A Path Of Bone And Poison - Chapter 134 Wastelands

The wastelands were not an easy place to travel through. This had become even worse after the fall of Skyhigh city. The party had originally travelled on one of the well known roads that was maintained by the city. However after the city had fallen even these simple roads had been overtaken by the wastelands.

Yuri and Lucifier had it much easier than most as the duo walked through the deadly enviornment. The venomous projectiles the plants launched were unable to break through her scales, making the plants essentially useless against her. These plants were not the only creature of the wastelands, nor were they the deadliest. There were actually amongst the weakest of the beings that inhabited the wastelands, and the stronger inhabitants of the area did not give them a second glance.

Overcoming the first obstacle only meant that there would be more fearsome challenges in front of them. Despite this Yuri was not worried she was confident in her abilities. The wastelands were a tough enviornment, but she had been in much worse areas as she explored dungeons. As she thought this her body acted o reflex as she drew one of her pistols, and shot several bullets into a 10 foot long snake that was preparing to strike. The snake strongly resembled a rattle snake from back on earth. but was missing the rattle.

The creature was a viper that blended in with the desert like enviornment around them, and had almost zero presence despite its large size. As a predator it was truly a fearsome creature for ordinary Adventurer’s. However, after her stay in the tower, especially the last five floors, a creature like this was not something that would even be acknowledged by her. Her bullets had made quick work of the viper, and her eyes were already drifting along the landscape in front of them.

Beside her Lucifer looked in surprise as he saw the snake fall to the ground, roots of the nearby cactus like plants swarming up from the ground, greedily absorbing the corpse. He was filled with awe with this enviornment. Even the plants would make meals from the living, it was a dog eat dog world if he had ever seen one.

He was even more surprised with the complete lack of reaction Yuri showed to the scene. If he had been alone the snake would have likely been able to strike him, though its venom would have been useless and he would have easily taken the prey down. But Yuri did not have the poison resistance he had, but she seemed even less worried than he was.

He thought about all of this while they moved. He observed Yuri as she moved through the large rocks that could barely be called obstacles before her. She moved with a deadly grace that she did not have before. Each of her steps had a dangerous feeling to them, as if she would pounce at her prey at any moment. She did not seem like the same girl who claimed not even a day had passed for her in the tower.

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The Viper that had been about to pounce at us had been pretty well hidden, but it was simply too weak to even think about seeing us as prey. It had attempted to hide its presence, but it was a mental ability, that had no effect on me. This was third such viper we had encountered, but the other two had made no move on me so I had let them be.

The entirety of the wastelands were filled with danger, and I was forced to move in a way that would prevent me from stepping on the hidden sinkholes that covered the area. The pressure had caused me to be on edge, and perhaps Lucifer could feel this same pressure as he was unusually quiet.

Of course I was completely unaware of the misunderstanding that Lucifer had come up with in his own mind to justify my behavior. He was still a child, and was not as observant as I was.

The wastelands were a hot enviornment during the day, and a cold one at night. The temperatures were high enough during the day to be lethal for most travelers unless they had magical equipment to protect them. This meant that the night was when the area was most active. Thankfully my uniform had the function of regulating my body temperature or this would have truly been a harsh journey for me.

Because of the harsh temperatures only the most versatile of beasts could survive here. The vipers that we had encountered were amongst these, but they were still weak creatures in comparison to those that were at the Apex. The Apex creatures of the area were a type of mutated Vulture.

Unlike the vultures from earth these creatures were not carrion feeders, rather they were fierce elemental creatures who hunted both solo and in flocks of up to a dozen. If there was a king class vulture these flocks could measure in the totals of a thousand or more.

What made the vultures the apex predator was not the fact that they traveled in flocks. That in itself was not enough. They were giant creatures that had a wing span of 20 feet. They could even be used as mounts for those adventurers that managed to tame them. Their claws and beaks were razor sharp, and could easily tear through steel.

Even this was not their most fearsome aspect. The most fearsome aspect was the fact that these creatures each had an elemental affinity, and could imbue themselves with said element. There was no set element for the vultures to have, but fire was the most common. Their affinity went as far as to grand them a breath attack. The breath attacks of a dozen vultures would be lethal for even A class adventurers.

All of this combined had made the vultures the apex predator of the wastelands. This had also caused the area around Sky High city to be a danger zone that forbid access to adventurers, let alone regular citizens. Thankfully SkyHigh city had protections against the vultures, which is why it had been able to exist in such an environment.

This is also the reason I had rejected Lucifers idea of flying over the wastelands. I would be unable to protect us from a flock of Vultures if they had decided we were invading the area. At least this was the case when all of my abilities would have been focused on allowing us to continuously fly.

I had not shared this information with Lucifer because I did not want to scare him, but I would need to let him know eventually. For now we could only continue to be careful as we traveled through this treacherous land.