full plate armor holding spears.
Looking around he sees some men sitting in trees with crossbows, eyeing him wearily, but not aiming at him just yet.
He waves to one of the armored men while approaching, and they share an uneasy look before signalling him to stop.
"What are you doing out here?"
"I'm from Fairy Tail," Oberon says.
"Guild Mark?"
Oberon shows them the black Fairy Tail Emblem on his inner right forearm.
"Follow me," the man says before walking into the camp.
Walking past the few large tents he sees people smithing metals and stitching fabric together, working busily but still happy about whatever they were doing.
"Wow," Oberon can't help but gasp as he sees the view ahead of them.
Just at the edge of the camp is a steep cliff with a forested valley below. The canopy was so thick that they couldn't see the valley floor from this high above, and looking around he saw that these cliffs completely circled the valley, making it into a massive bowl of mystery.
"Quite the sight, isn't it," a muscular man wearing a leather apron over some thick work clothes says as he approaches. "Are you Henry?"
"No, I'm Oberon."
The man smiles, "Ah, so you are the person Wizard Saint Makarov Dreyar sent, just had to make sure, since our prize is quite valuable to us."
"Your prize?" Oberon asks. "The Wyvern?"
The man nods for the armored man to head back to the front of the camp as he gestures to the valley below.
"It's in there, somewhere, angry, beautiful, and full of the most heinous acid I've ever caught a whiff of."
"Right," Oberon takes a deep breath of the fresh air as he walks to the edge, noticing the man didn't join him there. "So, the Job, you want me to hunt it for you?"
"Something like that," the man says. "Tell me, Swamp Wyverns–how do Wizards normally handle them?"
"Puncture the Acid sack on the left side of its belly, acid and blood mix, and it melts itself from the inside out," Oberon says.
"Aye, every Wizard worth a damn knows that."
"But you need me to take it down in a less destructive way, right?" Oberon asks, gesturing back at the camp. "Ironworking, stitching, and you're dressed like a smith, you need it whole for armor?"
"Good eye, he did say you were a sharp one," the man says. "I need its hide, scales, claws, teeth, heart, and acid pouch, fully intact."
"That…doesn't leave many options," Oberon says.
"Which is why the reward is so high," the man says. "And I'm willing to add a small bonus if I'm really impressed with how you handle this. But no poisons, these things heal so quickly that the poison would spread to parts I need before we can harvest it, and I don't know when I'll see another Swamp Wyvern again."
Oberon sighs and rubs the back of his neck, taking a step off the edge.
The man feels his heart skip a beat, stumbling forward slightly to instinctively pull the child back onto the ground, until he realizes Oberon is walking in the air.
Oberon turns around to see the man holding his chest, breathing a sigh of relief, "Damn near made my heart stop."
"Oh, sorry, guess I should have warned you."
"No shit…" the man mutters as he catches his breath.
"Mind if I ask something, feel free not to answer."
"What do you want to know?"
"The armor your soldiers have, and your accents, they aren't from Fiore, at least not that I've seen or heard before."
The man smiles, "We're from the Pergrande Kingdom."
"Huh, so you traveled hundreds of thousands of miles from Ishgar's East Coast, all the way to the Western Coast, to hunt monsters?"
The man shrugs, "Your country has Wizard Guilds; we have Knights. Fine or exotic armor and swords is good money, and the farther you go to get it, the more they pay."
"That's good business," Oberon says. "Always wonders what it would be like to be a Knight."
"Well, Knights mostly use Holder Magic, swords, shields, armors, capes, lances…and I've never seen one fly."
"No flying?" Oberon chuckles. "Then I'd rather be me."
The man lowers his voice, leaning forward slightly, "Just between us, unless they're one of the top-ranking knights, or a noble, they'd rather be you too."
"Ah, I see," Oberon turns to look at the valley below. "So, where should I start?"
