The room burned.
Hikari stuck close to the back of the pillar.
The cold wind rushes into the chamber.
Hikari feels the boiling heat from the ground, and the cold wind rushes around her neck.
Crack. She hears the distant sound of stone chips crashing into the ground at the bottom of the tower as the massive creature lifted itself off the tower.
A rush of cold wind as the creature flaps its wings.
Hikari peers around the pillar, surveying the chamber.
The fire breath burned through a curved patch of the hive.
The narrow hole in the wall restricted its movement.
Aether fire exploded around her.
Sprinkles of aether flame licked her wyvern skin.
She feels it combust tiny pouches of her mana.
It'll do serious damage if she takes a blow head-on.
How does she do damage?
The brief break let her recuperate some mana.
Her orb seemed halfway charged, but she doubted there was enough mana to burn down the hive.
A barrage of aether fire exploded around her.
Hikari sits tight.
Slowly absorbing the tower's mana rising from the ground.
It's not enough.
She continues to survey the room.
Mana sense.
The room was filled with the aether of the bark demon hive.
A hint of the tower's mana rose from the ground as the wyvern's breath incinerated parts of the hive.
Skittering sounds.
Bark demons approach her from both flanks.
Her orb incinerates the left flank.
An exploding shard staggers a giant approaching from the right.
Smaller bark demons jump at her.
A swing of her sword crushes most of them.
A bark demon stabs its dagger halfway into her wyvern skin.
Crunch. She smacks it, crushing its brittle bark.
A pop of aether fire as her palm crushes its body against her wyvern skin.
The giant following behind raises its sword.
Its stance was off, as an exploding shard burned its kneecap earlier.
Crunch. Hikari goes straight for the counter, smashing her sword into its side and brushing it aside before its sword can hit her.
A barrage of aether lands around her.
The pillar behind her shields most of it.
The giant she knocked against the wall was blanketed by aether fire.
The cold flame did not burn its bark.
It absorbs it. It stabs its sword into the ground.
The aether fire seemed to heal it.
Crunch! Hikari's foot crashes into its chest.
Pop! The attack crushed the crystal at its heart.
She senses another wave of aether fire charging up.
She shuffles back and presses her back against the pillar.
The heart's mana has no end.
As the flames subside, Hikari has a brief window to survey the chamber.
The next wave was already pushing themselves out of the eggs.
The heart charged up more aether fire from its bottomless reserve.
She observes the tower's mana leylines.
A mana source might provide her with enough to burn down the hive.
The aether fire's damage had slowly eaten away at her mana.
She can't use her RazenHeir flames right now as they clash with the tower's mana.
There.
A pillar of mana flowing upwards from the level below.
It was blown by something.
A node covered with bark armor.
Thick enough to survive the wyvern's flame.
She senses a concentration of aether coming from inside its carapace.
She darts out of her cover.
The corner of her eye catches the heart charging up.
She changes course, darting behind the next pillar to shelter from the barrage of aether flame.
Skittering sounds.
Small bark demons surround her.
She charges her orb.
She ignores them and goes straight for the node.
Her orb releases her flames, incinerating everything around the node.
She jumps around the node, allowing the stream of flames to burn the bark demons swarming her.
The node glowed from the flames.
She grips her sword with both hands and swings, ignoring the small bark demons stabbing into her wyvern skin with their tiny daggers.
Crunch! She smashes the outer carapace.
Crunch! Crunch! She keeps smashing the node.
She sees the crystal's light glowing through holes in the broken carapace.
The heart releases a wave of aether fire.
Hikari jumps to avoid it.
The heart's tentacles reach for her.
She parries them with exploding shards.
Mid-air, she grabs her sword with both hands.
Wyvern fire forms around her as she channels her mana.
She looks down.
A horde of bark demons gather around the node, empowered by aether fire.
Crush! Her sword crashes down onto the node, bringing tons of falling weight with it.
A wave of wyvern flame was released, incinerating everything around it.
"Argh."
As the crystal exploded, a blast of aether fire hit her.
She reels from it. She feels her mana flow temporarily blocked.
The heart relentlessly charged up another wave of aether flame.
She darted back behind the pillar, shielding herself with her sword.
She needs a break to recover from the explosion.
The next wave of bark demons.
She crushes through them with nothing but her physical strength while hiding behind the pillar from the constant barrage of aether fire.
The tower's mana feels stronger now that the node is destroyed.
Hikari looks around for others.
The hive was too thick for her to find them.
She notices something.
A sliver of sunlight on the upper floor.
If she breaks down the wall, the massive wyvern flying outside could help her.
Does it want to help her?
It's worth a try anyway.
She waits for the next wave of aether fire.
It comes right on cue.
She has memorized the charge-up time.
She dashes through the flickers of aether flames before they dissipate.
The heart's tentacles, an explosion of charged shards, parry them.
The stairway was broken into pieces.
She jumps onto one piece, crushing the eggs as she lands.
Woosh, her orb incinerates the surroundings, clearing the platform.
Aether fire barrels down on her.
She jumps before it hits her.
Crunch.
The hive is much thicker along the stairway.
She charges up her orbs to burn her way through.
It was too slow.
She senses the heart charge up another wave of aether fire.
A pillar ahead, to the left of the stairway, blocks the flames.
Woosh. Woosh.
She launches barrages of shards to burn through the hive faster.
Too late. The wave of aether fire barrels down on her.
She doesn't jump; it's too late to judge what's above her.
She ducks and hides behind her sword.
Her mana combusts as the aether fire hits her.
