Master Of None

Chapter 2369: 2369. Not A Ruin

”Those are not normal vultures.” Alice’s whisper was her pause right before changing songs. It was mostly for her to ask Walker what was going on since she had no idea what they were.

Most people knew what a vulture was, there might be a few species, but for everyone, they were signs that something dead might be nearby. For adventurers, they were signs that there could be a larger group of predators nearby.

The vulture species would follow the pack of monsters or the large predator and eat from the remains of their hunts. A perfectly balanced relationship that would actually help protect more people in the long run since they could avoid the dangers that came with that predator.

However, these vultures had ink black feathers and their beaks and talons were white. While Walker could only see one that had lost some of its body to become an undead, the dark mana around its body proved to be more of a boost to the other death vultures around.

Meaning, that the entire flock had been attracted by the rot dogs as they could be food as long as the death vultures managed to avoid the attacks of the zombified monsters that the rot dogs were. That way, the vultures would eat from their rotting bodies and follow them in hopes of always getting a snack.

But right now, the young adventurer party was weak because of the undead mana around and the simple fact that there was plenty of other issues they needed to worry about. Like the fact that the rot dogs were still attacking even though their bodies were burning. Not all of them had been eliminated by Walker.

That was another terror of zombies in general. They didn’t just stop when they were burnt, they couldn’t even feel it.

The death vultures saw this as a chance to just hunt more. And with all the commotion, scent of rotting and burning, and then the changes in mana it showed signs of battles. This pushed their natural instincts to come and enjoy the feast. They could have been pushed away by the fire, but since they had death mana and naturally lived in areas with undead mana, they could care less.

Becoming an undead was just a part of their lifespan in a way. For the death vultures, when they awakened their innate affinities and changed from another species of vulture that only relied on dark mana, they had become much more powerful by comparison. The fears that they had innately were gone with the wind.

Things would just get tougher when Walker noticed that the decaying dark mana in their feathers actually managed to repel the flames a bit. Their feathers did not outright burn when he directed fire attacks at them. He had managed to utilize the fire mana that the quick fire mage had left around in the air to start a grander flame wall. That was all though.

”This is frustrating.” Walker channeled the light around them that Alice gathered. He knew that her song of purification had already started to degrade and break down the rot dogs that were still moving. Her sharp changes in pitch were her signs that she was creating and sending out spikes of purifying light. Not her most powerful attack but it was focused.

That focused light was enough to cause a lot more damage to an undead and actually caused the purification effect to radiate from the light spike. The only issue was that the attack would not last that long with the fact that the light mana bled out of it so quickly. Not that it didn’t do the job it needed to do.

Feeling that the light mana and the fire mana were already mixing because Alice had made light mana too prevalent just by her being present, Walker made the flames change. The burst of white and the loss of the flame wall shocked the young adventurer party. It also shocked the death vultures.

While the young adventurer party was completely unsure of how the flames changed or how they even worked, the death vultures felt fear. The sudden change in the flames had stopped the dark mana from being able to resist the fire as much as it had. Now the light mana was causing opposition to the dark mana they used and had flowing out of their bodies at all times.

The end result was that there was a lot more damage bringing down to the death vultures. They could feel the dark mana becoming erratic due to the opposing light mana brn ign away at their feathers. The fire was actually getting to them now too. And they could not rely on their slight innate death mana affinity to do anything to help them either.

The scene of them falling to the ground and flailing without being able to let the manas within them consume them and push them to become undead was also something the young adventurers were shocked to witness. They had no idea how everything worked, it just seemed like Walker moved a hand and miraculous changes occurred.

Even the remaining rot dogs had ceased their movement with light spikes still in them and white flame consuming them until they left only ash behind. ”Right now we are in a dangerous area that is making you sick. Your wounds can be treated as you are carried outside of this area. Just focus on your mana flow and be patient.”

That was that, a firm and commanding order that they could not argue against or resist. The young adventurers had believed that Walker was more of an older brother figure. Someone who was teaching them but also could joke around a little. Maybe even more like the researchers and the magic fanatics they had seen or met before.

They were wrong though. He relaxed because he could. He had the power to do amazing things with just a slight movement. He kept himself field back and allowed himself the joys of being part of everything he saw because that was his foundation. They could see that in his firm words and current actions, he was more of a leader residing over everything than they understood.

The way that the young adventurer party’s leader saw it, Walker was able to shoulder burdens greater than what any normal person would ever be able to consider. Simply because that was the will behind his own action. Not because Walker was just trying to lead because it was a dream he wanted to achieve.

The flames though, the quick fire mage could not stop thinking about those flames. They were part of her now, they rested in her mind and she had sensed the mana within them. Light mana and fire mana mixing together. She couldn’t have the affinity for light mana, but the fire mana was the key to those white flames.

As she was moved, she wanted to see them more. Wanted to grasp why and what they really were. Forget about being the fastest fire ball attacker, if she couldn’t change flames to be what she needed, then she was always going to be weak.

When it came to the battle healer, she was just stunned. She could feel her wounds and even her body overall becoming better with every step. The soft song that Alice barely spoke was enough to clear away even the general fatigue she had felt from the entire journey. How could someone be that adept?

When the two shields and short swords using twins looked out, they did not feel awe or wonder. They felt terrible. Their leader had been harmed because they had not been ready to attack. Their styles were weak. Their attacks were weak. They were weak.

So what if they had been told a tiny bit of what made the true draconic guardian Su powerful was? Who cared if she had the styles and the developed training to be that strong? They couldn’t use it because they didn’t learn enough to make a single bit of it theirs.

They needed to become ten times, if not a hundred times better. This trip wasn’t just a showing of how little they were in the world. It was proof that they should not have stepped a foot from their home without training even more than they had. Just because there were two of them did not mean they could stand on one side alone.

Walker could see all the thoughts racing through the young adventurer’s mind. He always felt that way. Evaluating what he did wrong and how he should change his ways. He knew his family did that too. So, he let them think. He would not suggest a single way for them to improve. Instead, he focused on the problems of this entire area.

It was a land of the undead now, not a single undead ruin. But even that was part of the world’s balance.

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