System Change

After a couple of looks back and forth, Derek telepathically sent to Avery, ‘What now?’

Avery looked around the area, blood still dripping from his body. ‘There’s still some time left with these buffs,’ he sent back. ‘Let’s take care of some of these little guys.’ Then he pointed to a certain beast hovering in the air above. ‘Don’t touch that one, though. It’s mine.’

Derek looked up at the creature in the air, surprised that it was the one Avery had chosen, but he didn’t say anything. The man had been fighting with and distracting all the beasts for such a long time that he had to have his reasons. ‘Alright,’ Derek replied as he dodged an incoming attack from one of the drakes. ‘I don’t have much offense without my weapon right now, though.’

‘You just need to stun them. I’ll do the rest,’ Avery sent back while dismissing his daggers and pulling his bow back out from his storage ring.

After that, the two men got to work. The other beasts weren’t as hard to deal with as the wyverns were. Sure, they were still deadly, and could probably deal massive damage to even Derek if he was caught off guard, but with the combined might of both himself and Avery, they didn’t stand a chance.

It was almost mechanical. Derek would appear from the void above a dragonkin that was focused on Avery, then smash down with a void covered left fist. It didn’t do much in the way of damage, but it briefly stunned the monster long enough for Avery to ground the beast. From there, it was only a matter of time before one of Avery’s arrows finished it off.

After another ten minutes of fighting the lesser dragonkin, Derek’s right arm was back to good enough shape to fight with again. It wasn’t 100 percent, but it was usable. Once that was the case, he could stun lock the drakes, wyrms, and other beasts once again.

Their killing speed picked up greatly from that. Derek was even able to get a couple killshots himself when Multi-Strike was off cooldown.

Just over 45 minutes after the wyverns had once again appeared, Avery began his next move.

‘The buffs are gone,’ Derek heard from Avery. ‘Can you draw the ones that are left away?’ he asked Derek.

‘No problem.’ Derek agreed. With that, Derek changed his attack patterns and began drawing the ire of all the surrounding beasts. All but the one Avery was focusing on.

While Derek was attracting the anger from all the other beasts, Avery turned his attention to his soon to be companion. In the air, above all the other drakes and dragonkin, was a winged serpent that was a size or two smaller than all the other creatures.

Avery had watched the dragonkin for some time now. It always hung around in the back, and never attacked on its own. However, it wasn’t cowardly. In fact, the few times where Avery was caught off guard, it had been in no small part due to that beast. Its intelligence was higher than the other beasts around.

In fact, against almost anyone other than himself or Derek, the amphithere above him would have caused massive damage to any team, possibly even ending up causing a party of adventurers to wipe. Unfortunately for the beast, it had to run into a man that spent almost all his time around Alanah.

Avery noticed early on that the dragonkin above was using a rare psychic type controlling element. More than once, he felt the same prodding sensation he used to feel on his mind when Alanah would talk. Fortunately for him, he had so much practice withstanding controlling aspects of Alanah’s voice that when the amphithere actively tried to control him; it failed.

However, it also gave Avery the perfect target for a companion. The beautiful, winged serpent had a long body and bird-like feathered wings and crown on its head, with a tail that came to an arrow-like point. The scales and feathers were white on the bottom before transitioning into a light pink on top.

Compared to all the other beasts, the winged serpent he had chosen was… cute. He was sure he’d end up getting teased by some others for his choice of companion, especially by Edgar if the prince was able to tame the fire wyvern, but he hadn’t made this decision on a whim.

The amphithere was on his shortlist of companions already, but when he and Derek brought the death wyvern very much in part due to Derek’s ability to stun the monster, it allowed him to make his decision. If he combined his strength with a beast able to send mental commands, his fighting strength would increase many fold.

And from what he could tell of the beast, its stats were skewed toward intelligence and wisdom, the two stats that he had almost none of. So, when he contracted with the beast, it would gain a portion of his own physical stats while keeping its magical stats. It was truly the perfect companion for him.

In next to no time, Derek had drawn all the other beasts away, leaving Avery alone, staring down the legless winged serpent. The beast stared daggers at him from a distance, refusing to rush in, but Avery could occasionally feel a tug on his mind from the dragonkin trying to break through. But he wouldn’t allow it. He had too much practice for that.

Seeming to realize that its attacks were futile, the amphithere let out a high-pitched screech before flapping its wings and retreating. That was another sign that the monster was smarter than the others. It knew it was outmatched, and wasn’t letting its rage and anger overcome its common sense.