The aether fire doesn't wound her, but it breaks her mana flow.
She has to pause and regain her mana.
Bark demons catch up to her, climbing the vines of the hives, which they do well.
Hikari rolls her shoulders as they approach, warming up for a sword fight.
She swings her sword around in a rotating motion.
Her heavy sword crushes the bark demons.
A giant tries to climb up.
Hikari stomps its head into pieces as it emerges onto the ledge.
The heart charges up its aether fire.
Hikari doesn't have enough mana to burn through to the pillar.
She jumps off the stairway section, landing in another cluster of eggs as the aether fire explodes above.
Slimy. The eggs' insides covered her.
Incinerate.
She burns the goo, then jumps to avoid slipping.
She was at the bottom of the stairway again.
The aether flames come.
She dodges backward behind a pillar.
She feels the tower's mana flowing into her.
The aether flames peter out.
She jumps onto the first section.
Crunch. The bark demons gathered were crushed.
She immediately jumps again.
Her sword sweeps the bark demons aside.
Her orb charged while she tumbled around to avoid the aether flame.
Woosh. She incinerates the vine barricade.
Aether flames; she was just in time to hide behind the pillar.
She looks up the stairway.
Half a chamber's worth of hive more to burn through.
This will take more endurance than the previous floor's trials.
As she rests, a wyvern head emerges as the vines burn away.
It charges up and releases a stream of flames, burning away the barricade in front of it.
Aether flames explode all around her.
The wyvern head's mana is drained, but it did its job.
A horde of bark demons.
A telekinetic blast holds them back.
Hikari channels her orb against the next barricade.
The mass of eggs behind it pops.
Telekinetic blast.
Woosh. Woosh. The compressed horde was incinerated.
Hikari steps back into the first pillar to dodge the aether flame.
Woosh. As she hides, another wyvern head ahead burns down the next barricade.
The chambers shake as the massive creature lands on the tower's side.
Woosh. It burns the ground floor, incinerating the bark demons that gathered.
Hikari feels the tower's mana strengthen.
She rests behind the pillar, eyeing the next barricade.
The aether fire explodes around her, cueing her forward.
Tentacles slam down as she leaves cover.
Her sword knocks the tentacle aside.
Its elastic skin means her sword does little more than stagger it.
Time's ticking. She jumps as the tentacle sweeps across the stairway.
Her orb releases its flames immediately as she lands.
The next pillar was just ahead.
Aether flames explode around her as she hides behind the pillar, blocking flickers with her sword.
She dashes for the next barricade.
Woosh. She incinerates it.
The wyvern statue buried underneath comes to life and burns with fire around her.
Behind her, the wyvern statue regained its mana, incinerating the horde of bark demons coming up the stairways.
"Nice."
The heart charges up.
Hikari barrages the next barricade with her charged shards.
Her sword drags through the half-burnt vines as she finds cover behind the next pillar.
Aether flames explode around her as she hides inside the broken eggs.
A wyvern head, buried in vines, lies right ahead.
Woosh. She frees it, letting it spew its fire all around.
Where is that silver of sunlight?
The fast pace of combat made her lose sight of it.
There. Two more pillars.
A flood of wyvern flame below, incinerating another swath of the hive.
Wyvern heads come alive, burning everything around them.
The hive heart's tentacles smash the stone pieces.
It redirected its aether towards the statues, giving Hikari an opening.
She burns through the barricade.
Aether fire rains down on her.
She raises her guard just in time.
Pink flowers bloom on the ceiling.
Woosh. She throws shards at the flowers.
She's almost out of them.
More and more flowers bloom.
She uses her remaining shards to burn the flowers, as it would be very hard to fight under a constant barrage of aether fire.
The never-ending stream of bark demons.
Most of them were burned by the wyvern statues lining the stairway.
Hikari smashes through the remaining, saving her wyvern flames for the barricade.
Woosh.
She burns through the next barricade.
More flowers bloomed overhead.
She's pinned down behind the pillar.
The flowers shot aether fire at the wyvern statues, disabling them.
Hikari was out of shards.
She gathers the loose rubble on the ground.
A barrage of stone strikes the fragile flowers.
But they keep growing.
The heart shifts upward, embedding itself in the ceiling.
The waves of aether fire stop as it redirects its energy into growing the flowers.
Sizzling sounds. The acid slowly melts through the pillar.
Hikari channels her mana, projecting her wyvern flame far to burn the barricade while hiding behind the pillar.
It was not as efficient; she had to wait for another charge.
The wyvern statue buried below revealed itself but was still inactive.
She fights the flowers while her orb recharges.
She hurled rubble with her telekinesis and blocked the acid by expanding her barrier.
Her orb is charged.
She aims it at the wyvern statue.
It comes alive, burning the vines around it.
The hive growing along the wall was incinerated.
Slam! A tentacle breaks it into pieces.
The thin section of the wall was in sight.
Hikari darts towards it, rolling on the ground to avoid the aether fire and shots of acid.
She flies past the wall section.
Acid melts through her wyvern skin.
A twirl of her body.
Her mana concentrates into her legs.
Crack! She kicks a giant hole in the wall.
It sends her flying towards the cluster of flowers.
The flowers charged up their acid.
A telekinetic blast parries it.
Woosh. She closes in and releases the last of her orb's mana, burning a section of the flower hive before falling back toward the ground.
She glides through the chamber, avoiding the aether fire on the way down.
She feels the massive creature clinging to the tower's side as she lands.
The top of the chamber was flooded with wyvern fire.