Divine Beast Ascension

601 Not a Perennial...

In the open grasslands, Oli had crossed to the other side of the road. That allowed him to somewhat explore the other side of the rocky hills during his retreat.

But just as the wooded hills were coming into view, Oli noticed a woman where a Prodson uniform. The same uniform of the scouts Oli had spotted earlier. Time was ticking by and the first sunrise was imminent. Yet, Oli couldn’t convince himself to let this opportunity get wasted.

*I’ll follow for a few minutes. Maybe I’ll get a lead for tomorrow’s search,* Oli reviewed and updated his plan of action on the fly.

When Oli first spotted Prodson scouts in the woods, they were wary and cautious while on patrol. Now, running through the night at top speed, the female scout cared very little about checking her surroundings. Oli guessed that was due to the female scout’s failure to find any intruders or threats in the woods. That being the case, she had no reason to believe that an intruder would be found deeper in the territory, well past the woods and even the rocky hills.

Still, Oli accepted the opportunity and silently flew with it, barely able to keep up with the scout without revealing his position.

Then, Oli noticed something and his heart started sinking.

Over the rocky ridges, the first glimpse of sunlight was beginning to appear. The sun still hadn’t come into view. But the first sunrise was minutes away, at most.

Faced with the unlucky reality, Oli lightly shook his head and prepared to head back.

Then, the female scout changed course.

.....

Hesitant, Oli stuck to his instinctive gut feeling. He continued to follow her.

As the scout dashed through the rocky hills instead of rushing into the nearest stretch of grasslands, the drake followed. Oli’s mind and instincts were starting to clash now. One wished to pull Oli into the woods. And the other was determined to locate the unfound camp with a solid lead in sight.

Finally, after a couple of minutes bounding over boulders, the female scout came to a quick stop. She was near the end of the rocky hills now, leaving Oli even further from the shade of the wooded hills as the first sun peeked over the horizon.

Oli watched and listened from behind a boulder cluster, making sure he would have some kind of shadow to help him hide after sunrise.

The women paused for a moment. Out of reflex, she glanced about her surroundings. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, she began to knock on a huge rock embedded into the base of a hill.

Knock, knock… Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock... knock.

After a short sequence of knocking, the boulder suddenly started to sink further into the hill.

Baffled by his findings, Oli quietly and carefully spectated. He watched the huge rock get pulled into the hill before being slid to the side.

But Oli speedily looked away and crouched behind his boulders. Just before the female scout entered the hidden passage, another figure started to walk out. And Oli was determined to remain hidden.

*I’ve got it… Now. To get back. Lam should already be back, waiting for my report…* Oli thought with a blend of regret and pride.

With a bit of help from his weakened earth sensory, Oli cautiously listened to the interaction between the Prodson soldiers.

“Anything?”

“Nope. Still nothing. Maybe they weren’t as prepared as we expected?”

“Perhaps. But that’s not for us to decide… Get some rest.”

“We still on for drinks after your shift?”

“Of course! And make sure it’s that Jrabda stuff. We need to drink that while we still have it.”

…

Oli faintly sensed the female guard walk into the passage, just before the blocking stone was replaced.

When the new scout scurried off, Oli waited… After five minutes passed, Oli briefly calmed down and immersed himself in that rock cluster’s shadow. Oli didn’t care about the casual conversation of the scouts. He just wanted to hurry back to the shade of the wooded hills.

But first, the three-brome Shadow Drake would need to cross the rocky hills under the bright sunrise…

No matter what plan Oli imagined, he was screwed.

*I’m too easy to spot here. I could wait in this shadow till nightfall… But Lam and the others would get concerned and might make a move if I do that,* Oli deduced.

Almost half an hour passed while Oli tried to come up with a viable escape plan. Then, the stone started moving again.

From the seclusion of the shadow, Oli relied on his ears and weakened earth senses to discover three more Prodson soldiers. And all three raced off toward the wooded hills without ever realizing that a threat was already within knocking distance.

