Sheina shot her arrow, with the targeted Zephyr once again easily dodging out of the arrow’s path and duplicating itself a couple of meters away.
But once again, a mirage image appeared where it left, letting the arrow hit its original target regardless of where it went off to.
It exploded into a dust of black smoke, eliminating another Zephyr.
Sheina continued to load up arrow after arrow, releasing it in quick succession. She didn’t even wait until her arrow hit its target; she knew it would, so there was no need to waste any more time.
In just a couple of seconds, six Zephyrs were killed. The Elves were speechless.
When they first saw Sheina, they saw her struggling to even keep her bow steady. They thought she was just a beginner. But now, she was killing one of the most troublesome enemies that their entire race had to deal with in such ease that they were starting to even wonder if it was even that hard to begin with.
But no. Sheina was just that talented in archery.
Just as Sheina finished another Zephyr, she heard a faint cracking sound echoing from everywhere.
She looked around the room, wondering if there was another surprise coming.
...crack...
But then she noticed that the sound wasn’t coming from the outside. It was coming from the inside!
She was hearing the sound directly in her head!
She looked up, seeing her Diva Egg wiggling and shaking.
And then, she saw it. A crack on top of the egg.
Is it hatching?!
She quickly loaded up another arrow into her bow, hitting and killing another Zephyr like clockwork.
Then, she looked up and saw her Diva egg jumping up, causing the crack to develop further downwards.
With each confirmed kill, her Egg seemed to get happier and happier, becoming more and more lively until it couldn’t contain itself and got cracked in the process.
Something inside her egg was dying to get out.
It seemed that this was not the full extent of her Diva. But from what she knew about Divas according to what Michael told her, this was supposed to be impossible. A Diva could manifest itself in parts until you advance through the stages. But it couldn’t change its shape or form. Whatever form it took, that was permanent.
But this was not the time for her to ask questions. She still had tens of Zephyrs to defeat. The more she defeated these creatures, the more her Egg Diva would continue its hatching process. By the end of it, she could even break its shell entirely!
She continued to load arrow after arrow, defeating Zephyrs left and right.
There were only five Zephrys left in total.
But just as Sheina was about to shoot her arrow, the Zephyrs suddenly started vibrating at the same time. They buzzed, with their forms starting to get blurrier and blurrier by the second.
"Curses!"
"Now we really have to leave!"
"How unlucky are we?!?!"
The Zephyrs started to move closer towards each other, merging into one being.
"Destroy it now before it completes its transformation or else it’s going to explode!" Farren warned.
The Elves were starting to panic. One of the reasons why Zephyrs were so troublesome was because they had this ability to combine with each other and unleash a terrifying explosion.
They were thankful it’s just five Zephyrs left remaining, or else they could destroy a whole chunk off the face of the earth!
But still, this could be enough to level the whole Red Ravine.
Sheina quickly loaded up another arrow into her bow and was about to release it.
When all of a sudden...
SNAP!
The string on her bows splintered into hairs!
Before she awakened her Diva, she had been pushing her bow past her limits trying to control her aim. Unbeknownst to her, it had been slowly deteriorating its strings.
The frame of her compound bow might be made out of Mithril. But its string was made out of ordinary material.
With her weapon broken, Sheina couldn’t kill the last remaining Zephyrs before it completed its combination.
The enlarged, blurry figure of the combined five Zephyrs started to pulsate and blink.
It was already too late. Its self-destruction can’t be stopped now. All that was left for them to do was to run away fast enough before it demolished the entire Red Ravine.
"RUN!" Farren made a last warning to the Dragonborns. They would leave now, with or without them.
But Sheina stood her ground.
She looked up at the wiggling Egg Diva above her head. Somehow, even though no words were spoken, they were communicating.
Sheina felt some kind of pride well up in her chest, a kind of pride that wasn’t going to back down against the likes of these Zephyrs.
According to the Elves, once these combined Zephyrs reached this stage, an explosion was inevitable.
But the Egg was telling her differently. It wants to fight! It refused to accept defeat.
Alright. If you want to fight, then I’ll fight!
As soon as she made that decision, the Egg suddenly glowed with a green power.
CRACK!
A small piece popped out of its shell, allowing the golden light to leak outwards.
Then, as the Egg Diva continued to shake and wiggle, more and more cracks propagated through its shell. Pieces started to fall out before eventually, what was left of her Diva now became a blinding gold light.
Then, the light exploded.
KRYAAA!
Sheina felt a high-pitched roar inside her mind.
She looked up, only to see the true form of her Diva.
It was a winged creature, one with scales as white as her own. It had a sleek tail, one as smooth and as thin as a snake’s.
Its torso was connected to four limbs, each one being used as a leg to prop itself up.
Its neck was long, showing bigger scales that were shaped in an upside-down triangle.
And if its body was not enough to identify this creature, then its head certainly would.
This was a White Dragon.
A majestic and tyrannical creature of the skies still at its infancy. Its horns were long and located where its ears would be, which bore a resemblance to the Elves’ long-tipped ears.
Above its two eyes was another symbol for an eye, made out of small golden scales.
As soon as the Elves saw the Dragon above Sheina’s head, they couldn’t believe it.
Why would one of the strongest creatures of the world be her Diva?
It didn’t make sense. She wasn’t a Draconian! She wasn’t part of their race.
But before they could question it any further, Farren suddenly felt something stir in her pockets.
She looked down, only to see the Darkwood she obtained starting to wiggle out of her possession.
She watched as the piece of entangled Darkwood suddenly shoot out of her pockets and crossed the abyss in a mere instant.
It shot towards Sheina’s bow and wrapped itself in its frame, becoming its string!
She had completed the bow!
Farren couldn’t believe it. The Darkwood chose her! It chose her to be its wielder!