Chapter 73: [73] The Price For Stupidity
There were only a few items that could not only cause a wyvern to abandon its hunt, but attract it from several miles away...
It was the same for humans, only a few things could make men do things that were so idiotic, so completely senseless, that it would be categorized as beyond stupid.
A woman.
What Sazan and Esau had doused them in were wyvern pheromones. During mating season, these pheromones would have been all over this mountain, so the effect would have been less.
But this was not mating season, so right now, their group shone brighter than any beacon.
The scent was more than enough to attract the nearest wyvern, and Ark could bet one of his ribs that more were on their way!
’These fools!’
Esau and Sazan shared a look just before charging forward, attempting to escape through the narrow path by the wyvern.
’It came faster than expected, but this can still work!’ Sazan mused as he ran forward.
He had expected the wyvern to put all its attention on the three remaining party members, but all of a sudden—
Bang!
The wyvern’s tail swept over the floor, slamming into both of them and sending them flying into the air, landing harshly on the rough ground.
Esau groaned in pain, groveling all over the ground. "My arm, my fucking arm!"
His forearm had been bent backwards at an awkward angle. But he was not alone in the mess, Sazan was bleeding from his nose, his injury likely internal.
The wyvern took a few steps forward, its eyes red with unexplainable rage.
It had come searching for a good time, only to find a bunch of maggots loitering around its nest. Of course it was beyond pissed.
It opened its maw, black-blue scales moving above pounds of thick muscle—and then it unleashed another bone-chilling howl.
The first had been a warning, the second one was a call...
’What the hell?! Why didn’t it let us pass?!’ Esau thought, gritting his teeth to subside the pain.
"Are you guys okay?!" Thalia quickly hurried over to them, casting her healing magic.
Meanwhile, Ark glanced at them, a dark look in his eyes.
’They must have thought that using pheromones would help them survive if a wyvern happened to arrive earlier than planned...’
The two fools had planned to use them as bait while they got away with the eggs.
But how did they not realize the problem with their plan? They had been moving together all day, of course some of the pheromones would rub off on them...
Still, it was not time to debate how stupid dog face and lizard head were, the wyvern sure as hell did not care who was responsible for the false advertisement.
"Get up, both of you!"
He would have left them both to die, but Ark needed them to complete his theory.
Although he still hadn’t found out the cause of the player disappearances, he had a theory, and he needed them to test it out.
"W-what are we going to do?" After healing them, Thalia had swiftly gone to stand behind Ark, not even wanting to meet eyes with the wyvern.
"What do you think?" Olivia summoned her glaive, a nervous look on her face as well. "We will... we will fight it, of course!"
"Are you mad? That thing will swallow us whole!" Sazan yelled with wide eyes.
"Shut up! I don’t want to hear anything from two people who tried to save themselves!"
Sazan gritted his teeth, his fist tightened by his side, but said nothing.
"We aren’t going to fight it." Ark said calmly.
The wyvern began to race towards them. It had only two legs so it wasn’t exactly fast on land, but it was sure as hell not slow.
"Thank God someone among us is reasonable! We should turn back now that we—"
"We are going to charge right past it."
Sazan froze. "Are you two fucking crazy! How are you making any—"
While Sazan was still screaming, Ark picked up Thalia and ran straight at the charging wyvern, Olivia following closely beside him.
She was also skeptical about his plan, but after going through the tower with Ark, Olivia had come to a simple conclusion...
It was either Ark was extremely smart, or extremely lucky. Either way, the right decision was to always follow him.
"Stay here if you want to get eaten, I’m sure the wyverns like chewy meat!" Olivia stuck out her tongue at the two, before focusing back on the wyvern.
’Oh god! Please, let Ark have a good plan!!!’ She squeaked in her mind.
Sazan and Esau shared a look, just before they ran after them as well.
"Wait up!!"
Ark let out a breath as he stared at the approaching wyvern. He could feel Thalia trembling in his arms. It seemed her fear for wyverns was pretty strong, but regardless, he pushed forward.