Avery kicked off the ground and began the chase. He had to be careful; he wasn’t sure how strong the defenses of the beast were, and he didn’t want to accidentally kill it. One thing he was sure of, though… it wasn’t as fast as some of the other lesser dragonkin were. He was able to keep up with it from the ground with relative ease.

While running, Avery focused closely on the monster’s wings, learning their patterns as they moved up and down, carrying the beast higher and further away with every flap. Once he learned the pattern, his grip on his bow tightened and he drew multiple arrows from his storage.

Nocking four arrows at once, Avery drew on his bowstring and breathed. With each breath, he channeled more and more energy into the arrows. On his fifth breath out, as the amphithere flew even higher, he let go and loosed his arrows. He watched closely as the four arrows took flight, near invisible to anyone else’s eye.

He grinned as the arrows made it halfway to the beast; he knew they would strike true. When he had time to properly aim, nothing could escape his arrows. Running away and releasing him from all pressure was a mistake that most would never get a chance to make more than once.

Sure enough, with no surprise to him, Avery’s arrows all landed perfectly on the beast, blasting holes in both the top and bottom portions of both wings. From the distance, the amphithere shrieked in pain, and began to plummet from the sky.

Avery quickly dashed over to where the beast would fall, then waited. Soon enough, the amphithere crashed into the ground with a devastating force. Avery took that time to capitalize on the beast’s circumstances.

Putting his bow away, he drew both daggers and disappeared from where he was standing. The next second, he appeared next to the dragonkin.

“Sorry buddy,” he said as he dug his daggers into the side of the amphithere, causing the beast to let out another pained roar.

He continued this for a couple minutes, avoiding strikes from the beast’s tail and maw, while simultaneously ignoring the desperate attempts of the beast to take over his mind. He chose not to cut deep, and made sure to keep its wings clipped, as they were already healing, though not at the same pace as the wyverns had.

After some time, he had enough. He loved a good fight, but took no pleasure in torturing the beast. If it didn’t allow him to have a higher chance of succeeding in contracting the beast, he wouldn’t do it. He felt bad for what he was currently doing.

Instantly appearing in front of the beast, he reached out and put his hand on its head before pulling the beast contract scroll out from his storage. The amphithere hissed and tried to bite at him, but he easily side-stepped the attack. Finally, he tore the scroll open, holding it out to the beast with both hands.

“Contract with me!” he commanded. “Contract with me and leave this dungeon. Come to the outside world and explore and fight by my side. You will not regret it!” Then he activated the scroll, receiving the notification, and waited.

You have initiated a contract and requested that the Level 249 Immature Psychic Amphithere become your contracted beast. Please wait while it makes a decision.

The dragonkin’s eyes glazed over for a moment when he initiated the contract before regaining focus. It hissed at Avery again, but the contract scroll hadn’t failed yet. It was thinking.

“Not only will I contract with you, but you will also become my bonded companion. You will grow with my own strength. I promise you will live a much better life than you are currently fated to.” He pushed the contract closer to the beast as he spoke. “Become my companion!”

Again, the beast hesitated, but didn’t reject the contract. Avery waited. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the amphithere let out what seemed to be a sigh and lowered its head before stretching out and touching the contract with its head that was the size of Avery’s entire body.

Finally, the scroll split in two, one half flowing into him and the other going inside the amphithere. A notification of his success soon followed.

Congratulations! You have successfully made a contract with Level 249 Immature Psychic Amphithere. As part of the contract, you are required to name the beast.

Avery smiled happily and rubbed his hand along the side of the dragonkin’s head. After contracting the beast, he learned that it was female, so he would need a great name for it. He had half a mind to name her Lana, but felt that Alanah wouldn’t find that funny.

“What do you think about Lily?” he asked the dragonkin, who shook her head. Okay… not Lily. “Chloe?” he asked, but the beast seemed even more against that.

“I know,” he finally said. “How about Lyra?”

The beast seemed to think about it before she nodded. It had accepted the name.

Level 249 Immature Psychic Amphithere has been named Lyra.

Next, Avery looked around to make sure they were alone, and initiated the bond that one could only do once.

Bond initiated. Please share your blood with the contracted beast.

With a dagger in his right hand, he cut into his left, through his massive endurance. He held his palm out, and Lyra licked.

Without moving her wings, Lyra’s massive body floated off the ground into the air as a massive gray sphere began to form around her. The sphere grew bigger and bigger until it was at least the size of one of the wyverns they had faced.

Finally, it stopped and Avery got comfortable. He didn’t know how long it would take, but his part in the raid was finished. Derek wouldn’t have any problem handling the other lesser beasts or supporting Edgar if he wasn’t able to tame the red wyvern. No, Avery would not leave his new companion. He would stay here and make sure nothing happened to Lyra.