Adrian placed a hand in his wet hair and moved it back as he properly sat up on the rock.

Since he was currently out of any immediate danger, he took the time to gather his thoughts, and the first thing that came to mind was,

[My lady?] He was certain that she had followed him into this dungeon and he had to ensure that she was safe.

"..."

There was silence on the other end for a long while before her voice was suddenly heard in his head,

[Adrian?] Renelle sounded relieved and angry at the same time, but mostly relieved though, [where the hell are you?]

[....] Adrian looked around, noticing there was nothing within sight, except the black sea, so he responded, [in the middle of a black sea?]

Renelle was silent for a while after his response seemingly thinking before asking again, [are you safe?]

[For now,] he responded, [you?]

[Yeah, I am,] Renelle responded, [I seem to be in what looks like a small city, there’s also a couple of spirit mages here, maybe they’ll know where the —]

Her voice was suddenly cut off causing him to frown, [my lady?]

[....] There was no response on the other end, which meant that they had somehow been disconnected.

Adrian wasn’t quite sure of how these bracelets worked, but it definitely wasn’t as impressive as the Founder made it out to her.

Hell, the thing couldn’t even properly keep them in contact. Still though, he let out a sigh of relief since he had been assured of her safety.

"Now then," he stood up the rock, "let’s find a way to her."

That is, if they were in the same dungeon, which he was also certain of.

After all, the bracelets wouldn’t have worked if they were in different spaces of reality, just as it hadn’t when the cult had attacked.

Which meant there was land somewhere and he just had to get to it... Though, for that, he needed a view from the top.

"Noctis," he called out to his contracted spirit that had been useless all this while, "please tell me you can fly."

«Have you ever seen a flying cat?» Noctis responded as it also reappeared on the rock, «besides, flying is definitely not a good idea.»

As if on cue, the moment it finished its words, Adrian felt a large shadow pass above them, forcing him to look up.

There, in the sky that looked identical to the sea of darkness was a figure, one he was only able to spot because it was moving.

«Then again, staying on this rock won’t help either,» the cat finished.

"This dungeon hates me specifically, doesn’t it?" He muttered looking at the creature circling above him.

He was more than aware that it had spotted him, and was just waiting for the right timing to dive towards him.

The creature started circling above him, making sure that he had nowhere else to go, and then, the next second, it folded its massive wings.

BOOM!

Its descent was a lot faster than he expected, and it gave Adrian almost no time to react.

Almost.

[Shadow Swap]

The moment he noticed the creature circling his head, he had created a clone which he switched with the moment the bird dove.

Still, the impact alone nearly threw Adrian off the rock as the beast crashed down, its talons digging into the surface.

Adrian’s [Shadow Sense] could finally make out what his attacker was and terrifying would definitely not do it justice.

It was a bird with wings wide enough to cover the entire rock that Adrian was on, it also had a long beak that was strong enough to easily crush him and finally, a set of terrifying talons.

Its eyes were the only visible part of it, as they looked like two small glowing dots placed on the sides of its head.

The creature, noticing that it had missed it’s target, turned its head towards the direction where he had reappeared, which was a couple of meters away.

Its glowing eyes locked on its prey and for a moment, they both continued staring at each other.

"You don’t happen to be friendly, do you?" Adrian asked as he continued looking at the massive bird before him.

And its response?

SCREECH! 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The creature lifted its beak in the air and let out a high pitched screech before looking at at Adrian.

"Great," He said with a blank expression after hearing the sound, " now, everything else knows I’m here too. Thanks for that."

Not caring for his words, the bird let out another screech before launching itself forward.

Adrian’s eyes remained locked on the creature as it rushed him, its beak aimed straight for his torso.

He was waiting for, but the bird was only a small distance away, and its beak was wide open, ready to split him in half.

But at the very last second,

[Shadow Swap]

Adrian vanished and reappearing above its back thanks to his shadow, but the bird immediately noticed his presence on its back.

It suddenly twisted and its entire body started jerking around as it tried to throw him off.

"—!"

Adrian barely had time to properly hold it before he was flung off its back like dead weight.

He slammed into the rock before rolling to the edge, and without even getting a chance to properly orient himself or hold on to something,

He fell off.

The bird soon realized that it might have lost its prey to the black sea, and even it wouldn’t dare get too close to this cursed sea.

Still, from the mana it smelt from the prey, it would be a waste to just give it up to the beasts on the sea.

So the bird slowly approached the edge where it had thrown Adrian off and looked down, in hopes of spotting the prey’s mana again.

But all it saw was the black sea crashing against the rock that it was currently on. Strangely though, although it could sense the mana, it was coming from behind?

Before the bird has the chance to turn around, Adrian immediately teleported on to its back again, this time, immediately latching himself to it with a couple of leashes made from shadow.

The bird started struggling again, letting out screechs as it tried getting the best off, but as if a leech, Adrian refused to let go.

"Stay still, you overgrown bird," he muttered as he made more leashes, one even tightly wrapping around the bird’s eyes.

The creature then immediately took off, taking its struggles to the sky,

And still, Adrian held on.