There was a reason he had not fled away from the monster. Running would have been pointless, the moment the wyvern went airborne, the fight would be over.
So instead, Ark chose to choose the terrain, and lure the wyvern to a place where they would have the advantage.
There was only one place on the entire mountain that that was possible...
Its nest.
As violent as they were, wyverns were known to be cautious around their eggs. If they could make it to their nest, then they would at least have some sort of advantage.
But first, Ark had to deal with the problem at hand...
The moment they got close enough, the wyvern opened its maw wide and lunged, attempting to swallow them whole.
But just as its head came, Ark slammed his palm right into its yellow teeth, feeling the heat of its breath gush over them.
He could hear Sazan and Esau screaming, and by his side, Olivia was already swinging her glaive, her eyes filled with shock and concern.
But just as his hand made contact, Ark felt mana rush out of him like a leaking tap.
The world around them seemed to still, and then the entire scene that had happened suddenly played back in reverse.
The monster’s head drew back, its maw snapped shut, and then it retraced its steps backward, moving five seconds into the past.
[Time Reversal]
And just as the monster was about to get to its previous location—
"Accelerate!"
Bang!
An invisible force pounded right into it, sending it stumbling back and falling into a tumble.
"Olivia, now!!" Ark screamed.
"W-what?"
At first she had no idea what he was talking about, but once she saw blue lightning forming around him, she immediately understood what he meant.
’Chain Lightning!’
"Chain Lightning!"
TZZZZZ—!
A thunderclap spread through the area as yellow currents met blue, both chaotic spells intertwining with themselves, forming something larger—just before they exploded against the chest of the wyvern.
BANG!
Dust and chunks of broken rocks flew into the air, but they didn’t wait to see the result of their spell.
Before the wyvern could recover, Ark and his party raced past it and hopped right into its nest.
"Next.... time tell... next time tell me the plan first!" Olivia glared at him, still trying to catch her breath.
"What plan? I just winged it halfway..."
"You—!" Olivia just fell to her butt, tired of arguing with him.
But once she sat down, she couldn’t help but wonder. ’What sort of spell was that? It was almost as if... he reversed time?’
Then suddenly, Esau stormed over to Ark and grabbed his shoulder.
"W-what the fuck did you do?!" he asked, his chest rising and falling with leftover anxiousness. "That skill, how did you get such a—"
Ark wordlessly knocked his hand off his shoulder, his voice void of emotion as he said, "Don’t ask me questions."
Esau frowned at first, but realizing that his mask was about to slip, he took a step back and bowed.
"My apologies, I should have restrained myself. And I apologize for trying to run away earlier, fear does strange things to a man..."
He glanced at Sazan, and the kobold bowed as well, although he seemed anything but pleased to be doing that.
If Ark had not been awake last night, then maybe he would have actually believed him. Esau was so adept at lying that even his lies seemed like truths, and Sazan’s outgoing personality made it easy to think good of him.
But Ark knew their intentions all too well.
"I understand. Let’s try to get out of this as a team." Ark bowed politely as well. Two could play at that game...
Esau smiled. "Thank you."
Realizing that Thalia was still in his arms, Ark tried to drop her, only to discover that the woman had clutched tightly to his robe.
"You can let go of me now, Thalia..."
"Oh." She opened her eyes and got down, bowing repeatedly. "Thank you..."
Ark then glanced at the wyvern from outside the nest, then made a clicking sound with his teeth.
’Shit...’ he cursed, watching as the wyvern stood up from the rubble.
Of course he did not expect it to die easily, but their combined attack had barely managed to do any damage.
The wyvern sniffed the air, and then suddenly, its head snapped right in their direction!
It launched itself into the sky and hovered in the air above them, preparing for its attack, when Thalia suddenly called out to them.
"Guys, there is something here!"
Ark turned around to see her leaning over a hole that was at the base of the nest.
"Is that... a cave?"