Chapter 210 – Between Monsters

Jace looked at the griffin and set his bag and cloak aside, after all, injuring either of those things would be an unaffordable financial loss.

He strutted up to the beast, and the griffin stopped barking at the sight of his appearance and slowly retracted his wings, emitting a low guttural sound of alas, alas, alas, alas, like the engine of a sports car at startup.

He followed Grid’s example and tossed his staff aside.

Fighting a beast almost as tall as you with your bare hands? It just feels like a brainiac looking for death.

I did not expect that the griffin but walked to the staff to arm up and throw it over here, Jace caught the staff, the griffin is still a little arrogant to shake his head …… this guy even look down on himself?

Grid couldn’t help but let out a chuckle and said, “It sees you as too weak and doesn’t want to bully you.”

Jace shot a quick glance at Griddle before staring back at the griffin, a little disconcerted in his mind but knowing that a monster that big could probably swoop in and take him away with one claw if he was bent on getting himself killed.

It’s much better to have a stick in the way, and a demonic staff of reliable material, than to be unarmed.

But if he really wants to fight, he uses shadow magic …… Either one, fear spell, weakness spell, I am afraid that this beast has little ability to fight against it.

But is he really going to use all this magic? Just to win? Jace realized that in order to convince this griffin, he would have to defeat it with pure physical force, although the likelihood was not very high.

But if it did use the power of the Shadow, not only might it actually provoke its hatred, but it might also anger the griffins of the entire forest, and maybe even Grid would feel like an unscrupulous fellow.

Jace aimed his staff at the beast in front of him, ready to meet it, and the griffin grunted twice in obvious excitement when he saw that Jace wasn’t attempting to cast a spell, but instead fighting as a stick.

The fight started suddenly, it raised its upper body and blasted its wings, Jace was almost mesmerized by the flying dust and leaves that were being fanned up, the griffin took advantage of the opportunity to lunge straight at him from it!

This underhanded, no different from a lime-scattering bad move, and Jace was kind of overestimating this guy’s dueling spirit.

But of course Jace, who grew up fighting in street fights, wouldn’t be caught breaking easily, and at the sound of the booming wind he nimbly dodged to the side and was pounced upon by the griffin.

He jabbed at the shadows in the dust, mace in hand, and felt it against something solid.

Pushing hard, the griffon obviously didn’t expect Jace to have so much strength and stumbled a foot to the side with a wail.

But it quickly adjusted its stance and swung its claws toward the staff again to flick it out of the way, while its body, aided by its wings, lunged forward to try and catch Jace in its grip. Jace gave way and watched as the sharp claws scraped right past his eyes, and he was going to go blind if he wasn’t careful.

The griffin’s rush was so great that he had scurried in front of him in the twinkling of an eye and his back was being exposed to him, and Jace was ready to take another stick towards his hind legs, but he didn’t want to be swiped in the neck by a blow from the griffin’s long tail, which had been thrown from nowhere!

The blow was very much more than a whip on a goat, and it made him dizzy, and his whole neck to his chest was in fiery pain.

The griffin leapt up and reversed itself, biting out viciously, barely blocked by Jace with his staff.

The creature bit down on the staff with such force that it was thrown away on the spot, and Jace thought to himself that this was the end of it.

But he stared at the staff, and just as he thought that, it suddenly seemed to be yanked back by some strange force and plunged right into the dirt beside Jace’s hand!

He grasped the staff in a single reach, and the light from the Shadow Gem at the top of the staff penetrated the cloth of the Blood Demon’s cloak!

The griffin jumped away with a strange yelp as if startled, barking madly towards Jace, who grabbed the staff, realizing that it was the staff’s efforts to return to him that had likely triggered some shadowy energy that had upset the griffin.

Did this staff really think of itself as its owner?

In fact, Jace had realized this back when the blood demon had failed to take it away from him with his mana, and it was only today that he had determined exactly what the bloodstained tether meant.

With some excitement though, he set his staff aside.

Jace looked back to the griffin, his hands empty, indicating that he would not be using shadow magic again.

But the griffin was panting heavily while letting out a low warning sound, obviously a bit annoyed.

Surprisingly, it lifted its wings in a flying leap and rushed to the front, stomping down with both claws together to try and hold its opponent down again, and Jace, of course, was on guard, burrowing between its claws, under its stomach, and around to the side.

The massive not-so-agile fellow was clearly having a bit of trouble keeping up, and it glanced underneath itself, surprisingly not realizing for a moment where Jace had slipped off to.

Jace took the opportunity to grab the griffon’s flank and try to jump onto its back, the griffon yelped and spun around throwing its wings in a smooth motion!

The wings were flung far beyond Jace’s ability to tighten his grip, and Jace, who had no training as a griffin rider, much less having fought a monster of this size with his bare hands, was thrown out of his hand in an unexpected manner.

But instead of nailing it like he’d spared Grid, the griffin flapped his wings and crashed low and straight over!

Jace managed to get up from the messy pile of leaves, the griffin had already slammed into him, he side-stepped to the side to avoid the blow, and then jumped a step to avoid the griffin’s long tail which was flung in the direction of him, almost falling to the ground. The griffon noticed Jace’s imbalance and flapped his wings back, the air currents crashing down on Jace and almost taking him down, the griffon took this opportunity to leap over and pushed Jace to the ground, finally letting him have his way!

The monster that was Jace lunged into the dirt, and if this was a brick and mortar floor, I’m afraid he was going to crack the back of his head on that one himself.

