The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1010: Orcs and Crabs

Karl punctured the next one, saving the shell in case Rae needed more materials. Then he pinned one down with his tail as the Orc gleefully stabbed it with his pitchfork, using [Cleave] to kill it.

{Good work.} Karl congratulated him, and realized this form could only speak Serpent.

”Thanks. Is that a skill, or was the other one a skill?” The Orc asked.

{Both of them are skills, actually. My natural form is much less impressive to look at.} Karl laughed.

Karl smashed his way through the small group of crabs, then let the Orc go to rejoin his Clan. It was a good chance to go for a flight in dragon form, and see just how fun it was to fly on your own.

Powerful muscles extended enormous golden wings, and a single downward thrust hurled Karl into the sky. With [Agile Flyer] from Cara, and [Swims Through Air] from Remi, flying in dragon form was effortless. On top of that, the knowledge from the [Avatar] skill told him exactly how to work his transformed body, and soon Karl was soaring through the sky, looking for anything that the rest of the group might have missed.

Nachtia flew over to greet Karl, once she took a look at his name tag with the System Interface and realized that they didnʼt have another Totem Ranked visitor.

{Looking good in Gold. Did your transformation spell change? I think that Dana will miss the fur.} She called over the noise of the wind, which was oddly muffled in dragon form.

{No, I managed to update my class, and now I have a second option for transformation. Cat form, or dragon form.} Karl called back.

Nachtia dipped to the side, and Karl followed, chasing the dragon through the air as he got used to moving around on two wings.

Hawk came over to fly alongside the others, and to see how Karl did in a winged form. He could kind of fly before, but nothing like he was doing now. The skill turned him into a Totem Ranked World Dragon, at least in appearance, and he was half again larger than Hawk or Nachtia.

So, when he opened his wings to soar, Karl floated on the drafts much better than either of them, and his immense strength let him cut and bank every bit as well as the smaller duo.

Though, he did have a habit of losing spatial awareness and ending up upside down after a manoeuvre.

They didnʼt totally slack off, though. Every minute or so, they would dive down and take out three more crabs, just enough that the others couldnʼt accuse them of just playing around all day.

But the Orcs werenʼt fooled. They knew when someone was having fun in battle.

Fortunately, they also assumed that the Dragons were making an effort not to steal all their potential food supplies, as the team on the ground had already made huge progress. The Orcs took that as a sign of kindness, as they were always short on food in the desert, as well as the surrounding grasslands, and mentally noted that these Clerics and their companions were friends.

When the crabs were nearly all gone, Karl led Nachtia and Hawk down to meet with the Orcish Chieftain, to say their farewells, or make a trade.

Whichever worked for the Chief.

But the moment that he landed on the ground, the desert shifted to long savanna grass, and the Orcs were gone.

{Dana? Do you see what I see?} Karl messaged, after checking the mental link to the beasts.

{We do. Everything just changed around us, and the Orcs are gone. So are the rest of the Crabs, and the Anomaly that spawned them.} Dana replied quickly.

A quick flap of his wings brought Karl halfway over to the others, where he transformed back to his Bestial form and jogged the remainder of the distance.

”Does anyone have any clue what just happened?” He asked, after verifying that they didnʼt lose any team members in the event.

[The time changed. The sun moved back towards morning.] Cara informed him, intrigued by the sudden change.

”I think itʼs a time distortion. We werenʼt targeted for a move through time, so it didnʼt trigger any of the resistance skills. But the world around us changed to a different point in time.” Tessa offered.

”Can we message the Guild House?” Lotus asked.

{Hey, Ashbringer, how are things going in the forge? Weʼre out of the storeʼs bank range, but we can send things to the main Guild Bank if you need it urgently.} Karl asked.

{Everything is fine here. Iʼve got enough Elven Steel to last me for months still, and the sculptors are doing incredibly well.

I think that the Alchemists might cry soon, though.

We just had a caravan come through and ordered a thousand Commander Rank healing potions to be shipped off to the front lines.} The demonic blacksmith replied.

”Everything seems fine at their end. Ashbringer didnʼt mention anything about a long absence, and heʼs not running low on materials yet. So I think that we werenʼt part of the effect.” Karl explained.

Remi nodded. {I was talking to the Alchemists before and after. Nothing changed in the conversation. I also gave them the recipe for bulk potions, so they can make them in the big cauldron, instead of five potions at a time.}

Nachtia transformed back to human and sighed. ”And now we know why the maps of Gabil are a mess. Nobody knows what the inside of the nation looks like because it has changed over the course of however long these time distortions cover.

So, it really is different every time that they send another group in.

What Iʼm more worried about is that we will get trapped in a time loop at some point if we remain. The Orcs vanished with the change, and when the next change comes, it might be us vanishing to some other reality.”

Tessa nodded in agreement. That was a real possibility. Assuming that the events they were part of did just move to another reality, and werenʼt thrown hundreds or thousands of years into the future.