"Its territory is the entire valley, so it could be anywhere down there," the man says. "Sorry, I can't be more helpful."
Oberon sighs, "It's fine, I just kind of wish I brought my bloodhound now."
"Hunting a Swamp Wyvern with a dog doesn't seem very good to the dog," the man says with clear concern in his voice.
"It's not an actual dog, that was a joke," Oberon turns to look back at the man. "If you don't hear from me in two days, tell Fairy Tail, they'll know what to do next."
"Good luck."
"Thanks," Oberon says before he allows gravity to guide him to the valley below, falling hundreds of meters before he reaches the treetops.
After Oberon disappears into the forest below the man shakes his head, "People in Fiore are crazy…" he mutters before walking back to his tent.
As Oberon lands on the grass-covered forest floor, he stops and looks around, taking note of how far apart the trees are although their canopies intertwine.
He closes his eyes and listens, only hearing a few birds and not much else.
"Seems normal enough," he says before carefully walking through the forest. "Wyverns have tough hides and scales, sharp claws and teeth–both of which are poisonous. Swamp Wyverns can also spit acid, but unlike the other species, they aren't very good at flying, which explains why it chose a forest like this as their territory."
Oberon looks up, seeing the trees above reaching well over 30m -100ft- tall.
"Retreating will be difficult for either of us, so I'd best try to knock it out with shots to the face before I kill it, cutting off its head should work, and will keep the claws, teeth, and most of the hide and scales intact, might cost me the bonus but that's fine."
After a few more minutes of walking, Oberon gets to the middle of the valley where a small stream is flowing.
Not deep enough to swim in, and narrow enough for him to leap across even without Magic, but the water is perfectly clear and the trees give the stream a wide berth on either side.
"Well, it must drink water, so it probably comes here," Oberon looks to his left and right, seeing that the stream goes on for quite a distance. "But if this goes the length of the valley I can't watch all of it at once, not with the damn trees blocking me."
He looks around once more, finding two large boulders.
"Well, I'll just ring the dinner bell," he says before lifting one of the boulders with his Gravity Magic and slamming it into the other, causing a cracking and crushing sound that echoes through the forest.
The response is immediate, a feral roar coming from the west, beyond the trees he could see, down the stream.
Oberon drops the boulder and listens carefully, not hearing anything else for a moment, so he decides to sit on the boulder and wait, staring in the direction of the roar.
As he waits, he clasps his hands together, "Radiance Formula—-"
Over the next few minutes, dozens of runes form and merge into the Magic Circle between his hands as he focuses his Magic Energy.
"---33: Light Shot," he parts his hands to see a glowing sphere of light hovering between them.
With some more focus and concentration, he molds it into a sharp spear, and carefully prepares to fire as the sound of heavy footsteps grows closer.
"Oh, you're a lot bigger than regular adult Swamp Wyverns," Oberon says as his eyes widen.
From the treeline, a Swamp Wyvern that dwarfs those he's only read about in books steps forward.
With two legs and wings for forelimbs, standing two stories tall with a wingspan as wide as a train car is long.
The Swamp Wyvern roars and flaps its wings, sending a gust of wind through the area while showing off its light green scales and battle scars. A row of black spikes run down both sides of its spine as it stares at Oberon, waiting for the boy to flinch so it can sink its sharp teeth into him.
"Like a dragon and a bird had one ugly baby," Oberon mutters as he sees its lizard tail moving excitedly at the sight of him. "Ok, let's do this!"
With a thought he fires his attack directly at its neck, aiming to pierce a major artery.
Much to his surprise, the creature reacts, using its wing to defend itself causing the spell to shatter against it.
The tension only grows as it tilts its head, staring at him, observing him while crouching slightly, preparing to pounce.
'Ok, I knew it had innate Defense Magic, but I didn't expect it to be this far above everything I've fought so far….time for Plan B: concussion. Just rattle its brain until it gets dizzy, then take it out!'
