Ascent of a Dragon

Gold

Thoom! Thoom! Gol Dhee thrums his chest, challenging the beast before him. "Wreee!" The creature wails in response, charging forth with black fangs bared in full. Glorious! Finally, a worthy fight!

Cyan

Wait... Why are we all fighting one-on-one again? Oh right, the bet! Stupid monkey... Whatever, I'll show him! "Come at me fool! Let me show you just how much of a mistake challenging me is!" Lyla is promptly ignored, her sheep instead making to charge the dragon. Okay now it's personal!

Violet

Are the bigger sheep any tastier? I think in most worlds things with a lot of Mana get tastier, so these ones should be really nice. They have a lot of Aether too. The most I've seen beside the orbs and death vines. Aleph ponders to herself, meeting her sheep in a stare-down. The beast holds its ground, seemingly unwilling to challenge the predator before it head on.

Cyan

"Fuahaha, take that! Not so ignorable now, am I?!" Lyla declares, having bound the beast's front legs together. "Screeee!" The beast billows, a shock-wave of air bursting forth. "Iiiiii!" Lyla squeals as she's blown into the distance.

Gold

Crack! The ground shatters beneath as Gol Dhee catches the beast's charge, grasping its horns as he matches its strength with his own. His strength proves insufficient however, as the beast presses forward, the ground buckling around his feet, even as he instils essence to reinforce the stone. With a wide grin he slams his foot, beckoning a pillar of earth to push him up and over the beast. From above he spins, coating his fist in flames as he winds up a strike and... slips off its fur, having never made contact with its hide. What?

Cyan

Lyla skitters back to the sheep, still contending with its bound feet as shock-waves and blades of wind circle the agitated beast. Uh, now what? I could just wait for it to exhaust itself I suppose... But if I take too long I might lose the bet. Hm... Okay, new plan...

Gold

Gol Dhee strikes again, his fist charging the beast's side. Yet once again his attack slips off the fur, leaving it unharmed. There must be a trick, a mechanism with which it defends. But what? Gol Dhee grasps the earth, flinging a wave of stones at the beast. Ducking its head, it lets the stones strike, each one sliding harmlessly off its fur. The head is its weak point, yet also its greatest weapon. A single mistake could lead to my death, so I cannot be careless. What else? Leaping over its charge, he lands in a river, grasping the water and firing a torrent at the beast. As the water reaches its fur it spins, twisting and fading away. I see!

Violet

Aleph wags her tail, having won her third staring contest in a row with the sheep. This is kinda fun! And clearly the sheep is enjoying it too, since its challenging me to another. The sheep glares, brushing its foot against the ground as if about to charge, yet it never does. I wonder how the others are doing. We're doing one-on-ones right? Why are we doing it like that again? Oh well, if it's important I'll remember, surely.

Gold

Gol Dhee leaps, soaring over the beast and he grasps the air, wrestling control of the wind around the beast. Yet it refuses his call. As I thought, the beast coats itself in winds to blow away attacks! Perhaps I can learn from this? Though for now, I must counter it.

Cyan

"Ultimate technique! Uh... What did I call it again? Hm... Oh whatever." Lyla tugs at the threads she scattered around the sheep, pulling it tight as it wraps together into a net around her victim. Winds buffet the fibres, but are only able to delay the inevitable as they close in around it. As soon as a thread touches one strand of fur, the beast's fate is sealed, now wrapped in a tight cocoon of white strings. "Fuahaha victory is mine! Though... How do I kill it?"

Violet

Okay, this is starting to get boring now. It seems ten staring contests is about the limit before things start to get ridiculous. Good to know. Aleph stands, giving herself a stretch and a shake as the beast takes a step back. Flaring her Aether, she grips the environment, stretching her wings out and lowering her stance. And she charges.

Cyan

"Bastard! Stop that already!" Lyla yells as she dangles from a thread, trying to crawl along it to reach her foe. A torrent of wind attacks her, desperately pushing her away as she refuses to forfeit her approach. "Just let me kill you! Is that so much to ask?!" Lyla pauses for a moment, rethinking her words. "Wait, am I a villain? Cool!"

Gold

Wind is pulled and churned, forming a vortex around Gol Dhee. His foe charges, baring its black fangs wide as it lunges for him. Swiping his arms, Gol Dhee directs the torrent towards the beast, catching its charge and lifting it high above him. With it in the air he grasps the earth, pulling out a spire of stone and stabs it above, the blow meeting its descent. The coat of wind pushes back, but the spire, assisted by Gol Dhee's strength and the weight of his foe's fall, is able to pierce through and claim the beast's heart.

Cyan

"Gah, dammit! You leave me no choice!" Lyla complains, unable to progress further under the torrent of air pushing her back. "I don't exactly have the Mana for this, but here goes. Killer technique! Ice... spike... something or other, okay I swear I have really cool names for these!" Mana bursts forth, coagulating above her and pulling moisture from the air as it forms a thin spear of ice. The air cracks as it fires through, cutting through the wind with intense speed and piercing directly through the sheep's skull.

