These long, draconic wings stretched out far, aching with the familiar kind of ache you have when standing up after long hours of sitting at a desk. These wings were familiar; my body knew how to manage them and the pain slowly subsided. The intensity lasted only a second and then, then I was fine.
“What the…” I muttered as my new wings lifted me off the ground with ease, each flap sturdy and strong, causing me to rise higher and higher. I didn’t feel assaulted or overwhelmed. My brain wasn’t freaking out. My back ached a bit, but all was fine. Had I overblown what had happened to me the first time? Or had my body adapted to this particular transformation?
I didn’t know the answer but that didn’t much matter, for the wings carried me high into the air, the torch on my bag blowing in the wind, threatening to go out at a moment’s notice. I was forced to toss one of the light bombs into the air, which gave me enough clearance to get out of the darkness and into the daylight. One extra benefit to this light was that it adjusted my eyes enough for entering the world outside. Blindness would not overtake me today.
My heart leapt as I sailed upwards, each beat of my wings taking me upwards faster and faster, with almost no limitation on speed. The mighty Great Wyrm’s power to travel far and fast was exceptional and soon, I was high above the entire forest, gazing down at the massive shadowy square.
And then, just as quickly as they had arrived, the wings retracted back into my body. This hurt a bit more and my back was sore…but I didn’t lose my mind over it. Either I had already gone completely mad, to the point where bursting wings out of my back was no big deal, or my body had adjusted to this transformation. Jenevive was a genius!
My eyes swept across the landscape, eagerly taking in the visage of the billowing shadows that seemed to move like clouds. They were shifting and twisting, as if forming…something. A face? As I reached the apex of my flight, I quickly swapped out for my Griffin charm, praying that the Glide ability didn’t have a transformation effect.
Thankfully, Updraft didn’t do anything other than cause a fierce gale of wind to catch beneath my feet. For a moment, I felt as if I were standing on air itself, and then, gently, I began to glide downwards, still standing. The drop rate was slow, like I was drifting down on top of water. I had more than enough time to observe what was going on below.
The billowing shadows were thrashing back and forth, like a pond during a storm, waves of darkness crashing over one another. The last time I was out here, I was focusing more on getting back to the mountains than what was going on below me. Now, as I drifted down slowly, my mouth opened in horror.
The shadows were indeed forming a face with two gleaming yellow eyes and a restless round jaw, opening and closing endlessly, as if trying to bite something invisible. And in between the two eyes was a glimmering white sphere, perhaps invisible to anyone except those with the Coresight.
Chapter 34
The gleaming eyes of the Shadow Titan began to focus towards me while I continued to observe it, trying to take in as much information as I could. The eyes glinted as the shadowy being’s mouth ceased opening and closing.
“Oaurrrrrrrrr,” the beast roared, the sound wave so loud that it bounced off the nearby mountain range several times. Looks like it definitely saw me.
“What are you gonna send at me this time, huh?” I shouted. “Another Griffin? I could use the Bloodpoints!”
The swirling darkness responded to this challenge by thrusting out a fully formed arm, made entirely of shadow. I yelped in surprise as this shadow arm reached up and tried to grab hold of me with its massive hand.
“Why did you have to taunt it?” I moaned as I adjusted my descent speed, suppressing the gliding ability in order to free-fall. This came rather naturally to me, courtesy of the Griffin charm, and I was able to dive bomb out of the way. However…my instincts seemed to scream to reactivate my glide and so I did. The momentum of my sudden swoop actually let me gain some air, thanks to the glide ability, granting me a pseudo flight for a brief time.
The massive fist tried to grab at me, swinging left and right as I swooped in between its grasp, elegantly dodging as if I were a bird. This was amazing! The wind blowing through my hair, the sun on my face; yes, I was locked in another fight with a Titan but for the first time since I had entered the Shadewood, my mood had lifted!
Josiah’s Storm appeared in my hands and I let loose a torrent of arrows at the outstretched arm, firing straight into the hand. The shadow was unaffected by such an attack, allowing my arrows to pass through as if it were nothing more than air itself.
While my eyes were occupied looking at the hand swiping at me once again, my danger senses screamed about something from below. But there was a limit to my dodging abilities, since I was suspended in midair. I couldn’t really jump out of the way. Another hand of shadow came crashing up out of the writhing mass, this time balled into a fist, punching me hard.
Yet, as the blow made contact with my little body,