Oberon hops off the rock, taking a fighting stance, and the Wyvern immediately dashes forward.
As it rushes forward, the Wyvern opens its mouth and immediately spits a stream of acid at Oberon.
The boy surprises the creature by rushing toward the attack, and at the last second, he jumps.
Using Gravity Magic to make himself lighter.
It cranes its neck, raising the stream of acid to hit him, but he flies just ahead of it until he's above the creature's skull.
With a thought he multiplies the gravity on his fists and comes crashing down, planting both feet onto the creature's skull before slamming both his fists into it.
"RRRGH!" the creature groans as its entire body stumbles, its head and neck strain and almost reach the ground, but it holds itself up by placing the clawed joints of its wings on the ground.
Seeing this Oberon leaps upward, then uses Gravity Magic on his entire body before dropping like an anchor, directly onto its skull.
This time the creature's jaw slams into the dirt, causing it to wince in pain.
Oberon intends to do this as many times as it takes to knock it out, but as he's about to jump yet again, the tail whips above the body and swipes at him, the barb at the end of it aimed directly at his chest.
Oberon raises his hand and knocks it to the side as he leaps away from the creature, which immediately gets up and stares at him.
He sees it struggle to focus, and then seconds later it rushes forward one more.
As it closes in, the Wyvern opens its mouth to spit acid at Oberon, and in response he reaches out with an open hand, which closes it into a fist.
The creature's mouth immediately shuts and Gravity Magic affecting its jaws collide.
Oberon narrows his eyes at it, taking note of the fact that using Gravity Magic against it in this way was useful, then leaps forward to punch it in the face.
Seeing him leaping forward, it rears back its head and neck, and flaps its wings to get airborne for just a moment, long enough to get its clawed legs off the ground.
And tries to grab him with its claws.
Oberon thrusts his hands forward, using Gravity Magic to take advantage of its position and push it down onto its back, but while doing this its eyes never lose him, still making to grab him with its talons.
Only for him to fly to the side, surprising the Wyvern and dodging the grapple.
As it crashes onto its back, Oberon lands with weight betraying his appearance onto its chest, and flattens his hand.
Forming a blade with his hand he quickly coats it in a layer of hard light and thrusts it at the creature's neck.
But the moment he does this, he loses focus on the Gravity Magic keeping its mouth sealed, and it spits a stream of acid directly at him, bathing its chest and opponent in the putrid, boiling liquid.
Oberon is forced to cancel his attack, dedicating everything to reinforcing his Cosmic Armor and using Gravity Magic to clear his vision of the acid.
Just in time to see the teeth closing in on his hand.
"Shit!" he withdraws his hand and the Wyvern leans forward even more, trying to bite him in half, forcing him to fly backward.
But while keeping his eyes on the opponent, a sudden and immense pain wracks his entire body as he's sent careening into a tree–snapping its trunk in half–before continuing to tumble through the rocks and dirt on the forest floor.
"Ahhhh!" Oberon screams as he holds his left arm, feeling as if the bones are fractured and some of his ribs are cracked.
Looking up from his spot on the floor, he sees the Wyvern's tail moving happily as it gets up.
"Forgot the damn tail," he mutters as the creature takes a wing-assisted leap toward him, aiming to slam down onto him with all its weight.
Oberon tries to stand, to roll, to move out of the way, but any movement causes his joints to ache and his chest to hurt.
As if a white-hot iron rod was piercing his chest.
His breath hitches as he feels a burning in his throat, with each desperate gasp he can taste his own blood.
'My lungs…hard to breathe,' he thinks as the creature descends.
As it's about to crash into him, the Wyvern sees his entire body glow with golden light, brilliant light.
And in an intense flash, he temporarily blinds the creature, causing it to squeeze its eyes shut and flail about for the precious few seconds he needed.
And when its eyes were open, and it could finally see again, he was gone…
END CHAPTER---
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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
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