The griffin swelled with obvious fury, its feathers shaking as it hissed menacingly and slammed down with its sharp claws, which Jace grabbed with both hands directly in front of her.

Jace exerted his entire body to keep it from grabbing his face, which would probably result in blindness plus a broken face, the griffin’s claws stretched out to be almost as big as his entire forehead, and the hooks on them each looked like an exaggerated scimitar.

However the two guys just fought each other for a while, the griffin soon stopped grunting and Jace couldn’t feel the force of it pressing down.

It stared at Jace for a moment, swung its wings and leapt away, and Jace was blown by a gust of wind that filled his nose, mouth, and eyes with ash, dirt, and crushed leaves, and a coughing and sneezing tossed him around for several moments before he finally found his sense of direction and got to his feet.

This is really exhausting.

But the griffin didn’t seem to be planning on attacking anymore as it let out a whirring and cooing cry and retreated several steps in a row.

Jace patted the dust off his body and face, panting heavily, breathing in the fresh air that was free of the griffin’s foul odor. “What’s it going to do?”

“She’s convinced.” Grid said, “The griffon only wants to know one thing, and that is whether you can be a comrade in arms, Jace, and as long as you can be trusted …… will agree to ride on your back, there’s no need to have to fight to win.”

“You told me ……,” Jace said offhandedly.

Griddle explained with his arms wrapped around him, “Told you so, can you still fight her with all your might? Griffins are combative creatures, and she’ll get angry if you don’t put forth your best effort.”

“Honestly, this is the first time I’ve ever witnessed a human who could put up a fight with a griffin, Jace. Of course, I have no doubt that a great warrior like Darnus Tolbein, or Anduin Lothar could take this griffin down with his bare hands, but you’re too young after all, and surely you haven’t received any rigorous strength training, have you? Or is it that all of you Lordaeronians can inspire such potential when it comes to critical moments? Such as some kind of Orthanc warrior bloodline that has been passed down for thousands of years or something like that ……”

“I suspect it has something to do with that black dragon.” Jace propped himself up on his knees, “The energy I pumped out of that dragon to save you that time in the tower may have had an effect on myself, more than just spitting it all out.”

“Black Dragon’s blood?” Grid asked in surprise, “How come you didn’t mention it at all before?”

“I’m not sure.” Jace said, “But like you said, I haven’t had any particularly harsh workouts or any other means of strengthening my flesh either. If I were the person I was two months ago, I would never have believed I could arm wrestle this griffin.”

“Ah …… if that’s the case.” Grid nodded and said, “I’ve also heard legends of people searching for dragon’s blood in order to gain more power, but the stories all end with them finally finding dragon’s blood, drinking it, and then dying, and none of them have a good ending. Maybe it’s because you’re the one who always uses shadow power, and it’s especially fitting with the black dragon’s blood as well?”

What Grid heard was probably stories created or tinkered with by his ancestors, and in order to dissuade people from blindly pursuing all sorts of evil paths for the sake of power, they would deliberately show horrible consequences that couldn’t be undone.

But something like drinking dragon’s blood can kill you is by no means alarmist.

Jace had read in the alchemy book of the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary that the blood of a dragon could not be drunk directly without special treatment, especially the blood of a black dragon, which would kill the average person very miserably.

Even if the blood of other dragons was drunk there was a high probability of losing one’s life, and even if one survived by chance, one would be left with severe lifelong after-effects or even disabilities.

Gargoyles also create legions of draconians with a specialized promotion ceremony, rather than letting the mortals receiving the promotion go straight to drinking blood unprepared.

The only creatures recorded in the books that drink dragon’s blood and go without serious consequences are currently the finfish of the Wetlands, a beast that seems to have evolved horrific stomach sacs capable of digesting the blood of red dragons.

Jace had extracted the energy in the black dragon’s blood through dark magic, and if he was allowed to drink it hard, he probably wouldn’t end up any better.

He patted the dirt on his body and said, “I’m not sure, if I’d known I’d have been ruthless and smoked more instead of seeing that dragon go down and calling it quits.”

Grid asked again, “So if you keep looking for black dragons to smoke, will you end up as a real black dragon?”

Jace glanced at Grid, thinking that if he did that, he’d end up, at best, as a dragon-headed, humanoid monstrosity that mindlessly followed the Black Dragon’s orders, and then have Nefarian locked up in a jail cell as a group B0SS to be visited by the player.

Of course, it’s really too early to tell Grider about this big set of things.

It just reminds him of that dragon dream …… The people in the dream both Nefarian and Deathwing himself represent the possibility that his consciousness may actually be affected by a bit of dragon blood.

There wasn’t even the slightest bit of admiration or anything for the black dragon in Jace’s heart yet, but that didn’t mean that continuing to suck it up would change anything.

All he could say was, “Where are all the black dragons lined up for me to smoke? This one almost cost me my life.”

Grid chuckled, “Anyway, Jace, you’re so strong, maybe you’ll be almost as strong as a griffin rider after practicing for a while.”

“Is it possible to become a true Griffin Knight?” Jace asked.

Grid says, “No, no, no, no, Eagle’s Nest Mountain only trains dwarves.”

Jace said, “Heh, maybe you’ll train later if you pay, let me ask you, do you train a man for a gold coin?”

Grider said fiercely, “Never!”

Jace grunted as he came to the griffin and tried to touch its feathers, the griffin cooed but didn’t dodge at all this time.

So do you recognize my power, or do you trust me not to use dark magic to harm you?

If only this griffin could talk.