Lyla falls limp to the ground, her opponent collapsing alongside her. Ugggh, Mana deprivation sucks... Did I win though? Wearily shuffling her body around she turns to peer at the monkey, who stands atop his foe, thrumming his chest and howling manically. Well I'm not first... Am I at least second? She turns to see the dragon. Oh shi-

Violet

Aleph meets the sheep head-on, bashing her head against its own with enough force to fracture its skull. Dazed, the beast stumbles back, only to be stopped as Aleph grips its neck with her teeth. Infusing Aether into her whole body, she twists, throwing it high into the air. Crack! She leaps after, soaring above it and slamming down with her tail at the apex of their ascent. The bladed appendage cuts through the beast's hide, shoving away the Mana attempting to coat it with ease as it is sent plummeting to the ground.

A final desperate attempt at defence escapes the beast, firing a powerful shock-wave of air to break its fall, knocking Goldy off his podium and sending Lyly flying... again. The attempt proves fruitless however, as Aleph flaps her wings and shoots down, landing atop the beast with enough force to generate a shock-wave of her own.

Lifting her foot out of the puddle that was once a neck, Aleph walks over to Goldy, who stands up bearing an unreadable expression. "Where's Lyly?" Goldy looks around, closes his eyes and waves his hands a little, then points over to a nearby hill where a limp fuzzball lays groaning. Trotting over to the unmoving fluff-nugget she boops her with her snout. "Heeey. Are you dead? Do I need to go on a vengeance arc against all sheep?" "Uugh... Who even taught you that? And I'm fine, just out of Mana." She chitters, too spent to speak through her threads. "Huu?" Goldy scratches his head, confused by the unfamiliar chitters. "She says she's fine. Just tired." "Hoh!"

Aleph lifts Lyly atop her perch and waddles back to the sheep. "Should we eat again?" "You lost the bet. You have to cook them now." "Bet? Oh, right! Forgot about that." "Um... You can cook... right?" "Of course! My cooking is perfect! You'll see." "Sure..." Aleph lays Lyly by Goldy and begins dragging the sheep corpses together. "We just ate, so I'll prepare the big one and eat the others myself." "I think even just the one will be too much. We don't need to preserve for the next floor since there's plenty of food there, so just make enough for a meal then eat the rest like you always do." "Works for me!"

Stepping over to the target sheep, Aleph ponders. What to make? What can I make? Let's see... Past lives... The earliest one I remember had some nice dishes. But I had four hands then, and I have none now... There was that one where I was a cat, but we just ate things raw... I was a snake once. It's amazing the things you can make without limbs. But that body was vegetarian. I don't know any meat dishes from that. I can't remember the lives I can't remember yet, so they're off the table. What about my more recent lives? I have a few fragments from those to work with. Hmm, let's see... I think I have an idea.

Aleph sets to work, cutting some parts of the sheep into thin slices with her tail and grinding others into balls. What do we have left in the pouches? Anything to season with maybe? She slips out of the harness wrapped around her and peers inside. Hm... Weird mushroom, weird plant... I think this one is just mould... Oh well. I'm pretty sure seasoning is optional anyway. Returning to her preparations, she slices and grinds more meat. Now for the hard part. I don't have hands for this but I should have enough Aether to just lift it. Pushing Aether into the prepared meat she pulls it into the air, pressing and shaping it into a disk which she tops with slices of meat, and sprinkles with more meat. Perfect! Now I cook it.

Carrying it over to her companions, who sit by a newly prepared campfire, she settles down and hovers the meal over the flames. "Something seems familiar about this... And since when could you use telekinesis?" "I've always been able to do this. I just haven't had enough Aether for it to be useful." "Huh... So how strong were you originally?" "Hmm... Well I've been steadily remembering each attempt in order, but I can't remember my first. At all. And I think it needs to stay that way." "Well that sounds suspicious... Are you sure you aren't just being manipulated by some eldritch giga-freak to think that way?" "Scary thought, but you could say that about anyone." "Yea, but not just anyone has conveniently organised memory loss like you."

She does have a point... Oh well. I'm pretty sure it's fine. Not like sending myself into a spiral of self doubt and confusion will help me at all. As the meal finishes cooking, Aleph slices it into three parts and distributes it. "I knew it! Why would you make pizza out of meat!" "You know about pizza?" "Of course! They sell these everywhere! But you're supposed to use bread for the base and cover it in sauce and cheese! Not just meat all around!" "Huh... Thought I was forgetting something. Oh well, tastes fine to me." "Just leave cooking to us from now on." "Agreed." "... Meanies."

Entry 76

I have returned to the magma pool. I believe this floor is one of the 70s, though without my journals it is hard to keep track. I intend to spend some time here training. Perhaps if my body can adapt to handle the intense heat and toxic air I could endure the miasma below. I would also like to try some of the crystal darts that inhabit this layer again. I wonder if they would taste even sweeter combined with the sky-fanged spider I brought from below.