*Great… more scouts to avoid,* Oli mentall sighed in frustration. *And the second sunrise shouldn’t be too far away either. That will make spotting me even easier… If only I wasn’t a drake right now!

*... Ohhh… Right.*

After double and triple-checking that no one was nearby, Oli exited from the shadows.

Immediately, Oli’s drake body began to shift and twitch. His black and purple scales retreated, hiding underneath human skin. Oli’s wings folded up and sank into his back with great speed, causing Oli’s face to wince in pain and discomfort. When his claws pulled back into Oli’s hands, replaced by fingernails, Oli bit his lip to keep quiet.

In just thirty seconds, Oli successfully shifted into his human form. And it hurt like hell.

His entire body ached, from joints to ligaments, from muscles to nerve endings. Oli had never forced himself to transform so hastily before. And Oli hoped he would never have to ever again, not without spending more time training his shifting abilities specifically.

But Oli kept calm and silent. The next five minutes were used for the naked, human Oli to fade back into the shadow.

Then, he waited.

*... Come on... Come on... Come on...*

If Oli’s senses were screaming at him that his surroundings were the real world, Oli would’ve sworn that he was inside the soul jade. Time seemed to pass too slowly.

… Another half hour passed, welcoming the second sunrise… Then another hour passed and the final sunrise appeared...

Oli was still stuck in that shadow, waiting for his chance to arrive.

Three more hours passed. Finally, Oli felt the stone moving with his normal earth sensitivity. Everything felt so much clearer without the earth essence debuff of the drake form.

Oli sensed the two guards stationed behind the stone. They were the ones moving and replacing the boulder whenever given the order.

He also felt the beginning of an underground tunnel with that replaceable stone as the entrance.

But what drew Oli’s focus was the man exiting the hidden passage, letting the stone close behind him without a word. He was unlike all the other scouts that had passed by so far.

*Fuck! A perennial? Now?!* Oli hastily thought, running through some scenarios in his head in just a few seconds.

*... He hasn’t noticed me? … No. There’s no way he wouldn’t attack me or sound an alarm if he spotted me. News of a Shadow Drake should have reached them… Nevermind.*

Genuinely, Oli had no idea whether his cover had already been blown. The only thing Oli was somewhat certain of at that moment was the perennial’s strength.

*I sense earth essence from him. Good thing I’m already inside the shadow… He’s definitely not as strong as Hurdo or Fontu. He feels closer to Mom, right after she ascended. But she’s also a beast, who naturally has more essence than most humans at her level…

*But why is he just standing there? Has he actually sensed me??*

The Prodson perennial had only taken a few steps out of the cave when he stopped. Blinking, the man thoroughly scoured his surroundings, both with his eyesight and his essence. He said nothing aloud, afraid that his twitch of a feeling was right. So the man quietly searched the area again with his earth essence.

After a third, sweeping search, the perennial was at an impasse.

He hadn’t found anything. But he hadn’t confirmed nor disproved his feeling from a moment ago. He was nearly certain that a foreign earth essence had just pulsed through the surroundings and into the hidden passage.

Only, that unknown pulse of earth essence had been retracted in a split second. And the perennial continuously failed to locate a possible origin of that foreign essence.

A few minutes of silence passed… Then, the man started to slowly walk around the area.

*Damn it… He must’ve felt me probing the tunnel with earth essence,* Oli mentally sighed and deduced. *But it looks like he can’t find me now that I’m not pumping out earth essence.

*This isn’t good. I wanted a weak scout I could silently kill with soul arts. Then, I would steal their uniform and escape without anyone knowing where that scout had disappeared from… Not a perennial, who likely has enough influence to get others to act on his suspicious feelings alone…*

While Oli’s mind toiled over the new circumstances surrounding him, the perennial kept up his slow, thorough scan of the area, one rock cluster at a time.